Summary and Comments on Holland American Alaska Cruise

Holland America Route

Alaska Cruise 8/23 - 9/6 10

Ms Amsterdam

Summary_Comments on Alaska Cruise

http://alaska14days2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/cruise-journal.html

Arrived in Seattle on 8/21/10, staying at Fairmont Olympic Hotel for two nights before

boarding the ship on 8/23/10. We disembarked the ship on 9/5/10 and stayed at Hilton Seattle Airport hotel through 9/8 and then returned to Austin.

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First of all the selection of location of our stateroom was a good choice as we

were midships and needed only to walk half the length of the ship..that is when

we were aware which direction we were headed : )

Next, we included Holland America pre-cruise and post-cruise hotels with the

view that luggage handling would be less of a hassle. That was true for our

pre-cruise hotel, but not for our post-cruise hotel. If we were repeating the trip

we would have selected Holiday Inn Express as a post-cruise rest stop, which by the way was just a block or two from the Hilton Seattle airport. And Denny's is next door to Holiday Inn Express. We walked a couple of blocks to have breakfast a Denny's from Hilton Seattle Airport Hotel.

And third, in research ,I read that offshore excursions using locals was far less expensive than contracting offshore excursions. If we had one thing that we would do differently that is it. At Juneau we decided on a view of Mendenal glacier, fish hatcheries and a salmon bake. Quite expensive. At the dock a tour guide advertised $7 RT to glacier. So for $14 we could have spent most of the day at the glacier and walked close to it's base. Lesson learned!.

The Mendenall glacier is 15 or 20 minutes from Juneau and it is a sight to behold, especially when you can get so much closer to it that the glaciers at glacier bay. If you have an opportunity to go to Juneau, focus on the main attraction - the glacier and the glacier waterfalls.

pictures of the glacier at Juneau will be listed in the Juneau article below.

We have more than 400 still images using the pocket camera and more from the

video camera, including two cartridges, mostly of the glaciers.

Our next chore is to organize the photos and place a few of the best ones within this journal and the others on a photo sharing site. We will post the link here when this is

done. and point out the articles where images have been uploaded to this journal

<<>>

Our custom itinerary:

Welcome Sammy Exit

Call your travel professional or 1-877-932-4259

My Custom Itinerary Print this page

Cruise Departure Arrival

14-DAY ALASKAN

ADVENTURER on the ms

Amsterdam

on August 21, 2010

Seattle, Washington, US

on September 07, 2010

Stateroom: LARGE, C #3367

Dining: OPEN SEATING, Any Table Size

14-Day Alaskan Adventurer on the Amsterdam

Your Custom Itinerary shown includes the travel schedule plus all of your

booked and pending activities.

Guest 1: Mr. Sammy Amsler Guest 2: Mrs. Laveta Amsler

Date Port/City Time Activity Guest 1 Guest 2

Aug 21 5:50 PM Air Travel - AUSTIN (AUS) to SEATTLE (SEA) on ALASKA AIRLINES

Flight 669

Aug 21 Seattle, Washington, US TRANSFER AIRPORT/HOTEL

FAIRMONT OLYMPIC HOTEL

Aug 23 Seattle, Washington, US TRANSFER HOTEL/SHIP

5:00 PM Ship Departs

Aug 24 Inside Passage 6:00 PM Pinnacle Grill Dining Experience - 2 guests

Aug 25 Ketchikan, Alaska, US

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

5:00 PM Ship Departs

Aug 26 Sitka, Alaska, US

8:00 AM Ship Arrives

12:30 PM Excursion: Colonial Russian America & Cultural Tour

Replaced excursion with cruise of the bay where we observed whales, etc.

City is our favorite stop! Spend more time in city and avoid excursions.

