bindy1

7 hours ago, idahospud said:

I'm on the Royal right now too and and I agree completely. The service has slowed significantly as we've moved north. We've used MedallionNet on the Caribbean Princess and have been able to stream videos with absolutely no issue, but that's just not possible on the Royal in Alaska right now.

Thank you all!  This is super helpful information.  I will try and get all my calls in while we are still in the Seward/Girdwood area prior to boarding and then wait for the last sea day just before we get to Vancouver.

Another question ---- does anyone know if the Internet Cafe offers printing services?  I may need to print and sign a document ( just a few pages ) that will not accept an electronic signature.  

On 4/3/2019 at 1:38 PM, PittsburghNative said:

I’m loving the tips and advice! Thanks all for your suggestions.

For excursion days, I would suggest leggings and also some sort of trekking, hiking, day pant from the likes of Athleta, REI, Northface, etc.  They are good to wear over leggings as an extra layer, are somewhat water resistant and if they do get wet dry fairly quickly.  Also more breathable and easier to move around in the jeans.  I got a black pair from Athleta last year for our 11 day trip to Alaska and wore them several times.  It will also depend what you have planned for excursions as well. 

On 5/11/2019 at 10:07 AM, masterdrago said:

I'm open for that idea. Looking at their web pages, I can see no images in their gallery of what the views are like from the inside of the restaurant. Can anybody elaborate? Looks like it is about 150 yards from the shoreline.

No views from The Cookery.  They are located a couple of blocks from the water.  I would take their food over views any day though. 

Also keep in mind the weather in Alaska.  When we were there, never saw the sun, rained everyday and couldn't see the mountain peaks due to low hanging clouds, overcast, etc.  

Also don't rule out a stop at Le Barn Appetit & Creperie.  Doesn't look like much from the outside but wonderful crepes, good coffee and interesting conversation with the young lady that has taken over a lot of the day to day duties from the owners.  

3 hours ago, masterdrago said:

I've got the Brewpub in my Talkeetna notes already. In Seward for an early lunch, I've got Chinooks. The Cookery is only open for dinner on our dates there and I have Ray's down for dinner after the Orca Search. And a big thank you for the Roadhouse suggestion. I'm hungry just looking at the Sourdough Blueberry Hotcakes! Wow!!

I would swap out Ray's for lunch and go to The Cookery for dinner that evening.  I will second that it was one of the best restaurants we ate at in our 11 day trip last year to Alaska.   

We did eat at Chinooks and it was okay but not great.

For lunch on Day 4 you could stop at McKinley Creekside Cafe.  It is about 10-15 minutes south of Denali proper.  There is also supposed to be a Thai food truck in or around Denali.  If you like that cuisine, it is supposed to be very good.  We didn't ever come across it when we were there last year but we didn't look real hard either.  

We are going to try West Rib Pub & Grill on our day in Talkeetna on Sunday the 19th.  

I am a planner as well and like to know ahead of time what is scheduled.  

4 hours ago, caribill said:

Also, Internet availability is never guaranteed.

 

It might be available 100% of the time or there might be outages which can range from a few minutes to multi-day.

for sure!  Although with the 4-5 hour time change I will be hosting a call almost in the middle of the night while the rest of the ship is asleep or at least not all up and on the internet.  

Several years ago I was taking classes online for my MBA.  We went on a mother-daughter cruise and of course I had a timed mid-term during that time.  Took the test online at 6am on Lido. Got a 98% on the test and no issues with losing the internet connection in the middle of the test.  

9 hours ago, Haboob said:

 

Depending upon which ship and where on the globe the ship is, you may well not get the "new" internet.

 

The key to the unlimited-minute, homelike internet is the new "O3b" satellite constellation.  They fly narrow-

focus, steerable dish antennae so they can sell their entire bandwidth to 10 different ships and offer them

bargain-basement uplink costs.

 

To have video-conference quality internet, you'll need a ship equipped with upgraded satellite tracking

hardware, be south of about Seattle / Southampton, and (personal experience here) have ship's crew

smart enough to aim at an O3b satellite instead of the ones which they are used to using.

 

Works great when it works, but lots of opportunity for failure.

We are on Coral Princess sailing from Whittier to Vancouver.  The day I would normally have a video conference is the day we sail Hubbard Glacier.  I could delay the conference until the day after we leave Ketchikan. But that is almost an entire week.   Our other port days fall on Saturday and Sunday and then Memorial Day.  So connecting with a hotspot won't help there.  

Thank you for the info on being south of Seattle.  Not exactly the same but I do recall when we were in Alaska last year for 11 days on our own land tour, the XM Sirius radio only worked Anchorage and south and we were not moving/driving down the road.  

