LIVE - Legendary Alaska - 28 days with The Inside Cabin - Westerdam

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Here is the gangway at 7pm. Low tide.   Now almost level and going to deck 3.   In the morning it was steep going to deck 2

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Here was last night's menu on the ship - we stayed in Anchorage and had dinner at Humpy's

 

This was Halibut fish and "chips"  - I substituted steamed vegetables for the chips.  These have a terrific light coating.  Delicious.   

 

Below is the menu for last night on the ship 

 

Anchorage day 2 starts soon.   We leave at 6 PM

 

I posted these before - but repeating so you can see them on the same page - high and lowtide gangway

7 PM

 

11 AM

 

 

Edited Thursday at 03:14 PM by The-Inside-Cabin

[scubacruiserx2]

 Thank you for sharing your trip live with your great thread . I'm trying to do my first live and I would appreciate your help if possible . It looks like you use a DSLR as I do . How do you upload the photos or do you use a smart phone ? Thank you .

[The-Inside-Cabin]

4 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 Thank you for sharing your trip live with your great thread . I'm trying to do my first live and I would appreciate your help if possible . It looks like you use a DSLR as I do . How do you upload the photos or do you use a smart phone ? Thank you .

Thanks!

 

Send me an email - connect@theinsidecabin.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Orange party tonight. 
 

Here's the menu 

 

 

We are going to the seafood boil tonight in the Lido 

 

ready to go ashore in Homer 

 

 

our tender location 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:57 PM by The-Inside-Cabin

[The-Inside-Cabin]

19 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 Thank you for sharing your trip live with your great thread . I'm trying to do my first live and I would appreciate your help if possible . It looks like you use a DSLR as I do . How do you upload the photos or do you use a smart phone ? Thank you .

I use an iPhone 15 for many shots. iPhones are great except for darker rooms, theatre, and long-range wildlife. iPhones are amazing cameras, and many people use them for everything with terrific results. I always use my phone instead of bringing my wide-angle lens for the Sony A6600. I now only use my DSLR for telephoto and theatre shots or if I need a bigger flash.

 

I used the Sony RX100 VII for most other stuff.  

 

It's easy to upload iPhone photos from your phone to cruise critic.  Sometimes you have to make the images smaller so they don't upload looking black.    

 

I will often copy my longer posts from my blog where I use Adobe Lightroom to tweak the photos and make them smaller.  

[scubacruiserx2]

2 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

I use an iPhone 15 for many shots. iPhones are great except for darker rooms, theatre, and long-range wildlife. iPhones are amazing cameras, and many people use them for everything with terrific results. I always use my phone instead of bringing my wide-angle lens for the Sony A6600. I now only use my DSLR for telephoto and theatre shots or if I need a bigger flash.

 

I used the Sony RX100 VII for most other stuff.  

 

It's easy to upload iPhone photos from your phone to cruise critic.  Sometimes you have to make the images smaller so they don't upload looking black.    

 

I will often copy my longer posts from my blog where I use Adobe Lightroom to tweak the photos and make them smaller.  

 

   Thank you ! I also have a Sony RX 100 and a couple of Canons . We did get an older iPhone which we will use in Europe but I've never taken a photo with it . It seems like the smart phone is smarter than I am . 🙂

Best wishes and the rest of your cruises . And thank you for the information on Spartina 449 , we did get 2 beach towels from them . 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

29 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

   Thank you ! I also have a Sony RX 100 and a couple of Canons . We did get an older iPhone which we will use in Europe but I've never taken a photo with it . It seems like the smart phone is smarter than I am . 🙂

Best wishes and the rest of your cruises . And thank you for the information on Spartina 449 , we did get 2 beach towels from them . 

Cruise critic has a test forum where you can practice uploading etc.   Good place to get used to the site. 

[Sea42]

46 minutes ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Cruise critic has a test forum where you can practice uploading etc.   Good place to get used to the site. 

Thank you, I didn't know that!

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, Sea42 said:

Thank you, I didn't know that!

 

  Ditto ! I've been doing photo review threads for more than 15 years and have never noticed that . Thank you for sharing ! Sometimes old dogs can learn ..

Edited Friday at 11:16 PM by scubacruiserx2

[Btimmer]

Re: the seafood boil, we've done a number of them and have found that for us, one pot is enough for the two of us.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

6 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

  Ditto ! I've been doing photo review threads for more than 15 years and have never noticed that . Thank you for sharing ! Sometimes old dogs can learn ..

Yes, it's a good place to iron out cut-and-paste issues. Some word processors get funky going to Cruise Critic, while others don't. It's a nice sandbox.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

15 hours ago, Btimmer said:

Re: the seafood boil, we've done a number of them and have found that for us, one pot is enough for the two of us.

Good Seafood Boil - But I agree - one pot for two people would be plenty!

 

Tables covered with paper

 

Bibs on - ready to go!

