|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 13, 2015 19:21:36 GMT -8
Karl's Ogden Point breakwater in Victoria is a great place to watch cruise ships. Here are my views from morning of August 13, 2015: Morning reflections:  DSC00685 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr Jewel of the Seas arriving - with pilot boat  DSC00696 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr |
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 13, 2015 21:45:59 GMT -8
|
|
grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
|
Post by grk on Aug 14, 2015 12:32:40 GMT -8
The sister ships in the Holland America fleet have a wonderful forward facing lounge as do those in the Cunard and P &O fleet. You are right in that the feature is sadly lacking on the Carnival and Costa sisters.
|
|
grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
|
Post by grk on Aug 14, 2015 12:48:05 GMT -8
When you look at Flugel Horn's "morning reflections" photo you see the Charles H Cates 4. It is difficult to understand that in the early 1070s when this tug was new, that she was a state of the art ship handling tug. Compare that 900 HP tug with the massive tractor tugs of 6300 HP you see at Roberts Bank handling the bulkers and container vessels. #4 is hired on 3 days a week as a "line boat" rather than a tug, to bring in the lines to the dolphins from the long cruise ship's overhangs on Pier B at Ogden Pt.
|
|
|
|
Post by WettCoast on Aug 23, 2015 10:41:49 GMT -8
Disney Wonder, north bound in the Inside Passage just west of Hartley Bay, BC (Wright Sound) - 18 August 2015. Disney Cruises gets my 'seal of approval' for having their ships use the Inside Passage, rather than being out in the middle of Hecate Strait. This photo shows the D Wonder about to enter the south end of Grenville Channel. That is Farrant Island in the left back ground. This ship is also rather 'good looking' when compared with so many of its 21st century 'floating condo' counterparts.  © WCK-JST by JST, on Flickr
|
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 31, 2015 5:29:46 GMT -8
Here's my video of Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas arriving at Ogden Point in Victoria, BC. This is the morning of August 13, 2015.
This is a fun & busy place to watch ships from.
|
|
|
|
Post by paulvanb on Sept 1, 2015 12:07:07 GMT -8
While in Rotterdam, here is the Rotterdam in her semi-final resting place.
|
|
|
|
Post by Starsteward on Sept 2, 2015 7:24:11 GMT -8
Thanks to the determination of all the folks behind the 'Save the Rotterdam' project, the final resting place of this great Holland America Line liner, is truly stunning! There is no commercial clutter around this exhibit, the greenery ringed car park softens the vehicle intrusion of its visitors,...a peaceful spot for "Finished With Engines".
|
|
grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
|
Post by grk on Sept 2, 2015 10:00:45 GMT -8
Has anyone stayed aboard since the hotel project went ahead? On the vessel tour are you taken to the machinery spaces? I sailed on her twice and during a storm we took green water over the bow. She was a great old liner!
|
|
|
|
Post by WettCoast on Sept 6, 2015 6:09:18 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by Starsteward on Sept 7, 2015 12:16:32 GMT -8
The 'Rotterdam' was one of the finest looking 'liners' ever to grace the ports of the world. Clean lines, perfect bow rake and nicely curved fo'c's'le gave vessel its graceful 'liner' appearance. |
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 21, 2015 19:36:52 GMT -8
Super-sized Celebrity Solstice at and near Nanaimo, on September 21, 2015. I was on the waterfront for her arrival, and then at a viewpoint above the city for her departure. The morning arrival:  aDSC01878 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr With her Quinsam dinghy  DSC01885 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr  DSC01892 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr At dawn/sunrise:  DSC01902 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr  DSC01908 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr Evening Departure:  DSC01938 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr  DSC01944 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr Check out the lower mainland view  DSC01948 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr With Queen of Alberni and Queen of Oak Bay  DSC01950 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr Heading up Georgia Strait, giving the people an evening cruise view of Vancouver Island. They will wake up in Vancouver tomorrow.  DSC01960 by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr |
|
Neil
Voyager 
Posts: 7,307
|
