Beyond the Sea

We did our first Alaska cruise in June and it was on Brilliance.  I picked the cruise because of all the opportunities to see different glaciers and the itinerary lived up to my expectations and so much more.  I don't think we will be back on Royal but I would do the itinerary again in a heartbeat.

I initially priced out airfare through the airlines but Royal's Air2Sea had fantastic pricing and the convenience of only paying at final payment was also a plus.  We ended up flying from Ottawa to Vancouver for under $850 roundtrip for the two of us.

The juggler was the only show we saw and we are so glad that we didn’t miss him.  Very funny guy!

How was the rest of the weather for the week? Wasn’t Tracy Arm beautiful?

I had read some comments on different cruises about the coffee machines in the Diamond lounge as I was hoping to be able to use them on the cruise.  It was available during the entire cruise and was very easy to use.  I normally added an extra shot is espresso.  I did notice that there was also a pitcher of orange juice in the lounge most if not all morning.  

20 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Great pictures! I was actually thinking of the curry so thats great! Where did you sit for berings fishermen tour? Were you on the first or second floor?

I had read online to try to get the 2nd row on the first floor but they were taken when we got there.  We sat in the back row on the first floor and it was fine.  You can stand up and also move around during the tour.  To do it again I might consider the side seats on the 2nd floor just for the eagle part of the tour.  That part is a goosebump experience!

The seats on the 2nd floor are behind the life preserver shown below:

3 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Was there a particular meal in the mdr you enjoyed? I know you said you didn't like the food, just wondering.

Do you have the Royal app installed on your smart phone?  If so,  the entire week of menus are available under Dining, Main dining and the dining room.  I had the curry the first night and it was tasty. Their French onion soup was also good. Looking at the days we ate at the specialty restaurants, the dining room looked to have some good options.  

1 hour ago, latebuyer said:

My mom thought you didn’t have to go see tracy arm right at 6:30 but you should stay to very end. (She went last year) Do you think that’s ok or should you be there right at 6:30?

I don’t think you need to be there at the start but if the ship can get close to the glacier you probably want to be at the front as it nears it. Looking at the time stamps on my photos, it seems we were able to start seeing the glacier in the distance around 7:30.  

We had a balcony cabin and had started watching Tracy Arm from the balcony.  Definitely go to the front of the ship to watch the cruise through Tracy Arm.  You will miss the impact of the fjord without the complete view.

Bring binoculars if you have them.  There were tons of seals on the ice.

43 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Thanks for sharing. I go tomorrow and i didn’t realize there were so many kids! You were lucky to see tracy arm! Did you do my time dining and if so did you have a long wait?

Tracy Arm and the glacier were beautiful and the weather was perfect.  
 

We did traditional dining and the specialty restaurants.  We couldn’t figure out how the dining worked as it seems they mixed my time seatings with the traditional dining tables.  We ate at 5 (too early but the late dining is too late for us) and at that time the dining room was never busy.  We only saw lines when the dining room opened.

if you are stopping Ketchikan,  we did the Bering Sea fishermen tour and we were surprised by how much we enjoyed it.  There is a particular stop with bald eagles that was probably one of the highlights of our vacation.

Have a great cruise!

8 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

Do they slide the roof to cover pool or leave open because of large screen?

We have not seen the roof of the solarium open at all during this trip. The screen is at the outdoor pool and there isn’t any chance of watching it from within the solarium.

We are nearing the end of our 7 day cruise and I wanted to provide a few comments on our experience.  
 

I booked the cruise in the Fall of last year and picked it for all the opportunities to see different glaciers - surely to goodness we would be able to see at least one out of the 3 options.  We also booked the Hubbard Glacier tour just in case the ship couldn’t get that close.  
 

We couldn’t have asked for better weather -  the early mornings may have started out foggy but the fog did clear and we had beautiful days for touring.  We packed rain gear but never needed it or required our “puffer” jackets.  A fleece with a shell was the most we needed on deck.

The cruise down Tracy Arm was beautiful and we got quite close to the North Sawyer Glacier. 
 

