bluedevil72

Thank everyone for your replies.  I’m making my own plane reservations through Southwest so I needed excursion info BEFORE I made the reservations.  I’ll probably check out Boston water taxi.  Thanks again. 

Are there any post cruise excursions in Boston that end up at Boston Logan. I don’t see any on the NCL website. 

We haven't cruised in five years and it's been longer than that on NCL.  We've used Luggage Valet or something similar several times.  Our luggage was picked up the night before disembarkation and we didn't see it again until we got home.  Does NCL have something like that out of Boston.  We are flying on Southwest.  

We did this tour through juneauwhalewatch last month and really enjoyed it. If I remember correctly there were 30-40 people on the boat. We did Mendenhall first before it got too crowded but by the time we left there were busses everywhere. The tour was $145 but we booked earlier this year and got a 15% discount. 

We were on the Ruby two weeks ago and were also in Victoria for the same period of time. We were on a cruise excursion from the time we got there until 10:30 ish. We were also told to have our luggage out in the hall before 11:00 but we didn’t get our luggage tags until after we left as we were using Port Valet and couldn’t be checked in for our flight until 8:00. We got it all in the hall by about 11:10. A room steward walked by about that time and we heard him say quietly to himself “ it’s too late.”  That worried us a little so I went to Guest Services and were told it was fine, it was probably just too late for him. She said they would actually be picking up luggage until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. We didn’t see it again until we got to Dallas the next night. 

We’ve been on Carnival, RCCL, Princess and NCL. I think RCCL and Princess are the most similar of the four and seem to have similar demographics and cater to the same type of cruiser. They are my two favorites. If you enjoy Cafe Promenade on RCCL then you’ll also enjoy International Cafe on Princess. They’re our favorite places to hang out.  

We used Priceline to get a really good deal. I had originally booked a hotel close to the airport since we were arriving late. We then decided we wanted to be close to Pike Place Market and I started looking for other hotels but everything close to downtown was rediculously high, for me anyway. 

I ran across an Express Deal on Priceline that would be one of three Hyatt properties downtown for $159. I thought I misread it to begin with, but I did it and we ended up with Hyatt Regency. It ended up being $183 all in. 

My bad.....it wasn’t google maps it is the maps app on my iPad. I’m not very good with this picture stuff but I hope this works correctly. 

We were there two weeks ago and that picture is exactly the way it looks. I just looked at google maps and the picture has two cruise ships in the picture by the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal. You walk out of that terminal directly onto the ship using the gangway. Where the yellow circle is, is actually two breezeways that we walked under both before and after the cruise. The other circle is where we walked to meet up with our Uber. They are all parked there in the angle parking spots. 

The hotel was good but we were only there long enough to sleep. We got there late Friday night, walked to a restaurant to have a very late dinner and then got up early the next morning to go eat at Pike Place Market and walk around the market a little. Check in was quick and the front desk staff was very congenial. The concierge suggested a place to eat dinner and then helped us with a minivan taxi the next morning. The hotel seemed very new and was pretty quiet. Our room was big and the bed was very comfortable. I don’t know if I’ve missed this in other hotels but there was a motion activated light at the bottom of the bed side table that came on in the middle of the night when I got up to go to the restroom.  And then, our cabin on the Ruby had one as well. 

The sign on the taxi and the taxi stand does say $40 but our fare was about $45. That may include some type of airport use fee, or maybe it was a little farther than what is considered downtown although we were staying at Hyatt Regency Downtown. 

We were there two weeks ago. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown and there were four adults and too much luggage. We asked the concierge to get us a minivan taxi and he found us one that was there in about 15 minutes. I think the fare was around $40. 

We did use Uber XL to take us to the Space Needle and then another one to take us to Seatac post cruise.  We used Port Valet and had no luggage on the return trip. If they drop you off the same place they pick you up, and I think they do, it is at least 1/4 mile and maybe a little more. 

One other thing, the Uber XLs that we used after the trip wouldn’t have been able to accommodate our luggage, if we’d had it with us. 

Thank you. 

My wife and I cruised on the Ruby two weeks ago and I wrote a review for the review section on Friday afternoon. For those of you who have written a review before, how long does it take for it to show up?  

We cruised on Ruby Princess two weeks ago and did independent excursions in three of the four ports.  There were four adults.   In Juneau we did a whale watching tour and Mendenhall Glacier with Juneau Whale Watching.  We’ve done the exact same tour with Orca Enterprises in the past but they’re out of business. It was a good tour although we spent too much time at Mendenhall, which was basically our fault. We met them next to the base of the Mt Roberts Tram so they were easy to find. 

In Skagway we rented a car from Avis and drove to Carcross, Yukon and on up to Emerald Lake. We’ve done that before as well. The cost for a full size car was a little less than $200. I tried several ways to get a discount including Costco, but nothing worked.   It’s a great trip but eats up most of the day. 

