firewife09

Has anyone booked a tour/excursion with Real Deal Roatan? If yes, what excursion and how was your experience? TIA

can you put 24 cans in one cooler (2 people worth) or do we each need our own small cooler?

If you don’t have kids the Solarium is awesome to just sit and relax and enjoy the scenery. We also loved the tables around the outside pool. Favorite Bartender = we don’t drink so not much help there. Things not to miss = make a list of what is important to you (we really wanted to see the glacier so we got up really early) but also remember you are on vacation so relaxing should be a key part of your experience.

We loved the ship and the only negative I had about our cabin was it is a little narrow but otherwise it was great!!

My 12yr old had a blast both on the boat and at the ports BUT I did make sure to book excursions that he was interested in. we explored Ketchikan on our own (not by choice, excursion was canceled) and I wish we would have done Victoria on our own (no need for an excursion).

If you want to book a paid session for any day you can book it right when you get on the ship WiFi the first day on the royal app. I booked it the moment I sat down on embankment day.

So there are two option for IFly - one that is free and a lot shorter of an experience. And the second option is a longer experience and I believe was $29 each. It is a blast and I highly recommend.

We had two medical incidences on this cruise - one in Ketchikan and one in Juneau. We were not updated to the reason but are hoping those individuals are now safe and healthy.

We also got off on Westlake. It is an under ground station so you will need to walk outside to the sidewalk to get to the hotel. Super easy walk - took at most 10 minutes.

I’m finally negative but still feel like something is sitting on my chest. Hubby and Kiddo are still positive - ugh. Thankfully it was pretty mild but still I have never been so tired.

We did the Alaska Sled Dogs & Musher's Camp - it was sooo much fun!!

Last Day - Saying goodbye to Quantum We woke up at 7am and got ready for the morning. Headed to Wind Jammer for breakfast and patiently waited for our group to be called. We were group 22 and were called approx 8:30am. Getting off the boat was a breeze for us. We were off the ship at 8:45am, picked up our luggage in the cruise terminal at 9am (I repacked one of the bags and added the stuff we had kept with us to get ready in the morning). Got in the taxi line and were in a taxi by 9:45am. Taxis to SeaTac are a $40 flat rate. We were at the airport by 10:20am and had dropped off our bags, gone thru security by 11am. We grabbed McDonald's at the airport and headed to our gate ready for our 2:45pm lift off........ Only to be delayed - ugh. New time was 3:30pm. Flight home was uneventful and smooth. This trip was everything we wanted it to be and more - our family had such a blast. I would definitely do this cruise all over again. The one downfall of the cruise was that I started feeling pretty crummy about two days after we got home and ended up testing positive for Covid, then Hubby got it and finally the kiddo got it. We are all vaccinated and boosted but I wouldn't wish this virus on anyone. It for sure took its toll on all three of us. We were diligent about using hand sanitizer and washing our hands etc.... Just know that this is a risk of cruising in this time. Please feel free to ask me any and all questions. I probably left a few details out. From our family to yours thanks for reading our review - This trip is now a family core memory.

