Copper10-8

The next class of HAL ships will be along the lines of the 3-class Pinnacle ships (Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam VII). She will be over 100,000 GRT but not by much, and certainly not as big as the RCI behemoths and the mega ships of other lines. Building ships the size of Prinsendam II, or even HAL's "S" and "R"-class ships is not going to happen for the company because there is no $$$ in them

More than likely, yes. Here's the 661 area code map. Santa Clarita would be to the southwest of Lancaster within the red portion map. It is still located in/part of Los Angeles County

Affirmative! I've actually been to that Princess Santa Clarita Office to speak to/have a subsequent lunch with, the then No. 3 person in HAL corporate security. He has since been promoted to the No. 2 position after the No. 1 guy, a retired FBI special agent in charge who worked in the Seattle HAL HQ, retired again, this time permanently, and the No. 2 guy, who lead Princess corporate security from Santa Clarita, became the No. 1 guy. So, HAL does have a small presence in the City of Santa Clarita (not to be mistaken with Santa Clara in Northern Calif), located approx. 30 miles northwest of downtown L.A., and not far from the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park, which is located in Valencia, a bit more to the northwest of Santa Clarita (for those who have been there and had the pleasure of having that sinking feeling in their stomachs while riding the Colossus roller coaster!) 🙃

Was one of the numbers you called HAL Ship Services at 800-541-1576? There is also general reservation assistance at 877-932-4259 or 206-626-7020 If you get a live person (which I've had on more than one occasion in the past, there might be a bit of a wait at times) instead of a voice mail, I would request to speak with a supervisor to deal with whatever your question(s) is/are

What a maahvelous idea!

Just curious! Where do you get your information from?

To the barricades!

On the Oosterdam, and her one sister, Zuiderdam, (Noordam has a different layout and still has the Explorations Café on Deck 3), the Screening Room movie theater (Deck 3 forward, starboard side) has been renamed the Tasman Room and has been functioning as an extra meeting room a la the Stuyvesant, Hudson, and the Half Moon rooms. Westerdam used to have that same Tasman Room but now has a library similar to Nieuw A. Oosterdam & Zuiderdam Westerdam Noordam Eurodam still shows that same Tasman Room on her deck plan. Only a matter of time before that morphs into a library like her sister Nieuw Amsterdam now has Eurodam Rotterdam, unlike her older sisters Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam appears to have a library forward of the Rolling Stone Rock Room on Deck 2 forward, starboard side. K-dam and Nieuw S should be getting a similar library Rotterdam Koningsdam & Nieuw Statendam Zaandam and Volendam still have the Explorations Café and full (original) libraries on Deck 5 portside aft, on both ships known as the Erasmus Libraries Zaandam & Volendam

The former screening room on Nieuw Amsterdam has been turned into a nice library. Wouldn't surprise me if the same happens to the other former screening rooms which have not been used as a movie theater for a while now

Having been a police K-9 handler for five years (yes, not the same as a service dog mentioned here, but similar), a good disposition/aptitude/demeanor, training and certification (for the dog, not the handler 😉)

Different parrot, but still a parrot! A magician was working on a cruise ship. Since the audience was different each week, the magician did the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the Magician did every trick. Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show, "Look, it's not the same hat!" or, "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" Or "Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?" The magician was furious but couldn't do anything. It was, after all, the Captain's parrot. Then one stormy night on the Pacific, the ship unfortunately sank. The magician luckily found himself on a piece of wood floating in the middle of the sea, as fate would have it ... With the parrot. They stared at each other with hatred, but did not utter a word. This went on for a day... And then 2 days. And then 3 days. Finally on the 4th day, the parrot could not hold back any longer and said... "Okay, I give up. Where's the ship?"

Great Ann! Hope it arrived in one piece! Taking a closeup look at one of those Martin Mars aerial firefighters / water bombers would be awesome! We'll stay in touch! Give our love to Pat and all the best!!

Hi Ann All the best with Pat! Hoping for positive info soon! Did you by any chance get a package on Wednesday? I sent Pat an email on Tuesday You two take care! 😃 John

Where are the wildfires raging at in Canada, BC?

Never forget the heroes!

Come again? Crew, meaning all crew, get crew leave ashore, after a certain number of pax are off the ship, priority-wise. An eagerly awaited P/A announcement, heard only in crew areas, will be made by the OOW indicating that "shore leave has been granted" and the "run on the gangway" will commence! On drill days, i.e. fire drills, general emergency drills, MOB drills, etc., shore leave is only granted after that drill has been completed to the satisfaction of the captain and staff captain, the coast guard (as part of an inspection) and/or local authorities doing their thing on the ship. A lot of crew have an emergency function apart from being a waiter, room steward, bartender, 3rd officer, HR clerk, even entertainment staff, you name it. There is always a minimum amount of crew that stays onboard to handle emergencies, i.e. none of the four fire team leaders can be off the ship at the same time. Same goes for the staff captain and the captain and/or the staff captain and the security officer, both doctors, all the nurses, etc., etc. If a crew member with a duplicate role as another crew member (i.e. a certain number of lifeboat commanders, communicators, emergency elevator operators, stretcher team, etc.) wants to get off the ship, while another person with that same role is already ashore, an alarm on the laptop computer, manned by security at the gangway will activate, a trap door above that gangway podium, will open, and a red spotlight putting that crewmember in a "cone of shame" will activate (j/k on that last one), resulting in security instructing that crew member that he/she cannot pass Go and collect $200 greenbacks, and to stay aboard until his "duplicate role" returns, freeing up a spot ashore for him/her. There is also such a thing as crew "all aboard" time, as there is for guests. A lot of that depends on the time a particular crew member has to be back in uniform ready to start/restart his/her shift which, quite frequently, is prior to the ship's departure. The crew "All Aboard time" / "last tender to the ship" is usually one half hour to an hour before the guest one! Crew that show up tardy for that time will have their crew I.D. confiscated and told to report to the staff captain's office behind the bridge to convince him to give it back. If it keeps happenin', it will result in termination of contract. If a crew member is late for crew, as well as for guest, all aboard time, the captain will leave him/her behind with no problem, as I recall happening more than once; Quebec City, next stop Montreal, comes to mind and that will also result in a face-to-face interview with local immigration officers, i.e. CBP in the U.S. or CBSA in Canada, prior to reboarding, where the crew has to convince them that they were not illegally attempting to stay in their particular country by missing the ship. Lots of headaches for the tardy crew as you can surely see1 And I'm not calling anyone Shirley! In a shell of a nut, there is no "you've earned an extra 15 min. ashore" clause for crew under the above rules and regs!