5:00 PM Ship Departs

Aug 27 Skagway, Alaska, US

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

9:00 PM Ship Departs

(visited city)

Aug 28 Glacier Bay

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

4:00 PM Ship Departs

(Many photos and video)

Aug 29 At Sea 6:00 PM Pinnacle Grill Dining Experience - 2 guests

Aug 30 Anchorage, Alaska, US

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

11:00 PM Ship Departs

Aug 31 Homer, Alaska, US

10:00 AM Ship Arrives

12:30 PM Excursion: Gull Island & Kachemak Bay Cruise

Cancelled Excursion - took $15 rt ea bus ride around three stops and back and

found nothing worth spending any time.

6:00 PM Ship Departs

Sep 01 Kodiak, Alaska, US

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

8:30 AM WAITLISTED

Excursion: Kodiak Sightseeing & Russian Tea

Cancelled excurson and visited the city.

1:00 PM Ship Departs

Sep 02 Hubbard Glacier

12:00 PM Ship Arrives

4:00 PM Ship Departs

(Many photos)

Sep 03 Juneau, Alaska, US

8:00 AM Ship Arrives

9:15 AM Excursion: Alaska Salmon Bake, Mendenhall Glacier & Hatchery

Mendenhall Glacier was awesome and we were within a mile to view.

5:00 PM Ship Departs

Sep 04 At Sea 5:30 PM Pinnacle Grill Dining Experience - 2 guests

Sep 05 Victoria, British

Columbia, CA

4:00 PM Ship Arrives

11:00 PM Ship Departs

Sep 06 Seattle, Washington, US

7:00 AM Ship Arrives

TRANSFER SHIP/HOTEL

HILTON SEATTLE AIRPORT

Sep 07 Seattle, Washington, US HOTEL COURTESY TRANSFR HTL/APT

<<>>

Our first Alaskan cruise was in June of 1997. We Flew to Anchorage, took a train to Fairbanks, visited Denali enroute, and boarded a tour bus to Whitehorse Canada, then train to Juneau were we boarded ship home. We missed several of the ports that we experienced with this cruise which was the reason we chose this one taken 13 years later.

<<>>

Ref:

My Custom Itinerary Page 2 of 2

https://book.hollandamerica.com/itinerary/viewItineraryAfterPurchase.action

Seattle 9/5 - 9/8/10

Seattle 9/6/10

We were returning to the Light Rail Station to return to Hotel and Larie

wanted to pet the policeman's horse.

Seattle 0906-0907-0908-090910
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Deboarding the ship

4:14 PM 9/6/2010
After departing the ship we gathered our luggage and Larie stayed with them while
I found a porter who loaded our bags and helped us pass through customs. To my surprise the agent asked for birth certificates as our driver's licenses were not sufficient, but when we showed our passports he was happy and took the declaration slip. We breezed through customs with the porter in separate isle. We proceeded to the bus that carried us to the Hotel. To our surprise, the driver gave us an impromptu tour of the heart of the city since it was his last run. Larie became chilled and asked the driver to turn up the heat. The outside temp was in the 50's.

At Hilton Seattle airport and one of the first things that came to my mind was how to ship two bags home. Our count is three 28 inch and two temporary overflow bags, one of which contained items shipped by box to Seattle that was later transferred to the ship from the Holland American Fairmont Olympic Hotel. The box was packed with shoes, heaving jackets, etc. Now we have to get that stuff back home so that we would only have three bags on return flight. Our Hilton Seattle Airport Hotel provided arrangements with FedEx for shipping travel bags, so I completed the forms and started by weighing one bag, then the other at the Hotel gym scale. The hotel's arrangement with FedEx enabled use of special shipping labels that were prepared to adhere on luggage. It worked out fine as we shipped the two pieces of luggage on Tuesday and received the two pieces at home on Thursday. The rate was for 3 days delivery.

