LAFFNVEGAS "LIVE" from the Nieuw Amsterdam, First HAL Ship to Sail!!

[Caribbean Chris]

Exciting news for Alaska overnight! 17 year-old Lydia Jacoby from Seward won gold in the women’s 100 meter breaststroke, an amazing upset at the Tokyo Olympics. Her parent run a whale-watching boat. The Seward pool closed last year during the pandemic, so the poor kid had to travel 2.5 hours to Anchorage to train. Big celebrations in Seward.

 

https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-swimming-sports-coronavirus-pandemic-alaska-7e8bb5731dcd915cf3de2fa4c57209e3

[Sir PMP]

4 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Also BB Kings are playing a later set @ 11 PM which means finishing at 11:45 or so 🙂

Good to hear that there is a band aboard..

[boze9999]

With regard to missing onboard supplies - the ports around the US have been suffering from cargo ships not arriving as expected (many times months of delays) and to compound that, when they do arrive the ports have inadequate personnel (dock workers & customs/border patrol) to process and inspect and transport the year long (Covid) backlog. It's one reason all our products and supplies are in short supply around the country. 

[Sir PMP]

10 hours ago, zgscl said:

I had always wondered how they manage it. Thank you for the insight 🤣

He forgot to mention that one of them actually sleeps under your bed, don't look it's a little messy.

[2inSETexas]

4 hours ago, Cruising Is Bliss said:

 

You can tell your room steward you prefer to always get dark chocolate.

Well, I might be happy with that but my wife would not. 😉

[aliaschief]

11 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

You didn't know? They are aware when you go to powder room inside your stateroom at night! They know this by sensors placed in strategic locations. Extremely carefully selected/hand picked HAL room stewards in a team known as R.E.A.C.T. are faster than a speeding bullet! The REACT boys (+ some very fast girls) sit as a group in the "ready room" of each pax/guest deck of the vessel (you know, those blank/white spaces you see on each deck on the deck plans) during evening hours on a nightly basis, kinda sorta like a Formula Uno pit crew, waiting for the status board with room numbers on that particular deck to light up which is their "Go" signal.

 

The sensor goes off (again, meaning the occupant is utilizing the facilities inside his/her stateroom) and the designated team sprints to your cabin at a speed the likes of Usain Bolt would be jealous. They then do a "turn down" of your billet at that same lightning speed (if the other occupant happens to be in the cradle, they are specially trained to go to "super silent" mode, known as "Condition One," to perform the turndown with him/her inside the devonport dreaming of the next glorious day on a blue hulled beaut, without awakening said individual from their slumber), leave a premade towel animal (nice minke!) and a pair of refrigerated pillow chocolates (refrigerated, so they don't melt inside your ear when you, not expecting such confectionary, wind up sleeping on them) and, when they hear the commode flush (the sign to, as Los Lonely Boys sing in their only hit "Heaven,"  vamonos, but picture that command in the Bahasa-Indonesia language, something like "ayo pergi, orang gila"), exit the stateroom stage left (or stage right whatever the case might be) and sprint back to the ready room where the next designated team is already in the starting blocks, awaiting their turn.

 

Now you know! It's a thing of beauty, I tell ya! 

and maybe you owe me the Wang Wang for supporting your first hand Security Secrets!😁

[CruiseMGM]

Thank you so much for the LIVE FROM blog! We're sailing mid-August and are anxiously reading each word!

 

I'm not sure you can answer this or not (or if it's even a "thing" to worry about) but I seem to be obsessing over the fact that we have early dining set up, but we'll only be in the MDR on 2 nights (we'll have 3 nights specialty dining and 2 nights [Juneau and ISP] off-ship). Should we relinquish our early dining and make reservations for the 2 nights we'll be in the MDR, or just talk to the Maitre 'd when we board and let him know?

 

Thank you very much, happy sailing!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

8 hours ago, julia said:

Lisa:  Please refresh my memory on the $ limit on the Signature Bev Package and the cost to upgrade onboard?  Thx!

