Alaska Cruise Report -- Holland America Line ms Ryndam, August 4-11, 1996

Copyright © 1996, John C. Hallyburton, Jr. All rights reserved. This edition: August 25, 1996.

Choosing our Cruise

My wife (Marge) and I (John) decided to take a cruise to Alaska to celebrate her finishing law school and taking the bar exam. After reading many helpful trip reports and comments from rec.travel.cruises, we decided to take a Holland America Line (HAL) Glacier Discovery cruise. We're not elderly but neither were we looking for a "party boat" -- just a couple of middle-aged adults in the mood for rest and relaxation. Communing with glaciers seemed like the right way to proceed, hence the decision to visit Alaska, and we were told HAL "owns" the Alaskan tourism market for good reason. Another consideration was HAL's tipping-optional policy as neither of us likes being hustled for tips.

As it turned out there was a good mix of ages on board albeit a bit weighted toward the tanned-and-toupeed set.

The first part of this report describes the cruise itself. Secondary trip aspects such as air travel and hotel accommodations are discussed in a later section. Overall we had a great time, even though the report below may overemphasize some of the problems we ran into -- this is strictly to help future first-timers avoid some of the rough spots we encountered, not to complain about the vacation. By the way, this was my first cruise so at times I've nothing to compare against.

Embarkation: August 4

We had opted to travel south-to-north, embarking from Vancouver, B.C. Our travel documents had all arrived contained in a well-designed case that included our luggage tags, itineraries, airline tickets, and vouchers for rooms and transfers. There was also a place provided for our passports. At no point in the trip did anyone question our presentation of a voucher in lieu of payment. Apparently HAL pays its contractors promptly.

Saturday night before embarking we stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel (more on that later) and breakfasted there early the following morning. Still on Eastern time, we'd arisen at 4 am local time. We could not board the Ryndam until mid-afternoon but HAL had arranged for us to check in "right there" in the hotel where they have a separate information booth. We had learned that the check-in process would open at 10 am so we showed up there a few minutes early, and at about 9:50 two spiffy redcoats opened for business.

These folks from HAL deserve a good word not only for showing up early but also for being cheerful, courteous and efficient. They must hear the same questions a hundred times daily but responded politely to our set, making occasional reference to the form letter with which they'd presented us. Yes indeed, just tag your bags (here are some extra tags) and leave your bags inside your hotel room; fear not for they will be transferred directly to your stateroom for you. (They were.)

As part of the cruise package HAL had arranged for us to take a pre-departure bus tour around Vancouver. It was raining and we could have passed but elected to take the tour since we were planning to return to Vancouver on the tail end of the trip, and we wanted to get our bearings and choose where to visit then. The driver mentioned that the musical Showboat with Ned Beatty and Cloris Leachman was currently playing at the new Ford Center, so we used a respite stop to good advantage and called to book seats. The bus tour showed us some of the major areas of downtown Vancouver as well as lovely Stanley Park, then did a mansions swing and deposited us at the embarkation area precisely at 3 pm.

We were feeling righteous as we passed by the A-I; J-R; S-Z lines, having already checked in. It was at this time we detected a minor glitch: we were required to fill out a U.S. Customs declaration form since (in the eyes of the law) by boarding we were now leaving Canada and entering U.S. territory. We should have been given the form either at the hotel's HAL desk or while on the tour bus, so we could proceed directly to boarding. As it was, we had to fill it out at the boarding station, where the only place to sit down and write was reserved for the handicapped and there was scarce other place to ponder or write, given the crowds. It somewhat defeated the early check-in process at the hotel.

Tip: Get the U.S. Customs form filled out (1 per family) early, so you don't end up waiting in line only to be sent back to find and complete one. While you're at it, grab a few extra forms if you plan to fly back to the U.S.; it will simplify the return flight. Grab several and save the extras for later.

We were then permitted to get back into line and pass through an airport-style metal detector. Shortly thereafter we encountered our first photo-op, of which there would be many during the cruise. The idea is that at significant points during the cruise there will be a photographer who will take your picture on spec, and later you can look at the enlarged print and decide whether you want to purchase it. All photos are displayed on a board in the photo-shop area.

This particular photo-op had a couple props: a large poster advertising the cruise and a model holding an armful of flowers. Now, normally one would not refer to a model as a prop. The idea was that you would pose with the model as if you were being given the flowers upon the start of your voyage. On paper this sounds like a great idea, but the reality is quite different. Your photo is taken with a line of other people behind you and the model carried the flowers as if they had just been presented to her. Plus the model's facial expression indicates she is thinking most intently about when she can shed these high heels, not "welcome aboard". Admittedly it's difficult for her to adopt a "Welcome aboard!" pose repeatedly for hundreds of couples, but that's what models are paid to do! We side-stepped the opportunity and continued toward the gangway.

Also while on queue, we passed a desk where Marge made a beauty shop appointment. There are two formal dress nights, so she took an appointment for the Farewell dinner, the appointments for the Welcome dinner (when your photo is taken with the ship's captain) having been previously spoken for.

Right inside the ship the guests are paired up with guides to show them to their staterooms, and the line can get rather long. But it does move swiftly as all the ship's personnel know the routine and delays come about only because folks don't have their travel documents in hand, or might trip on the uneven floor of the gangway. We got to the head of the line and showed our ticket to the host who announced our number to our guide, who in turn took us to our room and showed us all of the important keys, knobs and buttons. Of prime importance is your HAL guest ID card, needed for re-boarding after taking a shore excursion. Our bags had not arrived as yet but we were on board and in the lap of luxury.

Looking around our room which was actually a suite -- one of the nicest rooms on the ship -- we found not one, not two, but three -- count'em: 3 -- bottles of champagne, two floral arrangements (one simple that came with the stateroom and one lovely arrangement from relatives) and a fruit basket. Since I don't drink, it would be up to Marge to take care of the champagne, a task to which she was equal. A fourth bottle arrived later in the week which was similarly consumed back in Vancouver.

One of the pleasures of having a suite was that our laundry and dry cleaning was included in the price of the room. We made liberal use of the service, including a shoe shine. Videos were free too, but that may or may not be the case with all rooms.

The suite measured about 17 feet long by 20 feet wide inside, with a private verandah measuring the same 17 feet long by another 10 feet wide. The verandah was furnished with a small table and 4 chairs plus two lounge chairs with a cocktail table between them. A pretty accurate (i.e., not optically enhanced) representation of the room can be found on page 53 of the 1996 HAL cruise guide.

