Day 3—Icy Strait Point

by | Jun 18, 2026 | Uncategorized

Way back in August 2007, we last visited Icy Strait Point. Back then, it was a tiny tourist attraction featuring two things: the longest (at the time) zip line in the world and an old cannery that had been turned into a museum. Here we are, just under 20 years later, and we are back again. When we were here the first time, this was a tender port (for the non-cruisers, that means to get to the port, you get into a lifeboat and they take you to a small dock in the harbor where you get off, see everything, and then get back on). Not anymore.

We visited here with our Martini Mates that year on Celebrity’s Infinity. We came ashore and walked around for about an hour. We took the shuttle bus into the village of Hoonah (where, really, there was nothing to see), then it was back on the tender and back to the ship.

WOW! How things have changed in 19 years. Now there are two piers big enough to handle a cruise ship, so we didn’t have to tender. The two piers are fairly far apart (about a 30-minute hike on a nice trail), so they built a gondola that takes you from the pier where we docked over to the original area, which has now been built up. In 2007, there was a snack bar. Now there are at least four restaurants, a couple of snack bars, and coffee places as well. The Cannery museum is now less of a museum and more of a mini shopping mall. The zip line is still there, but sadly, it was too windy for it to be in service. And no, we were not going to ride it ourselves. Too long and too high, thank you. Plus, we are way too old.

When Solstice arrived, there was a Princess cruise ship on the pier we were to dock on, and because Celebrity has a deal with the locals and helped build the two ocean piers, they got first choice, so the Princess ship had to pull off the pier and tender the rest of her guests back to the ship. The other pier was occupied by Celebrity Summit, a ship we know well after sailing her from Newark to Québec and back in 2018.

Solstice had docked at the pier where you needed to either hike or take the gondola to see the Cannery area. So Mike, Cathy and I jumped into one of the cars and headed over. The gentleman running the gondola was very good at his job. He had three lines, and the gondola hardly ever stopped. You just got on as it slowly came through the on-and-off section. Really simple and easy to do. The ride took about 15 minutes, and we were dropped off at the gateway to the Cannery area.

It was a very short walk down to the Cannery museum and shops, along a really nice boardwalk with stairs that periodically led to the beach. There was also a great statue of an orca whale (see my pics below). We walked down, saw the shops, talked to some folks, were mistaken for someone on a whale watching tour, Mike and Cathy got a beer, and I set off to walk the trail back to the ship. Got lots of photos on the way and had a great time. There are bear warnings all over the place, but the path was well traveled and, as Bob says, “Don’t worry about bears unless you are the slowest person you can see nearby.” I stopped to buy some postcards on the way (yes, I still send paper postcards), and then it was back aboard and off to drinks and dinner.

Sadly, after an awesome sandwich we had for lunch that passed the Steve Test (see yesterday’s post if you don’t know what the Steve Test is) in Luminae, dinner was a total failure. Bob ordered a steak, and it was a huge, thick chunk of beef with absolutely no flavor whatsoever. I know, because he gave me a piece, and I tried it. It was like eating a chewy piece of nothing. No sauce, no grill marks, no nothing. Just a big hunk of beef barely seared on four sides. My cannelloni wasn’t much better. Two pasta tubes, stuffed with too much meat, too little cheese and too little sauce. This time the meal wasn’t fine. It was bad.

Lunch today was an adventure, but I will tell you about that tomorrow. And about our visit to the Hubbard Glacier.

Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. When you do that, you can also see the captions for the photos. These are the first shots of the trip where I was able to show off my photography expertise, so please check them out on a computer or tablet, not your phone.

 

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" —Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Solstice Day 2—A Sad Sea Day & Your First Food Report

by | Jun 17, 2026 | Uncategorized

For years, I have been telling people that you are much better off taking an Alaskan cruise from Vancouver rather than Seattle. One of the main reasons is the Canadian Inside Passage. This is our 13th Alaska cruise and our eighth (I think) from Vancouver, and it is the first time we have not taken the Canadian Inside Passage.