The cost is $5.00 per person per day and with the added gratuity they charge $39.00 for 7 day cruise.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

7 hours ago, Crew News said:

I noticed that Alaska early dining has moved up from 5:30 PM in 2019 to 5:00 PM now in 2021. 

Actually Early Dining is 5:30 for this cruise. Previous cruises prior to the pause for Alaska had been 5:00 or sometimes 5:15. Which I thought was too early when the shows were at 8 and 10. But now the moved up the shows and have pushed back early dining which made it impatient go to the Captain’s Toast at 6:45 since we had not even finished our main course. They want early dining people to go to the late show.

Late Dining is at 8:00 pm

[LAFFNVEGAS]

24 minutes ago, CruiseMGM said:

Thank you so much for the LIVE FROM blog! We're sailing mid-August and are anxiously reading each word!

 

I'm not sure you can answer this or not (or if it's even a "thing" to worry about) but I seem to be obsessing over the fact that we have early dining set up, but we'll only be in the MDR on 2 nights (we'll have 3 nights specialty dining and 2 nights [Juneau and ISP] off-ship). Should we relinquish our early dining and make reservations for the 2 nights we'll be in the MDR, or just talk to the Maitre 'd when we board and let him know?

 

Thank you very much, happy sailing!

When you get on board I would just let the Dining Room Manager know, they may use your table for open even though it’s on deck 3. I think you will be fine. Our next cruise in September we did do open because of your same reasons but we are traveling with friends so a larger table. 

[zgscl]

3 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

When you get on board I would just let the Dining Room Manager know, they may use your table for open even though it’s on deck 3. I think you will be fine. Our next cruise in September we did do open because of your same reasons but we are traveling with friends so a larger table. 

Does it still seem like fixed seating doesn’t have an assigned waiter? We always did fixed since we felt there was much better service with the same waiter/asst waiter and enjoyed getting to know them, but if it’s just a bunch of servers in a section still there wouldn’t be much point. 
 

[atexsix]

8 hours ago, oakridger said:

I see the poor towel animals are still "blind". (No eyes)  For some reason the eyeless animals make me sad.  I don't really understand the reason behind not letting them have paper eyes.  Oh well......

 

I love all the Tamarind pictures!

 

`Nancy

On our last sailing our steward used the pillow chocolates for eyes on some of the animals, he did something else for the monkey but I don't remember.  The steward put on a pair of sunglasses I had laying there for the walrus which was hysterical.  But all our animals definitely had vision.

 

Just found this in my album, monkey had these too:

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2021 by atexsix

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Good morning from Glacier Bay National Park Alaska on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. 
About 6:30 we slowed way down and I assumed we were picking up the Park Rangers to come on board. At 7 they are up in the Explorations Cafe aka Crow’s Nest.

we have an beautiful sunny clear morning here at Glacier Bay, it should be amazing viewing this morning at all three Glaciers. 
We finish the viewing at around 12:30 and we have lunch reservations in Pinnacle at 12:45, then the ship heads to Icey Strait Point for 6:00 arrival. We will be getting off the ship for a Evening Whale Watch. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

9 minutes ago, zgscl said:

Does it still seem like fixed seating doesn’t have an assigned waiter? We always did fixed since we felt there was much better service with the same waiter/asst waiter and enjoyed getting to know them, but if it’s just a bunch of servers in a section still there wouldn’t be much point. 
 

No we definitely have a assigned server, it’s just there are other servers  guessing assistant servers also there. At least for our table in Early Dining it’s confusing who really is assigned to our table. They all have the same uniform, I think that is what makes it harder to distinguish.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

4 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Good morning from Glacier Bay National Park Alaska on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. 
About 6:30 we slowed way down and I assumed we were picking up the Park Rangers to come on board. At 7 they are up in the Explorations Cafe aka Crow’s Nest.

we have an beautiful sunny clear morning here at Glacier Bay, it should be amazing viewing this morning at all three Glaciers. 
We finish the viewing at around 12:30 and we have lunch reservations in Pinnacle at 12:45, then the ship heads to Icey Strait Point for 6:00 arrival. We will be getting off the ship for a Evening Whale Watch. 

