Category: Cruise Ships

Cruising College Fjord, and docking at Whittier

The main feature of June 8, Day 8 of our trip and Day 7 aboard the cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam – our final full day on the ship – was a visit to glacier-studded College Fjord. The day began with this post on Facebook at 04:51: “Decade after decade,...
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A spectacular day cruising Glacier Bay

When we left Whitehorse, the weather forecasts for our entire cruise were calling for clods and showers or just plain rain, so I didn’t have high hopes for this day. But instead we got the most perfect weather I’ve ever had at Glacier Bay, and as a result there...
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A rainy day in Juneau

June 5, Day 5 of our trip and Day 4 aboard the cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam, included a 12-hour stop at Juneau, Alaska. As at Ketchikan, none of my family members had any plans for the day, and Cathy and I only went into town for a walk and...
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Sailing the BC coast to Ketchikan

I was up early for some ship exploring and possible blogging on June 3rd, which would be a day of sailing north along BC’s spectacular coast. The first photo, of the Lido Bar in the centre of Deck 9 behind the Lido Pool, was shot at 04:40. The Sea...
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Sailing from Hawaii to Vancouver on the Koningsdam

We sailed from Honolulu the evening of October 18th, and arrived in Vancouver early the morning of October 24th. Those 5½ days were similar to the ones on the Astoria-Kauai crossing, but this post will show you events and places I didn’t cover in the one about the westbound...
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To Hawaii on the Koningsdam – 5½ days at sea

Imagine living in a small community – 3,600 or so residents – which has great music venues, bars, and restaurants, a spa and many other facilities. Now imagine that in that community, you’re one of the 2,600 people that are retired, and the other 1,000 residents do all the...
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Back to adventures – a drive to Skagway and an aurora night

My healing from the hiking accident is progressing nicely – far better than the doctors led me to believe would be the case. As I write this on Saturday morning, I’m planning to load the motorhome to get away for a few days on Monday. This past Wednesday, though,...
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Back in Honolulu, switching from ship to hotel

Saturday evening was a busy night for most of the passengers on the Celebrity Solstice, but not in a good way. For about 2,400 of the 2,800, this was our last night on the ship – on Sunday morning we had to disembark. The other 400 would continue to...
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Arriving at Honolulu by cruise ship

We’re now about half-way to Hawaii, “the Big Island”, having sailed from Honolulu last night at 8:00 pm. We arrived at Honolulu at noon on Monday after having the islands in sight for several hours. Sailing in is a perspective that not many get, which is a shame, because...
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Crossing the Pacific Ocean on Celebrity Solstice

As I start writing this, it’s 05:20, about 90 minutes before sunrise. I’m on the back deck of the Celebrity Solstice, 8½ hours out of Honolulu, and it’s about 82°F. As usual, only a handful of other passengers are up and about, but crew members are seen often, cleaning...
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