Songs4Life

Some photos and info on what we did on foot in Sitka and Ketchikan. In Juneau we walked through the remains of the old Treadwell Gold mine. It is just over the bridge from Juneau but too far to get there on foot I think. (We did have a rental car.) Not sure if there would be any other way to get there?

 

Sitka Info

 

Ketchikan Info

 

Juneau Info

Wow, these are great and chock full of info, thanks so much!

Why do you log in and then two steps later have to log in all over again? In fairness i have seen a variety of other websites require a "double log in" and maybe there is some valid reason but not sure I understand what it could be.

What a help-desk person told me, after you log-in the first time, click on "Already Booked" (if you have booked something) then when you see that page (that asks for double log-in), don't use the left side to log in again - do you also see the other side where it says Buy Items for your Friends and Family? Put your booking number in that field and then your last name in the next field and then click "Find Booking" and that should take you to where you can browse.

I hope this works for you.

If not, try calling the Holland America number.

I think they get a lot of website complaints. But help-desk seems;p to have some workaround ideas.

goose&mav I want to thank you again for your travel blog. Your information has been very helpful and you have been so sweet to answer our questions. :)

The shopping area was very accessible from the ship, just like in Juneau so I was pleasantly surprised.

 

We boarded the ship at noon, and there was a long line of passengers behind us. We went to my husband’s favorite Lido for lunch right away and we were glad we did. After us, there was a rush of people!

 

Tonight was gala night and we ended up ordering from room service from the MDR menu.

 

The surf and turf was steak and lobster. The lobster tail was huge!

I had a Cobb salad—I’ve had too much steak this trip! (Such a hard problem to have)... the dessert was delicious! The molten flourless chocolate lava cake didn’t really have lava but it was perfect otherwise, not too sweet. The passion fruit cheesecake was amazing!

 

The port of Seattle is offering free valet service for luggage from the ship directly to the airport and checked in. We signed up for the service and hopefully it will work out!

 

Tomorrow is Victoria and we haven’t decided what we are doing. We did make a reservation at Tamarind for tomorrow night at 5pm to give us options in case we do decide to go into Victoria.

 

The ship is offering a shuttle to downtown for $12.95 per person.

 

 

 

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I've got a question. By the way, am loving your posts. We'll be doing this cruise in August so your advice has been great. So, my question is, if you order room service, what kind of additional expenses are you looking at? Is it basically the same food as you would get in the MDR? This may be appealing to our family group on gala night too!

We've been to Alaska 3x and we've never needed rain pants. Do bring a weatherproof jacket. We usually go out on a smaller boat out of Sitka and you'll want something if you do that. If you splurge for a 'copter trip up to the glacier in Juneau (for example) despite being sunny and warm at the airport it will be cold once you're up on the glacier. We felt sorry for the kids from Florida who were on the glacier in shorts and flip-flops.

I have a question. Do you like doing a boat trip in Sitka in addition to one in Juneau? I am looking at excursion possibilities and wondering if one port is "better" than another. We would like to do at least one boat trip.

Thanks so much for this report! I'm taking the same cruise in July, and this is such a fantastic preview! I hope y'all are having a great day today!

MsEuroDayum, nice username :)

I had a nice help-desk guy on Sunday walk me through getting in (it seemed like there was a double log-in request but he said to ignore that and use the other side of the screen to get to my booking info). This worked on Sunday, long enough to download a PDF of the shore excursions. Last night I logged in using the same steps he gave me and the website kept saying "cannot authenticate, try again later." This morning I tried from my PC because I read on another thread that possibly a Mac laptop can be an interface problem. But that made no difference. In fact, I asked my husband to try to create an account just to see if it would work with a fresh start. The website did not even allow him to create an account. So basically, the problem for me was, I could log in, but then I couldn't "get" anywhere. I tried clicking on Manage my Bookings and I got really freaked out when I got a message on the screen that I didn't HAVE any bookings! So I called the help desk today and spoke with a nice woman who was able to assure me, using my booking number/code, that I am in the system and booked. I told her the problems I was having and she said the website must be "under maintenance." Now, we are 52 days out, so I hope things will be fixed by then, but I asked her what we do about check-in, etc. if not. She said most of that could be done over the phone. It's extremely frustrating and it sounds like they are getting many complaints and having to help people over the phone. I have to say that both she and the guy who helped me on Sunday were nice and helpful. But that website *is* a mess!

I'm really enjoying reading your posts. We will be first time cruisers, going in August. :)

Somewhat comforting to hear about the problems. I can't get anywhere to even browse excursions or look at my booking (which I was able to do a couple days ago with a help-desk guy at Holland). But last night and into this morning I keep getting an "cannot authenticate" message. I tried logging in on my PC - interesting to hear about Mac laptop issues which I do have - but still got that some message. Good to know that I can call if I have trouble when it comes time to check-in, etc. - I was starting to wonder how that would work to complete online forms if I couldn't get online!