If you have never sailed the Canadian Inside Passage, it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever sailed. Think of a river cruise on a very big river. Sloping mountains of evergreens come right down to the water’s edge. Eagles fly overhead, and you can sometimes see bears and deer drinking at the shore below the trees. Because this area is protected by islands on the outside and the Canadian mainland on the inside, the temperatures are warmer, and the sun is often out. At the top of this page is a map showing the area I am talking about.

Well, we were very sad to wake up to almost an open ocean. You could see land, but it was quite far to our east. This was not the Alaska cruise I had hoped for. My buddy Bob (who is a strong believer in the Canadian Inside Passage) thought it might have something to do with the size of the ship, but we sailed this way on Infinity a number of times, and that ship isn’t that much smaller than this one.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful sea day yesterday. We had breakfast. Bob, Judy, and I went to trivia at 10:30, and then we met everyone for lunch. After lunch, I worked on a few photos, then did four miles on the jogging/running/walking track on deck 14. A major rant from me about walking on the walking track. This is a two-fold complaint. One small complaint I can deal with, but I will mention it so that maybe someone reading this can stop doing it.

Stop walking three people across a path built for three people. You are blocking everyone from going in any direction, whether they are walking for exercise or just getting from one end of deck 14 to the other. It is just plain rude. If you see someone coming your way and there is no place for them to go, walk single file for a minute or two until they pass. And while we are on the subject, maybe the real thing I need to say is this: BE SELF-AWARE! I can’t tell you how many people have just walked in front of me. Most of them were either talking to the person they were walking with, looking at the scenery, or looking at their phones. WAKE UP! You are not the only person on the ship or in the world.

My other quibble about the walking track is with Celebrity. And this happens on all the Solstice-class ships. Why is it that people walking, jogging, or running to stay healthy have to pass through one of the only smoking areas on the ship? WTF? Move the smoking area or shut it down. Every time I came around the track to that spot (about 35 times), I choked on the fumes from more than 20 smokers. There is a large smoking area in Sunset Park (one whole side of the aft of the area). That should be enough. Let’s close down the smoking area that coincides with the track. OK, rant over…back to yesterday.

After my walk, it was back to the stateroom to change for dinner (it was chic night). Kathleen says she saw some formal dresses, but I didn’t see any men in tuxedos and very few in ties. All of us had jackets on, so we were looking sharp. There was a pre-dinner reception with the captain and senior officers in The Retreat Lounge, which was very nice. Drinks and nibbles. The captain is a very nice guy who has been with Celebrity since before it became Celebrity.

I thought this might be a good time to talk about the food. So far, we have eaten in three venues on board. We had lunch at the Sunset Bar Cafe on deck 15 during embarkation. The salads and sandwiches were great. I do wish they had a bar there as well, because if you want something to drink besides water, you have to walk to the back of the Sunset area to the Sunset Bar and get your drink either before or after you get food. Now, it isn’t that far, but what was a pain was having to stand in two lines. One for food, one for drinks, and they are far apart.

We had dinner at Trattoria Rossa, and it was wonderful. If you go, have the lasagna or the lamb. That’s what we had. Dessert was also amazing with the made-at-the-table cannoli and tiramisu. It does pass the Steve Test with flying colors.

The rest of our meals (so far, 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 1 dinner) have been at the suites’ restaurant, Luminae. The food has been just fine. Nothing amazing to write home to mom about, but fine. So far, Luminae does NOT pass the Steve Test. For those of you who are new readers, this is what the Steve Test is all about:

The Steve Test

After our disastrous Celebrity Millennium cruise in May 2022 (the food was horrible), my brother Steve came up with a way to rate food and restaurants while traveling, which I have found to be more effective and easier to understand than any other method I have encountered. From then on, I have called this the “Steve Test”.

Here's the test: If you eat at a food venue during your travels, either on a ship (main dining room, buffet, grille, or a specialty restaurant) or on land (hotel, restaurant, street food, etc.), and that restaurant was near you once you returned home, would you go there again? Would you become a regular? Would you go there for special occasions?

