Alaskan Cruise Tips: Where?

One of my friends is headed up to Alaska this summer via a Princess Cruise Ship. It will leave San Francisco and stop in the normal South East Alaska Ports. It is a 10 day round trip on one of Princess Cruise Lines bigger ships,the Golden Princess. Sue, my wife, and I have taken this cruise ship to Hawaii a couple times out of the port of LA, San Pedro. We have been to Alaska 5 times on the pretty much the same Alaskan itinerary. We are also thinking about doing it again this summer.  In this blog entry, I hope to provide my friend and my other readers some helpful and interesting tips regarding this adventure.

History

The trip from San Francisco is 10 days on the ship. It is important to get a great room so that the trip will not be insufferable. Our first Alaskan cruise adventure from San Francisco included passage on a very small ship. The company was not sure that there would be a significant demand for tickets and the small ship was a shot across the bow. Princess had purchased a couple of ships from companies that had gone out of business. One of them was a former Renaissance  Cruise Line that they dubbed the new Pacific Princess. The Alaskan adventure exceeded expectations and the 10 day cruise replaced a 665 passenger ship with one that could take 2500 passengers. It was the Regal Princesses. Our last cruise from San Francisco was on the Star Princess.  Princess has embarked on a policy to leave a ship at these "home ports" and allow all cruises from that port to be from that ship. As San Francisco has developed their cruise ship facilities, bigger ships are now docked there as their "home" port. The Golden Princess is one of the bigger ships in their fleet and reflects the both the increased market of San Francisco and its accommodations at the peir. The Golden Princess is a really spectacular ship. It can move 3500 passengers 28 miles an hour with complete comfort. It has wonderful stabilizers to keep the ship from swaying back and forth too much and amazing passenger amenities.  We have taken this ship twice to Hawaii from LA and back in 15 day cruises.

Planning

Cruising is as big a time commitment as it is a financial commitment. 10 days of your life will be spent away from your ordinary existence. Really, no cell phones no significant internet... just you and 3100 new friends on the open ocean. A few timely tips may make it more comfortable and enjoyable.

An Alaskan trip is lots of fun and can be enjoyed on many different levels. Some people see it as a big party time. They are living the life large in a moveable Las Vegas. There are amazing ways to enjoy the ship as a mini Las Vegas. These is a large casino on every ship (except for Disney). There are nightly shows that you may not want to miss. If you plan to use this trip with this as your major plan you are probably on the wrong cruise line and should play to fly to Vancover and get on the Carnival cruise which is centered on this agenda. Carnival is less expensive than Princess and tends to attract a younger crowd which includes many more families with kids.

An Alaskan cruise with the crowd that is very modulated will enjoy themselves more on the Holland America cruises. My friends who have taken both support this thought and have had a great time on Holland but understand that the energy for daily activity is more centered on personal service rather than shipboard activities.

Norwegian is another cruise line that haunts the Alaskan waters. It sends some nice sized ships up into the same area as Princess. They do not have any seating times for dinner and this allows for passengers to come into the dinning room anytime during the hours they are open and eat. They also promote more outside dinning in their specialty restaurants. These are all for an additional charge. All the other cruise lines have these too and have modified their choices so that you may also do some dining with other friends then ones selected by the company. A smaller dining room is selected for this and there may be a wait of 10 to 20 minutes to be seated. There are also alternative choices  or at a steakhouse, an Italian or French restaurant for an additional charge of 15 to 25 dollars per person. These require a reservation sometimes a couple of days ahead. Since you have already spent a good fee for the nightly dinner and they are amazing in every respect, these places are not entirely required unless you are celebrating a particular occasion or you have a particular interest. One of my daughters and I shared a saddle of veal in the French bistro one night on board a Norwegian ship headed for Mexico that was certainly spectacular. Norwegian was lacking however, in its menu for lunch.  It served the same lunch entrees throughout the cruise in its dinning room. Norwegian cruises out of Vancouver, British Columbia this summer.

My wife and I have always chosen Princess for our Alaskan trips because leaving out of San Francisco is so much less of a hassle than to get to an airport and get on a plane two hours early and then get to a ship from a plane after flying a couple of hours. I know people do this all this time... but there has to be more compelling reason than more choice to make this happen. Princess and Celeberty curise lines are only viable options out of San Francisco and this year. Celebrity is a bit more expensive and offers fewer trips overall. Princess Cruises as  the choice  is very palatable. You get three more days on the ship leaving from San Francisco. As my father said, any day on the ship is a luxury. He is right.

