Live From The Last Frontier: 6/18-25 Westerdam R/T From Seattle

[erdufylla]

27 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

I remember port and left have the same amount of letters. Starboard and right are longer words. For the colors associated with the sides, the same applies. Red for port and green for starboard.

One of the room attendants told me that trick on my last cruise! And also, “even” also has 4 letters, so the even # staterooms are on the left / port side.  

[ACorgan]

30 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

I remember port and left have the same amount of letters. Starboard and right are longer words. For the colors associated with the sides, the same applies. Red for port and green for starboard.

Such a great tip; thank you!!

[ACorgan]

I ended up going to the gym, mostly to justify my overpacking 😅 I had packed two sets of gym clothes and yesterday’s set went out with the laundry. Even if I never set foot in the gym again this trip, it was now worth bringing the two sets of outfits 💪

It was gorgeous scenery, so I decided to forgo my usual video watching and just listened to music while enjoying the view.
 

Turns out virtue is its own reward and I saw a whale spouting off the forward Port side not long into my workout (see - figured out what to call right/left based on the helpful crew here on cruise critic 😉🙏). Later, I also caught a flash of black off the forward starboard side, but didn’t get a good enough look to know if it was a whale, seal, sea lion, or something else 🤷🏻‍♀️

We’re going whale watching in Juneau later this afternoon, so hopefully this will just be the first of many sea life sightings today 🤞

 

They announced that we’re making really good time and should arrive at Juneau by 12:15. The posted arrival time is/was 1pm, so not sure if this means we might be able to get off the ship early? I’d be very happy with that since we’re hoping to squeeze in a trip to Mendenhall glacier before our whale watching trip 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

@ACorgan Thanks so much for your Live and updating on the meals especially Club Orange. Husband was thrilled that the CO for the Gala Night was the Short Ribs but I thought your Fish dish looked amazing. Unfortunately you internet will probably be slow at night and when at the Glacier. I am very much enjoying this!! 

[ACorgan]

Looks to be a busy day in port. From my veranda, I can see the Norwegian Bliss and the Ruby Princess. The Ruby is tendering, which looks like a pain, so glad we have a dock. Just waiting for them to give word that we can go ashore

[Hlitner]

Just a quiet day in quaint Alaska with 9000 of our cruise friends?  Like many here on CC we love to cruise.  Perhaps it is just me, but ports like Juneau should not be swelled with 9000 cruisers.  Almost enough to make me an overtourism activist.

 

Hank

[ACorgan]

As soon as we got off the ship, we headed towards a kiosk and bought bus tickets to the glacier. Just grabbed the shortest line, which ended up being “Juneau tours” and we were glad we did. The other bus companies had massive lines by the port, but once we walked over, it was less than a 5 min wait for our bus and only 4 people in line in front of us. Less than 10 people on the whole bus, so plenty of room to spread out. Same good luck coming home. There was a huge lines at the bus stop, but they were all waiting for a different company (M&S or something like that?). When we walked over, we were able to jump right in a waiting bus for Juneau tours and another Juneau bus was pulling up as we left. Only about a dozen people on our bus back.

At the park, we did the walk to nugget falls, which was a nice paved trail, just under a mile each way, and very minimal elevation change

On the way back, we stopped at the viewpoint for the glacier

We skipped the visiter center since I’ve been there before and we are short on time. I asked a park ranger if worth walking over to the trail to look for spawning salmon, but she let us know you won’t be able to see them until after July 15th.

Now we’re headed back to town to see what else we can squeeze in before we meet our whale watching tour in 2 hours

[Ken the cruiser]

22 hours ago, ACorgan said:

I have no idea how to tell if it’s starlink or not, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the internet so far. I upgraded to the highest package and while I wouldn’t try it for streaming services or zoom calls, it’s doing far better than my sailing last August on the Zaandam (also best package available). Texting pictures to people takes awhile, but the images do eventually go through 

If you're curious how to tell, you can run an Ookla Speed Test using the following link, like I recently did when I was on the Celebrity Eclipse, and you'll be able to tell by what provider (e.g., SpaceX Starlink) is listed in the bottom left-hand corner.

 

Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test

 

[ACorgan]

22 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If you're curious how to tell, you can run an Ookla Speed Test using the following link, like I recently did when I was on the Celebrity Eclipse, and you'll be able to tell by what provider (e.g., SpaceX Starlink) is listed in the bottom left-hand corner.

