OCSC Mike

Best trick the devil ever pulled.

Never really gave it much thought… but I’ll still enjoy the heck out of my meal with them sticking out. 🤣

LMAO. Never heard of anyone having such an aversion to knee caps before. Thanks for taking an already absurd thread to a new level. Don’t visit warm weather states like Florida. You’ll see knees galore at very nice restaurants. And, gasp, maybe even some toes! 😱

@Mum2Mercury As mentioned, this is what we did, from Fairbanks down to Seward (with several stops in between including several days in Denali). Then we did take a 7-night cruise Southbound but I wouldn’t do it without the land portion so I think you’re on the right track. As for “doing it all” & only going once, that’s how we approached it as well. And yes, it is not cheap. My wife worked with an outside company for a year planning the 10 days on land. They booked everything from the train tickets to hotels/lodges for us. Our final itinerary was revised 50-60 times. I can’t advertise for them of course but the name is a synonym for chase & rhymes with root if you’re interested. Very long trip report in my signature with tons of pics & info as well. Way more about the land portion than the cruise & there’s a nice pic of me sleeping on the train if I recall. 😴 Happy planning!

Captain Rob was on Wonder last week (6/4-6/11)

Kenny and Noorina on Wonder were nice and helpful. Kenny ended up inviting our family of 8 on a bridge tour. Cool experience.

My bad, I should have been clearer. The doors were indeed locked early on so we just went elsewhere. I'm not sure if we could have had someone open them to use the SL. After an early lunch in WJ we were just wandering and eventually the doors were propped open.

We especially loved Denali and Seward. Glad you were able to make lemonade out of covid lemons!

The glass doors that lead to the Grand Suites (and eventually the SL/CK) can be propped open so you just walk right in on embarkation day. TBH, they were propped open more often than they were locked during much of the week. If you care you can just pull the open one shut but it wasn't really a big deal to us. We were in 1722. Being literally steps away from the entrance to the SL/CK was pretty damn convenient, I must say. We're not suite people but the set up on Wonder with the suite sun deck above and all the GS's all right there on 17 really was well-designed.

Appreciate the suggestions but we don't do a ton of specialty dining. Our favorite was always the original Giovanni's Table for filet and pasta and we enjoyed Sabor on Harmony last year. Wife won't eat any seafood/sushi, Wonderland is way too exotic, and 150 wouldn't really work for her either. We do enjoy Playmakers (ate there on two separate Indy cruises last year) and obviously now Mason Jar. That's pretty much enough for us. We're frugal, she's picky, and we have simple tastes. We can appreciate a good steak (she had TWO filets for lunch on CocoCay, lol) but we're just as happy with a good burger and fries. Giovanni's Kitchen is the one place we could try... maybe after the next cruise when we hit D+ and get 2 BOGO meals (told ya we're frugal). I've tried some of the crazy bourbon drinks and I just can't get past the bourbon. When drinking simple drinks at home I'm more of a vodka tonic guy. I like The Pitch from Playmakers (modified Long Island) so I asked our go-to SL bartender to make them for me many times and he had no problem doing so of course. His were even better than I had in Playmakers on Indy. I attributed it to skill (he said he opened Wonder and told us he would be opening Icon so he's obviously held in high regard) and to the fact that he was using top shelf everything. We took good care of him and he was a great guy, beyond his mixology skills.

We were originally going to do dinner at Mason Jar next time as my picky wife likes the more savory stuff like chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, etc., but she was fine having them for brunch and said we might as well pay half the price and just do brunch again... which is fine by me b/c I liked pretty much every item I tried, lol. I popped into Mason Jar one night just to try a funky drink with a D voucher and the place was jumping! We're not really "hang out at a bar" people, I usually just grab my drink and go, but I don't doubt you on that. Ports - My extended family really does sail for the ship. My wife and I do too, just not to THAT great of an extent unless we're doing Nassau/CocoCay shorties. Our excursion of choice for the Mexican ports would likely be all-inclusive beach clubs, which seemed a little redundant. With SL perks and our D vouchers, I didn't need additional alcohol. The one place we really do want to tour is Roatan. We had a private tour planned in 2019 but high winds prevented Harmony from docking there so we missed it and were pretty disappointed. I offered a redo on that but my wife decided she'd rather just stick with the family. We're doing this exact same itinerary next June and the plan is to do a beach club in Cozumel and then a long tour on Roatan. One other issue is that the ship leaves Costa Maya at like 2pm so that doesn't make for a very great beach club day either, which is a shame b/c we went to one there before that we really enjoyed.

I think so but not sure. My wife snorkels on her own. I know you go somewhere else if you do the kayaking excursion b/c they won't let you swim out there near some rocks.

CocoCay Beach Club food (plus funnel cake). Lots of filet & coconut crusted lobster sandwiches plus one grouper…

Or the freakishly early time Wonder started boarding last week. We got up to the boarding level of the terminal at like 10:20 and boarding was well underway. 🤣 That was an anomaly of course. Couldn't believe they cleared the ship so quickly.

Not sure I could do the RV part but good for them! We spent 10 days taking the train all the way from Fairbanks to Seward before our cruise and loved it. Even with 10 days and maybe 5-6 different cities we only cracked the surface but it was definitely worth it to spend a chunk of time on land beyond the cruise ports.

Click on the little person tab (on the right) > click "select a different cruise" > choose Symphony from the list of ships and select the current sailing. You can look at the current schedule for the entire fleet this way.

Could not agree more. My entire cruising history (when I'm paying at least) is cheap Caribbean... and one helluva trip to Alaska.

This sounds very similar to our 18-day 2018 trip. Our standard vacation until then was a last minute deal on a 7-night Caribbean cruise out of PC (a one-hour drive). "Splurge" doesn't do the cost and magnitude of that trip justice but it was 100% worth it. Hope you have as amazing a time as we did!

No, they expire and reset to 4 at 5am. Many people will use "leftovers" at the end of the night for beer, soda, bottled water, Truly... anything in a sealed bottle/can you can store in your cooler for future use.

It's actually not funny. My wife saw the glacier we hiked on in 2018 via the tour company's social media for the next year or two and it was sad to see how much smaller it had gotten.

Your wife can purchase the refreshment package (must be done over the phone) if you tell them she doesn't drink. Still pricey but if she drinks soda, mocktails, specialty coffee, bottled water, perhaps it would be worth it for you.

The Enchantment Park Cafe isn't a "real" Park Cafe like the ones on Oasis class (it originated in Central Park on Oasis class, hence the name). That one is sort of a cross between the two venues. The answers above describe the full versions.

Yes, but you have to book through K-Mart. (You probably won't get that reference in Wales, sorry, just a dumb joke.) What's a bluelight discount?

Exactly, we would have still had a great cruise, we just didn't want to be on deck 4 (it was an interior GTY). We prefer mid-high decks, GL!

We came close to our first "not thrilled" cabin last July. Just keep checking for the official assignment so you can possibly switch.