Apparently hotels do not give a free ride on the internet. the rates were:
copied from internet connection to hotels' provider accessed:


Plan Price Duration Qty ai
Daily Standard Internet Access - Public IP ? $14.95 24 Hour
Hourly Standard Internet Access - Public IP ? $6.96 1 Hour
Hourly Standard Internet Access ? $4.95 1 Hour
Daily Standard Internet Access ? $12.95 24 Hour

<<>>
Tuesday 09/08/10
We had a free day at the Hilton Airport Hotel, so about lunch time we boarded the light rail costing $5.00 total for both of our round trip tickets. We left light rail station and walked to the pier, had a halibut burger and took an elevator to higher level to see the Seattle Market. Abundant fresh produce, fish, berries, and about every fresh produce that you can imagine. Those that live in downtown Seattle have a great place to shop for fresh produce.
We walked backed uphill to the Specialty shop for coffee before we boarded the light rail for trip back to the hotel.
<<>>

9:04 AM 9/8/2010

Wednesday

We arrived at the airport about 8:15 am and went through security. I had to removed the Acer Netbook from my carry-on and display it in the carrier box.

After being wanded (they even found a hearing aide battery in my shirt pocket)
I was cleared and looked back as Larie was still being searched or rather her cosmetic bag was being searched. The security person removed a bottle that was in excess of 3 oz and instructed Larie to place all bottles in zip lock bag. The bottles were in plasic dividers in a special cosmetic bag, but that was not sufficient for the security person. Lesson learned at the cost of a special cosmetic that Larie purchased on the cruise.

We arrived at the flight gate. Our flight boards at 10:30 and we left hotel shortly after 8 am, porter was available, and we were first in line at Alaska check in for our three pieces of luggage. Our two extra bags were shipped fed ex yesterday. Seatac has free wifi so we are able to get on internet as we wait to board our flight home. After recharging the acer we have 4.09 hours battery power remaining and I will save most to see if I can get on internet in flight.
Internet access was available on the flight but I did not retrieve the Acer Netbook to use that free time provided by Alaskan airline.

Free airport wifi logged me out 45 minutes usage.

After a little less than four hours we were home and took a SuperShuttle to take us home.

Juneau to Victoria to Seattle 0904 - 090610

JuneauATSEA-victoria0904090510

and

Victoria-Seattle0905090610

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While at sea on Saturday, 09/04/10  I attended about half of the digital workshop

3:43 AM 9/5/2010

At the crows nest I noticed quality of connection dropped from 4 to 3 bars on the port side

On 9/5/10, Sunday Morning at sea, we had our private church service in our

stateroom before having brunch at the main dining room for those who

have been on their second cruise.    
12:54 AM 9/5/2010


Larie plans to visit antique shops in Victoria. In between we are to finish packing and prepare list of our declared purchases. Hopefully we kept the receipts, but an entire expandable bag is needed for such items.

We arrived in Victoria about 4 pm and took a shuttle downtown.  
We walked four blocks down and four blocks back with all of 
the antique were closed. After dinner at the Lido,  Larie relaxed while 
I packed two pieces of luggage and two extra expandable 
folding bags which we hope to be able to send home
by Federal Express or UPS.
A passenger just commented as I was logging into the blog, "you have a cute"..computer: )

Experienced very slow connection to get into e-mail will try later in evening

10:09 AM 9/5/2010

Here is log of internet account on board the ship (satellite provider)
HAL AMSTERDAM Select a Language
shows as balance of account:0
SAMAMSLER3367
Last Log In: 9/4/2010 10:14:38 PM Time Used: 9
Last Log Out: 9/4/2010 10:23:30 PM Time Remaining: 15.00
1:45 AM 9/5/2010
unable to connect will try later in evening to get Seattle weather and location of ups

9:18 pm 9/5/2010 Acer netbook time changed based on Victoria BC time, LAX time.
We finished packing bags and discovered one of two bags overloaded so I removed some items to equalize the weight. It will not make a real difference until we fly back home.
Also reviewed receipts as description of articles required by us customs.
all bags packed
10:10 PM 9/5/2010 corrected clock to local time Victoria BC

An attempt to use remaining minutes of internet access to search for ups to ship our two extra bags:

10:12 PM 9/5/2010
internet search on ups Seattle WA
Hilton Seattle airport
ups Seattle airport

2625 South 161st Street
Seatac, WA 98158-1116
(206) 431-1003
Bus: S 154th St & 24th Ave S
Get directions - Is this accurate?