Where on the Ship?

On our Alaskan trips Sue and I have always with the exception of the first one have chosen an interior room. One of the reasons is that they usually are more handicapped accessible. They are also cheaper. If you are even a little claustrophobic, you may consider an obstructed view cabin. These cabins are generally on the level that the tenders are hung and include a porthole. The porthole does not open but is does provide light and most of the view out of the porthole is not obstructed by the tenders in our experience. Most of your time you will spend in public areas.

Many people like to use a travel agent to get a cruise booked. They are sponsored by the cruise lines to make sure that you have someone to explain all the different booking options. They are also the agents for added services. A cruise consultant, another name for an agent that knows their way around the booking process, may be able to add on a bus link up from your home city to the dock and back so that you will not have to use your car to get you to the dock. One of my friends who is cruising this summer is using this service with an additional cost of 80 dollars each to do just that. He and his wife will be picked up in Merced and dropped off on time at the dock in San Francisco to catch their Alaskan cruise.

If your departure date is within 90days of your investigation, you may be best served in the ticker section of Vacations to Go.com on the web. Things get a little desperate in the cruise industry when the departure is close at hand an a certain percentage of cabins have not been sold. Prices for cabin often drop significantly at this time. It can be sort of a risk too. Some people sign on early for a cruise and hope that they will be upgraded before this rush occurs within the last 90 days.

The following paragraphs relate to the Golden Princess and other sister ships such as the Grand Princess:  

Our favorite stateroom location is on the Lido Deck. It is on the same deck as the pools and the buffet. The Buffet is located on the other side of the ship and passengers with staterooms on this deck need to consider that they must walk to the other side of the ship for food service.  For some this is no small task as the ship is pretty long. Our pathway extended past both pools, the outdoor pool and the indoor pool before coming into the buffet doors. With all the excitement you would expect, this stateroom is fairly quiet. At times when exercise classes are in progress you may hear some thumping on the ceiling but outside of that it is fairly quiet.

A big part of the ship's entertainment occurs in the center plaza area on this ship. The center plaza areas have a 24hour European style small plate serving area and bakery. The Starbucks style coffee is located there. Service is provided at your table for the fancy coffee. The wine cellar/tasking is there also. Access to the internet and the library is located in this hub. Our cabin had access to this area through the elevator that dropped five floors to the art gallery. an easy walk through the art gallery opened to the plaza. Mini concerts and trio type entertainment was programed often at the plaza too. Our assigned dining area was a little problematic. It was across the ship and down 6 decks. The last deck could only be accessed by going the the 5th deck down and changing to a particular elevator that was for special needs. Everyone else spread across the staircase prior to dinner between the 5th deck down the the 6th.

The Giants win the Pennant and the World Series!

2014 the San Francisco Giants are a most unlikely team to win the Series. Some of their most trusted players, the reliable core where stricken near the end. Replaced and sent on their way by the pride of the Giants minor league and some skilful trades for experienced pitchers.

The Giants were the team that had to play through the pressure of winning the one game wildcard against a formidable Pittsburgh Pirate team that almost won their division. The Giants had to win this game in Pittsburgh. But as happened throughout the season this team seemed to be almost better on the road that at home so no account. What some considered the best team in the National league was up next. They faced the Washington Nationals. In the mean time Saint Louis was taking out the might LA Dodgers... thank goodness. The LA Dodgers had set themselves up in this season to be the west coast version of the Yankees. But alas to no avail. They went down.

The San Francisco Giants St. Louis Cardinal series was a tough one. Both teams took losses at home. One of the games went 18 innnings. But in the end the Giants with a low home run total came through in the end. They demonstrated a way to generate runs without a hit. Walks work. No matter how hard the pitcher throws the ball, they ball must go pretty close to the strike zone to limit the damage.

When the Giants met the KC Royals who also worked themselves up the ladder from the wildcard slot the form of each league with the designated hitter allowed in the American League but not allowed in the National league challenged each manager to set their team to do the best they could with each game. The American League had won the All Star Game which allowed the last games to be played in the American League with the designated hitter. But as a truism in this game and in most others, good pitching will defeat good batting every time. The winner of game seven while on the record is Jeremy Afelt, the MVp for the World Series was the humble cow rancher from Hickory North Caolina, Madison Bumbgarder.

