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LAFFNVEGAS Alaska Bound...Live September 3, 2023 HAL Westerdam

LAFFNVEGAS

By LAFFNVEGAS,
in Holland America Line

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

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LauraS
This post was recognized by LauraS!

"And another from LAFFNVEGAS! Thank you for generously sharing your time at sea with everyone at Cruise Critic! Please consider submitting it to the site for publication as well: Click: Write a Review"

LAFFNVEGAS was awarded the badge '"Live from...."' and 5 points.

Greetings on this Saturday September 2nd. We did not have to get up drastically early since our flight to SEA is at 11:00 am but it is also a Holiday weekend so we have to leave the house by 7:45 to get a 3 hour head start for the possible crowds. Fortunately we have Lounge access so can relax a bit before we board our flight.
For those that do not know me we are Lisa and Tom and we are long time HAL cruisers. We are less than 30 points to our 5 Star and after this cruise we are just 2 nights away from 300 days. Our last several HAL cruises were Rotterdam July 2022, 4 times on Nieuw Amsterdam and once Eurodam, then Feb 2018 we were last on the Vista Class, the Oosterdam. We have always loved the Vista Class specifically the corner aft on deck 5, we will be in the same stateroom as we were on the Oosterdam in 2018.
 
We are arriving a day early in Seattle because, well it is just the safer thing to do. There was a time we would fly to Seattle the same day as the cruise but in this day of travel I just do not trust it any longer. This will be our 16th time sailing to Alaska, our 14th time with Holland America.
 
We did 2 Alaska cruises with HAL in 2021 the first being the very first sailing to restart after covid.  We are looking forward to see what changes and new things have been added.
 
Hopefully the internet will be some what good so I can keep you up to date on our daily activity. 
 
My reviews tend to be almost a daily diary, some times funny, some times boring but hope you feel like you are tagging along with us. Although don't expect us to be super active and going on lots of excursions lol With coming into 16 Alaska cruises we tend to be a bit more low key and truthfully for us the ship and scenery from the ship is our destination 😃
 
Thanks for following!! 
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TAW1963 Great Review Rare

TAW1963

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19 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:
Greetings on this Saturday September 2nd. We did not have to get up drastically early since our flight to SEA is at 11:00 am but it is also a Holiday weekend so we have to leave the house by 7:45 to get a 3 hour head start for the possible crowds. Fortunately we have Lounge access so can relax a bit before we board our flight.
For those that do not know me we are Lisa and Tom and we are long time HAL cruisers. We are less than 30 points to our 5 Star and after this cruise we are just 2 nights away from 300 days. Our last several HAL cruises were Rotterdam July 2022, 4 times on Nieuw Amsterdam and once Eurodam, then Feb 2018 we were last on the Vista Class, the Oosterdam. We have always loved the Vista Class specifically the corner aft on deck 5, we will be in the same stateroom as we were on the Oosterdam in 2018.
 
We are arriving a day early in Seattle because, well it is just the safer thing to do. There was a time we would fly to Seattle the same day as the cruise but in this day of travel I just do not trust it any longer. This will be our 16th time sailing to Alaska, our 14th time with Holland America.
 
We did 2 Alaska cruises with HAL in 2021 the first being the very first sailing to restart after covid.  We are looking forward to see what changes and new things have been added.
 
Hopefully the internet will be some what good so I can keep you up to date on our daily activity. 
 
My reviews tend to be almost a daily diary, some times funny, some times boring but hope you feel like you are tagging along with us. Although don't expect us to be super active and going on lots of excursions lol With coming into 16 Alaska cruises we tend to be a bit more low key and truthfully for us the ship and scenery from the ship is our destination 😃
 
Thanks for following!! 

Happy Cruising!  I am looking forward to hearing about your cruise and seeing pictures from that fabulous deck 5, corner-aft, Neptune suite.  In my opinion it doesn't get any better than that extra-large corner-aft suite for Alaska.  

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kazu "Live from...." Rare

kazu

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Safe & smooth travels Tom & Lisa 🙂 

 

Bon Voyage!  Hope you have a wonderful time.

 

Thank you for taking the time & $$$ to do your LIVE thread.  It is so appreciated and I look forward to following along.

 

 

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Haljo1935 "Live from...." Rare

Haljo1935

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Thanks for allowing us to tag along. AK is beautiful  - can never get enough. 🐳We go each May and Sept to start and end the season; appreciate an extra "virtual" trip.