The UPS Store
815 1ST AVENUE
SEATTLE, WA 98104
Phone: (206)624-3313
Fax: (206)624-3883
E-mail The UPS Store #4869

Phone: (206)624-3313
Fax: (206)624-3883
E-mail The UPS Store #4869

Regular Hours of Operation:
Monday 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Completed 15 minutes balance of internet access looking for ups and printed map directions

Kodiak Hubbard Glacier and Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier 0901 090310

Kodiak Alaska

Branof Museum /Erskine House

Kodia suffered fallout from volcanic ash

6/12/12 Volcanic Eruption

as well as Earthquate and Tsunami 3/24/64

Branof Museum: Only bear we saw on Kodiak island.

The live ones are on the other side of the island only reached by plane.

Inside the Branof Museum

Dedication marker of Erskine House

Note when clicking on image below

you can see 1890 view of Erskine House

Front porch of Branof Museum/Erskine House

Flowers on edge of Branof Museum/Erskine House

A closer view of an unusual blossom

Kodiak boats, notice wind turbines on mountain

Click to see larger view

Hubbard Glacier 9/2/10

View from Amsterdam

Juneau Alaska - 9/3/10

downtown

Juneau Alaska's best attraction:

Mendenhall Glacier

Notice the waterfall on the right

Hikers can walk on the land bridge

and get much closer, but our time was limited.

Mendenhall Glacier -

click and you will see a waterfall at the base of the glacier

Mendenhall Glacier at Visitor's Center

http://alaska14days2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/cruise-journal.html
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KodiakHubbardMendallJuneau0901-090310


Here we are in Kodiak and the bears are on the other side of the island. Temperature is 54 degrees. Our boat leaves at 12:30 pm so that does not give us much time. Our next stop is Hubbard Glacier and then Juneau where we reserved spaces for a salmon bake, etc.
Our in port info sheet says there are more than 2000 resident Kodiak bears on the island. Kodiaks can be more than 10 feet all and weight more than 1200 pounds. There are two interesting museums about the indigenous people.

Since ship leaves about noon we have a very short time to see the village of Kodiak.


3:02 pm 9/2/2010
I attended environmental standards video. The discussion was focused on the work of the ship to save the environment at sea.

3:03 pm 9/2/2010 recorded part of 20 video on ship's environment.

3:56 pm 9/2/2010

Digital workshop using win 7 paint. instructor suggested photoshop, Photoshop and video professor were mentioned.
8 pm Juneau
lecture on maintenance of computer with recommendations on security software ms security essentials.

8:56 pm 9/1/2010
We had dinner in the Lido and watched the movie about rugby in South
Africa. Then we went up to the crow's nest and watched the 180 degree view of the sea with no land in sight. We are headed to Hubbard Glacier. Our daily program for tomorrow forecasts weather partly cloudy 42 degrees.

7:33 am 9/2/2010
Today is Hubbard Glacier day. All day at sea until we arrive in Juneau. Hubbard Glacier is the longest tidewater glacier. Today's program tells us the temperature will be 42 degrees. While Larie is preparing for breakfast I will try to upload log through 9/1.

61 minutes balance start on line. Uploaded 8/30-8/31 notes
check to compare on line time to upload journal to blog for 2 days and print to pdf file, and check e-mail.
11:08 am 9/2/2010
Approaching inlet to Hubbard Glacier after stretching exercises in the gym while larie walked abound the deck.
11:23 am 9/2/2010
AnchorageTOHomer0830_0831
revised ready to load revised session for 83110

Hubbard Glacier

2:54 pm 9/3/2010
Most of the morning I was at the bow of the ship taking videos and snapshots of Hubbard and adjoining glacier. One video tape was recorded and half of second one. Many single photo images taken with video camera as well as with the Olympus camera. I see that we have 105 images including Kodiak that I transferred to acer and erased the images on the memory stick of the Olympus. Also recharged the batteries. The video tape has 30 minutes left of one hour tape. When taking the video of the Hubbard glacier the announcer, a native egregious Alaska was telling a story in the background. I believe within the 30 minutes we have three or four calves recorded. When transferring to CD I will need to high light those out within video.

