lyndarra

Cruise is almost finished and so far weather has been excellent - no rain. We dock in Wittier tomorrow. I decided to bite the billet and take out HAL internet "Surf" package. It doesn't seem to be as easy to use as it was on Westerdam last January but it may be just me. Internet is very, very, very slow - dial up speed. No complaints about service or food. In LAX I managed find a shop selling SIMs so I bought the only one they had which was a LycaMobile which gave me 12 gig of data, usable in US and Canada. The stupid SIM only seems to work when it wants to. I have only just figured out using my phone to access CC so I'll try and post a pic or two after we get off as we will have a few days in Alaska before returning to Vancouver.

An nary a thought anywhere here for the crew that have to endure an unsafe workplace.

@Blackduck59 I have two free days in Vancouver on 16/6 and 17/6. I fly out 2225 17/6. Tony is leaving on earlier flight 17/6. My email is CC name @gmail.com.

You'll have liquefaction where you have a soft or sandy base plus water combined with tremors. The water table where I am is about 1m. 7 day Inside Passage cruise on Nieu Amsterdam 7 day Alaska tour Anchorage - Fairbanks.

My insurers, Shannons, are on the ball. After informing them that I was leaving Oz tomorrow, they had my Home assessor here yesterday and the car assessor has been in touch and organised for everything to go ahead on my return. I've already heard back from the assessor and will be receiving a cash payment for the deck damage. This is due to the fall of the roof being insufficient and will need to be rectified by myself. Its something I have known for some time as my house was built with poor footings over swampy ground back in the fifties. This has resulted in some sinking and moving over the years which was not helped by the Newcastle earthquake (liquefaction) in December 1989. I have had pier work done to stabalise things but will have to lower the outer deck supports to increase fall angle before I replace the sheeting (with colorbond - no more hail holes). Re liquefaction issue. The council now requires massive, deep piers for all new constructions in my area.

With less than a week to go before flying to Alaska I thought I had everything sorted. Then came the hail storm last Friday. Since then I've been trying to lodge claims (home and vehicle) and trying to get assessors in before I leave. Damage has not been too serious but at my age I'm not about to start climbing around on the roof checking for cracked tiles. The solar heating mat for the pool is full of holes and will need to be replaced along with the polycarbonate sheeting over the back deck. My son was lucky. He lives one street away and last Wedenesday he picked up his new Subaru BRZ. He decided to drive it to work on the day of the storm. Where he works (Downer EDI Cardiff) did not get hail and he was able to park the car in one of the huge (train) workshops. My two year old LDV van was in my driveway and felt the impact of hundreds of hailstones.

Recent thread.

Has no one considered a ship or more based in Darwin from where they could do year round B2Bs catering for the northern hemisphere cruisers? A benefit for us would be if packages could be offered with discounted return flights from/to capital cities as is done with Oz half circumnavigations. There are plenty of ports in SE Asia and beyond. I reckon it would have merit.

I have never worn a coat or tie in MDR on so called "gala" night or any other night. On one HAL cruise I was loaned a coat by the maitre'd but didn't have to wear it, just hung it on the back of my chair. I usually wear a pair of slacks or clean non holey jeans and a collared shirt, even Hawai'ian sometimes. I was pulled up once going into a HAL MDR wearing shorts, t-shirt and thongs but I explained that I was only going in to let my travelling companions know that I had returned to the ship.

I you're calling in at Wellington and Auckland, a visit to the Weta Workshops may ease the pain from not seeing Hobbiton. https://tours.wetaworkshop.com/

That's interesting.

Not wanting to highjack (sorry), I have a 14 hour transit in LAX before flying to Vancouver. To kill time, is it possible to book some kind of tour at the airport?

I don't understand the infatuation people have of the royals. Much the same as I also don't peoples' infatuation for football clubs or F1 etc, etc.. It goes well beyond just having an interest in such things.

What I having for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner today? Picoprep! (without dead horse)

I read a report somewhere today that it was 27C in Sitka. I may have to pack shorts.

I have a feeling I heard somewhere that there was going to be some development of the site to accommodate overnight stays. Possible reason?

When flying out of Sydney I have used the CKS Airport hotel many times. The prices are reasonable and they have a free shuttle to and from either domestic or international terminals which are only 10 minutes away. They serve nice dinners in their restaurant and good breakfast is also available. Close by is the Novotel Sydney airport hotel which shares the same shuttle service. I have stayed there once and found it a little more "up market" - read expensive. https://www.ckssydneyairport.com.au/ https://all.accor.com/hotel/5603/index.en.shtml?utm_campaign=seo+maps&utm_medium=seo+maps&utm_source=google+Maps

Your vegetarian menu experience reminded my of my MSC cruise. One of my dining companions was a retired chef - a vegetarian. At dinner in the MDR he was shown a menu of vegetarian dishes from which he could order for the next night. It worked quite well and he was generally happy with the quality. His meals turned out to be as good as, if not better than, what we got from the standard menu.

Tasmania????

Printed my HAL stuff earlier this week for June 4. No special loyalty level.

Port Out Starboard Home IIRC, from the days when liners went from Europe to the USA and back to have a cabin on the "sunny" side cost more.

What did the Australian Government bury 20,000 of in 1927?

Aha. An area I never go, unless by accident. Thank you.

On HAL there is steak available in the MDR every night, no extra. Also burgers, hot dogs, chips etc. are available at the Dive In - can becooked to order. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/dining/dive-in.html

I don't know about a shuttle however, if the ship berth is at Galata it's a nice walk along the waterfront, passing many cafes and restaurants, to the tram stop at the Galata bridge. The trams run regularly into the city and are cheap, no traffic worries.