The touring season in Alaska started off with a bang. On Friday, the 15th, I had my third day off alll month, and I wonder if I will get another before August! Well, I know I will the way they work me around here. We are limited by the federal government in how much we can drive, for obvious safety reasons. The only way to get more time is to get a day off once in a while, about every week.
The season here started with the Diamond Princess being in Whittier, on Saturday. That ship is 964 feet long and has capacity for 2,900 passengers. She arrived in Whittier from Beijing, and was only about half full. We had 882 people disembark, and just over 1,200 get on. These numbers are pretty small for a ship day, but it was still a busy day. I was assigned to go into work at 3:30am, so I could be leaving town by 4:00am to get to Whittier and bring the first round of passengers to the airport, where most of them would be flying home. This was my first time in Whittier, and driving through the Whittier tunnel, as the road to there had been closed for a month and a half, and had only opened that morning. We were lucky, and happy! This tunnel, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, is a unique tunnel. It is a single lane, and it is shared with the Alaska Railroad. Now, most people imagine a tunnel where the railroad and the road are side by side, but that is not the case. The railroad track has pavement around it, and you drive on it. It is 2.5 miles long, and takes about seven minutes to travel through it. Once through, on the Whittier end at least, the entire town is visible, and the ships are by far the largest things in town. I went down to the dock, where there was plenty of space for me to park. Usually, the first group of passengers will begin getting off the ship right at 6:30am. I was there just before 6:00am, so there was a little down time, and as it turned out, US Customs was taking their sweet old time about inspecting the ship, so we actually had to wait longer. Normally they will not be inspecting the ships in Whittier, because normally they will be arriving from other parts of Alaska. This was a more unique trip, from Beijing. Once the passengers began coming off the ship, it did not take long to fill my coach. Once I had 52 people aboard, I was sent off to Anchorage. Because of the delay with US Customs, I missed the northbound traffic release at the tunnel, and I had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one. That is a long time for a bunch of people who just woke up and want to get home, especially when I do not have 40 minutes worth of material to talk about with them. I am still working on a lot of my tour material. Once through the tunnel, the drive went on unhindered. I dropped everyone off at the airport and then radioed dispatch for my next assignment.
My next assignment was to pick up people headed for the ship from downtown and bring them to Whittier. That assignment was not until noon, which gave me a couple of hours before I needed to be there. I parked the coach on the hill by the train station, and took a nap and ate lunch. That was nice. About fifteen minutes before my scheduled departure, I went over to the Hospitality Center, where I would meet the passengers, and got ready to board. I had 47 people on that trip, and that group was quite a bit more active and awake than my 6:30am group! They had lots of questions, some of which were not easy questions, but I really liked that. I also did a little better on tips with that trip! Actually, one man, who had a handicapped wife, whom I had helped onto and off of the coach, gave me a $20 tip! That was very nice of him. At that point, the dock people in Whittier had nothing else for me to do, so I was sent back to Anchorage, where I went back to the yard, dropped off the coach, and called it a day, after 13 hours at work.
Sunday was, a shorter day. I had to be at work at 2:30am though. The m/s Statendam was in Seward, and I was assigned to meet her there. I had to be there by 6:00am, and it is 125 miles away. I was supposed to leave the yard at 3:00am, but I was a little late, because of a problem with my two way radio. It would not turn on. Eventually, it was decided that the best and easiest thing for me to do would be to take a hand held radio, and just work with that. The only real drawback is that they have a much smaller range than the ones installed in the coaches. It was better than nothing though. I left about fifteen minutes late, and Rachel followed as we drove. We got to Seward at 5:58am, and had a little while to wait before we were needed. I waited outside of the terminal, in a gravel parking area until I was needed.
My original assignment was going to have me in Seward all day. I was supposed to go there, and meet some guests a a lodge, take them on the Kenai Fjords Tour. While they were on the boat doing that tour, I would be running a shuttle around town. We run a shuttle for the ship passengers, so they can get off and see town a little bit. It is similar to a transit route. After several hours of that, I would pick up the passengers from the Kenai Fjords Tour, and take them back to Anchorage. The way my schedule was, I would be working for at least 15 hours. When I got to the dock however, I was reassigned to an airport run instead. That was nice! I took 37 people from the ship to the airport, where they would be flying to Fairbanks, and ouring the state from north to south. They were surprisingly alert for 7:00am! I was happy about that. And I found that Holland America passengers tip better than Princess passengers do. Once I had delivered everyone to the airport, I radioed dispatch, thinking I would be assigned to go back to Seward once more, before calling it a day. They told me to go home and get some rest! I did just that. It was 11:00am, and I had already worked more than eight hours, all of which was overtime!
Yesterday, Monday, sure did not feel like a Monday. When you are at work everyday anyway, you forget what day it even is. They let me sleep in though. I did not need to be at work until 5:30am. I still woke up at about 2:00am automatically, but it sure felt good to look at the clock and realize I had a couple more hours that I could sleep! I was assigned to go to Whittier again, and this time meet the passengers getting off the ship at 8:30am. We had a smaller ship yesterday, the Island Princess. She has capacity for 2,100 people, but she was not full either. It is still early in the touring season here. The 8:30am passengers were headed downtown, and they were not any more alert than the 6:30am crowd of a few days earlier. I took 53 people to the Hospitality Center downtown. My next assignment was to bring people from the airport to the ship, but after a couple hours, so I parked on the hill by the trainstation again, and waited. This time I killed the time by running over to the mall for lunch.
I arrived at the airport about fifteen minutes before my scheduled departure, and had a hard time actually reaching someone there on the radio. I am not sure what was going on, but the person in charge of the arrivals area must not havebeen listening or something. At any rate, when I did reach him, he had me wait outside the security checkpoint. My 1:00pm departure time passed, and he said he actually would not be needing me for that run. A few minutes later, he called me to the terminal and asked if I could shuttle two passengers downtown. That was actually a lot of fun. I had them sit at the front so I could talk to them without using the microphone, and since they did not need to be downtown right away, I took them on a scenic way there, rather than the most direct way. They loved it. I got more tips from those two passengers than I had gotten from the 53 earlier! Once I dropped them off, I headed back to the airport, and did more waiting.
Eventually, I was called to the terminal again for 22 passengers heading to the ship. I boarded all of them, and then ran over to the other terminal for ten more people, also going to the ship. From there, we drove to Whittier. That was a good group of people too, they were all excited to be going to the ship and starting their vacation. They had a lot of questions, and really loved the drive. It was nice. I like the more active groups of passengers. They are more fun to drive around, and the entire trip is a lot more enjoyable. And the usually tip better at the end! We had to wait a few minutes before there was parking space for us on the dock, so I found a spot where they could take pictures of the ship. I stopped there and waited until I was called to the dock, and invited them to move around as they like if they wanted any pictures of the ship. It was a fun trip there.
After I had disembarked everyone, I was asked to wait a few minues to take an employee back to Anchorage. That was a much more casual trip. He worked with the luggage crew, and told me I must have a lot of patience to deal with the guests all day long. Maybe I do, but I enjoy it, so I do not find it that difficult. I really like this job, it is great. Usually the passengers are in a good mood, as they are going on vacation, or just ending a vacation, and who hates vacation?! It is a lot of fun.
I have taken a few pictures as I have been driving around. I posted them on facebook, and I will keep updating the album as I take more. To see them, click here.
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