TraderSam

Thank you @mariners for taking the time out of your trip to post. We have just booked a cruise on the Infinity so will be following along with interest. Looking forward to hearing more when you have time. Enjoy your cruise!

Well, almost 2 weeks home and still no luggage.😭 We believe that it is stuck at Edinburgh airport which appears to be a bit of a disaster for baggage handling just now. The Swissport website says no more updates will be provided until they are in a position to try and deliver to us. Our daughter was flying through EDI the other day and enquired on our behalf to be told that staff are being drafted in from Glasgow Airport to deal with the 1000s of pieces of luggage they have. 🤦🏼‍♀️ So, I'm going to try and finish my trip report just from my photos and memory, as who knows when baggage with the paperwork will arrive. So our first sea day, we started as we meant to go on, by having a lighter breakfast at the Spa Cafe. It was quiet and we enjoyed the view as we tucked in to our healthier options. Another promise that I made to myself was to take the stairs at every opportunity possible, to try and keep my steps up and to avoid crowded elevators. I managed that most of the cruise but sometimes walking up from 8 to 14 left me puffing by the time I reached my destination. 😂 Still, I was determined to do it! Anything to balance out our new Al Bacio habit.... ☕🍰 Those tarts... 😋

A quick update. We have now arrived back in Scotland yesterday after an arduous journey home involving delays, missed connections, an extra overnight in Toronto and finally, re-routing via Germany. Oh, and no luggage. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I will report back on our cruise on Eclipse and the time after, if and when our luggage is traced. Guess where my notes and copies of Celebrity Today are!!! Trying to be patient whilst waking up at 4:30am through jetlag. 😁

No, we did not know about that. As soon as we sat down in Cafe Al Bacio, a lovely member of staff took our order so we were never actually at the counter. Complimentary bubbles or anything else was never suggested to us either so I am unble to confirm whether welcome drinks were offer there.

I can only speak from a UK perspective but we see the RM and Alaska cruises regularly advertised together as a package, with several cruiselines to choose from. Our Travel Agents here start with the cruise& train and you can tweak hotels/length of stay/add ons to suit your budget. I hope you have a good TA who can help you explore your options. 😊

On looking through the paperwork in our room, we were delighted to find an invitation to the helipad for sail-away. Yipee! Having made our way to the meeting point as instructed, we found ourselves to be one of the first to arrive and therefor first on the helipad itself. I'm no expert but the bubbly🥂 was not to my liking and so hubby finished both. Unheard of! 😂 It was a beautiful day to be sailing beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. And we looked over to Prospect Point where we had stood the day before and a few years back, watching the ships set sail for Alaska. Is anyone interested in the Celebrity Today daily activities sheets ? I won't bother posting unless anyone really wants to see them. Just tag me if you do. I have them all here. 😁

Our room was ready and both suitcases were waiting for us. 👍🏻 We were in our favourite layout-bed by window, slanted hump cabin with the larger balcony. I know some folks like to know who is on board... The CD had just arrived onboard with us.

As the weather in Vancouver was absolutely glorious, we took ourselves off to explore the outside decks and ended up at the Sunset Bar. The layout of the Eclipse is different from that of the Reflection with less seating on the Starboard side. I'm not great with smoke and so when we spotted some free chairs below at the rear of the Oceanview Cafe, we headed down there to enjoyed a refreshment and some nachos in the sunshine. I hope I'm right in saying this is the Oceanview Bar menu. I believe this is known as a sunbow? Anyway, several drinks later, we made our way to our stateroom to see if our luggage had arrived.

I've realised that I made the check in at the Port sound laborious, it was but we were always moving. All in, we reckon we were 50 minutes from entering the building to stepping on board. First stop was our muster station and we were registered in seconds. We'd already watched all the info videos on the App. ✅ Next stop, MDR to enquire as to where we would be seated. (more on that later) Nobody around so we returned later. We made our way up to our stateroom to pick up our seapasses and drop backpacks. Room was a work in progress so we left the 2 bags and went back to MDR. My husband had a theory that we got an awful table in MDR last time because we had pre-booked 4 nights of speciality dining so would only be there for 3. I'd read about people asking where their table was in advance so thought I'd try and see if we could be one of the 2 tops in the rows of 8 (or anything other than slammed against a wall where the neighbouring table of 10 got all the attention) Anyway, her reply was that we had not been assigned a set table. Okay. We would have to see how this would pan out. We dropped by the Captain's Club desk✅ but no one was there. My enquiry was not urgent so no need to go to Guest Services as the sign suggested. So, having at least tried to tick off the "things to attend to" on my list, we snagged two big yellow armchairs in Cafe Al Bacio and officially started our cruise calorie intake. A Caramel Latte and a Lemon Tart. The start of many....

