New to Royal & I have a lot of questions

[cruisinqt]

We are long time cruisers but haven’t cruised Royal Caribbean in many many years. We booked an Alaskan cruise on Quantam Of The Seas for May of next year. I’m reading the boards here and feel lost. I feel like a newby. Everything with Royal is so different from what I’m used to. Like booking shows and getting special deals on dining packages etc. And to make matters worse, we booked Alaska which is a place we’ve never cruised to. I have no idea where to start on what tours to do. I’ve been on the Alaska boards and everything looks interesting so I don’t know where to start. Can anyone give me a brief overview of what to do and expect on a Royal Caribbean cruise? And also some advice on which Alaskan tours Royal offers that are the best? We are a family of 4 with my husband and I being in our 50’s and our daughters being in their mid 20’s. These are our ports:

Sitka,Alaska 

Skagway, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Victoria, British Columbia 

Thanks for your help in advance guys. 

[vjmatty]

What cruise line do you normally sail? That might help in comparing differences so there is a place to start.

[Oceansaway17]

33 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

 Can anyone give me a brief overview of what to do and expect on a Royal Caribbean cruise? And also some advice on which Alaskan tours Royal offers that are the best? We are a family of 4 with my husband and I being in our 50’s and our daughters being in their mid 20’s. These are our ports:

Sitka,Alaska 

Skagway, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Victoria, British Columbia 

Thanks for your help in advance guys. 

Well for Victoria I think if they use this year's itinerary, then you would only have late afternoon in Victoria.

The big draw is Buchart Gardens, and you would want a ship that get in earlier perhaps.

 

Juneau has lots to off especially the Roberts Tram that goes up and looks out over the port and then there is a walking trail down (about moderate I would say). However, go out to Mendenhall glacier and walk around and see the nice visitor center as well.

Sitka has in town a wonderful trail that goes into a state park.  look up Twangster who did a thread on this.

 

Skagway of course has the train and there are a variety of schedule.  I did one that involved going into Canada and getting a lunch and seeing the swinging pedestrian bridge.  Skagway has some interesting shops at the train station.

 

But for fun I like Ketchikan for totum poles and luberjack show.

If you can swing it, try doing a back-to-back and perhaps you can also get Icy Point as well.

[cruiseguy1016]

I recommend renting a car in Skagway and driving to Carcross or Emerald Lake. They, of course, have the train/bus excursion that does this but IMHO renting a car is a better option. First, depending on the number of people, it's a lot cheaper than the train/bus. Second, you will be able to stop where, when and for how long you want. There are many pull-offs on the road to Carcross where you can stop and take pictures.

[Ourusualbeach]

50 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

We are long time cruisers but haven’t cruised Royal Caribbean in many many years. We booked an Alaskan cruise on Quantam Of The Seas for May of next year. I’m reading the boards here and feel lost. I feel like a newby. Everything with Royal is so different from what I’m used to. Like booking shows and getting special deals on dining packages etc. And to make matters worse, we booked Alaska which is a place we’ve never cruised to. I have no idea where to start on what tours to do. I’ve been on the Alaska boards and everything looks interesting so I don’t know where to start. Can anyone give me a brief overview of what to do and expect on a Royal Caribbean cruise? And also some advice on which Alaskan tours Royal offers that are the best? We are a family of 4 with my husband and I being in our 50’s and our daughters being in their mid 20’s. These are our ports:

Sitka,Alaska 

Skagway, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Victoria, British Columbia 

Thanks for your help in advance guys. 

We did that same itinerary 2 weeks ago.

 

In Sitka we did thezodiak to Fin Island.  Nice time in the Zodiak looking for nature and a great feast of crab and salmon on Fin Island.

 

We we were all day in Victoria so we did a private whale watching excursion (Prince of Whales) that was a lot cheaper than what Royal offered.

 

Skagway we di the Whitepass train...incredible scenery as well as a stop at Doughboy (google) in town.

