flyrobinfly

Hi Jacqui,

Please add the one day Seattle to Vancouver Pacific Coastal cruise on Eurodam, October 8. We will be celebrating my birthday with a dinner at the Tamarind! 😁

12 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Reservations or the SB Zoo are still required - see the online website for more info.  Weekends are more impacted than week days, but we are always surprised how many young families visit even during the week. 

 

Calif still operates under some "covid emergency" restrictions. Lessening every day, but I notice the Zoo website says it still is requiring reservations for crowd management. Don't know if they allow walk-ups, but since it will take a little effort to get there, I don't want any possible disappointments.

Thanks OlsSalt, I did see that reservations were required on the website. The bird refuge you mentioned intrigues me, but I don't know if I'll have enough time to do both places on this visit.

2 hours ago, DAllenTCY said:

On Sunday two ships will be at the same pier.  The other is the Disney Wonder.

 

Those guests need to be shuttled away for Covid testing.  You don't.

 

The best option for you is to arrive between 11 am and noon.

 

David

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for this info David! Our boarding time most recently got pushed back to 2:20 PM and I was frantically trying to find someplace to store our luggage while we went to the Midway or elsewhere on the waterfront until then.  

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Hope so, since our little zoo is pretty remarkable for a small town- a long participant in endangered species breeding programs, lovely setting with lush, mature vegetation and well-tended enclosures.  Penguins are my favorites, but we also just had another baby giraffe and another on the way. 

That's our destination in SB next Saturday. We were going to take an Uber but a shuttle would be just dandy. 😁 Excited to visit and photograph this beautiful place.

Thanks for another delightful review, I enjoyed it! Glad you had a wonderful cruise. 🙂

We are on Kdam this Sunday and I was wondering how strict they are with boarding times. Ours keeps getting pushed back further and further and I don't know if we need to find something to do for several hours (early AM flight in) until then or if we can try checking in early or if we'll get turned away or have to sit in the terminal. I'd love any insight, thanks!

10 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

CITY SHUTTLES: Good news: City has just contracted with a shuttle bus company to provide service to cruise ships, taking passengers into the downtown area from the tender landing. 

Will this run to the zoo like the old waterfront shuttle did?

Thank you everyone, and especially @kazu for organizing these. Lifts the spirits just to see these on CC, and Bon Voyage to all the other CCers who are sailing next week and whenever! 🤩

We stopped in Santa Barbara in 2019 and took Lil' Toot over to Stearns Wharf to check out the Sea Center, wonderful time. We will be there in a couple weeks on Koningsdam and I was planning to go see the Santa Barbara Carriage Museum. However, we just got notice today that our itinerary has changed and we will now be there on Saturday, when alas, the museum is closed. 😔 Guess we'll just have to go back another time!

Now to figure out what else to do. Thanks for the tips, @OlsSalt!

We went to the last one held in 2019, and are going to this one. 

They had booths from the various vendors and excursion folks that HAL uses up in Alaska, and lots of fun activities from gold panning to husky dogs to pet and more. Plus, lots of fun show swag! Sounds like the gold panning is back, along with axe throwing, and more. 

Thank you everybody, and especially to Jacqui @kazu for doing these wonderful sendoffs! 😃 DH and I are beyond excited to finally sail again and spend Thanksgiving aboard...we're definitely grateful and feeling blessed to cruise.

It's also a full circle moment...in 2017 Eurodam was the first HAL ship we set foot on, during a promotional luncheon held while she was in port between Alaska sailings. We were so enchanted that we immediately bought future cruise deposits and took our first cruise in 2018. The rest, as they say, is history. 😊 

I too echo the thanks to @kazu for posting these wonderful reports for those of us not on Facebook, and to Rich for sharing his experience with the rest of us. It was very uplifting to read and see the great photos. 😍

Common nicknames or short forms of names, like the Bill/William that @Cruise NH mentioned, are generally acceptable. (I've had a couple different jobs where I had to verify IDs) However, someone named Jonathan that goes by Skip could be problematic.

