BTimmer's Almost Live Land/Sea Alaska Cruise (7/23/23-8/25/23)

[Btimmer]

Day 2 of my blog is posted.  Here's a nice teaser picture.

 

[Haljo1935]

14 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

Day 2 of my blog is posted.  Here's a nice teaser picture.

 

The strawberries look yummy.

[Murt22]

As a Cyclone fan - I want to know why your grandson has a Hawkeye sweatshirt on????

[Avery's Gram]

I loved seeing a Hawkeye sweatshirt again!  We lived in Iowa City for four years, when my kids were little, before moving to NJ when they were 8, 11, and 15.  But if you ask them where they are from, the oldest 2 will tell you they’re from Iowa, (they were born in Rhode Island and Chicago) while the youngest will tell you he lived in Iowa but grew up in NJ.

 

Number one son has not lived in Iowa since 1988 but still enjoys wearing his Hawkeye gear.  He says he does it mainly to annoy his coworkers in Ann Arbor!

 

Barbara M. Now in NH

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, Murt22 said:

As a Cyclone fan - I want to know why your grandson has a Hawkeye sweatshirt on????

His dad is from Iowa and a cherished aunt & uncle live there.  The sweatshirt does get a lot of attention.

[bcummin]

Delighted that HAL gave Jakob the chocolate covered strawberries and the HAL ship stuffy.  More good memories for him.

Barbara

[Mosey1]

How can I find your blog or report from 2022 with your granddaughter.  I'm considering taking my granddaughter (who will be 12 going on 16) next summer.

[Btimmer]

5 hours ago, Mosey1 said:

How can I find your blog or report from 2022 with your granddaughter.  I'm considering taking my granddaughter (who will be 12 going on 16) next summer.

HTTPS://timmertd2022.blogspot.com

[ScottishMaid]

Hi Tim and Angela,

Enjoying your blog as usual. We are about to do Boston to Greenland and Iceland and back. Could you send your blog links from last year?

Thanks!

Jill and Joe

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, ScottishMaid said:

Hi Tim and Angela,

Enjoying your blog as usual. We are about to do Boston to Greenland and Iceland and back. Could you send your blog links from last year?

Thanks!

Jill and Joe

Thanks!  We're having a terrific time.  The cruise is definitely Jakob approved.

 

Here's the link to last year's NS cruise to Iceland and Greenland:

 

HTTPS://timmercgi2022.blogspot.com

 

 

[Btimmer]

We had a terrific time in Ketchikan.  Jakob totally enjoyed the lumberjack show as did we.  It was a great bargain at $39.95 for adults and a bit less for him.  The Potlatch Park tour was also good.  We found a couple of seals and a few salmon in Ketchikan; and on our sailaway, we passed a pod of orcas both of which pleased him no end.

 

I spoke with an officer last night about our day one pool adventure, and he indicated that children are now banned from the aft pool and they lowered the water level. The water skimmer design of that pool has a design flaw of too narrow of a channel which permitted the type of incident that occurred to Jakob.  I was also able to personally thank him for the kind gesture HAL provided Jakob after the incident.

 

My daily updates are going to lag a few days until our last two sea days as we are up and going until 10:30pm.

 

Finally, having the internet package and text messaging got real expensive yesterday.  I received a text message from a friend about a new HAL cruise in 2024 that checks off visiting our last continent (Africa) on a favorite HAL ship the Volendam.  30 minutes later I had it booked.  Stay tuned for more details.

 

That's all for now at 4:30am,  Thanks for following along.

 

Tonight's towel animal (yes they are available along with chocolate upon request)

 

a furry friend

 

 

 

Rapt attention 

 

 

[ScottishMaid]

8 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Here's the link to last year's NS cruise to Iceland and Greenland:

 

HTTPS://timmercgi2022.blogspot.com

Thanks! We will be following in your footsteps. Glad our trip is on the Zaandam. I prefer it since no lanai cabins means more places to sit on Deck 3. I noticed the Volendam trip too. 

Jill

[Hogladyrider]

@Btimmer...the memories you are providing for Jakob will last a lifetime!  I am 71 and the memories my dad and mom provided me in my youth of traveling remain with me today...that's part of the reason I am a full time RVer and cruiser!

 

Enjoy the rest of your trip look forward to catching up on your blog!