 

Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test

 

When I tried the speed test just got this screen, which looks quite different from yours: 

[ACorgan]

We had brief thoughts about catching a tram up during our free time, but the line wrapped all the way around the building, so even if we made it up there in time, we weren’t confident we could get back down in time for our tour. We debated about Tracy’s Crab Shack or the Red Dog Saloon, but I’ve been to both before and walking around and shopping didn’t sound appealing when it was so warm (73 degrees F) and crowded. In the end we decided to come back to the ship for a bit. Currently enjoying  a mai tai from the Ocean Lounge while having a few snacks in the Neptune Lounge. Good to hydrate and rest up before our boat adventure 😉

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, ACorgan said:

When I tried the speed test just got this screen, which looks quite different from yours: 

I used an iPad when I did my test. But you definitely can’t complain about a 49 mbps download speed!! 😁

[scooter6139]

So glad I found this thread, as at first glance I thought it was us in the future (Gaurenteed Neptune Cabin SC)!  🤩  We will be on the Westerdam in late August, so it's nice to see and hear how it's going.  First time back on HAL after a long break so the wife is a bit trepidous but getting more excited by the week.

[ACorgan]

We went whale watching with Jayleen’s and we’re very happy with our trip. Just had five passengers, so plenty of room to move about the spacious boat. We saw Mendanhall Glacier from the ocean, several whales up very close (including a mom with her calf), and plenty of sea lions. 

We had a great time and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this tour to others

[Haljo1935]

@ACorgan looks like you had beautiful weather.

Nice pictures- thanks for sharing.

[ACorgan]

The other people on our whale watching tour were from a princess ship and from a Norwegian ship. The couple from Norwegian sounded like they were having a rough time 😞 They complained that their ship was completely overrun with out of control children. They prefixed it by letting us know that they cruise with their own kids, but that the ones on the ship seemed to have no supervision and were running amok which dramatically lessened their enjoyment of the cruise. They also said they were very thankful they had a balcony room because people started staking out all the chairs in their version of the crows nest and just stayed there sleeping in the chairs all day. Apparently some of the chair hogs were arriving as early as 4am to “claim” their space 😮 We were feeling good about our choice of HAL after that conversation (and I’m sure the Princess passenger was feeling equally thankful about her cruse line choice) 

[ACorgan]

We were more than a half hour late to dinner tonight, but thankfully that hadn’t given away our table yet. For appetizers, went with the arancini and the seafood deviled eggs. Both were delicious, but it probably helped that it was after 9pm PST and we hadn’t had a real lunch, so we were famished 

The club orange special was shrimp jambalaya. I jumped at this one since I’d so enjoyed it in a previous cruise and it didn’t disappoint. It’s just such a flavorful dish and has a decent amount of spice without an overpowering kick

Dessert was red velvet cake and, for me, my standard fruit plate. Tonight the cantaloupe was much improved 

[jackinelgin]

I'm sitting here at home drinking my morning coffee and getting hungry looking at all the food pics. 4 days til we board.🙂

[BetsyS.]

ACorgan - Thanks for reports and great pictures!

[BetsyS.]

jackinelgin - Bon Voyage! 🥂😊

[ACorgan]

We were up bright and early for Hubbard glacier day and were once again at the Pinnacle right at opening. We had the full English (without the mushrooms) and the Asian congee

Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the full English. It was perfectly edible, but wasn’t as good as the other breakfasts I’ve had on board. I would have liked my over-medium eggs and my tomato cooked a little more (whites were still runny) and my fried toast cooked a little less. The sausage and the hash browns were good, but the back bacon was a little flavorless (missing the saltiness I usually love about bacon and ham). I was told the congee was delicious.

After breakfast I spent the next few hours holed up working, but emerged a little after noon, when they opened the bow.

It’s a foggy day and a passing ship informed our captain that they weren’t able to see the glacier due to the weather. Luckily, we had prebooked the catamaran excursion, so hopefully we’ll at least get a glimpse of it 🤞

[birdie16]

On 6/19/2023 at 3:39 PM, jackinelgin said:

We booked Pinnacle for our anniversary,6/30. Looking forward to it.

We will be a table of four 6/30, celebrating our good friends 50th Anniversary.

 

[jackinelgin]

16 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

We will be a table of four 6/30, celebrating our good friends 50th Anniversary.

 

It's our 50th also.

[ACorgan]

The weather cleared up and currently have great views of the glacier directly from our veranda. 

I tried going back up to the bow, but it was a crowded crush of people now, so just stayed long enough to purchase a hot mulled wine. Now we’re throwing on all our layers and heading to the meet up at the world stage for our catamaran tour. 

[Ken the cruiser]

If I might ask, does HAL have a professional naturalist onboard to give various lectures about the wildlife you'll be seeing on your cruise?

[TwinMommyByGrace]

11 hours ago, jackinelgin said:

I'm sitting here at home drinking my morning coffee and getting hungry looking at all the food pics. 4 days til we board.🙂

Us too!!! Can’t wait 😁!