That’s pretty simple. I think it's the best way I've ever heard of to rate food on vacation, and I will rate each place I eat while traveling using the “Steve Test”.

I have high hopes that they will improve. My personal feeling is that they are trying too hard to make the food look cool. It takes nice photos, but at the expense of taste, and things that could be great are just OK. My hope is that this will improve as the week goes on. I have included some photos of the food below, with comments to show what I mean.

Breaking news! It’s Tuesday (our day in Icy Strait Point, which I will report on tomorrow), and we had lunch at Luminae. We had a sandwich that not only passed the Steve Test but also made me want to drive across town to get this particular sandwich. More about that tomorrow.

We also want to thank two new friends we have made, Richard and Randy, who told us a secret about Luminae—you can order off the Main Dining Room menu if you just ask to see it. Thanks, guys.

Here are some food pics for you. Enjoy. Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping to read the captions and see what you are looking at. And feel free to look at these on your phones. I took them with mine.

"Do you remember when you were younger, and you used to take photos of your food, send them out to be developed, get back prints and then send them to your friends? Neither do we." —Popular internet meme

Koningsdam Day 3–Ketchikan

by | May 4, 2023 | Food Experiences, Photography

Yesterday when I signed off, I mentioned that I was sitting and waiting to try and get a reservation for the main dining room for dinner. At 11:30, the crew member showed up and started taking reservations. I was thrilled that I was second in line until she told the couple that was first in line that there were no reservations available for Select Dining before 8:30 pm for the balance of the cruise. It seems that on the first day of the cruise (while we were getting on), they allowed folks to reserve dining times for the entire week. So today, there was nothing available to reserve until late. And tonight there are two shows members of our group want to see. If we did dinner at 8:30, we could see neither of them. The same is true for tomorrow night. We didn’t even ask about the last night of the cruise as we have booked Rudi Sel de Mer specialty restaurant.

The lady making reservations said we could wait in line starting at 5:30, and they would take walk-ins as they came up. The couple in front of me said they had gotten in line the night before at 5:00 and finally reached the podium at 6:00, where the head waiter handed them a buzzer and said they could wait in the bar until it buzzed. They waited until 7:30 and then went to the buffet. It never buzzed. We aren’t getting into that mess. So it seems we are destined never to eat in the main dining room. We will do dinner in the buffet tonight, and then I am buying everyone dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant Cannoletto tomorrow night. Since I am the travel agent for everyone, I feel like I have misled them.

After that fiasco, I wanted to speak to someone in Guest Relations about it, but when I went up, there was a line of 20 people ahead of me, and I gave up. I am done. I thought we will just go with the flow. But at lunch, it got worse.

Mind you; this was a port day. Experienced cruisers know that if you stay on the ship on a port day, it is usually pretty empty. Not yesterday. The ship was packed. After we had tried to get the reservation, we figured we should go get lunch…in the buffet. Three of us wanted to go to the Dive-In, HAL’s hot dog and hamburger restaurant. What a mistake. When we got there, there wasn’t a big line, maybe 10 people. Kathleen grabbed a table while I ordered. They gave me a flasher and said it would go off when my food was ready. There were four people working in the Dive-In. On previous voyages, there have been seven or eight.

Our buddy Bob had gone off to help Judy find what she wanted in the buffet before he came and ordered his hot dog and fries right about 10 minutes after I had. About 20 minutes after I had ordered, I went over to see why it was taking so long. They were deep in the weeds and weren’t putting out a whole lot of anything. Finally, at about the 25-minute mark, my buzzer dinged. I couldn’t see anything that looked like my order, but when the frazzled lady shoved a tray my way, I had to tell her what was missing, which she supplied a few minutes later. At this point, we were 30 minutes from my order and 20 minutes from when Bob ordered his. Bob waited ten more minutes and then wandered over to see what was happening. In the meantime, I finished mine, got some gelato for dessert (that’s another story—keep reading) and told Kathleen and Judy I was going off to walk in Ketchikan. I passed Bob on the way out, still waiting for his hot dog. At this point, it had been about 40 minutes since he placed his order. When I returned from my walk, Kathleen told me Bob had waited another 30 minutes (a total of more than an hour), and he, like many others, just walked away. This is just wrong.

