LAFFNVEGAS LIVE to Alaska on the HAL Westerdam August 25, 2024

[SUESEABE]

Thank you for the 'Live From'. Looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise!

[Happily@Sea]

Seeing Juneau from the clear side of the camera. Hope your day in Juneau is nice and raindrops won't spoil anybody's day of enjoying the sail-in.

 

Have a great cruise.

[sue1898]

@LAFFNVEGAS heard about this on the national news tonight. Certainly contributed to today’s hectic atmosphere at SeaTac https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/what-we-know-about-the-possible-cyberattack-that-hit-sea-tac-airport/

[SUESEABE]

Pinnacle Grill Dinner:

Lobster Bisque

Beef Tenderloin with Lobster Dumplings

Asparagus with Hollandaise

Chocolate Soufflé

[leerathje]

Hope you have a great cruise, Lisa!  We'll see you on Thursday in Juneau.

 

L.

 

[leerathje]

21 minutes ago, leerathje said:

Hope you have a great cruise, Lisa!  We'll see you on Thursday in Juneau.

 

L.

 

Sorry, Tuesday!! lol...

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sorry for the delay, we have been without internet till just now.

Time to play “What’s for Dinner???” Pinnacle Grill version.

i will write up a review of the day a bit later. With a lot more photos.

[Cruise Suzy]

Crab Cakes, Beef Tenderloin (one of these days, I'll have the Seared Scallops - or so I tell myself), Baked Potato, Chocolate Souffle

[Cruzin Terri]

@LAFFNVEGAS and @dobiemom  have a wonderful time

Terri

[Haljo1935]

Safe travels - have a wonderful cruise @LAFFNVEGAS @dobiemom. I'll be following along and would like to start w/wedge salad and Clothesline Bacon 🥓 followed by a small cut rib eye.

[ger_77]

Crab cakes, lamb chops, chocolate soufflé and the Rocky Ponds red wine.  Yum!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We are now back in our cabin after, dinner, then checking out the shops. Since we were up st 2 am figured we would retire early. We did buy a couple of T shirts in the shops. Everything Alaska is 75% off . They had Westerdam Legendary Voyage .t shirts that they even gave us the Mariner Discount on so the were $6.00 each. My bargain for the cruise. 
Dinner was good but not the best Pinnacle I have had. 
Marcia and I had the Wedge Salad which was good. Tom had the shrimp cocktail and Candied Bacon that he shared with Marcia and I. Then Marcia had the Boneless Ribeye which she was disappointed with with. I had the David Burke Tenderloin with dumplings which was good but the medium rare was really more rare. Tom had the pork chop which he said was good.

one thing that surprised me we each ordered a Baked Potato but you only got a half of a potato which I thought was strange and it was on the hard side. The butter and sour cream were in those tiny square containers but with very little amount. It felt like major cut back since we sailed in December. Before dessert they would bring out the tower tray of chocolates now it was 4 extreme dry macarons, I don’t know about the others desserts but I was looking forward to the Key Lime Pie and was disappointed that the crust was just mush. It was so much better on the Nieuw Statendam in December. But previous experience was what tonight was. 
Some other items of interest. Our Cabin Steward spoke to us earlier and stated that he will attend to our cabin twice a day not just once. Something about with our Mariner Status we get twice per day.

The internet has been up and down all night. And the fog horn is a blowing but seas are silky smooth. For me there is something comforting about the fog horn blowing.

Well I am going to sign off for tonight since it’s been a very long day. 
Here are tonight’s dinner pictures.

 

[erewhon]

Thank you @LAFFNVEGAS  Lisa for sharing your cruise with us all.

Hope you Tom and Marcia thoroughly enjoy the cruise.

 

Dinner choice would be:  Crab cakes,  Filet Mignon, mash Potato, Asparagus,and Baby Beet., followed by Chocolate Souffle.

[ski ww]

I'll be looking for your arrival in Juneau, here's hoping you have nice weather.

[FrankieSue]

Ketchikan has issued mandatory evacuation after major land slide…. Were you going to Ketchikan? 

[cbr663]

Love following your Live Threads Lisa as you always share as you find things.

 

I laughed at the half potato.  We sailed on a Rhine River cruise in June and for the Captain's Gala Dinner were served half a rock lobster tail and my immediate thought when I saw it was how cheap.  But half a potato?  That takes the cake.  HAL doesn't have bean counters anymore, they are now potato counters.  🤣.  