Excursion Arrangements

OK, we were on board but this was no time to rest. Other cruise reports alerted us to the need to act swiftly to secure reservations for the shore excursions we wished to take. We headed straight to the Shore Excursions office which we had known would be closed, but which had brochures displayed describing all excursions and an order form to select the trips you wanted to take. Marge filled in the form, specifying our priority of desired departure times, signed the form and dropped it in the barrel provided. We had long ago decided what we wanted to do (which wasn't much since the goal was R&R) so didn't need any personal assistance from the office. Other folks without the advantage of the Internet and our fine travel agent were at an informational session being given for their benefit. The next day, our excursion tickets magically arrived in our stateroom; we'd gotten our first choice of times in each instance. Excursion prices were charged to our account.

A number of veteran travelers have pointed out that you don't have to book your tours thru the HAL Shore Excursion office. You can contact the tour operators directly and make your own arrangements, saving some money in the process. Maybe that's the best way to go, but we were willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of having the tour start right there at the ship, usually a charter bus that takes you to the excursion operator's location. If you make your own excursion arrangements then you have to sort that out with the tour operator.

Evacuation Drill

Announced over the public address system and listed in the day's printed activities was a lifeboat evacuation drill. Participation was mandatory, and the procedure is taken quite seriously. On closed circuit television in the room are instructions for locating and fitting your life vest, and further instructions on what stairs to use and where to go to find your designated lifeboat. The process was efficient, and attendance was taken. Room 505 didn't answer the call, spoiling our lifeboat's perfect attendance record.

Dinner and Departure

We had "first seating" and were assigned a table to ourselves, an unexpected pleasure. Since changing planes in Detroit, Marge had been cautioning me to be gracious to all we met as we could be sharing our meals with them for a week. On the day of departure the dinner dress code is casual, meaning chinos. This makes sense, since many folks may not have received their baggage by dinner time. I somehow managed to avoid reading the notice that "casual" did not permit jeans. Except for my suit pants I didn't have any trousers other than jeans. Oh well, I'd never been thrown out of a restaurant before and the Lido cafe (an alternate, less formal dining area) and/or room service were available if that happened. Turns out lots of folks were wearing dungarees that night and no one was refused. Dinner that night was loose: our regular dining room steward was off duty; we'd meet him tomorrow evening.

Towards the end of the meal Marge casually mentioned to me that she'd be drinking decaf coffee that night. Later, when the waiter offered us coffee, he brought decaf! Evidently he had overheard us talking and made note of it.

Sometime around dinner the staff turns down your bedcovers and slips several items under your cabin door. These include a ship's newsletter describing tomorrow's activities, a copy of tomorrow's dinner menu and a room service menu to place on the outside of your door. Before retiring we ordered room service breakfast from the suite menu, including Eggbeater omelettes, sausage, bacon, croissants, danish, sliced bananas, milk and coffee. I tell ya, we could get used to our own breakfast buffet out on our private verandah.

Normally departure is scheduled for around 6 pm, but for this cruise it was delayed until 10 pm for some scheduled turbine maintenance. At least that's what the schedule said and what the Captain told us. I have no reason to doubt that but, donning my green eyeshade, I have to wonder if maybe there wasn't a little more than normal inspection going on below decks in the wake of the TWA disaster in New York. Hopefully future cruisers will let us know how often departures are delayed over the next few weeks. Anyhow, we were well asleep when the Ryndam slipped away and headed out to a full day at sea. We missed the pleasure of the first evening's floor show which was reportedly very good.

At sea: August 5

Still on Eastern time, I awoke before 5 am and was unable to get back to sleep. I decided to head down to the Front Office and have my credit card imprint done. HAL doesn't want you to have to fish for cash everytime you want to buy something on board, so they have a voucher system whereby you just sign on the bottom line and a charge is made to your account. In order to complete payment, HAL prefers to have a credit card imprint so they can just transfer all the charges to your card. Since I hadn't yet done this, and since the Front Office was open 24 hours, this seemed to be a good time to complete this chore.

I guess HAL and I have differing opinions on what the term "open" means. When I arrived at the main office around 5 am there was nobody there. No bell to ring, no responses to "Hello?", nothing. The office was "open" but not staffed, as near as I could tell. So back to the room, part those drapes and watch the shoreline thru our floor-to-ceiling windows. Marge got up and called room service, asking them to bring our breakfast earlier than planned, which they did quickly and with no complaint. Unfortunately our omelettes did not have the ham and cheese we requested; this could be a result of them having to hurry-up the order or perhaps the way "Eggbeaters" appears on the menu.

A couple hours later the pool and jacuzzis opened up so we decided to indulge in a bit of a whirlpool. Again, apparently "open" is subject to interpretation. The Ryndam has 2 jacuzzis on the Lido deck. One was busily bubbling but a quick toe-test confirmed that this tub was hot enough to cook lobsters (honest!), wayyy too hot for human use. The other tub had only tepid water and wasn't bubbling. Unable to locate any operating controls, we sat there for a while trying to find someone who knew how to fix one or the other, but to no avail. This was a double failure on HAL's part: [1] not having either tub working even though they were open; and [2] nobody willing to locate somebody who could help us until we finally found someone with 2 stripes at risk (the "not my job" syndrome). Later during the week they brought down the temperature of the too-hot tub but never did fix the other.

We spent a lot of the day just exploring the ship and I took a 1-mile walk (4 laps) around the Lower Promenade deck. Tip: Don't get an outside cabin on the Lower Promenade deck. It's the major deck for foot traffic and if you want to look outside you'll see mostly walkers and sitters. Plus the noise from the ping-pong tables aft. Other staterooms to avoid are those directly adjacent to or across from the laundry rooms and ice machines. This applies to the ms Statendam as well, a mirror image ship to the ms Ryndam.

Before our formal dinner, we got to meet the Captain and Hotel Manager at a reception. Each "seating" was treated to its own reception and introduction to the ship's top officers.

After dinner we went forward to see the floor show in the Vermeer Lounge. Now I've seen lots of cruise ads on TV and they occasionally show a brief shot of one of their acts, implying they offer the finest entertainment this side of Broadway. I wouldn't go quite that far, but I was pleasantly surprised at the level of talent on stage. The singing and dancing were good and the show was lots of fun. This night the story "Night Life" revolved around two lovers who were on separate singing tours to exotic locales. The whole show was well-paced and upbeat. The guy who played the agent for the two lovers tried to put on a New York accent but ended up sounding exactly like Roger Rabbit, but nobody else seemed to notice.

Marge enjoyed the show too, but felt the music was blaring at times. She suggests bringing a pair of earplugs to the shows.

