HAL4NOW

A couple shots from today’s walk for National Nature Photography day:

Cilantro is one of my triggers for migraine headaches. I actually like cilantro and many of the foods where it can be found.

One of the beautiful things about being a substitute is that you can say 'no' if you have a cruise planned.

We have been on three cruises with Half Moon Cay as a scheduled port. Once it was rescheduled to Aruba before we actually sailed. The other two times we were not able to tender because of weather. We might get to visit the island sometime. 🤔

There is a Bargreen Lake Stevens Boys and Girls Club on Lakeshore Drive. Here is a link to their website: Lake Stevens Club | Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County (bgcsc.org)

And three rights make a left.

Have you considered a chartered seaplane or land plane through Kenmore Air? I think they would arrange something.

You would need that same documentation even if you had VeriFLY. We sailed out of Vancouver on May first and did not see a VeriFLY line.

I noticed that when the NY Pizza or Dive-in were extra busy they stopped taking mobile orders.

@RuthC might have figured out how to change the default setting for your posts. Hers always seem to come out larger and in green.

We watched the safety video upon entering our stateroom, but when we got to the muster station the HAL personnel running the station had already closed shop and we never did have an opportunity to check-in to our muster station. About the third day into the cruise, I spoke with a passenger who didn't understand why he had gotten a call from guest services about not checking into his muster station. He also wasn't sure why his TV didn't work. He had tried to check into his muster station, but they were closed. I asked him if he had watched the safety video and he said he had not. I saw him the next day and he said after watching the safety video his TV worked fine. There is not an acceptable excuse for the passengers not filling out form E311 prior to arriving in Prince Rupert. The announcement was given on many occasions, both before and after the stated deadline to fill it out. The announcement was given to the full ship, including staterooms, in both English and Mandarin.

On May first, sail away was supposed to be at three. All aboard was 2:30. We didn’t sail until after five and passengers were boarding until almost up to five. Makes it tough to time a late boarding without lines.

Our check in time was for group D at 1:00 PM. Our hotel shuttle dropped us about 12:30 PM. It was over an hour just to get into the HAL check in room.

Here are the three rooms we all had to endure on May 1, after the long hallway line:

The timing would indicate that they probably contracted Covid during embarkation.

It took us over an hour to get to the room because of the long line in the hallway. Nobody was directing anything and there didn't seem to be anyone to ask about priority lines (we didn't have priority boarding this time so I wasn't looking that closely, but nothing was obvious with the sea of people that filled the hall, and nothing seemed available in the customs line that took us through another two rooms downstairs). Glad you were there early enough to save some of the stress others had to face. My DW and I are both still in good enough shape to stand for hours on concrete floors; not everyone in the line looked like they were designed for such torture.

We booked the Olde Town Trolley because we had some OBC to use. It was a good tour and will probably get better as the season progresses. They are new and I think a good addition to a port that is attempting to attract tourists. It did seem pricey, but so do a lot of the touristy tours other places. I also heard from a few local residents that they are trying to find a way to provide more public restrooms. The locals haven’t been burned out by cruisers yet and seemed happy to have the Koningsdam in port.

Our Check-in time was 1:00 PM, their check-in time was 11:00 AM. They were able to board a little before noon, we didn't get onboard until about 4:00.