 

Hopefully the MDR will provide a much better experience for you.  

[Birdhunter67]

We were on the Westerdam in June ‘23 in Alaska and loved it and the ship. I do hope the weather is good for you. 

[foodsvcmgr]

So once daily cabin service is the new norm?

I’m only 3 Star Mariner, will that qualify for twice a day?

[Sir PMP]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:27 AM, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Good Morning, this very early morning in Las Vegas. We have a very early 6:00AM flight hoping all goes well since we are arriving the same day as the cruise.

When I start these Live From threads from home the Old Mamas and Papas song goes through my head about Leaving on a Jet Plan

This will be our 16th cruise to Alaska, they have been a mixture of leaving from Seattle and Vancouver and just one of those cruises was on the NCL Bliss the rest HAL. But this is the first time we are departing in the month of August. Up till now we have sailed every month with the exception of August and October. We last sailed the Westerdam last year to Alaska. The exception was it was a week later leaving in September and we went to Hubbard Glacier. This year the ship is going to Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier. This will be our first time to this destination for glaciers.

 

For those that have followed my past Live From's  I encourage readers to participate each evening with  "What's for Dinner?" I will post the menus for the evening where we are dining and let you choose what you would order.  Our first night (tonight) we are actually dining in the Pinnacle Grill just so you have a heads up

 

Tom and I are in fact traveling with Dobiemom aka Marcia, her stateroom is down the hall from us. We have found over the years we travel quite well together and have lots of fun.

 

The Westerdam cruise today is the last 7 day Alaska cruise for the season, when we disembark those embarking will be sailing on a 52 day round trip voyage to Japan, To say I am envious would be an understatement. Although as much as I would love this I am just not sure I could be gone from home that many days at one time. I will be pushing it January 28th through February 15th doing a Trans Atlantic on the NCL Bliss from Southampton to Miami stopping in France, Spain, Portugal and Ponta Degada Azores.

 

I will sign off for now so we can head to the airport soon but will be checking in several more times today. You may even get to dine with us in the Lido for some Peanut Butter Silk Pie

'Leaving on a jet plane', is made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary, and tell Dobiemom to stay away from these Wang Wangs!!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

51 minutes ago, foodsvcmgr said:

So once daily cabin service is the new norm?

I’m only 3 Star Mariner, will that qualify for twice a day?

The once daily service actually started after Covid, although we generally have gotten it twice a day in the Neptune Suites. We have a Vista Suite this cruise. Past cruises they would often ask if we preferred morning or evening cabin service.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

30 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

'Leaving on a jet plane', is made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary, and tell Dobiemom to stay away from these Wang Wangs!!

Discovered my error of this last night when friends made comment on the Book of Faces 😂 and yes I know I goofed but blame it on writing that up at 3 in the morning with very little sleep .

[Cruise Suzy]

9 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

one thing that surprised me we each ordered a Baked Potato but you only got a half of a potato which I thought was strange and it was on the hard side. The butter and sour cream were in those tiny square containers but with very little amount. It felt like major cut back since we sailed in December.

 

We usually share a baked potato or ask for half if just one wants it. We also order more than one container of butter and sour cream. Have done this since the re-start.

 

9 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Our Cabin Steward spoke to us earlier and stated that he will attend to our cabin twice a day not just once. Something about with our Mariner Status we get twice per day.

 

Have always had twice a day service. Cleaning in morning and tidying-up in the evening. Even as two and three star Mariners.

[Sea42]

1 hour ago, foodsvcmgr said:

So once daily cabin service is the new norm?

I’m only 3 Star Mariner, will that qualify for twice a day?

Anyone can receive service twice a day. When you meet your steward they may ask you if you would like twice a day service, if they don't, just let them know it's what you want. I haven't read of anyone who has requested twice a day cabin service being told no.

[wdw1972]

45 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

The once daily service actually started after Covid, although we generally have gotten it twice a day in the Neptune Suites. We have a Vista Suite this cruise. Past cruises they would often ask if we preferred morning or evening cabin service.

Since the restart on all my HAL cruises (2x year) I've had twice daily service. Most of those staterooms were ocean view - might have been a verandah thrown in there once or twice. I'm generally solo, and keep things neat, so there's not a lot of work for the stewards (compared to someone traveling with 3-4 in a stateroom).

 

Sue/WDW1972

[sambamama]

I had 2 times a day on my outside cabin on my Asia cruise this January, and I never even asked. I didn't even know about this.