Ketchikan: August 6

After a fine breakfast we went shopping in Ketchikan. We found cigars there, a commodity that is unavailable on the ship. Since we had a veranda with our suite, it was a comfortable place to sit and have a good smoke, and not offend anybody. I suppose one could also enjoy a cigar up on the Sky deck, which has a large open-air space.

After dinner we were invited to cocktails with the Captain and Hotel Manager (another photo-op) and I got a chance to ask Cruise Director Susan Wood about New Year's Eve 2000 cruises. She knew there would be some but didn't have any specifics yet. (More on this later.)

Dinner was informal, meaning jacket but no tie for men, dresses for women.

The show that night was billed as "The Physical Comedy of Max Winfrey". Basically Max is a juggler of unusual objects, and he has some pretty funny routines. No chainsaws, but he did juggle a pogo stick, a bowling ball and a watch from the audience, all at once. In addition he had a fair amount of audience participation and ad-libbed a lot of funny lines. Well worth seeing. Since this was a family cruise, none of the entertainment even bordered on the blue.

Juneau: August 7

Juneau is the major stop on the Alaska route. We docked at 7 am and stayed there until 11 pm or so. A lot of excursions take place here, including two of ours. The focus for us was on the Mendenhall glacier, a 12-mile long, mile-and-a-half wide sheet of ice that marches 40 feet a year from the Juneau Ice Fields to its terminus at Mendenhall lake. If you do the arithmetic that works out to over 1500 years from start to end. That is, the ice that's melting into the lake has been frozen for 1500 years, more or less, depending on how constant is that figure of 40 feet per year.

The tours we took were extremely well-organized. The tour operators have their entire operation down pat, and every one of them was sharp, courteous and efficient.

River raft: We took a raft trip down the Mendenhall river and got soaking wet (we were in the front of the raft), but had fun. Bring an extra change of socks with you, and if you're planning to be anywhere there's air conditioning, bring a change of clothing. We went back to the ship, stripped down to our soggy undergarments and tossed everything into a clothes dryer. Don't plan on shopping in Juneau right after the raft trip! Tip: In the laundry rooms the dryers are free; the washers require 6 (US only) quarters per load. Soap is free but bring your own dryer sheets.

By the way, the raft trip starts out at the lake that the glacier melts into. Normally when thinking "Alaska lake" one is inclined to think of a body of ice cold crystal blue water. Such is not the case where glaciers are concerned -- the water is a rather milky looking shade of green. The guide explained this was due to "glacial silt" -- rocks that had been ground down to dust-fineness by the glacier's movement over them.

Tip: during the raft trip they've got a cameraman stationed somewhere (I never saw him) to snap a couple shots of your raft as you round a bend. Your guide will alert you to this but you have to be quick on the uptake: remove your headgear and wave to the camera! Otherwise your picture will not be worth buying as you will be unrecognizable. These guys do a superb job to get those photos developed and ready for purchase by the time your raft arrives at the end of the trip!

Glacier landing: After a (yawn) Lido-lunch we then took a helicopter flight onto the glacier itself. The tour operator has several helicopters and they all fill up and take off. An important part of the tour is the helicopter flight itself, as they show you a lot of the glacier from the air. Once they land they pick up the previous tourists, fly them back to the heliport and then return with the next set of tourists and fly your group back to the heliport. They appear to do this all day long, but never sound bored or apathetic.

In order to help them balance each helicopter a tour staffer has to know your weight. They ask you this on the bus to the heliport. Tip: If you're embarrassed about others hearing your weight, sit in the back of the bus where there's nobody around, or have it written on a piece of paper you can show to the staffer.

While you're on the ice, a guide shows you some of the more interesting facets of that (tiny) section of the glacier, and asks if you have any questions. I got to play "Stump the Guide" with my question. While in flight the helicopter pilot points out a smooth section of the glacier and then a rough section of the glacier, explaining that the surface of the glacier takes on the characteristics of the ground terrain some 40-50 feet beneath it. On the glacier, I asked the guide why is that the case -- why doesn't the glacier erode the ground beneath it thus smoothing the entire path? (Remember all that glacial silt in the lake? Sounds like erosion to me.) The answer I got was "Gee, that's a real good question", followed by a guess that such erosion does take place but on a very long scale.

Alaska's weather is not very predictable but nevertheless I believe this is a worthwhile tip: Take your glacier landing tour in the afternoon, when morning fog is likely to have burned off.

Juneau wanderings: After some shopping (there's lots of shopping available in Juneau) and a trip into the Red Dog Saloon to see the gun Wyatt Earp left behind, we were too late for the dinner seating back at the restaurant on the ship. So we grabbed a bite in the Lido and headed off to bed. We were too late (and too tired!) to catch the comedy show. This is one of the perils of having the First Sitting, but we're both early birds and thus prefer an early dinner.

Sitka: August 8

Marge decided to go ashore although the weather was inclement. She toured the Russian bishop's former home, now a museum, and the Russian Orthodox cathedral. She also saw a display of Russian folk dancing at the cultural center. Sitka is an important port of call from an historical perspective. Meanwhile John explored the ship and caught up on the news as defined by CNN.

Dress code for dinner was informal, meaning coat, no tie for men.

The evening's show was "Sounds of America". This show basically starred the same cast that performed "Night Life" three days earlier. We did not enjoy this show nearly as much as "Night Life," even though the performing talent was the same. The show just didn't seem to be put together very well. For example, during scene/costume changes a couple would be out on stage engaging in witty dialog to keep the audience entertained. Trouble is, the "witty dialog" consisted of jokes and one-liners that were old hat before George Burns was born. And while one segment of the show was a tribute to Gospel Music, I don't believe they ever sung the word "God" at all, lest someone take offense. I'm not a religous man, but that incongruity is disingenuous.

Nevertheless there were certain performers who were astoundingly good and you quickly learn whom to watch for; any numbers they do will delight. My advice to HAL is to replace this show, changing from an ensemble format to a two- or three-person performance thus giving the superb singing and dancing talent more solo time.

Hubbard Glacier: August 9

In the morning the ship sailed into Yakutat bay where the magnificent Hubbard Glacier meets the sea. We held position for about an hour so there would be plenty of opportunity to take photos and watch for "calving", which there was plenty of but not what I had expected. When a glacier calves, part of the ice breaks away and falls into the ocean. The Hubbard glacier is maybe 80 feet high where it meets the ocean (that's the estimate of the observers around me) but that didn't mean that an entire 80-foot-high segment of ice would break off. Rather, small chunks maybe 10-20 feet tall would slide off the face of the glacier into the ocean, raising a trail of powder along the way. Still, it was impressive to watch and hear the splash of several tons of ice hitting the water.

