A semi-live trip report on 8/10/18 Solstice to Alaska that was almost a golf trip to

Thanks. Looks like I am following in your footsteps 1 week later. have the Tracy Arm Excursion booked, the Chilkoot Rail and Bus Yukon Excursion, and Butchart Gardens. Have not decided yet if we will do something in the afternoon in Juneau. We just have a Concierge Balcony Cabin booked so no suite perks. I would like to know how much time you actually got to spend at the gardens and if it was light enough for the visit to be worthwhile.

 

Will be staying at a hotel near the airport and plan on taking an Uber to the dock around 10:30 AM. Do you think that is good timing or should we leave earlier or later?

 

Our last cruise was a couple years ago on the Equinox from Barcelona to Venice. Picked the specific itinerary for an overnight in Istanbul, since a friend of ours lives there part-time and was our tour guide. Would not visit there now.

 

Thanks so much for letting us follow along on your trip.

We arrived around 11:30 I think, and the lines were fairly long at check in. Having a suite helped as we were literally taken from outside right to the check in desk and then right on board. The expedited luggage program I mentioned earlier for RS and PH needs some work as our luggage didn’t arrive until right before dinner.

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To answer the last two questions- the ship sails up the Tracy Arm Fjord early in the morning and does a 360 turn. Anyone booked on the small boat excursion boards right off the ship. The ship sails back down Tracy Arm and docks in Juneau around 1:30 pm.

Thanks again. Do I understand that from the small boat excursion you met the ship in the port of Juneau and did not return to the ship while it sailed out of Tracy Arm Fjord to Juneau? I believe the small boat was a 5 hour tour.

Thanks again. Do I understand that from the small boat excursion you met the ship in the port of Juneau and did not return to the ship while it sailed out of Tracy Arm Fjord to Juneau? I believe the small boat was a 5 hour tour.

Yes, we rejoined the ship In Juneau. The ship is in port until 9:30, so there is plenty of time to get back off the ship and do some exploring on your own.

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Yes, we rejoined the ship In Juneau. The ship is in port until 9:30, so there is plenty of time to get back off the ship and do some exploring on your own.

 

 

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Thanks. Will definitely book this ship tour for our June 21st sailing.

We are planning to do Alaska in 2020 with our grandchildren and their parents ( see who really matters?) to mark a special anniversary for us. The Tracy's Arm tour sounds great but any feeling on how it would be for/with a 3 year old and an almost 6 year old? I don't want to be chasing my little guy overboard. Thanks for sharing so much about this trip. Helps me with the debate between this one and and a one way.

At airport waiting for our flight to Seattle. Staying at Springhill Suites near airport tonight and Uber to Pier tomorrow

We are planning to do Alaska in 2020 with our grandchildren and their parents ( see who really matters?) to mark a special anniversary for us. The Tracy's Arm tour sounds great but any feeling on how it would be for/with a 3 year old and an almost 6 year old? I don't want to be chasing my little guy overboard. Thanks for sharing so much about this trip. Helps me with the debate between this one and and a one way.

The Tracy Arm tour was great, but it is a long tour for young kids to be confined inside the boat. You would know your grandkids better than me, but as elementary school educator I would say it’s too long for that age.

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At airport waiting for our flight to Seattle. Staying at Springhill Suites near airport tonight and Uber to Pier tomorrow

Enjoy! We had such a great time on the ship and are really sad to leave tomorrow morning. I’ll be adding some more photos and some final thoughts later.

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Thanks Kteacher. They are great kids but.....they are kids. It is not a decision I have to make today, we still have 22 months before we would be going and itineraries won't be released for another 3-4 months so for now it is all about gathering information and making a basic plan.

Sitting at the airport, already missing the crew on board the Solstice. Here’s a few photos of RS1116. I wanted to include the couch when it was pulled out for sleeping. While having 1 1/2 baths was convenient, we will stick to CS when it is just me and my husband.

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Here’s some photos of the bedroom and the walk-in closet. In order to access the safe and the drawers you need to go inside the closet and close the door.

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Photos of the storage in the living area as well as the dining room table

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Photos of the balcony, and yes, we used the jacuzzi!