And I promised the “other story” about dessert. When I went back into the buffet, Judy came with me. We were just looking for something sweet to finish our meal. There are two entire dessert areas. On top of them was a list of today’s desserts. There were seven different items listed, including a chocolate cupcake, two types of fruit tart, a chocolate pudding-like mousse, a lemon bar and some other fruit cups. All were listed as desserts today. How many were under that sign? Just one. No, not one type of dessert, just one lonely chocolate cupcake. Not a single other dessert. When I asked, I was told they had run out.

When I am writing this, we have just finished eating dinner in the buffet. The food was mediocre at best. The funniest thing we saw was a huge, paella-sized pan filled with something—I wasn’t sure what. I asked the young lady who was serving it what it was. She said, “The people who baked it said it is apple pie. I think it’s apple soup with a crust. I had nothing to do with making it.” Cracked us up. At least she knew that what she was supposed to be serving was crap. So funny, but funny in a sad way.

Speaking of funny, yesterday morning at the buffet, Judy came back to the table with a pastry. She said she had seen another one she liked the looks of but wasn’t sure what the little things on top of it were. So she asked the person serving, and they said it was “beans.” Yup, beans. Now, I realize that you can make a great sweet topping for rolls out of some black Asian beans, but that isn’t what this was. I was intrigued, so I went over and got one. Those weren’t beans. They were tiny chopped pecans. The pastry was delicious. Now this is funny…but it is also dangerous. I asked her myself what those were, and the server told me, “Those are beans.” What if I had been allergic to nuts? Can you imagine someone at the buffet going into anaphylactic shock? That’s not sad; it’s scary. We did make a point to tell one of the managers, and he assured us there would be some education going on soon. He said he was sorry, but they had a lot of new people that were still in training.

I want to get this posted, and I promise to do my best to find something good about this cruise sometime before I get off on Saturday. In the meantime, here are some shots I took early in the morning from the ship and while off the ship in Ketchikan. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

As I am posting this, we have just arrived in Prince Rupert—more tomorrow.

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.        — John Muir

 

 

 

 

Konigsdam, May 2023-Embarkation

by | May 3, 2023 | Photography

Well, we are on our way. As I write this, I know I won’t be able to get it online until tomorrow in Ketchikan, and I am not even sure I will be able to do that. YEAH! I WAS! We are sitting in Ketchikan right now.

Embarkation

So, let’s get this out there right now. After 35 cruises, this was the WORST embarkation we have ever experienced. To be honest, I am not sure who to blame here, but they better fix it soon. It could be Holland America’s fault, or it could be the management at Canada Place. Either way, it was horrid. 

I went out around 10:00 am (or should I say down) from our room on the 14th floor of the Pan Pacific to find out the best way to drop luggage and get into the lines to get on the ship. I had really good luck because I got some inside knowledge about dropping luggage from a very nice Canada Place employee. So Brian and I went down to Parking Level 2 and dropped our bags. If we hadn’t done that we would have gotten into the check-in line, had to wait in that line to go down an elevator, drop off our bags and then get in another line to go upstairs and check in. At that point, we thought we were getting ahead of the system. 

Check-out time at the hotel was noon, and our “listed boarding time” was 1:00 pm. We decided to go down to the hotel lobby at noon, and Brian and I would go down and scout out the best way to get in line and see if they were holding people to their assigned times. We discovered that we could go ahead and get in line right then. It looked like we would just go up an escalator and be off to check-in. We couldn’t tell what was beyond the escalator, but we could see others coming down and heading off to what we thought was a line to get on the ship. We couldn’t go up the escalator and come back down without going through the process, so we went back to get Kathleen and Michelle. 

Then we walked all the way down, got on the escalator and went up. By then, it was about 12:15. When we got to the top of the escalator; we were taken out into a hallway where we had to get in a line that ended way back in the lobby of the hotel…where we had just come from. We literally could have taken an escalator to the ground floor and gotten in line. At one point, this line went all the way out to the street. That’s the length of one and a half cruise ships.

