Mediterranean_Honeymooner

Excursions

As I already mentioned, excursions have been the most difficult part of planning for me.  There are several reasons for this. The first is trying to stay within a reasonable budget. The second is the limited time available in each port.  The third is the desire to see and go EVERYTHING.  As you can imagine, the third thing doesn’t really mesh well with the first two. 😂

I subscribe to a similar way of thinking as Anita Latte in that when planning excursions, I don’t think “what would I enjoy?”, but rather “what would regret missing?”.  Because the answer to the first question is everything. Really. When I look at a list of excursions, I rarely (if ever) see one that makes me think “oh, that doesn’t look fun”. We have a pretty wide variety of interests, so everything looks enjoyable - from adventure to leisure, from historical tours to foodie hops, from uninhabited wilderness to the buildings of a busy metropolis. 

So instead, I try to decide what I consider to be absolute musts.  Fortunately, for Alaska, we were able to make a very short list of musts.  We wanted to see whales and beautiful landscapes, particularly glaciers.  The second would be fulfilled by the Glacier Bay day that we consider an itinerary must, so that just left the whales.  But that presented some issues too, because when you manage to narrow down to so few “musts”, you get to fill in with “wants” which goes back to LONG list. 🤦‍♀️

Juneau - 

From my research, this was the port on our itinerary with the best chance of seeing whales. So with that in mind, it was decided that this would be the “whale port”.  But whale watching would take up a good part of the day, but not all.  So we needed to add something.  

Dogsledding on a glacier sounded really neat, but took too much time to combine it with whale watching.  Plus it was a real budget killer for something that wasn’t a must for us.  And finally, it is the activity most likely to be canceled for bad weather and we are already going in shoulder season.  So it got ruled out.

Mendenhall Glacier became the front runner for “add on” activities.  We knew we would be seeing plenty of glaciers in Glacier Bay, but it would be nice to see another.  Plus, this one we could do a nature hike and even see Nugget Falls! 

So the the next step became choosing a tour.  I had read lots of good things about Harv and Marv’s so I started looking at them first. The 6 person tour sounded very appealing, as small groups are always a little more personal. But then I had pause because while they did include seeing Mendenhall Glacier, it was basically a peek from quite a ways away. (I know I could get transportation and see the glacier on our own, but for ease I was really looking for a tour that included it all.) And then I started reading that the small boats really didn’t have much for flat deck space to walk to both sides of the boat to see whales.  Back to the drawing board.  

Carnival was offering a great sounding excursion with whale watching and time to explore and hike at Mendenhall. Plus I had that card that gave us 10% off.  So that became the new front runner. 

But then I started reading about people visiting Tracy’s Crab Shack.  We love seafood and it seemed like we should definitely try some fresh seafood while in Alaska. I pulled up the menu and DH was excited! So I guess we were adding Tracy’s at the end of our excursion.  

But then I stumbled across a tour through Juneau Whale Watch that included dinner at Tracy’s. 😁. I have read lots of great reviews of JWW on here, and they offer what I was hoping for with whale watching and plenty of time to hike Mendenhall and see Nugget Falls. What’s better is that their excursion (with the dinner) was less than Carnival’s even with my card discount.  So not only are we paying a little less, but now we are getting our $80 crab dinner free! Booked! 🦀 

(more to follow)

On 3/22/2019 at 10:07 AM, LF23 said:

Thank you for all the work,  this is wonderful.  We’re going in July, but really wanted to go in May. Couldn’t make the timing with our work commitments no matter how we tried. These trip reports have been so helpful with our planning, and I, like so many others, have benefitted greatly from Anita’s report, from start to finish!  

Glad to hear you are enjoying it!

22 hours ago, masterdrago said:

I'm loving this. We are fairly new to cruising - a few Caribbean cruises over the last few years. Really big Alaska coming in a couple of months. I sometimes feel like I'm starting to salivate while reading these detailed reports. Especially Anitas'. I'm sure when we get back from our Alaska trip, it will take me weeks to edit into usable format, all the thoughts and pix I have accumulated on the 16 day adventure.

