First time X - first time alaska - Do´s - Don´ts

[kasi1979]

Hi everybody,

my soon-to.be husband and I are going for a honeymoon cruise in september. We´ll be on board Celebrity Millenium.

 

I have cruised before, but never with X and never to Alaska. What are the need-to.know? I´ve read the FAQ, but what would you as experienced cruises recommend?

 

We have a balcony room on deck 7, my first balcony ever...

 

A few questions I already came up with:

- Where will the ship dock in Vancouver?

- Are the pools heated?

- How much is a can of coke or a bottle of water?

 

Please help us getting as much info as possible, so that our honeymoon will be as special as we want it to be :)

[tech-lab]

Kasi1979...Congrats on your upcoming wedding. I cant remember if the pool is heated on the Millie. I never use it in Alaska. If I had to guess I would say yes it is,but Im sure someone else can answer that question. There is always the hot tub. Most honeymooners never leave the cabin!! The ship docks "downtown" Vancouver. If you are going to the airport directly from the ship I would guess its about 20 minutes by taxi. If you are staying in Vancouver its minutes to the hotels downtown.(Its a great city). As far as soda and water...You can buy a "card" for soda and get all the soda you can drink for a set price. Check the web site for price. They have two sizes of bottled water and it runs about $2-5 plus tip. They will keep it stocked in your cabin for you if you ask and charge you as you use it or you can get it at any bar. You can bring water and soda with you when you board the ship. I think that is unlimited. If you bring wine its 2 bottles per cabin.

 

Hope that helps. What Sept cruise are you love birds on??

 

Ann

Godley TX

[kasi1979]

Thanks for your reply :)

We are on the cruise 18th sept., 10 days alaska :)

We don´t intend to spent all day in our stateroom, we xcould have that way cheaper back here in Europe ;)

[fleckle]

According to the Vancouver port schedule, the Millennium will be docking in September at Ballantyne pier, located outside the downtown area, about a 10 minute ride away. (The one downtown is called Canada Place.)

 

The ship has a very nice covered, heated salt water thallasotherapy pool in the spa area, near the front of deck 10. It is very relaxing to sit back on the metal loungers in the water and be massaged by the pulsating water jets. There is no charge to use the locker rooms and showers in the spa area or the free saunas (men's on one side, women's on the other) with big picture window where you can sit and look out at the sea. One of the things we like about Celebrity is that they have plenty of towels at the pool so you never need to carry towels from your cabin.

 

It is really not necessary to purchase the bottled drinking water because you will have a pitcher of good quality drinking water in your cabin. Your cabin steward will refill it along with the ice bucket twice each day, or more frequently upon request. If you each have one water bottle of your own, you can just keep refilling it.

 

As you board the ship, you will be offered a glass of sparkling wine or orange juice or a mimosa. Most people take the drink and then awkwardly try to carry it along with their hand luggage and other packages. We find it much easier to drop off our bags in our cabin first and then go back to pick up our drinks later when our hands are free, after we have had a chance to wash up.

 

Enjoy your balcony. They are wonderful to have on an Alaska cruise. If the weather is chilly, you can always pick up a couple of nice warm blankets from the pool deck and bundle up. Your cabin steward will even get them for you if you ask.

 

If you have been reading the messages posted on this board, you already know about the various types of entertainment offered, the gym, the waffles, the sushi, the ice-cream, the hot chocolate, the croissants, the martini tasting, etc.

 

For information about what to see and do in the various ports, I would also recomment the Alaska board, at

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

 

If you let your cabin steward and waiters know that you are honeymooners they will really pamper you, not that they wouldn't anyway. Hope you love Alaska as much as we do.

 

[kasi1979]

Thanks for your awesome reply.

We are absolutely looking foward to this cruise. Ißll start reading as much as possible and check out the boards to get as much info as possible.

As we are in photography, we´ll try to see some wildlife.

 

It seems by now I´ve not read about all the perks you mention, so something more to check.

 

Thanks again.

[greydog]

Celeb is great cruiseline but is one of more 'traditional'. Dinner in main dining is assigned seating, first at 6pm, second 8:30?pm. Their system of serving everyone smoothly and efficiently depends on guests being seated within 10 mins of the opening time, especially if you are seated at a table with other guests, which is the usual situation. Waiters will delay taking orders of other guests at the table when they see some still haven't arrived so let tablemates know beforehand if you have made other plans for the next evening. In the past, I have seen the announcement that the entrance would be closed 15-mins after start time, but that dealine now seems to be 30mins after start time - but being late still disrupts the serving process. Separate 'alternate' dining can be reserved away from the main dining room if you prefer. Have a great cruise - we're doing 5th Alaska cruise this May, 4 prior with Celeb.

[kasi1979]

Wow, sounds great.

We enjoy sitting down for dinner with the same tablemates every night, so this is more of a plus for us.

Hope we get second sitting, as first is a little early for us.

I want to be a good guidebook, can you recommend something?

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I don't know that any of the guidebooks I looked at were worth purchasing. I got them all at the library. There is also a tremendous amount of information on the internet, much of which is more current that what is in guidebooks.

 

Alaska is absolutely gorgeous, photo opportunities wherever you look.

 

I'd also suggest that you check the roll call for your cruise--if there isn't one, you can start one. Good place to get tips and plan for shore excursions. Also check the appropriate ports of call board.

 

Bon Voyage!

[phoenix_dream]

We are tentatively booked on the same cruise. This would be our 4th time to Alaska and our 18th with Celebrity. You will absolutely love both. Would be happy to answer any specific questions you may have about the ship or about any of the Alaska ports -we have been to them all except Victoria.