We are staying at the Best Western for a couple of nights pre-cruise next week.  

Background story----i work as a consultant.  I knew I would have to work on our upcoming cruise on the Coral in two weeks.  I signed a new client last month and I am still in the process of fine tuning the onboarding process. I will need to have one Goto meeting with the client on a sea day.   I also just signed a new client that will start the week we leave on the cruise.  Business is good!  But if I am not working I am not getting paid.  😉

I have seen where the new internet/wi-fi is very fast and compares to wi-fi at home.  Does anyone have experience hosting video meetings using the new internet service onboard?  Just trying to plan my time with clients that I will need to interact with more than just exchanging emails.......

Thank you in advance for any input!

24 minutes ago, masterdrago said:

We are going to eat at the Moose AKa's when they start serving the dinner menu at 5pm May 20th. That way, we can just walk next door for the 6:30 Denali Jeep Excursion from Cantwell on the Denali Hwy about 50 miles (to the Susitna River) towards Paxson. This will be most convenient.

I hope you enjoy your dinner!  Moose AKa's made the top 3 places to eat for our family when we visited Alaska last year.  If you happen to be in the Seward area also check out The Cookery and Le Barn Appetit Creperie.  Both were excellent in different ways.  

We did the ATV excursion when we were in Denali.  It was kinda of blah.  We wish we would have done the Jeep Excursion you are doing instead.  The Jeep Excursion is on our list of to-do's the next time we are in Denali.  I would love to know what you think of the tour afterwards.  

These are the shoes my daughter and I both took last year on our 11 day land tour in Alaska.  We kayaked, hiked, visited Sealife Center, and general walking around Alaska and walking around Seattle on our overnight layover/stop.  We also flew Delta and are Skymiles members so only paid for one piece of luggage.  For our family of 4 we had 5 suitcases and one of those of just shoes, boots, jackets, hiking poles, etc.  

Tennis shoes - then Nike and now New Balance

Sanuk sandals

Sperry boots - The ones that look like LL Bean boots.  Very warm, keep feet dry and comfortable to walk in

Oboz Hiking Boots

and Hunter Rain boots.

For our Alaska cruise in a couple of weeks I am taking the same but dropping the Hunter Boots and taking a couple more sandals for dinners on the cruise.   

On 5/1/2019 at 10:19 AM, Melli56566 said:

Also, only have about 1.5 hours 

We are going to hike to Gastineau Peak above the Mount Roberts Tramway when we are in Juneau.  We have a Grand Canyon rim to rim hike in October so this will be a good training run for us and a free day in port.  🙂

I believe there are short hikes at both Mt Roberts and Mendenhall Glacier that can be done in a short amount of time.  You can look up on AllTrail app.  

36 minutes ago, masterdrago said:

We have made a decision to eat at the Grape Tap in Wasilla after we pick up our rent car at Ted Stephens airport. Originally, we thought about getting a late lunch at Moose's Tooth Pup & Pizzeria 5 miles from the airport. What changed our mind was the fact that we will have eaten both Breakfast & lunch while making the air trek to Anchorage from SE Texas. Thinking was that a leisurely drive and sightseeing tour near Wasilla would work better with a supper in those parts.

What I'm looking for is some input on eateries nearer to the Denali area since we will be spending ~4 days traveling those regions. Still looking for good suggestions for eateries near Denali. I see Lynx Creek Pizza, Black Bear Coffee House, Prospectors Pizzeria & Alehouse. Up the road in Healy, I see The 49th State Brewing Company and Rose's Cafe. What has the CC crew liked?

We were not impressed with Moose's Tooth last year.  It was okay but did not live up to the hype.

In the immediate Denali area I highly recommend Moose AKa's.  Great freshly prepared food to order by the chef, his wife is the hostess, wonderful beer and wine menu and the service was excellent even though we were seated at the bar area.  Make reservations in advance, it is not very big inside.

Also we stayed at the McKinley Creekside Cabins.  Their onsite restaurant was excellent for breakfast and their sack lunches were great and worth every penny for our Eielson Bus trip in Denali. 

On 5/2/2019 at 10:29 AM, Adian80 said:

 

This is the one I've been looking at.  Thanks for posting that you love it and that it actually works!  Do you fold it into it's pocket often?  I was wondering how well that worked and how easy it is to fold up?

I second this jacket.  Both my husband and I have one.  Got it last year for our Alaska trip.  Going to Alaska again this year and it is the first item that will be packed.  

We kayaked in Seward last year in the rain and stayed dry in our rain jackets.  

There is the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.   My DH and 2 college age kids enjoyed it last year and we are going to go again this year with my parents on our cruise this May.  

