19 May 2012; Victoria, Canada.

During the night the wind died down completely and the swell which had been subsiding since yesterday afternoon reduced itself to almost nothing. Strait Juan de Fuca was on its best behavior. There was also hardly any traffic around courtesy of the fact that it was Saturday going on Sunday. Cargo ships prefer to stay at sea during the weekend when everything is triple overtime or nothing happens in the ports. Thus the rush will be tomorrow evening with the incoming ships for Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle –Tacoma all trying to enter port and dock around the time when the normal longshoremen shifts are starting again. The biggest exemption to that pattern are the cruise ships which are all now lining up for the start of the Alaska season. As a result it was one of the busiest days of the year in Victoria with four ships in port. When we arrived the Disney Wonder was already docked. She left at 17.00 and shortly after, her place was taken by the Norwegian Pearl. She was followed around 19.00 by the Oosterdam also coming in for an evening call. The weather was holding; dry and windstill and with the sun out as well it made the visit to Victoria a sheer delight. Still the summer it just starting and it became very chilly the moment the sun went down. Not that I minded that, the cooler it is, the less chance of “low hanging clouds”.

This cruise we had something to celebrate as it was the 700th. voyage of the Statendam. Since coming into service in 1992, she has made 700 short and long voyages all over the world. Varying from one night trips; to cruises of longer than a month and one worldcruise in 1994. Over 20 years that works out to an average voyage lasting 12 days. That is more or less consistent with the pattern in the company history as with the arrival of the S-class ships there was an increase in the number of 10 day cruises. Predominantly in the winter as the Alaska run was and is based on 7 day cruises. With a few exceptions of course such as the Rotterdam (V) sailing on 10 day cruises from San Francisco for a while and the current Amsterdam (III) doing a number of 14 day cruises from Seattle to Anchorage and back.

(Photo courtesy: Kristy Elder, Image Creator Manager)

To commemorate the occasion we decided to make a groups photo on the forward deck. Although not each crewmember could attend, all 600 of them received a copy of the photo. I like to do group photos once in a while as it always needs a good excuse to spend the money on the photos. 700 days is very good excuse in my opinion.
Tomorrow we start our Alaska season with 7 day cruises up to Seward and then 7 days back again. It almost feels like a 14 day cruise with only the change over in Seward indicating the end of one cruise and the start of another. Somehow it is less hectic for all on board than a seven day. That is also the case for the guests. Some are doing a back to back, so they have a 14 day cruise, some are only doing the seven day and fly home but the majority are going inland making trips that last as long as 30 days.
Alaska is called the “Great Land” but it is also the “big land” and with tours going everywhere, you can spend a lot of time in the interior. Holland America is the oldest operator in Alaska, its roots going back to 1947 when Westours started operating out of Seattle and apart from flying you can do everything in house. We own the buses, we own the trains and we own the hotels. It makes for one smooth operation when doing a longer trip into the interior.
We will remain on the coast until the first week of October and then we return to making Panama Canal cruises. This with three exceptions: 28 November 2012 and 1 February 2013 we will be making a one month long South Pacific cruise and in mid January the ship is going to Dry- dock in Freeport Bahamas.
We sailed from Victoria at 23.30 sharp, being the first one out, as the Norwegian Pearl and Oosterdam were still waiting for latecomers to return. During the night we will sail with a speed of 13 knots through the islands and then arrive at 07.00 in Vancouver. There we say goodbye to our 1,360 short time guests who did very much enjoy themselves, if we have to take the bar revenue as a measurement.