EmpressofPurple

Anybody else onboard with internet?  I work every day when I travel, so I purchase the highest quality offered on every cruise.  I'm loving this trip so far.  Ship is beautiful - Still exploring all the beautiful venues.  Have already (randomly) met six other solo travelers, plus couples and families, many frequent floaters like myself, all warm and friendly.  And I found a duck!  Tiny and red, tucked in a chair cushion outside the dining room my first night.  After a pretty abysmal check-in process, the cruise is very smooth.  Enjoyed the Venetian mask-making craft project in the Gondola lounge (simultaneous with various trivia games in the same large space), and the "fireside chat" in the theatre with Carnival President Christine Duffy and Chief Culinary Officer Emeril (only wish they had invited audience questions).  Food selection is limited but I always manage to find something good to eat, even as a relatively new Vegan,  Love the Burrito bar!  And I just saw there's a veggie burger available in the deli, I'll try that one day, too.  Looking forward to getting through the ports and enjoying that long stretch of sea days - transatlantics are my favorite, especially westbound with all those 25-hour days.

3 hours ago, christinetuniket said:

I...I happen to have only one tour booked independently for Ponta Delgada with a tour operator that we used in the past and are very happy with. I originally wanted to go to Terra Nostra hotel and soak in the giant thermal iron pond! However, this tour includes a stop at another hot spring. Here is the link http://www.azoreantours.com/index.php?lang=en&option=shoreen

Thank you!  I have done this tour, it's lovely but does not include the opportunity to soak in the hot springs, only to visit them (in fact, the springs are boiling hot and one cannot touch them).  Enjoy the time with the adult children, I love traveling with mine, too. 🙂

Thanks for the kind words and good wishes, I trust I will keep my friend in happy memory.  I travel solo a lot so I'm sure I'll meet new friends - and hopefully find someone to share that cab!  I've been traveling in Europe since arriving on the VV transatlantic May 7:  2 nights Barcelona, then a week on the MSC Grandiosa circle med cruise (just fascinating the way they pick up and drop off passengers in nearly every port)... now 4 days each Budapest, Bratislava (where I am now), then Vienna... then just 1 night Barcelona, at the Hyatt Regency Tower (Denny and I had stayed there before and we were going to be sharing a room before the cruise) - I'm excited to see the new "Carnival Italian Style" cruise!  Actually, when the VV ship was in port in Cadiz, I saw the Venezia in the shipyard being refitted!!  Again, many thanks for the sweet thoughts, it will help.

Hello all!  I haven't participated in roll calls in a while - and although I'm Pinnacle on Royal Caribbean, this is my first Carnival cruise in over 20 years!!  I've had a heartbreak reading through this thread, as my best friend Denise (Denny) posted here early on - we were doing this cruise together - but in the interim she has passed away, so I'm now sailing solo. 😪 Determined to have a wonderful time in her memory; we met on a cruise in 2014 and have done dozens together over the past 9 years.  I miss her more than I can say - indeed, we were supposed to come over on the Virgin Voyages TA together, but she was gone before we set sail.

Anyway... I have tours booked for all the ports except Ponta Delgada... where I want to take a cab to the Terra Nostra hotel and buy their 10-euro pass for access to the gardens and the large thermal pool (jacuzzis are closed right now for renovation).  However, the cab there from the port is 50 euro each way - still about the same price as most of the Carnival tours, but I'd much rather share the cab with 1 or 2 people, and we'd have a lovely spa day at a very affordable price.  I'm not interested in an island tour as I've done a few here, and don't need to do it again.

If no one wants to share, I may do it alone... or just wander the city near the port, which is beautiful

I look forward to meeting new friends onboard.

Will be joining you for your second leg! Boarding on October 10 😃

How do we get access to the google doc? I'm looking for the Diamond Concierge on Jewel for the Transatlantic in May.

Note, however, if you do not do a nonfrefundable deposit (i.e., if you want a fully refundable deposit, because you don't want to pay a $99 change fee per booking change), then you will pay the full normal deposit, plus you'll pay a higher cruise fare, plus you'll have reduced OBC. I hate the new nonrefundable deposit, it makes booking onboard virtually useless to me, since I will only book with a fully refundable deposit - life is too uncertain.