If you visit Exit Glacier while in Seward there is a hike of around a mile to get to the base of the glacier.  You can see the glacier from the road but not from the visitor center.  Just an fyi.....

Maya Key still has their tender going back on the hour and 1/2 to all the ships dock at the Port of Roatan in Coxen Hole. It makes it so easy for parents with small kids and older people that don't want to be out in the sun all day.

Our excursion was booked directly with Carnival which docks at Mahogany Bay. There was only one tender for the group.

On this cruise though we were originally supposed to be on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary but changed to Western due to tropical storm. Maybe being an “unscheduled” stop and not at Coxen Hole changed our day?

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In the past, there were boat taxis that ran from Maya Key back to port every half hour or so. Is this no longer the case? It really made it nice for those who were ready to head back a little early.

I don’t recall this being an option. We were on a carnival cruise and docked at mahogany bay. And we left with everyone else that had booked that excursion that day.

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I have been to both West Bat and Maya Kay. So here are my thoughts....

If you are interested in snorkeling, Maya Kay would be my choice. You can snorkel right from the end of their dock on the beach side area. And they also have animal interactions, a pool, lunch, etc

When we went snorkeling at West Bay, it was done as a snorkel boat excursion in addition to our day day at one of the beach resorts. You can probably snorkel from shore but it is further out from the shoreline and there is a lot of boats, jet ski, etc.

Another consideration with Maya Key you are depending on their boat transportation that arrives and leaves with everyone in a group at the same time. So if you little one has had enough for the day you will have to wait to leave.

With a West Bay beach day you will have a driver for the day. I don’t recall the company we booked through but I remember our drivers name was Charlie and he drove us all over. We went zip lining as well. And he arranged the snorkeling for us and came back to pick us up at a prescheduled time. So that may be better with a little one for the flexibility.

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those numbers are per person per day so if there are 2 of you its double and if its 4 of you its quadrupled.

 

if a typical meal is 30. per person then 6.40 is over a 20% tip.

Yes but doesn't that also include the time they spend in the dining room and Lido for breakfast and lunch hours? Not sure just asking? I recall from our first cruise one of our wait staff for dinner also worked on Lido during the day.

I would think that if you are wanting to tip each night, you could prepare an envelope with your desired amount of cash labeled for each night, before you ever leave home. Then you can place it next to your Sail&Sign card when you start getting ready for dinner each night.

 

BTW - Good for you for being generous

I like your envelope idea. I do that already for our port days and excursions.

Thank you! We are blessed :D!

Does anyone know the going hourly rate that is paid to the wait staff and room stewards on Carnival?

According to Carnival your auto gratuities per day are as below:

Here is the breakdown, per day:

Housekeeping Team: $4.05 ($5.05 for suites)

Dining Team: $6.40

Alternative Services: $2.50

Not sure what alternative services are??

Just thought the above was interesting and I am not trying to "stir a pot" but like I said we have always tipped above the auto gratuities. (we prepay them as well - just works best for my budgeting) And always add in another $1 or $2 on our drink orders depending. (not looking for a heavy pour but to be appreciative of the work they are doing while i sit on my lounger being lazy;)) Does not seem like $6.40 is very much. Heck I tip more than that at our local mexican place in town.

So that is why I asked the question about tipping. Just trying to see if anyone had ideas on a "smooth" tipping process each night in the dining room. :confused::confused:

Just to clarify, we always leave our auto-gratuities in place.

But we have always tipped extra to all waitstaff whether that be bartenders at Alchemy, drink staff on lido or the wait staff in the dining room.

Just trying to see what others do?

Planning our next annual mother-daughter cruise and we have picked YTD dining again. We have only done YTD one time on previous cruise and each night were seated in a different area in the dining room. Which worked on fine for us, never a wait and good to very good service each night.

But I struggled with tipping our wait staff. Some nights I remembered to bring cash with me and a couple of nights I forgot.

Any “tips” or ideas on what works for you? And I should say we are fine getting seated in different areas. We enjoyed meeting all the different wait staff and getting to know them. So I do not forsee us requesting the same table each night. [emoji6]

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I have not but we booked a day pass directly with The Savoy Hotel on South Beach a few years ago. It was worth the few dollars to have a place to hang out for a few hours before our early evening flight.

We flew into Fort Lauderdale, rented a car through Hertz and dropped off at their downtown Miami location. Hertz provided a free shuttle to the port. We did the reverse when we got back from the cruise. I can't speak for all the rental companies but I believe there are others ( Avis perhaps) that offer the same. It was a few minute wait for the free shuttle but no need to taxi or uber in my opinion.