LIVE from the Edge - Alaska Dawes Glacier B2Bs May 24-June 7

[catspaw1]

Glad you liked my NYTimes cooking recipe. I made the cucumber soup again last night & it really is great. I also suggested the cookbook of tyde & time from the Annapolis women's rotary Club. Sierra bought if for $3.50!

[takemewithyou]

On 6/16/2024 at 6:53 PM, SerraG said:

 

That cookbook had great reviews.  I found a used copy for $3.50 so I bought it.  I am looking forward to trying to make the crab cakes! 🙂

You must have found the last one!  Doesn’t come up  in an Amazon  search for me.

 

I did print out The NY Times cucumber salad with roasted peanuts and chili recipe.

Edited June 18 by takemewithyou

[SerraG]

On 6/17/2024 at 3:57 AM, Ergates The Ant said:

No wow factor,

 

Yes, good description.  I think they wanted the tall Martini Bar to be the "Wow" factor, but it didn't pan out.

 

On 6/17/2024 at 3:57 AM, Ergates The Ant said:

The theatre was amazing, and capable of such incredible special effects, although we did have to abandon some of the musical numbers.

 

I forgot to mention, that we really liked the theater.  We always sat on the upper level and didn't notice any problems with sound on the Edge. 

[SerraG]

On 6/17/2024 at 8:25 AM, RK-NC said:

I think the E-class ships are best suited for warmer weather cruising. Is this the first year Edge has been in Alaska? 

 

 

I think this was the Edge's first trip to Alaska and I agree that it would probably be better suited for warmer weather, but maybe that can be said for most cruise ships.  Interesting to think about a cruise line building a "cold weather" ship with everything indoors.  More indoor pools and bars... or maybe a retractable roof? 

Edited June 19 by SerraG

[SerraG]

On 6/17/2024 at 9:43 AM, kayehall said:

 Did your daughter enjoy her trip?  Looking forward to your next adventure!!!

 

Thanks for asking.  Yes!  She loved it!  She said it was life changing and she wants to go back to Spain again.  We have heard constant comparisons since she she got home.  "The stores in Spain are much smaller than here."  "They don't really have suburbs."   "In Spain, they walk everywhere."  "They eat dinner much later in Spain." etc, etc.  lol. 🙂

[SerraG]

4 hours ago, catspaw1 said:

I also suggested the cookbook of tyde & time from the Annapolis women's rotary Club.

 

3 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

You must have found the last one!  Doesn’t come up  in an Amazon  search for me.

I might have bought the wrong one.

@catspaw1 Would you please double check the title of your book?  Might it be “Of Tide & Thyme by Junior League of Annapolis”? 

 

[SerraG]

On 6/17/2024 at 11:36 AM, kxnhra said:

  If you are considering Regent you should also look at Seabourn and Silversea.  We just got off the Grandeur (march).  Although the ship design was excellent, the service was spotty and the food left much to be desired.

 

On 6/17/2024 at 9:34 PM, SunandShade said:

I agree with @kxnhra, maybe consider Silversea.  Since you are Elite on Celebrity, you’ll now get a matching status on Silversea as well.

 

22 hours ago, sonnycruises said:

You may want to try Viking Ocean. We really enjoy their ships after many Celebrity cruises.

 

6 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

May I suggest that you look in to Oceania?  We did a long TA from Lisbon to Miami last Nov and we really enjoyed the food.  I think you might just love it, too. 

 

We will definitely look at all of those and maybe Crystal too, if they are looking stable again.  
 

@kxnhra I’m sorry to hear your Reagent food experience wasn’t great. Obviously we weight a cruise heavily by the quality of the food. lol. 🙂

 

@sonnycruises I’m glad you mentioned Viking. It reminded me that our neighbor went on a Viking cruise and came back with glowing reviews.  

[catspaw1]

8 hours ago, SerraG said:

 

I might have bought the wrong one.

@catspaw1 Would you please double check the title of your book?  Might it be “Of Tide & Thyme by Junior League of Annapolis”? 

 

That's correct.  My spelling was wrong. Amazon has it for $16.63. I know there was used copies also at one point because I bought it to give to a friend. Their gourmet pumpkin soup is to die for! Hope you will like it! Please advise how you do. 

