Seward to Alaska review

[kimberlydrzymala]

• •  73
• October 10, 2016
• Cape Coral, FL

• #1  

Posted 3 hours ago (edited)

 

This cruise was originally planned for August 2020 and of course COVID caused the trip to be pushed out to 2022. After months of worrying about air transportation everything worked out fine. We arrived in Seward a few days prior to boarding, and everything went well. We had not been on any ship since 2019 so we were all excited to do this trip.

 

This was our first time in a Celebrity Suite, and we were not disappointed. The suite was beautiful, and it was great to have a little room to move around inside a cabin. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandson also joined us on the trip to we were all super happy to be there. They stayed in a Family veranda and had a beautiful aft view from their cabin.

 

Our food and service were amazing at Lumine and while I realize the service is obviously a little better in the Suite class my daughter was happy with all meals, she had in the main dining room. We were a little concerned bringing an eleven-year-old on a Celebrity ship, but he met some friends at kid’s club and said this was his best vacation ever. My grandson started having some horrible glutton issues prior to the cruise and Celebrity did their best accommodate him. All food in the buffet was very clearly marked.

 

I am told there is no bad weather in Alaska – only bad clothing choices. We did have rain pretty much every day except for the last two days. It did not stop us from doing anything we had planned but did get chilly much of the time. Layering is a must and decent raingear is highly recommended. I made fun of my husband for buying rain pants and additional rain gear and it turned out on several days he was the only one that was dry.

 

I thought the ship was in very good condition. You were welcomed on arrival, and everyone was thanked when departing. The staff was amazing. I do know there were some complaints for specialty dining and getting reservations was not easy. We did it on the first day and had to wait until day four to get a table. The specialty dining at Tuscan was not as good as I have had in the past. What really surprised me was how empty the place was since getting a reservation was not easy. I believe they were understaffed and wanted to provide the better service to a smaller crowd.

 

We were also happy with each port and did the Celebrity excursions as we had a bit of nonrefundable credit we needed to use. This was our second cruise on Celebrity in Alaska, so we had been to all the ports in 2019 but Skagway was new for us. Unfortunately, on the day we boarded our preplanned excursion in Skagway was cancelled. This caused some scurrying for us to find something else we could all do.

 

The viewing at Hubbard Glacier was magical and amazing. It is luck of the draw as we did not see as much calving as we did in 2019 but it was still great to view from our balcony with the family. We did whale watching at the Juneau stop and it was very good. We did not see any breaching but still plenty of tails from a close view.

 

The Skagway stop was where things got interesting. As I said, our original excursion was cancelled so the one we selected I thought we could do easily turned out not to be. The description said short canoe ride to view a glacier. There would be some walking over rocks but no real concern for someone with a bad hip. (me) When we arrived after a one-hour boat ride to get there the skies opened, and we had very hard rain and gale force winds. We walked up a hill through this and they gave us gear for the canoe portion and once I got the rain boots, rain pants, raincoat I felt like I was the little boy in Christmas story who was over dressed, and it made walking difficult.  We then proceeded down a very muddy steep hill and I was honestly very scared of falling. By the time we got to the bottom I was close to a panic attack from my fear of falling as I have had several broken bones in the last few years, and I did NOT want another one. Do I regret doing this excursion not at all. We made another family memory that I will cherish. Would I do this one again? That would be a big fat HELL to the no.

 

Last port to stop at was ISP and this was my favorite stop. We did the Whale watching and bear viewing combo trip and it said whales were guaranteed and bears were not. That made perfect sense to us as bears do not come out on demand unless you’re at a circus. The whale watching portion was very disappointing there was no participation from the crew telling you where to look and we saw a few spouts but from quite a distance. We were all disappointed and brought back to shore for the bear portion of the trip. My son-in-law and grandson bailed at this point because we were sure there would be no bears. WRONG – this was the best part of the entire trip. We had a fabulous guide, and he clearly knew his stuff. He was interesting and passionate about the bears. We saw a female from all three viewing platforms, and it was great. She was in the creek getting her share of Salmon and getting fattened up for winter. It really turned out to be our favorite excursion and I cannot recommend it enough. Maybe the key was we had very low expectations.

 

Last day was a sea day and my son-in-law started feeling bad I am sure there will be no surprise since arriving home three out of five of us tested positive for COVID  We are lucky that none of us have had any serious symptoms.

 

Now for the bad news  - internet was HORRIBLE. We had the ‘high speed’ package, and it was just as bad as my daughter’s ‘low speed’ package. If I paid for the internet, I would be demanding my money back. We also had a few glitches with our on-board credits, but our concierge got it sorted out. The moral of the story is watching your account and monitor what you are charged for because it could be wrong.

 

[Coral]

Thanks for the review. Glad it was a good trip.

 

Sorry for the rain and for those who got sick once home. You don't seem to be alone in this.