itsanita

I just wanted to thank you for the suggestions. We are back home and had a great time. We did not get as much done as we hoped, but had a great day! We did Port Valet, had a shuttle waiting for us when off the ship, and we were dropped off at the Airport Rental Car area. We got our car and headed to Salish Lodge & Spa were we had lunch. We then went to the Wallaby Ranch and I'm not sure who had more fun, us or the kids. We then went back to the Snoqualmie Falls to walk the trail down by the waterfall. We then headed back to the airport for our Redeye flight home....lots of traffic! We had dinner at the airport and headed to our gate with about 1 1/2 hour to spare. It was a great way to end our vacation. Thanks again.

We used Premier Airport Shuttle. https://premierairportshuttle.com/ There was 7 of us and they were great. We also used them to take us from our downtown hotel to the ship, and then from the ship to the airport.

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Just a suggestion. This cabin looks plenty big to hold a proper table. In this case we would ask our room steward to get us a regular table. He/she has always obliged, along with a lovey table cloth and for the rest of the cruise we have a place for breakfast as well. We love having dinner occasionally on our aft balcony (weather permitting).

We always put tags on before heading to the ship. We do have the plastic covers, so after reading this may think about doing it pre flight. BUT, we cruised out of the Seattle port last week. Those that did not have tags on their luggage waited in VERY long lines to get tags. No porters around putting tags on for you. Maybe a staff issue post covid...but I would not go to the port without the luggage already tagged.

We have done 2 land/cruise tours and the same applied. No restrictions, but they did ask that if at all possible we try to keep what we needed for the land part in one suitcase. But the suitcase that was tagged for the ship and kept in the bus was available if you needed it. You just had to ask and they would find it and get it out.

I just went through this with the photo package. I called for the Elite discount but they could not do it pre cruise. They told me to ask for the discount when on board and it would be applied/refunded. So I booked it with the pre cruise price, and then when on board asked for the 40% discount to be applied. They said I could have one or the other.....the pre cruise discount, or full price with the 40% off due to Elite.

We were there last week on Celebrity. They are using all the docks, we did not have to tender. They have a 'walk around' so we were able to get into town via the dock. There was a lot of work going on. You can see where the rock slide was.

I was not aware any ships went to Alaska in October. I thought they all stopped the first part of September. As far as a ship goes, I think the itinerary is more important than the ship for Alaska. We took our grandkids (oldest 14-youngest 😎 on Celebrity this year because they had the ports we wanted to go to. Not my first choice for kids, but they have a 'Camp at Sea' for the kids and they all had a ball.

We traveled with kids ages 14-8. All we had were birth cert., and they all got off the ship in Victoria.

You can do it before cruising. I have made reservations for my Nov and Jan cruise already. You can do it on the website. Go to dining reservations and keep scrolling down past all the specialty restaurants till you come to the complimentary dining and click on that. You can add anyone sailing with you if you have their reservation number and birthdate. If you have issues, you can just call the Celebrity number and they will do it for you.

We had anytime dining. We made reservations a month or so before boarding for 7pm each night. It was perfect. We got the same table every night...one we choose in a corner, and had the same waite staff each night.

Just off the Solstice, July 15th sailing. Brent Nixon and Mary Amanda were on board and gave great talks. As mentioned before, getting on and off the ship at the port in Seattle was chaos. Make sure you allocate extra time. We ate our dinners in the dining room and we all felt the food was very good. Lunch mostly in OV and they had lots of good choices. Weather chased many inside, so could get pretty crowded. Most areas were serve yourself, with the exception of the hamburgers, hot dog, grill area. And the carved meat of the day, and of course the ice cream station. You did help yourself at the beverage area. Very few masks noted. Staff are all still wearing masks. Only heard one mention from the Capt about covid. He said a few passengers tested positive but had minimal symptoms. There was an announcement asking for anyone with O positive blood type to report to the Health Station. So I am assuming they had some type of injurie onboard that required blood transfusion.

We were on Solstice last week. After going through the security section, long line for check in. No designated line was noted for Concierge or Elite or Suites. My husband asked about a line for Elite status and he took us to a line with only one other person in it. No signage, but we were checked in 5 minutes later. Felt a bit guilty! So you might want to ask someone.