The tour to Hubbard was shortened due to mechanical problems with the tour boat but we were compensated.  We were able to get so much closer than Brilliance.  I’m not sure if Brilliance is restricted on how close it can sail or if it is judged by the ice flow (there was a lot of ice in the water) but we felt the cost of the tour was worth it.  The view was incredible and we did see some small calfing.

We took a private whale watching tour in Juneau and the shuttle to the tour stopped for a photo op of Mendenhall Glacier in the distance.  We didn’t have enough port time to do both a whale watching tour and trip to the Glacier.

I’m extremely happy with my choice in the cruise itinerary and would repeat it again without hesitation.  
 

Would I repeat with Royal?  No.  I knew going in that there would likely be many families but thinking that the school term would not yet be done in some areas hoped we wouldn’t be overwhelmed by children.  There are over 500 children on the ship and we have struggled to find somewhere to escape the noise. The Solarium is open to children multiple times a day so they can use the pool and they are in most of the bars due to the different scheduled activities.  Royal really needs to offer some quiet areas during the day.  I would prefer not to have to escape to my room.

The other issue is the food and alcohol.  I know food is subjective but we have cruised on several lines and have been cruising for almost 20 years and the food isn’t very good for the most part.  The dining room food at breakfast and dinner was being served cold to lukewarm even with made to order eggs.  We did talk to the maitre d after a couple of days and did see an improvement.  We haven’t found a lot of choices in the Windjammer at lunch.  We are using the Diamond coupons for drinks and seem to be struggling to use them with the limited mixed drink choices and the quality of the drinks.

I will say that the staff have been very friendly especially the guys at Lattitudes.  Everyone always smiles and says hello.  
 

If anyone has questions, fire away.  This is my opinion and I respect that others may have a completely different experience.

Thanks for pointing that out about the dates.  I hadn't even noticed that it was an option to change the date once the flights showed up.  Much easier now than having to keep bothering my agent for options.

We're going to try Air2Sea for an Alaskan cruise this spring.  We're flying out of Ottawa to Vancouver return.  The price when we booked was about $500 less than booking directly with Air Canada.  The flights are in Canadian $ but I've been told the seat reservations are charged in US $ and it looks to be the case when I try to reserve the seats.  I haven't booked the seats yet as I'm not convinced that our flights won't change before final payment.  It's happened already with a non-stop flight to YVR changed to a connecting flight. 

I booked the cruise through a travel agent and unfortunately she has to provide the pricing since we are flying to YVR a couple days before the cruise.  I can only see the pricing for flights on the page for the actual day the cruise departs.

Royal Caribbean has updated their policy:  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-vaccines-are-accepted

Does anyone know where I check the vaccine policies for the different islands, specifically St. Maarten?  I found Bahamas but I’m curious about St.  Maarten and St. Thomas.

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes, I had received a refund on 2 CWC FCC's this summer.   I had asked for a cash refund and I didn't even realize they were issuing a cash refund for 2 FCC's I had used to partially pay with.     I thought they would simply re-instate them to be used for another booking.   

That’s promising!

I know in theory, Royal is supposed to offer a refund if you don’t agree with their protocols for a specific cruise but I’d like to know if anyone has actually received a refund on their CWC FCC.  I’ve been told that mine is non-refundable and I’ll likely only know their protocols at the end of December for my Jan 30 cruise.  
 

I’m curious how much of a fight I’m going to have on my hands when the time comes.

12 hours ago, librarylady19 said:

I am very pleased (and relieved) to report that I received a prompt response from the email send to Mr. Bayley as follows:

 

I am sorry for your disappointment with our previous responses. Per exception made, your refund request will be granted and will be processed to the original form of payment reflected on your reservation.

 

Thanks for the advice not to pursue the credit card dispute route as I would prefer to continue as a Royal and Celebrity cruiser in the future (3 sailings booked for 2022!).

 

 

Can you report back once you’ve received your refund?  I’m curious if you get the FCC also refunded.  Thanks!

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

The rules about mixed vaccines changed last week and RCI now accepts what you have.

 

Assuming RCI extends the 30 day final payment rule, protocols are declared before final payment and they keep the rule to allow refunds for protocol reasons, you should be able to get a refund.