Glad to have you along. It’s definitely going to be difficult to sort through photos!

21 hours ago, masterdrago said:

I had no idea that there were so many ways to save $$$. We have made some inroads through saving with the RCI Visa and the Alaska Air BOA cards - mostly in the form of OBC , companion fares and air mileage. Joy found a great deal on a flight back from Seattle where the first class was only a bit higher than premium class. She scarfed it up and used miles to boot!

We have definitely gotten fairly savvy through the years at figuring out how to take advantage of some excellent deals. Good job on the flight sale! 

10 hours ago, Cutiecruisin said:

I am so excited to follow your trip! I, too am traveling on the Legend to Alaska only a few weeks later, May 28 to June 4th. So please give me all the tips! Also, we are the same age so that makes me excited for your opinions. 

I will definitely share all the tips on our planning and then our experiences when we return!

On 3/21/2019 at 7:15 AM, Anita Latte said:

I don't mind at all that you mentioned my report...in fact, I'm very flattered that you did!

 

Our AMEX cards are newer...I've only had mine for about one year. It's slightly embarrassing to admit, but I didn't realize that there could be so many special offers that are such good quality! The other cards in our arsenal are more about bonus points, etc., not full on statement credits. Eye opening for me...and something for me to definitely monitor.

 

I'm very interested in what excursions you'll be able to go on and how the conditions are. I've seen some great deals for the early Alaska sailings. You got a good one for your balcony. Are you planning on bringing a blanket? I read a first sailing report on a different line...it was a May sailing...the cruiser had brought her own fleece mermaid blanket? I don't remember exactly, but she spent a bit of time on her balcony and the blanket did seem to come in handy.

Thats a good idea.  I had read of asking the room steward to bring you a couple, but bringing your own is a great idea!

6 hours ago, Anita Latte said:

I'm so enjoying reading your process! Excellent money saving strategies! I haven't heard of the AMEX credit offer before. Both DH and I have an AMEX and we have a cruise on the books...I'll have to look into that to see what that is all about. Our AMEX is a Delta one though...IDK if the same offers would apply? You said you watched the boards for the offer...where?

 

Interesting thought about the cruise line specific card as well...I'm going to look into that idea too. I'm all about working the system... You have to be careful of how new credit lines after your FICO score...but other than that...if you don't carry debt on the cards, there's little reason to not take advantage of introductory offers. The big question is whether or not the introductory offers on only a one time thing. For instance...AMEX has a lifetime introductory offer limit. You can only get one introductory offer for each type of card in your lifetime. It's why we waited and watched for the best intro for Delta miles for DH's AMEX.

 

Wishing I could be planning an Alaska cruise...not possible with up and coming life changes...will be enjoying following along with yours.

Yay! I’m so glad you found this report! I hope you don’t mind that I referenced your report - it was awesome and really inspired me to write this.  I loved reading your planning process. 

As as far as the American Express, that seems to be an rotating offer (not an introductory offer).  We used it for our cruise last fall (we have had these Amex cards for almost a decade) and then it came around again for this one.  There is a saving money board here on CC and whenever the special comes around again, someone will post it there.  I have no idea if it is offered for a Delta Amex, but it is worth checking.  Go under your offers, and travel and it should be labeled “World’s Leading Cruiselines”.  

The statement credit for Carnival was a one time offer, but the excursion discount is ongoing. I don’t know if I’ll keep that card long term, but I don’t open enough new cards for my credit to take a hit. 

1 hour ago, amisup said:

 

This is a great tip to save on gratuities. Where did you find these deals ? 

 

That $700 for balcony is amazing - What are the dates you are sailing ?   

The gratuities will be covered by the statement credit I got from applying for the credit card.  I found the offer on the Carnival website.  I went to pay the balance, and an offer popped up asking if I wanted to get $200 back in statement credit by applying for the card.

