The Nickle Family Takes on Alaska.

[bnickle]

#1: In which I bore you with exposition and trivial details.

 

 

We are, post-travel, the three E’s: Exhausted, Exhilarated, and Envious (of anyone about to take this cruise). We just arrived home last night from our seven day Eurodam Alaskan cruise, and this morning, sipping coffee and admiring our non-sea view from our back deck in land-locked Kansas City, I’m happy to be home, but truly thrilled that we took this trip. I’ve been thinking on how to present all the info, and I’ve decided just to offer what basics I can. There are two travelogues posted here within the last month that far surpass anything I could hope to do in detailing our trip, and I used them both extensively in my obsessive planning for our own journey. Scubacruiserx2 posted an amazing photo journal of his trip here at CC, entitled Eurodam to Alaska: We Came, We Saw, We Photographed. (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2497409). TheSecondSister detailed her adventure traveling this itinerary with her sister in her post, Eurodam to Alaska With Two Cruising Sisters (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2501822 ) Her sister also has a lovely blog, Two Cruising Sisters, at https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com. Before I offer my own information and experiences, I want to say that those resources were invaluable in my planning, and truly were just plain enjoyable to read and both parties have my sincere thanks.

 

Purchase and Planning

We purchased this cruise last August, when it first became available. HA was running an Explore4 promo and we had decided to surprise our three kids, 24, 22, and 19, with this trip as two are in college and one is Out In The World, Adulting, and it’s going to become more and more difficult for the five of us to be able to align our schedules for something like this. Our oldest lives in NYC and could not come home for Thanksgiving last year, so we took Thanksgiving to her and sprung this trip on the family during our Thanksgiving dinner.

 

I booked through HA online, and it was painless and easy. I am pretty comfortable using the internet for my day to day stuff, but the times I needed to call with a question, the staff was friendly and efficient.

We booked an inside room for the kids, #6075, and a Signature Suite right across the hall, #6081, with the idea that our room would be Party Central. About a month before the cruise, we got an email offering an upsell, and I called for information. The offer was to go from a SS to a NS, for $600. The brochure price difference was $1200. After talking about it, we decided to splurge and accept the upsell, and we were able to select from a number of NS still available. Our new room, #7052, ended up being directly above our former location, and near the stairs, so it was easy for the kids to pop up from their room. It was also directly across from the Neptune Lounge, and overall, a great location. I realize that the upsell wasn’t necessary, but it ended up being a good choice as it really did provide more room for the five of us. Our kids had keys to our room and it was where we all hung out.

 

I purchased four excursions, three through HA and one independently. The plan was: in Juneau, a helicopter ride to a glacier, for the five of us, purchased independent through Coastal Helicopters (http://www.coastalhelicopters.com) after reading very positive reviews of their services on TripAdvisor, and a recommendation from Tinknock50 on our roll call. It was the same company used by HA, but significantly more inexpensive to arrange on our own. In Sitka, I booked the Vino’s Palette for my daughters and myself, and the Alaska 4X4 Nature Safari for my husband and my son. In Ketchikan, we booked the Rainforest Canopy Zipline for the five of us through HA. I reserved a dinner for 5 at the Tamarind for the evening we were in Sitka, and the Pinnacle Grill for the 5 of us the night of our visit to Victoria. I bought a Fodor’s guide to Alaskan cruising, but actually ended up using Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor to help me do the majority of my planning.

 

We decided to fly in two days early and sightsee in Seattle. I actually would have planned for a day or two more, but all five schedules couldn’t meet on that point so two days it was. What I learned about airfare to Seattle is that it’s never cheap, and rarely, for summer travel, is it on sale. We typically go with SouthWest, but I also have heard positive things about Alaska Airlines, and they do seem to have sales and cheaper airfare to Seattle. We chose SW because we have their credit card and we can rack up reward points pretty quickly with them. Four of us round trip from KC and one of us from NYC. Oddly enough, our flight routed us from KC to Chicago to Seattle and in Chicago we met up with our oldest and flew with her on to Seattle, so that was kind of a nice jumpstart to our family get together.