Day# 7 - Victoria, BC We were due to arrive into port at 5pm so we had our whole morning open. I was feeling better so we ate breakfast and I was going to pack since the next day was our last day. Our flight was not leaving until 2:48pm the next day so we didn't have to rush off the ship. We were given luggage tags and found that our group was going to be called really early so I headed to customer service to get a later group. They had no issues changing our group. You may also need to head to customer service for more luggage tags - they only gave us 4. We opted to place our luggage out at 10pm tonight and pick it up the next morning in the port. I had packed an extra bag just in case we had bought a bunch of souvenirs and we ended up using this bag to pack out all the stuff we needed the next morning to get ready. It worked out great. We headed to Wind Jammer to grab a late lunch and then off to the theater for our excursion. We were to meet in the theater at 4pm. This was the one port that I wasn't sure what to do - I picked a Historical Walking Tour and if I had to do it again I would probably do Victoria on our own. Don't get me wrong we saw some cool houses and things but I could have done the same tour myself. It was a VERY windy day!! Kiddo found a park and a merry go round type drink shaped ride haha. A lot of the homes belonged to the Historical Society. The Historical Society will pay part of the home owners property tax every year but the owner has to keep the historical integrity of the outside of the house. Meaning the paint color can never change, if your house needs to be painted and your paint color is no longer made then you need to find someone who can copy the exact color. You can see that the homes have very unique colors. We came across a park that had a huge watering can. The person leading the tour told us it was an art installation. Me being the curious one saw a group of big circles on a wall. I told the kiddo - go push one of those thinking it would make a noise or something. Oh no - it was a splash pad for kids during the summer. We ended up getting a few people wet in the tour. It was a good laugh. Can you see the peacock in the tree. We were told that they don't fly but they are great hoppers. This was at least 20feet in the air. A really cool school that is still up and running. Random deer in the middle of town. The tour guide said that these deer are a huge menace. They have no fear and will just stand in the middle of the street or walk into stores. We actually witnessed this group crossing the street and just standing in the middle of the road. The tour was about two hours long. We broke off from the group early in search of food only to find out that almost ALL food places close in Victoria on Sundays at 6pm. We ended up getting a few beaver tails (highly recommend) and doing some souvenir shopping. We headed back to the ship getting a little lost on the way but finally making our way back. HOT TIP: Victoria closes EARLY!!! If you are going to do an excursion and explore the city afterwards just know that most places will be closed. This is the one port that I would change what we did. We would just explore on our own. We still had a fun time but really didn't feel like we got to experience Victoria. We got back on the boat, put our luggage in the hallway and then headed down for some pizza. We were starving!!

Day #6 - Second Day at Sea We slept in - it was so nice not to have to wake up to an alarm clock. We still got up around 9am. This day was suppose to be relaxing but I woke up not feeling the greatest. I had brought with me Covid tests just in case we needed them. I took one and tested negative. I chocked up the icky feeling to having more ocean movement and a mild case of sea sickness. Kiddo spent most of the day at the Teen Room and Sea Plex. I spent most of the day in bed and hubby roamed the ship and relaxed. We did have reservations for Chops and the Show that night. I rallied and headed to dinner with the boys but the moment I entered Chops I couldn't hang. I asked if my meal could be given to my hubby to go and they said yes with no issues. Headed back to the room and straight to bed. About 20 minutes later there was a knock at my door and the steward had sent my meal to me as room service. What an amazing gesture. The boys said this was the best meal they ever had - hubby tried to take pics of food. lobster bisque Caesar salad - really good dressing Filet - cooked perfectly. This is what the kiddo had - he said it was awesome. Hubby's meal - I can't remember the cut. We ended up not going to the show. HOT TIP: If you book a reservation for a show and don't show up to that reservation then you will not be able to book another show reservation on the app.