Some people get free gratituities or OBC specials through a TA, but the past passenger rate was actually better than any we found through a TA.

Our sailing is 4/29-5/6. I believe that is the first of the season for Carnival which I’m sure is why we found such a good deal on it. There are definitely some drawbacks to traveling that early, as detailed in this thread:

But overall, the benefits outweighed any drawbacks.  For instance, if seeing bears or salmon runs are a must for you, don’t go in April/May.  However, we live near the Smokies and have seen wild bears multiple times, so that wasn’t a must for us. 

Money Saving Strategies (cont)

So the next step was choosing hotels. Just like we don’t have any cruise line loyalty, we also don’t have loyalty to a particular hotel chain.  As long as it’s clean and comfortable, we are good. We knew we wanted to be downtown in both Seattle and Vancouver, so that we would have the option to walk to various sights. I looked at numerous options (Hotels.com, AirBNB, Priceline, Expedia), but the least expensive option for both cities wound up being Hotwire.com with their “Hot Rate” program.  For those who aren’t familiar, this is a rate for an unknown hotel.  They will tell you the star level, area, user ratings, distance to attractions, etc., but you don’t know the exact hotel until after you have paid. We have done this before and always been pleased.  Hotwire was offering an additional 10% off, so we were able to get a 3 star hotel in downtown Vancouver for $82 for one night and a 3 star hotel in Seattle (0.3 miles from the Space Needle!) for $107 (prices include all taxes and fees. Two nights of downtown lodging for under $200? Check! ✅

We knew we would have to find a way to get from Seattle to Vancouver.  Bus was the cheapest, but train was more scenic.  Renting a car is also an option, but that seemed like more hassle than I wanted.  So we put a pin in that decision until I got a pop up from Amtrak (gotta love how they stalk every site you visit to know what you are shopping for 😳😂) advertising a BOGO Valentines Day special for the train. Awesome!  Two seats on the train for $44? Check! ✅

I also happened upon an Amex special that will get me $30 off an Uber ride, so that should take of getting us from the airport to our hotel in Seattle. Check. ✅

Somewhere in there, I also managed to check the website and found a small price drop, so I called and got that applied, saving us $60 more on cruise cost. ✅

So if you’ve been keeping score, we have got 7 day Alaskan cruise in balcony cabin for two people plus taxes and fees, gratituities and a little extra OBC, two nights hotel, all flights, transportation to Seattle hotel, and transportation from Seattle to Vancouver and we are well under $2000 out of pocket. Woohoo!!! 😄👍

Next I’ll cover excursion decision making. (That’s been much tougher!)

Money Saving Strategies

I don’t consider us to be “cheap”, but we are definitely “frugal”.  We like to vacation, but our money priorities have shifted (as I previously mentioned).  So it is important to us to stay in budget, but also to get the best value for that dollar.

As I said, we had certain things we didn’t want to sacrifice to save money - we didn’t want to sacrifice a balcony and we didn’t want to sacrifice itinerary.  That being said, we didn’t have have many itinerary requirements.  Ideally, we would have loved to take several weeks and add on a land tour to the end of our cruise.  But we knew that it wasn’t feasible to leave the kids for that long (nor did we want to). So we decided to be happy with as much of Alaska as we were able to see in that week. 

We knew it was going to be most reasonable for airfare if we found a round trip Seattle cruise, so that was one thing we were looking for.  And we both felt Glacier Bay was a must. The great rate we found did include Glacier Bay, so that worked out well.  It wasn’t a true round trip, as it starts in Vancouver and ends in Seattle, but for the great cruise rate, it was worth that additional travel cost.

