Millenium Review -- 6/19/2009 thru 6/26/2009 -- Alaska Southbound

[pseudochicken]

Celebrity Millennium :: June 19, 2009 – June 26, 2009

Review of the southbound Alaska cruise :: Seward, AK to Vancouver, BC

PICTURES – They are coming! Once the pictures are all organized, I will post some photos organized by day with captions. Those will come gradually over the next few days.

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QUICK REVIEW (for those of you who are lazy don’t want to read the whole darn thing)

All in all the experience was great. The experience was definitely a departure from the typical Caribbean cruise which we were all accustomed to. The flights out were terrible, thank you Delta. The flights back home were good, thank you Continental. The excursions for the most part were great (particularly the helicopter). The weather was typical Alaskan weather from what I gathered: 50-60 degrees, mostly cloudy with a very good chance of rain. The main dining room food and service was for the most part very good, but not the drink service. Buffet food was fair, but the lines and buffet services were horrendous. Stateroom service was excellent. The shows were corny and targeted the 50-70 year old cruisers. I heard the magic show was good, but after the first two shows I decided to not waste my time. The whole ship staff in general was definitely overstretched, due to the Norovirus scare, which was most apparent in the food and drink service, as well as the public cleaning service. The ship was clean and nice, but it not the best ship in terms of design (deck 4).

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LONG REVIEW (for those of you who like details)

Prelude

Way back in November my girlfriend and I had decided to go on an Alaskan cruise. At the time it was going to be just us, but by January my family (parents and younger brothers, 20 and 16) wanted to join. We wavered between HAL and Celebrity but finally settled on Celebrity due to the lower rates at the end of June. My grandmother and younger cousin also decided to join us on the cruise. We definitely wanted to do a northbound or southbound cruise to see calving glaciers, so the Millennium it was! We booked our cruise through Southwest Airline Travel Agency, and booked our flights through Expedia. Initially, my girlfriend and I had booked an ocean view stateroom on deck 2. Secretly, I upgraded us to a guaranteed balcony stateroom. We ended up with room 6016. I wanted to keep this a surprise until the very final moment. I started a thread about this the weeks prior to the cruise:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=999234

$#@! Delta

Delta blows. I will try my very hardest to never fly them again. We decided to leave a day early in case there were problems and thank God we did leave a day early. Our first Delta flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 PM from Philadelphia and was to land at 8:15 PM MST in Salt Lake City where we would catch a 9:00 PM Delta flight to Anchorage. This was arranged by Delta, so we figured if the flight was in anyway delayed Delta would hold that connecting flight. We booked through our TA to stay at the Marriot Hotel in Anchorage and transportation from Anchorage to the ship the next day. Well our flight was delayed, but the reasons were completely vague. They said there was a “problem” which should delay the flight 30 minutes. Well after hour the mystery problem was finally “cleared”. Then we sat out on the tarmac waiting for our plane’s turn to take off from poopy Philly airport for well over 45 minutes. We did not take off until around 7:30. We landed an hour later than our connecting flight was scheduled to depart. And wouldn’t you know it, the flight had left. Delta THEN tried to give us stand-by tickets that MIGHT get us to Anchorage by 7:00 PM! HA!!! We calmly told them this was no good since our ship left at 9 from Seward and they got us tickets (which WERE available in the first place) the next morning to Anchorage. I couldn’t sleep that night at the hotel because I was so afraid Delta would pull some bull****, not allowing us to take the flight. But all was fine plus my dad, girlfriend and I got first class seats :) . Our flight landed around 3 PM and we were on the ship by 6. We missed muster drill, which was nice. We’ve have had problems with Delta in the past and will try to avoid them from now on, at all cost.

Sorry for the long rant about Delta, but I had to.

The Surprise!