Day #5 - Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier plus Juneau We woke up early this morning 5:30am because we didn't want to miss the glacier. It was already so bright outside. The weather was cold and gloomy kind of spitting rain definitely not a downpour. We had booked the NorthStar Extended Session for 7:30am and I was worried we weren't going to see anything. We had planned ahead and had room service delivered this morning so that we could stand on our balcony and drink coffee and have a light breakfast. You started to see icebergs the closer we got to the glacier and they were progressively getting bigger. People who had booked the NorthStar earlier missed the Glacier and ship spin. So be aware even though the Cruise Planner states 5:30am you are still traveling into Endicott Arm. We headed up to the NorthStar approx 7:20am - kiddo and hubby got a regular hot chocolate and I opted for the spiked hot chocolate. What I didn't know was that they didn't allow drinks in the ball (which was fine but I would have gotten our drinks after our trip instead). We got so lucky with the NorthStar - the sun was just coming out and we ended up in the ball right when the ship started to turn. Due to all the icebergs the ship was not able to get close to the glacier. We in fact didn't see it at all. Would I recommend the NorthStar - definitely. Would I suggest doing it during the glacier morning - For Sure. My only caution would be to have low expectations. We used OBC to pay for the NorthStar so I wasn't too upset when we didn't get closer to the glacier, it was still gorgeous. We headed to the Wind Jammer for a bigger breakfast - I was super excited because they had congee in the buffet. We admired the scenery as we headed towards Juneau. Kiddo ditched the parents to go play some xbox haha. and ended up finding a duck. I was super excited for Juneau - we had booked two excursions thru Royal. The first was Alaska Sled Dogs & Musher's Camp and the second was the Gold Creek Salmon bake. We at first were going to book the Glacier/Helicopter Dog Sledding excursion but I couldn't talk myself into getting into a helicopter. I was super grateful that we didn't book that excursion because they ended up all getting canceled in port. This was the first day of the cruise that it really rained. We got off the ship around 1pm and walked around Juneau and checked out some shops - didn't really find anything that we HAD to have. We met up on the dock for our excursion at 2:15pm and it started to pour rain - ALOT of excursions got canceled. It was about a 15 min. shuttle ride to the Musher Camp. HOT TIP: Do this excursion too!!!! Right when we got to camp we board and sled and got a 1 mile ride from the dogs. It was soooooo much fun. The rain added to the atmosphere. If you can sit in front of the sled I highly recommend it. These dogs are powerful, we were moving so fast on the sled (there are seatbelts on the sled). And these dogs LOVED what they were doing. HOT TIP: Wear clothes on this excursion that you don't plan on wearing for the remainder of the cruise. They will get muddy, you will smell like dog and it will be totally worth it!! After our sled ride we got to check out the suspension bridge and learn about the Iditarod. It was fascinating. And then the best part of the whole excursion..... PUPPIES!!!!!! They had six 7 week old puppies - ours was named Cadbury. And five 1 week old puppies (not named yet). If there are newborn puppies it is not guaranteed you will be able to hold them. They allow it every other tour group. We got lucky. We left this excursion and headed back to the dock. Our Gold Creek Salmon Bake wasn't supposed to happen for another 1 1/2 hours but as we were getting off the shuttle we saw the Salmon Bake bus and asked if we hop on their bus. They had no issues. The food was good - they had salmon, salad, clam chowder, corn bread, baked beans and potatoes. There was supposed to be dessert somewhere but we didn't find it. There is a short trail behind the salmon bake that we checked out after eating. You could also try your hand at gold panning. We took the bus back to the ship, the shuttle consistently runs so you could leave this excursion whenever you were ready. Got back to the boat at 7pm. Headed to Wind Jammer to make a dessert plate and ended this night with some competitive Uno Flip. Next Day - 2nd day at Sea

