Just back from the Millie and Alaska

[mek]

I'll be working on a full review this week but for now a few observations:

The cruse was great and for the majority of the time we had beautiful weather in the ports and at Hubbard Glacier.

The ship is beautiful and in top shape - love the decor on Celebrity ships.

The service was very good.

Despite the good weather, I'm so glad we booked an outside and didn't spend extra for a balcony. We had a wonderful view from our cabin window and much of the time at sea, the weather was not great

We enjoyed the food, however in the MDR, the beef dishes were consistently tough, even the fillets. Fish dishes were delicious. We missed having the buffet open in the evening.

We had dinner in the Olympic - overall, not worth the hype.

Entertainment was above average, especially the production shows.

No signs of any virus infections and the ship seems to be back to normal.

Embarkation was fast and efficient. Debarkation went smoothly, but we had to be out of our cabins by 8 am.

I will never fly out of a Canadian airport ever again. This is the second time I have done that in the past four years,(last was out of Toronto), and the procedure is a nightmare, IMHO. I will fly into Canada, but not out, so that might possibly limit some of my itinerary choices in the future, but the terminal in Vancouver that is used for flights returning to the US is horrible. I wonder how they will possibly handle the Olympics?????

Vancouver is a beautiful city - we rented a car since our flight didn't leave until 8 pm and went to Stanley Park and other locations. I would enjoy spending more time there.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

[Texed]

Thanks for posting.

[robinsra]

What excursions did you do? thanks

[mek]

Juneau - Ship's tour - Flightseeing over the glaciers in a floatplane in the morning then back to the ship for lunch -it was a wonderful tour. Originally we planned to go into town after lunch and just walk around but we started talking to the driver on the shuttle back to town and she told us her daughter was selling whale watching tours at one of the booths so we stopped and talked to her and booked a tour for $110 pp - considerably less than the ship. The tour company was Dolphin Tours and we saw a considerable number of whales.

Skagway - We had planned to drive up to Emerald Lake, but by this day we were tired and didn't want to get up early, so I cancelled my car reservation and just went into town and walked around. There were several tour operators there and we decided to book a two and a half hour tour that went up into Canada for only $35 pp with Yukon Tours and it turned out to be great. The weather was beautiful and clear and the drive was spectacular and we had a guide who turned out to be a lot of fun.

Icy Straight Point - We just chilled out and went to the cannery and took the shuttle over to Hoonah. We had planned to do the Tribal Dance Tour, but the one we had booked in the afternoon was cancelled and again we didn't want to get up early to do the one that was available. It turned out to be a relaxing day.

Ketchikan - We did the Duck Tour at noon and then walked up Creek Street to see the salmon running - fascinating! The Duck Tour is something I wouldn't do again. The tour in town was informative and the guide and driver were fun, the water ride turned out to be very short and was disappointing. I wish we had done something else.

In all ports it is possible to book independent tours off the ship, if that appeals to you.

[fleckle]

Originally Posted by mek

I will never fly out of a Canadian airport ever again. This is the second time I have done that in the past four years,(last was out of Toronto), and the procedure is a nightmare, IMHO. I will fly into Canada, but not out, so that might possibly limit some of my itinerary choices in the future, but the terminal in Vancouver that is used for flights returning to the US is horrible. I wonder how they will possibly handle the Olympics?????

Customs and security lines for departures from the Vancouver airport have never been fast, but this was the worst ever because of unusual circumstances. YVR had just installed a new security system and they were having major problems with it.

Those of us unfortunate enough to be departing there last Friday became the guinea pigs for testing the new system. It took us 3 hours from check in until we reached our departure gate.

In retrospect, even if we had known about the long delays in advance we would still choose to fly out of Vancouver because it takes even longer (much longer) to travel down to Seattle just to fly out of SEA instead of YVR.

If anyone on this board flies out of Vancouver (YVR) within the next month or so, please report on whether or not they got the system fixed and how well it worked for you.

[mek]

We ran into some people form our cruise who went to the airport early and told us about the long lines and the computer problems - so glad we got the car and waited until 6 pm to arrive. However, I must repeat that I experienced similar issues when leaving the Toronto airport three years ago. They had the same long and laborious system of going through bag checking and security in both locations. I will begin itineraries in Canada, but I will avoid departing from any Canadian port in the future - simply too much work for my taste.