I didn’t want Kathleen standing through that long line, so I suggested to her and the others that they step outside and sit on a bench and that I would stay in line and text them when I was close to the door it looked like we would go through. It was VERY warm in this confined hallway waiting in line, and it moved sloooowwwllllyyy—inches at a time. Part of the problem was that there were three ships embarking that day, and people kept getting in the wrong line, so the line kept growing. 

After about 40 minutes, we finally reached a door where we thought (hoped) we would get checked in and get onboard. But just like waiting for rides at DisneyWorld, there was an entire other room with winding back-and-forth queues. We spent another 35 minutes or so getting through this room and then had our picture taken by HAL (even though we had submitted one in their app), and they confirmed that it matched our passports. Once we were done doing that, we were sent down the other side of the escalator. We had come in on to what we hoped would be the ship…but that was not to be. 

We were funneled into a room with airport-like scanners to have our carry-on luggage scanned and to walk through metal detectors. To get to the detectors, we waited in another line (with people from all three ships) for at least 40 minutes, hoping against hope that when we got through that line, we could get onboard. 

But it was not to be. Once through the scanners, we found another large room with around 15 lines going up and down to get us to Canadian/US Customs. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the front of that line where there were machines you shoved your passport into, and then it created a little receipt-like sheet of paper that you handed to the Customs person as you exited that room. 

When we finished that, we were told we could board the ship. But we still had a way to walk. So far, we had traversed the length of Canada Place (a building long enough to have two big cruise ships docked next to it) at least twice on two different floors. We walked about the ship’s length back to where we could board Konigsdam, and someone asked us for our boarding passes (after all this—where else could we have come from), and we had to bring them up on our phones again. (Next time, I am printing them out and pinning them to my shirt.) It felt like I was asked for them and my passport about 25 times. Notice, I said it felt like. Probably only 24.

Once we got past that guy and got on the gangway, we were up and almost on the ship, but again…we were asked for our boarding pass…come on, people…talk to each other. 

Total embarkation time—THREE HOURS and 15 MINUTES! We got in line at 12:15 and got on the ship at 3:30. I should also mention that Konigsdam was supposed to sail at 3:00. Glad they didn’t. We didn’t end up sailing until after 5:00. The captain announced it was because we were parked in by the Princess ship behind us, but I am sure the truth was that about half the 2,900 passengers on this ship were still being processed. 

We will admit that we were spoiled. On our last cruise with Viking, we embarked in Athens, Greece. We were picked up by the Viking bus and taken to the port. We got off and walked through a single metal detector, had our bags scanned and walked onboard. Less than 15 minutes from the bus door to being sitting down to a glass of rosé in the restaurant. 

I am hoping that all this is because this was only the fourth day of ships leaving from Canada Place in 2023 and that things will get improve…soon. They better improve or people will stop sailing from Vancouver. 

Here are a few things that would have made this better that you might want to know if you are sailing from Vancouver. First, I made the mistake of checking my rolling bag. I should have taken it on board with me. Not that our bags got lost. We were in line for so long that when we finally got on board, not only was our stateroom ready, our bags were on our bed. But because I had thought that it wouldn’t take too long to get through check-in, I checked my carry-on-sized, wheeled luggage. And that meant that I had to carry my computer/camera bag on my shoulder for more than three hours. Just an FYI: fully loaded it weighs about 15 pounds. Today my shoulder is really wishing I had kept the rolling bag so I could have just pulled the camera bag on it like I usually do.

Another tip for getting through the lines quicker is to bring a cane or be with someone with a cane or crutches. Our buddy Bob had brought one with him (that he borrowed)probably just to hit me with it, and when an attendant saw him, she whisked him and Judy off to the front of the line. It really didn’t help that much since he only got on about 30 minutes before we did. Another trick is to be fairly high in Holland America’s loyalty group, the Mariners. We are two-star, but you don’t start getting priority bookings until you are four or five-star. Lastly, if you book a Neptune suite, you get right in a different line, and you get to board first so no one is ahead of you.