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That's a strange set up for the safe and drawers. We were in a RS on Silhouette and the drawers and safe were in the are where your picture shows the robes hanging.

We used the balcony whirlpool in Alaska on Millennium while sailing down the inner passage.

Kteacher, thanks again for sharing!

Yesterday was a long travel day home to the east coast, and I still need to sort through photos to add to this trip report. Here are some final thoughts:

Celebrity needs to do a better job with communication between ship and shoreside. Our pre-cruise hotel fiasco as well as the miscommunication about the PH and RS expedited luggage program are two examples.

The crew on the Solstice are outstanding.

Brent Nixon and his wife definitely enriched our cruise experience with their presentations.

The vistas in Alaska are breathtaking.

The difference between a CS and a RS are minimal and not worth the additional cost in my opinion.

Alaska cruises take a lot of pre-planning, research, and the excursions are expensive, but worth it.

Celebrity does a better job with their suite experience than Royal Caribbean.

I’ll try to get some more photos up in between massive amounts of laundry. Thanks for following along!

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Yesterday was a long travel day home to the east coast, and I still need to sort through photos to add to this trip report. Here are some final thoughts:

Celebrity needs to do a better job with communication between ship and shoreside. Our pre-cruise hotel fiasco as well as the miscommunication about the PH and RS expedited luggage program are two examples.

 

The crew on the Solstice are outstanding.

 

Brent Nixon and his wife definitely enriched our cruise experience with their presentations.

 

The vistas in Alaska are breathtaking.

 

The difference between a CS and a RS are minimal and not worth the additional cost in my opinion.

 

Alaska cruises take a lot of pre-planning, research, and the excursions are expensive, but worth it.

 

Celebrity does a better job with their suite experience than Royal Caribbean.

 

I’ll try to get some more photos up in between massive amounts of laundry. Thanks for following along!

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you! I have really enjoyed your trip and look forward to June 21, 2019 when we get back on the Solstice.

When I was researching excursions in Skagway I knew I wanted to do the White Pass Train. There were a lot of different excursions, but I narrowed it down to Chilkoot Charter because I wanted to go up past Bennett Lake. I’m so glad I chose this! I am by no means a photographer. This was taken on an older IPhone 6S, so of course does not do this amazing view justice:

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These are a few photos from the Tracy Arm excursion booked through Celebrity. Again, I’m no photographer, so apologies for poor quality. You can get a sense of how close the excursion boat got to Dawes Glacier. We were also able to pull up quite close to a fairly large iceberg

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Please don't apologize for your photos. I understand the urge as there are so many with fancy cameras...but your photos are beautiful! Really enjoying these added pictures to your report. Thank you for taking the time to share. Hoping to see more...

Here’s another reason to book the train excursion in Skagway that goes all the way up to Carcross, Yukon Territory:

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Kteacher, I am a photographer, now retired, and your pictures are fine. The Tracy's Arm images have me thinking we should do the Vancouver RT in 2020 just to enjoy the Sawyer Glacier. We did a northbound a few years ago and loved Hubbard Glacier but the ship could not get any closer than 1/2 mile out...it would be amazing to get up close and personal with the ice.

Kteacher, I am a photographer, now retired, and your pictures are fine. The Tracy's Arm images have me thinking we should do the Vancouver RT in 2020 just to enjoy the Sawyer Glacier. We did a northbound a few years ago and loved Hubbard Glacier but the ship could not get any closer than 1/2 mile out...it would be amazing to get up close and personal with the ice.

Thank you for the kind words [emoji4]. Everything we saw was so beautiful. My husband has the photos of the orcas and humpbacks we saw on the excursion, so I’ll need to transfer those over to my devices.

I very rarely take pictures of scenery that include me. I would rather see photos of the view than the view with an awkward angle of me taking a selfie.

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We did the Butchart Garden tour through Celebrity. The tour left the pier close to 6:30, and arrived at the garden at 7:10. We had 2 hours to tour. Would it have been better to have more time? Absolutely, but we were still able to see quite a bit. Here’s some photos taken when we arrived as well as when we were leaving so you can see the difference in how much light there was:

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Great Review! Did you book Chilkoot Charter excursion in advance? Or when you arrived in Skagway? Are they available at the dock?