Alaska - on board

My friend Allen worked with the Chef to come up with a lovely and delicious menu. We did know we wanted the Tagliatelle pasta with arugula pesto that he made at the cooking demo as one course. So glad I have this recipe -- can't wait to make it at home. We started with a beautiful salad with a light orange Prosecco dressing. Then the fresh pasta with the fragrant pesto. The next course was Osso Buco made with red wine. And for dessert it was a delicate Tiramisu. We bought a few bottles of wine from the Premium wine list to accompany this feast.

If you want to plan a special dinner you can work with the primary Assistant Maitre'd to find out what night would work best (avoid formal nights, Chef's Dinner night) and review menu ideas. She/he he will then discuss it with the chef and get back to you in the next day or so letting you know what will and won't work. Of course much of what made it so special was the wonderful Seabourn service and the company of our dear friends.

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Does anyone recall that has been on the 14 day itineraries whether there are many cashpoints in prince rupert? It's our first Canadian stop and we are debating whether to just get cash there. I know it's a fairly decent sized town.

 

 

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I did this in Prince Rupert and was went to the small shopping mall which is a shortish walk from the ship. I asked at one of the checkouts at Walmart for guidance to the ATM as it wasn't obvious when I walked in. It was towards the back area but easy to find as the mall is very small.

There might be one closer and you could ask at the information booth they had set up just near where you disembark the ship. On our cruise this booth and the Mounties in their uniforms were there in the morning but not around mid afternoon when we returned.

Galeforce I am sure you will love this cruise as the scenery was so spectacular. I have only just come home as we extended our travels in Canada and the US after disembarking. The kayaking and hiking we did was in some of the most majestic natural scenery we have ever experienced. This was one of our most active cruise so a wee bit tiring but the good news was it kept my weight down. :D

Julie

Thanks frantic. Have slimmed down over the last month in anticipation!! Sounds like you had a fab cruise. Just starting to pack. Wondering how much daytime non walking stuff I need. Did you venture into the restaurant at lunch at all on a port day and if so, had people changed from their walking stuff?

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I was out and about exploring on all the port days so I can't help you with what people were wearing on the ship. As I am from a much hotter climate I was grateful for my hiking boots which were waterproof and lined. They helped keep my feet warm even if we weren't going to hike some days. On the ship I did wear slip on loafer shoes sometimes as it was warmer onboard.

Julie

Did you venture into the restaurant at lunch at all on a port day and if so, had people changed from their walking stuff?

People wore pretty much the same stuff during the day. You were either returning from a morning excursion or going to an afternoon one. This was more so on seas days with excursions from the ship, such as catamaran, kayaks.

My friend Allen worked with the Chef to come up with a lovely and delicious menu. We did know we wanted the Tagliatelle pasta with arugula pesto that he made at the cooking demo as one course. So glad I have this recipe -- can't wait to make it at home. We started with a beautiful salad with a light orange Prosecco dressing. Then the fresh pasta with the fragrant pesto. The next course was Osso Buco made with red wine. And for dessert it was a delicate Tiramisu. We bought a few bottles of wine from the Premium wine list to accompany this feast.

 

If you want to plan a special dinner you can work with the primary Assistant Maitre'd to find out what night would work best (avoid formal nights, Chef's Dinner night) and review menu ideas. She/he he will then discuss it with the chef and get back to you in the next day or so letting you know what will and won't work. Of course much of what made it so special was the wonderful Seabourn service and the company of our dear friends.

 

 

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Your dinner sounded delightful. Thanks so much for the info about special dinners with the primary Assistant Maitre'd. We have a 32 day cruise coming up in October and it would be nice to have something special one night.

Can anyone help that's already sailed? I'm arranging a trip in juneau and scheduled arrival time is 8am but we are tendering. Does anyone recall how prompt they were in setting up tendering operations? We want to beat the rush (although some mega ships dock before us) but it's been suggested 9am would be a better pick up time to be safe. I'd rather nearer 8am?