So as some of you know, I secretly upgraded the room my girlfriend and I would be sharing to a balcony room. Not only was it a balcony room, but it was one of the sweet 16 balcony rooms (6016) with twice the deck space. I had gone through the trouble of making fake baggage tags with our old room number (2007) on it. That whole thing ended up being unnecessary. Coincidentally, my girlfriend lost her phone at the time we were giving the Celebrity staff our luggage at the airport. While we went looking for it my dad gave the guys the OLD stateroom number to put on the tags! I texted him “NOOO, the real room 6016” as we were looking for her phone in the airport. We found her phone and the luggage people didn’t listen to my dad, fortunately. For all of you who plan to surprise someone with a room and are worried about the luggage tags: don’t be. You give them your luggage and they will fill out the room number for you based on their database.

A little digression here: the drive from Anchorage to Seward was beautiful. The mountains and the fjords are truly impressive. We saw a bull moose and a young moose along the 2.5 hour bus ride, as well as TONS of bald eagles. You will see tons of bald eagles during this cruise, just about every day. We saw too many to count in between Anchorage and Seward.

Back to the surprise: So my girlfriend and I went with my family to check out their room (6034). It was nice, but ended up being way too cramped for 4 adults. After that we meandered down the hallway our room. My girlfriend pointed to the elevators but I told her I wanted to explore down the hallway a little further. She followed and then suddenly I whipped out my card, and opened our actual room door. At first she thought I opened some random person’s door and was flabbergasted that the card worked in the wrong door. But before she could say anything I pulled her in and told her this was OUR room, and I had us upgraded. She was STUNNED!!! It worked perfectly! Then I showed her our bigger balcony and she was again surprised! Our room attendant (who was excellent by the way) later came by with our breakfast cards and our special robes and slippers for our Mimosa breakfast for the next day. Again totally surprised! It was a PERFECT surprise. I told her she’d better get used to it because I LOOOVE orchestrating a good surprise.

Hubbard Glacier

Our room was very nice and having that balcony was great. Looking back on it, I HIGHLY suggest anyone going on an Alaskan cruise to get a balcony if you can. It is worth every penny, even more so than on a Caribbean cruise in my opinion. The cold Alaskan weather makes it hard to enjoy the upper decks for too long and experiencing Hubbard Glacier on those crowded decks was not fun. At Hubbard glacier it was very rainy, cold and extremely crowded. Approaching the glacier, the weather was sunny and a bit chilly but very nice. The crowds were minimal and sea breeze refreshing during this time. The drink waiters pressured everyone with hot chocolate with baileys which was annoying. We went down to our room to get more clothing and upon returning the decks were packed and it began to rain. We decided to stick to our balcony and it was great. As we got real close we saw a few sea otters in the ice fields. We got within a few thousand feet of the glacier as the ship did a slow 540 degree pivot. At first we only heard the loud, thunderous glacial calving, but soon enough we saw a few bits falling off here and there. We did see one rather large chunk of ice fall (right where there were a few ice caves). It was a completely unique and cool experience!

Juneau – Helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier

We did the Temsco helicopter tour to Mendenhall glacier. It was amazing to say the least!!! First off, none of us had ever been on a helicopter, so that experience in itself was great. Our pilot, Mark, was great, very knowledgeable and warned us about the Glacier shark. We thought he was just telling us a lame joke, but we later found he was referring to our Glacier tour guide. She was high energy, extremely sarcastic and had an extremely high pitched voice. But she did her job fine and it the whole experience was an absolute blast. I have some videos of this as well so once I edit them and put them up on youtube you will all be able to enjoy!

Juneau itself was not that great and littered with tons of jewelry stores, gimmicky shops and expensive souvenir shops. From what I saw the city was not very pretty either. The surrounding country side on the other hand was beautiful. We shared the port with the Rhapsody of the Seas and the Zaandam.