@AV8rix you should be okay with just the middle initial since it matches your full middle name. If you're flying out of SeaTac they will scan your ID and your flight info, etc. is all encoded. 

@tsxgray1, if your DH has another form of ID like a driver's license that uses the name he goes by, I'd suggest bringing that along with the passport.  

On our last cruise we didn't announce our anniversary to anyone but the housekeeping staff somehow knew, and we came back in to this:

Hello Jacqui,

I am delighted to report a new booking to add to the Bon Voyage list. 🙂

March 20, 2022 

Koningsdam    

7 day Classic California Coast

This is to celebrate DH's birthday

Thank you for keeping this list and these well wishes, they always lift my spirits to see, even if I'm not the one sailing!

Robin

4 hours ago, zgscl said:

Thank you for this tip! I will have to check it out on my KDAM sailing in Nov if they still offer it 

On the Pinnacle Class ships the Grand Dutch Cafe has Dutch snacks in the afternoons...bitterballen, vlammetjes and cheese souffles, along with other great food. Last I sailed the K there were these and the bar noshes.

We'll be sailing (fingers and toes crossed!) on our first Panama Canal cruise in November and was wondering if it's possible to buy postcards and stamps at the cruise terminal in Colon, and have them mail the completed cards. I've read that the area around the building is a bit unsavory and would rather not venture forth if at all possible. Thanks! 😊

2 minutes ago, Missheo said:

Hopefully we will be cruising with you this Saturday. My test is tonight, keeping my figure cross for a negative. None of us are sick, but these test sometime could be false positive.

That's my biggest worry about the test, that we'd be grounded for a false positive. 😐

Here's hoping that all the CC members' tests go well and have a wonderful cruise! Thank you for doing this thread. 

6 hours ago, pierces said:

 

We actually saw two of the Sunfish from our balcony. Fortunately they were quite close and we weren't moving at full speed. It was our only decent wildlife day while cruising. Total of eight Humpbacks and a pair of orcas. I'm sure there were more after the Martini Bar opened.... 😉

 

Dave

🤣 I bet! 

Hoping I see (and am able to photograph) a sunfish at some point during a cruise. I've only seen flying fish out in the Caribbean.

I just went through your Alaska albums and enjoyed your excellent images. 🥰 The port photos brought back a lot of good memories. Thank you for sharing.

Particularly loved the ones of the whale "waving" and the ocean sunfish. About the latter, did you just happen to see it off the ship? I would be thrilled to see a mola out in the wild!

39 minutes ago, liam1965 said:

They showed up in our cabin tonight.

Thank you @liam1965! 

Thank you for sharing this cruise, I really enjoyed following along. 😄

Quick question: did you still get the HAL tiles and the voyage log? Lisa's thread showed the sticker and journey book from the last night but I wasn't sure if that was in lieu of the voyage log or in addition to.  And while I'd be okay not having a Mariner reception (I'm not 4 or 5 Star yet) I do love the tiles!

Safe travels home tomorrow.

You flew right over me inbound to SEA...I work at Boeing Field! Thank you for doing this live from for us all to enjoy vicariously. Have a wonderful cruise and hope your steak was excellent. 😁

I just sent you an email. Looking for a Vista class tile for my sister.

Thanks!

Also, SeaTac airport has been insanely busy of late, with lines stretching out the terminal and into the parking garage at times. I would definitely opt for the later flight.

For those without PreCheck, there is a new program called Spot Saver that runs through the end of August, where you can make an appointment and go in a special line at the security checkpoint, however it is only for 4 AM- 12 PM departures. 

On 6/4/2021 at 7:04 PM, HAL4NOW said:

Were the pictures taken with an Apple device? My iPhone pictures will often attempt to turn sideways or upside down for no apparent reason.

They were! Interesting.