mlbcruiser

I’m sure you will still enjoy seeing the glacier, no matter how you do it. I like to watch Deadliest Catch normally, but especially if I am going to do an Alaskan cruise! Of course, nothing like our Alaskan cruise will really be, but just the same… (Although we did do that Deadliest Catch crabbing ship excursion when we went to Alaska last time, and it was quite interesting!) The show puts me in the AK mood I guess. Especially since the TV show Alaska Daily finished it’s season a week or 2 ago. New episodes of DC starting tonight.

Thanks twangster. That’s pretty much what I assumed. I’m REALLY glad that when we did our first Alaskan cruise we had the itinerary that we did. Additionally, if we had not done a land tour post cruise, we would have missed the main and best part of our experience.

The Fun Researcher, the Mendenhall glacier may be there, but the ship doesn’t really go near it, does it? I assumed it did not, since there are excursions out of Juneau, for one place, that basically take you to where it is. And some of the other areas a ship can get quite close to the glacier. Easy to see them calve and the ship we were on got quite close to them.

I hope that is not the case, but mostly for my daughter and her family as they’ve never been in a place to see glaciers. That’s one of the issues with Alaskan cruises out of Seattle. Most don’t ever go to the better glacier areas like College Bay, College fjord, and so on.

When I spoke to the Royal Caribbean customer service rep a couple of days ago the itineraries had the Endicott Arm day as a sailing day. It also had that from the start, but included the brackets around Endicott Arm. The ship has to go somewhere and the distance isn’t that great so I imagine we are still going to Endicott Arm. Sure hope so! Or even a better place to see glaciers. ???

Same thing for Celebrity’s Blue Chip Club. 1 1/2 to 2 hours is a common wait time, but on occasion, you might get lucky and get someone in just 3-4 min. If the offer is really, really good, don’t give up! Just put your phone on speakerphone and go about your business until someone answers.

I also called RCI’s customer service today. Had no problem reaching them and the lady who helped me had me hold on while she did some checking. On everything she had available or could access, it still shows our initial itinerary for July 3’s sailing. She said the shore excursions were still available to book on her end. She wanted to know where I had gotten information regarding possible canceled ports and not being able to book excursions in those ports. I told her there was a cruisecritic thread, and a heck of a lot of people are going to be really upset if they have pulled those ports. She said from everything she has been able to find out they are still in the itineraries. Also, that usually they will get notices indicating changes. . I guess we shall see!

Assuming Anthem has bumper cars and roller rinks as on Quantum, do you have any idea what time those venues are open during the cruise? Days of the week, or daytime or evening? Is it absolutely essential to have reservations in advance? Since you just sailed, can you recall if they were a lot of kids on that cruise? (If so, was it an Easter break cruise?) our daughter’s family is coming along and it will be July. So I’m guessing lots of kids will be wanting to do those activities.. It’s so hard to make reservations for things like that in advance - not knowing what other things will happen at what time or on what day. Also, what type of dining did you choose and which dining room did you dine in? If my time dining, did you make reservations well in advance? Anything else about your dining times or issues, please feel free to comment on. Thanks and any info appreciated!

Make sure you cancel your wife’s drink package 48 hours before you board. That goes for any excursions she waz booked on through RCI as well. Assuming you still get to go.

Thanks to everyone for the info! I should keep up with this stuff more. So it’s 12 non alcoholic drinks per cabin “officially” and not pp. my brother and his girlfriend recently each brought 12 bottles of water onto a celebrity ship out of Fort Lauderdale. But honestly, who would really care about that? I’ve heard sometimes it depends on the captain as to whether or not such things are enforced, but I have no idea where did that is true or not.

In the “olden days” we were allowed to bring soda onto RCI ships, as well as 2 bottles of wine or champagne pp. I know one can still bring wine or a certain amount of bottled water. Haven’t brought any beverages on in some years, though we have cruised many times. Are soft drinks (soda) allowed these days? If so, how much? Hoping someone knows for sure.

Glad to hear free laundry bag pp for Diamond Plus wasn’t taken away. I was reading that chart someone posted on the various levels of benefits and it appeared to me that it was just a $10 discount. On Celebrity at doesn’t matter if you were diamond or diamond plus. Both categories are lumped together and have the same perks. I personally don’t think their perks are as good as Royal Caribbean‘s. Also hope RCI does not start cutting back. However, I do wish Royal Caribbean would change it’s free 24 hours of Wi-Fi perk and make it so it begins at whatever time of day sign in to it the first time and then it ends 24 hours from that time. On Celebrity, you didn’t have to use the 24 hours all within an actual 24 hrs. You could stretch it out into segments over the entire week if you wanted to.