Skagway – Skagway Brewing Company

On this day we decided to just walk around the historical town of Skagway. My family and I are big history nerds so we ate up the history talks and enjoyed walking around the town. My girlfriend and I took a nice nature walk. We walked to Yakutnia Point and took some great pictures of the port and ships (Rhapsody of the Seas and Millennium). My grandma and cousin did a gold panning tour which was a lot of fun, apparently. We met up at the Skagway Brewing Company restaurant on Broadway and Seventh (essentially the last major intersection on Broadway). We had great food and tried some Alaskan beer. We had the Spruce Blond (their summer ale) which was excellent. That evening we watched the Rhapsody depart and enjoyed the peaceful evening on our way to Icy Straight Point, Hoonah.

Icy Straight Point, Hoonah – Kayaking tour of the bay

Our family did a kayaking excursion of the bay which was refreshing departure from Icy Straight Point pier with the gimmicky shops. It was raining when we left but it cleared up soon after. The tour guide was extremely informative and we saw a few swooping bald eagles here. Some advice: Completely deplete your BLADDER before you go. About halfway through the kayaking tour I had to go … to the bathroom … BAD. And it would be too much of a hassle to beach the kayak, break the skirt seal, go to the bathroom, redo the seal and push the kayak back into the water. The kayaks, by the way, seat two people. My girlfriend and I would of course have to play “ram the kayak” with my brothers. It was not so much ramming but more like bumping. ;)

Ketchikan – Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show

We were scheduled here for the Alaskan Queen River boat tour. Apparently it is the only steam powered paddle wheel boat on the west coast. Or should I say was the only one. After all the passengers boarded we began to get underway when we heard a several loud BANGS. I had NO interest in the little splay going on inside. I booked this tour for my girlfriend and my family to enjoy the paddlewheel boat and the bay. Bearings on the paddlewheel had actually fallen off. We were reimbursed by Celebrity and did the Lumberjack Show instead. It was surprisingly fun and we all enjoyed it. The Alaskan Queen will be out of action for the next few weeks according to their engineer.

In terms of the port itself, I would say I liked Ketchikan the most. It is the most touristy with the gimmicky shops, but it is probably the easiest to explore and is not an eyesore like port of Juneau. We found a little diner off the beaten path and the food was decent. In port with the Millennium were the Zaandam and the Island Princess.

Inside Passage – WHALES!!! And no one else seems to care…

Aside from embarkation day, this day was probably the warmest. We got up leisurely after getting up rather early all the other days. My girlfriend and I sat on the starboard side, at the very back corner of the buffet area. In the midst of lunch I thought I saw in the corner of my eye a strange spray of water about 100 yards out on our starboard side. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but my girlfriend noticed that I had blank stare. I told her I thought I saw a whale spray when we saw it again! We couldn’t see the whale itself but we could see its spray, so we dashed outside on deck 10. A few others gathered by the railings as we saw the full tail come out of the water and splash! My girlfriend and I were so excited! We ran back inside to quickly finish our meal but others started pointing to the port side. There was a humpback whale doing the classic humpback whale breach you see on the Discovery Channel with a jump, twist and splash. It was almost completely breaching the water. It was quite a sight, and it kept repeating that jump. I was expecting people to be rushing up to watch this event, and some did. But most just sat there, and acted as if they saw it a million times. Come ON people! How many times do you see a wild, humpback whale doing that!? The whale would also do the single fin splash as it barrel rolled in the water. We moved our lunch outside and continued to watch the whale and enjoy the first sunny day of the cruise. Later on, with binoculars in hand this time, we saw a huge pod of Orcas about a half mile out as well as porpoises playing right along the side of ship. It was quite the afternoon for wild life watching. There were many of bald eagles along the island chains.

Vancouver Int’l Airport

We were late getting into port because of a medical emergency on the last night. Disembarkation though wasn’t too bad aside from being late, however, except for the moody express disembarkation passengers. Our flight was at 11:30 so we were among the first to disembark aside from the express line folk. But the express passengers weren’t done disembarking yet and when the first grouping of the standard disembarkation passengers came flooding in, we ruined their line and it became a huge mass of people. The mass moved but people got snippy.

