Kate-in-Canada

I was happy with what I saw period. I’m not sure why you continue to post to tell me I missed something. I don’t feel I missed anything and I think it’s rude to push that. it’s just my opinion that binoculars weren’t needed to see and enjoy, and I regretted wasting money and packing space. You love yours, great. You don’t need to keep pushing that to me.

I did alaska northbound on millenium this august. There was hardly any kids or teens. as for Relaxing versus active, there are so many excursion choices, alaska can be as active as you want. I did a canoe paddle, river rafting, zip line, bike riding and some easy hikes. honestly, I think you could find whatever you were looking for and kids and activity won’t limit your trip at all. I think weather and scenery should be your deciding factors. The med will be HOT. Will you be able to handle the heat in Aug to do the things you want in the heat without it negatively impacting you? Alaska in Aug (5to 12 were my dates) was warm to cool. Never hot. Never cold. Mostly overcast and damp. A bit of actual rain. Not a lot of sun. If you want a sunny holiday, alaska in Aug may be a let down. I enjoyed my alaska cruise on millenium a lot. Haven’t been to the med, but it’s on my bucket list.

Def plan for morning eats. I found it very hard to find anything open early morning. wventuslly found snow city cafe which was awesome but seemed like the whole city was there all trying to get in.

Yes it was a poor choice. That was the point of my post. I never needed them anyway. We got up close to everything snd they were just in the way when trying to take photos.

I tired to grab food at the spa cafe. They said they couldn’t make the Turkey club on gf bread. And while the chicken salad was gf and the mozza tomato thing gf, they didn’t have any gf bread to go with it. They said I could go down to the buffet and get gf bread there and bring it back to have with the salads, but they wouldn’t make the sandwich on it even if I delivered them the bread. so yes, options, but very inconvenient ones. Especially since it could have been very easy to have the gf bread at the spa cafe. So I just ended up trying to get stuff the buffet since I had to go there for bread anyway. I luckily was able to get macarons every morning except at the end so I was all good for cookies. No muffins ever though.

I didn’t try the pasta in buffet. I would only eat pasta for a diner meal and ate all my diners in MDR. I did have a gf shrimp and pasta one night in MDR and it was very good. I should have added- all the gf food I ate was very good. It’s was just very limited, and so much contamination in buffet that made it stressful. I did have the macarons from the cafe a few times. On day 1 Cafe ab had the macarons and one other gf treat. Each subsequent only the marcaron. No muffins ever and I checked every day at least twice as I drank a lot of tea. And I quickly learned to request all the macarons I wanted for the day as they ran out by afternoon and didn’t replenish til morning. Day 7 morning there was nothing and the jar was gone and didn’t reappear. 😞. They were delish though.I am see why they went so fast. my spa issue was that drink,ing was allowed in the waiting area. It was quite crowded and running behind (not a problem by itself) however waiting there with a very intoxicated male patron who in his mind I’m sure was being friendly but was in reality totally harassing the other females waiting was not cool. Totally inappropriate comments to the women waiting. And staff did nothing. If I hadn’t prepaid for service, I would have left and i kept thinking okay they must be ready for me by now… that combined with the hard sell on add on services and the extreme price. No, I wouldn’t go back to spa again. And I love a good spa. My expectations are high as I have visited very upscale venues and I expected this to be similar. It was more like frat house spa. I would book celebrity again as the rest was great, but never again to spa.

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Back from cruise. Here is what I experienced. I emailed special needs ahead of time. Got a canned and useless response. the MDR was pretty good about offering gf options. The main menu was labelled. The desert menu was not. Booked the same time in MDR each night with same server. After night 1, he showed me the next day menu ahead of time and I preorder what I wanted for next night. But each time he would ask me what I wanted for dessert, and I would say I don’t know, what gf? And he would say, don’t know, will ask kitchen, and we did that every single night. ? the buffet was not good. The alleged gf corner only had desserts. There was a few disappointments, but here’s one example. The bacon tray at breakfast was labelled gf. Great. Ate some every morning. Never felt good. Wasn’t sure what the source was. On last day The tray was almost empty. What did I see they had laying in bottom of tray to absorb grease? Bread slices. On a dish laBelled gf. Just one example. Food overall was limited and not safe. anyway, eating was not as carefree as I had hoped. also next to impossible to find any restaurants in ports. Thankfully I had taken packaged snacks. in case anyone searches this, eating was the most stressful part of my trip. That and the spa were my only disappointments. Everything else on board was great.

The train does a u turn right after you cross the border. No stopping. No going into the town. still a good train ride. As of Aug 8

We docked at 5. I Portered my luggage and I was still shuttled to my hotel right by major marine by 730. 9 am will be no prob.

Just did millenium last week. the dress code was totally ignored in the MDR. There was shorts, ball caps, hiking boots, sweat pants, tshirts and flip flops. I dressed up for evening chic, just a basic dress and fam y shoes and felt overdressed. It was a bit disappointing actually. I used packing space for my evening chic wear ask was looking forward to a dress up night, and shouldn’t have bothered. The advice here had been you’ll feel fine dressed up or down. Nope. Very few ppl were actually dressed up, let alone normal nights following the so called dress code.

There was a BBQ place that had great food and outdoor seating Called firebrand bbq. Delish and only of the only places that were knowlendable about ingredients and allergies.

The train in Skagway.

Riding the zipline was great. ISP was my fav port stop. Only our ship was in, so it wasn’t congested. It was the most scenic I think. I enjoyed the campfires they had going at all rest areas.

there a is free green gondola that runs between the 2 ship docks at sea level. You can ride all day long. there is a red gondola that goes up the mountain which costs, but after you pay you can ride all day. If you buy a zipline ticket, you get the red gondola included. If you do the red gondola, at the top of the mountain is a golf cart style tram that costs and takes you around the forest on top of the mountain fora tour. Didn’t do it. There was also a free guided walking tour at the top. I did the free walk instead. (Last week). ISP was my fav port stop.