mlbcruiser

Thanks for the replies. I called Gino tours today which operates the white buses. They take absolutely no motorized scooters at all of any size. I did ask the question on another website’s Juneau boards. Was told to check up taxis or accessible luxury tours (I’m sure luxury tours are not cheap!). Someone posted on the other board that detects she’s are usually about $35 each way and they charge $17 for entry to the Mendenhall location when the actual charge is only $5. 🙄 I’m just adding that information on here in case others reading this or curious about this topic. No one seem to know anything about how you work it out with a taxi to get back to the port. Guess I’ll have to contact an actual taxi company and find out. Or maybe skip it. We have seen glaciers before at least.

We will be in the port of Juneau, Alaska in July. Although my husband can’t walk, he can’t walk for a long period of time and his balance isn’t the greatest. Therefore he has a small folding travel scooter. It weighs 50 pounds and when folded it is about the size of a medium suitcase. We’d like to visit Mendenhall Glacier. (I understand there are paved areas to get to the visitor center and an entryway for mobility impaired people.) An easy and popular way to get there from the cruise port is to use either the Blue Bus or the White Bus. Has anyone used either of these buses who has brought along a rather compact travel scooter? if you have, I’d love to hear of your experience. i’ve heard that older one of these companies allows folding wheelchairs, but not travel scooters. I don’t know if they would exclude one this small. It would be very simple to get the scooter into the trunk of a taxi or regular car. However, I have read that taxis are very hard to get on cruise ship days and you need to reserve in advance. (There will be five ships in port at the same time that day as well.) Also I’m not sure how it would work to set up a return to the port or how much time we would need at the glacier area in order to do that. Hoping for some helpful information from anybody who has used one of these bus companies (these buses are not the regular public buses that makes stops) or even anyone who has used a taxi or Uber to get to Mendenhall Glacier and their experience. Thanks for any helpful, suggestions or information.

Dan G, after looking at the Seattle guidebook, I think you are right and that it’s not going to benefit us a lot too stay in somewhere other than the airport. Thankfully, we have seen a lot of the major sites in the Seattle area and also have been to Whidbey Island. If our dd’s family happens to get in late the next day, the only thing we really be interested in doing is maybe visiting pikes place or riding on some type of the ferry for a while. Probably won’t do that though. I’ve done it before. Don’t want to shell out for the cab fare. Any other form of transportation won’t work for us because my husband will need to bring, a folding mobility scooter. Only weighs 50 pounds and is about the size of a suitcase but not a good idea for rail transportation. Can easily fit it in a cab trunk. seems like a lovely place, we just need some thing basic. Believe me I have been trying to nudge my dd! Ferry_Watcher, Cedarbrook Lodge looks very nice. I’ve seen it mentioned another posts. However, we just really need a clean and safe place to spend a couple of nights this time around. Believe me, I have tried, and I’m still trying, to get my dd to get their flights booked! She and her family are all very busy and they’re excellent at putting things off. It usually ends up costing them a lot more to do whatever as a result. Oh well, it’s their $! Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply. I think I found a place with a good tripadvisor plus discount and an airport shuttle. Thought I would check with my daughter before booking it and she is supposed to call me later. If not, I’ll just book it for my husband and I. Only thing I don’t like is it’s nonrefundable. ☹️

We will be arriving at SeaTac about 6:30 pm two nights before our ship departs from Pier 91. While I would like there to be some restaurants nearby, I really don’t think we’ll be doing too much that night. Hoping someone can share a bit of light on a few areas of town that might be good to stay in between the airport and pier 91. Have thought of staying in a hotel near the airport and still might do that. However, it would be nice to find a clean hotel or motel in a safe area that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. After having visited some Canadian national parks for about a week prior to the cruise, I think all my husband & I plan to do is eat & relax a bit that night. We’ve been to Seattle before although it wad about 15 years ago. Our daughter’s family will be arriving sometime the next day, but do not even have flights booked yet, so I have no idea about their time of arrival. Once they are there, there will be three grandchildren to “liven things up” for the week ( if you get my drift, lol!). I may even wind up mostly doing laundry that day! Hoping someone has some good suggestions on areas to stay in with hotels or motels, and opinions on whether we should just stick to the airport area until the day of the cruise or find somewhere closer to the port, so that we won’t waste too much time getting there on boarding day. Thanks for any helpful, replies or information..

