wgeo

Funny that I started getting notifcations on an old thread of mine.   FWIW - I found all of martincath's info to be spot on and very helpful for our trip last summer.

We stayed at the YWCA and it was perfect for us.

We did do Capilano - it was quite frankly one of the highlights of our amazing stay in Vancouver.  We did NOT go on the morning of our cruise - we changed our schedule and went the day before and we loved every minute that we were there.

When we left home (FL) the forecast was for low 60s with some occasional rain, by the time we got to the west coast and spent a few days in Seattle and Vancouver the forecast changed to be low 50s with rain almost every day.  I had tried to prepare with layers and everything but I was caught off guard by the 10 degree swing of temps.  The one thing that I screwed up was socks.  I own all kinds, but I only brought what I wear in the winter in FL, which is tiny ankle socks - and of course in AL with upper 40s/50s and rain what I wanted was my wool, or at the very least longer crew socks.  No idea why I didn't pack those lol.  Fortunately they were easy to find for me to purchase on the trip.

I'm very cold by nature and never needed to have a layer under my pants at all.  On my coldest days I wore a tight long sleeve shirt, a tshirt and a fleece and then layered my rain jacket over the top.  I was happy to have the warmer socks that I grabbed in Vancouver.  My husband said his compression (knee high) socks were perfect for our early June cruise.

Chapstick was a must - also don't forget your sunglasses.  It may be cold but the sun reflecting off the water and ice is strong!

Of course I see the weather 2 days after we left was easily 15 degrees warmer and dry lol - so plan for about everything!

We used Hoonah Travel Adventures when we were in Icy Straight last week.  I can highly recommend them.  The boat was new and very comfortable.  It's a medium size I would say, we had around 20 people or so on the boat.  The guide was great, very knowledgable and very personable.  We had bad rainy weather and still had an incredible time seeing the whales.

We were there last week, and were considering those restaurants, but as we wandered around the market and surrounding area our party of 6 all found various things at the food court and smaller stalls that we liked.  My husband had a veggie burger that he raved about, I got a great sandwich from somewhere called Bread I think, and some people had Chinese.  We all grabbed our food and sat in the middle at tables outside and really enjoyed oursleves.

So does this only work on certain ships I understand?  Is it possible to use imessage to text in the Radiance?

For dinner in the Windjammer with theme nights - are there also non themed food available?   For example on Indian night, will there also be more "kid friendly" things like burgers or even a normal salad bar available?  

Thanks

1 minute ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

Not sure where you will be leaving from, but at Pier 91 in Seattle (Alaska bound cruises) as long as the luggage has a cruise line issued tag w/stateroom number, the porters will take it.

As you stated, keeping your travel ID / documents with you is very important.

We are leaving from Vancouver and have no medications and are rather excited and hoping to board early, so I was thinking the more luggage we left with the porters the easier it would be to explore the ship for awhile.  Other than paperwork/passports I can't think of anything that I would need before the luggage was delivered, but wasn't sure if the porters or cruiseline cared if we checked most everything.  Thx

This is probably a silly question - but can we just put all of our luggage with the porters with luggage tags?  Is there anything that is required to be carried on?  Obviously we will keep documents and passports with us.  But we are not bringing any drinks on board and don't have any concerns with medication, so is it ok to just not have a carry on?

TIA

We will be on this ship in a few weeks, looking forward to reading about your trip.

There are tons of things to do in most of the towns (not a huge amount in Icy Strait) but to really answer your question you're going to need to say which excursions you've already booked and how long you have in port each day.  Some excursions can be 2 hours long and some can be 7, so it all depends.

20 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

This had been on our bucket list for a few years and we were never able to fit it in until last year. We rented a car and drove to the trailhead, parked in the beach parking lot there and followed the well marked path. It was fascinating and definitely worth the time we went all the way to the end and then walked back via the beach. It was a pretty long hike, but very easy. We spent about a little over 2 hours in all. I could have stayed even longer and just enjoyed the beach, but we needed to get back to town. It is something most cruise passengers don't even know about so it is away from the crowds, not overrun by tourists and gives you a glimpse into some fascinating history of the area. I would highly encourage you to do it - we were glad we finally did!

Thanks for replying - this is looking better and better.

37 minutes ago, Eileen G said:

We did it five years ago when we had a rental  car and really enjoyed it. Some of the ruins had an Indiana Jones feel about them. We were probably there about an hour and a half.

Thank you, we will have a rental car too, this may be a good addition to the day.

42 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

We took public transit to Douglas and did the walking tour.  I'm sorry I can't remember how long it took.  We spent some time on the beach, and some time on the walking tour.  We were there for probably around 3 hours total.

 

IMHO it is worth visiting.
 

Thank you - gonna keep it on the list since we're in port so long - looks interesting.