Day 4 - Sitka I want to move here!! I LOVED Sitka - I felt that it was the least touristy of the ports. Our plan for today was get off the boat and explore Sitka in the morning and then head back to the port for our Zodiac Adventure and Fin Island Excursion. We had breakfast in Wind Jammer and watched the boat dock. The dock for Sitka is not walking distance to town. They do offer a free shuttle that picks up at port and takes approx 15 minutes to get into town. We had an awesome driver who gave us history and facts on our drive. You will see that the kiddo has his phone in the above picture. He is a huge Pokémon fan and we got good service while in the ports (all ports except Canada). He was super excited to play Pokémon Go in all the ports and catch the rare Alaskan Pokémon haha. I have a love and obsession for old cemeteries. Actually all cemeteries and Sitka has two that I really wanted to see. They were handing out maps of the town before we got on our shuttle so I immediately plotted our route to the Military Cemetery and the Russian Cemetery. Since our excursion didn't leave until 12:45pm our goal was to get back to the shuttle at 11:30am just to be safe. Here is the photo blast of our walk to and thru the Cemeteries. So we went the back way to the Russian Cemetery by accident and the kiddo was actually the one who found the walking path. We were walking up a road and the map told us to keep walking and do a loop but the kiddo found an opening in the forest and wanted to explore before we got to the Russian Cemetery. The path actually ended up being a walking path straight into the cemetery - super fun accident. this cemetery had a creepy, beautiful and ancient feel to it. Here are just a few of the many photos we took. The above was the actual entrance to the cemetery. All the paths were clearly marked on where to walk so thankfully we weren't too nervous about stepping on someone's resting ground by accident. We got back on the shuttle to head back to port at 11:30am to head back to the boat to catch our excursion. HOT TIP: DO THIS EXCURSION!!!!!! We had picked the Zodiac Adventure and Fin Island Excursion. We were hopeful that it wouldn't be canceled and thankfully it wasn't. This excursion was amazing, again we booked it thru Royal and it consisted of a Zodiac boat ride and then a crab and prime rib lunch on Fin island. On the Zodiac we saw tons of wildlife - jellyfish, starfish, sea anemones, a mink, approx 20 juvenile and adult eagles, 3 otters, a bald eagle nest with momma eagle in it, and the highlight of the whole trip (unfortunately the photos are on my hubby's camera) but a humpback whale had died the previous week and had settled on one of the island beaches. As we were turning the corner to check it out in the zodiac we came across a brown bear snacking on the dead humpback whale. It was amazing!! We all tried to keep quiet but ended up scaring the brown bear and it galloped off. This was a first for everyone even the Zodiac operator, she had never seen a bear in the wild. Once we were coming down from our high of seeing the bear we headed to Finn Island for a late lunch. The food was really good - they had salmon, prime rib, crab legs, bacon wrapped asparagus, salad, clam/salmon chowder, green beans, potatoes and lemon bars and chocolate cake for dessert. This was the first time that the kiddo had crab legs and he went to town. Lunch was all you could eat and we definitely got our fill. This was super kid friendly excursion. They do operate rain or shine, we had beautiful weather but you could get wet. We got back to the boat at approx 4:30pm and then here is where the day got interesting. The three of us were waiting in line to reboard and all of a sudden there is a harsh announcement over the load speakers. It was Bravo, Bravo, Bravo - the security personnel quickly had us back up and we came to find out that there was a fire on deck 13. The whole boat ended up losing power. They let us board but we weren't allowed to leave the port until the boat had been cleared by both the fire department and the coast guard. We ended up being delayed approx 3 hours and finally left around 7:30pm. We finished up the evening with a fierce Yahtzee competition and a plate of desserts. Next Day was Endicott Arm and Glacier Bay along with Juneau.

Yeah - it was disappointing and I know that we weren't the only excursion that was having issues.

