cruisecrazybmore

Still on a cruise and not at work! I'm sure people will be complaining, loudly, at guest services. I feel for those people.

12 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

Has anyone received info regarding change to Glacier Bay for Ovation that is not for May 22, August 28 or Sep 4, 2020 departures? 

Yes. Dawes is out and Glacier Bay is in for the May 22nd cruise.

My coworkers call this my "Catholic cruise" because of all the Saints.

I'm on board with you, same deck just more forward. I'd forgotten I booked an outside and was shocked when I opened the door.

Hate to piggyback on the OP, but regarding the 3 free drinks, can you get any drink or does it have to be the same as the Diamond Lounge? For example, I like Washington Apples but cannot get it in the Diamond Lounge. Could I get it elsewhere using the free drinks on my SeaPass? Thanks!

I'll be on an RCCL cruise and want to either do the Gros Piton hike or Tet Paul Nature trail. Neither seem to have ship excursions. Are there any reputable companies you would recommend? Thanks!

I'm on the Explorer of the Seas and we went to Endicott today. Too much ice still.

I'm on the Explorer of the Seas right now. I'll try to write up a review this coming week sometime. It's been AMAZING! I don't have the same level of excitement for the Caribbean cruise I have coming up anymore. I don't feel like anything will compare to this.

Agrees completely with lucy2mb about Yukon Rail and Bus with Chilkoot. I just took this today. It lasted a bit long as we kept stopping to take pictures of wildlife. We got back in to town around 4 pm. The included lunch was great also!

And if they're enforcing the rules strictly the bag in question doesn't qualify per the wording highlighted in red

That item would be a carry on not a personal item

Thanks.

The dimensions are stated in the description of the item. It's 16x12.2x8 .

I know the dimensions of the bag, I don't know what dimensions are allowed as a personal item on Southwest.

I saw something like this in Walmart and was wondering if it will be considered a personal item by Southwest.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Protege-16-Rolling-Under-Seater-Luggage/52417428

I'd hate to buy it and then it not be allowed. I can't find anything about the dimensions of the personal item.

We'll be in Skagway in early June and have decided to do the Kroschel tour on our own. We're spending a week on land before the cruise and are taking three trips on dome trains, so we didn't want to spend more time on a train. We decided we wanted to do a private tour at Kroschel, which you can't do on the ship's excursion. We're taking the fast ferry (near the cruise ship dock) to Haines, renting a car there and driving about 30 minutes to Kroschel. We'll return to Skagway on the fast ferry in time to do some shopping, etc. There are three of us and doing a private tour on our own is about $30 more pp than the ship's excursion and we're getting a private tour. Sorry that I can't comment on the tour from personal experience at this point, but Kroschel gets excellent reviews on Trip Advisor.

That sounds awesome! I wish I had more time in Alaska but unfortunately can only take so much time off during "prime vacation time" which is May 15th - September 15 :(

1. Is that your cat in the Avatar - so cute. (I have a Tonk & she looks similar.)

 

2. I did not take the RR - not my thing, but I did take a car to the Yukon (So I saw some of the same scenery) & it is awesome. (Not much in the way of animals - Dall sheep that looked tinier that the eagles that reminded me of golf balls in trees.) We used Beyond Skagway with Becky & Becky stopped whenever I asked. She even backed up when I saw a wildflower that I wanted to photograph.

 

3. I'm already thinking about a 3rd trip to AK just so I can go to Kroschel Wildlife Center! (Our next AK cruise will not stop in Skagway or Haines - 14-nights with 8 wonderful ports of call, so I'm ok with missing Skagway.) Don't tell my husband.

1) Yes. Unfortunately she died this past year. She was a rather old girl though with a nice long life.

2) Nice picture! Very nice of them to stop and back up for you! That's my kind of tour for sure!

3) Sounds like another trip will definitely be order! Just too much to see for one trip!

Chilkoot tours will do a train/small bus combo that stops at Emerald Lake!

 

Though you are right, once isn't enough.

So they do! I was looking at one of their tours as someone on my roll call is using them. The tour they are going on goes to Emerald Lake. Definitely leaning towards it now! AND I get to play with husky puppies ;)

The only way I'll get to go back is to not take a vacation for ~2-3 years or get another future cruise credit to cover a lot of the cost. :( Or make more money :p

On our most recent trip, we went on a tour with Dyea Dave. We were lucky to have Dave as our driver, and he's quite the character. We went into the Yukon past Carcross to Emerald Lake. And, since no one on our tour needed to rush back to Skagway, we got to spend extra time in Carcross, and added an extra stop at Michelle Phillips' sled dog camp.

 

The small bus has one major advantage over the train - the ability to stop. Twice we pulled off the road to photograph a bear. If we were on the train, we would have just gone flying by, lol. I understand taking the train if you are a train enthusiast, but otherwise I tend to prefer the flexibility of a small group on a mini bus (which also happens to be a lot cheaper). Many of the bus vendors (Dyea Dave included) can also work with you if you want to take the train one way and the bus the other.

I looked up images of Emerald Lake and it looks beautiful!! I feel like I might have to do Alaska again. Once just isn't going to be enough!

I wouldn't do the bike ride. I used to bike a lot and after seeing this, I wouldn't do it. Cars and busses buzz by at 50 plus MPH.

 

Most people have time in Skagway to do 2 different excursions. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Have you looked into Glacier Point Wilderness Safari?

Ah. Good to know about the bike ride. Shame as I really enjoy biking and haven't been able to do it since moving to the city. Shame.

It seems all the excursions I want to do in the morning get back too late to do anything in the afternoon. I saw the Safari excursion but think it will be too cold in May to canoe.