[catspaw1]

5 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

That's correct.  My spelling was wrong. Amazon has it for $16.63. I know there was used copies also at one point because I bought it to give to a friend. Their gourmet pumpkin soup is to die for! Hope you will like it! Please advise how you do. 

I just checked & it's available used on Etsy & thriftbooks used for less than $10. The cover has a red checkered tablecloth & there's water & boat slips. Please everyone let me know if you like it!

[Stem to Stern]

12 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

You must have found the last one!  Doesn’t come up  in an Amazon  search for me.

I googled Of Tide and Thyme this morning and ended up at eBay.

I saw two pre-loved copies on eBay for under five bucks each.

I ordered one and left the other for you.🤗

Crab cakes and pumpkin soup sounds like a nice pairing, maybe?🤔 

[Stem to Stern]

9 hours ago, SerraG said:

maybe Crystal

It was six years ago, but when we tried Crystal we found it to be ahhh-mazing!!

[takemewithyou]

2 hours ago, catspaw1 said:

That's correct.  My spelling was wrong. Amazon has it for $16.63. I know there was used copies also at one point because I bought it to give to a friend. Their gourmet pumpkin soup is to die for! Hope you will like it! Please advise how you do. 

Bought it.  DH is from Annapolis 😀

[catspaw1]

21 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

Bought it.  DH is from Annapolis 😀

Than you must make the crabcake recipe- its superb! Heads up that since we like our Old Bay here in the DMV , I use 2 tsp so more than the recipe states. Use exactly the 1tsp of lemon juice & no more. Drain crab well

[screwsmcernst]

@SerraG  I just wanted to thank you for the Frog Togg waterproof pants suggestion for the cruise.  They were perfect for Ketchikan.  Best advice EVER!!!  Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

17 hours ago, screwsmcernst said:

@SerraG  I just wanted to thank you for the Frog Togg waterproof pants suggestion for the cruise.  They were perfect for Ketchikan.  Best advice EVER!!!  Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you!

Her review was so helpful to us as well! We bought rain gear for our upcoming sailing (just in case hoping)

[katie8203]

On 5/26/2024 at 8:51 PM, SerraG said:

 

I was trying to write some of my LIVE review while in the Uber, so I didn't pay a lot of attention until we were very close to the ship.  We pulled into a elipse-shaped roadway with the Edge on our right and the Ovation on our left.

 

I thought we would pull up to the curb in front of the Edge, but instead the driver kept going and pulled around so we were parked in front of the Ovation.  We got out of the car and there was a porter standing near us.  We asked if this was the correct location for the Edge and he said, "Yes."  He was wearing a bright colored vest (neither Ross, nor I can remember the actual color though.) with the word Celebrity printed on it.  He said anyone in a vest like that would be able to help us.  

 

The driver unloaded our luggage from the Uber and the porter loaded them onto his cart.  I had previously printed 3 luggage tags (one for each of our checked luggage) and folded them into strips as instructed.  The porter had me loop the strips around the handle of our luggage and he stapled them.  He then put them on his cart to deliver to the ship.  We kept our backpacks and one carry-on bag that we didn't want to be separated from.  

 

There was a lot of people and it was chaotic.  We walked next to the roadway (on a walkway) towards the top of the ellipse where we could see a building.  This part was obvious because everyone was headed in that direction.  As we got near the top of the circle, representatives from other cruise lines were kind of yelling for their passengers.  "Princess cruises this way!!"  We asked one of them where Celebrity was and they pointed to the building right in front of us at the top of the ellipse.

 

Many people were in line for Celebrity.  We saw a gray sign to the far right that said The Retreat.  We headed there and were greeted by a Celebrity representative who wanted to see our Xpass.  I had both of them pulled up on the app on my phone and showed them to her.  She also told us to make sure we had our passports. but did to require that I show them to her.  After that, we were directed up an escalator where we were directed to join the line for security.  Everyone (not just the Retreat) gets in this line.  It seems long but moved fast.  We had to empty our pockets and put our bags on an x-ray machine, and then walk through a metal detector.

