Day 10 - Fri - 09/25/26 - Anchorage- Day 2

 Day two in Anchorage was a shorter day as we had a 4:30pm on board time. We didn't set an alarm and so we didn't get out of bed until 8:30 and prepared for our day. After our customary breakfast in the Lido, we gathered our things, including warm clothing as the temperatures have definitely turned chilly. We scanned off the ship and boarded one of the shuttle buses, which left quite soon after we boarded. On the drive out of the port, the driver reported that he had seen a moose and a bear at the clearing inside the port; however, today we didn't see any. He also played a nice aurora borealis video that was shot by a friend of his.

Once we reached downtown and got off the shuttle bus, we walked  the block to the transit center and waited for our number 30 bus, which would take us out to the Costco on Debarr Road. It was only about a 20 minute ride and the bus stop was right across the street from Costco. We did a little shopping there, I got my hearing aids adjusted, and we enjoyed some samples before purchasing  Costco dogs. We ate those there before hopping on a number 20 bus back to the downtown transit center.

After leaving the bus, we decided to walk down Seventh Avenue towards the water and photograph the second artistic bear that we had seen and were aware of. This bear was looking a little worse for the wear, but it was good to find the second of only three that were known to exist. We then walked in search of the third bear, but it had been removed from its location on 12th and L Street. L Street was the main thoroughfare that we rode on the bus yesterday to visit the airplane museum. We then wandered back to the shuttle location via the big park that replaced the former airstrip in the heart of the city. Located there was a nice steam locomotive, and also an ice-skating rink that I'm sure will be in use once the weather turns even colder.  We found a JCPenney store and took a quick look inside of it before heading to our shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus ride was once again quick and we were back at the terminal in about 15 minutes from downtown. The tide was pretty low and the crew was having to adjust the gangway from deck two to deck three so there was a little bit of a delay boarding the ship. We did notice that the ship was at a little bit of a tilt and after clearing security I put my iPhone level on a desk and sure enough we were slightly tilted.

There is a large tide swing in this port, reaching at times 30 feet. We saw according to the scale on the pier, a rise of at least 5 feet in the short 45 minutes period of time after we boarded. It was quite fun to watch the tide come in as it's quite visible to see the incoming rise. Also I took a few photos of the two Japanese destroyers who were berthed behind us. I looked up their hull numbers on the internet and learned that they were training vessels. Soon our mooring lines were released and our thrusters moved us away from the berth. Several crew members on the Japanese destroyer waved goodbye to us and I returned the acknowledgment. The crew of the  Zaandam then backed the ship out quite a distance into the Cook inlet before pivoting around 180° to head out towards the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska.

While photographing on deck three, I had conversation with other guests that pointed out that the teak decking on the starboard side of the ship was shorter than that on the port side. I found it hard to believe, but walked over to the port side and sure enough those planks were certainly longer. One lady said she's observed this on several other Holland America ships and I don't understand why but I'll see if I can figure it out or learn from the crew. My initial hunch is it's a way of distinguishing what side of the ship one is on much like the even numbered state rooms are on the port side and odd numbers are on the starboard side.

I joined Angela up in the Lido around 5:40 PM and had Alaskan meatloaf as my entree.  I was sort of dabbling in eating when Angela reminded me that we had a 6 o'clock cocktail chat with some of the engineering staff down in the Ocean Bar. She went ahead of me and I finished up my dinner and joined the event in progress. Their information was largely nothing new to me as we've been in many of these chats before on other cruises.

Afterwards, the evening entertainment was the cast show of Rock Britannia. They covered songs from Great Britain and it was pretty good. We then sat through several sets of the solo guitarist, Shelley. She's got a great voice and uses her guitar as a background instrument and it's really easy to hear her voice.

We now have several days at sea ahead of us before reaching the entrance to Glacier Bay. The captain in his departure speech noted that we would sail in protected waters overnight before heading out in the open sea across the Gulf of Alaska. He also noted that we would probably encounter 6 to 8 foot seas there in the crossing.











MLK Statute







             An interesting 'A' 





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