Millennium to Alaska Photo Review-6/19-7/3/2015

[shipfriend_max]

Thank you so much for your great review! [emoji5]️

It's a big help to me, since, within two days, we are about to sail to Alaska on Millennium!

Currently, after 10 days in the Canadian Rockies, we are spending four nice days here in Vancouver before embarking. [emoji5]️

[Italy52]

Thank you so much for your great review! [emoji5]️

It's a big help to me, since, within two days, we are about to sail to Alaska on Millennium!

Currently, after 10 days in the Canadian Rockies, we are spending four nice days here in Vancouver before embarking. [emoji5]️

 

You're welcome. Wishing you good weather and a lifetime of wonderful memories.

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for the great review and excellent photos of one of my favorite cruise destinations.

 

We have done two Harv n Marv excursions (the second was with captain Liz) and would book no other. The small boat experience can't be beat!

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Norris

[Italy52]

Thanks for the great review and excellent photos of one of my favorite cruise destinations.

 

We have done two Harv n Marv excursions (the second was with captain Liz) and would book no other. The small boat experience can't be beat!

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Norris

 

You are welcome. We have always enjoyed our Harv & Marv experiences. We have gone with Liz a total of 3 trips now and have put in a request for her on our 2016 northbound and southbound trips to Juneau. We realize that there are no guarantees when it comes to Liz --- keeping our fingers crossed that it does happen again.

[lukydog]

Carol, glad you enjoyed the review. Below is a quote from Harv & Marv's website (Frequently Asked Questions):

 

"There are three big steps to get in and out of our boats and the van parks about 300 yards away from our boat. If you cannot walk 1/2 mile or up and down stairs with ease, you should consider booking with a different company."

 

Yes, a representative from H&M met us on the port dock. We checked in with the representative and one member of our party was given a paper bracelet that showed the name of our boat we were assigned to for our excursion. A mini-bus was called and we boarded the transportation to the place where the Harv & Marv boats are docked. Upon arrival we were met by our Captain, given an opportunity to use the restroom and then taken down to our boat.

 

We have no mobility issues and found no issues with the walk from the dock to the boat. You might want to take a look at the Harv & Marv website to see if any other concerns you might have are addressed.

 

Hope you get the opportunity to tour with Harv & Marv.

 

I was looking at Harv & Marv's website but couldn't find a price for the whale watching tour. Would you be able to tell me how much this excursion is?

[Italy52]

I was looking at Harv & Marv's website but couldn't find a price for the whale watching tour. Would you be able to tell me how much this excursion is?

 

 

Here is the link that gives the information on H&M's pricing and tour information --- scroll down a bit on the page and it should have all the information you need.

 

http://www.harvandmarvs.com/alaskawhalewatching.html

Edited August 17, 2015 by Italy52

[lukydog]

Thanks for the link! Found it :)

[LEtue]

Karen,

 

I just came across your review and the pictures are awesome!

 

What day did you visit Anan Creek? I was thinking you may have been too early in the season but apparently the bears were out :D

 

I just returned from the Star Princess and am already planning a return visit for 2016.

[Italy52]

Karen,

 

I just came across your review and the pictures are awesome!

 

What day did you visit Anan Creek? I was thinking you may have been too early in the season but apparently the bears were out :D

 

I just returned from the Star Princess and am already planning a return visit for 2016.

 

Hi Linda, thanks for the kind words.

 

For 2014, we went to Anan Creek on July 2nd (pictures can be found under my signature in Alaska 2014 pictures.) For 2015, we went to Anan Creek on July 1st. Both trips might be considered early by some. However, for us, the dates were the only times we could go and we didn't want to miss an opportunity to see the bears. I had contacted Island Wings prior to making our booking and was provided with a level of comfort that resulted in our booking.

 

We are thinking of taking the Star in 2017 ----- how was your experience on her? Did you do a review?

[LEtue]

Hi Linda, thanks for the kind words.

 

For 2014, we went to Anan Creek on July 2nd (pictures can be found under my signature in Alaska 2014 pictures.) For 2015, we went to Anan Creek on July 1st. Both trips might be considered early by some. However, for us, the dates were the only times we could go and we didn't want to miss an opportunity to see the bears. I had contacted Island Wings prior to making our booking and was provided with a level of comfort that resulted in our booking.

 

We are thinking of taking the Star in 2017 ----- how was your experience on her? Did you do a review?

