Aviendah

Yes it is, the Vista Suite is fantastic. I'm not sure I would swing for the cost on a Caribbean cruise but for Alaska it was amazing due to the constant scenery. If you want a huge balcony for sun worshiping then it's a great choice. 

We just did this cruise in February and wanted to stay away from the crowds as well. I highly recommend Carnival's La Casa En la Playa - A Select Retreat in Amber Cove. There are some YT videos that give you a good idea what to expect. Not crowded, great lunch and friendly staff.

In Grand Turk we did Carnival's Home Sweet Home! Your Caribbean Retreat; great lunch and lovely staff. In fact everyone left early (you can ask to be taken back to the ship early) and we had the beach to ourselves for 3 hours. I couldn't believe it. You may want water shoes for this but the actual beach is lovely.

Half Moon Cay is a fabulous beach, just make sure to keep walking to get away from the crowds. The further down you go the more private and it's fantastic. We had a great beach trip and loved this cruise. 

My mother had back surgery 4 weeks before her Australian cruise and she had a wonderful time. She was in so much pain that the surgery pain paled in comparison. She was very grateful that she could enjoy her cruise even though she was still recovering. If nothing else, you could stay on the ship and enjoy the scenery! 

If your budgets allows I would opt an aft wrap balcony Vista Suite. It connects to an extended aft balcony cabin perfect for Alaska as all family members can fit on the aft wrap and you can open the balcony divider. It's still chilly but much less wind when you are aft. Search cabins 4228 or 4237 for reference as they have full overhead coverage in case there is rain. I can't stress this suite enough if you are in Alaska; it's the only time we have opted for a suite.

We have stayed in the Holiday Inn Port of Miami 4 times. It is not fancy, but it is clean and very comfortable. Our reason for staying there is because Bayside Market is across the street. We always fly in the day before and that evening we spend our time at the Market. It has lots of shops, restaurants and entertainment. Bubba Gump Shrimp and a Hard Rock Café are located there. It starts our vacation off with a lot of fun. We usually go back over the morning of the cruise for breakfast. It is a perfect place for us.

^^^^^ Came here to say exactly this. We love the location across from Bayside.

Thank you! Sailing in 2 weeks!

Just got it for July 17th on the Legend!

I just got it too! Thanks for the head's up, I have been checking every day since January for our cruise in July.

Love the Leupolds. I'm taking a pair of 8x30 and DH is taking 8x42.

Look up Bill Meck at Ketchikan Charter. Great reviews.

The seaside theater was not added during dry dock. Also no stateroom updates other than new mattresses. I got this information from the Carnival Legend FB group post.

For the stingray excursion we prefer to book on our own with a private vendor; sometimes even at the dock. We like the smaller boats with fewer people to deal with. The cruise ship excursions are usually packed and you don't get as much individual attention.

On a cruise there is bound to be someone not 10ft away that will make you feel like you're a beauty queen even with your added curves. I can also guarantee that there are just as many attracted to a curvy girl with a confident smile as to any skinny girl rocking a bikini. Have a wonderful trip!

Not a question of "if" they can stay onboard, they are required to stay onboard if their contract is still running (with the exception of entertainers and cruise staff). The vast majority of work done on the front of the house is not done by shipyard workers, but by specialist subcontractors brought in to do this work on all the line's ships. There will be hundreds if not over a thousand of these. These folk have to be housed, so in guest cabins, and fed, so some of the cabin stewards will be retained doing housekeeping on these cabins, and the passenger galley staff will assist the crew galley in feeding them. Often, a line wants to try out new menu items, so they will have the galley staff work on these, and the wait staff serving them, to the officers who will now eat in the MDR. Deck and engine crew will have their own work to accomplish, both with and without shipyard assistance, or will have to provide assistance to the shipyard. Bar staff, wait staff, and housekeeping staff will be used for a variety of work: clearing cabins of furniture for carpet renewal, taking furniture to the upholsterers for work, and then "rebuilding" the cabins when done, cleaning up after all the contractors doing various work around the front of house (sweeping up and removing debris every night), or performing "fire watch" (standing in a compartment either where the shipyard is welding or burning, or the adjacent compartments, with a fire extinguisher and radio to keep from having accidental fires), and this fire watch can be all through the ship. I've had cabin stewards, bar staff, and laundry personnel in the engine room during a drydock as fire watch. And finally, cleaning the entire ship before leaving the dock so it is ready for guests immediately.

This is the best explanation I've seen! Thank you for taking the time to post this information.

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Update from Vigor Industrial on FB at 5:14pm PDT:

Vigor Industrial Here's a time update. While it will be 7:30 before the Carnival Legend starts getting loaded on drydock, you'll have a great view by 5:30 while the lifeboats are unloaded close to the railroad bridge near the shipyard.

Envious of our Portland cruisers that get a chance to see this process!

Try a different web browser or clear the history and cache of your current browser. It may be a cookie issue.

Keep checking the mock booking. I just got an aft wrap balcony suite for Alaska 85 days before sailing.

Yes, we always bring our Yeti's.

We are also doing the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's tour in Ketchikan. My husband wants to see all of the eagles. Great reviews and some good videos available.

My husband is very prone to motion sickness as well. He takes 2 Meclazine (Bonine) every night starting 1 night before we sail and he does great. We like the spa balcony area so cabin location has never been a problem either.

The spa balcony is a great location congrats!

I don't wish to be a braggart but I about fell out of my chair when I did a mock booking yesterday and saw 4228 was open on the Legend for our July trip to Alaska. Unfortunately I booked this cruise rather late so our room options were fairly limited. Because it's going to be our 25th anniversary and the trip is coming out of my budget, I upgraded us from a balcony to an ocean suite and didn't tell DH as I wanted the room upgrade to be a surprise. We have never been to Alaska so I'm going all out on this trip. Won't he be surprised when he sees the size of our balcony! The moral of this story is if you don't get the room you want keep checking for cancellations when final payment is due!

My king changed to twin when I made final payment. Odd behavior but glad I caught it.

Our twin boys have brought friends on multiple vacations with us. I highly recommend some practice runs before the actual trip. That way you will know what to expect from the teen's behavior. Go for a few overnight outings and see how it goes. The kids that travel with us know that we make the rules and they get to follow them. They are also frequent visitors to our home so we have a pretty good idea if we are compatible as a group. So far we have had great luck having friends along. As mentioned previously, meeting with the parents and having the teen involved with the planning process really helps a lot as well.