And, "full normal deposit" now means double deposit for solos - so if you're booking a 14-night cruise onboard with a fully refundable deposit, you'll be paying $900 upfront, a higher cruise fare, and receiving minimal OBC. Only reason to book onboard is if a cruise comes out while you're sailing that you don't want to miss -- or if you're 100% sure you're going on a sailing, and are willing to book on a nonrefundable basis, in which case you receive all of the benefits noted above, the $100 reduced deposit, the lower cruise fares, and the extra OBC.

Best M-Life perk when I was last in Vegas: admission to all the M-hotel pools!! I walked from hotel to hotel and enjoyed all the pool areas. :)

 

Rules for booking a refundable have not changed and remain the same.

 

 

Carla

However, according to my TA -- who called RCI directly to confirm this -- all confirmations, both refundable and nonrefundable, have the "nonrefundable" information on them.

In other words, you may pay the (higher) refundable rate, and get the (lower) refundable perks... But your confirmation will not state in writing that it is a fully refundable booking.

I have written multiple emails to crown and anchor about this already, as well as letting them know I hate this new system and refuse to book nonrefundable at all... Nor will I book refundable until they are able to issue a confirmation that states in writing that the booking is indeed fully refundable.

Meaning here I am, D+ with three RCI cruises booked currently, looking at two more right now... And unable to book them until they correct this situation. If they move to all non refundable they will lose me as a customer altogether. I sincerely hope they dump this new program fast.

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Unless it's post final payment of course...

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I learned the hard way rci only accepts a physical card on the ship. I wanted to move the billing for onboard charges to my rci visa, (which I had also used to pay for the cruise) for obvious reasons, but didn't have it with me, and I was equally confused why they could charge it on the phone but not in person. When staff tried to say it was like going to a store in person without your card, I gently pointed out that I had been in Macy's and Victoria's secret earlier that same week, also did not have their cards in my possession, and they kindly looked up my account and allowed me to charge it, based on my driver's license ID (and of course the cruise line knows perfectly well who you are, they have your passport, payment history, future cruise bookings, etc -- and I wanted to use their branded credit card).

I'm as horrified by the negative responses in this forum as I am by the threat of arrest on board. There's a reason I almost never post here anymore. Given the story from the debt-avoiding young couple who described how they had problems with their cards being frozen only when they DID notify their bank that they were traveling, I'm surprised that many posters continued to "blame" OP for not doing this, since it doesn't seem to remove the danger of having your account frozen.

I had a similar event where my card was replaced due to suspected fraud, I was at the grocery with only that card, and the replacement card was in the mail... As I found out when I called the cc company from the store! Fortunately I live a block away so I could leave my purchases, go home, get another card (in fact, the new card which had just arrived and I could activate it), go back to the store and pay for my groceries. Obviously NOT something I could've done while at sea...

... And I STILL don't understand why one office can take a card by phone (with NO proof that it's real, no physical card to look at, nor a photo of a card, nor a chip) while another cannot. Just weird.

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Anyone been on Star Breeze lately, do they have games and puzzles available in the library? Backgammon, chess, checkers, cards, Scrabble, Boggle, anything else?

Interpretive signs by the road... about the challenges of building the road, and that it took decades to complete

Yep, we'll see some of these guys soon...

Incredible views. Can't believe I saw this with my eyes!!

White pass summit. Our ears will pop again on the way down.

Welcome to Alaska! (for travelers coming in the other direction, of course...)

Beautiful scenes on still-frozen waters

We pull over for a great view of the White Pass & Yukon railroad across the way!

Look at those white mountains... our ears are popping here... yep, it's the white pass summit... but before we get there...

The descriptions of the gold rush era are just devastating... I strongly recommend Michener's "Alaska" as pre-travel reading for a sweeping overview of Alaskan history, starting from the big bang, going through woolly mammoths to early humans crossing the land bridge from Asia, and coming up through Russian Alaska, the salmon industry, the gold rush, building roads and railroads, all the way up to the pipeline.

Hard to believe this valley was the scene of such destruction... you can see the river at the bottom in this photo...

