Seas2mountains

The non-Haven suites with access to Haven like breakfasts and lunches in Moderno/Cagney’s are so special that I think you will adjust to losing the Haven pool area and lounge. Alaska cruises are so beautiful and so different from Caribbean cruises.

Thank you again for your wonderful review. I always love your entertaining reviews. Your review was helpful as we considered going back to Alaska again this year. It is for sure our favorite cruise - especially from Vancouver to Seward or Seward to Vancouver. We booked the Spirit for a B2B on June 21st to July 5th. We will fly to Vancouver on June 20th. But first we will do a family cruise with a son, his fiancée and our sweet almost 8 year old granddaughter on the Escape next Sunday. I also work in a school so I relate to the work you do when not cruising. I look forward to your next review!

I’m so sorry to hear about the news of your position. I hope you are able to find a position that will be a good fit but I understand how difficult this will be given all the positive relationships you must have with your students. 😢

I’ve been on both the Gem and Getaway. I find the Jewel class ships (Gem) to be preferable to the Breakaway class ships (Getaway) for many reasons. While I’ll be cruising soon on the Escape with family and a kid, the Jewel class ships are more peaceful in my opinion. There seems to be an older crowd on the Jewel class but I’ve also seen singles of all ages who seem to hang out together on both ships. My recommendation is to try one and then the other to determine your preference. It’s a cruise and I’m sure you will have a great time!

Thank you for doing this live review. We board the Escape in two weeks on May 28th so I appreciate the dailies and your updates. What time did they begin boarding? Have a wonderful cruise!

in Sewel. Speaking of typos. I apparently made a new word combining Seward and Jewel. 🤣 Happy Birthday to your Dad and Happy Belated Birthday to you! I’m sorry to hear that the Endicott Arm excursion didn’t happen and that none of the ships made it very far. That has been our experience, too, with one exception where we were able to go further than we had on any previous cruise. Whenever I see Endicott Arm on the itinerary, I know it will be like having Great Stirrup Cay on the itinerary. It sounds like you had an amazing celebration for your Dad and the crew really treated him so well with the dinner and treats. Enjoy your final days. The Jewel is a special ship with a fabulous crew.

We have been the first and second person to board in Seward and it was at 11am both times with the most recent one on the Jewel in June 2022. That’s great if the boarding time in Sewel got adjusted to an earlier time.

Sweet corn hush puppies Spinach Caesar Shrimp fritters

Thank you! We did have a wonderful cruise. We will be on the Escape in about 18 days. I’ll report here on getting access to Veuve.

Loving your review as I catch up after being on the Sky this weekend. We also love Seward and it is my favorite cruise port. There is so much to do between catching the train and exploring Alaska if embarking or disembarking there. If anyone has a short stop, walking through the town, going to the SeaLife Center and seeing all the amazing animals, birds and sea creatures like you mentioned was a great time. We were fascinated by how deep some birds dove in the water. We also loved Major Marine tours in Seward. My profile photo was taken in Seward. Enjoy your cruise and time with your sweet Dad!

We are Sapphire and boarded the Sky on Friday from the Miami terminal. Once past security, the line for general check-in had no wait. There were four other couples with us in Priority boarding including some who paid for it like you. We left the priority line to check-in with the general line. Based on the time they arrived, it was probably not really worth the cost as it didn’t save any time.

Just off the Sky today and had no problem getting Veuve by the glass with P+ in Le Bistro. We did not try to get it in other bars but did ask for other P+ wine by the glass choices. Several lounge servers kindly got the wine from another bar or the dining room if they didn’t have it in their bar/lounge.

We are off the ship waiting in an airline lounge at the FLL airport for an early afternoon flight. We had a wonderful cruise and are excited to get on the Escape with three other family members in 20 days. We were not successful with check in for the next cruise using the ship wifi as it got stuck on the photo and would not load the safety video. We were able finish check-in this morning when back on our cell carrier. This cruise had many more younger passengers as is common with 3 day cruises. But I had not previously been on a ship with so many bachelor and bachelorette parties. It was fun to watch how some had coordinated dress codes for the weekend with the bride wearing only white in the evening and for bathing suits and the others wearing black for most of the weekend to include bathing suits. That’s a huge commitment to have the cruise cost and all the time and clothing purchases. We would say at least one was acting like a Bridezilla. My husband said it was like having little gangs all over the ship. When the bride or bachelor got up to go to the next venue, they had 6-12 people following. When we were going to Cagney’s and we’re going to walk across the pool deck, my husband said, “I hope I don’t have to see any more exposed butts.” I still don’t get the shear cover ups that don’t cover any thing. I think our theme was that we saw more exposed body parts than we care to see. We like the Alaska cruises with the older crowds.

Yes, Alexa has a beautiful voice and she is so talented! We did enjoy listening to her on one of the evenings. I do also follow her on Facebook. We also really liked listening to Leoh in Sugarcane on two evenings. He played some country music along with some Bruno Mars, Coldplay, John Mayer, and Ed Sheeran type of songs. The Sonata band is also very talented. I was amazed at how quickly they transitioned from song to song with no breaks between songs. Anyone getting on the Sky will be blessed with wonderful musicians. We did not go to any shows in the theater.

Here is the updated one when the weather decision was made to skip this stop. We each got a $25 refundable on board credit for skipping Great Stirrup Cay which was really nice. We know it’s a 50-50 chance of stopping or not.

Here is the daily that assumed we could tender at Great Stirrup Cay and the updated one when the weather decision was made to skip this stop.

We had to skip GSC today due to wind and waves. We see 12 oz. Cans.

We wish we could take the entertainment on this ship to our next cruise. They are all that good!!! In hindsight, I’d say the entertainment on our last cruise on the Gem was a 5 out of 10 when comparing to this cruise where it is a 9.5 out of 10. Alexa, Leoh and especially the amazing band, Sonata, are the reason. I know a lot of people seem to love the Latin band.

We had NO problem at all getting Veuve Cliquot by the glass at Le Bistro using P+. While it was not listed on the wine menu, it was on the food menu at Le Bistro. My husband had no problem getting Hennessy XO in the Atrium and in Bliss Lounge. Here are photos from our dinner at Le Bistro last night. It was really good. All the two top tables are next to a window. Escargot, French Onion Soup, Mushroom soup, Dover Sole, Sea Bass, and chocolate and strawberry ice cream.

I don’t know the rotation frequency of the senior staff. I thought the Captain on the Gem said he was on for 3 months and off for 3 months. Maybe @www3traveler knows?

We are a little bummed that Leoh.has the night off but hope to make it to more entertainment options now that we had a great long afternoon nap.

We have become “the old people who win at trivia”! For morning trivia, we tied for first place with another couple with 17 out of 20 correct answers. At afternoon trivia, we thought we would for sure be creamed by the other teams that had 6 to as many as 8 people on a team. Nope. We crushed them all by winning with 16 correct answers. Here is the deck of cards we won.

Lunch in the shade with a beautiful view at Great Outdoors. We did get a slice of hot, yummy and fresh from the oven pizza at La Cucina. Forgot to take a photo.

For @www3traveler

Casino.