At Vancouver Int’l airport, the luggage truck broke down… then the conveyer belt bringing out luggage broke… so huge lines formed to get luggage. We were fortunately near the front, but between that, lines at checking in, ridiculously long but fast moving custom lines and long SLOW moving security lines we came close to missing our flight. Our flight to Houston and our connecting flight to Philly were smooth. Good ole’ Continental Airlines!

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Main Dining Room (Metropolitan): We had the main seating. Waiters were Ivan and Carlos, who were both very good. The dinner food here was very good, but nothing spectacular. They waiter staff did a nice job with my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. I don’t like desert so I can’t speak for that, but according to the rest of my family it wasn’t that great. Breakfast here was much better than the buffet area (which I will get to later) but the eggs were lacking. The coffee was dreadful no matter where you got it. I liked the lay out and the grandness of the main dining room; however the windows had tons of soap scum streaks. It definitely detracted from the room.

Buffet Area (Ocean Grille Cafe): OK... You are going to see some complaints here. So if you don’t want to see them advance your eyes to the next section. The buffet food was alright. However, due to the Norovirus scare instead of serving yourself the staff had to hand you the food. You could imagine the problems that would arise. Many times they wouldn’t understand you and give you something you didn’t want. Or they’d give you ONE pineapple slice when you asked from some pineapple (implying multiple slices). Furthermore, the staff here was snippy and dismissive. They didn’t serve spoons or any of the basic condiments (salt, pepper, sugar, Ketchup or Mustard) let alone more “exotic” ones if you call Honey Mustard exotic. You had to ASK one the very few available waiters for such amenities. Good luck getting what you wanted, let alone a waiter able to serve you because he was so busy. Plus, THEY would have to proportion those condiments. For instance, you weren’t allowed to touch the salt and pepper shaker. It became a headache, quickly. Logically, more people would go to the main dining room for breakfast and lunch. But the main dining room wasn’t equipped to handle that many people, figuring most would do the buffet, thus they were under staffed. So both the Ocean Grille Café and the Main Dining Room service was severely lacking, but I am in no way blaming the staff. They seemed like they were trying, but they were simply over worked and under staffed to handle the special sanitation requirements. But I do NOT think it was worth the precautions. Having 2 shoddy meals a day definitely puts a damper on things and would make you look for more problems, if you know what I mean.

Some other grievances: Before I start, please understand that we all enjoyed our cruise. We just saw some issues, some possibly due to the Norovirus problem, but nonetheless existed.

Public area cleaning staff – This pertains to the public area cleaning staff only. Not sure if it was due to the Norovirus thing or not, but I would see used coffee mugs and cocktail glasses strewn about for hours around the upper decks. Not kidding you, hours. Those things should be immediately picked up.

Drink Staff – Not nearly enough. We do not drink much, but when we wanted a coke at lunch, or a cocktail at dinner or a drink up on the decks, it was hard to find a waiter. Our Main Dining Room Drink waiter was constantly busy and hard to get a hold of.

Language barrier – I mentioned this before at the buffet, but it REALLY was a problem when they don’t know what food item to hand you.

Bleach Streaks – I think it was bleach, but around the ship, there were a lot of soapy, bleachy looking streaks that looked like milk stains. They would be everywhere from windows (like at the Main Dining Room) to the elevators, to hand railings.

Septic Smell – On deck 6, near the forward elevators on the last 2 days, there was a strong septic odor. It was particularly bad for those who had rooms near there, like my family’s room. Norovirus?

Cruise Director and Shows – Our cruise director always seemed to be absent except for the shows at night. Those shows were not very good. The word that comes to mind is corny. We did NOT like the C Sharps singing group at all. But shows aren’t our thing so this is not a big deal anyway.

Ship design – I liked the ship a lot. It was a clean vessel aside from the bleach streaks and has a nice lay out and has a very nice profile. One grievance however is the lay out of deck 4. I did not like being forced through the Casino to get the Grand Foyer and Main Dining Room. You could go above it and down but it was still weird.