You are so right! 6 of the 12 of us were kids. But to be honest we loved being able to connect with everyone so easily. But we made a rule that when the curtains were closed, NO ENTRY!

We just used this 2 days ago off the Solstice. We filled everything out at home before we boarded. I did check with guest relations desk while on the ship to make sure that they had us listed...they did. The night before we got off, we got our luggage tags and boarding passes. We had pre booked a ride to the airport and had a Hertz rental car. So we were taken straight to the Hertz rental at the airport where we picked up our car for a great day outside of Seattle..Snoqualmie Falls, lunch at Salish Lodge, and a visit with the kangaroos at The Fall City Wallaby Ranch. Back to the airport to drop off the car and on to our red eye flights home. Worked perfectly.

Sounds a lot like the port of Fort Lauderdale! Not sure if Seattle is in the same boat, but FL cruise port is way understaffed. Can't find people to work. I think a lot of the confusion is that we all don't read all the emails and instructions that are sent to us. And not sure that the staggered arrival times are working either. A lot harder to get on a ship than it used to be pre covid.

Agree with everything said above. Only want to add that the clothes we brought to wear to dinner at night were the ones we brought home clean! The only nights we ended up changing for dinner were the sea days. The rest of the days we went to dinner pretty much in what we had worn all day. Relaxing with a drink or 2 before dinner on the balcony/bar/outer decks was much more fun than spending that time changing for dinner. Here in Florida that would not be possible! But in the cool weather in Alaska it was fine. We did make the kids change a couple times, but they were a bit more active off the beaten track than we were!

We almost always book our own shore excursions. Have been crujsing for years, never had a single problem. But last week in Ketchikan, the guys chartered a boat and went fishing with the 4 older kids. Us ladies took the 2 younger kids on a canoe/jeep excursion through the ship, as everything else we looked at privately was booked. You drove your own 4-5 passenger jeep. Yikes were we lucky. One of the jeeps broke down in the middle of a one way old logging road in the rain forest. There were about 6 jeeps, all of us except our leader were behind the one that broke down. All the men were out of their jeeps trying to figure out how to fix it. They decided to tow it to an area that we could get around it, but the wheels were locked...it would not budge. So we ended up backing down a very muddy, difficult road till we got to an area that we could do a 3 point turn to go foward. We were late getting back to the ship, that was waiting for us! The ship actually notified our very worried husbands that we were fine, but late and they would not go without us. So....... a lesson for us! Make sure that when we book our own excursions, that we have some time built in for something of this sort.

Download the app and just follow the directions. We did it a couple weeks before our cruise. YOu can add your family on the same one. You need to take pictures of your passport (birth cert for kids). But very easy...it will guide you. Just remember your password!! Then the day before we boarded we re opened and finished it. It required date of entry and how arriving etc. Then when done it gave us a QR code that we presented at the pier. Those that did not have it done were pulled out of line and in clusters attempting to do it then.

We were cancelled last week too. Too windy. The flights were able to go in the afternoon. We had VERY disappointed kids...to the point of tears for the little ones. Wish we would have kept it a surprise. We had booked an excursion in the afternoon to meet the pups and go gold panning. That saved the day.

We did Juneau Whale Watching last week with our family of 12 which included 6 kids. We choose it because we could all go together and they also had a combination trip...whale watching and the Mendenhall Glacier. We did the whale watching first...saw many whales, kids loved it. Then we were dropped off at the Glacier. We had pick up every 1/2 hour and we stayed until the last pick up. Great day!

Just back from Alaska. The train was sold out when we arrived. We had booked a helicopter flight to a glacier with dog sledding. It was cancelled due to wind, so we immediately tried to get a seat on the train that morning...all times were sold out.

Yes! There were long lines of people waiting to fill out their luggage tags at the pier....made things even more congested. I don't remember that happening when they used to just mail you your luggage tags. Maybe staggering the ships departure and arrival days would be helpful. I'm sure Celebrity has thought of that...must be reasons that they are on the same day.