 

Juneau was a helicopter tour that stopped at 2 glaciers and a visit to Tracy's Crab Shack

 

Juneau

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, cruisinqt said:

We are long time cruisers but haven’t cruised Royal Caribbean in many many years. We booked an Alaskan cruise on Quantam Of The Seas for May of next year. I’m reading the boards here and feel lost. I feel like a newby. Everything with Royal is so different from what I’m used to. Like booking shows and getting special deals on dining packages etc. And to make matters worse, we booked Alaska which is a place we’ve never cruised to. I have no idea where to start on what tours to do. I’ve been on the Alaska boards and everything looks interesting so I don’t know where to start. Can anyone give me a brief overview of what to do and expect on a Royal Caribbean cruise? And also some advice on which Alaskan tours Royal offers that are the best? We are a family of 4 with my husband and I being in our 50’s and our daughters being in their mid 20’s. These are our ports:

Sitka,Alaska 

Skagway, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Victoria, British Columbia 

Thanks for your help in advance guys. 

 

• Sitka do any that include the Fortress of the bears and Alaska Raptor center. Both are can't miss.
• Skagway We have the White Pass scenic Railway tour booked but haven't done it yet so so far we just hope it is good.  I haven't been to Skagway in a decade.
• Juneau Mendenhall Glacier and Whale watching tour is excellent.  I did it last year and it was the highlight of the cruise.  Absolutely spectacular.
• Victoria I've been to Victoria so many times I wouldn't get off the ship.  Victoria, while being an interesting place has such a short duration it is in port and is usually right over the dinner hour I'd recommend skipping it.  Enjoy a half empty ship while a large group of your fellow travelers are buying t-shirts and gawking at the closed Legislative assembly.  

 

[Tree_skier]

57 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We we were all day in Victoria so we did a private whale watching excursion (Prince of Whales) that was a lot cheaper than what Royal offered.

I thought those were just short evening 4 hour stops...  Ours on Ovation is.  

 

@cruisinqt If you have a full day in Victoria I retract my previous comment.  I recommend Butchart Garden and High tea.  

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Sitka do any that include the Fortress of the bears and Alaska Raptor center. Both are can't miss.

We did that one as well.  Very enjoyable especially when we were at Totem Park.  There were at least 10-15 bald eagles flying around catching fish

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, Tree_skier said:

I thought those were just short evening 4 hour stops...  Ours on Ovation is.  

 

@cruisinqt If you have a full day in Victoria I retract my previous comment.  I recommend Butchart Garden and High tea.  

Every itinerary is different.  We were in Victoria from 11am to 10pm

[Tree_skier]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Every itinerary is different.  We were in Victoria from 11am to 10pm

That would make Victoria a decent stop then.  I thought they were all just a technical stop to fulfill PVSA.

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

That would make Victoria a decent stop then.  I thought they were all just a technical stop to fulfill PVSA.

We had a great day there.  Had it been one of the 4 hour stops I doubt we would have ventured off the ship.

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, vjmatty said:

What cruise line do you normally sail? That might help in comparing differences so there is a place to start.

We did a couple Royal cruises but it was at least 12 years ago. We are Platinum with Carnival and Princess. We also have done a couple Norwegian cruises. 

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

Well for Victoria I think if they use this year's itinerary, then you would only have late afternoon in Victoria.

The big draw is Buchart Gardens, and you would want a ship that get in earlier perhaps.

 

Juneau has lots to off especially the Roberts Tram that goes up and looks out over the port and then there is a walking trail down (about moderate I would say). However, go out to Mendenhall glacier and walk around and see the nice visitor center as well.

Sitka has in town a wonderful trail that goes into a state park.  look up Twangster who did a thread on this.

 

Skagway of course has the train and there are a variety of schedule.  I did one that involved going into Canada and getting a lunch and seeing the swinging pedestrian bridge.  Skagway has some interesting shops at the train station.

 

But for fun I like Ketchikan for totum poles and luberjack show.

If you can swing it, try doing a back-to-back and perhaps you can also get Icy Point as well.

I forgot to mention that I had total knee replacement on one leg a few months ago and will be having another total knee replacement on the remaining one soon. So maybe something with not too much walking. The train in Skagway sounds interesting I’ll check that out. Thanks for the info. 

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We did that same itinerary 2 weeks ago.

 

In Sitka we did thezodiak to Fin Island.  Nice time in the Zodiak looking for nature and a great feast of crab and salmon on Fin Island.

 

We we were all day in Victoria so we did a private whale watching excursion (Prince of Whales) that was a lot cheaper than what Royal offered.

 

Skagway we di the Whitepass train...incredible scenery as well as a stop at Doughboy (google) in town.

 

Juneau was a helicopter tour that stopped at 2 glaciers and a visit to Tracy's Crab Shack

 

Juneau

Oh whale watching sounds fun. And we love trains. I’ll look into those thanks. 