Nice pic.

[atexsix]

5 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Good morning from Glacier Bay National Park Alaska on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. 
About 6:30 we slowed way down and I assumed we were picking up the Park Rangers to come on board. At 7 they are up in the Explorations Cafe aka Crow’s Nest.

we have an beautiful sunny clear morning here at Glacier Bay, it should be amazing viewing this morning at all three Glaciers. 
We finish the viewing at around 12:30 and we have lunch reservations in Pinnacle at 12:45, then the ship heads to Icey Strait Point for 6:00 arrival. We will be getting off the ship for a Evening Whale Watch. 

A rare sunny day in GB, you lucked out big time!

[DaveOKC]

53 minutes ago, CruiseMGM said:

Thank you so much for the LIVE FROM blog! We're sailing mid-August and are anxiously reading each word!

 

I'm not sure you can answer this or not (or if it's even a "thing" to worry about) but I seem to be obsessing over the fact that we have early dining set up, but we'll only be in the MDR on 2 nights (we'll have 3 nights specialty dining and 2 nights [Juneau and ISP] off-ship). Should we relinquish our early dining and make reservations for the 2 nights we'll be in the MDR, or just talk to the Maitre 'd when we board and let him know?

 

Thank you very much, happy sailing!

While not required, I would change my Early dining to Open, so that those who want Early Fixed can get your spot.  Very often Early gets filled prior to sailing.  Plus its respectful for the others at your table IMO.

 

[atexsix]

7 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

While not required, I would change my Early dining to Open, so that those who want Early Fixed can get your spot.  Very often Early gets filled prior to sailing.  Plus its respectful for the others at your table IMO.

 

I second this.  Someone out there that booked late will be bummed out they are stuck with open dining, it'll make their day.

[puppycanducruise]

Looks like a beautiful day.  Enjoy.

[zgscl]

26 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

No we definitely have a assigned server, it’s just there are other servers  guessing assistant servers also there. At least for our table in Early Dining it’s confusing who really is assigned to our table. They all have the same uniform, I think that is what makes it harder to distinguish.

Thank you! That is definitely reassuring. 

[Crew News]

6 hours ago, PSR said:

 

I didn't notice that posting. Did you see what time the main dining begins?

I saw the 5:00 PM MDR opening time on a When & Where photo in this thread and compared it to my MDR Alaska opening time from 2019.  Someone on this cruise will have to provide that answer.

[highland cruiser]

Wonderful you are having great weather.  Hope you see a lot whales this evening.  Enjoying your pictures.  Thanks again for posting. 

[aliaschief]

Your definitely having beautiful weather. Hope we will experience the same.

[kazu]

23 minutes ago, Crew News said:

I saw the 5:00 PM MDR opening time on a When & Where photo in this thread and compared it to my MDR Alaska opening time from 2019.  Someone on this cruise will have to provide that answer.

 

Lisa did - she stated early dining was at 5:30.  The MDR may be open at 5 pm for open dining. 

[StephMB]

On 7/26/2021 at 3:56 AM, CruiserBruce said:

There are people complaining about several things, not just the wine packages. I say roll with the issues of the first cruise back in 16 months. Sounds like there is a new serving system for meals. Its not going to be perfect. I say, on the 4/5 star reception, check with the front desk and see what is happening. 

 

If you hadn't done something...particularly a team event... in 16 months would you be perfect?

Great points. I’m on this cruise. My server knew they had wine packages. I always get the wine package, but this cruise we did the “have it all” and have the drink package. A lot of people have it, which is why they aren’t pushing the wine packages like usual. I’m confused as to where all the confusion is as to why people don’t think there is a wine package. They have a menu like they always do.