I took a number of panoramic photos of the glacier but you would need a fisheye lens to capture the entire spectacle from our distance. Somehow I feel I should say more about this awe-inspiring sight, in some ways the highlight of the whole trip, but the experience was just too visceral to describe in words. Here's a photo of maybe one-third of the entire view from a distance of half a mile or so. Too bad it was so cloudy, but I understand that brings out the blue coloring:

About 80 feet high here!

All around you, you hear the hissing sound of air escaping melting glacial ice chunks. The air had been compressed to about 750 psi over the years.

Blackjack Tournament: The casino featured a blackjack tournament that I entered. You paid $10 to play 7 hands, starting with a stake of "700" (700 pounds, pesos, points -- whatever units you like). At the end of the 7 hands your point total was noted, all the chips were returned to the house, and another round of 7 hands ($10, please) was begun, allowing other players to participate. This went on from 2:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon, at which point the 7 highest totals of the day played in the "finals" -- one last set of 7 hands. The winner of the finals was the winner of the tournament, fetching a $250 prize and some amount of notoriety. I flamed out on the 7th hand, so didn't make the finals...this was the most common outcome. The contest was held at just one blackjack table that started out very crowded so I offer this tip: Come by the contest table about 4 pm when you can play with fewer people breathing down your neck. Plus, you'll have a better idea what kind of score you'll need to qualify for the finals.

This night the dress code was formal, and the dinner was billed as the Farewell Dinner. This would be the last photo-op of the trip, with an opportunity to get some posed, studio-quality photos of us in our finery. The photographer took maybe 6 different poses of us singly and together. We later saw that some of them came out rather nice. Tip: Men, for an extra-spiffy touch grab one of the flowers from your room's bouquet and make it into a boutonniere. Ladies, consider a flower in your hair.

The show that night was "Magic in Concert" featuring Leo Ward and "Danielle". I don't think I've ever seen a live magic show and I've got to say some of the illusions were impressive. I was looking for wires, mirrors, etc., not paying much attention to the staging and still couldn't see how they managed some of their tricks.

Valdez: August 10

We took a picture of the beautiful port of Valdez just to show we'd been there; it was a pit, that assessment having nothing to do with Exxon. The most interesting aspect of coming into Valdez was watching the barge we passed, pulled by a single tugboat, around 5:30 in the morning. The barge had been loaded with approximately 60 containers, balanced fore and aft with a single fork lift the middle. Poised on top of each stack of containers (the rear section of a semi-trailer), were cars, trucks, boats, and waaayyy at the aft end of the barge poised atop 8 containers was a beautiful luxury deep-sea fishing boat, the type you pay big bucks just to charter. I suppose the idea was that if it toppled, at least it might float.

SeaQuest: Other than the name, SeaQuest is supposed to be a secret so I don't want to be the one to give things away. Here's a couple hints: it involves some audience participation so is oriented a bit towards the young-adult crowd. And when you go, bring along one of those fine chocolates the cabin attendant leaves on your pillow at night. (And don't eat it!) Regrettably there's no special prize other than bragging rights and, for a few folks, a souvenir coffee cup. But it's a lot of fun, so go!

Disembarkation Lecture: after SeaQuest the cruise director explained the procedure for leaving the ship the following morning. There are about 1270 guests on the Ryndam with a variety of different post-cruise travel plans. HAL has wisely imposed a disembarkation procedure to keep us all from jamming the gangway in a rush to depart. It all starts out with a form you fill out early in the voyage, telling them your post-cruise plans. In our case we were planning to take the bus to Anchorage and then a 2:30 pm flight to Seattle. The staff processed this information and cranked out "Orange, 26" for us. Today we got a set of orange luggage tags and a card with the number 26 on it. The number, our "disembarkation number", indicated the order in which we would leave the ship. I believe numbers 1, 2, and 3 were to be called at 6:30 am, and it turned out to be a bit over an hour before they called out our number. "Orange" meant "Deliver this luggage to the Airport, no hurry, it's a late flight".

Following the instructional lecture we were given a nice, sentimental farewell from representatives of the crew. I felt this was well done.

College Fjord: late in the afternoon we sailed into College Fjord. This is an area that contains 15 glaciers if you believe the daily program. Certainly there were a lot of them all in one area 25 miles long and 3 miles wide. None was as spectacular as the Hubbard glacier, but there were so many of them all around! The glaciers are named after colleges because that's how the Harriman expedition of 1899 decided to name them. While these glaciers are hundreds if not thousands of years old, most of the world didn't even know they existed until this century.

Author and pet penguin Melvin, off Yale Glacier, College Fjord.

Dinner this night was casual (I wore my jeans again) since we were expected to have our bags packed and tagged by bedtime, keeping out just one carry-on bag. You have to leave your bags outside your stateroom so the crew can collect them for transfer to your color-coded destination.

Seward: August 11

This day of the cruise marks the transition back to the real world. We vacated our cabin and went up to the Lido for another great Ryndam breakfast. If you like, you can wait in the Lido for them to announce your departure number. If you have a high number you can also wait in the Crow's Nest lounge on the upper deck -- almost nobody waits there since it's so far down to the main deck.

When our number was called we dutifully walked down to the gangway and turned in our guest ID cards, then off the ship and turned in our disembarkation number to the guy collecting them. At this point it was like some cosmic "fun" switch had been turned to off. No sooner had we gotten on the assigned bus than the driver announced "There's no more room, all of you folks will have to get off the coach". Mind you, I could see a row of 3 empty seats at the rear of the bus and a few unoccupied singles, but the driver didn't seem to give a hoot. Eventually enough people behind us did get off (for all I know they're still waiting for transportation) and Marge and I got the 3 seats at the rear. The bus operator seemed surprised that anyone would want to sit in the row next to the toilet, but I explained that that seat offered me some legroom (I'm rather tall) and she understood.

Tip: Bring an apple or two with you, maybe even a can of soda to drink on the bus trip up to Anchorage. Buy your soda the night before 'cause they won't be available on board the day of departure.

Tip: Ladies, please don't wear perfume on the bus! It's poorly ventilated and some of us have allergic reactions to even the finest fragrances. Thanks.

Three miserable hours later we arrive at the Anchorage airport, in not too pleasant a mood. Anchorage has two terminals, Domestic and International. Scheduling of international flights is such that no international flights arrive anytime near noon, which is about the time our buses arrive. So the cruise lines ship all the luggage to the international terminal and the airlines arrange to staff the desks there so you can drag your luggage only a few feet and check it in for your departing flight. This is a great idea. Too bad our airline, America West, does not participate in this. More on this aspect of the trip below in the "Air/Hotel" section.

