Trip Report - 7-23 sailing on Millennium to Alaska

[Lastdance]

Thanks for your detailed review!  My DH really enjoys Alaskan wildlife, especially all the golf balls when they get closer.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Lastdance

[TeeRick]

Thank you for the review!  Do you know how many unvaccinated kids were on board?  Were they wearing masks?  

[lovemygiants]

2 hours ago, LuvCruising88 said:

Lovemygiants- (me too!)  I misspoke.  We did not beat the Millennium to Juneau; the Millennium was in place at the dock, but for some reason, we were unable to 'attach' back to the ship to get off the excursion boat and onto Millennium.  I think the dock master was expecting Millie at 1:30 but it arrived at 1 maybe(?)  This is purely my guess, but we did indeed have to reboard Millennium before heading into Juneau.  Getting off in Juneau was not an option.   You will probably not experience this - I think it had to have been a timing miscommunication.  We had to show our seapass to get back onboard and then just walked down the gangway to go into port.  Have a great trip!  (Sorry for the wordy explanation!)

Thank you so much! I appreciate the “wordy”. ☺️

[LuvCruising88]

TeeRick - I'm not sure, but we sailed with 1300 passengers, so I suppose 5% of that total could have been unvaccinated.  I did see some people - both adults and children wearing masks at times on the ship.  On our excursions,  there were times when masks were required- the bus ride to Mendenhall,  the train ride in Skagway and I think we wore them inside the excursion boats too (Unless drinking a glacierita!)  People were pretty respectful of personal space.  Even the elevators didn't seem to be as crowded as usual, and often times rather than cram in, people just waited for the next car once 4 or 5 people were already on.

[TeeRick]

11 hours ago, LuvCruising88 said:

TeeRick - I'm not sure, but we sailed with 1300 passengers, so I suppose 5% of that total could have been unvaccinated.  I did see some people - both adults and children wearing masks at times on the ship.  On our excursions,  there were times when masks were required- the bus ride to Mendenhall,  the train ride in Skagway and I think we wore them inside the excursion boats too (Unless drinking a glacierita!)  People were pretty respectful of personal space.  Even the elevators didn't seem to be as crowded as usual, and often times rather than cram in, people just waited for the next car once 4 or 5 people were already on.

Thank you.  The Alaska cruises have become more complicated and glad you were able to sail in normal conditions.  We are going Sept 24 and as of now we will need to find a rapid testing site in Seattle within 3 days of embarkation.  And of course test negative.  We are from the east coast and have flights booked already and we planned to stay a few days in Seattle.  If for whatever reason we test positive we will likely need to quarantine and find a local place to do so at the last minute.   Very soon people are predicting a mask mandate onboard ship even though it will be fully vaccinated for everybody 12+.  So this is all going in the wrong direction.  

[LuvCruising88]

Wow- that is so stressful! We were very fortunate not to have had to do the rapid test prior to boarding. On our Cruise I think that was only required if coming in from outside the US, and if unvaccinated of course. But I'm not even sure about that.  We kept getting info on the test requirements and couldn't keep it straight.  I had to call and ask Celebrity.  Good luck to you - I wish you well!

[Fly and Sail]

How was the arrival back in Seattle in terms of procedure? Customs & Immigration or did you just walk through considering the cruise didn't stop anywhere abroad?

[patty1955]

38 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

How was the arrival back in Seattle in terms of procedure? Customs & Immigration or did you just walk through considering the cruise didn't stop anywhere abroad?

We were directed to customs but just walked through.

[Fly and Sail]

Just now, patty1955 said:

We were directed to customs but just walked through.

 

Ok interesting. I was worried about that especially in terms of timing my flight ex SeaTac as well as the amount of cash from the casino withdrawal.

[patty1955]

9 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Ok interesting. I was worried about that especially in terms of timing my flight ex SeaTac as well as the amount of cash from the casino withdrawal.

If you're from Japan it may be different for you.

[Fly and Sail]

6 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

If you're from Japan it may be different for you.

 

If you just walked through without showing your passport/passport card I don't see how they would differentiate here. They have the data of everyone on board I guess they just pre-clear everyone including foreigners based on their previous U.S. arrival records in the system. Let's see!

[LuvCruising88]

We did show our passports, but it was a very quick and easy process.  No forms or anything - just lower your mask to verify the picture.  Like patty1955 said, we just walked through, showed our passports and walked outside to the busses for airport transfer.  Actually, that was the part that surprised me - they didn't even check to see if we had purchased the transfers.  We just got on a bus and off to the airport we went.  We got to SeaTac by like 10:30 or 11...