Jeneau Alaska

7:13 am 9/3/2010
Arrived in Jeneau and noticed two other large boats. One was following ours into port.
I copied 114 images to from Olympus to acer and 64 from sandisks from video stills. Just had breakfast brought in so we will eat and prepare for shore excursion - Salmon bake, etc.
7:58 am 9/4/2010
The shore excursion first stopped at Mendenhall Glacier. We had closer view than at the Hubbard glacier. Mendall glacier is about a mile wide and there were two water falls showing the melting of the glacier. Then we visited a salmon fish hatchery and then the salmon bake. Larie was not too happy with the quality of the salmon.

We gained an hour while at sea on the way to Victoria with expectation of arrival at 4 pm tomorrow. The boat is really rocking with the sea and we are on our way to breakfast. Then we will start out packing 6 bags. One bag full of Lari's shopping stuff. We will pack three 28 inch bags and two smaller ones. Hopefully the two smaller ones will be shipped by UPS when we get to Seattle.

We have to have all bags ready for ship's crew to move the luggage to a gathering area where we have to pass through customs. Since the ship is Dutch registry we are required to pass through customs just as if we had traveled to a foreign country. Victoria, of course, is part of Canada.

spell checked


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12:07 AM 9/5/2010

3:53 AM 9/5/2010
ready to upload as article covering 901 and 902.

A couple just said I had a "cute computer" :)

Anchorage to Homer Aug 30 - Aug 31 2010

Homer we noticed an eagle in the middle of this barrier,

but unable to find it in this photo

Homer notice buildings in background at end of the "Spit"

Homer: Notice ship approaching harbor. Watching the fisherman return

was the best activity other than fishing itself. This area seems to be

fisherman's heaven.

Homer Alaska:

Notice small boat getitng closer to harbor

We watched a number of boats arrive in the harbor

just about the time our ship was to leave Homer.

Anchorage

The Pinnacle Dining Room was a treat.

Anchorage displayed a log cabin and the city was

repleat with flowers

Larie trying to hide my "profile" : )

Larie was most impressed by the flowers in Anchorage which was unexpected in a city but flowers were everywhere in Alaska in late August and early September

What is this flower?

Dogs were being shown off in downtown square and Larie had to pet one.

Amazing bloom, flowers were lush in Anchorage.

Anchorage to Homer Alaska 8/30 - 8/31/10

Monday 08/30 while On bus to downtown Anchorage we called Salvador and tried to call Mary.

Salvador, I did not understand your response when I asked about your tests.

Will you elaborate by e-mail? When I attended the "digital workshop" I

managed to clean up my e-mail inbox in a manner of speaking, and accidentally moved my mail to a Kim commando mail folder. Now I have to delete unwanted mail in Kim Komando folder and

move the rest in that folder to other appropriately named folders.

Anchorage and Homer 083010 through 083110, Tuesday and Wednesday

At Anchorage We had room service for breakfast and I uploaded most recent leg of Cruise

covering 8/27 to 8/30. To conserve internet access time, a copy of travel blog was

printed to pdf file for review. Then I noticed that copying journal from notepad to Blog

looses some formatting. I expect to edit the blog when back home. So, for now formatting is not a top priority especially with limited time to access the internet. I learned later when in the digital workshop that the laptops there appear to have faster access. The internet manager said that he believed that the Acer was slower than the laptops with more memory. Hmm, I have 2 gb memory on the acer and have not encountered such delay in Austin hot spot

2:33 pm 8/30/2010

We returned to the ship about 2:30 pm after Larie found a bunch of t-shirts and I found a

waterproof Alaska wind breaker. Not sure that it is sufficiently flexible for golf

gear though.

5:17 pm 8/30/2010

The Lord was really looking out for me this afternoon. At the Gym. for stretching

exercise as PT for my lower back, I used an elastic rope attached to handles. As I placed my shoe within what looks like a small stirup, it slipped and hit me around the right eye. Lord be praised, my right eye does not appear to be damaged. But I am soaking it as surely the least will be a black eye.

