Laurie's Visit - Day 15

This can hardly count as the last day of my sister's visit. It was simply too short.  Laurie and Michelle's flight was at 8:10 am. That meant we had to leave the house at around 5:30 in order to for them to have time to check their luggage and go through US customs at YVR. Leaving at that unholy hour required getting up at 4:45. Well, the gals got up even before Jay and I did. 

When Jay and I picked them up two weeks ago, we went by transit and used an Uber XL to get to our apartment. However, today, I drove them. As my Kona is rather small, we knew that we couldn't fit the large suitcases, carry-on sized suitcases, and the backpacks and bags into the car if Jay came along. I pushed down the smaller side of the back seat and we removed the hatchback's cargo cover. So, Jay helped load up the car and said goodbye to our visitors at our downstairs parking spot. 

We got to the airport quickly as rush hour hadn't really started due to the early timing. I dropped them off in front of US departures. It was nice to have the chance to visit with Laurie. We don't do well at making sure to stay in touch unless we meet in person. Being able to take her and her friend on an Alaskan cruise was nice. We should do visits more often. 

You may wonder why I put this picture in today's post. Well, honestly, I didn't even think of removing my phone at the curbside at the Vancouver International Airport.

   

The more important reason for the photo is to publicly remind my sister that she decided to completely stop smoking when visiting. She left a carton's worth of cigarettes with me to give away. 

I started smoking during my first job in Kuwait in the early 80's. I didn't quit until February of 1999. But wow! I realized I've not smoked a cigarette for more than 25 years! That is worth celebrating. 

I want Laurie to be able to say the same thing in 2049.

202 Sea Cruise Nights

In an effort to document our continuously expanding cruise experiences, I continue to update this information.  

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Our Cruise History

Laurie's Visit - Day 13

My sister came off the cruise ship sick. Laurie's been sleeping a lot of the day and coughing and wheezing.  So, we had a low-key day.

Michelle, Jay, and I got on the SkyTrain for a ride to the end of the Expo line.  We walked past Holland Park and went in a T&T Supermarket at Central City.

It was fun for us to watch someone explore the aisles with groceries they may have never seen.  This is an Asian supermarket chain with products from Japan, China, and SE Asia.  Jay went to the cooked food area and picked up three containers with take-away Chinese food.  We'd eat that with some rice he'd cooked at dinner time.

Michelle ordered a bubble tea from a shop nearby.  We walked in a nearby Shopper's Drug Mart.  I bought some Benylin® All-In-One and several boxes of extra Kleenex for my sister.

We walked through the mall and boarded the SkyTrain at the Central City stop.  It takes only around five minutes to get back to the Columbia Station and our apartment.

In the evening, I downloaded a copy of Cocoon (1985) because the girls had talked about it when in our hot tub.  It was a slow day but better for Laurie to get a lot of rest.  We weren't in need of much activity after getting off the ms Koningsdam yesterday.

Laurie's Visit - Day 12

As soon as we switched on the stateroom TV to the aft camera, we could see we were basically home.  The ms Koningsdam had sailed back under the Lion's Gate Bridge at around 6:30 and backed into Canada Place at 7:00 am.  So, when we got up at 7:15 we saw the scene above on our screen.

Because we didn't have a plane to catch, we leisurely got ready to leave.  They expected everybody to get off by 9:30 am, so they can prepare for a whole ship of new guests today.  We ate our last breakfast on the Lido deck and strolled out for a couple of pictures by the back pool.  

Laurie and Michelle went up to the Lido deck with all items removed from their room.  We had only the carry on to collect from the room and met them.  We disembarked at around 9:10.  We picked up the luggage in the terminal and rolled them out to the SkyTrain.  A train to New Westminster was waiting at the Waterfront Station, so we were in the apartment by 10:15.  

What?  There's nobody asking what we'd like for lunch.  No staff will be looking after our every need.  No one will be turning down the bed today with a creative towel animal and Lindor chocolates.  Boy, this real life stuff is tough.