/

 

The dog sled ride is usually on a dirt trail not on the snow. I'm sure the kids will like it but it is not a true snow experience. I always use Chllkoot tours in Skagway for the 9 hr train/van ride. It is a wonderful train/museum/lunch and ride back to Skagway tour. And less money than the ships price. Plus there are a lot less people in the small vehicle they use than the ships transportation will have. Whatever you decide too do, you are in for a fabulous time in beautiful Alaska. And no, I do not work for Chilkoot.

I'll check out Chillkoot tours. Since becoming a solo cruiser, I tend to prefer ship based excursions but someone on my roll call is doing one of their excursions so good chance I wouldn't be the only one from the ship.

Here is a link to some of the pictures

 

https://markandkarenalaska2011.shutterfly.com/pictures/81

Those are beautiful!!

I didn't find an excursion with the hike, but did find one with a bike ride down from White Pass summit. Leaning towards that one I think.

There are just way too many things I want to do and not enough time to do them all!

We did the White Pass Railroad with the Rain Forrest hike (6.2 miles). The tour was great. The Rain forrest was amazing. The hike was strenuous, but we managed well.

 

I have read mixed reviews about the dog sled experience.

I'll see if they are offering something similar. That sounds nice!

Sounds like the White Pass Railroad is the way to go. Maybe I'll have to make another trip to go to the Kroschel Wildlife Refuge.

Trying to decide between two excursions on RCCL in Skagway:

Kroschel Wildlife Refuge

White Pass Railroad and Alaskan Dog Sled Experience

I enjoy nature, animals, and photography.

Opinions?

20 foot seas and 40 mph winds, lol. That is nothing and very, very common sailing out of the NE, especially the winds.

Per the captain, 20 ft seas and 70 knot winds. That's probably wind gusts, not sustained winds. I can see 40 mph sustained. Like you said, no big out of the NE at any time, let alone with a hurricane.

I call BS on that. If there was damage like that others would have reported it.

All I know was that the Solarium was closed and when we got out of the storm, people were working on top of it. No idea if there was broken glass or not.

Love Grandeur. Crew is awesome.

For whatever reason I didn't have an issue with the internet. I used their computers as well as my own computer and phone.

Last October on a Canada/New England itinerary, there were 4 (I believe) kids on board. I know it was definitely less than 10. They were in the same family and very well behaved.

Bow Tie, I hope I don't sound like I'm diminishing what you're saying. Just offering my point of view on things.

Because we were changing our itinerary to avoid bad weather, I was very surprised by what happened next. We went to bed and the ship pitched and rocked heavily all night long.

 

I get that RCCL can't control the weather and we were traveling during hurricane season. But would someone explain why we were in bad weather for well over 12 hours?

 

Once RCCL knew the hurricane was heading north, why didn't we sail due east and get away from it all, have some calm days at sea, and return to Baltimore?

Since Matthew wasn't forecast to go that far north, had we gone east, we could have very well stayed in the storm the whole time as well. Also, further east would have meant a rockier trip as they you would be getting seas from both Matthew and Nicole. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Captain made the decision to slow down on Sunday (significantly) so it was more comfortable, that also limited where we were able to go on such a short cruise.

1. We all should have been warned that we were in for a night of very rough seas, but that we were in no danger and they expected to be in calmer waters by x time, instead of leaving everyone surprised and anxious.

Leaving early because the Bay was closing because of the storm was the warning that the weather could be bad. Then again, the seas can be rough anytime leaving from Baltimore.

2. I understand the change in ports was sudden, but RCCL is a big business, and is owned by an even bigger one. They failed to rise to the occasion.

Considering they got together two different means of transportation in such a short period of time, I think they did great. It takes a LOT of planning to put together shore excursions, especially when it's not a usual port of call.

Considering how many people were considerably sea sick on Sunday, I doubt many people who have gone to a talk about things to do in NY if they could have gotten it together so quickly. They also said you could go to the shore excursion desk to ask questions about things to do.

3. Minor point, but when the ship was unable to keep the schedule they announced for the ferries, they should have told us!

They did make announcements on board as to when the ferries would be back. I'm not sure how much more they could have done. It takes as long as it takes to load/unload passengers and get through the harbor. They don't control that.

Just my $0.02. I think RCCL did a great job and believe they kept us informed as much as they could. I can't imagine how difficult it was trying to find an open port during this time, and am happy for everyone who was seasick they found one that was relatively close even though it took quite a while to get there. I am also beyond happy with the 100% future cruise credit and did not expect it at all.

I do wish there was a better way to communicate with people that sailing out of the Baltimore area has a tendency to be rocky at all times and more so during hurricane season. I'm thinking that by the number of people seasick on this cruise, which was considerably less rocky than the cruise to Canada/New England last October that came up behind hurricane Joaquin, that a lot of people did not realize how bad it was going to be. Maybe a lot of first time/newer cruisers?

One question for people who were on the ship. I saw on Marine Traffic the NYC Waterways ferry sitting at what appeared to be the tender hatch. Did the ship maintain two exits in Bayonne, the ferry port and a gangway into the terminal?

 

Roy

Yes. They provided a free ferry into lower Manhattan or a $20 round trip bus ride to midtown.

Any stories of premature departures?

I don't know how many but some people did disembark in Bayonne. More food for the rest of us.

Seas are perfectly calm today. What a complete turnaround in a couple of days!

So no announcements were made? I find that very hard to believe. How did everyone else find out?

It was announced around 7 pm on Saturday that we weren't going to Bermuda.

Looks to be tonight sometime.

All aboard is 8:30 pm.