Hogladyrider Posted July 6 #301 Share Posted July 6 Thank you to ALL who contributed to this thread. VERY VERY enjoyable and informative. Would so love to do this cruise one day! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two from Virginia Posted July 7 #302 Share Posted July 7 5 hours ago, scluvsrain said: Her name is Stone. We had one that I called "eye candy". She was transferred to another ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nodakboiler Posted July 7 #303 Share Posted July 7 We had Stone twice as our cruise Director when we were on the Prinsendam. She did a great job. She left HAL in 2019 and just returned this spring for this Alaska season. They put her on this ship and she told us that everything is different from when she worked for them before. I don’t think she realized how many changes had been made post Covid. When you get a chance to sit and just chat with her, she is very personable and we’ve enjoyed having her on this cruise. I know she has faced a lot of vitriol, and told us that she has had to develop a thicker skin. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnyD-JJ Posted July 7 #304 Share Posted July 7 @TableGirl Thank you for starting this blog and all the other 2024 cruisers that contributed to it. It has really helped with our planning. Thank you for your descriptions of various excursions and also each port. Most importantly thank you for your honest opinions whether good or bad both were helpful. Hope you all had a great time thanks for sharing. Donna 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 7 Author #305 Share Posted July 7 On 7/3/2024 at 10:35 AM, terrydtx said: That must have been a very crowded day in town with so many people. Juneau’s sidewalks were so crowded you could hardly walk. It pays to research the ships that will be in port when you are and plan your excursions accordingly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogladyrider Posted July 7 #306 Share Posted July 7 12 hours ago, Nodakboiler said: We had Stone twice as our cruise Director when we were on the Prinsendam. She did a great job. She left HAL in 2019 and just returned this spring for this Alaska season. They put her on this ship and she told us that everything is different from when she worked for them before. I don’t think she realized how many changes had been made post Covid. When you get a chance to sit and just chat with her, she is very personable and we’ve enjoyed having her on this cruise. I know she has faced a lot of vitriol, and told us that she has had to develop a thicker skin. That is sad, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. No one is perfect. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 7 Author #307 Share Posted July 7 I’ve taken some pictures of my stateroom for storage purposes. I’ll post those in a week or so. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 7 Author #308 Share Posted July 7 (edited) Info about Seattle Airport Well my first impression arriving and now departing Seattle’s airport was and still is that it is a HOT MESS. Here is what I hope will be some useful information for the 2025 cruisers that I hope will be helpful. Bear in mind that any or all of the information provided COULD change in year! We arrived in Seattle on Friday night before our Sunday embarkation as we wanted a day in Seattle to see the Chihuly Museum, go up into the Space Needle (my friends who used to live in Seattle kind of poo-poo’ed that but I loved it because of the beautiful views of the city) and we went to Pike’s Market which was mobbed. (I’d Recommend an early morning visit to Pike’s if you want to see it. The flowers for sale are just gorgeous and they are so reasonably priced!) Whether you are arriving and going directly to the ship or coming in ahead of time, there appeared to be no way to avoid getting your luggage and lugging it upstairs across the bridge and then back downstairs to get a taxi or car service or hotel shuttle. The area for hotel shuttles is tight and I can’t imagine how they find anyone there. The taxis and Ubers/Lyfts come into a garage area. It’s just awful. Apparently when they ‘added on’ to the airport (according to one of our many drivers when we were here the weekend before we sailed) it caused the maze that is making it the mess that it is. We had shipped one suitcase with Luggage Forward so we had one suitcase and our carry ons with us. I wish I had gotten a trolly to pile it on and just pushed the trolley. There were 3 of us and we took a taxi to our nearby hotel for $33 and then added a tip on top of that of course. One thing to note for that particular June weekend was that it is ‘graduation’ weekend. They hold big graduations in a stadium for the University. So bear in mind you’ll be fighting for hotel space, car services etc next year so it pays it book early. Leaving the hotel on Sunday to go to the ship we had arranged a prepaid car service called Blacklane that picked us and our luggage up and it was a nice big SUV for 4 of us. That worked well considering we were staying out near the airport. Next time - and we’re talking about doing this cruise again in 3 years - we would come in a day ahead and stay down town. We would use luggage forward for all luggage and I’d bring the bare minimum in my carry on to get through the night and onto the ship the next day. I tend to pack heavy which is my cross to bear. One of these days I’ll learn 🙂 Leaving the ship today - We all used Port Valet for our luggage. We met