13 July 2014; Seattle, USA

I had some connectivity issues, so there are three posts in a row.

Since a number of years Holland America has used Seattle as a home port. This was not always the case. When the company came to Alaska back in the 1970’s it sailed from Vancouver. Partly because of the Jones Act and partly because the ships could not make the speed needed  to do a real 7 day Alaska adventure from Seattle. Plus there were not that many cruise ships going to Alaska anyway. Apart from Holland America there was the occasional Princess or Cunard and a few one off calls from other companies but that was it. When I came to Alaska for the first time in 1982, we were always the only ship in port, so sparse were the number of ships out there. Holland America dominated the market because it had the infrastructure of Westours with its hotels, coaches and hinterland experience.

Alaska grew quickly in popularity, HAL and Princess expanded and we saw more ships of Sitmar appearing. Then Crystal Cruises came, Cunard showed up and even a student ship called the Universe Explorer sailed for years and years in Alaska.   It was real boom town in its expansion, a sort of gold rush but with the gold in the bank to pay for the cruises. Vancouver benefitted greatly from all of this, and when Expo 86 came, they grabbed the chance to build a new cruise terminal at the same time as the Hotel(s) that were needed to cater for all the Expo Visitors.

Holland America offered in those days Gateway fares with the cruise. It meant that you could fly free as long it was inside the lower 48 States. Guests flew to Seattle and were then bussed to Vancouver. It was normally a smooth operation but on high days and holidays there could be long delays at the border. I once experienced such a delay and the ship missed the favorable Seymour Narrows tide and as a result arrived late in Ketchikan.

Seattle had a port, quite a big one, although they were not really set up for cruise ships with really nice terminals that came later.  But the cruise company’s started to play with the idea to have ships going from Seattle. First to reduce the congestion in Vancouver, 2ndly to reduce costs by having at least a number of guests going to the ship directly instead having to be bussed to Vancouver. The newer ships could make the higher speed needed to get around Alaska from Seattle in seven days and so Seattle became a viable option.

Since then Seattle has come a long way and there are now 2 cruise terminals capable of handling 2 ships each. The downtown berth, occupied by Celebrity and NCL and Pier 91 more to the North and in use by Holland America and Princess. The latter makes sense as HAL and Princess are now part of the HAL group within Carnival and closely cooperating anyway. I had a look at both piers and although, the downtown one looks more glamorous, being close to the city, the HAL pier has a lot more space and better infrastructure. The difference in Taxi fare is $ 3.50 and that won’t break the bank either.

The bunker barge with the hose going inside the ship. On average a barge like this can pump 400 tons of fuel an hour.

So it was to this terminal that the Amsterdam came in the early morning, with the whistle working overtime as the low clouds only parted once the ship came closer to the dock.  The ship is on a 7 day cycle which means that fuel bunkering and provisioning takes place about every 14 days, and that was today. The bunker barge came alongside, stores and provisions came on board and another 1000 & 1 things needed attention. On a day like this every crewmember is busy, very busy, especially if the supervisor is also trying to give a few of his team a few hours off, which means I cannot do any trainings.

Therefore my focus was on 2 things. I had to go through immigration, which will be a weekly occurrence as the CBP wants an empty ship before embarkation starts ( I am part of that, as I am not an official crewmember at the moment ) and phoning my wife.  That took care of the morning and then administration called.  Plus I have to go to Guest Boatdrill as I am parked in a passenger cabin for this cruise.