"Live from" ms Volendam to Alaska! My First HAL Experience

[lovely_serenity]

We ate a lot of these everyday too! Sweet potato fries are one of my favourites! SO GOOD :)) (and you can see my red velvet potato ^^):

 

 

And for dessert, the DELICIOUS (my favourite ice cream of the trip) Cherry Burgandy ice cream. It had big pieces of cherries in them and it so SOO GOOD.

 

 

Once we were thoroughly full, and we were deciding what we were going to do that day, I took some pictures of the drink station. This was the coffee machine:

 

 

Due to the lack of good cold drinks, we even tried to make our own iced chocolate/coffee in an attempt to get something drinkable. ^^' it was okay, but diluted.. My brother once tried to ask the server making drinks one day, if he could attempt at an ice coffee. This was pretty funny, as the guy said okay, got black coffee, dumped ice in it and handed to my brother. "The sugar & cream are over there". ... o_o you know.. sugar only melts in hot liquid.. not cold. So we wound up with a very bitter cold coffee. LOL

 

And this is where you get ice and water (I'd wind up drinking a lot of water this trip..):

 

 

Here is where you get your sugar, (cream and milk came from a confusing dispenser where you punch/press the HUGE circle on the top of the container. I felt so stupid pressing a button looking sticker o_o) hot chocolate, spoons, cups and teas.

 

 

I then returned to my seat to listen in on how today's plans would unfold. While listening, I took this (:

 

 

Since we had all been to Skagway before (and agreed that it was a ridiculously small place with nothing to do), Bro & Sis didn't want to get off the boat today. Mom, Dad & I decided to get off and just walk around for a bit.

[lovely_serenity]

I took my first shot out the window of Skagway while we finalized all of our plans:

 

 

Now that everyone knew what they were doing, we all split.

 

Team, BREAK! (;

 

 

I switched to my landscape lens (yay! :D) and took some test shots while on our way back to our cabin to get ready to explore Skagway. (Bro & Sis went to go play chess, ping pong, ate ice cream, ran around and enjoyed themselves while we did that)

 

Here's Dad! And my test shot of how much of the Atrium my lens could capture:

 

 

We went to the Atrium (Mom back to the room first) Front Office so Dad could ask them exactly how far away we were from the city center because looking from the window, WE COULDN'T SEE SKAGWAY =_=.

 

 

Apparently it was "right there" when we get off the ship. (That dude would have proven to be a liar D:<)

 

After that, we went back to our rooms to get ready. Mom was in the bathroom, so I took the liberty to take some landscape lens shots of my cabin.

 

From the door:

 

 

From the window:

 

[LTCSZ]

Thank you so very much for the great review...We are leaving on the Volendam on Weds the 22nd, so all of your information has been both helpful and exciting...Thanks again,

 

Steve

[Readytokruise]

Your camera work is very good but your writing style makes me feel like you're actually talking to me. That's very effective and difficult to do I imagine. This critique has been more informative than anything I've read from HAL (that ol' "grain of salt" thingy). Keep up the good work and THANKS for this Alaska critique as my wife and I are on this cruise for the (approximate) July 10 departure.

 

If readers haven't taken the time to click on the "blog" link at the bottom of Sarah's postings I'm taking a second here to recommend you do. Nice work young lady - you should be proud of yourself.

[superoma]

Still enjoying all your pictures and your writing. Sorry to hear you didn't like Skagway. We loved it, but then we have friends living there and that might make a difference.

 

Ready for the next instalment!!!

[lovely_serenity]

Wider shot of the couch bed:

 

 

I then saw this:

 

 

Since we didn't have a fridge in our room, the bar drinks were displayed like this. I thought that SOMEONE would probably want to see how much each were, so I took the pic :D Why not, right?

 

Mom came out of the bathroom so I went to take some more pictures of it:

 

 

 

Notice the towel they leave hanging on the tub? It's a different material than the towels for your body. This one is specifically for you to put on the floor.

 

 

You also notice the sign that says that water is precious & not to waste it? That would've been fine, but sometimes the the weak water pressure can be SO annoying. It takes forever to wash your hands clean of soap, and the tap is so short, you literally can only wash one hand at a time, horizontally. -_- They also only had bar soap at the sink, :/ I'd have preferred liquid.