The games were exciting throughout. Most runs were made through infield hits or infielder errors. This allowed for the games to be pretty tense through most of its length. The Kansas City Royals were very much like the Giants in their make up. They usually relied on their speed on the bases as a equalizer. In the world series this did not happen as much.  I feel that the arms the Giants had in the infield and the outfield defensively limited this action.

So all hail to the hometown heroes. The Giants are the World Series Champions once more.  They have had this honor for the last three out of five years. Will they wait a year and win in 2016 or will they repeat next year.  This decision will basically happen when the players contracts who are up for free agency are settled and many of them are sure to go find better money on other teams. So is there any more gas in the minor league teams to support the player crunch that occurs through injury and free agency.. Time will tell and that is why they play the game.

Finally a little Fall

It has been a really hot summer.  More days than usual in the triple digits. Fall has come officially and the weather in Merced has finally caught up a little with the label.

We have highs in the 80's and most of the day it is keeping us comfortable in the 70's.  The new whole house fan has seen some nice use this summer and fall.  When the air temperature outside is cooler than what we set the air conditioner, we use it to even out the difference.  If we leave it on all night only the rooms that have a window open equalize. Overall the house temperature drops to about 71 degrees. My friend from England found it interesting that they work hard all summer to trap the heat in the house and we work hard to get it out of the house.

The other signs of the fall are pretty evident.  Baseball is winding up and the local teams are both in single game playoffs called the wildcard.  Both the Giants and the A's are sort of limping into the games in their respective conferences with wounded wings.  The A's are suffering since the trade deadline just after the all star game.  They traded away one of their highest paid Cuban players, Cespedes, and immediately their offense and win making power seemed to drop.  The Giants have had a tough time generating runs and have taken to importing the strength of their farm teams fire power to ignite the old coals of a winning streak to take them to the end. Such firepower is not without liability in the defense. They really had not much of a chance to do anything else as their prospects for post season play dimmed when the overpowering pitching strength of the Dodgers took center stage. So we shall see. A single game will determine if either or both continue into the playoffs and have a chance to play and hopefully win in the world series.  As they look now, I wouldn't  give odds that either of them are balanced powerhouses that seem to be needed to win the October World Series.

Football is once again center stage. So many flags are being thrown that this sport has the chance to become another soccer where the analytic power of the referees and their marching orders to "change" the sport will take the sport out of the endeavor. This year there a a number of defensive backs that have resorted to using their hands into the face mask to slow down the progress of a pass receiver or running back. Pass interference is a very often called. The referees are checking that 5 yard limit of contact carefully.  What seems to have disappeared this year is the call on roughing the quarterback. This call was made routinely last year.  Overall I am pretty pleased to see that the NFL is getting serious with its play on the field. There were way too many concussive events that were allowed to go on without penalty in the past. I am less excited about the NFL's stance on domestic violence with its stars. There is still a chance to catch up so far this has ignited the conversation for the public. Good may eventually come out of this debacle.

In the meantime there are some really good chances to work outside and whip up the yards before the serious wet weather comes.... we all are hoping for some of that this year in this drought stricken valley. Hopefully next year there will be enough water to have a front courtyard annual flower garden. : ) Pat 

Crested Butte and Bud Light

The advance team came and checked out one of our favorite ski towns, Crested Butte, for a wild Bud Light Party. Crested Butte is tucked away about 30 miles North of the Gunnison, Colorado. Crested Butte has a town population of a bout 1000 people in the summer and fall.  It is a big ski town and its winter population may swell to about 2500 people. It is not on the main road to Aspen or Breckenridge. It is out of the way yet can be reached by a jet airport in Gunnison.

At first many residents were massively skeptical that the town council would sell the town for 250,000 dollar for one weekend in September. What were they going to do there? What crazy activity would go on? Why such secrecy? Eventually the town got 500,000 for its trouble.