In the past, when you were Diamond you were allowed 1 free bag of laundry. We were on a Celebrity ship a few weeks ago and received that perk. Now it appears that even though we moved up to Diamond Plus ladt fall, if I understand it right we now just get a $10 discount off of a $34.99 bag of laundry. 😠

Interesting aid. When I bought my husband a cane with three legs and a stool, I tried it. it felt very unwieldy. Months later I saw something on the Internet and learned we were sitting on it wrong! You’re supposed to put the shaft/handle in between your legs from the front, and then sit on it. Still, he hasn’t ever used it. I imagine one day it may come in handy for something. Good luck with this new seat. Looks easy to tote around. Hopefully you will report back after you use it because I’m sure many others might want to get one if it works well for you.

If you park your scooter somewhere along the pavement, especially in the parts of the island nearest the ship, no one will bother it. I recall there is sort of an inland lake looking area with a beach surrounding it on the right when you go a little way onto the island from the ship dock. There are chairs and the beach very close to the pavement if you are lucky enough to get one and you would still be on a sandy beach. There is also a real beach on the left of the pavement early on near the same area. it’s a bit of a walk in sand from the pavement to the shoreline, but not too bad. One of the dining venues and even some restrooms are in the general vicinity of that beach. Just make sure you have the scooter key with you. My husband has a foldable travel scooter. It is only about the size of a medium suitcase when folded up. With a battery in it, it weighs about 55 pounds. We have been to Coco Cay twice and he just parked it on the edge of the pavement. Doesn’t usually even fold it. He usually tries to find a place that has a bit of a shade. Your biggest problem might be if it suddenly burst out raining. You probably don’t want your scooter in the rain as it might do something to it’s power system at the very least. Especially if it happened to be a downpour. The thing about taking the scooter is that you could give yourself a little tour of what there is on the island.

Appreciate the info,Biker19. Yes, I’m familiar with cruise step plans. In fact, I consulted it for our cabin locations. Additionally, I did a couple of different searches, trying to find the names of the main dining rooms on the Quantum and photos of them. I was halfway through a very long video tour last night, but they never got to those restaurants. May try it again later. The agency we used put us down for traditional late seating since my DH and I always choose that. This time we have five family members with us so that will probably change. I know we can change what soundboard. Looking at the dining rooms are part of the anticipation process, though, lol. Thanks once more.

Do you happen to know the names of the dining rooms on each deck?

Thanks for your reply and information. I read one post that says one thing, then another post that says something else! Perhaps it depends upon the captain and how they want to do things or maybe something has changed. We were just on Celebrity’s Edge. Ot also has 4 main dining rooms and you could choose whatever dining room you wanted every night. We have taken about 50 cruises on a number of different cruise lines with about half being on RCI. We didn’t care for the four main dining room concept at all. To us it is a drawback. However different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes.

Ok, thamks Biker. So if you reserve your main dining room time, you don’t get to choose which restaurant you would eat it in. Some have suggested that they prefer the decor of one over the other so to choose the one you like best. Doesn’t sound possible. Maybe after you get on the ship it is.

Twangster, thanks for that link again. I finally got it to open. Had trouble with it yesterday. I can see that some of the shows are repeated during the week as they are on the oasis class ships, and that the times vary among all the shows. That’s really helpful for planning dinner times. Thanks again!

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I sort of thought they might hold back a few spots until boarding day, but on a ship that large, unless you are in the earliest boarding groups, it would be easy to miss out pn noth remaining pay openings or free ones. I don’t know how long it takes to get someone, instructed, prepped, and to actually do their ride. So I wonder how many people will be able to ride each day. Have no idea what hours it would be open. Since Northstar holds more than one person, I would think they could process more people than the actual ride probably takes longer. Guess we’ll find out! By the way, we can’t do our registration on the app until mid May. Still, I tried to look up a number of things on the app, but other than shore excursions and the upgraded beverage package, couldn’t get activities or specialy restaurants to come up. Someone said to go through the website so will probably try that when I get a chance. Thanks again!

Thanks for that very helpful information, Newcruiser2012. I was under the impression you could book it ahead of time like you can f for excursions and dining.

Ashland, do you recall if there were vendors at the port offering other tours as well in Sitka? Wondering if we’ll find that at the other popular ports in Alaska, too -?

I used royal Caribbean app just this past fall without issues. A few weeks ago we did a elenrity cruise and I was able to use that app as well. Our cruise is still a 3 months away with sign in starting May 19. There seems to be so much missing in the app at this point. I have read posts by other people on this same cruise who have said that most of the excursions are sold out. Specialty restaurants do not appear on the app. Only the upgraded drink package appears. Also it showed a place for reservations for the main restaurants that are free. Yet it did not list the 4 restaurants. I clicked on menu and only the children’s menu would appear. I understand. It’s best to make reservations for I Fly and Northstar well in advance. Perhaps these can’t be made until after the sign in.(?) I’m guessing that’s what the problem is. However, if that is the case, I don’t see how people are allowed to make shore excursion reservations, but not reservations for other things before the sign in date. Any help or explanation appreciated!