 

One of my favorites is Sitka. You don't need a tour there - you can walk to alot in town and close to town from the port. There is an awesome state park with lots of totem poles close to town you can walk to.

 

Juneau is wonderful. It has great shopping and cool bars. I highly recommend taking a whale watching tour from Captain Larry. You can find info about him on the postings - we have taken him twice and loved it.

 

Skagway is a small town, and I highly recommend you book the railway trip. Check the price of booking it yourself versus a shore excursion - I don't recall if you can save, but if you can do it, as it is just a very short walk from the pier.

 

Ketchikan is a really cool town. We have done the ducks tour, a totem pole tour, and a speed boat-type tour. If memory serves we also did an inflatable boat and short hike tour. They were all alot of fun. This is the rainy town - although one year it was 80 degrees when we were there - you just can't tell.

 

Icy Strait does not have alot to do onshore. I recommend you book a whale watching or some similar tour here as well. This is a very small town where they are just starting to build some touristy stuff at the pier and you can walk around, but unless you take a tour you'll be challenged to use more than an hour or two of time.:)

[ghstudio]

One of the highlights of our Alaskan cruise was my helicopter trip up to the snow and ride on a dogsled. I did it with Princess, but I'm sure that all the cruise lines offer it. Great views of the glaciers from the helicopter and how many places in the world can you ride on a real dogsled. worth the money.

[greydog]

Wow, sounds great.

We enjoy sitting down for dinner with the same tablemates every night, so this is more of a plus for us.

Hope we get second sitting, as first is a little early for us.

I want to be a good guidebook, can you recommend something?

 

Your online reservation will show dining assignment - if it says Main thats early. Most want early, so if you were assigned to early, but want late, have your agent call in OR on 1st day of cruise visit the dining room in afternoon of boarding to request change - they will be happy because they can switch others wanting early.

 

Great enjoyable historical paperback about 1898 Skagway-Yukon Gold Rush (why they built the railroad) is THE KLONDIKE FEVER by Pierre Berton - highly recommend.

[shofer]

We did Alaska as a transition cruise in May, 2003 from San Francisco to Vancouver on Mercury and loved it. It should be a little less crowded there in September and the mechandise heavily discounted as they are trying to get rid of it.

 

These ports are in reality very small towns. Even Juneau is not that big, population-wise. In summer they can have up to 5 ships in port and it makes for a lot of congestion. One of the merchants told us the police have to set up barriers at the pier to channel the tourists so they don't block traffic all day. She said someone gets hit by a car every season.

 

Sitka didn't even have a traffic light when we were there. But they all had a Chinese restaurant and a welfare office! You can get a bus to Mendenhall glacier right at the pier in Juneau for $5/pp. (at least that's what we paid) The Red Dog Saloon was great for local beer and ambiance.

 

We found a place in Ketchikan that sold fresh frozen King salmon and we bought 10# to have shipped to our DD & SIL back home. Don't miss Dolly's "house" for a little local history. We did find that Ketchikan had the most reasonable prices on souvenirs.

 

We did the whale watching w/Captain Larry and really liked it. The whales might have started their migration in September so you may not see many. In May, we saw one on our excursion. Coming south to Vancouver on our "sea" day we saw tons (!) of whales going north. DH even saw a group of killer whales chasing a lone whale.

 

Look over the sides when the ship is moving and you will see dolphins keeping pace w/the ship. Very cool sight. Hope you get to Glacier Bay. It was not part of our itinerary and we will probably take another trip to Alaska w/the land tour just to see it.

 

We didn't get a balcony for Alaska and were sorry for it. It was quite chilly going north and rather bouncy the first day so we would have only used it while in port. If you get a chance to take a city tour of Vancouver pre- or post-cruise, do so as it was very interesting.

 

If you stop in Victoria, try to have high tea at the Empress Hotel. I hear it is very elegant. Butchardt Gardens is another great tour to do there. You will love Celebrity and have a great time. It was our first cruiseline and we have been spoiled ever since.

[cruzendude]

The BEST scenery for my buck is the inside passage after leaving Vancouver...if your cruise is going through the inside passage (it most likely will be since it leaves from Vancouver) be SURE to find out what time sunrise is the FIRST morning after leaving Vancouver and get up at sunrise and order room service coffee and breakfast and just sit on your balcony to see some of the best scenery you will see on the entire cruise....we went through in May when there was LOTS of snow still on the mountains which made for tons of impromtu waterfalls but even in Sept it will still be scenic, Im not sure how the post side view was (Vancouver Island side) as we were on the starboard side (mainland Canada side when traveling North) and we woke up to full sunlight @ 4:45 am and when I opened my eyes there were massive snow covered mountains less than a half mile from the side of the ship...our BEST cruise memory ever...I would NEVER do an Alaska cruise that doesn't go through the inside passage and unfortunately many of them don't as they travel on the seaward side of Vancouver Island as it is faster..:(

[kasi1979]

Thanks for your replies, you make me anxious to go :)

As I´ve been to Victoria as well as Vancouver before (having friends there), we´ll do these cities on our own. There´´s so much to see and do.

 

I believe I´ll stock up on memory cards for this trip, what you describe sounds amazing. If we can save a buck or two in end-of-season-sales we wouldn´t mind ;)

 

I´ll go looking for our roll call, but if any of you has further info regarding the ship, or the itineray, you are more than welcome to share.

 

Thanks

[greydog]

The BEST scenery for my buck is the inside passage after leaving Vancouver...I would NEVER do an Alaska cruise that doesn't go through the inside passage

 

Inside passage must be on our itinerary too (5th visit this May) - a real treat - many interesting hours. Happy Cruising