 

 

There, your picture of me :P My eye is shut though, because I was using the point and shoot ^^'

Edited May 20, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[Rowsby]

We just took this cruise May 6-15 and you have done such a nice job on these photos.....!!!

Thanks...

[lovely_serenity]

Here is actually a storage compartment I found on the last day. What a shame!

 

 

Here, I actually got a shot of the magnets I spoke of earlier! Here's the magnet on the door:

 

 

(Sorry for the blur)

 

and the magnet on the wall:

 

 

After that, everyone (Mom & Dad) got ready and we headed out. Down the gangway located next to our rooms, and out into Skagway, or so we thought.

It wound up to be a 15-20 minute walk to the city. O_O OMG WHY.

 

We exited the ship and was met with this view.

 

The weather was gross, drizzling and extremely windy. This was the direction we had to walk for 20 minutes to get to the city.

 

 

After getting off the gangway and saw that the White Pass Train (for those going on the couple hour long scenic ride up the mountain), was just getting ready to leave.

 

 

While Mom & Dad slowly walked toward the city, I took some quick pictures.

 

Here is our beautiful ship :D :

 

[lovely_serenity]

And a more zoomed out shot that includes the gangway:

 

 

As we walked, the White Pass started to leave. It began its' journey up the mountain.

 

 

We passed by the little "gate" with officers where you had to flash your Key Card as proof of your admittance.

 

 

A very beautiful mountain was in view. In actuality, this area where we were parked was the prettiest. There wasn't much to see farther into the city.

 

 

 

I ran after my parents and flashed my card to the security guard. We had to follow this pathway to get to the city. A lot of walking to do -_-'

 

[lovely_serenity]

Thank you so very much for the great review...We are leaving on the Volendam on Weds the 22nd, so all of your information has been both helpful and exciting...Thanks again,

 

Steve

 

You're welcome! & I'm glad I can be of help before your cruise, have a nice trip! (:

 

Your camera work is very good but your writing style makes me feel like you're actually talking to me. That's very effective and difficult to do I imagine. This critique has been more informative than anything I've read from HAL (that ol' "grain of salt" thingy). Keep up the good work and THANKS for this Alaska critique as my wife and I are on this cruise for the (approximate) July 10 departure.

 

If readers haven't taken the time to click on the "blog" link at the bottom of Sarah's postings I'm taking a second here to recommend you do. Nice work young lady - you should be proud of yourself.

Thank you so much, your comment literally made my day ^^ thank you for such kind words (: And I'm glad you're enjoying the fruits of my labour, haha :D

 

Still enjoying all your pictures and your writing. Sorry to hear you didn't like Skagway. We loved it, but then we have friends living there and that might make a difference.

 

Ready for the next instalment!!!

I'm glad! Oh, it's nobody's fault, we just simply very found anything to do there. I am happy to hear that you enjoy your time there though! :)

 

We just took this cruise May 6-15 and you have done such a nice job on these photos.....!!!

Thanks...

Thank you! :D , but how did you do it from May 6th? Our cruise ended on the 8th! O_o?

[lovely_serenity]

Here are some of the shots that I took on our way toward the city.

 

 

By the time we were here, I had already had to stop twice to get sand out of my shoes :( I was wearing flats.

 

 

I am not kidding you when I saw that there was a film of sand across the floor. This, along with the wind resulted in a very painful trip back. It wasn't so bad going to the city, since the wind was coming from behind us.

 

I spotted this on the way:

 

 

 

Nice right?

 

I liked how we were located directly adjacent to where everyone kept their fishing boats and stuff. Made for a nice picture.

 

 

We spent 10 minutes walking along this ridiculously long pathway while emptying my shoes of sand periodically.

 

[Himself]

Day 4: Skagway

 

We woke up to cloudy skies at around 10:30am, already docked in Skagway. After getting ready, we all headed up to the Lido for an early lunch at around 11:30am since there was no lunch in the main dining room today. I (with my macro lens) put my priorities first as I stepped into the buffet. Shots of my favourite food LOL.

 

Jello!

 

 

This one had a funny name, "Red Velvet Potato" ^^

 

 

It tasted quite dry :/

 

Strawberry Cheesecake: (This one was REALLY good)

 

 

Some little coconut cake:

 

 

A swiss cake roll (I love these!):

 

 

A strawberry mousse cake:

 

 

You have a sweet tooth. I hope you never get diabetetes!!