5:50 AM 8/31/2010

If you examine the right panel of the blog page under "blog archive" you will see each

page or time period of the cruise with the latest on top.

5:52 AM 8/31/2010

Off to the Fontaine dinning room.

I had coho salmon and Larie had chicken. Either of which was too much to eat at one

sitting.

7:25 A.M. 8/31/2010

We expect room service shortly and have not decided what we will do in Homer. It is 4

miles to homer and the last bus to return is at 4 pm. We expect to land on a strip of land

that extends out to the port by 4 miles from this little town. Hop on hop off bus is an

option. We did not see local tourist guides as in other ports.

9:08 PM 8/31/2010

At the crow's nest you can see the 4 mile strip of small islands all appeared to be

connected to a man-made strip with road into Homer. It is called the Homer Split in Kachemak bay We got tickets for the on/off bus which I understand takes 45 minutes round trip. Larie is resting as I write this morning's account.

12:15 AM 9/1/2010

Larie is having her hair done on the ship and our cabin is being aired out. So I am at the Crow's

nest with the 180 degree view of Homer Spit Our ship is docked at the end of what is called the "Homer Spit." We took the hop on and off school bus, but when Larie could not find a hair

dresser we headed back to the ship. We made the round trip in about 45 minutes. Except

for the "homer Spit" there was not much of interest at the three stop bus stops. As I

wait for Larie I examined Homer's background and find if you are not a fisherman or

hiker, there is not much to do here except visit the museum. The background pamphlet

explains that bear sightings downtown is a frequent occurrence. Also, we are at Kachemak Bay State Park, which is one of the Ameica's largest coastal parks.

12:26 AM 9/1/2010 spell checked.

Salvador and Leota,

Larie is getting home sick and we would be ready to come home, but when we disembark on Monday, we will be staying two nights before returning home, Lord willing.

Skagway to Anchorage

Glacier Bay 8/28

(Note that clicking on images produces a larger view)

first glacier and closest to ship

Snow capped Surrounding mountains were most impressive

image zoomed in with 50x lense

standard view without zoom lens

The second glacier from a distance

image zoomed in with 50x lense

image zoomed in with 50x lense

Actual view from ship without using 50x zoom lense

on video camera:

Skagway 8/27

Larie admiring the blosoms Skagway Walkway

Flowers up close in Skagway
Downtown Skagway




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8/27 to 8/30:
8/27 Skagway
8/28 Glacier Bay
8/29 At Sea
8/30 Anchorage
Thursday 082710 follows:
11:12 PM 8/27/2010

We took city shuttle to the ship after Larie made an

appointment with the hair dresser at 1:45.

12:33 AM 8/28/2010

We walked to the hair dresser then returned to the ship on the

same city bus.

3:29 AM 8/28/2010

At 3:00 pm we attended afternoon tea. Ship will remain in

port until 8:30 so I thought I would upload Sitka Notes to

Cruise Blog.

Hope everyone is well and all is well. Lord Willing, we will

return home on Wednesday September 8th. I am in Library where

eight internet computers are available, but I am using my

netbook as my notes are recorded on it and I need to open my

blog and make entries for Sitka while the ship is docked in

Skagway. Earlier I found a better wireless connection on deck

8. So I will proceed up to that area and see if the signal

strength is stronger there than here which shows four bars

instead of five. the speed is still shown as 64 bps. At stern of ship on Lido

deck the signal strength is 2 out of five bars. I will try

observation room at the stern on level 8 and test signal

strength again.

So I proceeded toward the stern on deck 8 and found 5 bars in

the swimming pool area. I then proceeded to deck 9 in the

observation room with 180 degree view and derided this is the

best place on the ship for connection with the internet. It

is quite and signal strength is excellent.

4:09 AM 8/27/2010

19 minutes 1st

message re balance see internet manager.

4:48 AM 8/27/2010

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

72 minutes balance

110

72

19

38 twice first login experienced blocks to logging in to blog.

not using time for e-mail...responded to Salvador's comment.