Two small things: Bingo was too expensive and the elevators often SKIPPED the level you were on! I swear it happened to me multiple times. It was going in the right direction, and the buttons were lit, and it would just skip the deck. It was funny the first few times, and I would joke with the others. But that kind of thing shouldn’t happen, you know?

All in ALL it was great experience. Cruising to Alaska aboard the Millennium was truly a once in a lifetime event. And while I have complaints, I cannot count all the things that went well. For instance our stateroom attendant, Neil, was excellent, etc. So please do not take this as a bad review. It was good overall, but I would have expected better from Celebrity. My parents are a little more disappointed so they will probably try and not cruise with them again. I will consider them again in the future, but I will not go out of my way to select a Celebrity cruise.

As far as cruising to Alaska, we all liked the experience very much. However, I could not see doing that cruise too often. To those of you who have never done an Alaskan cruise, I would highly suggest it, but I feel that cruising is much more pleasant in warmer waters.

I’m sure I forgot some things so expect some tidbits later on here and there. And I WILL be updating you with some pictures.

\pseudochicken

[CathyCruises]

Thanks for posting--sounds like a good cruise mixed with some significant issues. Just a couple of comments:

 

I think when you booked your flights with a 45 minute connection you were asking for trouble! Especially travelling from the east coast to SLC, I would have been much more surprised if you had made the flight. I know it's a pain to have to sit around in an airport any longer than necessary, but that was cutting it way too close in terms of planning. We fly in and out of SLC all the time since it is the closest major airport to us in Idaho, and in general Delta does a good job--but I wouldn't have trusted that small window one bit. It's a big airport and the chances of having to changes concourses for your connection were high--that alone can take 20 minutes just to find your new gate! Live and learn on this one--it worked out in the long run.

 

Buffet situation sounds awful. I dislike buffets anyway, and if I couldn't get what I actually wanted or use my own salt and pepper I would not have enjoyed it very much at all. Bummer on this one.

 

Elevators: I have noticed the same thing. I think the elevators have weight sensors, and when they're full, they just don't stop. Also, it may be that they answer calls in the order received, even if it means going past an intermediate floor on their way to the next call in line. Aggravating though!

 

I'm so glad the surprise worked out--since I am the 'surprisor' in our relationship and not the 'surprisee', I am always trying to think of fun things like that to do! But it would be nice to be on the receiving end once in a while.

 

Welcome home!!

 

Cathy

[sweetair]

welcome home! glad everything went without a hitch for your surprise :)

 

Thanks for the review.

I have only 1 response about the elevators..Just so you understand. WHEN you press the elevator button..it goes to a computer. That computer designates elevator 1 to stop at floor 6. THAT elevator is the only one destined to stop on floor 6 unless people on other elevators are getting off on floor 6. Many elevators will pass by and YES i know how frustrating it may seem but THIS is actually done so that all elevators do not stop on every floor all day long (slowing things down tremendously)

hope this makes you feel better about being elevator ignored :)

*sweet*

[Muushka]

I loved your cruise report. Fair and balanced! Thank you for posting.

 

PS I would have jumped up to see those whales!

[pseudochicken]

Yeah, we figured there was something we did not understand with the elevator computer algorithms. It really wasn't an issue. Since we were on floor 6, we often took the stairs anyway.

 

Cheers

[pseudochicken]

 

I think when you booked your flights with a 45 minute connection you were asking for trouble! Especially travelling from the east coast to SLC, I would have been much more surprised if you had made the flight. I know it's a pain to have to sit around in an airport any longer than necessary, but that was cutting it way too close in terms of planning. We fly in and out of SLC all the time since it is the closest major airport to us in Idaho, and in general Delta does a good job--but I wouldn't have trusted that small window one bit. It's a big airport and the chances of having to changes concourses for your connection were high--that alone can take 20 minutes just to find your new gate! Live and learn on this one--it worked out in the long run.