Meals

Breakfast: On a cruise it's hard to go wrong with breakfast, at least for those used to American dining. Just about all the standard fare is available and of course you can eat all you want. My personal favorite was the smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted bagel, something found on the Rotterdam Dining Room menu. Every morning I'd tell the waiter to bring me two of those, and they (along with decaf) were just the right amount for breakfast. Actually I would have preferred room-service pig-out all week, but Marge didn't want to have to get up at any particular time, so we went to the restaurants.

Lunch: In my opinion, lunch is the most difficult meal of the day. This stems largely from the way the Lido serves lunch. The Lido is run much like a cafeteria where your entrees are served by staff. Problem is, much of the food is unfamiliar. I can't tell if I'm going to like the seafood salad or pasta salad or whatever, so usually I passed on the many salad choices. One day I asked for a strip steak rare and got one well-done, and so on. In retrospect I think the right thing for me to do would be to order a cheeseburger at the grill across the pool from the restaurant, but I kept hoping to find something more appetizing inside the Lido. Next cruise I'll lunch in the main dining room when it's open (some days it's closed for lunch).

Quite the opposite from this was the marvelous selection of desserts available at lunchtime inside the Lido. They had two refrigerated cases each loaded with maybe 5 trays of desserts of all kinds. LOTS of good stuff to pig out on. If I weren't a diabetic I'd have nothing but Lido desserts for lunch!

Dinner and Late Night Buffet

Dinner service was superb and the selection of entrees, hot and cold appetizers, soups, salads and desserts was always good. We had Alaskan King Crab one evening and Beef Wellington another. The prime rib was outstanding, and we got it rare, just as requested. There was salmon galore and lobster tails if you wanted them. There was Indonesian fare offered one day, as most of the kitchen staff is Indonesian, and rack of lamb. One evening featured food from the Netherlands, apropos to the cruise line. Does anybody have HAL's recipe for the Dutch Black Bean soup served on Dutch Dinner night? I thought it was outstanding!

One night a caviar appetizer was available. I ordered it and estimate the caviar content at two teaspoons. Not unreasonable for an appetizer of this nature, but not much in absolute terms. You can, of course, order additional appetizers or rolls or something to keep you busy while the rest of your table eats the more substantial offerings. Marge said her escargot, a personal favorite, were the best she'd ever eaten. Also, the jumbo shrimp cocktail were truly jumbo. Don't let the description of the cocktail sauce deter you; it's no hotter than most. In fact, one problem with the dining was that it was never very spicy. Then again, we missed the Indonesian and Tex-Mex midnight buffets which might have been "hotter" than other dinner fare.

On three evenings we were offered off-the-menu flaming desserts prepared by our head steward. They included Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster and Crepes Suzette. Few other tables were enjoying these special desserts and we never did figure out if we were just lucky or our dining companions preferred the menu selections, which were always quite good.

At the Farewell Dinner the menu featured Baked Alaska presented en parade by the dining room staff with lights out and lit sparklers everywhere. There was a great deal of attention paid to presentation. How anyone can go back for a late-night buffet after such a meal is astounding, but there were people who did so regularly. We did manage to attend the "chocolate extravaganza" on the night it was offered. You could line up early and take photographs of this extraordinary display of culinary art. The lines for this event were long and moved slowly, so you had to be very patient. (John just looked; Marge took photos and a plateful of goodies :-).

<-- Part of the dessert buffet.

The dining room also features a wine steward who takes your order and keeps your wineglass filled. But with all the champagne in our stateroom (and the high price of booze on the high seas) we never ordered anything to drink except (free) iced tea for me. After the first night I never had to ask for iced tea again; it was always waiting for me when we sat down to eat -- another touch of HAL class.

It turns out it is also the wine steward's responsibility to obtain receipts for gift bottles of champagne. After having me sign for our second gift bottle, Moses our wine steward mentioned that if we wanted to, we could bring a bottle of champagne to dinner and he would open it for us. We took him up on his offer and put one of the bottles of champagne on ice the next day. Tip: on the Ryndam Navigation deck, the ice machine is located in an unmarked room opposite Cabin 038. We brought the cold bottle to dinner the next day and, true to his word, Moses brought over an ice bucket, opened the bottle and poured drinks. Now I don't drink and my wife isn't a lush, so we only managed to get thru about half the bottle at dinner. We felt it would be a bit tacky to take the open bottle back to our cabin, so we just left it there in the dining room. The next evening as we sat down, Moses came by with an ice bucket containing the rest of the champagne -- he had corked the bottle and saved it for us! This is the kind of unexpected delight that gives HAL its high reputation for service.

Drinks

With the no-cash, sign-as-you-buy policy it can get pretty easy to ring up a huge bar bill. Marge had a steady supply of champagne but I was faced with the choice between iced tea (free) and soda ($1.50). For the amount spent on the entire cruise it seems incredibly cheap of me to waffle on so small a price difference, but I really did not appreciate the outrageous price for a can of Diet Coke. I don't mind paying money for value received, but such was not the case here. For the most part I did without canned soda and on future cruises will probably bring a 6-pack of soda on board. Similar comments apply to the minibar; too high a price for the convenience it provides. We passed.

Cruise Director

Everyone gets to know the Cruise Director. He or she seems to introduce all the major activities and continually pops up around the ship. With this much exposure the cruise line needs a special kind of person. If a Genetic Engineer were told to come up with the right mix of cheer, charm, warmth and wit, he or she would be hard pressed to create a combination more effective than Susan Wood, our Cruise Director. Hers was the first voice we heard in the morning and the last we heard at night. Certainly many of her duties involve well-rehearsed ritual, but she does a lot of other things (such as hosting contests) that require she be quick-witted to adapt to the situation, keeping everybody happy while keeping things moving on schedule.

My guess is she also has to work behind the scenes to recruit and train talent to staff those nightly shows. That includes singers, dancers, musicians, magicians, lighting and sound technicians -- just about everything but the nonexistent box office staff. On a feedback form we told HAL she deserved twice the salary she was being paid, whatever that might be.

Casino

When it was open, the casino was fairly popular. The dealers seemed well-trained and professional (I lived in Las Vegas for 4 years, so feel qualified to make that judgment). I didn't like the fact that the Video Poker machines ("8/5", no jackpot) paid only 1:1 for two pair. I put $18 in the 3-reeler dollar machines offering an $830,000 jackpot, and got nothing in return, as expected. I would say HAL makes a fair amount of money off this operation. We spent more time in the puzzle and card rooms, reading, viewing free for the asking videos on our in-room VCR and enjoying the scenery drifting by than in the casino.

