Alaska Experts On Board

[bUU]

Going over the On Locations posted by others from recent Alaska cruises, other than on the day the cruise visits Glacier Bay, there seems to be a dearth of presentations by wildlife and geology-ish experts. Is that what other folks have found? Has the need for that been somewhat obviated by video presentations?

Edited November 25, 2016 by bicker

[Kamloops50]

Going over the On Locations posted by others from recent Alaska cruises, other than on the day the cruise visits Glacier Bay, there seems to be a dearth of presentations by wildlife and geology-ish experts. Is that what other folks have found? Has the need for that been somewhat obviated by video presentations?

 

Those two subjects are usually well covered by the naturalist on board.

[bUU]

I guess I was expecting daily entries for the naturalist in the activities list for the day. I see no such activity on (for example) the Day 2 of the Vancouver r/t itinerary, a sea day. The closest is "Location Guide Humberto is available at his desk to help you plan your day ashore."

[Kamloops50]

Not all ships have naturalist on board. Those that don't do Glacier usually don't have one.

 

 

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[bUU]

This cruise did go to Glacier Bay.

[Kamloops50]

Which cruise line?

 

 

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[bUU]

On Location is the daily events newsletter aboard Holland America cruises.

[Kamloops50]

We where on HAL last summer They had a naturalist on board.

 

 

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[crystalspin]

We (8) sailed on the Volendam 7-day RT Vancouver last June over the solstice. None of us remember a ship's naturalist -- and we are outdoorsy, would have been in the first row.

 

Not counting the National Park Ranger in Glacier Bay of course.

 

Actually I don't remember a naturalist except the Ranger on the Statendam in 2009, but we (3) did have a woman from an "Eskimo" tribe, giving enrichment talks. My mom and I went to every one.

 

Now they have "port experts", which can mean different things...

Edited November 28, 2016 by crystalspin

[bUU]

Okay so now how do I reconcile these last two reports. :-0

[towhee]

Okay so now how do I reconcile these last two reports. :-0

 

You don't. Basically you may or may not have a naturalist on board. On the same itinerary at the same time of year, we've had a naturalist some years and none others.

 

I'm hoping you have one, but I'm not holding my breath.

[RMLincoln]

It's a short cruise with 3 ports and a day of glacier cruising... and 2 sea days. If you are doing Glacier Bay NP you'll have a Park Ranger on board that day.

 

I doubt HAL will employ a person for the whole cruise to give 2 talks, one on each sea day. It's possible you may have a person who doubles as that, maybe the Location Guide but I wouldn't count on it.

 

The longer itineraries are the ones with speakers, but even those are waning, sorry to see it.

 

Have you checked the boards of other cruise lines, say Princess or Celebrity or possibly RCCL (haven't used them so not sure if they would do that sort of thing.)

 

Wish it were different.... m--

[bUU]

I haven't checked the other boards for this matter specifically. In reading over the Princess Patters I did get the impression that there was a slightly greater emphasis on such presentations but I couldn't really tell if they were live or just video presentations. Perhaps I should be more concerned about this especially if there is a difference between the cruise lines with regard to live naturalist presentations on board 7 day cruises, but I haven't actually seen anyone highlight that as a major difference between at least Princess Holland America Carnival and NCL.

Edited November 28, 2016 by bicker