Live from Canada & Alaska June 2023

[Silkroad]

Beautiful photos! I’m finding your posts and photos quite helpful for planning our Alaskan cruise. We had planned some of the same activities, so it’s lovely to read about your experiences.

[Barwick Cruiser]

Very glad you had a great time and not really surprised about the internet. We had the classic package on the Eclipse last September and had the same issues. Yet on Silhouette this past Feb the classic worked great. 🤷‍♀️

 

Thank you for continuing the report, your details and pics are wonderful!

[kayehall]

Ok, now you have me thinking.  How can I look at the logistics for visiting Banff and Lake Louise before or after an Alaskan cruise from Vancouver?  Cost?  Time for travel?

[jwlane]

2 minutes ago, kayehall said:

How can I look at the logistics for visiting Banff and Lake Louise before or after an Alaskan cruise from Vancouver?  

Call your TA.  Both are a long way from Vancouver.

[kayehall]

4 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Call your TA.  Both are a long way from Vancouver.

So thinking about flying into Calgary  and doing the Mountaineer train one way between Lake Louise and Vancouver before or after the cruise.  Just trying to get a handle on the logistics as far as time needed, cost and how doable it would be.  I think it would be an amazing add on to a cruise but I might have to rob a bank to do it...LOL

[TraderSam]

So finally, we reach boarding day  This will be a wordy post with no photos as I don't think I took any until we sat down for coffee. 😉

 

Having walked from our hotel to Canada Place yesterday, we reckoned it doable with luggage as it was all downhill and that would save us being stuck in traffic in a taxi. 

 

We had the first check in slot of 10:30 and so headed into the building around 10:20. Already, there was quite a queue and a bit of confusion inside. 3 ships in port, a Royal Caribbean, a HAL and Eclipse.

We followed instructions to join a long, snaking line to the right hand side of the room. Disney vibes going on here with the queuing system. Just when you think you are at the front, someone comes along and releases a barrier and merges another line of people with you 😂. 

 

 Soon, folks sailing on HAL were pulled from the line. Maybe they should have been priority boarding of some sort. 

 

We realised that the snaking line on our side is waiting to "cross the traffic" only to stand in line on the other side of the room, to board the elevator... to take us down to the parking lot... to drop luggage. We might well have been easier arriving by taxi after all. 🤔

 

After that, we are directed to another elevator or stairs.
The folks in front of us choose the stairs versus the longer wait for the elevator. We follow, as do many behind us. Then the folks in front realise its 2/3 flights of stairs to climb and regret their decision. Anyway, the choice has been made and they struggled on up. Poor souls but then again, some folks bring on a helluva lot of hand luggage/carry ons. 

 

We then followed the signs for our individual ships and travelled though another hall, queued outside, then back in and down an escalator... 
to arrive at the same hall we started in.🤦🏼‍♀️
 We were now the "oncoming traffic".🚥
 Next up was Border Control which was organised and straightforward and then at last, a warm welcome onto the ship. 
No welcome drinks but we knew to expect that. 

 

At some stage, we had been given a slip of orange paper with logo Celebrity Eclipse on it and were advised it was required to proceed through. Yip, some folks lost theirs in transit. Others scrambled around in bags for their boarding passes. 🙄

 

Please people, be savvy travellers and get your act together. Be organised, be patient and polite and we will all get on the ship a lot quicker. 

[TraderSam]

 

I've realised that I made the check in at the Port sound laborious, it was but we were always moving. All in, we reckon we were 50 minutes from entering the building to stepping on board.

 

First stop was our muster station and we were registered in seconds. We'd already watched all the info videos on the App. ✅

Next stop, MDR to enquire as to where we would be seated. (more on that later) Nobody around so we returned later. 

 

We made our way up to our stateroom to pick up our seapasses and drop backpacks. Room was a work in progress so we left the 2 bags and went back to MDR. 

My husband had a theory that we got an awful table in MDR last time because we had pre-booked 4 nights of speciality dining so would only be there for 3. I'd read about people asking where their table was in advance so thought I'd try and see if we could be one of the 2 tops in the rows of 8 (or anything other than slammed against a wall where the neighbouring table of 10 got all the attention) 

Anyway, her reply was that we had not been assigned a set table. Okay. We would have to see how this would pan out. 

We dropped by the Captain's Club desk✅ but no one was there. My enquiry was not urgent so no need to go to Guest Services as the sign suggested. 

So, having at least tried to tick off the "things to attend to" on my list, we snagged two big yellow armchairs in Cafe Al Bacio and officially started our cruise calorie intake. 

 

A Caramel Latte and a Lemon Tart. The start of many.... 

[TraderSam]

As the weather in Vancouver was absolutely glorious, we took ourselves off to explore the outside decks and ended up at the Sunset Bar.

