Some explaining

We are now only 26 days away from the start of our North West Passage cruise on Crystal's Serenity. We are 21 days from departure to Alaska for our pre-cruise road trip. Putting off things like haircuts and packing for a bit longer!

This is a big trip by any definition. I am blogging it here instead of as a standalone blog as I've done for some other big trips for a number of reasons. One is that it starts as a road trip. Two is that it never really leaves North America in my mind (sorry Greenland!). Third because I decided to do it. I really don't like the time-limited stand-alone blogs. That said, one of the main reasons I decided to blog it here is that we've never cruised Crystal and have no plans to return to them but there a couple of Crystal long-timers onboard with us and they are each blogging. I don't want to put my opinions and experiences up against theirs as experts. Links to those blogs are here and here.

Why the North West Passage? This went on my to do list near the end of 2008's Circle South America cruise. I wanted to Circle North America. To the best of my knowledge, such a cruise has still never been offered. Regent is doing one next year though that comes close! Over time as I kept this dream cruise in the back of my mind, there were a very few cruises each summer that did the North West Passage. This is the big, hard part to finishing a Circle North America cruise as it turns out. The loss of sea ice is the reason the North West Passage is good at all and frankly for that reason, I'd almost rather not do it than be able to do it! Anyway, there was always some reason not to book one of these. Price, ship, schedule or availability or rather lack thereof. North West Passage cruises have historically been on very small ships and so not a lot of people can go even if they are willing and able. Crystal Serenity is a big ship. Not huge, but big for this itinerary and in our experience. So, we decided to afford this one and waitlisted. We got an acceptable cabin and now our departure date looms!

Lastly in catching up here. I have been adding news links as I found them to a previous day's entry. Probably not the best idea, but I didn't want to start a new post on the subject of news stories every time one appeared. Understanding that most people don't go back in time and reread, here is a link to that day. As the sailing date nears, the cruise becomes more and more controversial.

41 days from North West Passage cruise

We got our cruise documents from Crystal yesterday. They came through the front door's mail slot in a Priority Mail envelope. It is a nice compact gray vinyl zippered folio-like case. It has 6 luggage tags and our cruise tickets/contracts plus some other random sheets about things like how to reach the ship or ship luggage to it. We have been assigned a cabin in the category which we bought a guarantee. It is on the port side on deck 7. This will be the longest cruise we have ever done without a balcony and the smallest yet most expensive cabin! And on one of the largest ships for us. Looking at the deck plan though it looks like a quick outside door to the Promenade deck is available to us so fingers crossed. We had to take a window cabin as the price difference between C1 (ours) and the lowest level balconies above us (B1) was over $11K. That was just too much for me in cold sailing and the same tiny-sized cabin. We'll see how we do. We fly out in a little more than a month!

Why the North West Passage cruise is now possible

Here is a LINK to a PBS show about polar bears in the Beaufort Sea, but it is about more than that. It was very informative, if you're interested.

Also, I have been adding news links about this to an older post and I probably shouldn't have just kept going back and editing and updating it but I did so there. You can revisit that post if you're interested in further news on the subject.

We are 52 days from sailing and less than that before departure for Anchorage. Getting excited!

At home on the farm

Clay and his tomato farm

We have been glad to stay home for a while as it gives Clay time to farm twice a day! He goes out at least twice every day of the week since mid-April to water and check his tomato farm. Today he started his harvest. He is pleased. He wanted to pick that reddest tomato yesterday and I convinced him to wait and in that 24 hours, the tomato split! He is still planning to eat it and says he won't wait like that again.