 

Wow, that is good to know! I was thinking that I had to time something for July 10 or later. This opens up some more possibilities for me next year.

 

We had a great time on the Star and Princess does a nice job in Alaska. I think I like the smaller Island/Coral better though for Alaska. It was neat to meet Libby Riddles in Juneau. She comes aboard the Princess ships with one of her dogs and does a nice presentation about her Iditerod win - very cool!

 

I put a cabin a hold on a Millennium for the same time frame next year but I need to look at options for late June and ending Ketchikan around July 1. That time of year works well for me.

 

Does Island Wings still require permits for the early trips? I was scheduled to go with them this year and they couldn't get them - so I switched dates and ship. Ended up on a kayak trip and the weather was just beautiful :D Best weather I have ever experienced on any Alaska trip and we sailed Aug 29 - Sept 5. Maybe we were just lucky!

[Italy52]

Wow, that is good to know! I was thinking that I had to time something for July 10 or later. This opens up some more possibilities for me next year.

 

We had a great time on the Star and Princess does a nice job in Alaska. I think I like the smaller Island/Coral better though for Alaska. It was neat to meet Libby Riddles in Juneau. She comes aboard the Princess ships with one of her dogs and does a nice presentation about her Iditerod win - very cool!

 

I put a cabin a hold on a Millennium for the same time frame next year but I need to look at options for late June and ending Ketchikan around July 1. That time of year works well for me.

 

Does Island Wings still require permits for the early trips? I was scheduled to go with them this year and they couldn't get them - so I switched dates and ship. Ended up on a kayak trip and the weather was just beautiful :D Best weather I have ever experienced on any Alaska trip and we sailed Aug 29 - Sept 5. Maybe we were just lucky!

 

 

Hi Linda, thanks for the information on the Star. We have cruised on the Island Princess and the Sapphire Princess to Alaska so Star Princess will be a little different for us. We have done 8 cruises to Alaska on the Millennium --- we enjoyed the size of the ship.

 

As for permits, I do not believe Island Wings had to get them for our two early trips --- I could be wrong --- there was never any mention of permits in our conversations. You might want to give Shona a call or e-mail her with any questions/concerns you might have --- she was wonderful in her communications to me. I think our July 1, 2015 trip was Island Wings first trip of the season to Anan Creek.

 

Early reservations are definitely a crap shoot. July 2, 2014 there was plenty of salmon for the bears; July 1, 2015 there was a small supply of salmon --- go figure. For us, we just wanted to see the bears so it really didn't matter if there was a lot of salmon or not. As you know from your research the price of the excursion is costly --- only you can decide if you are willing to take the risk.

 

Hope you get the opportunity to go to Anan Creek. Come back and let me know.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Italy52

[GottaKnowWhen]

Vancouver:

 

 

 

... We had a great two weeks in Alaska and will definitely treasure all the memories we made.

 

 

 

If anyone has any specific questions I will try to answer them...

 

 

Thanks for the review! We'll be doing a B2B next year, but starting in Stewart so we get time before and after in Alaska.

You got some very nice photos. What is the longest lens you typically use? APS-C or full frame? Or P&S?

Edited September 10, 2015 by GottaKnowWhen

[Italy52]

Thanks for the review! We'll be doing a B2B next year, but starting in Stewart so we get time before and after in Alaska.

You got some very nice photos. What is the longest lens you typically use? APS-C or full frame? Or P&S?

 

We took two cameras: Nikon D5100 (mine) and Sony A57 (my husband). We used only one lens the entire trip --- Nikon (75-300) and Sony (75-300). Nikon and Sony both use APS-C.

[FunInTheSun9]

Hi, and thank you for your review. I was excited to see that you had scheduled the same excursion with Kenai Fjords Tours that we have booked for our upcoming cruise in May: the 6-hour National Park Tour that leaves at 11:30am. I'm curious how you were able to change cabins and get your new Seapass cards that day. I called Celebrity and was told that they walk you off and back onto the ship (though others on this forum have said they give new Seapass cards during a breakfast for the B2B cruisers), they give you new Seapass cards in the check-in at the terminal, and that timin would be tight with the excursion departing from the ship around 10:30am and returning by 6pm - may not get new Seapass cards prior to 10:30am, and the check-in process closes at 6:30pm which could be troublesome if the tour returns late. How did you get your new Seapass cards that day, and were there any timing concerns?