 

At this point, we were directed to get in yet another line to check-in.  I spoke up and said, "We are in the Retreat.  Is this the correct line?"  The man said, "Oh, no.  Wait here."  So we waited by him for a bit and then a woman came and got us and another couple who had joined us in the mean time.  The woman led us behind a rope to a kiosk and then asked us for our passports and Xpasses.  She took our pictures, gave us our sea pass cards told us we would not need our passports again so we could put them away.   Then she led us to the gangway.  We had to show our new Seapass cards to someone and he "beeped" us through and onto the ship.  Yay!

This is what I'm worried about - our luggage getting to the right ship. I'm not going to be able to relax until all of our luggage arrives - how long did it take for yours? The last two cruises I've been on, we took our own stuff on. 

[takemewithyou]

3 minutes ago, katie8203 said:

This is what I'm worried about - our luggage getting to the right ship. I'm not going to be able to relax until all of our luggage arrives - how long did it take for yours? The last two cruises I've been on, we took our own stuff on. 

I suggest apple air tags!  They are a Godsend.  You will know if your luggage goes to the wrong place!

 

I learned that hard lesson when Viking couldn’t find our luggage..🤬.  I wish I had the air tags then.  I bought them for the very next cruise! 

Edited Monday at 01:40 AM by takemewithyou

[katie8203]

20 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

I suggest apple air tags!  They are a Godsend.  You will know if your luggage goes to the wrong place!

 

I learned that hard lesson when Viking couldn’t find our luggage..🤬.  I wish I had the air tags then.  I bought them for the very next cruise! 

Oh I've got them ready to go! 

I have been getting conflicting info - some folks saying we can take our own luggage onboard and put it in our rooms even if they aren't ready. That doesn't sound right. We board at 11:30 a.m. so I'm guessing our room will likely not be ready yet? IDK. I'd rather not hand our bags off to anybody unless we're going to be toting it everywhere for hours. 

[takemewithyou]

12 minutes ago, katie8203 said:

Oh I've got them ready to go! 

I have been getting conflicting info - some folks saying we can take our own luggage onboard and put it in our rooms even if they aren't ready. That doesn't sound right. We board at 11:30 a.m. so I'm guessing our room will likely not be ready yet? IDK. I'd rather not hand our bags off to anybody unless we're going to be toting it everywhere for hours. 

I always hand my big suitcase over to the porters and tip them.

 

My carry on comes on board with me.  I believe you go directly to your cabin where you pick up your room keys and you can put your carry ons in the cabin and go to lunch…..whether room is ready or not.
 

Some one correct me if I have this wrong because I have not cruised X recently. 😀

[katie8203]

5 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

I always hand my big suitcase over to the porters and tip them.

 

My carry on comes on board with me.  I believe you go directly to your cabin where you pick up your room keys and you can put your carry ons in the cabin and go to lunch…..whether room is ready or not.
 

Some one correct me if I have this wrong because I have not cruised X recently. 😀

See, if we're able to go directly to our room, why not just take our bags ourselves....

[Ferry_Watcher]

6 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

My carry on comes on board with me.  I believe you go directly to your cabin where you pick up your room keys and you can put your carry ons in the cabin and go to lunch…..whether room is ready or not.

 

This is true.

[takemewithyou]

1 minute ago, katie8203 said:

See, if we're able to go directly to our room, why not just take our bags ourselves....

Depends on where you are embarking. Where is your cruise?

You can’t take big luggage up an escalator.  They won’t allow it.  You would have to use the elevator,

[katie8203]

4 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

Depends on where you are embarking. Where is your cruise?

You can’t take big luggage up an escalator.  They won’t allow it.  You would have to use the elevator,

We leave from Seattle (Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Victoria)

 

[takemewithyou]

1 minute ago, katie8203 said:

We leave from Seattle (Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Victoria)

 

Maybe @Ferry_Watcher can advise you.  From Seattle.

[katie8203]

On 6/3/2024 at 10:25 AM, SerraG said:

I am not sure, but the parking lot was completely empty when our bus arrived.  Several other busses (from our ship) arrived after us, so it makes sense that Butchart Gardens was open exclusively for ship tours.  I do know that our group got a special after-hours visit to the Butterfly Garden.  

You might still be able to buy an excursion there if you talk to a Retreat Concierge. 

 

Our boat doesn't even dock until like 5:30 p.m. and we have a Butchart Gardens tour that lasts four hours....