A wobbly night turned into a windy arrival, with 25 knots of wind gusting from the North East when we entered Resurrection Bay. A wind not very common for this time of the year and also not expected at all. It did die off during the day and by the time we left it was wind still. That will also help to reduce the waves outside in the open sea by the time we get back into the Gulf of Alaska, during the coming night and tomorrow morning.

From the bridge the Seward dock operation looks like controlled mayhem especially as there are two ships at the same dock. The Celebrity Millennium was docked at the other side. That ship arrives at 3 am. in the morning as it has a much more cumbersome luggage operation than we have. The Veendam parks itself in line with a conveyor belt and off the luggage goes; directly into a truck and quickly on its way towards its final destination. On the other side of the dock there is no conveyor belt. A crane lowers a cradle onto a platform between the ship and the dock. The luggage then has to be put in the cradle, lifted up or down and transferred into the truck or into the ship depending if it is unloading or loading. It all takes a very long time.

Apart from the luggage trucks, there is a coming and going of busses on the dock as well. The guests who go by train walk through the terminal to the train waiting just outside, while their luggage goes by truck to their next hotel stop. The guests who travel by bus, normally board the bus either in front of the terminal or at bottom of the gangway. It all goes very fast and continues throughout the morning as the departures are staggered depending on the next destination. Thus it happens that guests are still leaving the ship, while the new guests are already boarding. In the past everybody left the ship between 6 and 8am in the morning and then had to wait somewhere else for their connection or for their hotel room to be ready. Holland America figured out a way, few years ago, to improve the service in such a way that the guests can wait in comfort on the ship and then go directly to their next destination instead of sitting somewhere in a windy terminal or in a cramped hotel lobby.

It means more work for the ship but is worthwhile the effort. With more work for the ship I mean that we now have to work around our departing guests while getting the ship ready for the next cruise; while in the past with nobody on board we could be, let’s say, a bit more robust in our operational mode. With a more gentle work pace it means that the guests rooms are not ready by 11.30 when the first new guests board, so we ask them to go to the lido to have lunch first. Thus far I still have to come across a cruise guest who is refusing lunch so it works well. By the time lunch is over, the state rooms are ready.

Embarkation also continues all through the afternoon. Some guests come directly from the airport but most arrive from various places in the interior. The Southbound train normally arrives in the late afternoon. This requires some careful scheduling as well, as the Millennium also runs a train and the terminal is only single track. Thus two trains at the same time is not possible. All the luggage that arrives at the ship, normally by luggage truck, has to be security screened. For that there is a simple system. The X-ray machine is located in a container and that container is set in front of the conveyor belt. The luggage truck parks on the other side and the luggage goes directly from the truck through the X-ray, onto the conveyor belt and into the ship.

It looks like controlled mayhem but it runs very smoothly and as a result the ship was leaving right on time, swinging around off the dock and retracing its course back to the Yakutat. The swells are dying down slowly but there is still some left, so we should have a bit of movement during the night.