[Italy52]

Hi, and thank you for your review. I was excited to see that you had scheduled the same excursion with Kenai Fjords Tours that we have booked for our upcoming cruise in May: the 6-hour National Park Tour that leaves at 11:30am. I'm curious how you were able to change cabins and get your new Seapass cards that day. I called Celebrity and was told that they walk you off and back onto the ship (though others on this forum have said they give new Seapass cards during a breakfast for the B2B cruisers), they give you new Seapass cards in the check-in at the terminal, and that timin would be tight with the excursion departing from the ship around 10:30am and returning by 6pm - may not get new Seapass cards prior to 10:30am, and the check-in process closes at 6:30pm which could be troublesome if the tour returns late. How did you get your new Seapass cards that day, and were there any timing concerns?

 

This is kind of a tough question to answer. For our last three Alaska back-to-back cruises with Celebrity our disembarkation procedure has been different each time. For the sake of this post, I will give you what we went through this past June (2015).

 

The night prior to our disembarkation in Seward we received an envelope detailing the disembarkation procedure for back-to-back passengers. It was very detailed and clearly written. We booked the same cabin for both northbound and southbound itineraries so we did not need to change cabins. Per our letter, we were able to disembark the ship during a certain time frame if we chose. Since we were taking the Kenai Fjord tour and wanted to walk around Seward for a bit, we chose to disembark the ship as soon as we could. When we went through Security for that final "ding" on our card, an alarm went off and we were redirected to another line --- we were met by a Celebrity representative who took our sea pass cards for the northbound itinerary --- we were then given our new seapass cards for our southbound itinerary along with an "in transit" card to hand to a Celebrity representative when we returned to the Seward terminal for processing.

 

Our Kenai Fjord tour was over by 5:30 PM so we had time to get back to the ship for embarkation with no problem. Since we already had our "in transit" cards and new seapass cards all we had to do was go through Security.

 

Hope this information helps.

[cruiseonthebrain]

You're pictures are incredible! What kind of camera did you use? (Sorry if you already answered this and I missed it)

[poss]

Thank you for the marvelous trip report. I especially liked the fact that you spent a lot of time talking about excursions, rather than just the ship: very helpful.

 

Question: You didn't mention any of the "food" excursions, e.g. Taku or Silver King or George Inlet Lodge. Have you done those on previous trips? Did you have a favorite?

 

We're trying to decide on excursions for a 14-day cruise next May (Regent, where excursions are included, which we prefer, though I know that many prefer otherwise). The one other time we cruised in Alaska (Regent as well), we did several helicopter and float plane trips (extra charge), which we absolutely adored, but I've become a bit of a nervous-nellie about small planes, so need to find other great things to do. (My husband is up in years, so we can't do anything real, real active anymore.)

 

I wish that our itinerary included (as yours did) several stops in Juneau and other places we particularly like, rather than Wrangell and Prince Rupert and Icy Straight. But our 14-day itinerary is significantly less expensive than b2b, so we're hoping to be pleasantly surprised in the "new" ports; plus it includes Victoria, which we enjoyed the one time we were there many decades ago. (You didn't mention Sitka-- we like that port very much.)

 

Thanks again for a really great review, full of excellent detail and well written besides.

[FunInTheSun9]

This is kind of a tough question to answer. For our last three Alaska back-to-back cruises with Celebrity our disembarkation procedure has been different each time. For the sake of this post, I will give you what we went through this past June (2015).

 

The night prior to our disembarkation in Seward we received an envelope detailing the disembarkation procedure for back-to-back passengers. It was very detailed and clearly written. We booked the same cabin for both northbound and southbound itineraries so we did not need to change cabins. Per our letter, we were able to disembark the ship during a certain time frame if we chose. Since we were taking the Kenai Fjord tour and wanted to walk around Seward for a bit, we chose to disembark the ship as soon as we could. When we went through Security for that final "ding" on our card, an alarm went off and we were redirected to another line --- we were met by a Celebrity representative who took our sea pass cards for the northbound itinerary --- we were then given our new seapass cards for our southbound itinerary along with an "in transit" card to hand to a Celebrity representative when we returned to the Seward terminal for processing.

 

Our Kenai Fjord tour was over by 5:30 PM so we had time to get back to the ship for embarkation with no problem. Since we already had our "in transit" cards and new seapass cards all we had to do was go through Security.

 

Hope this information helps.