57 used

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6:52 PM 8/27/2010

We are entering glacier bay and expect a lecture and walk

around the same deck as our cabin. So I will go test the air

to report the temperature. Hmm, it is in the 50's. But with

the wind when moving it feels like the 40's

4:26 AM 8/28/2010

I am uploading still images from olympus camera and from video

sandisks still images. After returning home I will burn

videos on CD as there is

a lot of editing to do. We have good videos of the glaciers as

well as numerous

snap shots. After about 3 hours of viewing glaciers, we

attended afternoon tea. Then Larie did her walk and I moved

images to the acer and rested. Tonight is formal dress wear.

9:14 AM 8/28/2010

We had a pleasant dinner at the Pinnacle, and the on to "fang

movie" Tonight was formal wear, so first time I had to wear a

suit. We sat through 15 minutes of "fang" about Alaska gold

rush and a wolf. Then at 8:30 I went to the gym to do my back

exercises and Larie stayed in the cabin. We examined next

day's events and checked activities of interest. Tomorrow

being Sunday we will have our own service after breakfast and

then attend non-denominational service and singing at 9am.

While I was taking photos of Glacier today, a gentlemen

invited us to attend the 9 am service. He described his

church with a long name that I do not remember, but when I

expressed that we were members of the Church of Christ he

responded that we both believed in Christ, and that his church

was too much different than the Church of Christ. I mentioned

the steps to salvation but there was no response.

All of the glacier photos were uploaded to the acer so we are

ready for tomorrow. We will be headed west and out to sea for

Cook Inlet and expect to arrive at Kodiak, then Homer, then

Anchorage.

Next port is Homer.

7:14 PM 8/28/2010

We slept late and we may eat breakfast in the Fontaine

restaurant if we can be seated. Then we will have our own

service in the cabin and at nine we attend the

nondenominational service.

11:03 PM 8/28/2010

After 9am service we proceeded to the queen's lounge to hear

about excursions on succeeding ports.

Anchorage was discussed as cultural. Homer small town 6k pop

$15 shuttle all day on and off stops. Kodiak was spoken of as

fishing capital of the world. Bear on other side of island

accessible only by air from our ship. Next day, Thursday is

hubba glacier and on Friday, JuneauJuno where we scheduled a tour

with a salmon bake.

That will be our last shore excursion that was planned

earlier. We canceled a wait listed tour for homer so we will

visit the town and return to the ship early.

3:36 AM 8/29/2010

attended computer workshop first how to use windows messenger.

Windows live messager faster with a few more options. Option

to record and send.

(The instructor is a happy smiling all-the-time computer nerd)

download.live.com

live mail, photo gallery, etc.

Instructor dislikes norton and Mcaffee as both loaded with

clutter. Free version works better.

remove norton properly. check "remove norton",

security essentials recommended. removes virus and mail ware.

crooks starting to target small businesses, install mail ware

on business computer. wifi outside business recording credit

card transactions.. sold to people in Europe. ..

best to check bank accounts/credit card accounts daily to

protect against unauthorized use.

FRAUD INSURANCE. Comment on https:// Mcafee easier to

installer. Good protection is when you will hardly

microsoft.com/security_essentials.

>>>>

7:34 PM 8/29/2010

We just finished complimentary room service. We devcided to

stay aboard today as the ship is docked in the biggest city,

Anchorage. So we dressed in our work out clothes and in

addition to walking our deck, we will most likely also go up

to the ship's gym. We decided to cancel our reservations at

the Pinnacle Grill for the rest of the trip. Larie believes

we are over eating there, and the reservations also tie us

down to meeting the reservations at specific times. We have

other choices such as the Fontaine dining, Lido cafeteria

style or the snack bar at the pool.

We will prepare to add 8/27 through 8/29 for upload to travel

blog today.

8:53 PM 8/29/2010

As I was hoping to "prethink" plan what we could use, I failed

to bring along address labels. But I did place an address

label on one of the 8 gb flash drives. So, images that will be

shared in the digital workshop will hopefully be copied to

8 gb with my name/address label will be used for images from

the workshop, so I named the thumb/flash drive "IMAGES"

I have another 8 gb Kingston thumb/flash drive that I will use

to back up images that I took on the cruise. As mentioned

earlier, I will need to transfer the video tapes to CD when we

return to Austin.

