snaebyllej

It was the reports of service cutback or elimination that inspired me to return to Alaska last fall and find ferries to travel on. I had been to Alaska on the Royal Princess in the spring, but I wasn't thrilled with her (too big and too inward-facing, like a lot of the new ships in recent years). After a few days in Sitka, I spent a day and a night on the MV Columbia, and 2 days and nights on the MV Kennicott. Had a great time in Sitka and on both ships. It was refreshing to be on "working" ships that still seem like ships and not like resort hotels, and to be up close to the scenery in a way that you can't on a huge cruise ship. I was hoping to get back up there this spring to try some other ships and towns. Oh, well. Maybe in the fall?

We're on the Veendam on the 12th, outside guarantee. Our cabin assignment showed up on the HAL site by Wednesday evening (1/29), and the emails arrived Thursday morning around 8 CT (and then again this morning).

What is late, anyway? 10 seconds after the alarm sounds? On a number of lines they say something like "wait until you hear the alarm bells sound, then proceed to your cabin and collect...". What if you're at the opposite end of the ship from your cabin? Seems to me that 10 minutes after the alarm sounds is a perfectly reasonable time to be showing up. You could say that the people showing up early are the ones who are disobeying crew instructions. If they are trying to practice for real emergencies, will everyone be there by the time the alarm sounds? An added attraction of waiting is that you may get to use crew-only stairs to get to your muster station; that's the way it worked last month on Island Princess. Nice change of scenery.

It's been years since I called a credit card issuer, but I still enter my travel plans online if there is a mechanism for it. Citi, Barclays and Bank of America have it, CapitalOne says not to bother. I've never found a bank that wants me to register an ATM card, though.

109K (Grand) is not intimate. I was on Ruby and Royal in May; I won't be going on the Royal class again. Too big, and like others I care a lot about the promenade. Yes, they still have little bits of the deck left here and there, but on the Royal they had them closed much of the time.

https://flic.kr/p/2gxP12X

None in my Royal Princess balcony cabin last month.