Unfortunately my mixed vaccines are not covered by the latest protocol update.  I have a 1st dose of AstraZeneca followed by a 2nd dose of Moderna.  

Has anyone had any luck getting a CWC FCC refunded? 

I have a FCC for a cruise that I cancelled 3 days before everything shut down due to COVID (a March 15, 2020 cruise).  I have tried multiple paths to request a refund without any luck - contacted Michael Bayley's Facebook page (told to contact the Royal Caribbean page), numerous conversations with RCCL on Twitter, a credit card chargeback request and I opened a case with the Federal Maritime Commission (nicer response from RCCL but still denied a refund).  I have been told that the CWC FCC is non-refundable - not sure this is the case but at least one agent on Twitter made that statement.

I have the FCC applied to a cruise at the end of January however due to vaccine requirements that I do not meet, I won't be allowed to take the cruise with the current policies.  I see myself having two options: wait for the policy announcement for January sailings and hope that the CWC FCC can be refunded or continue to keep moving a booking with the hope that I'll eventually be allowed to sail (or not have to sail as an unvaccinated passenger).

I am aware that there are several announcements coming up in Nov: US to open border to international travellers and updated vaccine policies are likely, Bahamas's COVID vaccine policy is set to expire and Canada is set to open up to cruise ships.

I should add that I am Canadian (in Ontario) and have mixed doses of the vaccines.  I am not entitled to have a 3rd dose of a vaccine and at this point I'm not sure if the 3rd dose would only complicate things or make things easier.  I have looked at an Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver.  Hopefully the vaccine policies out of Canada allow me to sail however I don't know what the policies might be for Alaska.

At this point, I would really like my money returned to the original form of payment and apply it to a vacation on my terms when I'm ready rather than being forced to settle on a cruise that will allow me to sail and one that I may not want to take.  I also don't want to give Royal more money that I may not be able to recover.  I have been a loyal customer to Royal and Celebrity over the years but unfortunately, this experience has not left a good impression of their customer service.

2 hours ago, JohninDC said:

We've always had good experiences with Cocoa Beach Shuttle.  Stopping to pick up other passengers at other ships depends upon how many ships and how many passengers have reservations, but it's usually pretty quick and you are on your way to MCO.

They show big buses and vans on their website, what have you taken when using their service?

Hi,

I‘m looking at booking CBShuttle for transportation for our upcoming cruise in March.   Can anyone share their experience using them?  Their website indicates that they leave the terminals ever 30 min but do they then stop at other terminals (MCO and port) along the way to pick up more passengers?  We’ve looked at Lyft for a more personal service than a shared shuttle but it seems to be about $40 more for the 4 of us.

Thanks!

Tracey

5 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Yes, that is also available, but I don't like the coffee from those machines.  We have tried it on many ships and still prefer a Mocha from other venues.  😄 

Good to know!  How does the coffee at the Promenade Café compare to Starbucks?

We are also Diamond C&A members so I believe we may have an option to get a coffee from the Diamond lounge if the machine is working.

It's been a while since I've cruised with Royal and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get my morning latte on Harmony when we sail next March.  I believe they have a Starbucks but is there also a coffee shop that sells/offers regular coffee and espresso drinks?  Are pastries also available and if so is there a charge?  I've read that there's a coffee card but I haven't seen a price listed anywhere. 

I'm used to Celebrity's Café al Bacio and how it works.  

Any information would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Tracey

We've done Cosol and Spencer Ambrose in St. Lucia and snorkeled both times at Sugar/Jalousie Beach. The snorkeling isn't awesome but if you're in the roped in area (the Marine Reserve) there should be things to see. I was in water maybe mid-shin deep and I saw a beautiful juvenile French Angelfish. There were also trumpetfish, filefish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, feather duster worms and the standard other Caribbean fish. The trick is to take your time and float - you'd be surprised by what you might see! It's been a while now but Cosol offered a great land and beach tour that got us to the popular places.

We did Woodwind this past April and it was from a Catamaran. We're going with them again in February. They offered prescription goggles to those that needed them and pool noodles if you wanted one. A great lunch too!

Tracey