Special Tip on Coin-Pusher Machines

The casino has various table games, standard slot machines, video poker and a kinetic slot machine I call the coin-pusher, not knowing the official term. It's a glass-enclosed structure where you drop a coin (actually, a 25-cent token) that falls to a flat level surface. Then from behind, a metal "broom" pushes the coin forward, i.e., towards you. There are lots of coins on this surface and your coin will likely push other coins in front of it, possibly causing some to fall down to a second level where another "broom" pushes yet more coins forward towards a hopper. Coins that fall down the hopper are your winnings. Frequently a coin will land on top of another coin, meaning the "brooms" don't do much pushing, no coins fall out the hopper and you've just lost a quarter. While these machines are great entertainment they also offer some of the worst payback in the casino. Here's the tip: the casino does not empty the slots until after the 7-day cruise is over. If you want to play this machine, wait until the casino's last open day when the accumulated losses have created a large pile of tokens around the hopper. Your odds are much better now than at the beginning of the cruise, as payouts tend to come in clumps of 5-10 coins rather than 1 at a time during the start of the cruise.

Note you will need to consult your first day's daily program for the casino's entire cruise schedule. In our case the casino was closed the last full day of the cruise.

Beauty Shop

Marge made an appointment to have her long hair put in a braid for a reception. She has lived in various states under various health certification schemes for beauty parlors, but this was the first occasion she had to have her hair styled without first being shampooed as a matter of course!! Five minutes, wham bam, the braid was complete; twenty-five dollars please. She was incredulous and made a negative comment on the feedback card to the management. She also canceled her scheduled appointment for the Farewell Dinner. Apparently you must specify that your hair be washed as well as styled, at additional cost.

John is considering learning how to braid hair.

Tipping

We like HAL's "tipping-optional" policy but all along had planned to tip our cabin and dining room stewards. HAL doesn't provide any guidelines, saying only that if you want to tip, tip whom you want what you want. Without getting into specifics suffice it to say we spent a little over $100 on tips, and felt that was appropriate for a 7-day cruise. There appears to be little turnover in the staff, so it's not evident that they rely on tips.

Boston-Vancouver: August 3, pre-cruise

Our fine travel agent, Ray, managed to book us on a Northwest Air flight from Boston to Vancouver with a change in Detroit. Takeoff was scheduled for 6:30 am and since this was an international flight we were advised to get to the airport at 5 am! We managed to get there even a little earlier only to find the Northwest check-in line was so long it had already exceeded the roped-off queue length! And it wasn't moving at all because no ticket agents were on duty until 5 am. I wish Northwest could put at least 1 agent on duty at 4 am to prevent the line buildup we encountered. The flights themselves were uneventful; just the way I like it.

Upon arrival in Vancouver the first task is to make it through Customs. In my book the Vancouver airport is one of the best in North America, well-designed to minimize queueing delays. One observation: each line for Customs can be served by 2 Customs agents, one on each side of a booth. If you have to wait in line, make sure the line that you get in really is served by 2 agents. Otherwise you can end up in a line that's no longer than any other, but which moves only half as fast as the others if there's only 1 agent on duty.

After passing through Customs you collect your luggage and exit the building. Thank you, Vancouver, for providing free luggage carts, so we don't have to fish for exact Canadian change first thing.

Our tour includes a transfer from airport to hotel on a green "Airporter" bus. What they don't tell you is that there are several such buses, only one of which goes to the hotel you want. So before unloading luggage make sure it's the right Airporter for you. And there is no need to crowd around the bus; the drivers make sure they have as many passengers as possible.

After a couple of "wrong" buses came by we caught the right one and were brought to the Pan Pacific Hotel, right there at the pier, right next to where the Ryndam would dock. It was now about 2 pm PDT, 12+ hours since we showed up at Boston's Logan Airport, but we couldn't check in to the hotel until 3 pm. So we got some advice from the concierge and headed off to an early Chinese dinner at the Shanghai Bistro a few blocks from the hotel. Good food, especially the rice (of all things, the rice!).

We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel. Though this was downtown Vancouver, it was a Saturday so things were quieter than usual but a number of retail shops were open. We checked in and went up to the room on the no-smoking 17th floor. This no-smoking room reeked of cigarette smoke, and there was an ashtray on the nightstand. In a non-smoking room??? Marge called down to the main office and had a chat with somebody. According to them, there's an ordinance that requires an ashtray in every hotel room, even if non-smoking. The hotel was sorry that the previous guest "cheated" but there is little they can do to prevent it. They offered to bring in an ozone smoke-remover which they say does a good job of getting rid of the odor, but it would require us to be out of the room for the half-hour it would take. Realistically that would mean an hour or more since nothing happens instantly at any large hotel. Since we were so dog-tired from our trip we decided to put up with things instead.

Now I'm not one to ridicule another country's laws, customs or religion, but this has to rank pretty high on the Grand Scale Of Nonsense. Vancouver gets a lot of visitors, many of whom are unfamiliar with the language and perhaps even the concept of a "no-smoking" hotel room. The mere presence of an ashtray could readily signify to them that smoking is indeed OK -- why else would the hotel put an ashtray in the room? And in any case, regardless of the laws, it is just unacceptable for a hotel guest to discover the stench of cigarette smoke in a "no-smoking" room. Ironically, it would not surprise me to discover the previous guest "Mr. Chimney" was probably smoking American cigarettes.

We slept for a while and woke up arount 10 pm local time, hungry. So far we had two airplane micro-snacks and a plateful of excellent Chinese food, including the rice. A quick glance at the room service menu left me woozy from the stratospheric prices, but neither of us had the energy to get dressed and go out again. So Marge pored thru the phone book and found a pizza place ("Gigi's") not too far away, that claimed to deliver anywhere downtown. She called and ordered up a large sausage/mushroom pizza and 4 cans of diet coke. They said it would be no problem delivering to our hotel room. Not too much later there was a knock on the door and the guy handed over our pizza and cokes. The bill came to C$18 so I handed the guy US$20 and said let's call it square; he was most happy to do so (US$1 = C$1.30+). Again, I don't mind paying for value received and as far as I'm concerned the $20 pizza was far better value than anything on the room service menu.

I don't want to come down too hard on the Pan Pacific here; it is by and large a well-run, beautiful hotel staffed with capable and friendly people. Likely their room service prices are no more outrageous than their competitors'. But some of the policies they have developed were burdensome to us and I'd like future travelers to know what kind of problems we ran into, so you can be somewhat better prepared.

