woostergirl

I love truffle. I always order the truffle dish when it's on a menu. I love Truff Hot Sauce (the white one is my fav) and my latest truffle obession is Kettle Chip's Krinkle Cut with Truffle and Sea Salt. It is so good and the best truffle potato chip out there. Journeyman Meat's Truffle salami collab with Snake River Farms is also great. I even named my cat Truffle! (A pic of Truffle under our Xmas tree) Went on my first RC cruise in August. It was a short one, 4 nights out of LA in the Navigator. I got the unliminited dinng plan so I tried all the specialty dining venues. One of the highlights of the trip was eating all the truffle dishes at Jamie's. I had the black truffle arancini and the truffle tagliatelle. I was pleasantly surprised at how good these both were. Both were very tasty and had a great truffle flavor in the nose and when you ate it. I ended my meal with the pan roasted salmon. Also really good! Loved the crispy salmon skin and the tomato stew was seasoned perfectly. Wished they served it with some toasted garlic baguette slices to help soak up the stew! Now, it's not fine dining and can't compare to the truffle-tastic flavor sensation of the the truffle tart at Bar Crenn in SF that had shaved black truffle covering entire top, but for cruise dining it was really good! Anyone else agree?

Travel + Leisure has an article on traveling on Aranui 5 in its current issue: https://www.travelandleisure.com/cruises/marquesas-french-polynesia-aranui-cruise Led me down a rabbit hole and saw that Aranui 5 is going to a special festivl on the Marquesas in December 2023. https://farandawayadventures.com/aranui-5/aranui-5-itinerary/marquesas-art-culture-festival/ I'm also very interested in the Paul Gaugin as it has a family program. Our kids will be 12 and 8 in 2023. Anyone been on both PG and Aranui 5? They seemed to have similar pricing... Thank you!

@azbirdmom That is odd...I was on the Ruby for the June 29-July 9th sailing and we visited Glacier Bay NP on July 4th!! 🇺🇸🎉 The rangers got on and did the narration during the park visit and set up the visitor's center in Skywalker's Lounge.

Just got off the Ruby...I don't know about the capacity...I didn't ask, sorry! But lots of movies outside on MUTS and in the Princess Theater towards the end of our 10-day Alaska cruise when we were headed home and there were fewer natrualist presentations hogging the theatre! Saw "The Lost City" with Sandra Bullock in the Theatre on Friday and it was an entertaining movie. It was my first cruise and I didn't really notice a staffing deficiency...Lots of staff asking if you'd like coffee or a beverage at the buffet after you sit down. All the bars are staffed with bartenders and waitstaff floating around, loads of photographers on board with four backdops to pick from every night. Dining room waitstaff are very attentive and our food came quickly and hot. A MDR dinner usually took our party of four (two adults and two kids) about 1.5 hours with the grownups having 3-4 courses. The one area that was understaffed is the arts and craft sessions...especially on sea days. Only about 20-25 people were accomodated for arts and crafts sessions...People usually started lining up 20-30 minutes ahead of time. So I didn't get to learn how to fold towel animals or make friendship bracelets. Oh well! Still a fun cruise!

Just got off the Ruby...First time cruiser... Our room steward introduced himself when we first boarded and I let him know I needed distilled water for my CPAP machine. We saw him many times a daily, most regularly in the morning. He told us that they know by our medallions whether a guest is in the room and check before entering as they cannot enter a cabin that is occupied. Not exactly sure what "turn down service" is, but our rooms were tidied up (beds made, trash emptied, bathroom cleaned, towels refreshed, dishes removed) at least once a day. Our beds were made at least twice a day, morning and evening and some times three times a day. My 7 year old said that was one of his favorite part of the cruise! 😄 Our room steward also automatically put a paper Patter on the bed every night without us requesting. One thing I found quite helpful as a first-time cruiser is "The Wake Show." It is on the tv in the room. The cruise director records a video for the next day that is available the afternoon prior. He goes over what to expect for the next day and any important instructions to look out for. It's 10-20 minutes, but the important part is in the first 5 minutes and then he interviews a crew member.

Just got off the Ruby and enjoyed the Botticelli dining room very much. We had a 7p dining time for a table for 4 every night and even on our 9-day cruise the first and second nights were kind of a zoo. But after that there was minimal waiting. I picked Botticelli because our cabin was in the aft on Dolphin (level 9) and a quick walk down the stairs to dinner. Also, we have kids who go to kids club and it uses the same elevator so it was easy to drop them off after they were done early and come back to the table to finish my own dinner. Also, I read about cigarette smoke wafting in from the casino in the other dining rooms, which I definitely wanted to avoid. We found that booking the table at the same time in the same dining room made the dinner process smoother than people who had to reserve a table each night on the ship. Also, making some kind of personal connection with Ronald, in the white jacket (the diniing room manager?), and Joseph one of the assistant dining room managers, on night 1 and 2 made the dinner process much smoother for all the other other nights, for us. Our table got successively better too! Got a table by the window the last three nights of the cruise! 😄 Good luck and happy cruising!

Looking forward to following along! We're on the June 29th Ruby out of SF!!

Getting a new passport is the safest way as many have noted. However, here's another perspective. I would rely on the website and I would print it out and bring it with you. I am in a similar situation in that my Alaska cruise departs on June 29th and my kids' passports expire in November 2022 which is slightly less than six months away. The other difference in our situations is that we are on a Princess cruise but passports are a destination/immigration issue and the policies should apply to all travelers regardless of cruise line. According to the Princess website, an Alaska cruise is considered a "domestic itinerary" for American and Canadian passport holders. It also states, "US and Canadian passport holders sailing on a domestic cruise should ensure passports or other travel documents are valid through the completion of travel." https://www.princess.com/learn/faq/pre-cruise/prepare-for-your-cruise/ Since your mom's passport is valid through the end of the cruise, in my opinion, she doesn't need a new passport for your cruise. Here's another way to check...Does the Royal Caribbean app have a pre-board function? Another way to check and see if RC would accept your mom's passport is to enter her passport information in the app. If the app accepts it, her passport will work for your trip/cruise. Good luck and happy cruising!

My Ketchikan stop is on a Tuesday! 😄 Thanks for all the recommendations. Can't wait to stop at Sweet Mermaids and eat some chowder!! Too bad I don't have a Skagway stop this cruise...the Doughboy funnel cake sounds delicious!

Thanks to everyone! I will hold on to the Princess excursion I have booked. @Cruise Raider I'm excited as it's our only boat-based excursion we booked. Fingers crossed we get to see a grizzly too!

I'm on the Ruby out of San Francisco on June 29th. Our itineary has changed and our Icy Strait Point port time is now 3p-10p. We are on the excusion Best Of Icy Strait Point: Whales, Wildlife & Brown Bear Search but online the excursion still says "2p-730p". It is sold out at this time with the waitlist open. Will they move the time of this excursion to accomodate our new port times? I'm wondering if I should cancel and book a non-Princess excursion, but I haven't found an exact replacement. Lots of whale watching tours but can't find any that is a whale/bear combo, so I'm hoping they will just shift the time for the Princess excursion. Any thoughts from seasoned cruisers on what Princess might do? Many thanks!

My kids (ages 11 and 7) are going to love this set up!! 😊😂