 

Excellent Karen. Thank you for the quick response too. We can only hope it works this smoothly for us!

[Italy52]

You're pictures are incredible! What kind of camera did you use? (Sorry if you already answered this and I missed it)

 

Thank you for your kind words about the pictures.

 

We took two cameras: Nikon D5100 (mine) and Sony A57 (my husband). We used only one lens the entire trip --- Nikon (75-300) and Sony (75-300).

[Italy52]

Thank you for the marvelous trip report. I especially liked the fact that you spent a lot of time talking about excursions, rather than just the ship: very helpful.

 

Thank you for your kind words about my report. For us, the ship is not the most important aspect of our cruise; the itinerary and excursions are.

 

Question: You didn't mention any of the "food" excursions, e.g. Taku or Silver King or George Inlet Lodge. Have you done those on previous trips? Did you have a favorite?

 

Sorry, we have never done the "food' excursions.

 

We're trying to decide on excursions for a 14-day cruise next May (Regent, where excursions are included, which we prefer, though I know that many prefer otherwise). The one other time we cruised in Alaska (Regent as well), we did several helicopter and float plane trips (extra charge), which we absolutely adored, but I've become a bit of a nervous-nellie about small planes, so need to find other great things to do. (My husband is up in years, so we can't do anything real, real active anymore.)

 

I wish that our itinerary included (as yours did) several stops in Juneau and other places we particularly like, rather than Wrangell and Prince Rupert and Icy Straight. But our 14-day itinerary is significantly less expensive than b2b, so we're hoping to be pleasantly surprised in the "new" ports; plus it includes Victoria, which we enjoyed the one time we were there many decades ago. (You didn't mention Sitka-- we like that port very much.)

 

We have never gone to Sitka; maybe we will get there some day.

 

Thanks again for a really great review, full of excellent detail and well written besides.

 

See my comments in red above.

Edited December 24, 2015 by Italy52

[seadancer]

I was hoping you could give my husband and I some advice... We are doing the Harv and Marv whale watching tours in Juneau but we were wondering if there were other tours that you would suggest. We have never been to Alaska before and we are planning to go in June of 2017. We have thought of helicopter tours or Seaplane tours. We would welcome any suggestions from people that have gone to Icy Straight Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Thanks!

[Italy52]

I was hoping you could give my husband and I some advice... We are doing the Harv and Marv whale watching tours in Juneau but we were wondering if there were other tours that you would suggest. We have never been to Alaska before and we are planning to go in June of 2017. We have thought of helicopter tours or Seaplane tours. We would welcome any suggestions from people that have gone to Icy Straight Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Thanks!

 

First of all, I am glad to hear that you are going to Alaska; everyone should experience this magnificent place at least once in their lifetime.

 

I am not sure I can be of much help in answering your question. For us, we are about whales and glaciers and take every opportunity we can to see them. For the ports you mentioned, whale watching is a priority to us in Juneau and Icy Strait Point. As for Ketchikan, we have taken two bear watch tours which included a 45-minute scenic tour to and from our excursion via float plane; the experience was wonderful! Depending on your cruise date, you might be too early for this type of excursion.

 

Two suggestions for you: 1) Look at the shore excursions being offered by the line you are cruising with so you can get a better idea of what you might like to experience --- don't just rely on other people's recommendations. 2) After you have narrowed down your interests, come back to the Alaska board and post a new thread asking specific questions about the tours your are interested in doing. I am sure you will get a lot of feedback --- however, also make sure to check other avenues like TripAdvisor before you make your final decision --- the more informed you are about your choices the more you will enjoy your experience.

[aloanldy]

Your photo's are awesome. Thank you for sharing them.

I'm excited for my first adventure to Alaska in August aboard Millennium.

[Italy52]

Your photo's are awesome. Thank you for sharing them.

I'm excited for my first adventure to Alaska in August aboard Millennium.

 

Thank you for your kind comment, I appreciate it.

 

We have always enjoyed our cruises to Alaska. The Millennium has a nice itinerary and is a good ship ---- I hope you have a wonderful time filled with great memories.

[Celandine]

Thank you for sharing this review, and your pictures are absolutely amazing.

 

I am going to Alaska for the first time in early July and am in full research mode.

 

I am dying to see whales (planning on a whale watching tour in Icy Strait Point) do you have any advice, or from experience, times of day when I should be watching from the ship? (we have a balcony which I plan to practically live on)

 

Thank you again,