In Ketchikan, where we had limited time, we did the Aleutian Ballad excursion. It is also offered by Princess, but we booked it independently, for I think, about $30 less, and were able to get there before the other cruisers. It’s also right by the ship so there’s no worry about getting back on time. 

In Victoria we only had a little over four hours so we thought it prudent to do a ship’s excursion. We did the Orca Whale Watch and enjoyed it. 

We cruised out of Seattle two weeks ago. There were four adults and a lot of luggage. I’ve used Uber XL before in other situations  but most couldn’t carry that much luggage. We got to the taxi stand and asked the guy for a minivan and he called one in from the back of the line of taxis. I believe the fare was about $45 to the Hyatt Regency Downtown. We did use UberXL after the cruise as Port Valet had taken care of our luggage. 

We flew into Seatac on the 5th for our Alaska cruise. There were four of us with 8-10 pieces of luggage and some of them were pretty big. There is a person at the taxi stand helping people get taxis and we just told him we needed a minivan. He got us one immediately.  UberXL in theory might work but the ones we’ve taken don’t have enough room for that much luggage. 

This is the email I received this morning from the Port of Seattle.

Good morning,

All of our cruise lines except Oceania are participating in the program as is Southwest Airlines. The times differ by ship so please check with the front desk when you board. It's typically flights on the same day after 11:30 am and before midnight.

Thank you,

Marie

This is a post I found from two years ago.  It's was from the Port of Seattle website but when you try to click on the link, it says it doesn't exist any longer, as they have gone to a new website.  Of course, on that website, I've searched all over it and can't find the time constraints.  As you can see in what I found, two years ago your flight had to be after 11:00.  I did email them last night and haven't heard back.

There is a website which contains a PDF from the Port of Seattle which contains additional details

http://www.portseattle.org/ABOUT/COMMISSION/MEETINGS/2017/2017_04_11_RM_6c.pdf

Some excerpts from the PDF

"Guests enjoying this service are still responsible for airline baggage fees. The fee is collected byBags Inc. on board the ship during the check in process, and then remitted to the airlines byBags Inc. At this time, the proposed service will only serve domestic flights, which compriseabout 90% of Seattle’s cruise passengers. To participate in this service, guests must fly out thesame day they complete their cruise and have flight times later than 11:00 a.m.The luggage service would be promoted to passengers by the cruise lines and the Port. Seattlewould be the first homeport to offer a luggage valet service as a courtesy to benefit localtourism and small business. This action request would provide the service at no cost to theguest"

d I got an automated reply that said they would get back in touch today.  I haven't received anything yet.

1 hour ago, TxCityKat said:

@bluedevil72

 

Howdy!

 

Perhaps this previous thread will help:

 

how to search fo something at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2672129-how-to-search-fo-something/

Thank you for your response. I’ll check that out on my laptop tomorrow. BTW, I noticed that your first two cruises were on Commodore Cruise Lines.....ours too.  On Enchanted Capri out of NOLA in 2000.  We were hooked. 

Thank you for the email address. I just sent them an email. 

I’m using an iPad but I can also use a Desktop. So it’s different?

In the past I have always been able to find answers to almost any question that I had by a search. Now when I try to do it, I get answers all over the place. Am I doing something wrong or has it changed that much?

We’ll be on the Ruby in two weeks and plan on using the Port Valet. Does this reply  mean that your SW flight has to be after 4:30?  I thought I’d read on another thread, that I can’t find, that the time was earlier than that. I can’t find the time on 

the Seattle port website either. 

16 hours ago, Eaglecw said:

When you leave Seattle Pier 91 at 4pm you’ll head North towards the Strait of Juan De Fuca, it’s interesting the first couple of hours, there’s lots to see off the starboard side. Once you get to the Strait of Juan De Fuca you’ll head west towards the open ocean, it’ll be around 10:30 or 11pm when you head North in the ocean. Once your out in the ocean you'll be to far away from land to see anything. It can get very rough the first sea, it was on June 9th, we had a lot of people get sick. You won't see land again until the next morning and then you'll still be a pretty good ways away from land. You won't see much until you enter Stephens Passage up to Juneau. If you’d like to track your ship before you ship this is an excellent web site to do so. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-131.9/centery:55.3/zoom:11 enter the name of the ship you want to track and your off to the races.

If you want to check the weather in Juneau go to Youtube and enter “Juneau Harbor Webcam -- LIVE from PTZtv” this camera I on top of the Hanger on the Wharf. Great views of the float planes and what ships are in port.

Randy

Thank you to everyone for your replies.  We have actually cruised to Alaska three times......two round trip out of Seattle and once northbound out of Vancouver, so we know how much more scenery there is on the east side of Vancouver Island as compared to the west side.  I guess my initial question should have been when will we reach Stephens Passage.  I actually already have the marinetraffic and the PTZtv apps on my phone but I had never used the marinetraffic app to look at a route.  That's pretty cool.  

Thank you Eaglecw for your post.  Your info was spot on.  Even though we cruised out of Seattle a couple of times, it's been a few years and I didn't remember what we would need to be looking for.   Thanks again everyone....Steve