Aft wrap is THE place to experience AK; we had one as a gift from HAL on our 1st cruise to AK, which was also our 1st time on HAL.

I look forward to your posts and pix.

Safe travels  - enjoy your cruise!🚢

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Loreto

Loreto

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1 hour ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:
Greetings on this Saturday September 2nd. We did not have to get up drastically early since our flight to SEA is at 11:00 am but it is also a Holiday weekend so we have to leave the house by 7:45 to get a 3 hour head start for the possible crowds. Fortunately we have Lounge access so can relax a bit before we board our flight.
For those that do not know me we are Lisa and Tom and we are long time HAL cruisers. We are less than 30 points to our 5 Star and after this cruise we are just 2 nights away from 300 days. Our last several HAL cruises were Rotterdam July 2022, 4 times on Nieuw Amsterdam and once Eurodam, then Feb 2018 we were last on the Vista Class, the Oosterdam. We have always loved the Vista Class specifically the corner aft on deck 5, we will be in the same stateroom as we were on the Oosterdam in 2018.
 
We are arriving a day early in Seattle because, well it is just the safer thing to do. There was a time we would fly to Seattle the same day as the cruise but in this day of travel I just do not trust it any longer. This will be our 16th time sailing to Alaska, our 14th time with Holland America.
 
We did 2 Alaska cruises with HAL in 2021 the first being the very first sailing to restart after covid.  We are looking forward to see what changes and new things have been added.
 
Hopefully the internet will be some what good so I can keep you up to date on our daily activity. 
 
My reviews tend to be almost a daily diary, some times funny, some times boring but hope you feel like you are tagging along with us. Although don't expect us to be super active and going on lots of excursions lol With coming into 16 Alaska cruises we tend to be a bit more low key and truthfully for us the ship and scenery from the ship is our destination 😃
 
Thanks for following!! 

Hi Lisa!

we are at the Seattle Hilton with HAL waiting to transfer to the cruise pier to the Eurodam. It is sunny/cool in Seattle right now.

we arrived at SEA at 1pm yesterday and the airport was very busy an baggage claim a mess. hAL now has a desk for prpaid shuttles.  The royal carribean greeter told me about it or I would not have known.

have a great cruise!

Karen

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

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Greetings from Harry Reid International Airport. Shockingly no line for Delta But we had Sky Priority so super easy. We also have TSA precheck but again really no line to speak of. I almost would not have guessed it was a holiday weekend.

We are in The Club LAS Lounge, we were last here in February they have changed it a bit you now order food from an app that is complimentary and delivered to you table. Very small servings, Sadly Tom was not impressed he said the pancakes were rubbery and cold, my boiled egg was well a cold boiled egg that stays in line with my low carb high protein diet.

Hoping The Club SEA Lounge will be better. When we were here last time we thought it was pretty good. He just now left the lounge to go out and bring in Burger King 😂

I can wait, we should have a snack on the plane.

 

Our flight time today is 2 hours and 39 minutes. 
we are staying at the Seattle Downtown Sheraton through HAL. So they will provide transportation to the hotel. We stayed there both times in 2021 and liked it. 
 

Tom just returned we remembered a Burger King near this gate area but it was no longer there and what places were available had super long lines so he just came.

 

Signing off for now.

image.jpg

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

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21 minutes ago, Loreto said:

Hi Lisa!

we are at the Seattle Hilton with HAL waiting to transfer to the cruise pier to the Eurodam. It is sunny/cool in Seattle right now.

we arrived at SEA at 1pm yesterday and the airport was very busy an baggage claim a mess. hAL now has a desk for prpaid shuttles.  The royal carribean greeter told me about it or I would not have known.

have a great cruise!

Karen

Thanks Karen!!! Have a great cruise!!😃

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Haljo1935 "Live from...." Rare

Haljo1935

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Thanks for bringing us along. Was on Eurodam for my last trip to AK (April May this year) and of course enjoyed it thoroughly. Will be on Westerdam next April May for my 1st TP - Yokohama to Seattle followed by a week in AK. So I'm very interested in your insights on the ship.

Safe travels  - enjoy your cruise!

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dchip

dchip

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Hi Lisa!!

Thanks for doing a live. Love your threads. Still have the photo of us with the banner leaving San Diego in 2007. It was only my third HAL cruise. I’m now 10 points away from 5* and will mark 300 days at sea on our next cruise. Amazing how that happens!!

Bon Voyage, Denise

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