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Trip Report: An Alaskan Cruise...

The family did a cruise last week, aboard Holland America's MS Westerdam, out of Seattle to Alaska and return. After departing Seattle, my 1st stop was the casino. (However, my very 1st on-board stop upon boarding, was the 'Food Deck'... Lido, deck 9.) vbg

Meanwhile, in the casino I went to the cage to verify that one could, or could not get chips there. Yep, you had to go to the tables. I then asked about playing cards and was told they do not sell old decks. Same thing about old dice... no dice!

At the tables, I saw that they were using a newer design generic $1 chip, mixed-in with Holland America's other generic $1 chips and the "MS Westerdam" branded $1 chips. Getting the newer $1's was problematic, as the dealers were reluctant to let me buy-in as a non player. One Floor Person did allow me buying 5 $1 chips, from which I got 2 of the newer ones. It appears as though these chips were just released, as they are all in like-new condition! (I would guess that they were released that trip, or perhaps only 1 or 2 trips prior to ours.

I did not see any newer $2.50's, $5's, $25's nor $100's in use, but there were loads of the "MS Westerdam" branded chips and other, generic HAL chips, in the float. This is what the "MS Westerdam" branded chips look like:

This is the new, generic $1 chip, which may also be in-use on other HAL ships.

One of the ports-o-call was Juneau and I stopped by the Harley-Davidson Dealership there (Taku) and picked up a few newer Harley Davidson Dealership chips.

Lastly, this is why they are not selling playing cards! Shown here is a clip from a video I have on my Facebook page, showing 2 dealers tearing every card, from every deck used on the cruise, in half! The Horror, THE HORRO!!!


Copyright 2022 David Spragg