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Can anyone help that's already sailed? I'm arranging a trip in juneau and scheduled arrival time is 8am but we are tendering. Does anyone recall how prompt they were in setting up tendering operations? We want to beat the rush (although some mega ships dock before us) but it's been suggested 9am would be a better pick up time to be safe. I'd rather nearer 8am?

I think all prior cruises docked. Why don't you get in touch with your tour operator and let them know. They are used to that sort of thing and will be waiting for you as soon as your tender arrives. .

I think all prior cruises docked. Why don't you get in touch with your tour operator and let them know. They are used to that sort of thing and will be waiting for you as soon as your tender arrives. .

I've been watching the Juneau webcam a lot. Seabourn seems to often have "tender" stops at Juneau but usually they have been paired with HAL ships which arrive at 1PM and Seabourn often goes initially to the dock HAL is using in the morning and moves to anchor shortly before the other ship arrives. In any case, as marazul says, the operator should be able to find you and give advice on the proper meeting time.

Roy

Thanks Roy/ marazul. I'm just pre booking a taxi so they may not be as clued up. Might suggest 8 30 to be a bit safer

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Yes, Galeforce, we did exactly as Roy described. We docked in the morning and then mid day the ship moved out so HAL could dock and we tendered the remainder of the day. I would still think 8:30 or 9 might be a safer bet.

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I've been checking a website (http://www.cruiseoutlook.com), which doesn't offer berthing details, but does reflect that there will be four other (large) ships in port on 8/30, when the Sojourn is there. In all, there will be over 10K passengers and crew on those ships. I'm thinking that the port in Juneau will be very crowded that day ...

That seems to be pretty much the norm for Juneau (and Ketchikan) during the peak cruise season. The mid July day we were there others ships in port included : Norwegian Jewel (2376), Celebrity Millennium (2034), Coral Princess (1970), the HAL Oosterdam (1848) and the Norwegian Pearl (2394).

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I might be staying on the ship in KTN and JNU. :rolleyes:

I might be staying on the ship in KTN and JNU. :rolleyes:

I would suggest looking beyond the crowds in town.

In KTN we went salmon fishing in the morning. The fishing was not up to much but we did get up close and personal with several Orca who were fishing at the same time.

In the afternoon, we took a float plane flight over Misty Fjord ......

In Juneau we took a photo safari which involved whale watching and then the rain forest/glacier. As a budding photographer, our guide - who is a professional photographer - gave me some very valuable lessons/tips. It was also the closest we got to a black bear which decided to meander across the parking lot while we were waiting to get on our boat. No good photo of this one as my camera gear was still in its bag :(

Edit: anyone interested in salmon fishing (or other tours) should organise the trip on their own. The fishing guy told us that they could do the trip for half the price of the ship and that they were very used to dealing with people off cruise ships so that there was no risk that anyone was going to miss the boat.

Per the Juneau cruise schedule

http://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Juneau-JNU-2017.pdf

things look like a crap shoot on August 30. The Wednesday HAL ship is the Noordam which arrives at 10 so Sojourn probably would dock for a mere 2 hours. If it could dock at the Alaska Steamship dock, that's a prime location with the Emerald Princess arriving at 12:30. I wouldn't count on it since Seabourn is not as closely related to Princess as it is with HAL. If people want to browse the town I'd advise going early before most of the big ships arrive.

Roy

Totally agree with Roxburgh. The Alaska ports seem to be able to handle the huge crowds with grace. This will be our 6th Alaskan cruise since 1991 and there have always been at least 4 ships in port in Juneau.

We were on the Sapphire Princess in 2005 having crossed the Pacific from Japan. It was the ship's maiden stop in the city and we were only in Juneau about 5 hours with all aboard at 1. At 1 the line to board the ship snaked down the dock forever with all 2500 passengers waiting to reboard at 1!!. It took another hour plus before they got us all on board! Fortunately that situation was a fluke!

Even with all the people, we have always had a good time either wondering around the town on our own, renting a car, doing a whale watching trip or doing something involving the glacier.

A month from today we will be in Vancouver waiting to join the Sojourn the next day for her last round trip of the season. We will do a daily blog. I will post the link here as soon as I get it set up. We actually leave in 2 1/2 weeks. We are driving our RV to Vancouver.

