sherryf

On 6/12/2024 at 12:00 PM, SCX22 said:

I say always buy Plus on board.  But there have been posts that have stated that they've been denied due it being at capacity.  Personally have never experience this when cruising with my friends or my parents. 

I asked my travel agent about the possibility of being "sold out" when we board.  She said that only Premier sells out, due to specialty restaurant capacity.  Plus does not sell out.  I hope she's right, since we plan to buy onboard in August.

These can both definitely be done in sneakers, but I do prefer to take waterproof hiking shoes in case of heavy rain or mud... and I've been glad I had them several times.

You will change to Alaska time on the 2nd night of your cruise, before arriving at your first Alaskan port.

On 6/14/2024 at 4:13 AM, Coral said:

When I went (not this year) - I arrived at a very slow time and could not find any porters. No buses were there at the time.

I was just there a few weeks ago and saw porters.  I never use them myself, since I'm perfectly capable of rolling my own suitcase.

14 hours ago, hpeabody said:

I recently experienced boarding at Seattle Pier 91. It was not fun to stand and inch forward with checked suitcase and carry on for an hour or so. It was mayhem, could not even tell where the end of the line was.  I have never been at a port where there are no porters waiting curbside to take your luggage.  The situation was a looooooooong snaking line to get into the luggage check area which is inside a building.  Then proceed to the security metal detectors and check in lines snaking with the same people.  Not a good experience, oh it was cold and rainy too.

There are porters at Pier 91, but if a lot of people all arrive at once, especially the big buses, then there aren't enough porters to go around.  You must have arrived at a very busy time if there were no porters and you had to wait an hour.  I sailed out of Pier 91 a few weeks ago (on HAL) and did not have this problem at all.  We walked right in and dropped our luggage, and were on the ship within about 15 minutes. 

Inside the ship tends to be "room temperature" but of course that can vary a bit.  It's no different than going to a restaurant on land at any time of year.  If you tend to be cold, bring a sweater.

On 5/29/2024 at 8:12 PM, Aquahound said:

Bike and Brew excursion that goes to the Hangar for the brew?  Ugh.  It's disappointing to hear they aren't using one of the fantastic breweries.  

When we did the Bike & Brew in 2009, we went to Alaskan Brewing.  Their tasting room was quite small then.  My daughter and I just visited the brewery last week and the facility is much larger and nicer now.  They could easily have an excursion group there.

On 6/1/2024 at 7:44 AM, dmwnc1959 said:

Cool!  We were there that day and it didn't seem that bad, but we were on a kayaking excursion way out of town, and it didn't really rain much there.

3 hours ago, albingirl said:

Can you imagine having the time to go to a bar to get a drink the day of disembarkation? Not to mention the fun of lethargy for the long travel day ahead lol.

Just because someone wants to use their beverage package on the last morning doesn't mean they plan to do tequila shots at 7 am.  They might just want to grab a specialty coffee, or enjoy a cappuccino or *gasp* a mimosa with breakfast in the dining room.

I live in the Seattle area, so when I cruise out to Seattle to Alaska, I'm not in a hurry to get off the ship.  I've had disembarkation times around 9 am, and my long travel home is about 40 minutes.  I like to have a leisurely breakfast before disembarking, preferably with one last specialty coffee.

3 hours ago, rj59 said:

My preference is to just visit breweries in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan and get a flight of samples at each place. Bowden Street in Ketchikan and Devil's Club in Juneau are my favorites, although Barnaby Brewing in Juneau had a friendly cat who slept on my lap while I drank there one afternoon. 

We hit all of these last year.  I loved Barnaby and the cat.  Their Day Late Coconut Pastry Stout is delicious!

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The HAL 150th beer has been on board for 6 months or more. Standard Pils...which is not to my taste.

We didn't care for it either.  I'd rather drink Alaskan Amber any day!

2 hours ago, wcook said:

You can’t leave us hanging like that 🙂 What would you recommend for first timers? 

It really depends on your interests.  Totem Bight and Saxman are both good for learning about native culture, but very different experiences.  Float plane over Misty Fjords was absolutely spectacular.  We've gone hiking on our own couple of times. I went kayaking with my (adult) kids several years ago, and my daughter and I plan to go kayaking again in a couple of weeks.

On 5/15/2024 at 10:13 AM, karatemom2 said:

It was a fun one and done experience for us on a recent trip after many visits to Ketchikan, just to say we did it and try something new. I wouldn't put a high priority on it compared to other activities, but we found it entertaining and enjoyed a nice fresh seafood meal at the restaurant nearby on the docks afterwards.