Laurie's Visit - Day 11

Today, we spent the entire day heading south to Canada, or more specifically to Vancouver. Life on a ship this size is varied and there's never an excuse to be bored.  At lunch we saw a second 'Cake Me Away' presentation on the Lido deck.  It was at lunch time and now seems as if it is a new Holland America tradition.

I've been so stuffed this cruise I wasn't much into sampling these deserts.  However, they looked nice and I had a sliver of carrot cake and the Almond Rocha. 

 

The 'Inside Passage' means travelling between islands and the mainland and avoiding the open sea.  Much of our northward journey between the mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island was after dark.  When heading south, however, we got much more of the dramatic scenery.  The only way to see this area is when on a boat as no roads run up along the edge of the coast.

It was our last dinner in the main dining hall and the staff marched through singing a happy Indonesian song about waiting to see us again.  We ate four nights in the formal dining room and it is always a pleasure to try to wonderful dishes and excellent service.

We are going to bed knowing that we will have to be up early tomorrow.  We put out our suitcase in the hall tonight and will pick them up at Vancouver Port tomorrow before 9:30 am.  That's when all the guest must be off the ship.  They need to rush to make everything shipshape for a new set of guests for next week's identical cruise.  The ms Koningsdam will do this weekly run to the Alaskan ports all summer and depart for Hawaii in October.

Laurie's Visit - Day 10

Ketchikan is my personal favourite of the three ports of call on this cruise.  We have visited a number of times and even had a stop in the small town of about 8,000 residents during the month May of this year.  It's the most southern cruise port stop on the Alaskan panhandle. 

I often gauge how much I like a city or town by the degree to which I'd like to enjoy a more extended stay.  This town would be a great place to spend a month or two.  I would most likely have a longer visit in the summer.  Although Ketchikan seldom gets much snow, it does get around 13 feet of annual rain per year.

Jay and I took an early tender to the town as the four terminal spots were full when we arrived.  After a few hours, the ms Koningsdam docked in berth #4 when a Princess ship departed.  Because we are now frequent guests on Holland America, we have priority boarding.  That mean we got on the little lifeboat directly and rode both into and away from town.  It was fairly sunny in the morning.  Folks who waited for the afternoon to leave from the dock had cloudier weather today.

Laurie is not feeling well and has flu symptoms, so the girls didn't get out for long.  Jay and I did the usual walk including Creek Street, the red light district of town in the beginning of the 1900s.  We did note a few early salmon coming into the creek.  A sea lion was waiting to lunch on the ones he caught.  Once during a visit in September, we saw sea otters getting their fill in the very same area.

        

Laurie's Visit - Day 9

GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK & PRESERVE

I put a couple of today's pictures on Facebook with the following caption:

"I feel very fortunate. Many people never have a chance to visit Glacier Bay US National Park. We've been able to learn from visits a number of times."

As we didn't get onboard the ship until 4:30 am, we didn't have a very thorough sleep at all.  Jay woke up automatically at nine o'clock but I slept until nearly eleven.  

Fortunately, even though our ship was late in arriving at the National Park, the rangers altered our visitor timings and we didn't miss a thing.  Actually, the schedule was better because we had the US Forest Service Rangers on the ship but didn't drop them back at the entrance until 7:00 pm.  Generally, the Holland America ships drop those employees at their post at around 3:00 pm.  

Additionally, it's important to mention that only two cruise ships per day are allowed into the 3.3 million-acre parkland.  Smaller vessels require special permission to visit too.  

Cruise ship visits are not new to the area.  In fact, during the 1880s and 90s laid the formation of the tourist industry.  Steamships also brought hordes of geologists to the area and began the scientific tradition of documenting changes to the glaciers there.

As well as the rangers, a member of the Tlingit peoples set up some demonstrations and artifacts in the Crow's Nest inside observation deck.  I like how the US Forest Service and the local people cooperate in keeping the unique wilderness intact.  There was a period running commentary of park facts.  The information broadened the experience of guests both young and old.

