LIVE (hopefully) from the Nieuw Amsterdam's 2nd Alsakan Sailing

[Florida_gal_50]

4 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

On smaller ships all is ten times more organized..

That has not been my experience.  Organization is not Hal’s strong suit in my experience on the ships I’ve been on.  Theoretically it’s all the same people that work for hal.  I don’t think they bring on special people to work on smaller ships.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Florida_gal_50

[zelker]

3 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

On smaller ships all is ten times more organized..

Not looking to argue but we've seen this same thing happen on a Seabourn ship with 400 people onboard.  

[Sir PMP]

8 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That has not been my experience.  Organization is not Hal’s strong suit in my experience on the ships I’ve been on.  Theoretically it’s all the same people that work for hal.  I don’t think they bring on special people to work on smaller ships.

I've never seen it happen on the Prinsendam, Ms Amsterdam and Ms Rotterdam, but I have only done 1400 days on Hal, maybe I have missed something..

[Cruising-along]

2 hours ago, St. Louis Sal said:

I hated this even pre-Covid, being packed in a line on the staircases. Yuck. Always glad I wasn’t claustrophobic, but even so, I never felt comfortable. 
 

St Louis Sal

And some people in the photos aren't wearing masks. 😞  

[SharonN]

32 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

I've never seen it happen on the Prinsendam, Ms Amsterdam and Ms Rotterdam, but I have only done 1400 days on Hal, maybe I have missed something..

I've had it happen even on smaller ships. The worst time was on the Amsterdam in Victoria. If was so bad that we don't get off the ship there anymore.  Every time I've seen it is when they have the excursions meet on shore instead of sending them out in groups from the lounge. Especially if it's a later port with a shorter amount of time there. In some cases I heard it's because the Port requires them have the tours meet on shore. 

[CruiseMGM]

11 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

<snip>

Here is what it looked like getting off the ship in ISP.

 

 

 

Yuck. Something to NOT look forward to. But (except for these, LOL!) beautiful pix and thank you SO much for taking us along on your trip.

 

The ISP disembark bring up a question for me......were you early into ISP or on-time at 6pm? I ask because we have a private tour set up and are supposed to meet them at the Excursion Hub at 6:15.

Thank you, and smooth sailing!

[USN59-79]

37 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

I've never seen it happen on the Prinsendam, Ms Amsterdam and Ms Rotterdam, but I have only done 1400 days on Hal, maybe I have missed something..

I think you are right and they did have special people on those ships.  

[Himself]

6 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

You're talking about Lady Baltimore! She was shot by a #$%&%& poacher on Douglas Island in 2006 which ultimately caused her blindness in her left eye. They built a new mew for her atop Mount Roberts in 2019, replacing the old one, but there were some issues with permits and having her live in there during the summer. Unable to find recent info. When not at Mount Roberts she lives at the Juneau Raptor Center

 

 

 

Old

 

 

New

I have seen her several times.

[Himself]

13 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

Yes rangers were onboard.  The when and where said there would be Pea Soup, but we spent all day on our balcony so not sure if it was actually served.

It was probably served in the Crows nest and in the bow and promenade deck

[canadianbear]

8 minutes ago, Himself said:

I have seen her several times.

Us too but not for several years.   I decided to message my cousin who lives in Juneau and ask her if she knows of updates.  

[liam1965]

 Rainy Sitka morning…

[liam1965]

That’s not a complaint however, we’ve had beautiful days in the places where I really wanted to have beautiful days, so I’ll take it!

[liam1965]

3 hours ago, Tridentnyc said:

Has anyone had any experience with the “Premium” internet package? Wondering if it makes sense given how spotty the onboard internet seems to be, wonder if the faster speeds would ever be realized. Also, I assume the “Social” (cheapest) package works just fine for email, although it seems HAL wants us to upgrade at least to the “Surf” package for email. We don’t have the “Have It All Package” as it really didn’t make sense for us. Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My wife paid for it, hoping she could participate in a meeting that she was supposed to have this week. It was no more reliable nor any faster than the regular Internet.

[liam1965]

11 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

Got off and walked around ISP a little bit, bought a few souvenirs and headed back to a ship. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening!

 

My wife and I did the whale watching in ISP.  
It was totally worth it! We found a pod doing bubble feeding, which is an unusual behavior to see, and then on our way back to port we stop for a few moments because we saw a couple of orcas go by, which is also fairly unusual.It was totally worth it! We found a pod doing bubble feeding, which is an unusual behavior to see, and then on our way back to port we stop for a few moments because we saw a couple of orcas go by, which is also fairly unusual.