Day 3 - Ketchikan We woke up super early 5:45am on order to eat breakfast in a timely manner and get ready for our Excursion. We had planned on doing the Rainforest Canoe & Nature Walk - it looked really neat. As we ate breakfast the view out the windows was spectacular - beautiful homes and tons of greenery. They had a crepe station for breakfast so kiddo was super excited. We were originally scheduled for an 8:15am Rainforest Canoe and Nature Trail Excursion which we booked thru Royal. We got off the ship with no issues - super smooth process. And then here is where the fun began.......... It was chaos off the boat, tons of excursions huddled in the same area and people searching for their specific sign. We found our group without too much of an issues and we proceeded to wait..... and wait....... and wait....... We were told that everything was fine and we were just waiting on the bus to come pick us up. I wasn't too worried since we were in port until 5pm and our excursion was 3 1/2 hours long so if we were running a little late then no big deal - we still had time. Another family pic to pass the time. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting they canceled our excursion. We were told that it was canceled due to weather and our safety. Please note that there was no rain that day or wind. I ended up overhearing that the bus had broke down and they didn't have a replacement. Ugh!! Royal offered to fit us into any other excursion that still had openings but by this time most of the excursions were gone and already on their adventures. They had openings for the Lumberjack show but Hubby was adamant about not seeing a show. The other option was that Royal would give us OBC for the excursion we missed. I made sure to confirm that it was refundable OBC - meaning that if we didn't use it by the end of the cruise then it would be refunded to our original form of payment. HOT TIP: Have a backup plan. I was not prepared for this excursion to be canceled and now had a disappointed kiddo on my hands. We were able to remedy the situation with a Thai Tea from the Boba stand on dock and ended up asking the lady running the stand for a non touristy lunch recommendation - she mentioned New York Cafe. At this point I was at a loss so I went into the visitor center and grabbed a map. The map in Ketchikan has a do it yourself walking tour. So we figured ..Why Not... Hubby loves houses and buildings, I love flowers and we had a kiddo that needed to burn some energy. We started off checking out the fur shops. Beautiful jackets and other items but wayyyyyy out of my price range haha - that is a $30,000.00 jacket right there. Yes, $30k. The tour took us all around town - we saw Totem poles, gorgeous scenery etc..... Here is the picture blast Ginormous bees - this guy was about the size of a quarter. I was advised by the kiddo not to worry about getting stung since these were worker bees. Smart Kid. Had to stop by this river and skip some rocks. Being the competitive family we are it became quite the competition. There is a skate park - it was awesome and the kiddo wished he had brought his board with him. Instead he spent a good 45 minutes miming what he would do. Can you find the flying kiddo in the picture below? What a bozo. At this point we were starving. It just so happened that we ran straight into the New York Cafe that the lady at the Bobo Cart had mentioned before. We thought we would give it a try and we were so glad that we did. The food was AMAZING!!!!! I ordered an Alaskan Raspberry Wheat Beer and the Roasted Root Veggie Salad w/ Crispy Kale and Salmon. Hubby ordered the Lamb Burger w/ fries. And kiddo ordered the Pork Belly Sandwich w/ Pickled Veggies, Sweet potato fries and Siracha mayo (we decided his meal was the best BUT they were all good) Once we finished eating it was time to finish the walking tour. Next stop was Creek Street - explaining to a 12yr old what a brothel was ended up being quite funny. He was so confused haha. We decided to do a little souvenir shopping. HOT TIP: Public Bathrooms - you can find free public bathrooms in 3 places: 1. Visitor Center, 2. Museum and 3. Soaring Eagle Store We were back on the boat approx 2:30pm and sailed away promptly at 4:30pm. Kiddo kept a sharp eye out for any pier runners and fortunately there was none. Headed to Wind Jammer for dinner. Kiddo took off to Teen Room and Hubby and I watched the world go by. Headed to bed to prep for our next day in Sitka.....