Laurie's Visit - Day 8

OUR SPECIAL EXCURSION TO CARCROSS IN THE YUKON TERRITORY

   

Happy Birthday, Dennis! 

The itinerary of today's excursion was to get on a bus and travel from our cruise ship in Skagway, Alaska, through British Columbia, and to the town of Carcross in the Yukon Territory. We were then to board the scenic White Pass Railroad back to Skagway. It follows one of the trails that stampeders used during the Klondike Gold Rush.  

But what was supposed to be a eight-hour tour ended up being much more!

 

Our drive up in the rain and fog was interesting, even though some of the valleys were sort of socked in.  I could not imagine hauling the one-year, ton of goods and provisions, as required by the Canadian authorities, in order to continue to the 1896 gold fields.  The scenery and landscape was dramatic and rugged.

We got on the train after a short stop to look around the town of Carcross, which was a shortening of the name Cariboo Crossing.  It is a sparse Carcross/Tagish First Nation town.  About 300 people live in the town and surrounding area.

 

 

The train cars were nice although a bit cramped.  We were staying along the shore of Bennett Lake.  The staff gave us boxed lunches as we looked out on the wilderness.  After about an hour the train ground to an abrupt stop. The conductor was not pleased with the condition of the track and did not want to proceed. 

So we backed up a half mile to a section of double track and the engine came around to the other end of the cars.  We were pulled back along Lake Bennett to Carcross again. This was our second visit of the day.

 

The tour company rapidly arranged for buses to drive us back along the single highway connecting us to the coast.  Four large buses headed down the Klondike Highway towards Skagway.  We were making pretty good time down through the mountains when we had to brake again! This time, a huge landslide covered the road. Boulders and water were still crashing down from the mountainside as we approached. 

A photo found on the Anchorage Daily News article on July 25, 2024.

So, we had to turn around again and found a pull-off a safe distance away.

 

Our young bus driver was in contact with the excursion company by radio.  We met up with the other three buses and headed back to Carcross.  This was our third time in the Yukon Territory today!  There was no way to travel by rail or road to Skagway.  We were essentially cut off from getting back to our ship.

 

Of course, lots of people were involved in helping to decide our course of action.  First, we thought we might get hotels in Whitehorse and then have to fly to our next port in Ketchikan.  That would have meant missing Glacier Bay National Park, a highlight of an Alaskan cruise for many.  There were really not many options.

It was finally decided that we could drive north towards Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, and then drive westwards on a segment of the Alaskan Highway to Haines Junction in order to head south again. On a map, the distance between Skagway and Haines looks close but we could only travel on roads and not as a crow flies. We were to travel around 470 km (290 miles). Our ship would wait for us off the port at Haines, Alaska and we would eventually tender to our ship which would be waiting for us.

   

Rather than taking all four large buses, we consolidated into just three with twenty Princess cruise passengers joining the hundred or so Holland America guests. It was around 9:10 pm when we pulled away from Carcross. 

It took around an hour to get to the Whitehorse area. The bus company had arranged for people to buy food to deliver to us. The initial stop was a miscommunication but when we were closer to the city of Whitehorse we pulled into a petrol station area and found our food. The company must've ordered from some fast food places and grocery stores in the city. Boxes near our bus had small bags of potato chip, granola bars, cookies and chocolate bars.  There were water bottles and juice boxes.  Some of our bags had sandwiches made by a local Ricky's. Survival instincts made passengers grab and horde but that really wasn't the fault of our tour company. 

Our group continued onwards.  We drove and drove. Daylight was long at this time of year because we were about 61°N latitude. However, finally, by one or two o'clock in the morning, it got pretty dark and was still raining hard. I respected the driving skills of our driver, especially considering the trip was so much longer than originally anticipated. 

The three buses full of tired passengers were waved through the Canadian border post but we had to provide passports as we entered Alaska. I read that special telephone calls had been made in order to have the posts manned as they normally close at 11 pm.  It took a bit of time to process 120 passports, and we did later hear that two were accidently left behind. I haven't a clue as to the outcome of the situation for those folks.  

