OfficerKrupke

#1 thing to do? Not worry about doing things. Must see? My family relaxing and not worrying about doing things. I don't cruise for ports. I cruise for the ship, and I don't try to do it all when onboard because then I just don't feel like I'm vacationing.

Favorite places? Skyline. Meridian. Remy. The verandah of my stateroom. The Cove Bar. Satellite Falls. My wife loves the dry sauna in the Rainforest Room. It has a 4x8 window overlooking the ocean. Movies in the Buena Vista Theatre.

I've met so many interesting people and cast members just sitting at the bar nursing a drink for an hour while talking. People on Disney cruises are really friendly typically.

I think the bears are more visible after the salmon run starts (maybe late June/early July). But wildlife is always unpredictable. We saw a bear walking down the rail line on the White Pass Railroad above Skagway.

This was our experience as well. In early June, before the salmon run, the only bears we saw were on Russell Island in Glacier Bay (Brown/Grizzly/Kodiak. I wouldn't know the difference in subspecies.) and a black bear with her cub on the White Pass rail.

Bear excursions were available, but I don't know how successful they were.

The host at serenity bay when we were there was not a concierge host from the ship but rather another CM given that duty for the day. He was quite hard to find the couple times we went looking or called.

That's been our experience too. Our SB hosts have been virtually useless, but that's fine with us usually.

I would not enjoy the island without a cabana. Every cruse since day 1 we have rented one and they are very nice with some nice perks and most importantly some privacy. Worth every penny. Cabana 18 is our favorite. I have a $2 bill buried there for future generations...

As a side note, Cabana 18, if you're talking about Serenity Bay, is now Cabana 22. It's our favorite too.

The Renaissance will most likely have a shuttle. We stayed at the Renaissance after our cruise a couple of weeks ago and really liked it, even if it is a bit of a climb uphill from some of our favorite restaurants.

Uber Black was about $55 from the airport to the Marriott Waterfront before our trip, and about $55 or so from the Renaissance to the airport upon conclusion of our trip. We liked it because Uber Black is a larger, more comfortable car and it picks up in the loading zone just outside the baggage claim instead of having to go across to the parking garage.

BlueHerons,

 

It is odd and remiss of me that I had not thought about tourists attempting to vacation and traverse our Florida toll highways and by-ways. I would have thought our state, which is so tourist dependent, would have found a way to make it easier for visitors to access the SunPass system. Hmmm ... Food for thought. [emoji4]

Bought a portable SunPass transponder years ago and it has more than paid for itself. Whenever friends head down to Florida (or any other place that has SunPass reciprocity. Atlanta will have it soon.) I give them our SunPass to use. It's perfect.

I'm still unclear. I know two of the Concierge hosts work the family beach cabanas, and have for quite a while. Does the third host work the Serenity Bay cabanas? I can't see that being the case, because at least one host needs to be on the boat for those Concierge guests who don't go ashore.

I do know that the hosts we had also work concierge on the ship, if that makes a difference.

That's the Family Beach. The Serenity Bay hosts seem to be some random person plucked from the ship. We've never had the same one twice, and never saw them other than on the island.

I've reserved a cabana three times now on Serenity Bay, most recently last week, and always had a host who worked very hard to accommodate us.

You've been lucky then. In 3 years we've had a cabana three times and other friends have had one once. Every time we, and they, pressed the button to try and get the host's attention the host never showed up and they wound up walking. Perhaps Disney has retrained the hosts in the past couple of years, or you got hosts that actually did all of the job description. Go figure.

They've changed over the years and in different seasons, so any picture you get, unless taken in the past few weeks, would probably be outdated.

FWIW, Carib also comes in cans.

You don't have a cabana host constantly running between huts ordering and delivering drinks, as you would think/expect/understand every 30 minutes unfortunately.

They try, but it isn't what you image in reality.

In the case of Serenity Bay they don't even try. We've yet to have a host stop by and ask if we needed or wanted anything. In fact, we've yet to have a host come when we've pressed the call button. That's why we always just reserve #22 so the walk to the bar, bathroom and buffet are shortest.

Was wondering now about adjoining cabins

Be aware that, in the hotel industry, adjoining is not the same as connecting. Adjoining means next door. Connecting means there is a door between them.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

On the 6/4-6/11 Crown cruise I heard them explaining to one lady that the all-inclusive only covers one cabin. Just make sure your family of 4, or at least one person from the cabin with the all-inclusive package, is in the picture and I honestly don't see how they could stop you from adding all pictures to the cabin that has the package.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Well, there *was* the SNL episode with Patrick Stewart called, "Love Boat: The Next Generation". Love Trek costuming group has been wearing those uniforms for 20 years this year. :)

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Yes. You can do that too. Easy don't you think?

Very. I use the Monorail all the time, but I don't really like the Light Rail. It takes far too long from the airport for my taste, and I definitely wouldn't want to do it when carrying a lot of luggage for a cruise. The most I've had was a carry on and a backpack, and that was too much for me.

We usually stay within a few blocks and walk but if down by the waterfront or near the space needle cab or uber is a better option.

Heck, if you're staying near the Space Needle/Seattle Center, you could theoretically take the escalator/elevator/stairs from the Light Rail train platform at Westlake Station to the Monorail platform, hop the monorail and then walk to your hotel (we prefer the Maxwell when staying near Seattle Center) once you get to Seattle Center. If you don't want to walk from there, there are always taxis or UBER at the EMP.

Interesting! It was so nice being the last car going up! We took a van down, so that didn't matter. What a bummer to have the luxury car in your way!

Wasn't a bummer for me. I was in the luxury car drinking champagne and Alaskan Amber, eating smoked salmon and sitting out on the back porch with my camera. :D

Would standing outside help at all? If you book through Chilkoot Tours instead of Princess, you get the entire last railway car to yourselves.

Unless there is a luxury car on your train. Then the luxury car is the last car on the line. First up the hill, last car on the way down. This is how the setup was for us last week.

The tunnel is approximately 45 seconds from entry to exit, most of that with light available either fore or aft.

[YOUTUBE]yhx8vPyjSzQ[/YOUTUBE]

Not long at all. I have video of the longest one. Let me find it and upload it. There are actually two different tunnels. The first one is so short that you don't really lose light at all. The second one is such that by the time your claustrophobia starts to rear its ugly head (I have severe anxiety issues, much of them claustrophobia-induced) you'll be out of the tunnel.

We filled ours out the morning of the cruise, at the hotel, and took them with us. The forms we had were huge, and the guy laughed at them but said that it was smart that we did so since the area for completing them is so crowded at times.

And we always bring our own pen. :D

how many were in your group? I have four traveling

We have two, but UberBlack requires there to be room for at least 4. UberXL and UberSUV require there to be room for 6, like a Suburban. With 4 passengers this is the category I would choose instead of UberBlack

At the front on the ship it is quite a head-on experience

Bring some warm things and binocs

And get there early. Once you get close to Marjerie it's next to impossible to wade through the crowd. It's so cool (pun intended) to see the glacier as it comes into view, though.

I failed to take pictures of the menus. I should have. I'm usually not that thoughtless. :(

I do have every Patter, though. I may scan them in the next few days.