September 7, 2012 · 5:40 am

Revisiting Le Cirque—the MS Statendam Version


This blog article may seem familiar to you.  That’s because we did something similar aboard Holland America’s MS Ryndam this past April, on our transatlantic voyage to the beaches of Normandie and beyond.

Holland America’s ships have an upscale restaurant that is well worth trying at least once every voyage.  These dining rooms are called the Pinnacle Grill, and they are indeed worth the extra amount you’ll spend in them.  But even more special is Le Cirque night in the Pinnacle Grill, and you’d better make reservations well in advance if you want to partake of this very special culinary treat.

At least once each voyage (and more on longer voyages), the Pinnacle Grill staff creates a special dinner using signature items from Sirio Maccioni‘s legendary Le Cirque restaurant founded in New York in 1974.  Such a dinner is made even more delightful when it comes the evening following a full day of cruising Glacier Bay.

The captions below speak for the individual courses we had that enchanting, romantic evening.  The waiter pictured with Ursula is an old friend—a friendly young chap who had served us many times before, during our numerous trips to the Pinnacle Grill aboard Holland America’s MS Prinsendam during a 54-day voyage back in March through May of 2010.  Yes, he recognized us just as quickly as we did he.

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September 5, 2012 · 12:00 am

After Skagway—Spending the Day Cruising Glacier Bay


One never gets tired of traversing Glacier Bay.  It’s just that beautiful and awe-inspiring.  And on this voyage we were treated to some spectacular examples of glacial calving at Margerie Glacier.  As you stand on the deck of the ship, you usually hear the crack of the ice before you see the ice falling into the water unless you’re fortunate enough to be looking at the precise location of the calving event.  If you hear first, the main spectacle is already well underway by the time you see it.  That makes capturing the event in a photograph very tricky indeed.

While calving may be the most dynamic sight at Margerie Glacier, it’s the intense blue of the glacial ice that makes for some of the most impressive images.  The closeup images below have not been saturated, so that’s the true color.

Also impressive, but not as approachable, is the John Hopkins Glacier.  Closest approach is about two miles because of the large chunks of ice that continually break off the sheer face of this advancing behemoth.  But, while ships must keep their distance, that does not detract from the surrounding majesty of the mountains and the odd, cloudy green water of the John Hopkins Inlet, caused by the rock flour suspended in the water.

Photographically speaking, Glacier Bay is a treasure.  Hone your panoramic stitching skills before making the journey.  Realize that closeup shots of snow-covered mountains and blue-white glacial ice mean that exposure compensation is in order.  Most of the glacier shots you see below were made by increasing exposure by ⅔ of a stop.  Also, you may want to set white balance manually to make sure you capture correctly the intense blue of the glacial ice.

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September 3, 2012 · 6:00 am

Spending the Day in Skagway


Skagway, Alaska, is a very popular cruise ship destination.  The town has a quaint, distinctly frontier feel about it.  But, let’s face it, Skagway’s primary raison d’être is to extract green pieces of paper from the leather holders carried by tourists.  Oh, and they take plastic, as well.  There are probably more jewelry stores per capita than just about any other place on the face of the planet.  Likewise, you’ll have little difficulty in finding fur anything.  Then there’s the gauntlet of souvenir shops one must run along the main street . . . and saloons, and restaurants, and crafts stores, and, well, you name it.

There’s also the White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge railroad.  It’s a nifty little train ride which Ursula and I did during last year’s voyage, and which we decided to skip this year as it’s getting ridiculously expensive.  Worth doing once, but it’s hard to justify making an expenditure of that nature twice.  So, this time we just stayed in town.  I photographed whilst Ursula souvenir shopped.

Photographically, Skagway shines with little architectural gems frozen in time, frozen in history, and very frozen in winter.

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