I week before it was actually going to happen the council approved and the party began last weekend, September 7.  The people who were invited to come were all adults and most of them were over 25 years old. They applied to be in the party, on line of course. 1,000 actually came. Bud Light chartered jets that landed in Gunnison and the party goers arrived in Crested Butte.  800 support staff also were there as Bud light figured to add about 2 million dollars to the local economy. 300 local laborers were also hired. The didn't count the 500,000 dollars that Bud light donated to the city as a legacy payment. Was that enough for hush money?  Most of the people in the area ended up thinking that it was well worth it. The Gunnison Times had a full color spread of the activities of the weekend. Bud light is now running slick advertisements of their fake mayor and their the party town that they constructed in Crested Butte. The Gunnison Times reported that the local hot tub company "rented 6 hot tubs" and returned them in good shape. The payment for their rental allowed the local people to get a very good deal on the hot tubs that were used in "Whatever" town, Crested Butte. Gunnison, 30 miles away saw increases in their motel occupancy for two weeks before the event and a week after the event. There was even some people who attended the party that thought they may come back and enjoy the area after all of the hoopla as over.

As reported in the Gunnison Times, when the town was reconstructed as the party town, gigantic cloth barriers were raised to disguise advertising down mainstreet that would take away from the tone or the focus of the revelers. Local people were invited to some events but not others. The disco and the music venues were strictly reserved for those who had won the contest and were supported at the party.

So what did they do in the heart of the city at 9,000 feet above sea level. If they drank just a little like my father, they were falling off the bar stools from just one beer. No these were people that represent main street beer party drinkers. This is the crowd that Bud light is hoping to widen their appeal. This age is quickly discovering "craft" beer and they have to find a way to make their beverage one that represents this"carefree" lifestyle. So.. rent a town in the middle of rockies, develop a carnival atmosphere, have parades, silly contests, and loud crazy music. Invite the people you want to be seen drinking your beer. Film it, chop it, have people report about it on the internet, and make a thousand cool commercials that get people to ask about what it is all about and you have accomplished your mission. Its the new music video advertisement. It is one way to gather those lost souls and say... you really belong to us. Have a bud light.

This advertisement for Bud Light stands in the wake of the Miller lite ads that claim precedent in the light beer march, claiming that they represent the very reason through a lightly plausible string that young middle age people even exist.... baffling.

With Bud light's investment in Crested Butte, the big question will be... for how long will we see pieces of Crested Butte show up in their ads.  Was it worth it for Bud Light?  Time will tell.

Back to School 2014- But Retired

It is back to school season once again in Merced. Today is the second day that students are back in school. Even though it is August, many students will not report until after the first week of September. Classes are filled to the brim. Some students will start the year sitting on the floor. There ware some nostalgia pieces. Merced finally has a new school that will open up to all of its 9-12th grades. There are no more portables in the two other in town schools. Faculty has been reasigned and students are no longer Cougars or Bears they could also be Gauchos.

I will have to admit that there are some feelings of disconnect. After a career of 35 years in the public schools as a speech and language Specialist I know that this is the time of the year that caseloads are examined. Schedules are made. Contacts with the students are established and established from over the Summer break. There is a myriad of things that need to be done to get the school year on the road.

It just doesn't happen when you are retired. Many retirees use this time to travel. One of my retired friends is off doing a Great Britain-Scandinavian cruise. Looks like they are having a great time.

Some of my working friends look at me in envious manner as their next school day is tomorrow. They are onstage with a couple of dozen (at least) eyes on their every move. They have some concerns regarding Common Core, the latest of an era after era of marching reforms that education will have to endure.  No profession is so vulnerable to public scrutiny as public education. It is so easy to think that education would be better if it did xxxx model. We have lived through many of these. The principal administrators that foist these great visions soon move on and the district is left in the dust by good intentions and usually not enough money to see the plan through. Thirty plus years of being messaged into one plan or another is enough. It still gets right down to what retires miss about teaching... the student and the teacher. The teacher brings some content and a methodology for thinking and learning and the student brings a willingness to take this and think and act and learn in a new way. When it works, which it almost always does, there is nothing more rewarding to the teacher than to see this happen.

Teachers have to revitalize themselves and challenge the way they teach at least every five years. They need to be adding something new, recreating their teaching methods or develop something that will challenge them in the classroom. There has been no way that the school as a institution has been successful in developing this in teacher. The last contract that I negotiated had provisions for professional development included. This is a start... but really the answer is deep inside the teacher It has to come from within and it there has to be some realization and check points to discover that it is personally necessary.