We were still 40 miles away from our waiting ship.  

At last, we drove through Haines and headed towards the dock.  It was a pleasure to see our ship sitting off shore and the tender boats waiting for us.  They had blankets on the rescue boats as it was nippy and still damp.  The time was then 4:10 am.

Everyone on the ship knew of our impending arrival and Holland America staff opened one restaurant station on the Lido deck for us to have a full meal.  The beer and wine was gratis.  It felt nice to go back to our rooms and the Princess passengers were given accommodations too.  They will have to do Glacier Bay with us and get back on their ship when we meet up in Ketchikan on Thursday.

Finally, we are now ready for a little sleep at 5:30 am!  We are still hearing that we'll be having a normal day at Glacier Bay but that our hours will be shifted to a wee bit later.

Yawn.

Laurie's Visit - Day 7

Alaska's capital is one of the three ports in which we'll spend time on this cruise.  Today, we continued north for the passageway into Juneau.

It's a city we first visited in 2001.  This time, however, my sister and her friend also got a glimpse of the historical downtown and took a trolley bus tour.  Jay and I walked the length of the city and again watched skilled workers filleting fish in the Taku Store of its processing plant.  We didn't take the tram up the mountain today.

The weather was overcast and felt cold compared to the weather we've been experiencing recently.  Today the high was only around 16C but we didn't see any rain.

Laurie's Visit - Day 6

From this morning's first cup of coffee until the towel bear was spotted on our bed in the evening, we were heading north.

There are always hundreds of things happening on a ship of this size and what one does is totally up to one's discretion.  

We made it to a presentation on the main, World Stage.  It was an interesting talk on whales.  It highlighted efforts over the last 50 years that have helped many populations.  However, some of the southern pods of orca along our coast seem to be in decline due to a lack of salmon.  

We have already seen both orcas and humpbacks. 

Our ship passed the tip of Vancouver Island and also passed Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands.  We will continue into Alaskan waters tonight and the ship time will have to fall back one hour to be on Alaska time.  

Tonight was 'dressy' and when we went to dinner in the main dining room, we were a bit dressed up.  The girls always look nice but we had on suits.  Dry cleaning aboard is cheaper than getting it done at home, so we'll be doing that.

Before dinner we hit the Captain's champagne toast at the Main Stage and stayed to watch the Step One Dance Company's production of Humanity.  That has been a staple of Holland American Cruises since before COVID.  So, we've seen a number of its productions.  The theatre in the Koningsdam is modern and so tonight's was an enjoyable viewing experience. I guess next year HAL, will finally roll out some new shows so that repeat guests will have a chance to see some new shows, finally!

Jay and I went to snack at the 10:30 dining.  We had our chamomile tea, tea and fruits.  Oh, I had a piece of Boston Cream Pie.  It was a full day, especially if one counts the little afternoon nap time.

Laurie's Visit - Day 5

 

We got up today with a goal of leaving the house by 10:30 am and we were successfully on the SkyTrain before the deadline. We wanted to check-in on the ms Koningsdam with plenty of time to enjoy our lunch aboard. Again, we met that goal with flying colours.

Ships differ and we had to walk and re-acquaint ourselves with the location of the various facilities.

 

Sail-away was at around 4:45 pm or fourty-five minutes after the scheduled departure.  I think some passengers were late because of yesterday's world-wide computer meltdown.  If one buys HAL air tickets, customers gain a guaranteed departure.  Leaving a little late didn't affect the gorgeous, July skies as we left the harbour and sailed under the Lion's Gate Bridge.

I'm encouraging my sister and Michelle to learn about the ship by exploring. (They bought drink and spa packages, so I know it's working!) We're going to meet up at 8:00 pm for dinner in the main dining hall.  We booked to have reoccurring reservations rather than the open seating  

They're on vacation and we're retired.  There is no goal of this trip other than enjoyment.