If anyone can recall visiting Juneau on one of the Quantum class ships of Royal Caribbean, can you recall how long it was after you docked until they allowed passengers off of the ship? I know this can vary by port & ship. Really hoping to hear from someone who has done this and has a really good memory! Thanks for any helpful replies.

I’m sure you will still enjoy seeing the glacier, no matter how you do it. I like to watch Deadliest Catch normally, but especially if I am going to do an Alaskan cruise! Of course, nothing like our Alaskan cruise will really be, but just the same… (Although we did do that Deadliest Catch crabbing ship excursion when we went to Alaska last time, and it was quite interesting!) The show puts me in the AK mood I guess. Especially since the TV show Alaska Daily finished it’s season a week or 2 ago. New episodes of DC starting tonight.

Thanks twangster. That’s pretty much what I assumed. I’m REALLY glad that when we did our first Alaskan cruise we had the itinerary that we did. Additionally, if we had not done a land tour post cruise, we would have missed the main and best part of our experience.

The Fun Researcher, the Mendenhall glacier may be there, but the ship doesn’t really go near it, does it? I assumed it did not, since there are excursions out of Juneau, for one place, that basically take you to where it is. And some of the other areas a ship can get quite close to the glacier. Easy to see them calve and the ship we were on got quite close to them.

I hope that is not the case, but mostly for my daughter and her family as they’ve never been in a place to see glaciers. That’s one of the issues with Alaskan cruises out of Seattle. Most don’t ever go to the better glacier areas like College Bay, College fjord, and so on.

When I spoke to the Royal Caribbean customer service rep a couple of days ago the itineraries had the Endicott Arm day as a sailing day. It also had that from the start, but included the brackets around Endicott Arm. The ship has to go somewhere and the distance isn’t that great so I imagine we are still going to Endicott Arm. Sure hope so! Or even a better place to see glaciers. ???

Same thing for Celebrity’s Blue Chip Club. 1 1/2 to 2 hours is a common wait time, but on occasion, you might get lucky and get someone in just 3-4 min. If the offer is really, really good, don’t give up! Just put your phone on speakerphone and go about your business until someone answers.

I also called RCI’s customer service today. Had no problem reaching them and the lady who helped me had me hold on while she did some checking. On everything she had available or could access, it still shows our initial itinerary for July 3’s sailing. She said the shore excursions were still available to book on her end. She wanted to know where I had gotten information regarding possible canceled ports and not being able to book excursions in those ports. I told her there was a cruisecritic thread, and a heck of a lot of people are going to be really upset if they have pulled those ports. She said from everything she has been able to find out they are still in the itineraries. Also, that usually they will get notices indicating changes. . I guess we shall see!

Assuming Anthem has bumper cars and roller rinks as on Quantum, do you have any idea what time those venues are open during the cruise? Days of the week, or daytime or evening? Is it absolutely essential to have reservations in advance? Since you just sailed, can you recall if they were a lot of kids on that cruise? (If so, was it an Easter break cruise?) our daughter’s family is coming along and it will be July. So I’m guessing lots of kids will be wanting to do those activities.. It’s so hard to make reservations for things like that in advance - not knowing what other things will happen at what time or on what day. Also, what type of dining did you choose and which dining room did you dine in? If my time dining, did you make reservations well in advance? Anything else about your dining times or issues, please feel free to comment on. Thanks and any info appreciated!

Make sure you cancel your wife’s drink package 48 hours before you board. That goes for any excursions she waz booked on through RCI as well. Assuming you still get to go.

Thanks to everyone for the info! I should keep up with this stuff more. So it’s 12 non alcoholic drinks per cabin “officially” and not pp. my brother and his girlfriend recently each brought 12 bottles of water onto a celebrity ship out of Fort Lauderdale. But honestly, who would really care about that? I’ve heard sometimes it depends on the captain as to whether or not such things are enforced, but I have no idea where did that is true or not.