I think that what I miss most is the interaction with my colleagues. Even though they may be working in different content areas, and this job is decidedly solitary, there is nothing like adult interaction that makes the day complete. Sometimes reform objectives isolate rather than consolidate peer thinking. Many of my colleagues have retired too. Just going back to teach would not bring back the peers and fun that we had being on the staff of a high school campus. We have been replaced by a new crop of teachers that have different expectations of their students and their job. You cannot go home... although some teachers try to do this through substitute teacher.  Some need to do it to survive.

I do not miss having to find a place to work each year. Except for the last two years of my career I had to find a place to work to see pull out kids. This was often on the benches outside of their classrooms. Testing materials were always problematic. There was little support for professional conferences. If you happened to go to a conference, you were channeled all the students that could be diagnosed with the conference's them for the next couple of years.

So yes, I feel the prangs of not going to work... my life's work. But no, I do not miss the challenges of educational reform and the logistics of the job especially this time of the year.

Meeting with the Thursday Morning Guys

Every Thursday morning I try to meet with a group of men teachers that have been meeting for about 20 years. They are all retired, as I am. Most are between 70 and 80 years old. A friend of mind very close to my age also meets with this group.

It is an interesting group. Everyone pays their own way and usually there is no comment about what anyone orders unless it is significantly different that what he usually orders. A couple of guys order oatmeal with all the additions, (fruit raisins, walnuts, brown sugar (don't tell their wives) and milk. A couple of the guys only order fruit, but once those has taken to ordering a half waffle with his fruit. He gets a take out container to drag home the waffle to his wife (I suspect). A couple of guys order country potatoes and scrambled eggs. My order varies on the whim but it is usually a half waffle, a couple eggs and a small meat portion. It could be ham (my latest choice) or sausage(two) and the eggs can vary from scrambled to poached.

The purpose of the meetings is conversation. Politics are usually avoided as some of the folks tend to listen to or watch the inflammatory channels and after the intial statement from these sources there is really not much to discuss.  In other contexts my discussions with a right wind set seems to crumble after the shock headline to a simple statement that goes something like this..... but isn't true that we will lose status in the eyes of other governments for all the things we have done. It all wraps up in their imagination that the US is dependent upon other nations for our status by what we do or do not do. I guess I am over that. Or status can by screwed up so easily.

So with politics off the table what is there to talk about.  Today one guy was talking about the concept of how the new houses were being built in his neighborhood. One of them was 2600 sq feet with a three car garage out in front that allowed two cars to be slotted. So actually you have a 4 car garage. He was amazed that there was a significant slope sliding from the back car to the font car which would allow for easy conversion to a new room if wanted later. The lot that this house was on was pretty small. They were asking 394K for it.

Today we heard the horrors of putting your 403K into your trust. One guy said that when a death occured the trust is bound by the state to cash out the 403K directly. This brings up taxation issues that wouldn't occur if the 403K were maintained outside of the trust.

Another guy was excited because his driver won the NASCAR race at Indianapolis this weekend. Jeff Gordon has won more NASCAR races there than any other driver in its 20th year.  He was pretty excited that he won because he was given the key to the city earlier and was predicted by his crew chief that he would win prior to the race. He did not have the pole position to start, just a mighty fine car for that race on that day.

One guy had tales of his father running accountancy for the Fresno boxing events in the old days including a brush with Don King.  Everything was cash. I entered into the conversation with a tale about my boss who sold his house in Livingston to a drug dealer that paid him off in cash, and then was hauled in to the courts to describe how his was paid for his real estate and whether or not he received a discount for his cash payment. The courts found fault with the realtor for the transaction.

The credit union board member had a tale about getting paid 4300 dollars for a used car on a weekend. He arranged payment in the lobby of the open credit union and when she finished counting out the 20s told him it was a stick up....ha  ha... he had to admonish them that it was not a good place for a joke of that kind with the cameras used for security in the lobby.  

We heard the foils of a to do list from a landlord that came just after a tenant had caught up with her rent. It was just a laundry list of little things.

There were some reminiscences of times in the classroom but it seems that these guys are living more in the prospect of the future than the glories of the past. It is a very good group to see each Thursday morning.

