RenegadeThreads

Anchorage is just a normal modern city. Train, Glacies and Seward area is all I would be concerned with.

We were scheduled for Goldstar service today, but everyone was taken by Motorcoach instead. It was nice, but not the same. Also two hours shorter. They are supposed to refund the goldstar cost.

No train to Seward from Anchorage this morning due to wash out of the tracks. They expect to get it fixed before tomorrow.

8x42 roof prism would be my recommendation. It's a good time to buy in August because new models are coming in and old models get cleared out. I have generally been happy with Leupold and just picked up a great pair on clearance for my wife at MidwayUSA.

Juneau Car Rental was out of cars, but I was surprised that find that I got a better rate and good chat feedback from dealing with Avis Alaska site instead of main Avis site. Pickup looks to be in the same area on Mill Street.

http://www.avisalaska.com/

We're on board and we get notified about 1:30 that the cabins were ready so we went down to see if our luggage had arrived. It had, so we quickly unpacked some things and got somewhat situated. There was plenty of room under the bed to stash all our luggage and bags, plenty of storage to put clothes in closets, drawers. The bathroom had lots of shelves on either side of the mirror to stash your typical bathroom stuff. The shower was just curtained which was okay. I did bring along some heavy clips to put on the bottom at both edges to keep the curtain down straight. By the way....got to say that the water pressure in the shower and room in the shower was excellent! The only downside is there is only 1 outlet for plugging things in like alarm clocks, camera and cell phone chargers. We had purchased a squid multi-outlet extension cord and it worked fantastic!

 

 

 

 

I've always taken a squid for cruises, but had my bag held by security on my last Disney cruise and the alcohol in my bag was ignored, but the squid was confiscated until the end of the cruise. It ended up not being worth the hassle of trying to recover my squid on the way off the ship.

I just returned from sailing on the Wonder last week. I was concerned about the change in the alcohol policy since we have always packed a box of wine and a plastic bottle of vodka in past sailings. So, this cruise we carried on our 4-750ml bottles of wine/champagne and while I did have to take it to be reviewed, the agent didn't even look in the bag I was carrying. I think they were just looking to make sure you weren't trying to bring on too much. I could have easily had something other than wine in the bag without issue. Certainly no shaking the bottle to see if it was liquor.

I also packed a smaller rum runner with vodka and 4 airplane sized bottles of vodka just to minimize it being noticeable and so I wouldn't be out a bunch of booze if they actually confiscated it. We didn't receive the bag in our stateroom that contained these items when the other bags had arrived. At about 7pm we received a call from security that I needed to come get my bag since there was a confiscated item. To my surprise they were only interested in the surge strip I had packed. Its a little large. I've taken it on all previous cruises with no troubles, but they wouldn't let me keep it. So, no mention of the alcohol.

The night before we disembarked I checked with guest services about the confiscated item and they said I would be able to pick it up after going through customs. Just to be sure I double checked the morning of disembarking because we were doing the express exit and I didn't want to get held up. I spoke with the guest services desk again, along with the lost and found desk and two other crew members only to be told by all that I would get it back after I got off the ship.

When we came into the terminal I asked the first Disney person I saw and they weren't very sure, but told me it would be after customs. After customs I saw nothing and asked another Disney person who took me to security. No luck there either. They called someone and I could hear them say that I should have gotten it before I left the ship. I explained what I had been through and they walked me back to the head of the terminal agents. After much time someone appeared with my confiscated item. So, I would say get your item before you get off the ship if at all possible.

We are cruising to Falmouth on Disney and will be doing day passes to Sandals Royal Caribbean. Mo Bay and Royal are a pretty short drive from Falmouth at under 30 miles. If you happen to be going to Royal and want to share transportation costs for December 3rd I already have a driver arranged.

It's about 20 miles

Thanks for the info. It was helpful to me as well.