The first thing we did after booking the cruise was finding our flights.  We have Southwest Rewards, so we were able to get our round trip flights to Seattle with points. Free flights? Check! ✅

For our last cruise, we had seen a tip on here about using an American Express discount that saved us some money, so I started watching the boards for another sale to come up.  Bingo!  An offer for an immediate $100 credit to your Amex account for a $500 or more cruise purchase. My husband and I each have an Amex, so we each charged $500 to ours, and Amex immediately refunded the $100, so our cards were only charged $400 each.  Extra $200 savings? Check! ✅

Next I saw an offer that if I put the remaining balance for the cruise on a Carnival Mastercard, I could get a $200 statement credit.  I didnt have a Carnival Mastercard, but I decided for the credit and the discount on excursions it was worth getting. (I pay off my credit cards every month, so this is just “free” money.  If you are someone who keeps a credit card balance, the interest would not make these good strategies for you.). I have already received the statement credit, and will be using this to pay for prepaid gratituities and will put the rest towards onboard spending for photos or drinks. Free gratuities and OBC? Check! ✅

(continued next post)

39 minutes ago, er345 said:

Looking forward to following along on your planning. $700 each sounds like a fantastic price.  So happy you found something that works for you so you can take this trip.  We will be taking our first cruise to Alaska in August and obviously I am already excited and planning since I am reading the Alaska boards. 

Glad to have you along.  Hoping to be able to share info that may be helpful to others in their planning. 

The who:  myself, a 35 year old nurse practitioner and DH, a 39 year old chemical engineer.  

The what: Alaskan Cruise on the Carnival Legend 

The when: April 29th, 2019 sailing out of Vancouver

The why....therein lies the story.  To fully explain, we need to go back 10+ years.  We got married in 2009.  At that time, we decided to go BIG for our honeymoon.  We had saved up some money and wanted to take “the trip of a lifetime”.  We narrowed it down to 3 options - the Mediterranean, Australia, or Alaska.  The Mediterranean was at the top of my bucket list and Alaska was at the top of DH’s.  We knew we wanted to do a cruise.  So when we settled on an October 10th wedding date, I “won” by default (as there are no Alaska sailings that late).

There are no regrets on either of our parts...our honeymoon was an AMAZING three week/three continent journey through Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. ❤️❤️❤️ 

Then life happened, and Alaska fell by the wayside.  But it was never forgotten.  As our 10 year anniversary drew closer, I knew that I really wanted to make an Alaskan cruise happen for my DH. But there was a lot more standing in the way now.  The first challenge was that we now had “champagne tastes on a beer budget”.  We now have two kids in a private school (public schools in our area aren’t good), a mortgage, two car payments, and a 15 year old wiener dog in ailing health.  Our priorities for money aren’t what they once were.  The second challenge was childcare.  We knew we wanted to take a trip just the two of us.  We haven’t done that since the kids were born. But we also knew we didn’t want to be away from them for a long time, nor were we likely to be able to get childcare for over a week.

So knowing those two things, I had pretty much resigned myself to Alaska being off the table.  I continued to look, but nothing was in our price range. 

I feel I should back up at this point so you understand us.  We aren’t cruise snobs.  We have been on 2 Carnival cruises and 2 Princess cruises.  They have all been delightful.  We usually base our choice of line on itinerary and price.

So going back to the present day, we were looking at every cruise line.  We were open to any ship that would get us to Alaska.  But I knew we wanted to try to get a veranda if it was possible.  Everything I had read said that Alaska was one itinerary where the balcony was “a must”.  Now, I won’t say I felt it was “a must”, but I was hopeful we could swing it.  

As the days went on, it looked like Alaska was a pipe dream.  Until one day in December. I just happened to be looking at past passenger specials for Carnival.  There was a great deal on the first sailing of the season.  But surely that deal wouldn’t extend to balconies.  Wait, it does?!?!  $700 per person for a 7 day Alaskan cruise in a guaranteed balcony?!?!  Done.

And that was how this trip was born.   More to come. (Photo below of us on our honeymoon.)