Anchorage-Vancouver: August 11, post-cruise

After the cruise we had arranged to return to Vancouver for a few more days exploring this lovely city. Recall the cruise tour bus had dropped us off in Anchorage with our luggage in the international terminal, and that our airline, America West, wanted luggage checked in at the domestic terminal. HAL was prepared, though: there was another bus onto which we were to load our luggage (with no help) that would drive us over to the domestic terminal where we would then check it in. Does anybody else catch the sloppiness here? We've already had to tell HAL what flight we were taking. HAL already had to take our luggage and drive it to the airport. It would seem only a minor additional effort on their part to separate the "domestic terminal" luggage from the "international terminal" luggage. We've already got to fill out a departure form giving our airline and flight information -- how tough can it be for them to add a few new color tags? On top of a lousy 3-hour bus ride we've got to get our own luggage, load it on another bus, get on the bus, ride 5 minutes, unload all the luggage and haul it inside the domestic terminal. On top of this, the line at the America West terminal was moving at a snail's pace, less than 1 foot per minute. If we weren't so annoyed by the morning we might be able to use the events to script a Marx Brothers movie.

The America West line was so slow that the guy in front of me suggested we give a round of applause for anyone who managed to finish their business with the ticket agent. I think what actually happened here is that we showed up exactly at noon and some of the staff took a lunch break at what was for us the worst possible time. After a half an hour or so things cleared up and the line resumed normal airport pace. The cosmic fun switch had been set to all ahead one-third. When we got to the agent, we found a cheerful capable lady who checked our bags thru to Vancouver for us. We were to fly to Seattle and then change planes to a United flight back up to Vancouver. How tough can that be?

On board the aircraft we weren't too surprised when the Captain told us that it was taking longer than usual to load the luggage and there would be a delay. We had seen large piles of luggage behind the ticket counter. Mechanical failure? Sick-out? We never did discover.

In the fullness of time plus an additional 20 minutes our plane landed in Seattle. Now if you never go to the Seattle airport you likely will never have any trouble with it. And if we ever go to the Seattle airport again, we'll probably do OK as well. But the first time you have to make a connection in Seattle you are in for a real fire drill. What the airport lacks in common sense it makes up for with confusion. You see, they've got these automated trams that are supposed to ferry you between different concourses. "No problem", I think, DFW has a tram system that does the same thing. Well, I shouldn't insult DFW: their tram works just fine. You get on and sooner or later you arrive at your intended destination. Not so in Seattle. You get on and a couple stops later you're back where you got on, not having come anywhere near your intended airline.

We were looking for the United concourse. The tram directions, and believe me that is a generous term, told us to go to the "main terminal". Maybe that's not their exact term, but the point was we were to transfer there to another tram that would take us to the United concourse. But what other tram? If you get off at the "main terminal" (or whatever the transfer point was named) you see one of 3 things: to the left, a roped-off hallway with a lady security agent standing guard. Straight ahead a blank wall. To the right the end of a metal-detector security area for people headed to the tram to catch a departing flight. Where are we supposed to pick up our transfer? No, there are no signs or directions of any kind whatsoever. So I ask the lady guarding the rope "Which way to United?". She obligingly points us right at the tram we just left. So we jump back on board the tram just as its doors are closing. Of course that's no use, the tram just runs in a 3-concourse circle none of which goes to United. That much we can tell from the graphics inside the tram. So when we get back to the transfer point we emerge, I fight back an impulse to scream at the security guard (rarely a wise maneuver anyway) and like rats negotiating a maze we maneuver around the security zone to discover the other tram across the hallway to the right. No way is this visible from where we get off the tram. This is just the sort of knowledge you pick up in exchange for a few more gray hairs.

The other tram, it is advertised, stops running at 8 pm. No reason given and it certainly is odd inasmuch as there are lots of flights after 8. My watch has 7:50 and the correct timezone. My wife is getting ready to explode if the tram isn't working 'cause there sure as heck aren't any directions saying how to walk to the United concourse. I think again of what the Marx Brothers would make of this, but then the tram arrives, we get on and it delivers us to the magical third tram which does get us to the United concourse. What had been an hour connection had shrunk considerably and our plane was boarding when we got to the gate.

I'm told that Seattle is the best city in the USA in which to have a heart attack, given the percentage of citizens who know CPR. With all the strain induced by that airport I can see why so many people want to be prepared.

Our plane lands in Vancouver and we zip thru Customs. My wife is carrying a bottle of champagne given her on board the Ryndam. Customs doesn't mind as long as it's for our personal consumption, as opposed to a gift. We grab another free luggage cart (thank you, Vancouver) and wait for our luggage to arrive on the carousel. And wait. And wait. Our kid-laden flight gives way to a briefcase flight from SFO, but our luggage is nowhere to be found. Then a flight from ORD, then one from LAX. No luggage. I'm too tired to think of the Marx Brothers. Marge gets in line at the luggage service area and waits there. Eventually the nice man helps us fill out the paperwork and notes that another United flight is due in from Seattle in a half an hour (10:30 pm) if we want to wait around. Of course we do, not least in part due to the careful planning of HAL. In our "welcome to Vancouver!" itinerary they have all kinds of backup including an emergency telephone number to call so you know you won't be stranded at the airport no matter how late. At least, I hope so...

In due course our luggage does indeed arrive on the next United flight. Apparently we weren't the only folks confused by a plane change in Seattle. We thank the nice United luggage man and let him know we're OK, then it's outside the airport to pick up the Airporter bus to the hotel. Did I ever mention that the Vancouver airport deserves an award for being well-designed, with the traveler in mind?

This time we stay at the Waterfront Centre Hotel, which is located across the street from the Pan Pacific Hotel. Our ace travel agent, Ray Goldenberg, has placed us in a hotel that is within easy walking distance to many of Vancouver's finest attractions. But right now it's midnight and the folks at the check-in desk are a bit confused because their computers say we're already checked in. To make a long story short for a change, they were told this was a stay added on to a cruise and had made the assumption that said cruise was actually the Southbound HAL cruise that had just docked there in the morning. We had been checked in at 1pm by somebody who wanted to make sure our room -- guaranteed late arrival -- didn't get reassigned by the next shift. We assured them we had just flown in from Anchorage and our arms were very tired. Up to the room, and indeed it was unoccupied. Not only that, there was no stench of tobacco smoke, golly not even an ashtray. Watch out, Waterfront Centre, you're going to be cited for failure to encourage people to smoke!

The cosmic fun switch had been set so low for so long that the twinkle in my wife's eyes had almost gone out. She was desperately in need of a pizza fix. So in a reprise of a maneuver the prior weekend, she called up Gigi's pizza and asked them to deliver some goodies. They did, we enjoyed them, and finally hit the sack.

