Live from the Majestic Japan Cruise on Westerdam Sept 1 - Oct 24, 2024

AV8rix · September 2

OMG!! No more forest mushroom soup?? No more steak tartare?? Those two items plus the bacon were my favorite entire meal in the evening at PG!

riverrat · September 2

Do you remember the bridge instructors' name? We had Armondo Grassi last long cruise.

My bridge teacher from Phoenix is onboard sailing with you. I have bragged alot to her about bridge on Hollands' longer itinerary's. Hope they have a big group for all those sea days.

atexsix · September 2

Glad to see all the game activities: bridge, mahjong, scrabble, etc.

I never understood why they got rid of the mal de mer menu, what are people supposed to do during rough sea days?

richwmn · September 3

Today in Victoria. We were picked up at the ship by @Blackduck59Lyle and Lynn and given a very nice tour around the city. First stop was at some gardens, maintained by the city and very beautiful. We also went by two castles and the Government House. Lyle and Lynn were very good hosts and we got along very well. At noon we met with @Vict0riann Ann and Pat at Mile 4 Pub where we had a fabulous lunch. Lyle was full of information about his city and was a very good tour guide. We got back to the ship in time to play trivia, where we did ok, but didn’t win.

My Fish & Chips Lunch

The Lunch Group

.Rich, Sue, Ann, Lyle, Lynn, Pat

Edited September 3 by richwmn

atexsix · September 3

11 hours ago, AV8rix said:

OMG!! No more forest mushroom soup?? No more steak tartare?? Those two items plus the bacon were my favorite entire meal in the evening at PG!

The steak tartare would be a huge loss since I can never find it in land-based restaurants. Only the Pinnacle provides me with a fix.

Blackduck59 · September 3

We are delighted that you enjoyed your visit to our town. For those interested the gardens Rich is talking about were in Beacon Hill Park, free to the public and not far from the port. The first castle was Craigdarroch and was built by Robert Dunsmuir in the 1890s, Robert died before the house was completed. The other much larger "Castle" was built as "Hatley Castle" by Robert Dunsmuir's son James in 1908. It was later purchased by the Government of Canada and renamed Royal Roads, originally it was a royal Canadian Navy College during the WW II. It later became an integrated (Navy, Army, Airforce) college until it was declared surplus to needs and closed. It is now Royal Roads University a civilian University.

It was such an enjoyable day for us, thanks to Sue for lunch.

Safe travels and as always "fair winds and a trailing sea"

Lyle & Lynn

Vict0riann · September 3

We were very happy today to meet Rich and Sue, and also two more Victorians - Lyle and Lynn. And many thanks to Sue for my delicious mussel lunch! I’m afraid we went to the wrong eating area in the pub - we didn’t know there were four, and kept everyone waiting for half an hour. But all was well that ended well. Glad you liked Victoria!

richwmn · September 3

2 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

We are delighted that you enjoyed your visit to our town. For those interested the gardens Rich is talking about were in Beacon Hill Park, free to the public and not far from the port. The first castle was Craigdarroch and was built by Robert Dunsmuir in the 1890s, Robert died before the house was completed. The other much larger "Castle" was built as "Hatley Castle" by Robert Dunsmuir's son James in 1908. It was later purchased by the Government of Canada and renamed Royal Roads, originally it was a royal Canadian Navy College during the WW II. It later became an integrated (Navy, Army, Airforce) college until it was declared surplus to needs and closed. It is now Royal Roads University a civilian University.

It was such an enjoyable day for us, thanks to Sue for lunch.

Safe travels and as always "fair winds and a trailing sea"

Lyle & Lynn

2 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

We were very happy today to meet Rich and Sue, and also two more Victorians - Lyle and Lynn. And many thanks to Sue for my delicious mussel lunch! I’m afraid we went to the wrong eating area in the pub - we didn’t know there were four, and kept everyone waiting for half an hour. But all was well that ended well. Glad you liked Victoria!

Thanks to Lyle for identifying my pictures. I'm afraid I should write down such things but I'm too involved in the moment and don't think about it.

We really enjoyed the day in Victoria and meeting Lyle, Lynn, Ann, and Pat. I'm just glad we thought to ask if there was another couple waiting for someone.

Thanks to everyone for a great day.

SusieKIslandGirl · September 3

I love the woodwork at Craigdarroch Castle. It’s a beautiful building.

Blackduck59 · September 3

2 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

I love the woodwork at Craigdarroch Castle. It’s a beautiful building.

Much of the restoration woodwork in the castle was created by my friend Anthony Balzar who passed away in November last year. He was a remarkable craftsman, gone much too soon.

richwmn · September 3

09/03/2024 Vancouver, Canada 0700-1600

Good morning from Vancouver! Today we have 250 guests leaving and 150 new guests boarding. I hope those leaving had a nice holiday.

After a nice day in Victoria yesterday we came back to the ship in time for early trivia at 4pm. Jose is the Trivia Master and he is a very energetic host. So far he has made trivia fun and a bit different than our normal sessions on HAL. The afternoon trivia was general and we did ok. The evening session was again music, but no specific time frame this time. Out of a possible 35 points we got 32 but someone got everything correct.

Dinner was in the lido with Steve and Connie, our hotel and shuttle partners. I had Asian inspired chicken along with rice and green beans. All was very tasty and the conversation was good.

There was a movie on the big screen of the World Stage last night so I didn’t go. It was a recent remake of “The Call of the Wild” which I previously watched in my cabin and it is pretty good.

For entertainment, in Billboard we have two pianists, who are ok and so far have had an audience. They had a nice mix of songs but seem a bit loud and one attacks the piano keys. After trivia we were caught by the Rolling Stone Room Band. We stayed there for about 30 minutes and enjoyed both their selection of music and their treatment of it. That made for an enjoyable end of the evening.