Wondering if anyone has walked through this tour before?  We have a very long port day and I'm just looking for a few extra things to do as filler.  Has anyone done this?  Was it a decent walk and do you recall how long it took you?

TREADWELL MINE HISTORIC TRAIL - http://www.alaska.org/assets/content/related_items_pdfs/Juneau-Walking-Tour.pdf

We booked for June 2019 on the Radiance back in August 2018.  We did get a very large price drop (over 1500) for our extra large oceanview room (forget the exact title - room 8000).  Couldn't believe how incredible the price drop was, a lot of people on my roll call saw decent drops during that sale - can't remember if it was black Friday or just close to then.

Of course, not sure what our final price would compare to the opening day prices, but we're happy with the cost.

This is probably simple, but I'm confused.  Sometimes the kennel is called Tagish Lake Kennel and sometimes its called Tutshi Sled Dog Tours.  Those two lakes are in different areas.  We are renting a car and driving and want to stop here, but I'm not sure where to find them!    As far as I can see there is no actual address on their website.

TIA

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I’m surprised that it was still available 9 months out, they usually get sold pretty quickly.  

Yes, this is an Alaska cruise - I was incredibly surprised and forced my husband to make a very fast decision, as I was certain the room wouldn't be available for long.

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Bummer.  Make sure when you are checking that you are not relying on their website as it doesn’t list all the available cabins.  Royals UK site does or call.  

Appreciate that - I didn't call and was using various websites to check availability.  

However, we are very excited about the room we got, and to be honest since my daughter is still 13, I'm kind of happier to still have her in the same room as us.  I felt very lucky the day I was able to get into the room we did.

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Have you priced out 2 rooms.  I’ve found that once the kids don’t qualify for the kids sail free it isn’t that much more to get two rooms instead of 1 and in some cases has actually been cheaper.

Yes, we could get 2 interiors for close to the same price - however there were not 2 interiors that were close enough together to qualify.  We only booked 9 months before the cruise and that was not early enough for there to be enough rooms left to choose from I guess.

2 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

There are cabins with two Pullman beds. 

 

There are cabins with a sofa bed and a Pullman. 

 

Just FYI 

Thanks, and yes I did see those, however they were very hard to come by, perhaps I booked my cruise to late to get those rooms.  We only lucked into the room we did when I caught what must have been a cancelation.

We have booked the same category (room 8000) for our cruise in June.  We have 2 teens who are full sized adults, girl/boy and they will not in any way share a small sofa bed, so this room was a must for us.  Cruising is a real problem for families with teenagers, unless you can afford 2 seperate rooms. 

We considered the long walk to everything and thought it was a very small price to pay for keeping everyone happy and well rested during the week.

I don't have an internet source for the "anything less than 10 is bad", but in real life my brother is the service manager of a car dealership and it is in fact that exact way.  If he or his staff receives 10 everything is fine, but if they receive 9s or less they are singled out for "retraining".  A 9 is considered a fail.   If there are 10 lines on the survey and you get a score of 10 on all but one of those lines, and a 9 on the last line it is still considered a "fail" for service.

Is it dumb?  yes   Should it be that way?  of course not  But is that how it works?  yes

Due to excellent suggestions from here, we are planning on staying at the YWCA pre-cruise.  Unfortunately we only have 2 1/2 days in Vancouver and my list of things to do is longer than we will have time to see.  I'm the type that usually gets on to the ship/port early - but I'm wondering if instead we could fit in the Capilano Suspension Bridge the same morning that our cruise departs?

I know there's a shuttle that's fairly close to the YWCA, but I see there's also one that leaves from Canada Place.  If we checked out of the hotel and brought the luggage to Canada Place, can we store/leave it there that early in the morning (I think the first shuttle leaves at 8:45)?

Also - how long do people tend to stay at Capilano?

Thanks!

This has been an interesting thread.  OP - very sorry that you had to go through this, I too would be very embarrased to stand in the hallway in a bathrobe surrounded by officers.  I think you've been remarkably calm dealing with some posts here as well.

Just out of curiosity - what is the point of an officer blocking the peephole? I am guessing that maybe the theory is, if someone saw it was an officer than they could someone hide something?  But that doesn't make sense, as multiple people have said how quickly the officers would open your door even if you didn't open it for them, so again why not at least hold up a badge or something to show you they have the right to enter your room?

I'm sure I'd be too shocked in that situation to do much else than open the door, but I feel like it would be less scary for me if I could at least identify who was there before opening the door.

If my husband and I both have the refreshment package - can he get up in the morning and get us both coffees?  Can he just bring my card, or do I actually have to show my face to get my coffee?  I think it's safer for everyone involved if I avoid as many people as possible until I have had my coffee 🙂

Same idea with something like bottled water, can he run out and get 2 bottles while I'm getting ready to head out on port days, or should I just add in enough time to stop somewhere and grab my own?