Just an FYI - Family of crew on HAL are not permitted to bring "non-service animals" on board while, they (the family) accompany the crew member (officer status only as far as sailing with family)

Just a heads up; Crew on HAL do get let go mid-contract, or anywhere in between the start and end of a contract however, having said that, it is done 99% of the time for discipline and as a result of breaking a rule, and/or rules, of that same contract. It involves a formal meeting with the captain, senior management, the HRM (human resources manager) and the crew member's supervisor and/or dept. head present and it takes place inside the hotel general manager's office, sorta/kinda like a captain's mast in the military (for those of us who have served). The involved crew member is usually represented by the unit (Indonesian or Filipino - if that nationality) president. It is the role of the security officer to encapsule/document the violation(s) in report form after conducting an investigation, which is forwarded to the captain beforehand. On the day of the hearing, the SECO will escort the crew member to the hotel GRM office and/or will meet him/her in front of same, waiting to be escorted inside. I've been to plenty of those meetings in that capacity, with incidents ranging from a cook using the restroom facilities and forgetting that he had a pot on the stove that could have easily caused a fire in the galley, to crew physically fighting among each other (an immediate termination of contract!), vandalism, public intoxication, use of narcotics (another immediate dismissal), yes; theft, it happens, etc., etc., you name it. In that meeting, the captain will present the crew member with the charges against him/her, and the crew member will then get an opportunity to respond and defend his/her actions. Witnesses can be called and, upon the conclusion, the captain will render a verdict based on the evidence and statements received (Seattle HR will have been contacted before to concur). The captain and senior management will endorse the paperwork and the HRM will facilitate the crew member and, if let go, will arrange for transportation back home I have never heard of a crew member being let go mid-contract because the company is in financial difficulties but that's just me

To answer your question in post No. 1, I don't like the practice, never have, never will!

As a rule of pinky finger, cruises that depart from Vancouver leave English Bay behind and sail up the Strait of Georgia on a northerly course between the Canadian mainland and Vancouver Island, Seymour Narrows and Discovery Passage are next (Canadian pilots are mandatory) bright and early around 0200 hrs. / 2:00 AM during slack tide. What follows is Chatham Point and its 90-degree turn, Race Passage, Johnstone Strait, Blackney Passage (another 90-degree turn), and Blackfish Sound, passing Port Hardy. The ship will enter Queen Charlotte Strait into the open (Pacific) ocean arm of Queen Charlotte Sound, keeping the Haida Gwaii Islands (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) to her west and dropping off the two BC pilots at Triple Island, continuing on to either Juneau or Ketchikan. Cruises that depart Seattle, transit Puget Sound northbound, enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca (aka the Salish Sea) and drop their U.S. pilots off at Port Angeles, WA. The ship will then enter the Pacific Ocean proper and sail northbound hugging the west coast of Vancouver Island. North of Vancouver Island, she will also enter Queen Charlotte Sound and starts following the same course as the ships that departed Vancouver. That course only changes if the destination is/are the ports of Whittier, Steward, Kodiak, Anchorage in which case the ship will remain in the open Pacific Will attempt to find out why K-dam followed the No. 2 option for her last two cruises

That's funny! One day after concluding our lowly 11-day Pacific Coastal/Alaska cruise on Nieuw A, earlier this month, we received $649 OBC credit on our cc. Why? Because we used a decent HAL PCC. Go figure that one................🧐

Just beat me to it! 😉 Congrats and a Happy Retirement to Kaptein Albert! His two (originally, now more to come) books are outstanding if you are into the history of HAL. He will always be "Mr. HAL" when it comes to that topic!

Great police work and cooperation between two agencies! Unless it was all Vegas Metro and then it still remains good police work to take a crook off the streets

History - and geography - have always been my favorite topics in school, still are 😉 Math, not so much! 🙃

Looks like we're both right 😉 Maarten Tromp was Piet Hein's flag captain on the Vliegende Groene Draeck (really cool name; the Flying Green Dragon) during the fight with Ostend privateers in 1629, a battle in which Admiral Hein was killed. One year before however, in 1628, Witte de With was Hein's flag captain on the Amsterdam during an expedition near Cuba to capture the Spanish treasure fleet. That feat ultimately resulted in the famous Dutch folk song, kinda the unofficial Dutch national anthem, that every Dutchman knows as "de Zilvervloot" / the silver fleet, still sung today in the stadiums where the Dutch national soccer team, aka "Orannje" / the Orange is beating their opponent