Desert Rosie

The day we were at Glacier Bay (June 3rd) is was COLD, overcast and the wind was blowing. We wore long sleeves, a hoody and polar fleece jackets. We stayed pretty warm. We had a balcony stateroom so we stayed outside and could go inside to warm up easily. We also had nylon windbreakers that were water resistant they helped block the wind very well.

What about an iPhone from T-Mobile? Will that work in Alaska without roaming?

We got back from our Cruise June 6, 2015. We have T-mobile, in Vancouver we had unlimited text and data, phone calls were .20 per minute. In Alaska ports, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan we roamed with AT&T and GTE. We were limited on data to 2 gigabytes, unlimited talk and text. We had no problem using our phones. Not sure about service @ Glacier Bay, we had our phones off. One thing to note in Canadian waters we had a cell service from Vancouver to Campbell River both ways. We did a 7 day on HAL.

Hubby and I will be cruising to Alaska on the 30th of May on the Noordam, he is worried he will starve. He likes normal down-home food. Steak, Prime rib, Fried Chicken comfort food, you get the idea. After seeing several menus from similar ships is there going to be food he will eat????

:confused::confused::confused:

He also has a cheese allergy so he has to be careful with certain dishes. :eek:

DH and I along with his sister and B-I-L are booked on HAL-Noordam leaving Vancouver on May 30 returning June the 6th. We are celebrating our 40th anniversary during the trip. This is the first cruise any of us has been on, so excited!!! 69 days and counting! :)

Hubby and I booked our first cruise on the Noordam leaving May 30th. We choose this because it was sailing the dates we wanted. Another deciding factor was that it left from Vancouver and would be taking the route between Vancouver Island and the Canadian coast. We thought it might be a smoother sailing than being on the open ocean. We are so excited we can hardly wait for our date to get here!!!

The only hic-up so far is that American/US Airways changed their flight schedule and we will get into Vancouver @ 1:30 PM on the 28th instead of 10:30 AM. Thank god we decided to fly a couple of days early!

Thanks for posting! We are taking our 1st cruise from Vancouver, BC to SE Alaska your suggestions will be quite helpful so we know what to expect. :)

We applied for our passports Feb. 10th and we got them on Feb. 27th. Our cruise is leaving 5-30-15 from Vancouver BC. Time to buy our plane tickets. :)

Thanks for all of the input! We have decided that flying into Vancouver makes the most sense, to many variables to do it any other way. Next step is finding a hotel....LOL

Another tip is that Alaska flies to all 5 airports in the LA metro area and considers them "co terminals" for fare purposes. For a OW Alaska cruise, we flew SNA-SEA-YVR // ANC-SEA-LGB because homeward fares into SNA were more expensive than LGB. It was ticked as a pure open jaw.

We actually thought about flying out of San Diego, as my sister lives in Escondido. We could stay the night at her house and have my niece take us to the airport leaving our car at her house. But the tickets weren't any better than flying from Phoenix. LAX is more than likely a 8 hour drive from our house and we really didn't want to stay in a hotel by such a huge airport and we don't want to deal with the LA traffic....LOL We drove to San Luis Opisbo a few weeks ago to pick up a car we purchased and the traffic in LA was horrible on a Sunday afternoon no less.

OP- Have you checked airfare into YVR? From Southern California, fares to YVR are about $30-$70 more than SEA. Ground transportation from SEA to YVR will easily cost more money than time. Your situation may be different but it bears investigation.

 

Are you on a one-way or closed-loop cruise from YVR?

 

Alaska Airlines' hub is SEA and there are flights every 1-2 hours up to YVR. Plenty of "backstops" for a missed connection or cancelled flight.

We are in Phoenix, with everything it was about $500 more to fly into Vancouver. We are booked on HAL Noordam it is a closed loop cruise beginning and ending in Vancouver. We are planning on flying Southwest as they allow 2 free checked bags and have direct flights to SEA and in the long run they were cheaper than everyone else when you factor in the luggage charge. Unless someone has a killer deal that is probably our airline of choice, they also give you a $100 credit if you apply and approved for their VISA card. We are trying to coordinate meeting my sister-in-law and her hubby that will be flying in from Iowa.

My hubby and I are doing our 1st cruise out of Vancouver on May 30. We are planning on flying to Seattle on the 28th and taking the train to Vancouver the morning the 30th. The train gets into Vancouver at 11:45 AM and our cruise departs at 5:00 PM. Are we cutting it to close making it to the ship? :eek: We are asking these questions now before we purchase our plane tickets, reserve hotel rooms and such.