Thanks to all who have taken time to post about their trips. This has been a great thread!!

Carolyn

We loved our Alaska journey.

I just wanted to highly commend the Venture tour people. We did six kayaks with them and they made sure people were safe and well informed.

People like Greg, Meredith and John have helped make memories we will cherish forever.

Julie

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If some would be tempted to kayak but don't have a partner they did organise people who were solo. They always had the two zodiacs close by and were in constant radio communication with each other. I would recommend taking an old pair of leather gloves with you. They did have the mitten things that went over the paddles. However I was also taking photos and it made it easier and kept my hands warm having old, thin gloves on. This was especially the case near the glaciers.

Some photo enthusiasts swapped between kayaking and catamaran and then zodiac in Canada. This was because the catamaran provided a more stable base rather then the kayak when taking photos.

I hope everyone enjoys their Alaskan cruise as much as we did. We had a wonderful stewardess and lots of lovely crew and service.

Julie

PS when we got off in Vancouver we had organised a car pick-up at 8.30am. I wish we had stayed on the ship like Chairsin as we didn't get our bags until almost 9.30. The long shoreman were going very slowly. I had to call our car driver to let him know we would be late. It might not be like that all the time but just passing on what we experienced.

Just a word about disembarking in Vancouver, getting to the airport and clearing US immigration. When we disembarked, Disney was also disembarking. Security and US immigration was a zoo! If you are not flying business/first class (security fast track) and do not have Global Entry or similar (immigration fast track) then give yourself plenty of time. For Global Entry, make sure you have your Global Entry card with you as they won't let you into the Global entry line without it.

Julie,

The pictures are beautiful!! We won't be kayaking, but hope to do zodiac and catamaran trips. Looks like you had at least a little sun. How were the temperatures? Thanks for the glove tip. We have the mittens that fold back, but thin leather gloves probably would be easier.

Roxburgh,

We have the global entry, but will be parking at Canada Place so may get hung up in security.

Carolyn

Thank you cwn, the scenery and wildlife are beautiful in Alaska and Canada so we had lots of choice for good photos.

We had periods of rain and sun on our cruise. Sometimes both in the same day. Coming from Perth, I tended to feel the cold and so I always had base layers on under my hiking pants, even on the ship during the day. I also appreciated my hiking boots walking around on shore as they were waterproof & lined so helped to keep my feet warm.

I will admit I did see others on the ship wearing short sleeves and even shorts the further south we came.

Julie

Just a word about disembarking in Vancouver, getting to the airport and clearing US immigration. When we disembarked, Disney was also disembarking. Security and US immigration was a zoo! If you are not flying business/first class (security fast track) and do not have Global Entry or similar (immigration fast track) then give yourself plenty of time. For Global Entry, make sure you have your Global Entry card with you as they won't let you into the Global entry line without it.

Roxburgh, thanks so much for your very helpful posts.

I just want to clarify something re having one's Global Entry card available at Vancouver airport. There are GOES kiosks at the airport. So, travelers who have GOES-enabled passports can use the kiosks, and don't need GOES cards.

No actually that is not correct. If you do not have the actual card with you they will not let you in the Global Entry lane where you then use the machine. I don't usually carry mine with me as I have not problem in the past when returning to the US using the Global Entry machines without having to show my card first. I was so glad I read something on CC before our Alaska cruise so I knew to bring that cards with me. The gentleman behind us was not allowed into the GE lane even though he said he had GE. They basically told him "no card, no dice." If you have GE do bring your card with you for when you leave Vancouver.

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No actually that is not correct. If you do not have the actual card with you they will not let you in the Global Entry lane where you then use the machine. I don't usually carry mine with me as I have not problem in the past when returning to the US using the Global Entry machines without having to show my card first. I was so glad I read something on CC before our Alaska cruise so I knew to bring that cards with me. The gentleman behind us was not allowed into the GE lane even though he said he had GE. They basically told him "no card, no dice." If you have GE do bring your card with you for when you leave Vancouver.

 

 

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We also had this same experience disembarking in FLL a few years ago - no card, no GE. Now we always carry our card if disembarking the ship in the US.