hosscow

Extend your holiday in Seattle and take the Victoria Clipper round trip from Seattle. They have one day trips or longer. https://www.clippervacations.com/

On 10/11/2020 at 12:20 PM, SHIP TRAVELER said:

Thank  you for posting another viewpoint.  We are sailing out of Seattle to Alaska on Solstice in September of 2021.  We will stay on Solstice B2B for the Trans Pacific from Vancouver to Yokohama.  I think we will get to enjoy the inside passage sailing into Vancouver.

 

 We have visited Seattle in the past and are planning to fly in later the day prior to departure and spend the night at an airport hotel.  I am wondering about your comment about a bus from the airport to the cruise port.  When we looked, we did not come across anything except the train to Seattle with a taxi/Uber onward to the port.  With luggage we would prefer a  direct bus so I am wondering if you know of an alternative transfer.  We do not want to deal with the Celebrity transfer because of their price.  We are making our own flight arrangements.

Any additional information would be appreciated.  Thank You

I was thinking of the cruise lines buses in my previous post. Your best bet then would be taxi or uber. The train is too far of a walk to the Celebrity/Princess/Holland piers. The NCL pier is walkable from from the airport train. Mostly downhill, but a long walk and annoying with luggage.

Seattle's problems should not deter you. Most cruisers either fly in the day before and stay at an airport hotel, then bus directly to the cruise port. Others fly in the same day and then bus directly to the cruise port.  Some cruisers will stay at a downtown hotel, then taxi or uber to the cruise port. Most tourists only explore the waterfront tourist traps. No rioting has happened on the waterfront areas. You will meet a panhandler or two.

I have cruised out of Seattle 4 times and Vancouver twice. Both cities are great. But in Vancouver I had the customs wait from hell. Plus, Americans have to go through customs twice to get on the ship sailing out of Vancouver. Sailing out of Vancouver is beautiful, but so is the Seattle sailing. Most cruisers are busy exploring the ship on the first day. I have yet to have a bumpy ride sailing west of Vancouver Island. Yes, the port time in Victoria is way too short. Beautiful city. On my first Alaska cruise, we sailed out of Seattle and did the inside passage. We stopped a Prince Rupert, BC instead of Victoria for almost a full day. Why did the cruise lines stop doing this itinerary?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/power-outage-that-forced-cruise-ship-back-to-seattle-was-very-rare-occurrence/

Back to Seattle.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/cruise-ship-turns-back-to-seattle-after-power-outage/

We were on the Ruby end of May. Second formal night, table mates next to us were in flip flops, sweat pants, and colored tee shirts. They also got 3 main courses and did not eat the veggies. We laughed. Also saw faded blue jeans and lots of polo shirts.

So at least on the Ruby formal attire was not enforced.

I've done both on the Ruby. If you can get an aft inside like R740, you can be outside in seconds. Plus there is a pool and bar right there. Buffet is above we had no noise. If it is going to be your only Alaska cruise, I would do the balcony and bring a winter coat and hat, it gets cold when the ship is sailing.

Lamb Chops in the Crown Grill.

On the 2 cruises we did out of Seattle, we went inside passage up and Pacific Ocean back. Smooth sailing the whole way.

After reading the title I thought the thread was probably about boulders made of carpet blocking wheelchairs, lol.

Victoria. We live south of Victoria in the U.S., April and May you may see Grays and humpback, all year you may see resident and transient orcas, minke whales, and harbour and dall's porpoises. Last summer transient orcas were abundant. They eat seals and sea lions which are greatly increasing in population here.

We were on this cruise, embarkation was a breeze, arrived at 11:30 and was on ship at 12:15.

We were very disappointed with main dining (menu and quality). Our last NCL had better food. Seemed to always be seated by the waiter stations, noisy and crowded. Ate at Tuscan twice, was very good. Buffet was a madhouse during breakfast and lunch. Bloody Mary's at all bars we used were bland tasting. Had good bar service overall. Stateroom service was fine.

Does ANY cruise ship on any line have draft beer? (I'm serious, never seen it and would love to know!)

One of the newer carnival ships has a brewery. Just saw a segment on Mighty Ships. I brew and it looked very tasty.

Had same problem as original poster, finally used an android tablet and the website worked perfectly.

Are you browsing in "private" or "incognito" mode by any chance?

 

On the problems thread, that doesn't allow discussion I see several people posting that they are browsing in private mode, but having problems such as having to log in multiple times and getting the 20 minute lock out. While private mode allows the browser to read cookies already present, it (usually) doesn't allow the site to write new cookies, and that can cause problems as you go from page to page.

Tried Chrome, Chrome Incognito, MS Edge, Edge private browser. Same problems. I've logged out of Chrome and then tried Edge and it locks me out.

Just venting...while I love Celebrity cruises, I truly hate their website.

 

I've long ago completed check-in (100% according to the site) and printed my Xpress Pass. I log onto the site today just to see if eDocs might be ready yet and the site tells me, "You must complete items before checking in." Wait, I've already checked in 100% and printed my Xpress Pass. Am I missing something, other than that their site stinks? :rolleyes:

 

It sure doesn't leave me with warm fuzzies about my upcoming cruise. Ah, well. Just venting...thanks for listening!

Doing same for me, also says I'm missing information, won't let me book excursions, and the 20 minute lockout is very annoying.

20 minute lockout message.

The first few three ship days can be a zoo. We do embarkation in Vancouver fairly regularly ( our home port). The problem usually is that the American authorities don't have enough staff to handle the numbers.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

So why doesn't Vancouver Port request the proper amount of agents for the number of ships?

This thread has degraded into blaming the agents when it is the Vancouver Port not having the proper amount of personnel for the number of ships on a given day. Only port where I have seen this problem. Longest wait at the six other departure ports I've been to is 90 minutes. Vancouver over 3.5 hours.

I'm one of those who will never sail out of Vancouver again. The port knows how many ships and passengers will sail in any given day, they should pay for the proper amount of agents to process passengers or stagger the ships throughout the week.

Was able to manage reservation on the old website using Firefox today. Chrome and MS Edge go to the new web site and give errors. Can log in, but not manage reservation.

A coffee maker, NCL has them. I always have to be to good hubby and get my DW her wake up java, but she is worth it.

Sounds like an adventure.

 

We ate at the Blue Shrimp, was excellent.

We have sailed with NCL 2 times, Celebrity 2 times, and Princess 9 times. We live on the west coast, Princess offers more sailings.
To us NCL is the KMart experience and Celebrity/Princess, Sears. We have sailed on NCL for half the price of a comparable Celebrity/Princess cruise.

Passengers are nicer on NCL. Chair hogs the same.

Speciality restaurants equal for us, with NCL and Princess lower price. Celebrity buffet is the best, main dining comparable. Blu was our overall favorite.

I don't see the big deal on NCL drink package not including water or coffee.

Had balcony cabins on NCL that included a 4 cup coffee maker. We brought our own coffee, powdered drink mixers and empty water bottles. Ship water is fine, your food is made with it. I guess it looks more sophisticated to have that bottle of sparkling water on your table at dinner.

We stayed at the Delta Suites May 6, dw was very happy with the room, close to the pier, and good food close by.

Ouch.

 

What time did you arrive there?

 

Thanks.

 

12:45 pm