Crystal Serenity's 2016 North West Passage cruise itinerary

Date	Port	Arrival	Departure
Aug 16, Tuesday	Anchorage/Seward, Alaska, USA (Free Transfer from Anchorage [ANC] airport to ship terminal.) »		9 pm
Aug 17, Wednesday	Kodiak, Alaska, USA »	9 am	6 pm
Aug 18, Thursday	Cruising the North Pacific Ocean  »
Aug 19, Friday	Dutch Harbor, Alaska, USA »	8 am	6 pm
Aug 20, Saturday	Cruising the Bering Sea  »
Aug 21, Sunday	Nome, Alaska »	10 am	11 pm
Aug 22, Monday	Cruising the Bering Sea  »
Aug 23, Tuesday	Passing Little Diomede Island  »
Aug 24, Wednesday	Cruising the Chukchi Sea  »
Aug 25, Thursday - Aug 26, Friday	Cruising the Beaufort Sea  »
Aug 27, Saturday	Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada »	8 am	6 pm
Aug 28, Sunday	Cruising the Dolphin and Union Strait  »
Aug 29, Monday	Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada »	7 am	7 pm
Aug 30, Tuesday	Cruising Victoria Strait  »
Aug 31, Wednesday	Cruising Bellot Straight - Western Entrance  »
Sep 1, Thursday	Cruising Peel Sound or The Bellot Strait  »
Sep 2, Friday	Cruising Beechey Island/Radstock Bay  »
Sep 3, Saturday	Cruising Croker Bay and the coast of Devon Island  »
Sep 4, Sunday	Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada »	6 am	6 pm
Sep 5, Monday	Cruising the fjords of Baffin Island  »
Sep 6, Tuesday	Crossing Davis Strait  »
Sep 7, Wednesday	Ilulissat, Greenland »	7 am	6 pm
Sep 7, Wednesday	Cruising Disko Bay  »
Sep 8, Thursday	Sisimiut, Greenland »	8 am	4 pm
Sep 9, Friday	Nuuk, Greenland »	7 am	4 pm
Sep 10, Saturday - Sep 11, Sunday	Cruising the Labrador Sea  »
Sep 12, Monday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean  »
Sep 13, Tuesday	Bar Harbor, Maine, USA »	9 am	6 pm
Sep 14, Wednesday	Boston, Massachusetts, USA »	8 am	6 pm
Sep 15, Thursday	Newport, Rhode Island, USA »	10 am	5 pm
Sep 16, Friday	New York City, New York, USA (overnight) »	9 am
Sep 17, Saturday	New York City, New York, USA »	Disembark am

J 611

Photos

April 8, 9 and 10, 2016

What is a J 611 you may be wondering. It is a steam locomotive built in 1950 and recently restored at the NC Transportation Museum. It is owned by the VA Transportation Museum. We took a long day trip to Lynchburg, VA and back on a train of 22 vintage restored cars with this steam engine in the lead. The NC Transportation Museum has for a number of years done these kind of special train trips one weekend in spring and one weekend in fall. We have done a number of them and have enjoyed them and they've been well done.

This is the first time we had the excitement of a steam engine and all the thousands of photographers waiting for us along the way, so it had a special excitement. Otherwise it was the least enjoyable of these trips that we've done. We paid $361.66 for the 2 of us for our train tickets. Those were the cheapest seats. They really were cheap seats. We've always purchased the cheapest seats on all of these train trips and we saw several of the cars we had ridden aboard in the past. They were evidently higher priced for this trip and most of us in our car were repeat travelers and didn't realize that this was a change. So, today we were assigned to The Tennessee. It resembles a commuter train car with hard plastic seats facing both directions and no overheard storage. We've certainly ridden in cars like this before on short commuter train hops where the trains just ferry passengers back and forth on short runs all day long. Unfortunately, we got backward facing seats for 7am to 10pm! In good news, the couple facing us allowed us to switch places with them after the train was turned around in Lynchburg for the return trip. The way these trips work is that you buy a ticket class and when you pick up your tickets the day before or day of the trip, you learn your car assignment. Seating is first come, first choice. We usually try to board as early as possible. We were told that the museum's parking lot gates would open at 6am. We drove in at 6:04am. All the parking spots were filled already and we were told to pull to the side of the road and park. It seems most people were told 5am! I've double checked our documents though and it says 6am as the opening on Saturday. All coming an hour earlier would have gotten us though was the same forward facing seats roundtrip and an actual legal parking spot. The other hardship were the delays. We were delayed on each segment so we had less time to sightsee (or eat lunch) in Lynchburg and we got back to Spencer over 2 hours late. It made for a long and not too pleasant day. There are almost always delays in train travel in the USA, but I think that this train had more than we had experienced in the past because those trains had mostly used Amtrak engines pulling the vintage cars. That is my theory anyway. On Sunday, the J 611 train took a day trip to Asheville with 3 loops. That was highly anticipated and I waffled over booking both but in the end chose Lynchburg only. After Saturday's trip, I was happy with my choice! NCTM did the same Asheville itinerary last fall when we missed it by being overseas so I feel sure they will repeat it again and we'll catch it then.