Post by Neil on Sept 21, 2015 21:34:54 GMT -8
Mr. Horn, the thing you didn't include in your otherwise excellent photo essay were shots of all the ship's tenders bringing the hordes of passengers either to or back from their adventures in downtown Nanaimo.  |
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 21, 2015 21:44:07 GMT -8
Mr. Horn, the thing you didn't include in your otherwise excellent photo essay were shots of all the ship's tenders bringing the hordes of passengers either to or back from their adventures in downtown Nanaimo. haha, we have road-tenders made by Nova bus company.... The local Tourism group (part of the municipal government) provides a free bus shuttle service from the cruise-ship dock to various downtown locations. And there are volunteers everywhere (well almost everywhere) ready to answer any questions. I think the main attraction is just walking on our waterfront. That's not much of a draw to get people off the ship, and hence Nanaimo only had 3 visits this year. The cruise-ship dock is not getting much use. But if we stayed with the anchor/tender method, maybe we'd have had zero visits? - this is very similar to the "build me a stadium" game that sports teams use. |
|
Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,307
|
Post by Neil on Sept 21, 2015 22:11:02 GMT -8
Mr. Horn, the thing you didn't include in your otherwise excellent photo essay were shots of all the ship's tenders bringing the hordes of passengers either to or back from their adventures in downtown Nanaimo. haha, we have road-tenders made by Nova bus company.... The local Tourism group (part of the municipal government) provides a free bus shuttle service from the cruise-ship dock to various downtown locations. And there are volunteers everywhere (well almost everywhere) ready to answer any questions. I think the main attraction is just walking on our waterfront. That's not much of a draw to get people off the ship, and hence Nanaimo only had 3 visits this year. The cruise-ship dock is not getting much use. But if we stayed with the anchor/tender method, maybe we'd have had zero visits? - this is very similar to the "build me a stadium" game that sports teams use. Don't get me wrong... I like Nanaimo. Along with Courtenay and Powell River, it's a city I would feel comfortable living in. I just think it's a shame that, along with Campbell River and Prince Rupert, it bought into the nonsense that Americans bound for Alaska would want to stop off there.
Although... would that under used cruise shop dock have ever been used for anything else? I guess it's part of the dilemma that small, formerly resource based cities face when they try to re-purpose their facilities.
|
|
|
|
Post by northwesterner on Sept 21, 2015 22:13:52 GMT -8
haha, we have road-tenders made by Nova bus company.... The local Tourism group (part of the municipal government) provides a free bus shuttle service from the cruise-ship dock to various downtown locations. And there are volunteers everywhere (well almost everywhere) ready to answer any questions. I think the main attraction is just walking on our waterfront. That's not much of a draw to get people off the ship, and hence Nanaimo only had 3 visits this year. The cruise-ship dock is not getting much use. But if we stayed with the anchor/tender method, maybe we'd have had zero visits? - this is very similar to the "build me a stadium" game that sports teams use. Years ago, when I first starting driving tour buses in Seattle, Celebrity would operate a ship on 3-4 day Pacific Northwest coastal cruises the three weeks before the Alaska season and 2-3 weeks afterwards. Departing from Vancouver, they would operate Vancouver-Seattle-Victoria-Vancouver, or Vancouver-Seattle-Victoria-Nanaimo-Vancouver. For those of us doing narrated tours, this was really great. We would get to warm up on tour materials with a live crowd, and had a vast assortment of Seattle shore excursions to work. The typical embark/debark in Seattle ship only has a handful of shore excursions of generally one variety, as they end at the airport for passengers flying out that evening. For the local economy, these cruises were a good opportunity to phase into the tourist season, one ship in town, just for the day, get your staff trained up and ready for the crush that would be coming. I'm sure Nanaimo appreciated the boost they gave as well. It was off one of these ships that I gave my first winery tour. Me: "northwesterner checking in for work tomorrow." Dispatch: "northwesterner we need you to do a Woodinville Winery Tour, 0945-1815." Me: "I don't know anything about wineries or that tour." Dispatch: "That's okay. Just ad lib, you don't really need to talk about wine. Just do your