 

In Seattle, I found a great condo downtown, right off of Pike Place Market, through VRBO. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and was in a perfect location. (https://www.vrbo.com/443070?utm_campaign=VRBO_TRV_RES_HASC_reservationaccept_PPS_hascPropertyQualifier-test_db88&utm_content=propid_text_o_lprop&utm_term=20161110&utm_source=SYS&utm_medium=email). The cost was actually what it would have cost for two adjoining rooms for two nights at most hotels I was looking at in the downtown area.

 

Through recommendations from CC (and people who post their experiences and opinions really help the rest of us, so thanks!), we booked AlreadyThere Town Car Service to pick us up from our condo and take us to the ship on Saturday, and to pick us up at Disembarkation and take us to the airport a week later. (https://alreadytheretowncar.com)

 

I set up a separate folder in my email titled, Alaska 2017, and stored all of my email receipts and correspondence. I read blogs and reports. And my husband gave much thought to what bottle of Port he would take. It’s an important decision, folks. And that was pretty much my planning in a nutshell. Now…on to the realities.

[ski ww]

Thanks for the great review. We leave for our Alaska cruise on the NA on 1 July. I read both of the reviews you mentioned

Allan

Edited June 11, 2017 by ski ww
comments

[bnickle]

Thanks for the great review. We leave for our Alaska cruise on the NA on 1 July. I read both of the reviews you mentioned

Allan

 

I cannot stress enough how those two reviews helped me plan. Also, have a wonderful time! So excited for you! It was just truly amazing and way beyond anything we expected.

[easyboy]

Very well presented and useful references!

Thanks for the feedback.

 

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[bnickle]

#2: In Which We Travel. A Lot.

Our flight left KC, bound for Seattle, via Chicago, at 10 in the morning. (Youngest, 19: “Ten in the morning? That means we have to leave by 8? That means I have to be up at 7? I’ve worked THREE DAYS IN A ROW, MOM.” Me: “Please go offer that complaint to your father, but wait until I can watch so I can see his face when you complain about working three days in a row.”). We had arranged for a local shuttle service to pick us up because 4 people + luggage and 1 teen attitude was just not going to fit in my jeep. Smooth pickup and delivery to the airport, uneventful plane ride to Chicago, and a reunion with Oldest, then on to Seattle. Quick note, the layover in Chicago was literally 20 minutes. Knowing this, I bought a cheap cooler that looks like a nice tote bag and we packed sandwiches and snacks to eat for lunch on the plane. It worked out fine. We walked right off the plane and right onto the next (Early Bird purchase is so worth it) and were off to Seattle.

 

The check in process at our condo was smooth and efficient, and the condo exceeded our expectations.

 

We grabbed a cab to our condo and chillaxed a bit before wandering down to the Hard Rock Café, which was just two blocks from us, for a 6:00 dinner reservation, made through Open Table. Great burgers, and really great local beers. Pricey, but it’s vacay, and Youngest got an attitude boost from the visit (he loves Hard Rock, and, also, does not like the stink eye from his mom).

 

Seattle is one of my very favorite places to visit. Pike Place Market was literally one block away, and we were up bright and early to enjoy breakfast at La Panier (my husband, known on CC as Liverpool, ADORES La Panier). Really great pastries. We tooled around the market all day then headed up to the Pacific Science Center, where I had purchased advance tickets to see Wonder Woman. It’s rare to find a movie that all five of us want to see, and this was opening day for it. We saw it on an IMAX 3-D screen and it was AMAZING. Afterwards, dinner and to bed because the next morning, we embarked on our Big Adventure aboard the Eurodam.

[bluesplayer]

Enjoying your review. I also am so thankful for the many informative posts by fellow cruisers. I have learned so many tips everything from, packing, on board credit, future cruise credits and i think best of alll.. alcohol algebra for cruising! Thanks to all for your posts!!

[bluesplayer]

I meant to say.. my husband went to St. Pius!!

[bnickle]

Very well presented and useful references!

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

 

 

Thank you! I really look at a lot of the reviews I read here as a Pay It Forward thing. I got help from others; hopefully my info will help someone else.

[bnickle]

Enjoying your review. I also am so thankful for the many informative posts by fellow cruisers. I have learned so many tips everything from, packing, on board credit, future cruise credits and i think best of alll.. alcohol algebra for cruising! Thanks to all for your posts!!

 

Explore4 tends to make one less capable at alcohol algebra and more capable of alcohol multiplication. Or maybe it was just us...

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you all enjoyed your Alaskan cruise.

Thank you for the review.

[superoma]

Excellent so far. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

 

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[Herfnerd]

Have read the Sisters and Scuba's reviews - looking forward to yours as another resource for our September Eurodam trip!

 

 

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[kftw]

Looking forward to your next installment!

[styles27]

Enjoying your review so far! I loved Eurodam and Alaska.

We've been home a month tomorrow and I'm still glowing from that trip.

 

Can't wait to read what you post next!

 

 

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[bnickle]

#3: In Which We Discuss Embarkation, Our Room, and the Internet.

 

I feel the need to insert a disclaimer here. I should qualify my opinions with two points: One, I am typically easy going and let a lot roll off of me. And Dos, overall the negative experiences on this trip were exceedingly minor, and at the end of the day, I was on vacation with my family. So what may seem like an overly appreciative or cheerlead-y viewpoint is really just me thinking, the entire week, “Doesn’t matter. I'm with my family on a cruise to Alaska and some nice young man just brought me a cocktail.”

 

To return to more pertinent matters. Embarkation was a breeze. Our Already There town car picked us up at exactly 10:30, as scheduled, and we zipped along to Pier 91. A Princess ship was also loading that morning, and the pier was already bustling. Luggage checked in, pronto. Health forms filled out, took a minute, tops. No one was in line at the desk when we went to check in, and they kindly let our kids check in with us, at the PS and NS desk. Liverpool and I had boarding group “A”, and the kids had “F”. HA began calling groups at about 11:30, and we were in our room by 11:40. The kids were knocking at our door about 15 minutes later. We had asked the nice lady at the gate if our “F” kids could board with their much cooler “A” parents, and she was very nice and very apologetic and said that really, they needed to control the crowds by sticking to the plan. I thanked her and assured her it was no problem at all; we thought it couldn’t hurt to ask. She seemed to relax and thanked us for being understanding, to the point where I thought that the embarkation staff must take a lot of crap from people, that someone being ok with being told no made her feel relieved. So if you are one of those people who verbally beat up whoever is helping you when you don’t get your way, knock it off. We had received the email detailing a scheduled boarding procedure, which actually would have put us on the ship about 1:30 ish, but we had to be out of the condo at a certain time, and lunch would have been difficult to get to in time. We received no trouble at all by showing up when we did.

 

The room was amazing. It’s a step up from what we usually do, but with five of us hanging out in the room during the day the spaciousness was greatly appreciated. The sofa was comfortable, the bathroom and dressing area was nice, lots of storage space in the closets, and our port-side room had a great view of the marina and some pretty impressive Yachts.

Our room stewards were Dani and Made, and they were professional and courteous every single time we saw them. They were both really pleasant and prompt with any assistance. They checked the room twice a day for cleaning, emptied the cooler for us to store our own drinks, and always had a nice smile and ready offer of assistance when we saw them.

 

 

 

And this is what made the room perfect for us:

 

 

The deck was just amazing. Easily our favorite feature of the room. We hung out on the deck A LOT. When weather permitted, it's where we ate breakfast and lunch, and it was just the most wonderful spot for us all to gather.

 

I really didn’t think we would use the Neptune Suite that much, but we ended up getting drinks there quite a bit, and there were always snacks in a small serving area, replenished and changed out every four hours. By that I mean there are breakfast snacks in the morning, lunch snacks at noon switched out for tea time snacks mid afternoon, and evening appetizers and small bites, followed by desert treats until the Neptune Lounge closes. There was always a nice selection, and fresh juices, ice tea, and hot drinks available. The concierge duties were shared by Rommel and Michael, and both were enthusiastic and professional in our dealings with them. They answered many questions for us, looked into a suspected double Pinnacle Grill booking and fixed it, and just truly made life a little easier for us on the cruise. Again, we could have done fine without the Neptune Lounge, but having access to it was a lovely and trip enhancing touch.

 

On to the Internet. Very very very helpfully, HA had, waiting for us, an Internet FAQ waiting for us in our room, and truly explained things well. We had an internet credit as part of our Explore4 promo, but really didn’t use it that much. We checked what we needed to check in port, so really didn’t use that much of our internet allowance. When we did, it was easy to use and not that slow, but then we had a repeater on the ceiling in our room.

If you have a tablet or smartphone, HA has made accessing all the information you need very easy to do, and without using internet minutes. It’s all explained in the handout:

 

 

 

By using the Navigator, I was able to build my day’s activities and not have to worry about continually looking at a When and Where to be reminded of stuff. The Navigator made it much easier to track our account, double check charges, and even provided full free access to the New York Times, all without needing to be in front of the TV or to be using the internet.

[bnickle]

Enjoying your review so far! I loved Eurodam and Alaska.

We've been home a month tomorrow and I'm still glowing from that trip.

 

Can't wait to read what you post next!

 

 

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I'm suffering withdrawal. I woke up this morning and wandered to the dining room in our house, surprised that no one offered to lead me to a table and to offer me a selection of already cooked food.

[styles27]

I'm suffering withdrawal. I woke up this morning and wandered to the dining room in our house, surprised that no one offered to lead me to a table and to offer me a selection of already cooked food.

 

 

[emoji23] I bet there weren't any chocolates on your bed last night either! [emoji6]

 

 

We felt the same way about our balcony...I couldn't believe how very much we used that balcony on an Alaskan cruise. It definitely added a lot to our experience.

 

So happy for you guys that you were able to enjoy this trip with your adult children. That is truly very special!

 

 

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[JimAOk1945]

Wonderful review. We have been to Alaska on three different cruise lines but our 14 day Alaska cruise on the Maasdam last August was the most enjoyable of the three. We were in a NS as well and spent a great deal of time on our balcony.

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Beach4me]

Really enjoying your review. Thanks!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info.

[wdwlvr94]

Great review! Thanks for posting!!!

[ger_77]

We got to know Rommel as our concierge on our first trans-Atlantic 3 years ago - what a wonderful young man! We saw him on a subsequent cruise (not ejoying the luxury of a Neptune Suite) yet when we encountered him on the ship more than a year later, he greeted us by name. Like you, we've enjoyed cruising with our whole family and there's nothing quite like it.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[newdestination]

Very nice review! Thank you for doing it.

[EeyoreFan1967]

Loving your review so far, and I'm following along! I will be doing a similar trip next year with my hubby and 21 and 23 year olds, but on N.A. instead of Eurodam from Vancouver instead of Seattle...will have Skagway instead of Sitka. We have the same issue with getting everyone together at the same time. Right now we have a regular balcony and an inside, but have considered a SS.instead of the balcony for the room for all 4 of us to hang out during the day. So far I haven't found any hugely discounted prices and we have to save some $$ for excursions. That NS looks amazing!! I will keep watching for sales.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Can't wait to read more!!

[madera1]

I am enjoying reading your review. We took our two adult daughters last June on a similar 7 day cruise out of Seattle.

 

 

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