 

 

Yeah, 45 minutes IS tight. We called Expedia about it when we noticed how tight it was back in January and they told us to call Delta. Delta said we would be fine, so we didn't worry about it. That is, until our flight was monstrously delayed. Live and learn I suppose. I do know that SLC is a hub for Delta. But if I can avoid it, I will try and avoid them from now on.

[sasset]

I know you commented on the entertainment, but how were the other acts like the band in the Rendezvous, Michael's Club, etc. ?

 

Thank you and regards.

[Ma Bell]

Thanks for the review and glad your surprise worked out.

 

The buffet is a pain in the neck during a noro scare, in fact the whole ship is always a little out of sync because of the extra time it takes for preventative measures. Sorry you had to experience that.

[nps001]

Thanks for the review. I have been lucky and never had to experience a Noro outbreak. I can only imagine how difficult to deal with that must be. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[Solstice23]

Thanks for the review,

 

But we think the Mille Class other then the Solstice class are the best designed ships in layout and decor out there? what was wrong with it?

I am glad you enjoyed the cruise

[pseudochicken]

Here is one picture. It is of the Millennium just prior to us boarding in Anchorage around 6 PM.

 

[nothriver]

Great review! I'm glad your surprise went so well, I've been wondering how that went for you. :)

 

We flew Delta home last week and Salt Lake City was bizarre, I've never seen anything like it. All the planes in the terminal we were in were commuter planes with loading and unloading on the tarmac. There were maybe a dozen boarding at once when we were there. It was complete chaos with multiple "gates" making announcements at once so that you couldn't really hear any of them. We went out the "gate" and walked about half a mile to our plane to board on the tarmac. It was all very very weird. Our plane from SLC to Kansas city seemed way to small for such a long flight! We didn't have any problems ourselves, but the scene in SLC was just very surreal and I can see where things could get very messed up there, we did wait quite a while for our turn at the runway. In general, I book the lowest cost flights I can, and as long as an airline gets me where I'm going I'm happy. However, I have to agree with pseudochicken, I don't think I'll be booking with Delta anytime soon, especially not through SLC.

[linmar114]

Thanks for the review! We're sailing on the July 31 Southbound. One question--which two nights were designated as formal? We want to make reservations in the specialty dining room for one of those nights. Thanks!

[CathyCruises]

Yes, I know that area well! It is kind of crazy with the constant boarding announcements and about 20 gates in a really small area. Plus the planes are going to places I have rarely heard of--Kalispell, etc. You have to stay close to your gate and watch, not listen, to what is going on.

 

We fly through there every year at Christmas and it is a long pull down those exterior hallways and cold to boot--but we can make it to our destination in California in 3 1/2 hours total travel time including connections so we put up with it.

 

But normally if you are flying through SLC to most large cities, you are in the regular terminals and at regular gates. We have flown non stop to Paris on Delta from SLC and back, and they were nice flights and perfectly on time. I have also found that flights originating in SLC cn be very inexpensive compared to other departure points. We booked the Paris flights less than 6 weeks out and got great pricing, when everyone else on CC was complaining about how high their airfare was.

 

We have just made up our minds to take connecting flights that allow us at least 2 hours between flights, and we plan on having a nice meal and just taking it easy rather than stressing out. As you say, live and learn!

 

Cathy

[pseudochicken]

Thanks for the review! We're sailing on the July 31 Southbound. One question--which two nights were designated as formal? We want to make reservations in the specialty dining room for one of those nights. Thanks!

 

They were on on the 2nd and 5th nights. So for you, it would be August 1st and 4th. I hope you have a great time!

 

 

I am trying to post pictures on this thread but links to the pictures aren't working and I can only attach a 19kb (very small) file. What photo website do people use to post pictures?

 

Thanks!

[linmar114]

Thanks for quick reply on the formal nights--we've made reservations in the Olympic for the second night:)

 

For photos, I use kodak.com usually.