Random roadside waterfall

The unusual one-sided Moore bridge, spanning an active earthquake fault (it is listed on "dangerousroads.org" and "world's scariest bridges")

We're on our way! We shared the driving: DKNYC drove us up to Emerald Lake, and I brought us back down to Skagway.

White Pass & Yukon railroad maintenance yard

Great view up the Skagway river just at the edge of town. One of the local buses stops here, and you can walk to a nearby gold rush era cemetery. We didn't make it there on either port stop alas. Another reason to return!

Dyea road overlook with Skagway nestled at the base of breathtaking mountains

Great views of all the ships in port, too.

Let it be said: many locals commented that we had GREAT weather today... and that made a big difference in our enjoyment of this drive. I'm not sure we would've had such a great time if our views had been of clouds and rain, and we had to pay close attention to slick mountain roads. After days of rain and clouds in Ketchikan and Juneau, we felt very fortunate.

Brilliant blue skies -- and pointy mountains! -- as we drive North to the Future!!

Golden North Hotel

Wooden sidewalks

The Avis office

Sculpture in the courtyard of the motel where the Avis office is also located.

Getting directions to our car

Walking tour with a "goodtime girl" coming towards us as we follow a guide to our car in a nearby lot

(Once again my photo of the menu doesn't show up. Weird.)

Breakfast and getting off the ship:

I love going to breakfast in the main dining room, and trying the daily specials

The melon cocktail special

Mmm bran muffin... with molded butter pat and apricot jam, served by the assistant waiter from a silver dish. Nice!

Special eggs with minute steak, a side of bacon, V-8 juice and wheat toast. Hearty!

Disembarking we got a better view of all the ship signs painted on the rocks

Great view of our beautiful ship at the dock

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18 – DAY #6 – SKAGWAY

7am stretch (almost alone!) – shower, dress for day in car, pack bag

Breakfast in dining room: bran muffin, butter & apricot jam, V-8, lumberjack breakfast with steak & sunnyside up eggs, plus bacon and rye toast; melon parfait (actually served in bowl rather than martini glass). Eggs arrived raw, I sent them back and they were returned perfectly cooked!

Dined with couple from Australia (part of tour group of 26), touring for several weeks: bus and train tour of Whistler, Banff, etc., afterwards on long cruisetour, all with included meals and tours. This is their first cruise however!

After breakfast, headed to gangway (photos with raven and polar bear), Smart bus ($2) downtown, to Avis rental car, pick up white corolla (no line!), on the road by 10:30. Skagway has a very welcoming, funky feel; it's the first place I've visited where I felt I would like to come back here on a land trip and use it as a base for travel into the interior. When I came back on our second cruise, the feeling only deepened -- I think I will return to Skagway!

Shortly after we left Skagway, driving into the mountains towards the Yukon, we saw a small black bear feeding by the roadside at one of our first pulloffs… and were shocked to see other people trying to feed or entice the bear to come closer for photographs (I rolled up our windows and took pictures through the glass for safety). Finally, someone with an official-looking emblem on their truck door drove off the bear, rather than let the IDIOTS in the other car engage with them improperly. Do not feed the wild animals! Other sightings on the drive included birds, a baby caribou (no photos as this creature got a bit too close for comfort while we were driving up to Emerald Lake, but fortunately without injury to animal or car), and large brown bear at another pullout on our way back south.

We used the free version of the online Murray’s Guide, which was more than sufficient for our tour – I just wish I’d paid more attention to the recommendation to eat at the Chilkoot Bakery, rather than at the somewhat inferior Spirit Lake lodge near Emerald Lake, where we had poutine made with melted sliced cheese rather than cheese curds! Sigh. Perhaps we should have tried their Chinese food instead. We did stop on the way back south in Carcross to get some coffee at Caribou Crossing, which was fine.

Here’s the link for the free travel guide (you can also purchase a more detailed guide for $5.00): http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/south_klondike_hwy.html

We did our best to pull off the road whenever we saw interpretive signs, to take pictures, read about history and enjoy the views. Some of our stops included the scenic view of Skagway from Dyea road… the Deadhorse trail lookout, with views of the White Pass & Yukon railroad across the gulch… White Pass summit and “Welcome to Alaska”… Outhouse pullout, with facilities for hikers (and drivers)… “Welcome to the Yukon”… Bove Island viewpoint… Carcross… “World’s smallest desert”… stunning Emerald Lake… and much more along the way.