We will look forward to doing another train trip with the NCTM but we'll study and ask questions about what equipment will be used for each fare class in the future before booking.

So the trip got a lot of press coverage. In Salisbury, NC. In Lynchburg, VA. On television. And more TV.

Another thing that was new this year, and in a good way, was that NCTM had partnered with Salisbury-Rowan County Convention and Visitors Bureau to reward those of us who booked participating hotel stays. We made a return visit to what is now a Days Inn. In the past we were assigned a 100 room which is in the front building and we can recommend. This time we got a 200 room which with the 300s are in the back building. Though the rooms look identical, the back building was much more flimsily built and NOISY!  We can only recommend a stay if you can make sure to have a room in the front building or a 100s numbered room and I don't even know for a fact if that is possible. A couple checking out before me told the front desk clerk that they always stay in room 110 and love it and as they are train nuts that they'll be back for it. That makes me think you can specify where you'd like to reserve, but maybe they just asked for it at check in and got lucky. As to the good news here, we paid $92.93 for 2 nights and the promotion partners gave us gifts worth even more than that! They had waiting at the Days Inn front desk for us a 611 souvenir t-shirt and ballcap, and a $50 gift certificate to the museum gift shop. What a deal! If only we had realized that we'd never stayed in that back building before and we could have avoided it! Lesson learned and hopefully we'll remember this before we go there again.

The Days Inn is right behind a 24/7 IHOP. Our vintage IHOP on Hillsborough Street has recently closed and will be torn down so I have been seeing a lot of IHOP in the news and had a craving. It went unfilled, sadly. Clay had a plan involving Bojangles' biscuits on Saturday morning since we planned to be boarding at 6am. On Sunday morning we checked out after the Days Inn's 6 to 9am complimentary breakfast was served  and the parking lot at the IHOP was filled up so Clay drove on by. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel a few exits away and had a disappointing meal. We don't really like Cracker Barrels.

Regarding meals. We had an excellent Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse meal in Salisbury on Friday night. Recommend! On Saturday in Lynchburg we had a good lunch at The Depot Grille. They were overwhelmed with train passengers but handled it the best they could. We were among the early arrivals and just sat at the bar and ordered from the sandwiches section of the menu. Clay enjoyed a South Street Satan's Pony Amber Ale and fried oysters. I had a French Dip sandwich. It was all good.

After we ate lunch we had a small amount of time left to walk up the hill on 9th Street in a frigid stiff wind to see the Monument Terrace and catch a free shuttle bus back to the train. The train didn't leave for an hour after the all aboard as they loaded water to the engine with a fire hose! It seems to me the people arranging the trip should have known how long it would take to refill the water tank and they should have let the passengers have that time in town. Just saying. Especially after they made announcements to us that the delay was caused by a local man and child who had "snuck aboard" and who they were having problems disembarking. It reflected more poorly on the organizers (and security personnel!) than it did on the guy with the kid touring the train. We could see the hose was hooked up and knew that was why were weren't going anywhere for that hour!

So, we would still recommend a special NCTM train excursion just know that some are better than others and you might pick a great one or you might not. I still prefer the overnight trips as the very long days are trying. If you ride the train 3 to 4 hours in each direction and have 3 hours on the ground in the middle, it is always going to be a long day, no matter how comfortable your train seat turns out to be!

Photos

Crystal Serenity in the News

Good news that is! Usually I am here reporting a fire or a bankruptcy or something tragic. No, so far so good. Fingers crossed that holds!

Here are some links to recent news stories on Serenity.

North West Passage

Wall Street Journal

Living aboard Serenity

Prepping for Serenity's North West Passage Cruise

Serenity's 2017 NWP Repeat

Serenity's 2016 NWP

Smithsonian

NWP Escort Ship

Ready or Not

Preparations

Risks

Ice Breaker

Alaska

Coast Guard Inspections

NWP History

NWP 2015

New York Times

Nunavut

Last non-news item is Serenity has live webcams!