around 8:15 in Billboard On Board with our carry ons. Our 4th person who is mobility challenged left the ship early because her flight had been changed to 11:something. She used a wheel chair to get out to the taxi and she waited about 15 minutes to get on the elevator. When we left the ship around 8:45 (our flight is at 3:35 pm but it is direct!) there must have been at least 50-75 wheel chairs and scooters in line to get on the elevator. Yikes! We sailed past that line to get to the escalator and out the door. No customs or immigrations folks in sight. We were sharing the terminal with a large Princess ship that had also docked that morning. However, once outside we were guided down the “middle” column to get to our pre-paid car service. The “private” cars were on the left side which is where we should have been because we had to cross over to that area and of course we were screamed at by a lady trying to control traffic and keep it moving but at that point we weren’t going to walk all the way back to the front just to use the cross walk. If you want to use a Lyft or Uber you have a very LONG way to walk way out of the fray to get to those services. There is a shuttle that will take you there but the shuttle gets stuck in all the traffic so it’s a bit of a viscous cycle. In retrospect - knowing what we know now, we would have taken a taxi. We used Blacklane car service again and it was fine but we were ready to go and he was early but he was stuck in all that traffic so he picked us up at our previously requested time. It was a solid 30 minutes once we got in the car to the airport with no Sunday morning traffic. But it is clear by the lines at the airport that it is summer vacation season and a holiday weekend, We walked forever to get to the TSA pre-check line. We were dropped off at Delta but we didn’t need to check in because we used Port Valet so the ship delivered our baggage tags AND our boarding pass to our staterooms yesterday morning. A couple of us are traveling first class so we didn’t have to worry about paying checked baggage fees but if your bags are overweight you aren’t charged extra - you ‘re only charged for checking bags if your ticket level dictates it. My bags were both over 50 pounds I am sure of it and I had no extra charges. They don’t really have any way of charging you. Unless maybe they were to charge us at the gate. Once we got through security we stopped and had the BEST breakfast sandwich and French Toast at a cute place that had sit-down service AND grab and go service, called Floret en route to terminal A which is the end of the earth in this airport. Our 4th friend who left early was at the other end over in S terminal! This airport is a royal pain in the a$$ BUT Port Valet makes up for it in my opinion. Edited July 7 by TableGirl Corrected punctuation 4 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakridger Posted July 7 #309 Share Posted July 7 The report and all the very helpful Seattle Airport information will be so useful if I ever sail out of Seattle! I now know that Port Valet is the way to go!!! Thank you, ~Nancy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 7 Author #310 Share Posted July 7 Thoughts on packing for this trip - for Ladies Now that I’ve done it once I hope it’ll be easier the next time. I brought 2 large suitcases and a roll aboard and my backpack. I needed to do some work on this trip so I had my laptop and although internet was decent my gov’t interface was difficult and my connection wasn’t quite strong enough to do any amount of work. I had upgraded to the premium internet (my Have it All package provided for the ‘surf’ package) and it was pretty good but HAL has done something to the Navigator app and it is more cumbersome to switch between devices. I digress…. A friend who owns a uniform store ordered a 3-piece jacket for me from Port Authority and it was the perfect cold weather item/jacket. It had an outer waterPROOF shell (I could shake or brush droplets of water off and as often as I walked through the rain the jacket with the hood kept me dry as bone), and I chose a fleece jacket liner and a vest liner. They were easy to zip in and zip out. The vest was useful when the days weren’t so cold and the fleece for days when it was colder. However, I wear a medium top and large coat but I should have sized up to an XL so I can wear bulkier items underneath but this worked well for this trip because I didn’t have any bulky items with me. I also ordered from “Nearly New Cashmere” - a UK company - a cashmere neck warmer (so I never had to worry about losing my scarf or tucking it away) and fingerless cashmere gloves. Both are reasonably priced. I had a pair of nice gloves from Amazon that I could use with my phone but after 3 weeks of use - light use at that - the black rubber grippers were peeling off so I left them on the ship. I had a merino wool beanie cap and a leather baseball cap. I used the baseball cap when it rained so that came in handy about 3 times. Was glad to have the beanie but didn’t wear that often. I brought sneakers and a pair of dress platform sandals. I also threw in my flip flops but because I forgot I had put them in the suitcase I sent ahead I threw in another pair of slide sandals for the hydro pool. (Note if packing and send one suitcase ahead write down everything you put in it!) I wore my white sneakers to dinner some nights, I wore my athletic sneakers walking around towns and on excursions and I had a pair of nicer metallic sneakers I hardly