[innlady1]

Wonderful photos and blog, Sarah! Thank you so much.

[KNOT2L82SAIL]

I am so enjoying your journey and the totally awesome photos. AND finally... a picture of you!!! Thank you so much.

LOL

I love how you are protecting your family's privacy, never giving a full facial picture. Way to go. :)

[Rowsby]

 

 

Thank you! :D , but how did you do it from May 6th? Our cruise ended on the 8th! O_o?

 

Sorry....we left on our trip to Vancouver on the 6th.....the Volendam left on the 8th......:)

[lovely_serenity]

A last look back on our ship & the beautiful scenery of the Great White North:

 

 

We passed by these colourful little huts:

 

 

As we walked, the White Pass passed by our right side up into the mountains. it was interesting, people were waving to each other from inside and outside the train :)

 

 

We crossed a little side street and I took a quick shot of what looks like the road that leads to the pier.

 

 

We walked and walked, and I happened upon what looked to me like a perfect scenic shot. I looked pretty stupid crouching down in the middle of the street, trying to keep other trees out of my shot LOL. There were actually 2 large trees that blocked my view. I had to angle myself around them. ^^ This pretty little spot was also downhill from where I stood, so it made it THAT much more difficult to avoid the big trees.

 

[lovely_serenity]

We finally reached the town, but first, we had to cross a train crossing. What did we learn in elementary school, again? Right! Check for cars!

 

Look right?

 

 

Clear!

 

Look left?

 

 

Clear! Okay, let's cross!

 

After we safely crossed without getting hit by a car, I caught a glimpse of this:

 

 

Finally, we arrived into an area of civilization!

 

Welcome to Skagway. A town of 33 avenues that could be completely covered in 8 minutes.

 

Here's a shot down a road that intersects the main road of Skagway:

 

 

As we walked to the main road of Skagway (as in the road that equals Skagway), I saw this:

 

 

Aw, you shouldn't have ;)

 

We then finally got to an intersection where (when the cars were clear), I ran to the middle of the street (All for you guys!, I could have died! :0) and took a shot.

 

 

This. Is Skagway. Welcome. Feel free to take a look around! It won't change anything, because this, is it LOL.

 

In the dictionary, this picture should be next to Skagway LOL, because this is literally all there is to see (in my POV at least).

Edited May 20, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

We roamed around town for a little bit. This was when it started to get bad. The wind was picking up and it was kicking the sand into our eyes. Even if you squinted, it would still get in! What made matter worse was the fact that I was wearing contacts today. Talk about pain! :(

 

We walked around town, emptied my shoes a couple more times and headed into a jewelry store to look for some cheap pendants (I buy a lot of these, glacier topaz, sapphire, rainbow topaz etc.). This was the first time I entered a jewelry store and nobody talked to me! 0_0 They were trying so hard to sell to some woman, they completely ignored me. Hurtful! D:

 

We left and headed for the Alaskan Shirt Co. Store where I've bought a couple of souvenirs before. I walked around and looked for stuff for my friends. This is when I found - this:

 

 

My sister joked about wanting to eat these before. :D I showed Mom & Dad and they said that there was no chance they were going to buy this for Sis. They were worried that if she ate this, she'd get a disease or something LOL.

 

After looking around and not finding anything but a bottle of Pepsi for Dad, we started to head back. Back into the sandstorm we go! My mom gave me her pair of sunglasses to shield my eyes from the sand c: thanks mommy.

 

We walked this way to get back to that super long sidewalk:

 

 

One last look back at Skagway before we leave:

 

 

We're finally almost back to the ship! Thank god -_- I feel beat up and exhausted.

 

 

As we walked, I noticed this wall of proper graffiti that I saw from the window of the Ocean Bar earlier today:

 

 

It stretched all the way to the end of the ship.

 

We walked on and passed by this. This bus was one we saw as we were going to Skagway. It costs $2 per person to drive them into the city. We felt that this wasn't worth the money. Let's put it in perspective. $12 total to go to and from Skagway for the three of us. That $12 could buy me 4-6 bags of chips! Chips I would enjoy much more than I would Skagway.

 

 

That's why we ended up walking that distance. Looking at the big picture, all the suffering into consideration, I probably would have been much better off staying on board.

