Your Fleet Locations for Sunday, August 1, 2010!

[luvtwotrvl]

 

Sunday, August 1, 2010

 

Amsterdam – At Sea (from Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising to Anchorage, AK)

Eurodam – Saint Petersburg, Russia 8:00 am – Midnight

Maasdam – Copenhagen, Denmark 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Nieuw Amsterdam – At Sea (from Santorini, Greece to Catania, Sicily, Italy)

Noordam – At Sea (from La Goulette/Tunis, Tunisia to Barcelona, Spain)

Oosterdam – SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 7:00 am - 4:00 pm

Prinsendam – Akureyri, Iceland 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Rotterdam – At Sea (from Seattle, WA to Juneau, AK)

Ryndam – VANCOUVER, CANADA 7:00 am - 5:00 pm

Statendam – SEWARD (ANCHORAGE), ALASKA 6:00 am - 8:00 pm

Veendam – NEW YORK, NEW YORK 7:00 am - 4:45 pm

Volendam – Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising 7:00 am - 4:00 pm

Westerdam – At Sea (from Vik i Sogn, Norway to Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Zaandam – Juneau, Alaska Noon - 9:00 pm

Zuiderdam – Cruising the Inside Passage (northbound)

[Himself]

As the Amsterdam crosses the Gulf of Alaska, I hope she has a smooth voyage.

The Eurodam is located in the city that contains the Tsar's Winter Palace. I wonder if it is worth seeing.

The Volendam is in Glacier Bay--a wonderful place to be.

The Rotterdam is on the great Paciific Ocean. My she have fair skys, gentle seas and smooth sailing today.

 

David, thank you for your always complete and comprehensive report.

[ANSalberg]

Himself- St Petersburg impressed us but not the way you might think. The old buildings dating back to Tsarist Russia WERE beautiful -and the art collection in the "Hermitage" is outstanding [ you are ASSURED by the guide that they either "purchased" them or "They were gifts" Yah - right; explain THAT circa 1940-1945.......

However EVERYTHING has been allowed to become excessively DIRTY and the Hermitage is at BEST; poorly displayed, bad lighting, -a disaster. Now; add to that the "games" the officials play in the port area and you have a thoroughly distastful visit as a "guest"........That is the ONLY port I can think of/city - in THAT condition.

[Himself]

I have long been a history buff. I used to teach it. I am sorry to hear it is all run down and not taken care of . I am also disheartended to hear of the problems that the passenger runs into on the dock. Does HAL run any trips into some Hisorical places in St. Petersburg? Is it still called Petrograd in Russia?

Himself

[ANSalberg]

Petrograd; I don't know.

There is a half day tour to the palace - I believe it was Catherine's summer home. Long enough that a meal is included.

The young people we ran across - guides and museum personel -were working their tails off -VERY hardworking. My thought was that in 2006 [?] they deserved better just for BEING hardworking young people. Large apartment houses were VERY ugly with filthy and/or broken windows -one after the other. You seldom saw people smile.

I love history also - and world wide we've been SO pleasantly surprised at what we've found. China is TOTALLY amazing [ we're going back there on the fall "grand" cruise on the Amsterdam] I expected remnants of WWII history/architecture there but we did not find that -a thoroughly modern NEW city -most constructed since the fall of communism. IF THAT is your criteria, then Communism in RUSSIA has a lot to answer for in what they have done to their people. I'm NOT comparing China and Russia...exactly; but what we've seen [ relatively a sampling -no DEPTH] China STILL is amazing and Russia sad.

The second time we were in St Petersburg was a bit over a year ago on the Eurodam and we chose to stay onboard. That night at dinner our tablemates told us they had been turned back roughly /their paperwork torn in half. They had "failed to fill it in properly" -it held up their tour for over an hour as they rounded up new paperwork. The slip was smallish with duplicate form in BOTH languages, they had not put something "they" wanted on the Russian side -Rather that TELL them what they needed they tore it up. Pointless and RUDE.

BTW- they were in the process of building NEW dock areas -TOTALLY away from where we HAD docked [ and I don't know where that was vs where it WILL be] with terminals/areas for almost a dozen ships WITH new terminals. My thought was "Good luck with THAT if everybody does what THESE officials did" I don't think Americans expect "too much" but they expect civil treament as "guests" . Our tablemates were furious and humiliated...and they are NICE people and anything BUT stupid!

The port on the Baltic we were MOST enchanted with was Tallinn, Estonia. MUCH much more than what I expected!

I hope this answers your questions.

[Himself]

China completely turned me off but I was there at a bad time. I was there not long after the riots in Tianamen Square. It was really tense there except I did not notice it too much in Shanghi.

[ANSalberg]

Friends of mine were there shortly after Tienamen happened; They were visiting a brother of hers who was a missionary there. Police were on site and did NOT allow loitering then. Sharon was just SAD; blood was still very visible.

Our experiences in China are much more current [ since 2006] AND involved watching the CHinese prepare for the Olympics [ and IMPRESSIVE preparations!] Living accomodations, we were told, are extremely expensive and restricting. Normally several generations are crammed into small footage condos/homes. As American's with choices of MANY square feet available -especially west of the Mississippi! We found this startling. Normally Parents/kids/Grands in the same apartment of LESS than 1000 sf. So I think while "Normal" life isn't totally normal in OUR terms - it is a forward-going pattern for the Chinese. I find SE Asia just amazing all the way....each time we see or experience even a small piece.

I never expected, during my working years, to be doing the kind of traveling we are doing now, and I see each NEW port with high anticipation and each return with MORE curiosity, not less. Except Russia. We have a Kamchatka stop in September and I'm just thinking " Oh Well" . That, too - a relatively small town and the "nicest" building in town was the old KGB building with very few English-speaking folks [ our tour person HAD been an exchange student and spoke English beautifully] I'm NOT one of those that expects everybody to speak English - OTOH it certainly makes things EASIER for us! but I'm AMAZED that SO many in SEAsia DO [ and Europe do] but not Russia at all...[ NOR Mexico, but that's another story all together!]