Cruises

Lynn was introduced to cruising on a work trip. Prior to this he thought that spending the week on the water was rather silly.

1989 - Western Caribbean (Lynn)

Holland America selected Plexus as the POS computer system as they introduced the Westerdam into service. The Westerdam was formerly the Homeric with the Home Line. The POS software was newly developed in HA's Seattle home office. The short summary is that their Dev/Test environment wasn't very representative of the shipboard environment and so they ran into trouble. This was literally career endling level trouble for the Holland America people that I worked with. Since the ship doesn't stay in once place for very long, I met the Westerdam in Ft. Lauderdale to diagnose and fix the problem. I quickly determined what the problem was after sailing on Sunday, wrote a new dispatch program to print guest checks without the spooler overhead on Monday, installed on Tuesday and cleared the last bug on Wednesday. Celebrations followed. I could have flown home from one of the ports but felt that it was important to make sure that no more bugs showed up. Sure :-)

1997 - Alaska, Southbound (Lynn & Bonita)

This was a 7 day cruise taken with Delberta and Stanley onboard the MS Ryndam. Itinerary is approximate. We stopped at Sitka rather than Skagway and went to Glacier Bay rather than Hubbard Glacier. Of note, I tracked down what the company had done with their POS system while I was on board. At the time it was still running the software that I had implemented in 1989 and mys program was still printing out guest checks.

It is important to keep in mind that, unlike ports in warmer climes, ports in Alaska are basically fishing villages combined with something. Juneau is fishing village with mining and government. Sitka is fishing village with Russian and indigenous history. Ketchikan is fishing village with fishing village.

The weather was good for the whole week. Some cloudy days but not much more than a few showers. Both the beginning and end of the trip involved buses.

2000 - Eastern Caribbean (Family)

This was a family cruise. The selection criteria was basically what cruise can we take that fit the ski week break so that Steph and Josh wouldn't miss any school. The itinerary map on this one is pretty close. We did visit St. Croix as well as St. Thomas but didn't visit Puerto Rico.

Steph was in the spa as we left Ft. Lauderdale. The beach day at Half Moon Cay was a lot of fun. Josh discovered that if you ordered a BLT, hold the LT, from room service what came was a pile of bacon on bread. I entered the realm of digital photography by getting the family's first digital camera in St. Thomas. St. Thomas had lots to see in town. Stephanie accidentally contributed a pair of sunglasses to the harbor bottom. We probably didn't take the best advantage of St. Croix. We spent the day in Christiansted and if I were doing it again, I would start in Frederiksted and then come back to Christiansted.

2008 - Mexico (Lynn & Bonita)

This was the first cruise in a long time. We left San Diego in the evening and sailed through fog. At lunch time on the first day, we were joined by a large pod of dolphins. The ports were nice, but we didn't do any excursions. Did a little shopping. We even went to a very large Walmart just to see how different it was than a US version. The Topolobampo stop was at an industrial port quite a distance from town. It was also beastly hot, so we spent the day on the ship. The actual reason for that stop is for the Copper Canyon excursion. People who when on it got up before dawn, to a train for hours to get there, had lunch and returned after dark.

As with most of these, if I didn't capture the map in the same season, they changed. In this case, we did it in the reverse direction and didn't stop in either Guaymas or Ensenda.

We went in October which was still very hot in Mexico. It was a nice cruise though.

2009 - New England, Canada (Lynn & Bonita)

This was a 10 day New York to Quebec City cruise. The first port was in Newport Rhode Island. My first Burdick ancestor arrived here in about 1650. They were among the founders of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in America. The second church building was moved around a bit and then preserved in the mid 19th century by enclosing it in a building that is now a historical society. It wasn't officially open, but they were able to get a quick tour. There is a plaque on the wall with my ancestor's names on it. Boston was fun. We did part of the Freedom Walk. Paul Revere's house is in an Italian neighborhood. Too bad he was too early to enjoy some great food.

The Canadian ports were nice. Sydney is pretty sleepy. There is a really good museum in Halifax.

If they do it again, I would go the other direction and stay in New York for a few days. They ended up spending the day at the Quebec City airport where there is literally nothing to do on the street side and they won't let people through security until an hour before departure time. It made for a boring end.

We were assigned a table for 8 but one couple complained that they really wanted to be with some other people not that we could do anything about it. They apparently got it fixed for them because they were not there after the second night. There were two other couples at the table with us, all Canadians. An older retired couple sat across from each other at the window and then a couple a little younger than us. They were all friendly enough, but it was rather obvious that they shared a secret that we were not in on. After about the 3rd day, they apparently decided that we would be ok with sharing. They were funeral directors. We had a good laugh that we probably had all of the funeral directors on the ship at our table.

2023 - Hawaii (Lynn & Bonita)

This was an 18 day circle Hawaii cruise. The map itinerary is approximate. We did it in reverse. We were scheduled to go into Lahaina, but the Pacific didn't cooperate. A bit sad on this one because it is now gone. The cruise was great. There is one feature of Hawaii itineraries, however. On an 18 day cruise you are at sea for about 11 of them. We got off to a bad start on this cruise. The bag with most of our clothes was stolen out of baggage claim. Fortunately, Stephanie repacked Bonita's carryon and so she had some of the basics. Lynn was not so lucky and only had what he was wearing when he got on the ship. He made do by picking up some shirts and a pair of shorts. Foundation items are not to be found, so he washed them out in the sink nightly. Things go better when we went shopping in Nawilwili about 6 days in. The police broke up the theft ring, so we ended up getting most of our clothes back.

For the most part, like all cruises, the time in port is too short to get more than a taste. It is a good way to decide if you want to come back, however. Most of our time in Nawilliwill was spent replacing clothes. This was our first experience with Uber and it worked really well.

Kona was probably our favorite. It is a tender port, and it was a little bit of a rough ride. Great coffee. It was fun to walk along the waterfront.

We spent two days in Honolulu. At Stephanie's suggestion we hunted down and ABC Market. Beware. The location listed on the map as closest to the port is their headquarters. Office, but no store. We ended up at a large mall to find one.

We honeymooned on Waikiki and were able to poke around there for a bit. It has changed enough to be almost unrecognizable. The inside of the Royal Hawaiian looks pretty much like it did, but they don't have the big flower arrangement that I remember from when I was there at 5 years old.

Because we missed Lahaina we did an overnight in Hilo. Hilo is ok, but we stayed on the ship the second day. It rained the beginning of the first day. Again, great coffee and we found a place to have lunch. It was a nice break from ship food. The ship food was good, but a local option after almost two weeks was good.

We also didn't get off of the ship in Ensenada. Our table mates did and came to dinner disappointed.

The ports vary. The displayed map has it in reverse of how we sailed.

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