HomSchMom

21 hours ago, ohiocruiser76 said:

My husband and I are looking to book a 7-day, round-trip cruise from Vancouver on the Celebrity Solstice for our anniversary in June 2025. It would be our first time to Alaska and our first Celebrity sailing. Both itineraries include the Inside Passage, Icy Strait Point and Ketchikan, and are priced similarly. 

 

The first itinerary includes:

 

Skagway

Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier

 

While the second offers up:

 

Hubbard Glacier

Juneau

 

Which would you choose for a first-timer? We will definitely want to do a whale watching excursion (most likely out of ISP), and if we were to do Skagway, I'd likely book the railway, too. Just torn about Hubbard vs Skagway. I'd love to see a calving glacier up close, and Hubbard looks more impressive than Dawes/Endicott Arm. But I also love the idea of seeing some of the inland Yukon territory, too. 

 

Thank you for any help you can offer me!  

 

 

We booked the Dawes Glacier option. My research showed both glaciers are impressive and Dawes supposedly has "epic calving" but ultimately because the ship (Celebrity Edge) is so nice and more spacious.

Dave I had not heard back from anyone until I saw Dolfans' note with the email (rather than web form). Heard back from Michel right away. (Still trying to reach the Barcelona tour companies though). THANKS Dolfan!!

Sherri,

Thanks so much for your detailed review! DH and I are taking our three (ds11, dd9, ds5) on the same cruise in August (2013) to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We have 9656 which is a two-room suite on the back corner. Excited about that too.

I have a black presentation portfolio binder that looks suspiciously like yours which already had tabs per port and the details I've planned so far - so we must be related! I also like to plan daily details like in your blog entry though my spreadsheets aren't color coded. Will have to strive to get there. Don't know how you were able to part with your binder at the end after all that work!

I felt like I had everything in order until I started delving deeper into what our AAA agent had set up and what still needs to be done. So at this point I'm a little confused on our dining (she had set up 6:30 traditional) and some other options. This is only our second cruise (first being a 4nt Disney cruise) so I need to take a step back and get everything planned a little better.

We do have private tours planned in most ports (we used Viator private guides, which is different than the group Viator site). I've dropped inquiries to the groups you used in Barcelona and Cannes however as we'd not scheduled anything there. I'm also checking with Rome in Limo considering changing our plans for Florence. I'd previously chosen a guide and driver from Viator as Rome in Limo told me they only provide the driver, no guide. But it sounds like maybe that's sufficient and RiL sounds a bit more flexible than the guide I'd hired.

I guess my major question is do you have any advice for a family who is doing much what you did - only with much younger kids? (We do realize we won't be able to take it all in, which is partially why we're going with private guides. And our kids are homeschooled and together we've learned about all of these destinations. So they are quite excited and "get" that this is a spectacular opportunity.) A secondary question is how soon were you (as a suite guest) able to disembark in the ports? Trying to figure out how quickly we can get to Rome by taking the train to meet our guide and I don't know what to expect.

Thanks so much!

Kristen