alaska2023

The OP’s question is odd. Obviously, if actually concerned about a skort being prohibited, stores like Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc have a multitude of inexpensive shorts and leggings that can be purchased in-store or shipped, depending on store and location. Target currently has girls bike shorts for $5 in a variety of colors. They’re cotton/spandex with a 7.5-inch inseam (mid-to-lower thigh). I just bought several pairs online for my daughter and picked them up outside, without leaving my car. Or you could have them shipped and they’d get to you within a few days. or, as OP already mentioned, skorts are skirts with shorts built in. Take away the skirt portion, and you still have shorts. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hello! First time visiting Alaska in 3 weeks. On Quantum, visiting Endicott Arm Fjord/Dawes Glacier in the morning, then Juneau from 2p til 9p. We originally had a 5-hour whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier combo tour booked for the 4 of us. Then RCI opened up a 6-hour small-boat excursion through Endicott Arm to get close to Dawes Glacier, then on to Juneau. So we cancelled our afternoon whale watch/Mendenhall tour and booked the small boat fjord/glacier morning tour because it looks amazing. My question is: Should we still take a bus to Mendenhall Glacier that afternoon in Juneau? Or will it be less impressive than Dawes Glacier and not worth the expense (~$45/person) to take a bus to Mendenhall, since we’re supposed to view Dawes up close that morning, weather permitting? We don’t mind spending the $200 for the 4 of us to see Mendenhall if it’s definitely worth it, but would rather save the $200 if it’s going to be kind of redundant. Especially since the small boat tour to see Dawes Glacier is $1k for the 4 of us that morning. Thoughts? Also, if we’re doing the gondola up and zipline down the mountain in Icy Strait the day before Juneau, should we skip the tram up the mountain in Juneau? Or is it different enough that it’s worth doing both Icy Strait and Juneau? We’re definitely doing it in Icy Straight. just trying to avoid paying a lot of $$ for redundant excursions, but also don’t want to miss anything worth doing. Thanks!

Are kids allowed to eat at Solarium Bistro for lunch and/or dinner? Thanks!

Out of Seattle, not Vancouver, but we’re sailing on Quantum in 3 weeks and we’re visiting Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier the third morning before heading to Juneau. I’ve heard from several people that Tracy Arm is far more impressive, which was kind of a bummer. Happy to hear that at least one person thinks Endicott/Dawes is better. 😀

Oh wow. I would be livid if Skagway excursions AND Sitka excursions got cancelled. I’m so sorry that happened to you, and I hope that you’re able to find suitable substitute plans in Sitka. I’m on Quantum June 19-26 and we’re getting Icy Straight Point instead of Skagway, but I haven’t received a notice regarding changing Sitka arrival time. I wonder why it’d change for one itinerary and not all identical itineraries? Unless, of course, my notice is coming and I just haven’t received it yet…

Thanks, I’ve looked before on that site and a few others. All I could find were generic balcony room diagrams with disclaimers that the actual layout may be different than the diagram shown. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Does anyone have experience with connecting balcony rooms on Quantum? Don’t want to switch rooms, since my kids will be in the connecting room, but interested to know if we’ll be missing sofas. What’s in place of the sofa, aside from (obv) the door? A chair? Or just a bit of extra open space? No big deal either way…just curious.

Same here. Received the same email 45 minutes ago for June 17th sailing. We specifically chose this ship/itinerary because we wanted to do the train ride through Skagway. Huge bummer. When this type of port change has happened in the past, does RCI offer excursions for the “new” port, or are we on our own if we want to do/book anything? I’m guessing this close to sailing, many excursions are likely already full or nearly full for other ships who had already planned to be there? If RCI does offer new excursions, how soon might we expect them to be available in our cruise planner (still has all the Skagway excursions, currently)?

We’re on Harmony now. Just left a beautiful day in Falmouth, headed toward Labadee. It was sunny and gorgeous this morning in Jamaica and yesterday at sea, is pouring rain now as we travel toward Haiti. It was cloudy and rainy in Nassau and CocoCay, too. But we avoided any hurricane-related stormy weather/seas, which we’re grateful for. Just read on the news that Ian is in the Atlantic headed back toward SC and GA. We live in the northeast suburbs of Atlanta, so seems we really dodged this hurricane multiple times. Although Atlanta doesn’t get hurricanes. We typically just get rain and some strong gusts from the outermost bands.

I’m on Harmony right now. We’re sticking to our original western Caribbean itinerary. We were in CocoCay today (Monday), headed to Nassau Tuesday. Falmouth, Jamaica Thurs and Labadee, Friday. It was cloudy in CocoCay, with sun peeking through about half the day. Rain stayed away til we were pulling away from the island this evening.

We’re (Harmony) supposed to be in CocoCay Mon and Nassau Tues, then headed to Jamaica Thurs and Labadee Fri. I wonder if these ports are far enough away from the storm’s path that RCI won’t change the itinerary? Even if we're not in Ian’s path, I’d be good with a flip to Eastern itinerary if staying on our planned course would still mean rough seas. 🤢

We’re on Harmony this Sunday, and have been watching this one closely. It’s path is clearer now, and is headed for Florida, likely mid-week. Was thought to be named Hermine, but ended up named Ian instead. Stay safe, everyone.

With itinerary changes, does everyone have an opportunity to book excursions through RCCL for new ports, or is it kinda too late for that at that point, and everyone’s on their own?

Yep, hubby works with The Weather Channel, so we’re getting hourly updates from his hurricane team colleagues there. Even if we’re not directly in the path, we may encounter storm-related weather/sea issues at some point, especially if it stalls, so was wondering when we may hear of any definitive itinerary changes. Sounds like it could be anytime up to day-of/last-minute.

