How about one more "LIVE" from Edge in Alaska? August 16 - 23. 2024

[mac_tlc]

So let’s chat about this little beauty:

 

 

It is a Bourbon and Peaches, my favorite. I had said earlier that the one prepared the first night in Cyprus was, shall we say, not good. Well they have stepped up their game and to night they were excellent— very “Retreat-like”. 
 

One thing I noticed as I looked at the Luminae menu on the app tonight is that the listed price is now $18. One dollar above the Premium Beverage Package limit. Eighteen months ago it was $15. If they were to make me sign a slip and charge me $1.20 there may be an international incident. And BTW,  it has nothing to do with the money. I have had 5 (ok, maybe 6—don’t judge)  so far in Cyprus and have not been charged anything. 
 

Of course we will continue to report on this critical issue. 
 

 

mac_tlc

Edited August 19 by mac_tlc

[mac_tlc]

Anyone for an Alaskan sunset??

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by mac_tlc

[hcat]

15 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Anyone for an Alaskan sunset??

 

 

 

 

WOW..well worth the price of admission!

[rwest898]

20 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Anyone for an Alaskan sunset??

 

 

 

 

Beautiful!!

[mac_tlc]

Good early morning from Endicott Arm / Dawes Glacier. We have begun our trek to Dawes Glacier, a few pictures from along the way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We still have a couple hours in this area. Most of these pictures were taken from our sunset veranda. I did go up to deck 14/15/16 to see what was going on up there, it was a bit windy so I came back to the cabin—- no crowds there! 
 

mac_tlc

Edited August 19 by mac_tlc

[KKB]

@mac_tlc have you guys done AK before?

It was low on my list but when DH's aunt & uncle wanted to go, we went.

SO glad we did--it's truly majestic!

[mac_tlc]

11 minutes ago, KKB said:

@mac_tlc have you guys done AK before?

It was low on my list but when DH's aunt & uncle wanted to go, we went.

SO glad we did--it's truly majestic!

Many many years ago when the kids were smaller, in 2006. Terri likes the colder climate cruises😜.

 

mac_tlc

[Mrs_Tiki]

@mac_tlc, your photos are breathtaking! So glad that you are having good weather so far. It is great fun to be reliving our trip through your review. Thank you for taking the time to post from your vacation.

[mac_tlc]

A few pictures as we sailed into, around, and out of Dawes Glacier. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by mac_tlc

[curry767]

Thank you for posting the Celebrity Today photos, as someone who has never cruised Celebrity before it really helps for our upcoming Alaska cruise next July.

Out of interest I noticed that it is stated you need photo ID to reboard the ship. As non-US resident I am not very keen on constantly having to take our passports with me on shore excursions, especially the wet ones. Has this been enforced?

 

I seem to recall other cruise lines just checking the photo they have on file when you scan in.

[chefchick]

I’ll be boarding this Friday and have been enjoying seeing the dailies and your amazing photos!  Can I ask, have you been enjoying the restaurants, the shows?  How about the bars and lounges?  The cocktail above looks good, have you had any problems getting good brands of wine or alcohol at the bars?  (supply chain issues, blah, blah, blah). Does the ship feel crowded?  Lots of kids?  Is that enough questions?  Can you tell I’m excited 😎

[Altamar]

Beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing.

[Mrs_Tiki]

7 hours ago, curry767 said:

Thank you for posting the Celebrity Today photos, as someone who has never cruised Celebrity before it really helps for our upcoming Alaska cruise next July.

Out of interest I noticed that it is stated you need photo ID to reboard the ship. As non-US resident I am not very keen on constantly having to take our passports with me on shore excursions, especially the wet ones. Has this been enforced?

 

I seem to recall other cruise lines just checking the photo they have on file when you scan in.

We were on Edge’s 8/2 sailing with this same itinerary. Our passports stayed in the safe the entire cruise. We carried our drivers licenses and cruise card ashore with us, and only had to show our DL at one port to get back into the secured area before reboarding the ship. (Sorry, can’t remember which.) You are correct - the ship’s security officers only scanned our cruise card.

 

I was expecting to go through immigration upon our return to Seattle, and asked the port staff if it would be facial recognition or passport control. It was neither! We walked through and out of the terminal without stopping. (We had used the port’s luggage valet service, so we didn’t even have to claim our luggage.Highly recommend!)

Edited August 20 by Mrs_Tiki
Correct typo

[Mrs_Tiki]

@mac_tlc, I suspect that folks on upcoming sailings might be interested to know if the Endicott Arms and Dawes Glacier Explorer excursions ran this trip. I don’t see the smaller excursion vessels in your photos of the glacier.