Same for us.  We did it on about our tenth trip to Alaska.  We'd done many other better things on previous trips, so decided to check it out.  I certainly would not recommend it for anyone's first/only trip to Ketchikan.  

I drank Painkillers on Nieuw Amsterdam last summer and they were good.  Looking forward to trying them again at the end of the month on Westerdam.  I'm just mad that they raised the price so that they now are no longer fully covered by HIA.

You don't pass the Shrine when traveling from Mendenhall and ship. The Shrine is way north of Mendenhall.  Renting a car is probably your best option.  Have you priced taxi/uber for what you are planning?  A car rental is likely cheaper.

20 hours ago, HotRoot said:

The water made on the ship has sodium added to it.  If you have a problem with swelling, you do not want to drink this water.  I agree it tastes good, but, it makes me swell to the point where I have to take drugs to offset the swelling.  Bottled water does not do this.

I've done a lot of reading about this online.  Most sources say that it's the salt in the FOOD, not the water, that is the culprit. I have never read that they ADD salt to the water.  The reverse osmosis system removes the salt.  I always drink the ship water and have never had trouble with swelling.

You can look up average temperatures for the areas you will visit at the time you will be visiting to get an idea.  Once you get closer to your sailing (1-2 weeks) you can check forecasts for more current information.  It will be cooler when sailing near glaciers.

The best way to dress in Alaska is LAYERS.  No bulky coats.  A waterproof rain jacket with a hood.  I tend to take short and long sleeved shirts, a light jacket, a fleece/sweatshirt, and my rain jacket, which doubles as a windbreaker.  I can wear any one or all at once, depending on the weather, and can add or remove as necessary if the weather changes throughout the day.

Or you can just drink the water from your tap. It's quite good, and no plastic waste! 😁

20 hours ago, Teechur said:

The Discovery apparently only has a two-hour window.

3 hours.  We are scheduled to be there 9 pm to midnight.  I never bother to get off the ship there anyway.

22 hours ago, No Sea Legs! said:

be a little over whelming. At the time of writing, I do not know what time we embark, we may not have the luxury of having masses of time to 'physically' explore all of the options and then picking the right time before they are snapped up by others who are more organised than us.

I've never found the MDR to be overwhelming on embarkation day.  We never reserve anything, just walk into a dining room when we want to eat and get seated relatively quickly.  I few times we've been handed a pager, but even so I don't think we ever waited more than 15-20 minutes.

19 hours ago, BeachBum47 said:

Also, Holland America is the BEST line to experience Glacier Bay with. Not all the ships get to go so close. Holland America has preferential treatment because they’re the original. Last July, on our Glacier Bay day, we were told that Holland America reserved our spot that day 7 years earlier! 

I've been to Glacier Bay on Holland America and Princess, and the experience has been pretty much identical.  I would not say that HAL does it any better than Princess... but not any worse either.

Skagway Brewing is our favorite!

4 hours ago, Mary229 said:

The point is there are glaciers everywhere not just the ones the ship pulls up to.  One simply needs to open their eyes and look

Yes, there are glaciers around that you can see, but the ship does't necessarily "visit" them in a way that they are close enough to see.  The glacier in Juneau (Mendenhall) is nowhere near the port and can't be seen from the ship.  You have to take an excursion or find other transportation to get there.  There are hanging glaciers that can be seen from the port in Skagway, but not all HAL ships go to Skagway.  Some go to Sitka instead.

When cruise lines talk about "visiting" glaciers, that should mean that they have a glacier sailing on their schedule and that they actually go there and get close enough to see it.  It doesn't mean that they briefly passed by a distant hanging glacier that people might happen to see if they are looking.  It doesn't mean that the ship stopped in a place where glaciers can be seen if you take excursions, but cannot be seen from the ship. "Visiting" a glacier should refer to actual scheduled glacier viewing, at Hubbard, College Fjord, Glacier Bay, Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier, etc.  My question is, what do they consider a "successful" glacier visit? If they sail into Endicott Arm but don't get in far enough to see the glacier, or barely get far enough to get a tiny distant glimpse, does it count?

6 hours ago, Mary229 said:

They didn’t define “visit”😉

I don't think you can count it as a "visit" if you are 50+ miles away and cannot see it. 🙄

10 hours ago, Mary229 said:

There is also a Glacier in the Seattle area.

LOL!  There are glaciers on Mt Rainier, but you can hardly say that the ship "visited a glacier" because it was in Seattle.  You can't even see Mt Rainier from Seattle a large percentage of the time.