letsgogogo

As other power said, for Southwest, there is never any risk in just buying it. If fares go down you rebook, then the overpayment becomes a credit for future travel. While you don't get a refund, you at least recoup the $ for other travel, which I believe is good for 12 months,. If you rarely travel, and you won't use the SW credit in the next 12 months, then you're gambling a bit. No way to know if fares will drop, and if so, whether they will drop for the dates of your choice. I always have a few trips on SW every year so I don't mind it at all. Once I was planning a trip to Disney in Orlando and didn't know which of 2 different weeks I could get off work. Since their were great $120 round trip fares, I bought them for BOTH weeks, knowing that I'd just cancel the flights for the week we didn't end up using, then spend those $ for a different trip in the future.

We cruised on an end-of-season Solstice cruise that started in Seattle, ended in Vancouver, so we tacked a couple days on each end to explore both. Vancouver is a lovely town to visit, highly recommended. As for which ship...Solstice was dry-docked in late 2017, so while it's a slightly older ship than Eclipse, it may actually have been updated more recently. The whole Celebrity fleet (other than Edge) are undergoing "revolution" over the next 3 years, starting with the older ships in the fleet. However, Solstice was fairly recently freshened up. Not sure about Eclipse. Pick your preferred trip, rather than the ship. All the Celebrity ships, regardless of age, are well kept and with outstanding service. 

And for the record...I have attempted a dozen times to rotate our pic right-side-up! Also attempted to replace the pic. No luck. (Disclaimer added to mitigate judgey thoughts.)

Celebrity cruises (as you have discovered) are the most likely to have the social mix you are looking for. Like most people (gays included,) the 40+ set is more likely to have the resources for higher priced cruising.  Celebrity does a good job  of balancing price with some luxury touches, while hitting the "premium" market (not luxury.) Obviously a generality, not a rule as you are seeking this kind of vacation, but I'd be curious if you find what you are seeking on the luxury lines.

Say hello, fellow cruisers! Joel and Cory from Houston, TX. We had such a nice time on Solstice in Alaska a couple years ago, met sooooo many nice gay folk which really made the trip even more fun than we had imagined. We are ready for another one. Seems like it’s a known thing that everyone finds the others at the Martini bar around 7 pm each evening. Looking forward to making some new friends. 

Clearly my husband and I are on the wrong sailing, Equinox on 4/13. Roll call is silent. We met so many nice guys on Solstice a couple years ago. Hope to meet fun people on our cruise. 

Looking to connect with other LGBT cruisers on this sailing. 

Yeah, saw those beautiful videos which was part of the selling point. I will ask more about the tendering once we get aboard and try to determine the extent to which they have the tendering process worked out. Sounds like it's a clusterf#$k sometimes and people who are not booked on an excursion through the cruise line, and not in a suite, get tendered last. So that creates angry hoards waiting forever to get off the boat, and back on.

The Bike and Brew in Juneau sounds fun too and it visits one of the glaciers, I think. Cory loves good beer (which I hate) so this would be something fun for him. And with all the cruiseship eating, a good bike ride sounds like a sensible idea.

Just unsure if it's biting too much off for a single day. Playing it by ear I guess.

After lots of reading plus calling Celebrity, it seems that we don't actually dock in Juneau. We tender. And also,found out the catamaran for this excursion is also reached by tender. Starting to sound like a long and complicated day. Take a tender at 8:30 to the catamaran, tender back to the ship around 1 pm. Tender out to,Juneau sometime around 2:30 in time for the Bike and Brew at 3 pm. The tender back to the ship later that evening? Never done this before but it is sounding like a lot of hassle. Maybe just stay on the ship and enjoy the glaciers from our balcony with binoculars. Save $450 and moving all over. Thoughts?

Tracy Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer

I have read several reviews on the glacier trip while in Tracy Arm, and watched several Youtube videos posted by people who went on this excursion. It's pretty remarkable as you watch the glacier calving right up close. If you stay on the ship, Solstice cruises through Tracy Arm for about 5 hours early in the morning before docking in Juneau around 1 pm. If you stay on the ship, you do see the spectacle, but from a real distance. This excursion picks us up directly from the cruise ship while out on the water (not at a port) and leaves around 8:30 that morning. It's a pontoon that can reach all the up to within a couple hundred feet of the north and south Sawyer glacier. There is lots of wildlife to see on the trip too. Since we're not taking a seaplane or other helicopter type excursion, this seemed like a great way to get up to the glaciers. The only criticism I read about the excursion was that a few thought it was too long. Probably written by someone who can't relax. Alaska is about the scenery.

The trip ends around the time Solstice ports in Juneau, so it doesn't compete with any excursions happening at the port.

We booked several things ahead of time, perhaps because we're green and I wanted to be sure to get the things we wanted. We're doing the rainforest hike in ketchikan, the tracy arm pontoon boat that leaves from the cruiseship on Monday morning early before Juneau. Bike and Brew later in Juneau, and then the white Pass rail plus bike ride in Skagway. No planning anything for Victoria. I read the gardens are beautiful, but less to see at night, and the chinese lantern thing sounded stupid. (That said, the review I read of the Chinese lantern walk through the gardens from someone who clearly HATED it made me laugh so hard. It was extremely humorous.) If we like cruising and do it again in the future, I might be more comfortable planning excursions as we go.

What is everyone else looking forward to?

This sounds fun. Cory's birthday is that sail out date and I booked Murano for dinner that evening at 7 pm. (I know it's a bit early, but our heads will still be on CST so it will be like 9 pm for us, plus I couldn't confirm a different time.)

We'll plan to go a little earlier for martinis, like maybe 6:30, and if that doesn't work we'll try back after dinner.

Hello everyone. Joel here from Houston. My husband Cory and I will be on Solstice too for Alaska on 9/2. Looking forward to meeting new friends. First time cruisers here. When is the martini bar meet up?