How far in advance does RCI typically make itinerary changes due to potential tropical storm/hurricane avoidance? We’re sailing from Canaveral on Harmony in 2 days, with stops in CocoCay, Nassau, Jamaica, and Labadee M/T/Th/Fr. According to invests, we could potentially encounter 98L/Hermine, especially if it stalls a bit. Likely storm path is low-confidence right now, but I’m wondering when we would learn of a reroute, since we’re only 48 hours out. Do they ever make these decisions on the fly/day of, or will we likely know in advance?

They may just be testing to see if the beach beds will still sell out at $299 each as opposed to $199 each. Perhaps because Chill Island is the most popular of the three beach bed areas and/or generally the first to sell out, they want to see if they can rent those beds for more. Of course, if that’s the case, and if people do rent them at the increased price, RCI doesn’t have to make any changes to the beds/beach themselves to justify an increase. It’ll just be the new normal price. Thirty beds renting for an additional $100 every time a ship is at CocoCay could amount to $tensofthousands in increased revenue per month without changing a thing. If Cabanas rent for $1k+ and frequently sell out or come close to selling out, there’s a decent chance the beds will still sell out even priced higher than $200.

We’re sailing next Sunday on Harmony, so appreciate your reports! Hoping for good weather. Bummer to hear about long/chaotic embarkation. Harmony is at Terminal 1, correct? We plan to leave our hotel near MCO at 9:30 to get there a few mins before our 10:30 check-in time. Hopefully the lines won’t be too long that early.🤞

We're heading from Port Canaveral (Harmony) to a Disney resort after we disembark, and we plan to take an Uber. It seems to be the easiest option, since we're going to Disney and not MCO. 1 - If we roll our own luggage off the ship instead of leaving it in the hallway the last night of the cruise, what's the timeframe during which we're allowed to disembark? Will we be assigned a scheduled time slot, or do we just walk off as soon as we'd like? 2 - Is there usually a long line to physically get off the ship, or is this part generally pretty quick? 3 - From the time we step foot off the ship, approximately how long does it take to walk wherever we have to walk, stand in line, get through customs (do all the things) before we'd be standing outside the front of the terminal building? 4 - From the terminal building, where does Uber pick up? Right there in front, or is there a designated spot we'll need to walk to? If there's another area for Uber we'll need to walk to, approximately how far is the walk? 5 - For those who've ordered an Uber from Port Canaveral, is it typically pretty easy to get a car (lots of Ubers in the area willing to drive to Disney area)? We're seasoned Uber riders, and it's our preferred method of transportation when we don't have our own car. We take Ubers all the time here in Atlanta and in other cities/states while on vacations, and it's generally no more than a 5ish minute wait til a car can get to us wherever we are in the metro. Is it similar there? Or are there too few cars available for the number of disembarking passengers trying to order them? Trying to gauge approximately when I should order the Uber so that we're not standing in the heat waiting forever for our ride. I could pre-reserve a specific time for pickup (we already reserved an Uber for embarkation morning from our hotel to the port), but I'm nervous we wouldn't make it outside in time, and they only wait 5 minutes after the scheduled time before they cancel they ride and charge me. If we can order one once we're outside and it'll show up a few minutes later, there's no reason to reserve one ahead of time and have to stress/rush to make it out there in time. Any insight would be appreciated.

The people who received them after sail away were likely due to last-minute cancellations and no-shows. I'm thinking with pre-cruise testing no longer a thing for most sailings, last-minute cancellations will be far less common. I'm trying to see how far out people's bids were accepted that *weren't* on embarkation day. Thanks for your input! 17 days and 3 days out...seems like we still may have hope at 2 weeks out. 🙂

Since ships are back to 100% capacity, I realize chances of having an accepted Royal Up bid have decreased. But for those who have won their bids over the past few months since capacity increased, approximately how far out from your cruise was your offer accepted? We're two weeks out now, so just trying to gauge whether we're past the timeframe when mosts accepted bids have been determined, or whether there's still hope (aside from potential last-minute cancellations on embarkation day).

Thank you! I tried searching the board, but my search wasn't returning much. I'll try that email.

Can someone please share the address we can email to submit MTD table size/location requests 2 weeks before our cruise? Thanks!

Two unrelated questions: #1 - We have 6:45 MTD reservations every night of our Harmony cruise in 3 weeks. If we decide to skip the MDR and eat at the buffet (or wherever else) on a particular night, do we need to contact someone to cancel that evening's MDR dinner reservation? Or if we don't show up by about 7pm, do they just assume we aren't coming and skip our reservation for that meal in the dining room? #2 - We've prepurchased the Voom surf package and we'll have 3 iphones and an ipad with us. Can someone tell me exactly what I need to turn off in the iphone/ipad settings, so I can make sure we do it correctly so that T-Mobile doesn't charge us for roaming but we can utilize the ship's wifi? Thanks!

Thanks! Someone else beat me to it on the RCCL page. Seems I'm not the only one on Quantum without excursions.

We're booked 6/19/23 QOS and have the same thing. Until a month ago, only a Seattle tour and a helicopter tour in Skagway. A couple weeks ago, 3 rail pass excursions for Skagway popped up. That's it. We've been booked since early March and I check weekly, so unless there's a glitch with my cruise planner, nothing else has been available. Everything shouldn't be sold out. Some of our other cruises have had excursions available more than 9 months out, so I've been wondering where our Alaska excursion options are, too.