 

I only took videos, no pictures, so nothing to share here.

[zelker]

8 minutes ago, liam1965 said:

 Rainy Sitka morning…

Too bad ... that sail-in is magnificent when it's clear.  Hope it clears off for you and you'll be able to see it when you leave.  Either way, enjoy Sitka!  Our most favorite port in Alaska!!

 

[liam1965]

14 hours ago, Brentt_M said:

Almost to ISP...

That’s really funny, I got a picture of the same rainbow at the other end.That’s really funny, I got a picture of the same rainbow at the other end.

[liam1965]

13 hours ago, sfocruiser said:

Thanks for the update appreciate it.  We are on the Rotterdam TA (hopefully) so am tracking how HAL protocols work

 

We went on Viking to Iceland and had no cases but other sailings have experienced a few.    Think cases are going to happen it more how the ship handles it afterwards

The two pieces of circumstantial evidence that I referred to far the sudden change in masks from the cloth ones to the N 95, and the CDC website moving the ship to the yellow category, which is supposed to be in cases on board and he’s been monitored.

 

there has been zero communication. I find it interesting comparing and contrasting the protocols on this shipment versus on the crystal serenity that I was on two weeks ago. There, we had to take a rapid antigen test before boarding, we were given another the day before we returned so that we could get back into the US, and our temperatures were taken every time we went to a meal. And also every time we got off the ship.

 

Here, there was a health attestation, and there’s a reminder every time we pull into port that we need to wear masks while off the ship, and as far as I can tell that’s the limit of the Covid protocols. I’m slightly fibbing, of course they’re doing a whole lot of sanitizing of things overnight and such, but I’m not at all surprised there are cases on board. The truth is in a population is large I would have been shocked if there were none.

[liam1965]

I will edit the previous post when I get a chance to, right now I’m posting with voice to text, so my apologies for the shape it’s in.

[Brentt_M]

1 hour ago, CruiseMGM said:

 

Yuck. Something to NOT look forward to. But (except for these, LOL!) beautiful pix and thank you SO much for taking us along on your trip.

 

The ISP disembark bring up a question for me......were you early into ISP or on-time at 6pm? I ask because we have a private tour set up and are supposed to meet them at the Excursion Hub at 6:15.

Thank you, and smooth sailing!

We were on time arriving but delayed being allowed off the ship some what do to gangway positioning issues. Eventually the also ended up letting us off both forward and midship and that helped thr congestion big time.

[Brentt_M]

We have no formal plans today in Sitka today.  They kiddos are sleeping in a bit and then we will get around and do some exploring on our own and grab lunch in town and do a bit of shopping.  If anyone has some lunch suggestions we would be open to considering any of them.  

[SFO Peter]

o.k. can't bear it any longer.   ISP stands for what port?   Unable to find it searching Internet.

And thanks!

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by SFO PETER

[Brentt_M]

35 minutes ago, liam1965 said:

My wife paid for it, hoping she could participate in a meeting that she was supposed to have this week. It was no more reliable nor any faster than the regular Internet.

After the 1st day I paid $30 to upgrade to the premium plan. It may be slightly better than what I had standard with the Have It All promotion but not much and I absolutely would not count on being able to use it to do videon streaming at all.  I was able to sit in on the audio side only of a meeting that 2nd day right after I upgraded, but really since thay point in time the quality has dropped significantly.  It has been better than Lisa reported during the 1st sailing as it has only been completely unavailable a few times, but I have had to be extremely patient with it most of the time.

[Brentt_M]

1 minute ago, SFO PETER said:

o.k. can't bear it any longer.   ISP stands for what port?   Unable to find it searching Internet.

And thanks!

 

Icy Strait Point.  I Bet you got a lot of Internet Service Providers doing your searching. Sorry about that.

[NextOne]

3 minutes ago, SFO PETER said:

o.k. can't stand it any longer.   ISP stands for what port?   Unable to find it searching Internet.

And thanks!

 

Icy Strait Point

[SFO Peter]

3 minutes ago, Brentt_M said:

Icy Strait Point.  I Bet you got a lot of Internet Service Providers doing your searching. Sorry about that.

===

thank you very much.   Enjoying your posts.

Peter