wore at all but I had feared it would be too cold to wear sandals. But my feet were never cold going to dinner so I wore those most nights. I had 3 pairs of jeans but only needed 2 pair. I had 2 pair of regular leggings and 2 pair of fleece leggings. I could have done without the regular leggings as I didn’t want to risk going into the gym and getting Covid again. (But I got it anyway because people aren’t considerate enough to stay in their room when they’re coughing and sneezing and clearly not well because no longer is it ever just a cold….) I had one pair of ‘faux’ denim pants, a pair of dressier black pants (Spanx Air Essentials with a tie waist), a pair of navy cotton pants nice enough for dinner or casual enough for excursions and a pair of white denim. Note to self - never travel with white denim pants. I also had 2 pair of looser, thinner nylon pants that I layered with the fleece leggings and 2 pair of wide leg yoga style pants that could double as dressier and I could also layer the fleece leggings under. I had several items to use as base layers - tighter tanks but I could have done with just 2 and one nude camisole. I brought 2 smart wool ‘t-shirts’ but only wore 1 and I layered a long sleeve t-shirt underneath. I had 4 sweatshirts and could have done with just 2. I had 3 dressier blouses and could have done with one and one nice sweater for ‘dressy’ nights. I had one heavier white cable cardigan which I wore a lot as well as a double zip white T by Talbots heavier t-shirt fabric jacket which I didn’t necessarily need but I wore it a lot. I had too many short sleeve layering t-shirts. Long sleeve tees for layering would have been enough. I brought too many scarves but they’re a good way to change up the look of an outfit. Could have done with less of those but it’s always hard to decide which ones to pack. I brought one pair of wool hand knitted socks that I hand washed and wore 4 times, I had a pair of smart wool socks I wore once, and the rest were no show socks. I had some trouser socks and wore them once but could have left those off too. I’m 4-star so laundry is free but I am picky when it comes to my clothes. I spend a lot of money on my clothes and I work hard to keep them nice and they last. I don’t like sending my laundry out but on this trip I had too. I wrote care instructions and notes on my laundry slip and the laundry did a wonderful job. I sent them an extra large tip via the Executive Housekeeper with a note to him expressing how happy I was with their work. I often got notes back from the laundry thanking me for trusting them with my laundry. If I had a spot on piece of clothing I noted it and they always got it out without damaging anything. They did not disappoint me at all and I will bear this in mind for future HAL cruises. The weather can change in an instant in Alaska so you do need a variety of weights to stay comfortable. I was mostly cold so warmer items were suitable for me. There were plenty of people (mostly men) that wore shorts in SE Alaska ports. I thought that was extreme but perhaps they were Canadians or Northerners. Happy to answer any questions any of you may have via email. 11 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavedweller Posted July 8 #311 Share Posted July 8 Is there any way to purchase a custom made solstice shirt? I noticed a few on the ship and would like to buy one. Any information would be greatly appreciated. cdweller@ptd.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJSULIBRARIAN Posted July 8 #312 Share Posted July 8 I have been sailing to Alaska out of Seattle for over 20 years and the airport has been in terrible shape the whole time. If the remodeling is ever finished, it will be a miracle and not in my lifetime, I am sure. As Table Girl describes, getting from baggage claim to local transportation is really a mess. Having to take the elevator up and then walk over to the parking garage is totally beyond the pale. On June 8th. I did get myself a cart for my luggage, took the elevator up, and discovered a huge line of people. It turns out they were in the TSA line; one very nice person opened the barrier for me and I walked through these people to get to the bridge to the parking garage. For those on the 2025 Solstice Cruise, be prepared because I doubt it will be better in a year. I always take a taxi to the airport after the cruise. My driver this time dropped me off at arrivals since the departure line of cars was extremely long and not moving. He advised me to go in, take the elevator up, and I would be where I needed to be. I was so glad I had just hand luggage. Port valet should be at every cruise port. Congrats to Seattle for having this service. I was early enough that I easily went through TSA PreCheck without any problem. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 8 Author #313 Share Posted July 8 9 hours ago, Cavedweller said: Is there any way to purchase a custom made solstice shirt? I noticed a few on the ship and would like to buy one. Any information would be greatly appreciated. cdweller@ptd.net Email “Custom Ink ”https://www.customink.com and tell them they printed a large order of t-shirts and fleeces for a group and explain the Alaska logo to them. I had emailed for a friend who didn’t get to order in time and they said they could still do it but that was a couple of months ago but I bet they can still print them or embroider a fleece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 8 Author #314 Share Posted July 8 Just a follow up - PORT VALET worked well and both suitcases arrived for all three of us traveling together. I agree - how nice would it be to have Port Valet everywhere 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VacationCharlene Posted July 8 #315 Share Posted July 8 We are so appreciative that Seattle provided Port Valet free service. You still pay your regular AIRLINE baggage fees. This was our first time, and not last, even if we pay for it, to using Port Valet. Filled out paperwork ahead of time online and I did additionally on the ship. Bags put out before midnight the night before departure. Our baggage tags and boarding passes ready to go delivered to our stateroom. Next day walked off the ship baggage free and onto airport. Never saw our luggage until we arrived at our airport. Was super happy seeing our luggage coming out of airport carousel!!!! GREAT EASY SERVICE. Wish it was for all airports 🤣 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LAFFNVEGAS Posted July 8 #316 Share Posted July 8 Thanks to @TableGirl and everyone else that contributed to this Live from. It was fun to follow and lots of great information. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colbe Posted July 8 #317 Share Posted July 8 4 hours ago, TableGirl said: Just a follow up - PORT VALET worked well and both suitcases arrived for all three of us traveling together. I agree - how nice would it be to have Port Valet everywhere 🙂 Only one of our bags arrived in New Zealand with us. 😒 At the moment nobody seems to know where the other one is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duquesmom Posted July 9 #318 Share Posted July 9 PORT VALET worked great for us, also. What a great service. I traveled with my elderly mother using a walker. The wait for the elevator in the pier building in Seattle was about a 10minute wait. Not too long. We used Seattle Express from an airport hotel & back to Seattle airport. That was very easy. Cost was $110 round trip for two. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcummin Posted July 9 #319 Share Posted July 9 9 hours ago, colbe said: Only one of our bags arrived in New Zealand with us. 😒 At the moment nobody seems to know where the other one is. Sorry that one of your bags is missing. I read that Port Valet is not for international flights. (One of our family flew from London, England.) Hopefully your missing bag comes home soon. Barbara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colbe Posted July 9 #320 Share Posted July 9 35 minutes ago, bcummin said: Sorry that one of your bags is missing. I read that Port Valet is not for international flights. (One of our family flew from London, England.) Hopefully your missing bag comes home soon. Barbara Port Valet assured me that our flights were eligible, and Neil's bag came through no problem with us. My big concern is that now I am out of the States I cannot use the Port Valet 'track my bag'. I have emailed asking for them to check for me. (The last time I had a missing bag in the US I never saw it again, so I am a little bit nervous) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableGirl Posted July 9 Author #321 Share Posted July 9 10 hours ago, colbe said: nobody seems to know where the other one is. I’m so sorry. I hope it turns up soon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare WriterOnDeck Posted July 9 #322 Share Posted July 9 On 7/7/2024 at 7:38 AM, TableGirl said: I’ve taken some pictures of my stateroom for storage purposes. I’ll post those in a week or so. Might I suggest you and others also send them to the halfacts doc com website? Rich (who posts frequent live-from threads here) does a good job of making that a fast crowd-sourced reference. It's much easier to search than this site, which is designed for a different purpose. Halfact works because people like you who take photos take the time to submit them. 8 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scluvsrain Posted July 9 #323 Share Posted July 9 On 7/7/2024 at 12:16 PM, oakridger said: The report and all the very helpful Seattle Airport information will be so useful if I ever sail out of Seattle! I now know that Port Valet is the way to go!!! Thank you, ~Nancy There's a great app called flySEA (it's a green icon with white lettering "SEA" inside) that you can download to your mobile devices. It will tell you which security lines are where and how long it takes to get through each one in real time updates. There are 2 TSA/Clear lines 1 and 4, 1 is by Alaska desks and 4 is further away. You can use this to guide yourself to the shortest wait times. The app will also give you gate info for your flight, and also tell you where in the airport are shops, restaurants, etc. There's also a nice map showing the whole airport. It was very useful for me. 4 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShipWalker Posted July 10 #324 Share Posted July 10 (edited) I have to admit having five parties (masquerade, costume, A Legendary Ball, 4th of July, and Orange) during this legendary cruise was great fun! Edited July 10 by ShipWalker 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofbite Posted July 10 #325 Share Posted July 10 11 hours ago, ShipWalker said: I have to admit having five parties (masquerade, costume, A Legendary Ball, 4th of July, and Orange) during this legendary cruise was great fun! I'd prefer to have the plague! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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