[Btimmer]

9 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

@Btimmer...the memories you are providing for Jakob will last a lifetime!  I am 71 and the memories my dad and mom provided me in my youth of traveling remain with me today...that's part of the reason I am a full time RVer and cruiser!

 

Enjoy the rest of your trip look forward to catching up on your blog!

We know all about making memories.  We practiced with our kids and are perfecting it with our grandkids with cruises and RVing. 😉

Edited July 27, 2023 by Btimmer

[canadianbear]

2 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

We know all about baking memories.  We practiced with our kids and are perfecting it with our grandkids with cruises and RVing. 😉

Love hearing this.  My parents did it for me, we did it for our kids, and hoping to do the same for our 3 grandkids as they get out of the toddler stage.  

[Btimmer]

Today in Juneau we did a fantastic whale watching trip.  We saw two full breeches and at least a dozen bubble feeds.  The crowning "achievement " was smelling whale snot for the first time.  It's pretty nasty.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Btimmer

[canadianbear]

@Btimmer

 

Wow-that looks like an amazing time!  Fabulous photos!  Bet your grandson was in awe 😁

[Murt22]

We are big whale fans and this is really exciting! We are going on a small boat whale watch in Juneau in a few weeks. I would die happy if I got to see a bubble feeding! We go to Hawaii every winter and our highlight is the whale watching as you can see from my avatar. We got "snotted' when a whale kept going under and around our raft this year - he was about 20 ft from the boat and blew it with the wind blowing it right into our faces....yuck! The naturalist on that boat has come up to Alaska and has never seen a bubblefeeding! 

[scubacruiserx2]

8 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Today in Juneau we did a fantastic whale watching trip.  We saw two full breeches and at least a dozen bubble feeds.  The crowning "achievement " was smelling whale snot for the first time.  It's pretty nasty.

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on your trip with your grandson and your crowning "achievement " . We don't know if we saw the same stuff in Antarctica but we have a video when it looked like a humpback whale was going to ram the Zaandam , blew some bubbles and it let out some red stuff . Please advise if it's the same stuff .

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by scubacruiserx2

[Btimmer]

It was just clear and we were downwind at least 100 yards.

[woodinville cruisers]

You're really fortunate to see bubble feeding. The tour companies always show photos of it but I guess it's pretty rare.  What company did you use for the tour?

[Btimmer]

2 hours ago, woodinville cruisers said:

You're really fortunate to see bubble feeding. The tour companies always show photos of it but I guess it's pretty rare.  What company did you use for the tour?

We used Juneauwhalewatch.com and we were on the newest of their large catamaran aluminum boats.  We also used them last year on one of their smaller boats.

[Btimmer]

As part of the "Almost Live" coverage, we are docked in Skagway and we lost power on the ship about ten minutes ago.  Here's hoping we can still get off in a few minutes.

[oakridger]

We hope to hear from you tomorrow with your tales of a great day in Skagway!!

 

~Nancy

[Btimmer]

7 hours ago, oakridger said:

We hope to hear from you tomorrow with your tales of a great day in Skagway!!

 

~Nancy

We had a wonderful day in Skagway!  We took a city tour which was part of our travel group package which included a stop at the historic cemetery and a short hike hike to Lower Reid Falls (Jakob insisted on doing it) and a nice viewpoint of the city.  Jakob also got his Jr. Ranger Pin by completing
15 activities in a workbook.

 

In the afternoon we did an independent excursion to the Musher Camp where we rode a sled and held puppies (Jakob's highlight).  There will be more detail when I write my daily blog on the next few days.

 

As I write this, it's 6:30am and we are entering Glacier Bay where we will be all day.

 

Below are a few pictures from today.

 

our track

 

Noordam in the middle, Disney Wonder in the foreground, and Discovery Princess in the background

 

Lower Reid Falls

 

Our Unimog transport vehicle up to musher camp

 

thus salmon is having a bad day

 

Tonight's towel animal (a sea turtle). Yes we have towel animals every night as well as chocolate ( we requested it )

 

11 week old Saint (the current batch of puppies are named after PNW volcanoes)

 

petting one of the sled dogs (we petted them all)

 

Our team

 

being sworn in as a Jr Ranger

Edited July 28, 2023 by Btimmer