A-data 4 gb thumb/dash drive was prepared in Austin to enable

me to get to my globs and other sites with appropriate

id/password. I also included health history,just in case that

was needed. Due to the limited access to internet I will used

this data very little

10:11 PM 8/30/2010

Oops, we arrived in Achorage on Monday 8/30.. where did I go

wrong with the dates?

log on and off with pdf copy of blog...

before uploading sitak to Anchorage

http://alaska14days2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/cruise-journal.html

71 min start

SitkAlaska, whales, otters and Eagles

sitkaJournal 082610

http://alaska14days2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/cruise-journal.html

Sitka was the only port we had to use Tenders, "shuttle boats" to arrive at the town's docks.

We joined an offshore excursion boat that carried what appeared to be about 50 people

While on the excursion boat we spotted Otters

And several occurrences of whales

And eagle

Sitka Alaska 082610 B

We signed up to join a shore excursion today: Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest for 3

hours. We arrived at Sitka dock from the Amsterdam tender. This shore excursion description

is "explore a comfortable catamaran for whales, sea otter, bears,eagles, and

more.


9:29 AM 8/26/2010
Texas time..5:30 Alaska time..
The gym opens at 6am and I purposed walking on treadmill this morning before

breakfast, but as I write this I am at an enclosed large area called the crow's

nest, deck 9. Deck 8 below me is the gym and Larie is still snoozing as we do

not go ashore on the tender until about 11:00 am.. On way back to our

stateroom I will bring Larie a cup of coffee. But, as of this moment as the

ship is preparing to anchor at Sitka I see a large high mountain range with

very high snow covered peaks. I left our stateroom with only a light wind

breaker. Next time I will have a little bit warmer jacket : )

The ship is now making a very slow turn and I see Sitka nestled at the bottom

of the mountains.. Really mountains, not hills!
What a sight -- all of God's handiwork. Thank the Lord that the world he has

made is so full of variety and is so amazingly beautiful. The Lord gave man

dominion over the earth. Such a wonderful gift that man needs to be a good

stewart of what the Lord has made.!


9:43 AM 8/26/2010
At 6:43 the crow's nest access is at 54 mps and signal strength is strong..BTW

the ship provides Internet access via satellite that does not come close to

high speed access.

It appears we are headed straight for Sitka, but the ship

will anchor in the bay and we will board tenders, small boats about 40

passenger capacity, as transport to Sitka.

9:59 AM 8/26/2010
In Lido Restaurant mid ship signal strength is deteriorated somewhat.
12:32 PM 8/26/2010
at 9:37 local time I decided to set the computer clock accordingly
9:34 PM 8/26/2010
That's more like it. When we enter another time zone I hope to think about
adjusting the acer accordingly.

Our breakfast at the Lido consisted to two omelet's and fruit with some bread
and coffee. We initially sat with a couple from LA, but they left before Larie
returned to the table.

Larie went to the stateroom for walk around our deck. After I showered Larie
returned from walk of 2 1/3 miles. We have about an hour before we board the
tender to take us in to Sitka. We will board a tender about noon to take us
on a 3 hour wildlife tour. More about that later.


3:41 AM
Just returned to our ship from out to sea excursion, observing eagles, sea

otters, puffin, a rare sighting. Much to our enlightenment we had several

sightings including several sightings of humpback whales feeding and we also

saw a grey whale. Hopefully some photos and videos will be good enough to

illustrate here. Yes. I missed some good shots because I failed to remove the

cover from the lens. : ) Being unable to see images in view finder, I aimed

the camera like a rifle, hoping that whatever is captured on video would be

what was expected. Prior to the Sea Otter and Wildlife quest we visited a

Russian orthodox church with what Larie described as beautiful icons (a lot of

gold images)

Overall, Sitka was our favorite anchorage and we would have preferred

to see whales at other stops just to visit the town with all of it's Russian History.