We boarded the Koningsdam last Monday, May 1st, at Canada Place. It took us well over three hours of waiting in various lines before being able to board. US Customs was part of the problem, but they cannot take all of the blame for the mess. We were dropped off at the cruise port by a shuttle from our hotel. Even though we have departed from Canada Place previously, nothing resembled the previous procedures. We say lines that said "Holland America" and "Princess" and "Norwegian" but there was no differentiation between any of the cruise lines. Everyone was being funneled through the same queue. Since we still had our luggage with us and wanted to drop that off before getting in line, we asked two different port personnel (uniforms and name-tag badges identified them) where we should drop off the luggage and then what the procedure was after that. One of them just said she didn't know and walked away. The other one said we had to go downstairs to drop off our luggage and then go upstairs to check in and then come back down to the level we were on to go through customs. When we asked how we should get downstairs, he pointed us to an elevator that had hundreds of people waiting in line to get a ride up or down. We found a different way down to drop off our luggage, only to see even more lines of people. We walked past all of them and found a HAL porter that was taking luggage (ours already had tags we printed out at home) and he took our luggage. Then we tried to figure out how to get up to the check-in level. We had to walk outside because the escalator was being monitored for only a couple people to go up at a time and there were hundreds of people in line at the escalator. The elevator lines had lengthened since we had seen them a few minutes earlier. We walked outside and found some stairs that got us up to the next level. At the Convention Center we asked a security guard to point us to the line for check-in and he pointed out a line. When we got to that line, we realized that what we thought was the back of the line was just a corner where the line turned and went a few hundred more people in a different direction. At this point, passengers from all three cruise lines were mixed in the same line. About a hour later, Princess personnel and Norwegian personnel began going up and down the line and pulling their passengers out to go into different lines. When we finally got into the first large room for HAL check-in, we saw a sea of people weaving back and forth through the queue. Holland America was not processing people with any level of efficiency. After another hour, we had made it through that mess and then we were sent back to the US Customs downstairs and mixed with all three cruise lines passengers to get through yet another hour plus of back and forth through the queue. One lady did a face plant when she fainted from dehydration, others were looking extremely weary. The port can take some responsibility for the length of the process; Holland America did not do much to speed up any portion of the process, and US Customs was a joke. The good news is that apparently, earlier in the process it was going much faster and smoother. Our table mates were first time cruisers, and they did not have a problem getting on-board. They were able to enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet on the ship while many of the passengers were walking around the concrete waiting for the next corner to turn to go back to the other end of the room, only to turn and do it again. Those that want to blame people for not showing up at the correct check-in time or to say that enforcing check-in times would have helped this process are delusional.

Jacqui, Thank you for all of your generous contributions to the Daily. When I saw the meme about Charles, I did not see it as political or offensive. It gave me (as a 67-year-old male) some hope that I still have time to figure out what I am going to do with my life. It gave me a much-needed chuckle. It was obviously meant to be humor. I believe that if any of us are paying even a minimal amount of attention, we know that you meant no harm. I realize that anything we say or do can be offensive to someone at any time. "If at all possible, live peaceably with all," doesn't mean we stop living out of fear; it does mean that when we have accidentally offended someone, we ask forgiveness (as you have consistently done over the years). Please take this as it is intended (tongue in cheek): Jacqui, I would find it offensive if you stopped posting memes (wink,wink). Have a blessed day, and thanks again for all that you contribute.

Just made it home; had breakfast at the MDR with a view of the Volendam. I love the smaller ships and it was nice to see her behind us. We made a few stops on the way back up the mountain to home. Border crossing was only about 15 minutes. I’m surprised how much the grass grew in a week.

We just got a PA announcement that the first group can go to the gangway and disembark. Five days went by quickly. We had been surprised that we hadn’t heard the celebration song the whole cruise and my DW asked our waiter if they were still doing the song. She was told no, but then at the end of our meal about a half dozen waiters showed up with a cake and the song. It was wonderful.

@Cruising-along The weather truly has been remarkable; especially for this early in the season. Today we did the trolley tour, our own self guided walking tour, the Museum of Northern BC, the sunken gardens, the Firefighters museum, the Kwinitsa Station Railway Museum, Seal Cove, and Cow Bay. Glad you are enjoying Club Orange. We have had a few wonderful table mates at late dining in the MDR. I haven’t had any problems with service in spite of the ship being full and crowded. My DW did mention that on previous cruises we felt pampered and on this one we can tell the servers and staff are working very hard and we don’t want to put them out by special requests. Our Room stewards are also working overtime, as they are responsible for 33 cabins and are not able to provide the special care they would like to provide.

Lenda, and @StLouisCruisers, you can’t see it in the pictures but the building was built from red cedar without any nails. The native people did the carpentry work and all of the ornate carvings. Most of the stained glass windows were made in Seattle and are dedicated to the glory of God in memory of various members who have passed. St. John’s Episcopal Church is one of 26 churches in Ketchikan. The original town charter states that there shall never be more bars than churches, and that stands today.

What a beautiful and rare day in Ketchikan. The sun is shining! We went to the lumberjack show, did a self guided walking tour, went through the totem heritage center, and spent some quality time in the oldest church in Ketchikan (hosted by a gentleman docent named Fred who grew up in the church). I will try to add a few pictures: