Naturalist onboard Celebrity Alaska cruises?

[Joby]

We are considering a cruise to Alaska next summer. I have read that having an onboard Naturalist makes the cruise so much better.

 

I called the Captain's Club and they told me that Celebrity only has Naturalists onboard the ship on port days. There is not an 24/7 Naturalist onboard any of the Alaska cruises.

 

The CC also said the Naturalists were contracted from the state of Alaska and each port had a different Naturalist.

 

Is that correct? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a Naturalist if they were onboard only on port days when everyone else is OFF the ship and IN the ports?

 

Anyone have any first hand info on this?

[Jim_Iain]

We were on Mercury - May 2004 Alaska Cruise. The had an naturalist on board for the complete cruise. He would have a lecture each day and was usually on deck or in the lounge to point out sea life. I have been lead to believe that this is more the norm than the exception.

 

One day he had called up the Cruise Director to announce a pod of Orca.

[biolabetty]

Brent Nixon was the naturalist on our cruise on Infinity Sept. 15. He was on the entire cruise and even gave us some information about the whales we were seeing along side the ship as we were cruising.

[Ma Bell]

We just returned on Summit and we had a naturalist for the cruise.

[CaliforniaDreamin]

On our 5/6/05 West Coast/Alaska cruise on Summit we had natutralist Dirk Younkerman on board. While on shore in Ketchikan, he spotted a pod of Orcas in the channel while riding in a jeep. He came to a dock where I was sitting and told me to look out for them. A few minutes later I spotted about 12 of them in the middle of the channel. Dirk negotiated with the driver of a water taxi that had just brought someone to the dock to take us after the Orcas. A local girl who was a friend of driver, Dirk's mother, Dirk and I went chasing Orcas.

 

We went past Summit, which was at anchor in the channel, and past where we guessed the Orcas were underwater. Shut off motor and waited. Four surfaced a couple minutes later within 30 yards of boat. They had split off from the other 8 or so. We moved ahead of them about four more times and waited for them to surface - sometimes within 10 yards of boat. We were able to get some great pictures of the 2 adults and 2 young Orcas.

 

While in the channel we also spotted a black bear on the other shore foraging for food. The water taxi driver had seen him there before and went looking for him. He took us to another spot where there were numerous bald eagles on shoreline and sitting on poles that were in the water.

 

Some people, including my wife, on Summit also saw the Orcas as they swam past the aft heading up the channel.

 

Dirk gave presentations on the Summit also. The next days was one on Orcas that had previously been scheduled.

 

At Icy Straight near Hubbard Glacier, Summit often picks up a local native naturalist from Yukatat Bay (sp) village, who will describe the history of the area and its people as you enter the bay.

[mii]

Brent Nixon was the naturalist on our cruise on Infinity Sept. 15. He was on the entire cruise and even gave us some information about the whales we were seeing along side the ship as we were cruising.

 

Brent Nixon was also on board the Infinity at the end of May for our cruise. He was on the entire cruise, always came on the intercom to tell us things of interest, spotting whales, towns along the way etc. We also did an excursion with Capt Larry's whale watching in Juneau and he was on that excursion too. Extremely knowledgeable.

 

Marilyn

[Joby]

Thanks for the responses. It seems that the CC person I talked to was incorrect. She even put me on hold and asked someone else about the Naturalist.

 

I'm glad to hear that there IS an onboard Naturalist 24/7. Now I can go back to considering Celebrity for Alaska again.

[Joy2]

Sounds like the cc rep you spoke to was thinking of the native speakers who come on board for things like the Hubbard Glacier transit - they board as we enter the channel, and disembark as we leave. The naturalist onboard Summit 9-15 won rave reports -

[trcori]

the person you talked to sure had misinformation.

We had an INCREDIBLE naturalist, Kate Spencer, on Mercury 8/26/05. SOOOOO much better than the completely unmemorable person who was on Infinity when we sailed AK from Vancouver in 8/03.

I talk about Kate at length in my review of this year's cruise (scroll to paragraph headed "Scenery at Sea"):

http://cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=12601

 

TR

awaiting Galaxy PC 4/1/06

****

Mercury AK 8/05, Millennium EC 12/04, Mercury CA-MX 4/04, Infinity AK 8/03, Century WC 3/03, Century EC 9/02

[Joby]

Nice report trcori. I'm so glad to hear that the CC was wrong! I feel a bit better now considering Celebrity again. Although, I must say we are also considering RCCL and HAL. Just trying to find the right combo of service/itinerary/ship/price for us.