frawls

Sailing Tracy Arm – unfortunately during the middle of the night before there was a medical emergency and someone had to be airlifted off the ship. We were forced to back track two hours and because of this delay we did not sail up the Fjord.

Juneau – This was a busy day for us. We went up the Mount Roberts Tram and then hiked up the trails at the top. The views are amazing and it is not a challenging hike either. After our hike we went back down and had lunch at Tracy’s Crab Shack. King Crab is not cheap but if you don’t want to splurge on crab legs then get the crab cakes and/or the bisque both were very very good. After lunch it was time for our 5 glacier floatplane excursion over the Juneau ice field. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life. Words and pictures cannot do an experience like this any justice. We were on the fence about doing this excursion because of the price but we are so happy we did. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Ketchikan – We decided we would just walk around the town. In hindsight we wish we did an excursion the town is very small and it did not take that long to explore Creek Street, etc. I would recommend the Alaska Fish House for lunch – the salmon and halibut tacos were great as was the smoked salmon chowder. Prepare to wait in line as this is a very popular place. Also the fish and chips and Alavas, across from the pier was really good. The batter on the fish was some of the best I have ever had.

Seattle and Sail Away

http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/frawls13/media/Alaska/IMG_0475_zps8geynzhq.jpg.html?sort=3&o=685

Trying to upload pictures but it is not working

We flew into Seattle the night before the cruise and stayed at the Hilton Downtown. It was about $40 taxi ride from the airport. We went to dinner in Altura in the Capital Hill neighborhood. Altura is an incredible restaurant and a must visit for foodies going to Seattle (go for the tasting menu).

The next day we got to the pier around 1:00pm. AquaClass guest have a priority check in line, which ended up being great, we were third in line. As we walked towards the gangway, the regular check in was very long and we were already happy we choose an higher room category.

State Room

Our last two cruises we were in suites so we were concerned going in that the room may be a little small but it was perfectly fine with enough storage room for all our stuff. Loved the spa-type shower in the bathroom. Balcony was big enough to sit out on and relax and whale watch.

Beverage Package

We had the classic package and we decided we would try it out for a few days and see if we wanted to upgrade. We never upgraded. DW usually drinks Grey Goose (premium package) but she enjoyed Tito’s vodka that was included with the classic package. I typically drink Blue Moon (premium package) but really enjoyed Alaskan White (classic package). At dinner in Blu, there was a decent Pinot Noir that was included in the classic package and the sommelier would just leave the bottle at the table for us. We did not try the Martini Bar or Molecular Bar.

Food

Oceanview Café: We were on the ship by 1:30 and the room was ready so we dropped off our carryon bag at the room and headed to the Oceanview Cafe for lunch. We had lunch one other time and breakfast one morning at Oceanview. Overall we thought the food choices were plenty and the quality was that of a buffet, nothing special but nothing wrong with it either. I was surprised that the morning we had breakfast there was blood pudding, English bacon, baked beans and roasted tomato.

Blu: We ate the majority of our meals here. We really enjoyed the muesli for breakfast. Dinners for the most part were enjoyable except one night the quail fell short. Our previous cruise was on a competitor line and the suite guests restaurant on that cruise was not as good as Blu was on the Solstice.

Murano: We feel that this is the best restaurant we have experience at sea and the service was spot on.

We ate at Murano on our first night and we were talking to the waiter and he was telling us about a cooking class that was being offered the next day. We did not see it advertised anywhere. We told the waiter we would think about it and then asked him if there was a chef’s table at all during the cruise and he said there was. Again we did not see this advertised anywhere. We decided to do both. The cooking class was OK but I do not know if we would do it again. DW and I are both pretty good home cooks so we knew most of the tips being taught. The chef’s table was a great experience and the meal was one of the best, if not the best, we have had at sea.

Entertainment

We only went to one of the big shows in the theater; it was the Cirque show – having seen a number of Cirque du Soleil shows we weren’t really impressed with this. Most nights we went to listen to Sean (acoustic guitar and vocals) and Peter (piano and vocals). Both were phenomenal.

Just read on CNN that this could be the worst year for fires in Alaska. I imagine there are fires every year but does anyone if and how this will affect excursions and/or cruise itineraries?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/us/alaska-fires-hot-summer/index.html

We recently booked a 7 day Caribbean cruise for Feb 2016 and booked a suite so it included all of the 123GO options. We typically do all inclusives in the Winter time but this turned out to be a better deal for us.

I don't know if the prices would have been lower without the promo but it really made it easy to compare the all inclusive vs Celebrity.

I am 6'4" and did not have a problem with the size of the bed. However, we were in a suite so I am not sure if the bed was bigger than other cabins.

Thank You everyone

My wife and I will be sailing on the Epic out of Barcelona on a Sunday, Sept 7 and have a couple of questions I hope some people can help with.

1. Would it make sense to check onto the Epic and check our bags and then explore the city or leave our bags with hotel for the morning and get to the Epic mid afternoon? We are supposed to get priority embarkation so I am not sure how the lines will be at the different times and we want to see as much of Barcelona as we can. We are arriving Saturday morning, so we will have all day Saturday as well and we were thinking of doing a 2 day HOHO bus pass but worried we will not have enough time on Sunday.

2. We are staying in an aft penthouse room which gives us access to the Haven - is the restaurant for Haven guests any better than main dining room? or will we still want to book specialty restaurants? We were on the Gem last year and really enjoyed Le Bistro and Cagney's.

3. I have read a number of posts about the wine store at the pier - any recommendations on good Spanish red wines?? We typically enjoy darker fruits, earthy, light to med body Pinot Noir or Cote du Rhone.

Thank you all for your help.

There is no such news here in the NY/NJ area - in fact, as far as I know, all events leading up to the big game are going on as scheduled. If you want to believe the weather people - the extended forecast isn't even showing snow for that Sunday.