Day 2 - Sea Day #1 We woke up at 7am - slept pretty good the night before. The beds are a little harder then we are use to. Headed to Wind Jammer for breakfast - kiddo's review of breakfast: chocolate donuts REALLY good, scrambled eggs gross!! We had IFly reservations at 10am - we paid for the extended sessions (used OBC). I will be honest and say that I wasn't really excited about doing this. I will never jump out of an airplane (just a risk I don't want to take) so my hubby convinced me that this was the safest way to have a similar experience. I am so glad that I did it - it was so much fun. HOT TIP: Bring a hair tie. Your hair will be a knotted mess afterwards. Kiddo was a natural, I did okay and hubby over thought the whole process haha. When we were done with IFly the kiddo ditched us to head to the Teen Room and Sea Plex. Told him that we would pick him up for lunch. Hubby and I decided to explore the ship a little more. Found the creepy glass staircase. It was a pretty gloomy day - definitely sweat shirt weather. There were waves but the boat was not rocking too much. We had decided as a family that we would take ginger tablets every day just to set ourselves up for success. Hubby request for the day was to have lunch at the MDR. He had seen Steak Frites on the menu and was super excited. So we grabbed the kiddo and headed to lunch. Usually I am good at taking photos of food but this trip it was hit and miss. Kiddo had the Spicy Chicken Sandwich - he said it was ok Hubby and I had the Spicy Potato Soup (really good), Caesar Salad (ok) and Steak Frites - my steak was perfect and his was a little overdone. Totally missed taking a picture of the soup and salad but oh well. HOT TIP: take your steak off your fries immediately otherwise you will have soggy fries. Finished off the meal with the Royal Chocolate Cake and Key Lime Pie Rounded off the afternoon with some pool and hot tub. The outdoor pool was too cold so we got in the indoor pool - it was fine but crowded. The indoor pool could be very loud at times but it was great to have a swimming option when it was too cold outside. We also tried out the Jacuzzi's and of course grabbed some soft serve. After some time in the pool the kiddo was ready to ditch us again and head to the Teen Room. We had dinner reservations at Izuma at 6pm so told the kiddo we would grab him before then. Izumi was good nothing mind blowing but good. A nice change from the buffet. Kiddo was able to order off the adult menu which gave us a lot of options. We all ordered something different and decided to share. We ended up having leftovers and they were more than happy to box it up for us. We felt okay about sticking it in the room fridge since none of the rolls we had leftover were raw. Kiddo ditched us again for Teen Club/Sea Plex - you will start to see a pattern. Hubby and I decided to go see Adam Elton. He was fun - I swear he sounds and looks like James Corbin but his band is great and the songs were good. Picked up the kiddo at 10pm - they had a teen only bumper car session and he said it was fun. It's hard sometimes to get a review out of a kid haha. Headed to bed as soon as we could because we had an early morning in Ketchikan the next day. We also got our first towel animal.