 

 

Close-up of the pot!

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 04:45 PM by The-Inside-Cabin

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Orange Party!

 

Great turnout - Dance floor packed!  Rolling stone lounge overflowing!

 

"Jason" Voorhees

 

 

Great Band

 

Edited Saturday at 04:49 PM by The-Inside-Cabin

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Tonight's menu

 

Another Salmon Bowl!

 

 

 

 

[SilvertoGold]

Pet: Great thread, really enjoying your posts: commentary and photos are a treat.  I read on John and Sharons' Blog that his friend picks up the USA Today (print!) from the Front Desk/Guest Services.

Would you be able to find out if this is only for this particular cruise or fleet-wide?   Would love to see print news again :)  Thanks and keep enjoying your cruise! 

Edited Sunday at 01:48 PM by SilvertoGold

[WriterOnDeck]

1 hour ago, SilvertoGold said:

Pet: Great thread, really enjoying your posts: commentary and photos are a treat.  I read on John and Sharons' Blog that his friend picks up the USA Today (print!) from the Front Desk/Guest Services.

Would you be able to find out if this is only for this particular cruise or fleet-wide?   Would love to see print news again 🙂 Thanks and keep enjoying your cruise! 

It's not the real USA Today, but called USA News -- similar to NY Times of the past. We had it on the grand world but I haven't seen it on this Legendary Alaska cruise.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

7 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

Pet: Great thread, really enjoying your posts: commentary and photos are a treat.  I read on John and Sharons' Blog that his friend picks up the USA Today (print!) from the Front Desk/Guest Services.

Would you be able to find out if this is only for this particular cruise or fleet-wide?   Would love to see print news again 🙂 Thanks and keep enjoying your cruise! 

They put out 3 papers a day by Guest Services - USA, Canada, and the Netherlands.   They said they do this on all cruises over 28 days.   Not sure if that's the same as Grands and Lengendarys

 

You can see the newsstand off to the left

 

 

 

 

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Enjoying Glacier Bay

 

Park Service rangers coming aboard around 7:30 

 

 

Park Service Rangers in the Crow's Nest

 

 

Today's Schedule

 

 

Crow's Nest Crowd

 

Margerie Glacier

 

 

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

NOME – BERRY FESTIVAL

JUNE 21, 2024

Click "Show More Posts" to show all the links to the other posts for the 2024 Legendary Alaska

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We take a leisurely walk around this small, friendly town and visit the Berry Festival

AT ANCHOR, NOME

We arrived off the coast of Nome last night, although it never really got dark this far north.

Westerdam at anchor off the coast of Nome

 

Our visit to Nome was a big deal for the town. They moved their annual Berry Festival from August to today to allow us to enjoy the festivities. HERE is the local paper’s “Nome Nugget” article about our visit after we left. The local radio station KNOM covered our visit LIVE, and HERE is a link to their reporting afterward.

HERE is a pdf with the HAL excursions for Nome during our visit. While this may not be offered during your visit, they will give you an idea of what was available during our visit. The tour “A Walk through Nome’s History” received rave reviews from people I spoke with afterward.

Nome fun facts:

This is the end of the Iditarod Sled Race, which takes place every March. The race starts in Anchorage and travels about 1,000 miles to Nome.

The Iron Dog Snowmobile Race: In February, the world’s longest snowmobile race travels nearly 2,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome through Fairbanks.

No roads connect the city with the rest of the state, and the only ways in and out are by air, sled dog, boat, or snow machine.

The World’s Largest Gold Pan: The town boasts the world’s largest gold pan in Anvil City Square. This may be the world’s largest WOODEN Gold Pan – I read that there is a larger metal Gold Pan in British Columbia.

Alaska’s oldest newspaper, The Nome Nugget, is the oldest newspaper in the state! The paper began publishing in 1900 and has been operating continuously ever since.

Bering Sea Ice Classic: This six-hole tournament played on the ice during Iditarod week, featuring green golf balls. More HERE

 

GOING ASHORE

Tenders started running at 8 am. Today’s plan was to walk around the town, visit the one yarn shop, and go to the Berry Festival. This wouldn’t take more than a few hours so we relaxed in our cabin until 11 am when we headed to the Rolling Stone lounge to get a tender ticket.

We waited 40 minutes until our tender number was called and we left the ship on a tender at 11:55 am — 45 minutes after we arrived in the Rolling Stone Lounge. Tendering wait times on this cruise have been very unpredictable. If you are planning an independent excursion in Alaska, plan for an hour wait after arrival before you can get a tender.

ARRIVAL NOME

The tender ride took about 20 minutes. We arrived at a tender pier about 1/2 mile from town center. Representatives from the Visitor’s Bureau met us at the top of the gangway leading from the tender pier and gave us a local map.

Gangway to shore from the tender pier.