 

The layout of the Eclipse is  different from that of the Reflection with less seating on the Starboard side.  I'm not great with smoke and so when we spotted some free chairs below at the rear of the Oceanview Cafe, we headed down there to enjoyed a refreshment and some nachos in the sunshine. 

I hope I'm right in saying this is the Oceanview Bar menu. 

 

 

I believe this is known as a sunbow? 

Anyway, several drinks later, we made our way to our stateroom to see if our luggage had arrived. 

[TraderSam]

Our room was ready and both suitcases were waiting for us. 👍🏻

We were in our favourite layout-bed by window, slanted hump cabin with the larger balcony. 

 

 

 

I know some folks like to know who is on board... 

The CD had just arrived onboard with us. 

 

[TraderSam]

On looking through the paperwork in our room, we were delighted to find an invitation to the helipad for sail-away. Yipee! 

 

Having made our way to the meeting point as instructed, we found ourselves to be one of the first to arrive and therefor first on the helipad itself. I'm no expert but the bubbly🥂 was not to my liking and so hubby finished both. Unheard of! 😂 

It was a beautiful day to be sailing beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. 

And we looked over to Prospect Point where we had stood the day before and a few years back, watching the ships set sail for Alaska. 

 

Is anyone interested in the Celebrity Today daily activities sheets ? I won't bother posting unless anyone really wants to see them. Just tag me if you do. I have them all here. 😁

Edited June 27, 2023 by TraderSam
Typo

[TraderSam]

5 hours ago, kayehall said:

So thinking about flying into Calgary  and doing the Mountaineer train one way between Lake Louise and Vancouver before or after the cruise.  Just trying to get a handle on the logistics as far as time needed, cost and how doable it would be.  I think it would be an amazing add on to a cruise but I might have to rob a bank to do it...LOL

I can only speak from a UK perspective but we see the RM and Alaska cruises regularly advertised together as a package, with several cruiselines to choose from. Our Travel Agents here start with the cruise& train and you can tweak hotels/length of stay/add ons to suit your budget.

I hope you have a good TA who can help you explore your options. 😊

[Norwaylady]

Great to follow your adventure! 

Really miss Canada, we really enjoyed our time there and our Alaska adventure in September last year😁

[Northern Aurora]

16 hours ago, TraderSam said:

 

 

......
No welcome drinks but we knew to expect that. 

 

......

 

I was on the Eclipse for a B2B2B2B this spring.  While there were no waiters holding trays of bubbly, orange juice and mimosas upon boarding the ship there was a tray (which was continuously re-stocked) of bubbly on the Cafe al Bacio counter.  This happened on our original embarkation day and subsequent turnaround days.  That tray held the embarkation bubbly.  Others have reported the same on not only the Eclipse but other Celebrity ships as well.  So did our OP check the Cafe al Bacio?

[Swordfish1949]

Thanks so much for your excellent report - following this closely as our cruise docks in Vancouver....we're spending 2 days to explore the city. Also the Rocky Mountaineer has been on our list for some time. Absolutely enjoying your reports.

[TraderSam]

3 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

  So did our OP check the Cafe al Bacio?

No, we did not know about that.

As soon as we sat down in Cafe Al Bacio, a lovely member of staff took our order so we were never actually at the counter. Complimentary bubbles or anything else was never suggested to us either so I am unble to confirm whether welcome drinks were offer there. 

[Travel-and-See]

On 6/26/2023 at 7:20 PM, kayehall said:

So thinking about flying into Calgary  and doing the Mountaineer train one way between Lake Louise and Vancouver before or after the cruise.  Just trying to get a handle on the logistics as far as time needed, cost and how doable it would be.  I think it would be an amazing add on to a cruise but I might have to rob a bank to do it...LOL

I just took a Celebrity cruise from Seward to Vancouver and I got off the Millenium and boarded VIA Rail's Canadian train that afternoon and took it to Edmonton Alberta.  This is the same route that some of the Rocky Mountaineer trains take, you just travel overnight.  You get a little bit of time to walk around in Jasper National Park as well.  

 

The train is very nice, and is a real vintage train from the 1950's - very retro. You can buy Coach tickets for real cheap (like me) or you can get a very simple sleeping car options, or a very expensive "Prestige Class" - all passengers have access to a dome car and the scenery is incredible. 

 

The train continues past Edmonton to Winnipeg and Toronto but the good scenery is from Vancouver to Edmonton.  

[newbie202020]

On 6/27/2023 at 1:31 AM, TraderSam said:

So finally, we reach boarding day  This will be a wordy post with no photos as I don't think I took any until we sat down for coffee. 😉

 

Having walked from our hotel to Canada Place yesterday, we reckoned it doable with luggage as it was all downhill and that would save us being stuck in traffic in a taxi. 