Day 1 - Embarkation We woke up around 7am the next morning. We wanted to get ready but not feel rushed. Hubby went out and got breakfast at Cherry St. Coffee. I had a tomato & basil bagel and a Dirty Chai, Kiddo had an egg & bacon bagel and Hubby settled on a salmon bagel. Food was good and decently priced. Headed down to the lobby for the shuttle around 10:15am and it showed up right on time at 10:30am. Shuttle was $15 per person and drops you off right at the boat. We gave our bags to the Porter and got in line to check in. HOT TIP: Be sure to print your luggage tags ahead of time and have them affixed to your bags. I got the luggage tags off of Amazon that fit Royal tags. There was quite a line at the cruise port of people who had not printed their tags. Royal had one kiosk and only one person printing tags when we got there. It was taking awhile. Check in was super smooth for us. Our check in time was 11am but no one checked our arrival times. We were thru security by 11:15am. No one checked our vaccine cards or ArriveCan before boarding. I did not print out any documents. I had all the documents saved on my phone as a photo. I had no issues showing our Boarding Pass and Negative Covid tests as photos. Passports were checked and then photos were taken. We then got in line to board the ship. I did our muster drill in the shuttle on the way to the boat so when we got onboard all we had to do was check in at our Muster stations. HOT TIP: do this first, the line got very long for this process. After we checked in I hopped back on the app and tried to start making reservations for IFly, NorthStar and the one show on board. I was having issues trying to find where you made reservations on the app and then realized that I wasn't on the ship's WIFI. Duh..... after all the research I had done I forgot this step. Once on the ship's WIFI I had no issues making reservations. We choose to do IFly on the first Sea Day and reserved NorthStar for the early morning when we would be in Glacier Bay. I will say that the NorthStar is expensive at the premium times but we had leftover OBC and used that for booking both IFly and NorthStar. I was finally able to relax once all things were booked and we sat down at Windjammer to eat a yummy lunch. I was also able to pick up out Soda Package Cups from the bar located in Windjammer without an issue and no line. Kiddo had been talking about having soft serve for lunch so he took off on the hunt to find the ice cream. Success!!! I made one deal with the kiddo for this cruise - during every meal you need to have at least some fruit and some sort of veggie - after that I didn't care what he ate. Since we were able to get an early boarding time we also were able to finish lunch at a reasonable time. Next on the agenda was the pool. We had packed our suits in our carry on bags so off went the kiddo to get changed. On our way to the pool we noticed that the NorthStar was already up and running. After a little swimming and mom drinking an Angry Orchard - haha we headed out to go check out Flow Rider. We figured that Seattle was the warmest it was going to be all week and if we wanted to try it out then this would be the time. I wasn't about to get on a boogie board and break more of my body (too many past injuries) but the hubby and kiddo were up for it. There was absolutely NO LINE - it was amazing. The no line allowed both the hubby and kiddo to get longer sessions without the worry of someone waiting. After a little Flow Rider we heard that the rooms were open. It was around 2pm - Perfect timing since both the kiddo and hubby were wet and wanted to change. We headed to our room, the boys changed and I got to unpack. I always feel better when things are in their right places. We did have a bit of luggage (3 carry on and 2 checked bags) and all of the luggage fit perfectly underneath the bed. Once changed we head to check out the Sea Plex before sail away. Got Hot dogs at the Dog House and played some Basketball and Xbox. Then it was time to Sail Away. There wasn't a big announcement or party atmosphere we just started to feel the boat moving. After spending some time on deck we decided to grab dinner at Wind Jammer. Food was good - we really had no complaints all week about the food. Since our kiddo is 12 we didn't have to sign him up for any of the youth groups. He could just show up to the Teen Room when it was open or head to Sea Plex. I originally was going to bring walkie talkies on board but read conflicting reviews about them working so I chose not to. One less thing to pack. We were also going to get the messaging thru Royal but decided against that as well. What worked for us is that we gave the kiddo three areas he could go: 1. Teen Room 2. Sea Plex or 3. our room. We would give him a general time that we would pick him up but he was free to leave early and head to the room if he wanted to. We never had an issue all week. So we dropped off the kiddo at the Teen Room and mom and dad headed to check out the Solarium and Two70. The below pictures were taken at 9:10pm - still so bright outside. We had told the kiddo that we would grab him at 9:30pm - I had a feeling he would be hungry so we ran down to the Promenade and grabbed pizza and cookies. Gotta love 24hr pizza. We decided to turn in for the night since we had IFly reservations the next morning kind of early.