Shortly after we crossed into Canada (showing our passports at the border) we ran into road construction, and had to wait about 20 minutes, chatting with the workmen until they were able to guide us through the single-file line to the other side of the construction zone. Even with that delay, we had no problem doing the entire drive to Emerald Lake and back with time to spare during our port stop.

Lovely views as well pull into port... notice the clouds at the base of the mountain just over the water...

Twin Norwegian ships in port with us... yes, I'm on deck in my workout tank top to take these photos, it's not that cold for some reason...

As I said, almost alone in stretch class (my one companion kindly took this photo)

Painted signs on the rocks of all the ships that have docked at Skagway... you can also see the railroad pulls right up to the Princess docks if you want to take the White Pass & Yukon route trip.

A better shot of the Norwegian twins, docked at another area (no train dock for them)

More beautiful scenes from the dock in Skagway. Hard to believe all this snow will be gone soon.

Goofing around...

Motor City show... sorry, no notes, don't know if I liked it, hated it, if music and performers were good, bad or indifferent... I do know I was sitting behind some tall spiky-haired dude...

One last shot from the aft deck... notice that we're getting far enough north that even this late at night it's not quite dark... wait until we're in Fairbanks and truly experience the midnight sun!!

Ooh, dinner looks good! Italian night.

Seafood antipasto with shrimp, squid and mussels

Prosciutto and melon

Mmmmahi mahi

Fettucine Alfredo (guess I was hungry after all that whale watching...)

Oops! Forgot to take a picture before diving into the zabaglione ice cream.

Fun pix with our terrific waiter and assistant waiter... in their Italian garb

Oh gosh... my notetaking SERIOUSLY fell off this evening!! Here's all I have:

-Came home to warm up in hot tub on deck. Swam in pool, free sauna not working, slipped into thermal suite

-North to Alaska video in Universe Lounge

-Libby Riddles presentation, movie in Princess Theatre

-Dress for dinner

-Motor City production show

-Steve Jobs movie in cabin

Here's hoping I can add a bit more detail by writing some captions for the photos!! Sorry, folks... now you see what I mean, if I don't take daily notes, I remember NOTHING from my travels!!!

Hmm... looks like I went for afternoon tea again...

Ooh... cream swan, fruit tart, scone with jam and clotted cream...

Chillin' in the hot tub (with my waterproof cell phone camera case)

Awaiting sailaway from the Solarium

I was excited to meet Libby Riddles in person, a Princess exclusive... she was outside the Wheelhouse Bar with her dog, signing books.

Her presentation in the Princess Theatre was interesting, inspiring and engaging -- and very well attended.

Seals on a buoy (and such a backdrop!)

More views of the magnificent Mendenhall glacier.

The Alaska ferry. Yes, you can book passage on this and visit all the ports on the cheap.

Selfie with Captain Steve

And our great bus driver, who told us she had come here from (Florida?) by searching for "senior jobs in Alaska"... got her bus driver's license before leaving home... her husband also drives a van... and they are paying for their summer in Alaska by working! Such a cool idea for those in retirement.

We stopped for one more view of Mendenhall on our way back to the ship. I'm very excited to visit it up close and personal on our return trip to Juneau in two weeks.

We see houses nestled in the wilderness as we head off to search for the lunge feeding whale (the first one dived and may not come back up for 10 minutes)

Thar she blows!

Flipper

Fin

Kayak in whale territory

View of Mendenhall glacier from the water... pictures don't do it justice, it is simply breathtaking to see a boiling lake of ice, frozen so it does not pour into the sea as perspective makes it appear it should do at any moment

Captain Steve welcomes us onboard, explains we are taking a larger boat because the water is a bit rough today... I'm sure glad we're in this boat, we each get our own seat rather than having to share... and it's still a pretty bumpy ride even with the larger craft!!

All aboard!

Heading out of the harbor

Captain Steve uses a small model to demonstrate whale feeding behaviors

Rockin' and rollin'

Lots of whale watching boats... and see that black dot out on the water there? I think that's a whale, folks...