In the “olden days” we were allowed to bring soda onto RCI ships, as well as 2 bottles of wine or champagne pp. I know one can still bring wine or a certain amount of bottled water. Haven’t brought any beverages on in some years, though we have cruised many times. Are soft drinks (soda) allowed these days? If so, how much? Hoping someone knows for sure.

Glad to hear free laundry bag pp for Diamond Plus wasn’t taken away. I was reading that chart someone posted on the various levels of benefits and it appeared to me that it was just a $10 discount. On Celebrity at doesn’t matter if you were diamond or diamond plus. Both categories are lumped together and have the same perks. I personally don’t think their perks are as good as Royal Caribbean‘s. Also hope RCI does not start cutting back. However, I do wish Royal Caribbean would change it’s free 24 hours of Wi-Fi perk and make it so it begins at whatever time of day sign in to it the first time and then it ends 24 hours from that time. On Celebrity, you didn’t have to use the 24 hours all within an actual 24 hrs. You could stretch it out into segments over the entire week if you wanted to.

In the past, when you were Diamond you were allowed 1 free bag of laundry. We were on a Celebrity ship a few weeks ago and received that perk. Now it appears that even though we moved up to Diamond Plus ladt fall, if I understand it right we now just get a $10 discount off of a $34.99 bag of laundry. 😠

Interesting aid. When I bought my husband a cane with three legs and a stool, I tried it. it felt very unwieldy. Months later I saw something on the Internet and learned we were sitting on it wrong! You’re supposed to put the shaft/handle in between your legs from the front, and then sit on it. Still, he hasn’t ever used it. I imagine one day it may come in handy for something. Good luck with this new seat. Looks easy to tote around. Hopefully you will report back after you use it because I’m sure many others might want to get one if it works well for you.

If you park your scooter somewhere along the pavement, especially in the parts of the island nearest the ship, no one will bother it. I recall there is sort of an inland lake looking area with a beach surrounding it on the right when you go a little way onto the island from the ship dock. There are chairs and the beach very close to the pavement if you are lucky enough to get one and you would still be on a sandy beach. There is also a real beach on the left of the pavement early on near the same area. it’s a bit of a walk in sand from the pavement to the shoreline, but not too bad. One of the dining venues and even some restrooms are in the general vicinity of that beach. Just make sure you have the scooter key with you. My husband has a foldable travel scooter. It is only about the size of a medium suitcase when folded up. With a battery in it, it weighs about 55 pounds. We have been to Coco Cay twice and he just parked it on the edge of the pavement. Doesn’t usually even fold it. He usually tries to find a place that has a bit of a shade. Your biggest problem might be if it suddenly burst out raining. You probably don’t want your scooter in the rain as it might do something to it’s power system at the very least. Especially if it happened to be a downpour. The thing about taking the scooter is that you could give yourself a little tour of what there is on the island.

Appreciate the info,Biker19. Yes, I’m familiar with cruise step plans. In fact, I consulted it for our cabin locations. Additionally, I did a couple of different searches, trying to find the names of the main dining rooms on the Quantum and photos of them. I was halfway through a very long video tour last night, but they never got to those restaurants. May try it again later. The agency we used put us down for traditional late seating since my DH and I always choose that. This time we have five family members with us so that will probably change. I know we can change what soundboard. Looking at the dining rooms are part of the anticipation process, though, lol. Thanks once more.

Do you happen to know the names of the dining rooms on each deck?

Thanks for your reply and information. I read one post that says one thing, then another post that says something else! Perhaps it depends upon the captain and how they want to do things or maybe something has changed. We were just on Celebrity’s Edge. Ot also has 4 main dining rooms and you could choose whatever dining room you wanted every night. We have taken about 50 cruises on a number of different cruise lines with about half being on RCI. We didn’t care for the four main dining room concept at all. To us it is a drawback. However different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes.

Ok, thamks Biker. So if you reserve your main dining room time, you don’t get to choose which restaurant you would eat it in. Some have suggested that they prefer the decor of one over the other so to choose the one you like best. Doesn’t sound possible. Maybe after you get on the ship it is.

Twangster, thanks for that link again. I finally got it to open. Had trouble with it yesterday. I can see that some of the shows are repeated during the week as they are on the oasis class ships, and that the times vary among all the shows. That’s really helpful for planning dinner times. Thanks again!