Kate-in-Canada

On 8/23/2022 at 9:11 AM, Heidi13 said:

 

If you are happy only seeing what was close, then not having binoculars clearly works for you. However, there is an abundance of wildlife out there, especially in Alaska, which is not readily visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, without binoculars or long reach lenses, you aren't aware of what you are missing.

 

Personally, I use good Perma-Focus binoculars to identify distant wildlife and then use 1 of the 2 DSLR/mirrorless cameras I normally carry. Don't have any problems using multiple cameras and binoculars.

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.  

1 hour ago, garyl62 said:

I was primarily thinking about the potential of more teens or late teens as part of family sailings.  Happy to see them getting exposed to cruising and enjoying their vacations, but sometimes I'm looking for things that are different than they are.  Never had issues before (we've sailed many Spring Break time Caribbean or even 4 day cruises), so probably not something to be to concerned with, but was a thought we had

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. 

On 8/20/2022 at 10:35 AM, Heidi13 said:

 

Unfortunately, these were a poor choice of binocular for use at sea. The prisms and FoV are good, but at 12X they are way too high power, especially for inexperienced users.

 

There is a very good reason that most Bridges I worked on had 7x50 binoculars. You can safely go 8x or even 10x, but 12x was a very poor choice. 

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. 
 

14 hours ago, bjahil47 said:

Did you go to Spa Cafe?  Several gluten free options and they have a gf apple oatmeal cookie that is very good.  

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. 

2 hours ago, bjahil47 said:

Sorry, you did not have a good experience in eating Gluten Free.  Did you try the gf pasta, sauce and meatballs at buffet.  They are very good.  The gf desserts at buffet in April were terrible.  I look at every dish as they are not always labeled correctly.  Did you have gf macaroons, macarons or muffins?  Those are good.

 

What was amiss in spa?  In April on Equinox we had a couples massage.  While the massage was nice, I feel I was not treated with respect or dignity.  Long story.  I also had a mani/pedi that was wonderful.  
 

Glad you enjoyed everything else.  

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.

2 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Just as a matter of interest - how much did you spend for them and what were the specs for the binoculars.

 

DON

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07VZZ1M6N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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

On 6/20/2022 at 1:02 PM, katrina915 said:

Thanks! I am going to go and book the 9am tour and plan on walking off with my luggage.

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.  

18 hours ago, happydaz said:

Has anyone had experience with the NCL Mountaintop Forest Tram in Icy Strait?  Do they take you to the TOP of the mountain or just to the first observation spot that the Free Tram takes you to?  Any information will be appreciated.

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. 

On 8/11/2022 at 6:49 AM, doktor71 said:

Can you slow your descent speed?

nope.  Bits it’s worth it.  Zipline was one of my fav things I did in my port stops.

No answer to question, but I just finished a van-Seward cruise and took train from Seward to anchorage.  I would def recommend splurging for the gold star class if it’s in Your budget.  So worth it. 

Gonna disagree.  I bought some just for my trip last week based o. Advice here, and never found them Useful.  I tired a few times, but I had a better view of everything with just my eyeballs. And I had my phone in hands for pics and videos.  It was a hassle having the binoculars hanging around my neck.

I donated them to my hotel in Seward. Waste of money. 

On 8/13/2022 at 6:46 PM, helsee1 said:

Does anyone know if the gondola lifts at Icy Strait Point. The green one - called the Transporter is within walking distance from the cruise port?  Also, I understand that it is free to ride on.  Does anyone know if the ride is round trip?  I assume I can take the green one back to the cruise port?

 

 

There are 2 ship docks, one called adventure dock and one called wilderness dock.  The green gondola goes between the two docks, free all day and you can go one way, return, or back and forth multiple times.  And only steps away from both docks at each end.

the red gondola goes up the mountain has a fee, but then you can ride all day once you get a bracelet.

On 8/13/2022 at 10:03 PM, 40yearcruiser said:

Anyone who's been there recently? Is the tram at the top of the gondola running now? We are going on Norwegian Bliss in 3 weeks and have reserved the excursion including the tram but will cancel if it isn't running.

yes, there was a tram tour at the top.  Or a free walking tour. I didn’t do the tram.  Did the guided free walk. (Last week)
 

• Ship: Millennium 
• Length of Cruise:  7 nights
• Cruise Sail Date:  Aug 5, 2022
• Date email offer received: 
• Captain’s Club Tier Classic
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA:  Direct
• Current Cabin:  Oceanview
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details: 

•  Aqua class
• Bid Offer: $400pp
• Notification Date:  August 4, 2022
• Accepted / Rejected.  rejected

veranda

bid offer $200 pp

• Notification Date:  August 4, 2022
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😔

3 hours ago, 2chiefs said:

As others have said no, but we always do for carry-ons, back-packs etc... 

You can print as many as you want.

 

I always take it one step further and do a screen clip of the tag, put it in a powerpoint and then add contact info, etc. right on the tag and print as many as we need. I then cut them and put them in a luggage tag holder specifically made for them. See them here: Amazon.com | Celebrity Luggage Tag Holders by Cruise On - Fits All Celebrity Ships & Tags for Cruises in 2022 & 2023 | Luggage Tags

 

Works out great and we don't have to worry about losing track of our luggage.

 

Yes I already bought those holders and have it on my suitcase. Wasn’t sure if I ought to use one for the carryons. I have extra so I probably will just for the extra peace of mind. 
thank you. 

For bags I plan to carry on?

printed one for my suitcase.  Now just looking at my backpack…

cheers!

I also had this question.  I’m already here.  I’m not arriving in Canada.  I arrived 40 years ago.  
so it seems odd to fill out a form called *arrive* when you leaving Canada.

11 minutes ago, markeb said:

Hey Kate!

 

There's a long list of foods that can't be imported into the US, including Alaska. I found a CBP/USDA document that appears to have been produced by the office in Alaska that has more detail, and contact numbers. The link is directly to a PDF posted at skagway.org.

 

Worth a look. Citrus isn't allowed. Bananas in season may be, if the label is on them. Etc. There are items allowed IF in the original container and clearly labeled as from the US or Canada. A ham and cheese sandwich generally wouldn't be allowed. A sealed package of ham with a USDA stamp or Canadian Ministry of Agriculture stamp should be fine. Seeds and nuts may or may not be allowed (sealed packages generally OK). Things like bread really aren't mentioned (including GF bread).

 

https://www.skagway.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/28831/uscbp_2019_transporting_agriculture_products.pdf

 

 

many thanks.  That list was exactly what I need to plan what I will need to get in Vancouver.

I was glad to see peanuts and almonds will be fine so long as I get the small prepackaged ones.  Between those, chips and pepperoni sticks I will manage fine I think.

And eat my fruit on board at breakfast only! 🙂

appreciate it, thanks again!