Vancouver: August 12

We spent this day on foot exploring the waterfront section of Vancouver, including the Gastown district where we did a lot of shopping. I thought the steam-powered clock was quite an invention but didn't spend enough time examining it to figure out the Rube Goldberg mechanism. Does anybody have a block diagram showing how it works? We had a particularly good time looking thru a shop called The Games People which has a vast selection of games of all kinds, both old and new. I got to play "Stump the Proprietor" by asking him if, among his large library of old games, he happened to have a copy of a game called "Kimbo: the game of fences". Sadly he did not, nor had he even heard of it. Anybody out there have a copy for sale?

Back at the hotel, Marge took a nap while I went across the street to the Pan Pacific building and took in the IMAX-3D movie "Wings of Courage". The IMAX-3D technology is really astounding, and I recommend movie buffs and technoids of all kinds make time for this. The movie is only 40 minutes long and was very reasonably priced at C$8.50, considering the novelty value. The theatre has many movies, not all in 3D, and seems to show one every hour.

Vancouver: August 13

This day we widened our horizons with a number of transit trips. Our ace travel agent Ray suggested we get transit passes which cost us C$4.50 each but let us ride all day on all the public transportation, which included the buses, the Sea Bus to North Vancouver, and the "sky train", a long-distance transit. Over the course of the day we took all three. They say you can buy tickets at just about any small store but we had difficulty finding such a convenience store; we spoke with a friendly bus driver and were directed to the nearby Waterfront Station, the hub for all metro transportation. (John's joke of the day: "Can't take the A-train? Take the Sea Bus!").

We took the #19 bus to Stanley Park and got off at the Aquarium. So too did about 23,678 youngsters and their parents. I've been to lots of aquariums so didn't see anything special except for the brown Sea Otter, who wins the Joe Cool award for entertaining us with his combined backstroke and puppy-dog expression. Aside from that I think I got more entertainment from watching all the kids, who were well-behaved and clearly having a good time.

That evening, we saw Showboat at the Ford Center. The facility is new and lovely, and we had excellent seats, but the man next to Marge had been chewing garlic for his health, so we asked to be re-seated, which was promptly and professionally done. Also, the starring role, Cap'n Andy, was played by a substitute as headliner Ned Beatty was off promoting the show in Minneapolis. (Alas.) Taxis are readily available out front to bring you back to your hotel when the show is over.

Editorial opinion: Vancouver is a large and growing city, perhaps too large for its traffic infrastructure. I'm glad I don't have to drive there. For those of you thinking of investing there as it appears to be a nonstop growth area, consider this: some amount, perhaps a large amount, of the money coming in to Vancouver is money fleeing Hong Kong in anticipation of its return to Chinese rule in August, 1997. When that date comes it is likely all the money that was going to leave Hong Kong has left, and there will be no more to follow. This could lead to an overbuilt Vancouver and falling prices, though possibly from higher levels. This is strictly my opinion and can certainly be off the mark, but is at least something to consider before you spend a lot of money speculating on Vancouver real estate. End of opinion.

Vancouver-Boston: August 14

This was to be our last day on vacation and we had to get to the airport in time for our noon international flight. So today we elected to treat ourselves to a room service breakfast, after I noted the room service breakfast prices were only slightly higher than the hotel restaurant's prices. Our meal came promptly at the requested hour and was nicely presented by a capable staff member. We dined and packed more or less at leisure, and checked out with no difficulty. HAL has a desk at this hotel too, and the courteous redcoat staffer had given us her last Airporter schedule. The hotel-airport transfer was part of the travel package and the hotel doorman worked with the bus driver to load our luggage on the bus which had arrived on time.

Tip: if you remembered to grab extra U.S. customs forms, the bus trip is an excellent time to fill one out so it is all ready when you need it at the airport. Otherwise you'll have to fill it out inside the airport. You only need 1 per family but grabbed several in case you make a mistake and have to start over.

We were dropped off at the airport just outside the U.S.-bound flight terminal and I watched the bags while Marge got another free baggage cart (again, thank you, Vancouver). Then it was a simple matter to roll our luggage into the terminal and up to the Northwest Air counter. Note that the airlines have check-in lines specific to destination cities, so you can't go to just any counter. There are TV monitors that readily indicate which line to join. After checking in and getting our luggage tagged, we then carted our bags thru the duty-free shop (clever planning, that) to the departure area. In the duty-free shop, you can pick up a GST rebate form. GST ("General Sales Tax") is one of the many taxes paid by Canadian citizens. Visitors are able to obtain a refund of the GST they have paid, but you have to have the receipts to tell them how much you should get back. You have the option to fill out the tax refund form there and get an on-the-spot rebate or wait until you're at home and send it in. Tip: Always save your original receipts and keep them in one place.

An unexpected joy awaited us: we cleared U.S. customs right there in the Vancouver airport. What a great idea! No massive lines back in the U.S., caused by an entire flight unloading all at once. Instead you pass thru Customs as you enter the departure gate area, which is a much more relaxed operation since people tend to arrive in dribs and drabs. Then we unloaded our luggage at a central station and proceeded to the Airport Tax area. Vancouver has an "Airport Improvement Fund" that requires C$10 tax per person flying to the U.S. (more for other countries). Tip: remember to have C$10 per person ready for them. With our air improvement tax receipts in hand we were allowed to proceed through the metal detectors and find our way to the gate.

The rest of the trip was more or less your standard uneventful transcontinental airline flight with one plane change in MSP. We arrived at Boston's Logan airport on time and had remembered to save an American dollar so we could rent a luggage cart. Surprisingly, our car was still where we had parked it (Boston: car theft capital of the galaxy) and after a rough midnight trip thru the airport tunnel (only 1 of the 2 tunnels was open and so traffic was cut down to 1 lane each way), we got on I-93 North and eventually arrived home, safe and sound.

Year 2000 Cruise

In late 1995, rec.travel.cruises began to see a number of inquiries regarding New Year's Eve 2000 cruises (Meaning December 31, 1999; let's not debate why that's the wrong year, that's going to be the "party" year, period).

Cruise lines already do New Year's Eve cruises in the Carribean and other warm climates. On the Internet one can find cruise lines that advertise "Millenium Cruises", but with no real details. They seem to be selling a pig in a poke -- why would I sign up for a cruise when it may not be any different from a cruise offered by another line I prefer?

If I were running a cruise line I'd be madly scheduling a Millenium Cruise that promised to take voyagers out to the International Date Line so they could be the first (and last!) to ring in the new century. An even fancier idea (thanks to Gary Fowler) would be to anchor the ship AT the International Date Line so passengers could walk into the new millenium.

Our ace travel agent who we think did an outstanding job, and who has no other relationship with either of us, was

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