So finally, we reach boarding day This will be a wordy post with no photos as I don't think I took any until we sat down for coffee. 😉 Having walked from our hotel to Canada Place yesterday, we reckoned it doable with luggage as it was all downhill and that would save us being stuck in traffic in a taxi. We had the first check in slot of 10:30 and so headed into the building around 10:20. Already, there was quite a queue and a bit of confusion inside. 3 ships in port, a Royal Caribbean, a HAL and Eclipse. We followed instructions to join a long, snaking line to the right hand side of the room. Disney vibes going on here with the queuing system. Just when you think you are at the front, someone comes along and releases a barrier and merges another line of people with you 😂. Soon, folks sailing on HAL were pulled from the line. Maybe they should have been priority boarding of some sort. We realised that the snaking line on our side is waiting to "cross the traffic" only to stand in line on the other side of the room, to board the elevator... to take us down to the parking lot... to drop luggage. We might well have been easier arriving by taxi after all. 🤔 After that, we are directed to another elevator or stairs. The folks in front of us choose the stairs versus the longer wait for the elevator. We follow, as do many behind us. Then the folks in front realise its 2/3 flights of stairs to climb and regret their decision. Anyway, the choice has been made and they struggled on up. Poor souls but then again, some folks bring on a helluva lot of hand luggage/carry ons. We then followed the signs for our individual ships and travelled though another hall, queued outside, then back in and down an escalator... to arrive at the same hall we started in.🤦🏼‍♀️ We were now the "oncoming traffic".🚥 Next up was Border Control which was organised and straightforward and then at last, a warm welcome onto the ship. No welcome drinks but we knew to expect that. At some stage, we had been given a slip of orange paper with logo Celebrity Eclipse on it and were advised it was required to proceed through. Yip, some folks lost theirs in transit. Others scrambled around in bags for their boarding passes. 🙄 Please people, be savvy travellers and get your act together. Be organised, be patient and polite and we will all get on the ship a lot quicker.

On our way out of the park, we stopped by two statues. One of Scotland's National Bard, Rabbie Burns, apparently his was the first statue to be erected in the City of Vancouver. Hubby was reciting as he stood there... When chapman billies leave the street, And drouthy neebors neebors meet... Then onto Lord Stanley, who can be seen welcoming everyone with open arms. As I said, this was a long walking day but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was rounded off nicely as we watched the 2 ships make their way out and under the bridge. Off to Alaska. Just look at those skies!

I think this ended up being a 28000 step day. 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ After lunch, coffee and a rest at Prospect Point, we headed to the rose gardens. I won't bore you with too many rose photos but they had some lovely fragrant varieties and a good range of colours. Yet again, I witnessed the those who have to trample into the flower beds to get a better selfie. Found myself secretly hoping a rose thorn would tear them a new one... 😉🤭

Onwards along the seawall, towards Stanley Park. We cut in to Stanley Park to visit the totems. This signage in Stanley Park made me laugh. Keep to your own lane. 🐎🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ Our goal was to make it up to Prospect Point and the Lions Gate bridge to remind us that we would be sailing out beneath it tomorrow aboard the Eclipse.

And so back to our pre-cruise time in Vancouver. We walked down to Canada Place to understand where to go with luggage the following morning and of course, to have a look at the Princess and HAL ships in port. It was interesting watching the provisions being loaded o board. We then made our way along to the Coal Harbour area and on towards Stanley Park. Given that the weather forecast was for cloud & rain on the days we visited Vancouver, our plan was to book a seaplane tour upon arrival, based on the best forecast. The bottom line is that we never manged to do this due to the times with better weather being sold out. So we made do with watching the seaplanes take off and land and an old paddle steamer going on leisure trip. No big deal. We can take a seaplane on another visit. Always good to have an excuse to come back. 😉

Well, so much for a live report!🤦🏼‍♀️ Classic WiFi was never good enough at any location, at any stage in the cruise, to post to Cruise Critic. I tried many times. I could see I had notifications but could not open them. I could read posts but not reply. We could send messages but not photos on What's App. Only messenger between iPhone devices worked for us to share photos with family at home. Sorry to let you all down. 😔 The good news is, the cruise was wonderful and I have lots to share. I'm going to pick up where I left off, with more of our pre-cruise time in Vancouver. 👍🏻

Yes, breakfast and lunch on the train but I would consider it to be a substantial 3 course meal for lunch. A timestamp on one of my photos shows our main course served at 14.36 so that must have been the day we had second seating. I'm guessing first lunch service started at 1pm. We were NEVER hungry. So many snacks served too, like chocolate covered peanuts and raisins and savoury pretzel mix. I think they state arrival as being between 6 and 8pm so you could have eaten in Kamloops. Maybe others who have travelled previously will chime in and clarify. In Gold leaf, the breakfast menu was the same for both days. 👍🏻I don't do runny eggs so had the scramble both days. Anything else, please just ask. 😍 I'm trying my best to finish the Vancouver segment as I'm about to head to the cruise terminal. 🛳️ 😁 Stanley Park coming up...