 

The town provided large, 11-15 passenger vans that would shuttle guests to the downtown Visitors Center and then follow a loop back to the tender landing, stopping at a few local spots, including the Nome Recreation Center, where the Berry Festival was being held.

Complimentary Shuttle Van

 

Shuttles weren’t on a schedule but ran about every 15 minutes.

We decided to walk into town rather than wait for the next shuttle.

ANVIL SQUARE

About 1/4 mile from the tender landing, you will arrive at Anvil City Square, where you will find Old St Joes and the World’s Largest Gold Pan.

Alaska State Troopers enjoyed being stationed in Nome.

 

Old St Joes used to be church but it is now an event center. It may be open if you want to poke your head inside but it doesn’t offer regular hours or tours. More HERE 

You can’t miss the World’s Largest Gold Pan. This is a mandatory photo stop! I read that there is a larger metal gold pan in Quesnel, BC so I think that Nome’s is the largest “wooden” gold pan.

One of the three lucky Swedes who discovered Gold nearby and kicked off the Gold Rush in the winter of 1900. You will find them in Anvil Square next to the large Gold Pan

 

Hanson’s Trading Company is next to Anvil Square, a combination grocery store and hardware store.

Airport Pizza is nearby and serves much more than pizzas – check ’em out if you want a bite to eat. More HERE

Inside Airport Pizza

 

A block north of Anvil Square is Sew Far North Yarn Shop—more HERE. We stopped here later in the day on our way back to the ship. They don’t have a huge selection of yarn, but they do have a lot of quilt fabric and other crafting supplies.

DOWNTOWN NOME

Most of Nome’s shops and restaurants are on Front Street. Here you will find the Visitor’s Center, a nice gift shop and a few restaurants and bars. There is a sign marking the end of the Iditarod sled dog race.

Nome’s Visitor Center – Don’t miss stopping in here Shauntel Bruner Alvanna is the Director of the Visitor’s center Iditarod Finish

 

In addition to the Berry Festival, which was held in the Nome Recreation Center (1/2 mile away), there was the Midnight Sun Festival held on Front Street, which was aimed at local children. It offered face painting and other activities for kids.

Several groups of young entrepreneurs were selling a variety of sweets and other local crafts to raise money for a trip to Washington DC, a local gymnastic club and the school Biathlon team. Of course we bought something from all of them and enjoyed learning more about their activities and future trips.

Local children from the Gymnastic Team were selling sweets The Local Biathlon Team 8th graders raising money for their trip to Washington DC next May Some of the Front Street Shops Nome’s mini-convention center Polar Cub Cafe has a bar with a pool table and a restaurant in back

 

NOME BERRY FESTIVAL

The Nome Berry Festival celebrates the wide variety of berries in the Nome region. These include wild strawberries, blueberries, and the coveted cloudberries, locally known as “salmonberries”.

Normally held in late August or early September, when the local berries are available, they moved the festival to June 21st this year to line up with our visit on the Westerdam.

After exploring Front Street, we walked to the Nome Recreation Center, where the Berry Festival was being held.

Admission is free. The festival takes place is a multi-purpose gymnasium filled with vendors sitting at tables in the center with others selling food along the sides. A small stage was along one of the long walls where local groups performed throughout the day. We spent about 90 minutes here visiting all the vendors and sitting in the stands to watch one of the local dance troupes.

The Berry Festival took place inside the Rec Center. King Island Dance Group

HEADING BACK TO THE SHIP

We walked back to Anvil Square, which was easy to spot since the Old St Joe’s steeple could be seen from almost anywhere in town.

Sew Far North is right behind the Volunteer Fire Department. We arrived a few minutes before closing, but that was enough time to give it a quick look.

Sew Far North Inside Sew Far North

 

Our final stop was Hanson’s trading company, where we picked up a few snacks before walking back to the tender landing. As we walked down Seppala Drive, one of the town shuttle buses stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. We accepted and rode with them for the last 1/4 mile to the tender landing.

Judy and Pete in front of Anvil Square and Old St Joes

 

WORLD STAGE

Emily Viancourt was the featured performer this evening, returning for her second show. She has a great voice and we enjoyed her show very much. She told us that her boyfriend is a guest entertainer on another cruise ship in Alaska, He made it to Round 4 of The Voice. Here is her set list for the second show:

JUDY GARLAND SONGS
. You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)
. For Me and My Gal
. The Trolley Song (Clang, clang, clang went the trolley)

– Crazy by Patsy Cline
– Get Your Kicks on Route 66! by Nat King Cole
– When Will I Be Loved by Linda Ronstadt
– Blue Bayou .. originally by Roy Orbison, it later became Linda Ronstadt’s signature song
– Baby I’m a Fool by Melody Gardot
– Fever by Peggy Lee
– I Got Rhythm by Judy Garland
Ending with Emily’s favorite song … Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz

Emily Viancourt