[Tree_skier]

5 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

I forgot to mention that I had total knee replacement on one leg a few months ago and will be having another total knee replacement on the remaining one soon. So maybe something with not too much walking. The train in Skagway sounds interesting I’ll check that out. Thanks for the info. 

The Mendenhall Glacier / Whale watching tour would be fine if you can walk even a little.  The walk to one view point is only about a 1/4 mile from the parking lot/visitor centre.  They transport you by bus to the visitor centre and the walk to the view is worth it.

 

From there you bus to the boat and they take you out to view the whales.  No knee challenges there.  I had knee problems as well and had no trouble.

 

I really, really recommend this tour.

[TravelGirlinDallas]

Just went to Alaska on Ovation a couple of weeks ago. We had a blast.

 

Skagway, Alaska - White Pass railroad

Juneau, Alaska - Five-glacier seaplane tour (amazing)

Victoria, British Columbia  - Whale-watching excursion (short port stop)

Our only complaint about Victoria's short stay was that when we returned to the ship after our excursion, it was about 9:30 p.m. and nothing was open for dinner at that time other than Sorrento's. According to the app, everything else like MDRs and Cafe Two70 were closed by then. There was a HUGE line for pizza.

[Tree_skier]

14 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Juneau, Alaska - Five-glacier seaplane tour (amazing)

That is what I am doing this time. Three weeks and a day to embarkation. DW is doing a Kayak and Salmon feast. 🙂 

[TravelGirlinDallas]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

That is what I am doing this time. Three weeks and a day to embarkation. DW is doing a Kayak and Salmon feast. 🙂 

Yay!! I hope you love it as much as we did.

 

 

[cruisinqt]

2 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

The Mendenhall Glacier / Whale watching tour would be fine if you can walk even a little.  The walk to one view point is only about a 1/4 mile from the parking lot/visitor centre.  They transport you by bus to the visitor centre and the walk to the view is worth it.

 

From there you bus to the boat and they take you out to view the whales.  No knee challenges there.  I had knee problems as well and had no trouble.

 

I really, really recommend this tour.

Thanks I’ll check it out then. 

[cruisinqt]

2 hours ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Just went to Alaska on Ovation a couple of weeks ago. We had a blast.

 

Skagway, Alaska - White Pass railroad

Juneau, Alaska - Five-glacier seaplane tour (amazing)

Victoria, British Columbia  - Whale-watching excursion (short port stop)

Our only complaint about Victoria's short stay was that when we returned to the ship after our excursion, it was about 9:30 p.m. and nothing was open for dinner at that time other than Sorrento's. According to the app, everything else like MDRs and Cafe Two70 were closed by then. There was a HUGE line for pizza.

That’s good to know ahead of time. We will make sure to grab a bite to eat before heading back to the ship. 

[Oceansaway17]

5 hours ago, cruisinqt said:

I forgot to mention that I had total knee replacement on one leg a few months ago and will be having another total knee replacement on the remaining one soon. So maybe something with not too much walking. The train in Skagway sounds interesting I’ll check that out. Thanks for the info. 

you will have to climb steps to get on the train and it can be a bit bumpy sometimes so be careful of knee.

 

[BirdTravels]

11 hours ago, cruisinqt said:

We are long time cruisers but haven’t cruised Royal Caribbean in many many years. We booked an Alaskan cruise on Quantam Of The Seas for May of next year. I’m reading the boards here and feel lost. I feel like a newby. Everything with Royal is so different from what I’m used to. Like booking shows and getting special deals on dining packages etc. And to make matters worse, we booked Alaska which is a place we’ve never cruised to. I have no idea where to start on what tours to do. I’ve been on the Alaska boards and everything looks interesting so I don’t know where to start. Can anyone give me a brief overview of what to do and expect on a Royal Caribbean cruise? And also some advice on which Alaskan tours Royal offers that are the best? We are a family of 4 with my husband and I being in our 50’s and our daughters being in their mid 20’s. These are our ports:

Sitka,Alaska 

Skagway, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Victoria, British Columbia 

Thanks for your help in advance guys. 

Here a live post from our Quantum cruise to Alaska this May. Just to give you an idea of what's happening on the ship. 

 

[cruisinqt]

17 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

you will have to climb steps to get on the train and it can be a bit bumpy sometimes so be careful of knee.

 

Thanks I’ll be careful