Hello!   I LOVE reading cruise trip reports.  I have been reading every one I can get my hands on since we booked our Alaskan Cruise. I recently had the pleasure of coming across one by Anita Latte.  In addition to reporting on her trip, Mrs. Latte also chronicled her planning/thought process.  It was fantastic.  And so I thought...”I should do that!”   It may not be great journalism or perfect photography, but I may just be able to put out something that will be interesting or helpful to others planning Alaskan cruises. My plan is to discuss some of my planning and then transition into a trip report when we return. So here goes nothing....

17 hours ago, martincath said:

If memory serves there were only ever a handful of canneries in Ketchikan itself, as back in the day the cannery would be placed next to a good spawning stream - why waste time on boats looking for fish when you knew they've be literally swimming right past you?  - so they were spread out around the area, with good streams subject to all kinds of skulduggery to keep control of them! The efficiency of netting them at source and dragging them straight inside is what destroyed the industry...

 

It's not cheap to make these old industrial buildings safe for tours so I don't think you'll find any alternatives nearby - maybe you could try contacting the modern canneries and pretend to be a potential investor to see if they'll let you tour a working one;-) The best cannery museum I have ever seen anywhere is actually down here, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston Village, Richmond - it's a bit of a schlep on transit from downtown Vancouver but not so bad from airport hotels, so folks doing a one-way cruise might be able to manage it Pre or Post. I find it a step up from the Libby Cannery in George Inlet (where all the packaged tours you're taking about seem to go in Ketchikan), and infinitely better than ISPs free displays in the old cannery that became the core of the cruise port there.

 

Since it's a government-funded national historic site, GoGC has a fantastic amount of material in the exhibits and many very well-clued-in staff to show you around. Excellent value IMO, even if you don't try the (free) 'blind taste test' canned salmon comparison at the end of a tour. We've taken every visitor we've had to see it and they have all loved it, from my family (many of whom fish both professionally and to fill the freezer) to folks who did not have a scooby about the concept. It's even got some pretty good cultural/historic info as there were many Japanese in the village and the actual canning lines were mostly staffed by Chinese immigrants.

 

Salmon bakes I can't help you with - I'm very picky about my salmon so it's pretty much cook it myself or don't eat it at all, the very thought of a mass fish buffet horrifies me;-)

I would love to do this, but sadly due to transportation times, we are so limited in time in Vancouver. 😪. We’ve actually been thinking that with how limited our time is, we might book one of those private tour guides to drive us around the city for a couple hours and then take us to port. If we did this, do you have any suggestions for what we should ask to see/hear about?  

We were planning on DIYing our day in Ketchikan. We would really like to do a cannery tour but is there one that’s not lumped into an expensive excursion package - just a tour of the cannery?  And while I see plenty of salmon bakes in Skagway and Juneau (which are already jam packed days for us), I see none in Ketchikan the salmon capital.  Am I missing something?

On 3/13/2019 at 12:23 AM, martincath said:

Not only is he a local boy, he's pretty good about helping out with local charities when he's home (even when the press isn't sending folks to cover it). He'll even email you back if you drop him a line at his day job (though he is out of the office a lot between Hollywood gigs and charitable endeavours). Solid guy - though his twin, Gordon, is an absolute tool.

Ahhh, something else to love about Ryan Reynolds! ❤️

We used it in August with a just turned 2 year old.  It was our first time with it, but it was wonderful! No long lines to have to stand in with a 2 year old to embark and we were able to grab a quick bite and go directly to the cabin to get a nap in before muster.  

I found this trip report and it made me think of your question.  The report is written by a woman who took her mother who uses a wheelchair/walker.  They took the train.  I think the report would probably provide lots of insight.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2412907-carnival-legend-made-mom-an-alaskan-legend/

38 minutes ago, Coral said:

May has very long days.

Compared to June through August,  early May has days that are shorter. I’m just going by what I’ve read in other people’s trip reports and articles I’ve read (like this one: https://traveltips.usatoday.com/alaska-cruises-see-northern-lights-17540.html).  I know the chances are very slim, and I am by no means expecting to see them.  I just said there was a “slightly increased” chance of seeing them since that’s what I’ve read. 🤷‍♀️

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

I don't think you will see Northern Lights in May.