The next part of our trip sees us spending 3 nights in Vancouver, prior to boarding the Eclipse to Alaska. Having visited Vancouver before, we have been to most of the places of interest and since we've had early rises way too many times this past week, the plan is to take things at a slower pace and just do whatever we fancy. So, first up is a visit to Granville Island. You have 2 choices of ferry company operating in False Creek. Aquabus appear to be larger and can accommodate strollers and wheelchairs but do not go to the Maritime Museum. False Creek Ferries do cover the museum that as a stop but are smaller boats. Both are a similar price for an all-day ticket (18CAD) and run constantly. Individual journey tickets are available too. We love looking around food markets and buying our lunch there. So colourful and appealing. There were plenty of makers with stalls there too, from jewellery to pottery and leather goods. This one gave us the biggest laugh. A popular delicacy from our home land. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Lunch was Spanakopita with salad. Later in the day, we had some Pecan pie and Coconut Cream Pie.

Our Lunch Menu was almost the same as yesterday, but with a prosciutto and brie sharing plate. We opted to have the Crab Ravioli and the Steelhead Trout for our Mains. We both had the Lemon Posset for Dessert...and of course, some Sauvingnon Blanc. All too soon, we were approaching Vancouver and our time on the Rocky Mountaineer was nearly over. The Staff handed us a postcard which they had signed and we gave our thanks and said our goodbyes. The transfer of us passengers and our luggage to our respective hotels was very well organised indeed. We can't recommend the Rocky Mountaineer experience highly enough. 🚂⛰️

The views through the windows were so much better today, thanks to the blue skies and sunshine.

Pick up from the Delta was well organised. We had been instructed to leave our luggage in our rooms, just as we had found it. After a short drive, we were back in position in front of our carriage and great news.... the sun was shining! 🌞 The Staff had the flags and red carpet out and were all there to welcome us on board again. Before boarding, we all took the opportunity to take the photos we should have gotten yesterday. The manager was kindly acting as our photographer, taking photos of us all with the flags. The RM Staff at Kamloops were all standing on the platform to wave us off. What a lovely touch. 😍 It was our turn to go down to breakfast first (remember I mentioned Revenge Day) and the food was even better than yesterday.

The journey continued through magnificent scenery with some time spent stationary due to whatever was happening on the line. The Staff kept us all happy with drinks and sweet & savoury nibbles. Then a plated snack of vegetable Gyoza and rice also appeared. I'm guessing this might have been because we were running rather behind schedule. We spent a good while outside on the viewing platform as the sun was going down as the weather had cleared up. I know I moaned about the arrangements for pick up but this time, everything was super-efficient. Everyone on the front half of our carriage was staying at the Delta in Kamloops and therefore we were all on the same coach transfer. Our coach was parked up on the platform alongside our train carriage and so it was very easy. We were handed our room keys whilst on the train so we didn't need to check in. Our luggage was waiting in our room too. All absolutely seemless. 👌🏻 As I mentioned, we were late in arriving in Kamloops so it was around 10pm when we arrived at the Delta. Our room was modern and very spacious with bottle. Water, tea & coffee and 2 queen? beds. We were so tired that we went straight to bed.😴 There had been a sign in the lobby about pick up... Next installment... Rocky Mountaineer Day 2🚂

After a few more delicious cocktails, it was time to head downstairs again for Lunch. I seem to be missing the photo of the fish sharing platter🤦🏼‍♀️ I blame the Caesars! However, here are our striploin steak and pork tenderloin mains, followed by one each of the desserts. 🍷Wine was flowing throughout too. Oh dear! 😂 Rounded things off with coffee afterwards.

The weather improved only slightly as our journey continued but it made for some very atmospheric scenes. The overnight rain was evident by the volume of water rushing through the rivers. Now would be a good time to mention the outside viewing platform at the end of our carriage. Great place to stand and stretch your legs and take photos. Lots of blethering (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 for having a conversation) went on out there too. 😂 Next up... Dinner

Soon it was time for breakfast and so we made our way downstairs to the dining area on the lower level of our carriage. We were served our fresh fruit plate and coffee, swiftly followed by our delicious pastries. We ordered the Boursin scramble and the smoked salmon avocado toast. Breakfast was very leisurely and enjoyable. We could just about hear the commentary from upstairs but conversations with our new friends were just as exciting. We returned to our upstairs seats to enjoy the scenery and in time to hear that bar service was about to begin! It was around 11am by this point so 5 o`clock somewhere!😉 We started off with a Caesar and a Dark & Rocky. Both were fab. This was going to be tricky. How to enjoy some fabulous drinks but not enough to fall asleep and miss the scenery! 😂 Dark & Rocky The Ceasar was absolutely fab and just the right amount of spice. 👌🏻

Yes, concentrating on the road instead of the view is a must. I shall report back on the rest of the trip and how they handle things. 👍🏻