Here are today's activities and menus.

atexsix · September 3

@richwmn Rich, are they making you get off the ship for the inspection? This is always confusing when coming up from Seattle. And HAL, cruise terminal, and ship all seem to have different information.

Edited September 3 by atexsix

Gail & Marty sailing away · September 3

23 hours ago, AV8rix said:

OMG!! No more forest mushroom soup?? No more steak tartare?? Those two items plus the bacon were my favorite entire meal in the evening at PG!

Really???

richwmn · September 3

8 minutes ago, atexsix said:

@richwmn Rich, are they making you get off the ship for the inspection? This is always confusing when coming up from Seattle. And HAL, cruise terminal, and ship all seem to have different information.

Yes, we have to go through an immigration check in the terminal building between 10:30 and 3pm. Necessary evil I guess.

AV8rix · September 3

4 minutes ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Really???

I really don't know. I was on both Edam and NA within the last two months and the "normal" PG menu was in use on those two ships.

But my comment to which you are replying was a reaction to Rich's post #84 on this thread where he attached the PG menu apparently now in use on Westie. Take a look at the "Appetizers" section.

AV8rix · September 3

12 hours ago, atexsix said:

The steak tartare would be a huge loss since I can never find it in land-based restaurants. Only the Pinnacle provides me with a fix.

Not to worry, Bruno. Next time we sail together I'll explain how to make it at home.

Spoiler alert: DO NOT USE HAMBURGER MEAT!

Edited September 3 by AV8rix

atexsix · September 3

Just now, richwmn said:

Yes, we have to go through an immigration check in the terminal building between 10:30 and 3pm. Necessary evil I guess.

Ugh! Tip: bring wheelchairs, walkers, and canes; the terminal itself will have a long lineup for the inspection with no seating anywhere. I last did it pre-covid so maybe it's different.

atexsix · September 3

3 minutes ago, AV8rix said:

Not to worry, Bruno. Next time we sail together I'll explain how to do it at home.

Spoiler alert: DO NOT USE HAMBURGER MEAT!

No I wouldn't use hamburger, but I will look forward to it as I was just thinking about which cuts to use.

richwmn · September 3

On 8/29/2024 at 9:46 AM, Sir PMP said:

You won't see Howard.

On 8/29/2024 at 9:48 AM, richwmn said:

Tell me more please

On 8/29/2024 at 11:45 AM, Sir PMP said:

Howard and Gill are not joining you, so you need to find another trivia group.

On 8/29/2024 at 12:19 PM, richwmn said:

Sorry to hear that, I hope everything is ok. Howard has my email if he would like to get in touch

Interestingly Howard and Gill showed up for 1pm trivia today. They were surprised at your comment. Our other trivia partners were Bonnie and Wayne. We missed winning by 1 point.

Sir PMP · September 4

4 hours ago, richwmn said:

Interestingly Howard and Gill showed up for 1pm trivia today. They were surprised at your comment. Our other trivia partners were Bonnie and Wayne. We missed winning by 1 point.

Interesting, Howard said he had no plans to cruise this year when I talked to him on the Volendam, must have changed his mind, but losing trivia? He knows all the answers, he has had them for the last 10 years. Just tell him and Gill, no more dancing for a while.

richwmn · September 4

4 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Interesting, Howard said he had no plans to cruise this year when I talked to him on the Volendam, must have changed his mind, but losing trivia? He knows all the answers, he has had them for the last 10 years. Just tell him and Gill, no more dancing for a while.

Howard was my trivia partner for the Grand Australia & New Zealand and continuing on to Fort Lauderdale. We talked about meeting up again the day before he left Volendam, so I'm not sure when you talked to him. As to losing, we had 15 correct and the winning team had 16. We lost a couple over the 106 days we played together, but not many.

Sir PMP · September 4

6 hours ago, richwmn said:

Howard was my trivia partner for the Grand Australia & New Zealand and continuing on to Fort Lauderdale. We talked about meeting up again the day before he left Volendam, so I'm not sure when you talked to him. As to losing, we had 15 correct and the winning team had 16. We lost a couple over the 106 days we played together, but not many.

I know.

richwmn · September 4

09/04/2024 At Sea Destination Sitka Alaska eta 09-05

Good Morning from Westerdam.

The temperature aboard the ship is 57°F/14°C under clear skies. We are underway, headed for Sitka tomorrow morning.

Yesterday we were in Vancouver to drop some passengers and get a few more. I had decided early that it was going to be a ship day. All passengers had to go thru a face-to-face meeting with US Customs & Immigration and had a pretty long time frame to do it. Still, they had to announce several times that people still hadn’t complied. The process was easy, but a bit time consuming because a Princess ship was also in Vancouver. We did this just after lunch and it took maybe 30 minutes.

Because we were in Canada the ship was only allowed to open one bar per deck. This caused some long walks for beverage stewards. All bars were open shortly after we left the dock.

As mentioned earlier, the 1pm trivia was general knowledge and I was able to meet up with two friends from Grand Australia along with two new players. It is a good team. The 4pm trivia was canceled for the sail away party, and for the late trivia we teamed up with the Bridge Director and his wife. His name is Peter and he told me he was the head bridge instructor for HAL. We again did well, but another team got a perfect score again. Looks like they are going to win most of the time.

The show last night on the World Stage was a welcome to the ship and an introduction to the entertainment staff. The Cruise Director, Karlijn, introduced the various people that would be supporting her during the next two months. We have about 12 people in various roles for this cruise.

We listened to the Rolling Stone Rock Band again for most of the 9pm set, and all of the 10pm set. The musicians are good and the singers are very good. They played a nice assortment of songs and had the dance floor full.

It was a late evening, but very enjoyable.