[bqkali]

Thank you for your wonderful review. I love the details :) They make me even more excited for my upcoming cruise (if that's possible LOL). Other than the Noro issues - which I'm hoping will be over by the time I cruise - it sounds like you had a fantastic time.

 

Sounds like you are about my age...any advice specifically for young adults cruising on Millie? Best hangout spots, activities not to miss, etc? I'll be on the 9/18 10-day Alaska cruise.

[pseudochicken]

Yeah, no problem.

 

I used photobucket last night but the picture I linked is not working... hmmm...

 

I will try Kodak tonight.

[pseudochicken]

Here is a picture of the ship in Anchorage, just before we boarded. As you can see, we missed muster drill. Aw shucks! :p

 

Hopefully this will work.

 

[florisdekort]

Strange. The buffet situation (no self service) was exactly the same the week prior, when I was on board, but it never was such a major issue. That said - I don't go at 12 noon when for some reason the whole ship wants to have lunch (do people think they will run out of food or something?). Typically I went around 1 pm. Some lines, but never more then a 2 to 3 minute wait. I never even thought of it as an issue until I read your post.

[pseudochicken]

We didn't neccessarily go to lunch at 12. There were tremendous lines as late as 1 PM.

 

But at certain times where the meal had obvious time constraints (lunch just before Hubbard Glacier & the last breakfast before disembarkation) lines were just simply ridiculous. My girlfriend spent 30 minutes getting a burnt waffle from the waffle section due to lines and overstretched staff.

 

We heard that some of the crew was actually sick from the Norovirus, and we were not allowed to shake the hands of any crew members until the last day.

 

The experience did not really bother me too much, but I feel my parents will feel pretty hesitant to sail with Celebrity again. My dad read my review and thought I was too soft in my critique. I will definitely give X another shot, especially since I want to sail on a Solstice class ship in the future.

[pseudochicken]

florisdekort,

 

How the hell do you afford 240 nights of cruising in a span of 5 years!? :eek: Why don't you just buy your own yacht? In anycase, I am JEALOUS!

[midsouthj]

In one of the earlier replies to this thread, someone ask what you thought of the entertainment in Rendez-vous Lounge and Michaels club; even though you weren't thrilled with the show productions.

 

I too, am curious as to your thoughts on quality of entertainment in these two clubs. I am not a "show" person either; but do enjoy the smaller clubs on ship.

[pseudochicken]

The Rendez-Vous lounge had Kareeokee, which is always pretty fun. Not the most fun, but decent entertainment enough. They did have a band play there which didn't seem very good. We also played cards there and the bar tenders there were attentive. I enjoyed the Rendez-Vous lounge much more than the Theatre productions, but that's not very hard to do considering how corny the Theatre productions were.

 

Unfortunately, we never went to the nature talks that were on board. I'm not sure how many there were, but we ended up being to busy or too tired and I never noticed a talk in the daily events. At hubbard glacier I could hear him talking from my balcony, but just barely and not enough to be able to understand him. I think it was just for decks 10-12, which were crowded or completely soaked in rain. Besides, I don't need an expert on the glacier to tell me something that I can easily look up on the internet, unless he had some super exclusive information or personal accounts of the glacier.

 

I definitely do think though that the Hubbard Glacier 540 degree pivot of the ship (now looking back at it) was probably one of the coolest experiences of the whole cruise. At the time I recognized it as being pretty neat, but now thinking about it, I believe watching the calving of Hubbard Glacier was the best feature of the whole trip aside from maybe the helicopter tour of Mendenhall Glacier.

 

Prior to the cruise, I had no idea what it would be like. I thought it was kind of on our way to the next destination and our ship would just slowly go by. But Hubbard Glacier is in a rather deep Fjord, with deep blue water, huge ice fields and storm clouds. The ship doing the slow 540 degree pivot with the calving glacier as the setting is just so cool... it is indescribable.

[pseudochicken]

Here are some pictures from Hubbard Glacier:

 

Our Mimosa Breakfast

 

The cute one is on the right

 

Hubbard Glacier