Whole House Fans and the Central Valley

I have been in pursuit of a whole house fan for almost a year.

My coffee drinking buddy had two installed in his house over a year ago.  But his house has got more square feet than ours by quite a bit.

My mother and father-in-law had one in their Ft Collins, Colorado home.  It replaced the ubiquitous 20 inch fans they brought out each evening to eat dinner beside and watch the news. They worked reasonably well  and my wife was completely sold for them in the Colorado climate. Their temperature, a good dry heat most of the time was completely abrogated by the afternoon cloud cover and the by 3:30 there was no more build up to the heat and most  people endured their summer weather without air conditioning. The whole house fan was installed to reduce the evening heat build up in the attic and to draw cool air in from the windows especially when it came time to bed time. The 20 inch fans worked wonders in drawing cool air into the living spaces and making the evenings pleasant indoors but they failed to address the issue of very hot attics that returned the heat to the living space after the fans were turned off.  My mother and father-in-law would have the whole house fan work just an hour or two and summer evening and could come indoors away from the pesky mosquitoes that tortured outdoor living.  

The central valley summer night heat is another animal. Our heat generally continues to fire through the afternoon and into the evening until the sun goes down.  Then in a couple of hours 10 to 15 degrees are dropped out of the 90 plus degree temperatures reaching our coolest temperature about 2 am sometimes in the 60's. From 11am through to the evening we live under the air and the the attic even though vented with 3 turbines and end cap releases still harbor air most of the night. Our "cool" water at the sink doesn't get cool without running quite a bit of it as the attic temperature heats the copper pipes as the water makes it way to the various spots it is used in the house.

So how would a whole house fan work in that environment? Using outside air that is warmer than what you have cool using air conditioning doesn't make sense. Our inside air is set at 78 degrees. The air needs to be below that temperature to be affective. The use of the whole house fan before 9 am is when the most effective use of the fan is noted.  On many weeks we have days that the temperature does not reach 90 degrees. Those days can be very effective for evening use of the fan.

The fan takes the outside air from windows that are opened and doors that are opened and shoots the indoor air up into the attic and eventually in less than 30 minutes the outside air into the attic too. The house stays cooler longer with realistic attic temperatures. Windows need to opened to allow the air to come inside. The wider the window is opened the more air flows into the room. At least 3 windows need to opened or the fan could crack your windows.

This year at the fair there was vendor that was selling the fan and installation. They would provide a 300 dollar discount if you signed up at the fair. They had a booth at the Merced county fair but Sue wasn't with me when I went in to find out the particulars. So it got set aside. At the Stanislaus County Fair they were there too.  Sue was with me and we signed up. One week later and 1600 dollars later it was installed in our main hall.

A member of the two man install team crawled up into my attic at 7:30 am.  He pulled away from the attic floor the insulation and sunk four holes into my ceiling wallboard with nails. From those four nails, after carefully measuring from down below, a saws-all type saw cut the hole that they mounted the frame for the louvers. Out in the front 2x6 wooden framing was fabricated and lifted into place and supported by my ceiling truss. The fan was positioned and and secured in place. Electrical was found and attached to the dead doorbell connection. The wall mounted control area was located just under the programmable thermostat. No exposed wires were needed. It also came with a thin remote control. The louvers were installed on the outside of the frame and a stopper peg was installed so that the louvers would not stay open. A quick run through and check was made of the remote and the various positions on the device. The two guys brought in a power vac and cleaned up after themselves and were out the door with my check in hand in just under 2 hours. 

Sue was not too happy about where it was installed.  She thinks that she will end up staring at from the living room way too often.  I reminded her that she could have had a say in where it was going to be but opted out.  That didn't win me any friends. She thinks that she will get used to its location eventually.

Right now we are using it almost every night to get the house under its 78 degree cooling temp. Most nights it can drop the temperature in the house to under 72 degrees... as far as comfort ... it is yummy. Yesterday was the first night that we did not use it.  The outside temperature did not drop to under 78 until after 2:30.  We kind of missed out cool breeze. It still worked pretty nicely when I fired it up this morning at 7:00 and shut it down to let the air conditioning take its place at 10:30.

The company works out of Sacramento and Fresno sending installation teams all over the valley. The installer said that he had put in over 200 of them last year. This year he seems to be doing more. The Sacramento team was doing about the same.