Agreed.  It’s very unlikely.  But there have been reports of it, and it is more likely in shoulder season due to shorter days/increased darkness.

No advice, but we will be on the same cruise.  Looking forward to it!

We haven’t been yet, but we are going the first week of May and this is what I’ve discovered in my research....

Cons:  Weather is much colder, less likely to see salmon runs and bears, Emerald Lake may still be frozen so you miss out on the beautiful colors of it, the White Pass Yukon Railroad doesn’t run the whole route that early in the season (just to Fraser), some tours and sites are not operating yet

Pros:  Less ships at the ports that early in season/fewer tourists in port, slightly increased chance of seeing Northern Lights and orcas, get to see beautiful snow on the mountaintops, fewer bugs on land tours, fewer kids on ships, less rain, PRICE!

I don’t think I would cruise without an MDR.  For me, it’s part of the “experience”.  I love to get dressed up and have long, relaxing dinners. I enjoy sipping a glass of wine and trying new foods. In 4 cruises (~30 cruising days), I have only missed dinner in the MDR twice that I can think of - once we were in port late and the other I was first trimester pregnant and was too queasy for dinner one night.

We took our kids on their first cruise in August (ages 2 and 5), and were pleasantly surprised to find they also loved the experience of eating in the MDR.  They went to Camp Carnival for formal night, but every other night asked to eat at the MDR.  They were very well behaved and the staff really made a fuss over them.  

I just don’t think it would feel like cruising to me without an MDR.

1 minute ago, Gizmo88 said:

I have the Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS (image stabilizer) , but II (non STM model). It's crop equivalent is 88-400mm which is pretty far (Canon t3 and t3i have a 1.6x crop). This lens is very sharp for it's images. if considering a Canon EF-S 55-250mm do not get the the STM version because the t3/t3i won't be able to fully utilize the STM function. Note that the lens doesn't have a super fast autofocus. 

 

 

 

Okay.  This is good to know.  I was leaning towards the STM because I thought I read it was “better” in some way.  But not worth it for my camera?

21 minutes ago, mpdog42 said:

I am not entitled, but platinum is something I have earned!

I have been with carnival since 1993, and other's have been a lot longer, so in your opinion some first time cruiser who paid his fee(Bribe Money)for FTTF should be ahead of me, in the tender line or at Guest services...I Think Not!!

Mike

I don’t understand.  I purchased FTTF in August.  We boarded after Platinums and Diamonds.  And the number of FTTF they sell (or if they offer it at all) is based on how many Plats/Diamonds are sailing.  So it won’t be any more competition for tenders/guest services.  It may just be that some of the people are FTTF rather than Platinum/Diamond.  But if it’s going to be 100 people (random, arbitrary number - no idea how many they actually allow) either way, what does it matter whether those 100 “earned” that or paid for it?  Not to mention, there wasn’t a single person in the “special” guest service line any time we walked by it (even when the regular line was quite long), so I’m not sure this is that big a concern.

13 minutes ago, TheOldBear said:

 

Its a reasonable, consumer grade lens from a well known retailer. Consider it a benchmark price for comparison. I have a similar grade lens for my Olympus (and some old Canon lenses in FD and EF mounts around somewhere). 

 

 

Great.  Any advice on whether I should purchase a polarizing lens?

7 minutes ago, TheOldBear said:

 

There are a few online vendors - Lensrentals.com is a site recommended over on dpreview.com. For used, keh.com is fequenly mentioned. If you have a local camera store, they may have some used equipment. Any EF or EF-S lens should fit your camera body. It’s a very common lens mount, and a check on B&H photo shows a Tameron 70-300 lens for $129.00

 

This lens does not have image stabilization - for EF mount lenses that is usually found on the next price tier upwards. This should not matter unless you are trying for a long handheld exposure.

So this 70-300 would be a better choice?  Do you not recommend either of the other two?  Do you have any other suggestions to look for used?