best." "Do your best" was a legendary phrase by our then asst. ops manager when he was sending someone out to do a job they were unqualified to perform. When I became the operations manager a few years later, if I had a senior driver on the phone being objectionable about something, I would say "come on, just do your best." That would get them really fired up, because they knew I was needling them over our old ops manager ... and that I promised them when I took over that I would always do better than that guy (it was a low bar). Anyways, turns out the Wine Tours were the most lucrative of the shore excursions off these Seattle "port of calls." Give them a short city tour, then across the lake on the 520 floating bridge. Talk about the eastside, Bellevue, Redmond, and Microsoft, then shut up for the last ten minutes to the wineries. Set the timing, load them up to drive to the other winery, and by the time they are done tasting they are absolutely hammered. Half the bus won't stop talking to their new bar buddies, and the other half is passed out. Drive back downtown without saying much, collect $120 in tips (drunk people tip better), and wash, rinse, and repeat next week. As a manager, when those short coastal cruises went away, we always had a hard time staffing the handful of remaining port of calls. Princess would call early, once, on the way to Vancouver on a repositioning, as would HAL. So for two days, we had to have a huge quantity of narration trained and qualified drivers, and often they were doing tours that were somewhat more involved than the typical disembarkation tour. It was usually a mess. I had to start prepping my very senior, very part time workforce to mark the dates on their calendars months in advance to get through it. And somehow, we were always one narration driver short, for some reason or another. For three years I was ops manager at the bus company with that contract, and for three years I always managed to somehow end up on a wine tour. |
|
|
|
Post by WettCoast on Sept 27, 2015 21:38:23 GMT -8
HAL's Westerdam in Juan de Fuca Strait just off Gonzales Bay, Victoria, BC - 27 September 2015. Washington State's Olympic Mountains form the backdrop for this photo.  © WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on Flickr |
|
|
|
Post by WettCoast on Sept 29, 2015 21:14:19 GMT -8
Twilight ... Ogden Point cruise ship terminal, Victoria, with HAL's Noordam & NCL's Norwegian Jewel - 28 September 2015  © WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on Flickr |
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 29, 2015 21:57:56 GMT -8
Twilight ... Ogden Point cruise ship terminal, Victoria, with HAL's Noordam & NCL's Norwegian Jewel - 28 September 2015 © WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on FlickrShot from Coho ? |
|
|
|
Post by WettCoast on Sept 29, 2015 22:19:51 GMT -8
No, shoreline in Esquimalt. |
|
Koastal Karl
Voyager
Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
|
Post by Koastal Karl on Sept 29, 2015 22:31:40 GMT -8
The cruise ship season is pretty much over. The last ship leaves tomorrow which is the Norwegian Jewel. My Fiancee's mom and dad are on the Jewel right now on a 5 day cruise down to Los Angeles. The Star Princess in November makes one last appearance in Victoria then that is it till next April. I always miss the cruise ships when they are not here. Especially in the dead of winter walking the breakwater and the only ship there is the Wave Venture. We are leaving Oct 31st and flying down to Los Angeles where we will be boarding the Carnival Miracle for a 6 night Mexican cruise which will be awesome. The last cruise we did to Hawaii was on the Miracle so it will be neat to be back on that ship again!
|
|
|
|
Post by northwesterner on Sept 30, 2015 8:10:56 GMT -8
We are leaving Oct 31st and flying down to Los Angeles where we will be boarding the Carnival Miracle for a 6 night Mexican cruise which will be awesome. Do we dare ask what airline? |
|
Koastal Karl
Voyager
Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
|
Post by Koastal Karl on Sept 30, 2015 12:53:08 GMT -8
Being we booked through Expedia it's Air Canada going down and Alaska Airlines coming back!
|
|
|
|
Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 30, 2015 13:33:05 GMT -8
Being we booked through Expedia it's Air Canada going down and Alaska Airlines coming back! I look forward to your reviews of the experience. |
|
|
|
Post by northwesterner on Sept 30, 2015 17:38:17 GMT -8
Being we booked through Expedia it's Air Canada going down and Alaska Airlines coming back! For your sake I hope the cheeseburger is in rotation on Alaska Airlines n/b flights in October as part of the buy on board selection!! lol!!!! |
|