 

We had the first check in slot of 10:30 and so headed into the building around 10:20. Already, there was quite a queue and a bit of confusion inside. 3 ships in port, a Royal Caribbean, a HAL and Eclipse.

We followed instructions to join a long, snaking line to the right hand side of the room. Disney vibes going on here with the queuing system. Just when you think you are at the front, someone comes along and releases a barrier and merges another line of people with you 😂. 

 

 Soon, folks sailing on HAL were pulled from the line. Maybe they should have been priority boarding of some sort. 

 

We realised that the snaking line on our side is waiting to "cross the traffic" only to stand in line on the other side of the room, to board the elevator... to take us down to the parking lot... to drop luggage. We might well have been easier arriving by taxi after all. 🤔

 

After that, we are directed to another elevator or stairs.
The folks in front of us choose the stairs versus the longer wait for the elevator. We follow, as do many behind us. Then the folks in front realise its 2/3 flights of stairs to climb and regret their decision. Anyway, the choice has been made and they struggled on up. Poor souls but then again, some folks bring on a helluva lot of hand luggage/carry ons. 

 

We then followed the signs for our individual ships and travelled though another hall, queued outside, then back in and down an escalator... 
to arrive at the same hall we started in.🤦🏼‍♀️
 We were now the "oncoming traffic".🚥
 Next up was Border Control which was organised and straightforward and then at last, a warm welcome onto the ship. 
No welcome drinks but we knew to expect that. 

 

At some stage, we had been given a slip of orange paper with logo Celebrity Eclipse on it and were advised it was required to proceed through. Yip, some folks lost theirs in transit. Others scrambled around in bags for their boarding passes. 🙄

 

Please people, be savvy travellers and get your act together. Be organised, be patient and polite and we will all get on the ship a lot quicker. 

Thanks very much for your detailed post. Do you have any tips on how I can make embarkation for my upcoming Eclipse trip easier as I am travelling with seniors with limited mobility. I would hate to see them walking long distance / waiting too long. We do have boarding time of 10-10:30am if that helps. Thanks!

[Sunshine Bob]

46 minutes ago, newbie202020 said:

Thanks very much for your detailed post. Do you have any tips on how I can make embarkation for my upcoming Eclipse trip easier as I am travelling with seniors with limited mobility. I would hate to see them walking long distance / waiting too long. We do have boarding time of 10-10:30am if that helps. Thanks!

 

A couple of things come to mind.. 

(1) if you're staying in Vancouver before the cruise try to stay in a hotel that will take the luggage from the room straight to the bag drop area. The Pan Pacific is one hotel that does exactly this. 

(2) if you can't do that arrive by taxi straight to the underground area where the bag drop is rather than having to queue to take the lift down when arriving from the road level.

 

Have a great trip...

Edited June 29, 2023 by Sunshine Bob

[newbie202020]

24 minutes ago, Sunshine Bob said:

 

A couple of things come to mind.. 

(1) if you're staying in Vancouver before the cruise try to stay in a hotel that will take the luggage from the room straight to the bag drop area. The Pan Pacific is one hotel that does exactly this. 

(2) if you can't do that arrive by taxi straight to the underground area where the bag drop is rather than having to queue to take the lift down when arriving from the road level.

 

Have a great trip...

Thanks very much. I'll be taking a taxi in. Is there a specific address/instructions I should give to the taxi driver to take me to the underground area instead of dropping me off at ground level? Thanks

[dreamer321]

8 hours ago, newbie202020 said:

Thanks very much. I'll be taking a taxi in. Is there a specific address/instructions I should give to the taxi driver to take me to the underground area instead of dropping me off at ground level? Thanks

No, the taxi drivers know where to drop off the cruise ship passengers going to Canada Place. There's a huge queue of taxis outside funneling into the garage. If you wanted to be dropped off somewhere else you would probable have to request that explicitly or specify the Pan Pacific hotel. ( I just did this about a month ago)

[yoshi]

Hoping all is well with Trader Sam. 

Alaska is right around the corner...😄

[TraderSam]

A quick update.

We have now arrived back in Scotland yesterday after an arduous journey home involving delays, missed connections, an extra overnight in Toronto and finally, re-routing via Germany. Oh, and no luggage. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I will report back on our cruise on Eclipse and the time after, if and when our luggage is traced. Guess where my notes and copies of Celebrity Today are!!! 

Trying to be patient whilst waking up at 4:30am through jetlag. 😁

[Silkroad]

I’m so sorry to see that you’ve had an exhausting and frustrating end to your journey. Fingers crossed that your bags reach you shortly.

[cruise wizard]

Oh NO...........this isn't how a vacation is to finish!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yoshi]

I'm sorry about the frustrating end to your trip but I am happy that you didn't get sick (I was a little worried that you may have gotten the Big C🤢)