 

[jwlane]

On 8/18/2024 at 10:28 AM, mac_tlc said:

Sun rising over the mountain:

 

 

Deer Mountain.  Great hike!

[Ferry_Watcher]

8 hours ago, curry767 said:

As non-US resident I am not very keen on constantly having to take our passports with me on shore excursions, especially the wet ones. Has this been enforced?

 

Have your Australian driver's license to use as photo ID as needed in ports.  You don't need your passport while visiting port-of-calls.

[mac_tlc]

9 hours ago, curry767 said:

Thank you for posting the Celebrity Today photos, as someone who has never cruised Celebrity before it really helps for our upcoming Alaska cruise next July.

Out of interest I noticed that it is stated you need photo ID to reboard the ship. As non-US resident I am not very keen on constantly having to take our passports with me on shore excursions, especially the wet ones. Has this been enforced?

 

I seem to recall other cruise lines just checking the photo they have on file when you scan in.

When returning to the ship in Juneau yesterday, they did check a photo ID and your sea pass card. We use our drivers license as a photo id. We leave our passports on the ship.

 

mac_tlc

[Lena11033]

That works if you have a licence, on a cruise earlier this year it said to have photo ID for coming back and people I were talking to didn't have a licence so had to walk around with their passport as that was their only photo ID 😬

[mac_tlc]

2 hours ago, Mrs_Tiki said:

@mac_tlc, I suspect that folks on upcoming sailings might be interested to know if the Endicott Arms and Dawes Glacier Explorer excursions ran this trip. I don’t see the smaller excursion vessels in your photos of the glacier.

 

I think it did. Two smaller tour boats followed us in and at one point we were stopped for probably 15 minutes. I assumed that was when the tour folks got onto the tour boats. We were in our sunset veranda almost the entire time so we would not have seen them departing. My DIL found some photos, I think on the cruise FB page, that showed pictures of the Edge from the tour boat.

 

mac_tlc

[mac_tlc]

A little late, but welcome to Juneau!

 

 

 

Yup, in a matter of a few hours, Alaskan weather has arrived.

Dreary, misty, rainy, very low clouds and fog! 
 

Spoiler alert: It got a lot better when we got father away from Juneau on our excursion! 
 

But first, your Celebrity Today for Day 4:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20 by mac_tlc

[mac_tlc]

20 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

That works if you have a licence, on a cruise earlier this year it said to have photo ID for coming back and people I were talking to didn't have a licence so had to walk around with their passport as that was their only photo ID 😬

In one port somewhere on a prior cruise (can’t remember where) we used a picture of our passport. Didn’t want to take the passport off the ship so we used a picture. Not sure if that works everywhere or we got lucky.

 

mac_tlc

[cruisetonowhere10]

19 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

In one port somewhere on a prior cruise (can’t remember where) we used a picture of our passport. Didn’t want to take the passport off the ship so we used a picture. Not sure if that works everywhere or we got lucky.

 

mac_tlc

And in contrast, I like to take my passport because you never know what might happen.  I did get a small wallet for this trip that holds an AirTag, two passports (for the both of us) plus other ID, credit cards, insurance card, etc. We were just tossing passports in backpacks prior to this and I felt this was much more organized and the AirTag adds a tiny bit of security if there was a loss.  Just an alternate opinion on carrying them on your person.

[mac_tlc]

As the picture shows, it was a Juneau kind of day in Juneau. We of course had a lot of company:

 

 

 

 

 

Five ships in total, Holland America gets the prime dock space. Their long heritage of Alaskan cruises gives them fist dibs. I used to follow the daily blog of one of their veteran captains. It was a fascinating read. Lots of HAL history and explanation of things like currents, docking priority, etc. He has recently retired and I do miss his daily entries.

 

Anyway, we had a whale watch/salmon bake excursion. We docked at 1:30 and the tour was at 4pm. There was a 30 minute bus ride to the harbor. As we progressed further and further north, the clouds got higher, sky a little lighter and rain stopped. 
 

Then about a 45 minute boat ride to the humpback whale location. There were about 6 swimming together. Here are a few of the 100 or so pictures. Note the clearing skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later as it’s time to head to the White Pass Railroad!!!

 

 

mac_tlc

Edited August 20 by mac_tlc

[hcat]

great pics.. I saved the whale tail...  our grandson will love seeing it!

Edited August 20 by hcat

[doghog]

2 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

Five ships in total, Holland America gets the prime dock space.

Is downtown or wherever the port shops close to where you docked?