Let’s close this sad story with one piece of advice for everyone. If they say you can board at 1:00 pm, get in line at 10:00 am. You might get on by 1:00. Pay no attention to the boarding time they give you. No one else does.

On board the Konigsdam

We kind of know this ship. Long-time readers of this blog know that we sailed on her sister ship, Nieuw Statendam (NS), back in January of 2022 down in the Caribbean. Konigsdam was the first ship in the Pinnacle Class of Holland America ships, and NS was the second. They are virtually alike, with NS having some tiny improvements. 

The biggest differences between us were two things. First, on NS, we had a Neptune Suite. If you forget what that was like, you can see a video of it by clicking here. It is the largest stateroom we have ever been in at sea. On this ship, we have the basic verandah stateroom. The Neptune Suite is HUGE. Massive king-size bed, huge verandah, full desk, full-size couch and the bathroom…oh, the bathroom. This is the best comparison that I am sure of; our entire bathroom on this cruise would fit into the shower of the Neptune Suite. Seriously. Queen-size bed, miniature couch, tiny desk, barely any room to get around the bed. (Photos of our stateroom are below.) Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

We are truly spoiled. In our last three out of four cruises, we had either a suite (on NS) or two of the most amazing staterooms in the world—Celebrity’s Flora and Viking Ocean’s Penthouse Verandah. Both are almost twice the size of the stateroom I am writing this post in. 

The other reason our NS cruise was so much better…the number of people on board. This morning we spoke to the cruise director here on Konigsdam, the delightful Bettianne. She just happens to have been our cruise director on NS as well. We told her facetiously that we thought the ship was a touch more crowded now than when we had sailed with her last in 2021. She reminded us that she had warned everyone on NS that it would probably never be that way again. You see when we sailed on NS, it was when restrictions were starting to loosen up from the pandemic. Masks and vaccinations were still required. This ship holds 2,700 people when fully sold out. That’s just about what we are sailing with now—2,700 people. But back in January 2022, no one except the really brave was out there sailing, so when we did that cruise, there were only 900 people on board. It was like having your own private ship. Combine that with having a Neptune suite, and this is a totally different experience.

Food

Pre-cruise, I (as the travel agent) had booked all eight of us reservations at two (of the four) specialty restaurants on board. It’s really hard to get a reservation for eight. In fact, much to my disdain, they were only able to put us at two tables for four next to each other in the first place we went to last night. Ticked me off because there were many tables for two. They could have slid together so we could all be at the same table. It also meant the only nights they could accommodate us were the first night and the last night. 

So last night we went to Tamarind, Konigsdam’s Asian restaurant. We had eaten there twice on NS with our buddy Seth, who worked for HAL then. Both times on NS, everything about it was superb. And I am thrilled to say the same is true on Konigsdam. Outstanding food, outstanding service, great cocktails and one thing was even better…our server told us we could have as many appetizers as we liked. We all ordered two! Plus, I got each table an order of lobster rolls from the sushi restaurant that is part of Tamarind (sushi is NOT part of the one price for Tamarind; you pay for that separately—but it is a great price. Eight rolls for $7.95) and they are soooo good.

That was it for me. A couple of the group went to BB King’s Blues Club, but we were wiped out from the waiting in line (and for me, the six-mile photo walk at 5:00 that I posted pictures from yesterday). We went back to the stateroom, and we were out like lights. 

More tomorrow. Here are a couple of pics I took of the Canadian Inside Passage. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That’s about it at this point. All I can say to close this out is that the ship is CROWDED. There are signs at Guest Relations stating that there are NO empty staterooms, so no upgrades are available. I am guessing that has been there since we got on. We were not able to eat dinner in the Main Dining Room last night because the wait was more than an hour to get into Select (open seating) dining. We gave up and paid for dinner at the Pinnacle Grille. The food was very good but we really weren’t planning on eating there on this trip. Right now, as I am typing this, we are waiting to make “reservations” for the main dining room tonight. That’s ridiculous.

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. —Yogi Berra