Hello All!! This is my first review and I hope it is helpful to some. We originally booked this cruise in 2019 for our 10yr wedding anniversary but then the "Big C" hit the world and we had to wait. So I have been planning this cruise for almost three years and during that planning process the cruise boards helped me a ton. So I hoping that this review will answer some of the questions you may have. The original cruise was going to just be my husband and I but after the delay we decided that our 12yr old would come along as well (my two older kids are out of the house and were not interested in cruising with their parents haha). So it was important to me that the cruise line we picked was a family ship with tons of activities for all ages. For me the Quantum checked all those buckets. Alright here we go diving in..... Our cruise was sailing out of Seattle, Washington - I had read all the hassles of flying in the day of embarkation so we decided to fly in the day before our cruise was supposed to leave and I am SO THANKFUL that we did. Our cruise was scheduled June 6th - June 13th on Quantum. Sunday morning we were supposed to fly out of LAX approx 9am - arriving in Seattle around noon. I woke up for some reason that morning at 3am and saw that our original flight was canceled due to weather (at least that is what the text message said - weather ended up being gorgeous in both Los Angeles and Seattle all day). We were rescheduled on a flight leaving Sunday at 5:30pm arriving in Seattle around 8:30pm. I was super disappointed because we had planned a full day in Seattle and now we weren't going to be able to do any of it. I quickly hopped on Delta's website and saw there was a flight leaving at 7am. I was able to chat online with an operator and get our flight changed. (HUGE TIP: If your flight gets canceled don't call the airline, most of them have online operators that will chat with you and can change/update all flight info. My husband called Delta at the same time I was on chatting online and the wait time was over an hour. I was able to get an agent in 5 minutes to help me and reschedule everything.) I then called our ride and said - "Hey - can you take us to the airport NOW?? Thankfully they said yes :). We made it to the airport in record time - no other sane people were up at 3:30am in the morning heading to the airport. My hubby and I both have TSA-precheck so security was a breeze (about 5 minutes) which was a blessing since the normal security line was already over an hour long (they were short handed). Off to our gate we went and in search of somewhere open for breakfast. We settled on Jersey Mike's - who knew they served breakfast but it satisfied both of the men in my life and that worked great for me. The sun was just starting to peek out behind the clouds and saying hi. We boarded on time with no issues. The pilot actually invited the 12yr old up into to cockpit which I didn't realize was allowed and also let me take pictures - so cool!! Flight went smooth - no issues with turbulence. We landed, retrieved our luggage and headed off to our hotel. Now I always try to book adventures on our vacations and one of those adventures was figuring out transportation to our hotel. We were staying at The MayFlower Park Hotel (beautiful hotel). We had a few options for transportation - Uber/Lyft, Shuttle or Light Rail Train. We choose Light Rail - it was super cheap ($3.50 for adults and $2.00 kids). The Light Rail Station is attached to SeaTac Airport and is just a short walk from baggage claim. They have super easy signs to follow. My kiddo decided to ride his suitcase the whole way haha. I purchased our tickets on the Transit Go Ticket app on my phone while we were walking to the train. Took approx 5 minutes for the whole process. Took the elevator up to the station platform and hopped on the next train headed to town (we waited approx 10 minutes for the train). It was a little strange but we never scanned our tickets or had anyone ask for our tickets on the train. Fatigue and hunger were starting to set in and we needed to feed the kid asap. We were too early to get our rooms at the hotel but we checked in and dropped off our bags and headed to Pike's Market in search of food. I had a whole list of places that we wanted to try but it was SOOOOO crowded and lines were super long at every popular place. We settled on Fisherman's restaurant for lunch since there was no wait and there was stuff on the menu that the kid would eat (we were beyond the point of hunger at this time). There were some great views from the restaurant. My husband loves Cityscape and old buildings so I apologize ahead of time for the photos of buildings and houses but they were beautiful and unique. After we got some food in our belly it was time to head and check out the Gum Wall. It was on the kiddo's bucket list. We had to stop and window shop at the street vendors along the way. On our way we found some other kids just hanging out. Seattle has some of the most interesting artwork in the most random places. We finally made it to the Gum Wall - I can't even begin to describe the smell and the goo. From my kids perspective it was AWESOME!! We added our pieces to the wall and went on our way. We received the text from the hotel that our room was ready so we were on our way. At this point we were exhausted and needed a shower haha. I had planned on eating at a nice restaurant but we ended up settling on McDonalds. We ended the evening pretty early and were excited to start our cruise the next day. Our original plan was going to get a Taxi to the cruise ship but I found out that our hotel had it's own shuttle and we were able to book the earliest shuttle the next morning. Our boarding time was 11am and our shuttle was leaving at 10:30am. Woo Hoo.

MajMaj4 - I am located in California and we can access a digital version via our government website - www.CA.GOV

Sooooo my husband has misplaced his Covid Vaccine Card and we sail out next week for our Alaskan Cruise out of Seattle. I do have the CDC digital version on my phone of his card (we are from the USA). Will the digital version be enough to allow him to board? The digital version was approved when I had to upload our docs online during check-in. Thank you

is tonic water included in the soda package?

does anyone know what they charge on board for just a glass of tonic?