 

Not that this is a bad place, I just simply don't find it worth my time. You may think differently. This is simply in my opinion :0

[lovely_serenity]

As we made our way back, I saw the sign we passed by on the way to town. It seemed important so I took a picture of it LOL. Sorry it's blurry, I was in a hurry. Mom & Dad were leaving me behind :P

 

 

We finally reached the security guards. I scrambled to get my Key Card out for them to see without dropping my camera or something. This was when I heard the noise. GRRREHHHGFFG 0_0 WHAT IS THAT?! We looked around and saw that the anchor was being pulled up! A tiny crowd came over to watch. I quickly switched my camera into video mode and started recording it. This picture was taken right after it the anchor was completely pulled up. Interestingly enough, the anchor was in a U shape, as opposed to what you see in cartoons! :/ awh.

 

 

We finished watching the anchor of infinity be pulled up (it literally took 3 good minutes for it to get pulled up 0_0) and turned around to go to the gangway. Hey look! More cool cruise line graffiti!

 

 

And then a closer look:

 

 

We went toward the gangway, and I noticed this nice carpet. :D

 

 

After taking that shot, I realized that Mom & Dad had already gone all the way up to the top of the gangway without me. Wait up D,: Mom! Dad!

 

This nice older couple was the only thing separating me from my Mom & Dad. D; Moomm! Daadd! Wait for mee!

 

 

As they loaded their things into the security scanner without me, I politely asked the lady if they would be so kind as to let me in front them, so that I could be with my parents. She kindly obliged and told her husband to let me by. Thank you lady c: <3

[lovely_serenity]

You have a sweet tooth. I hope you never get diabetes!!

 

LOL I hope so too. And don't worry, I didn't actually eat all of those things ^^ I just like to take pictures of all of them. I only ate a couple of them, but I shared them with my family. & Yeah, I do have a sweet tooth :D

 

Wonderful photos and blog, Sarah! Thank you so much.

 

Thank you! And I appreciate that you took the time to look at my blog! :D & you're welcome c:

 

I am so enjoying your journey and the totally awesome photos. AND finally... a picture of you!!! Thank you so much.

LOL

I love how you are protecting your family's privacy, never giving a full facial picture. Way to go. :)

 

Thank you :D I'm glad that you are enjoying my report. && LOL Yeah, but my eye looks weird in it since it's all squinty ^^

& Haha! Yeah! c: I thought that they wouldn't want me to since it's such a public site. Thanks!

 

Sorry....we left on our trip to Vancouver on the 6th.....the Volendam left on the 8th......:)

 

Haha no problem. What ship did you take?

[lovely_serenity]

Sorry....we left on our trip to Vancouver on the 6th.....the Volendam left on the 8th......:)

***Sorry scratch that last comment. I was confusing myself. So how did your trip go? They weren't as strict on the health from the gastrointestinal disease were you?

[JamesEM]

Enjoying your posts.

[lovely_serenity]

After we got back on the ship and dropped everything off in our rooms, I took the monopod and told Mom & Dad I'd meet them at 3 'o'clock for Afternoon Tea.

 

I went up to deck 3 outside deck to go take some pictures again. Here are a few that I took to capture most of what I could see:

 

 

 

I took 2 pictures and stuck them together to make a lame panoramic :D

 

 

Then, here's to my right:

 

 

and to my left:

 

 

o_o!? What's that over there? Let's take a closer look, shall we?

 

I leaned over the railing (just a little bit :p) to get this shot (see? I almost died twice for you guys LOL):

 

[lovely_serenity]

Enjoying your posts.

Thank you (:

[lovely_serenity]

I then scurried over a little closer to them to check out what they were doing:

 

 

Perhaps it was a drill for employees. This morning, there was a scary alarm that went off in the whole ship. Scared the daylights out of me o_o 30 seconds after making us panic, a Scottish lady made an announcement that the alarm we just heard was for a crew members only fire drill. Yeah, thanks for the heads up =_=.

 

I then proceeded to take some random public area shots while they were generally empty for you guys. First was just of the hall way I passed by:

 

*I apologize in advance for some ugly blur shots, I was excited and I was running around :( My hands weren't as stable as I thought they'd be.

 

 

The jewelry/perfume store and the little hall at the end that leads into the Piano Bar:

 

 

The Explorer's Lounge:

 

 

The Future Cruises desk (to the left is the Explorer's Café):

 

 

I then took the elevator up to deck 8: