Review: Serenade to Alaska (July 3-10, '05)

I’ve been a lurker for months, but this is my first post in the forum. I would like to share the good and bad of my cruise on Serenade of the Seas to Alaska, July 3-10. This was our first trip to Alaska, and second cruise overall. Our first cruise was on Explorer of the Seas in the Caribbean in November, 2004, and absolutely loved that cruise. The Explorer cruising experience was so good that this one suffered by comparison.

We flew into Vancouver (on frequent flier miles) on Friday, and stayed at the Hyatt downtown. A great hotel, with good rates available if you look around (<$100 on Priceline). We spent almost a full day in Stanley Park, walking the whole loop around the outside, and exploring hiking trails and gardens on the inside. Don’t miss Prospect Point, Beaver Lake, or the Rose Garden (where we happened upon a small wedding ceremony). The tourist magazines were all advising to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge, but the friendly wait staff at the hotel told us it was a ripoff, and to go to Granville Island instead. It was great advice, as Granville was a wonderful place to visit. Closest thing I can compare it to is the Pike Place Market in Seattle. We spent lots of other Vancouver time enjoying Yaletown (great restaurants everywhere), Robson Street, and all of the other sites in Vancouver. It’s a wonderful city, and we felt bad that we did not have time to visit Victoria, as well.

On the Sunday morning of embarkation, we took a cab out to the pier. RCCL's pier is not the Canada Place pier in downtown Vancouver--it's off in another direction. Our embarkation process went well. We got there around 1:30pm, and the initial lines had died down. It took us just 20 minutes to go from the cab to onboard the ship, including time in line at security and check-in. The longest line and biggest holdup was the ship photographer waiting to take people’s pictures. (Can I just skip that line, since the picture is always awful, or will people get mad?)

Our first order of business was locating my parents, who were cruising with us. They were flying in that day on flights they had booked through RCCL. I received a voicemail message on my cellphone from them that their flight was delayed because another passenger had a medical problem. My parents are 70+, and are not experienced travelers, and I could tell from their message how worried they were. I asked staff at the Guest Relations desk staff to call the airline to check on the status of the flight. Instead of doing that simple service, the staff members tried to assure me that they were sure that everything would work out, despite the fact they had no real information about the situation. Three separate times, they told me just to come back later. Finally, after I asked to speak to a supervisory employee, that person contacted the airline to determine the flight’s status. My parents made it to the cruise with about 30 minutes to spare. Strike one against the guest relations staff for not being helpful.

Sailing out of Vancouver was nice, as we passed by many sites we had visited in Vancouver, and we got great pictures of them from the ship. We watched the city from the forward part of deck 11, and were caught offguard when the ship’s horn sounded. Wow, is that loud when you’re close to it.

It was my parents’ 40th anniversary week, and I convinced them to come on this cruise since they haven’t really traveled much outside of the Northeast U.S. My parents, wife, and I did all of our meals together, but decided to do go our own way in some of the ports so I could have some time alone with my wife, and my parents, likewise, could spend some time alone together.

The ship itself is as gorgeous as everyone says. A little smaller than Explorer, of course. That took some getting used to, since our idea of a cruise ship was that there would be a Royal Promenade. The biggest down-side to the "central" areas of the Serenade compared to the Explorer was the lack of available coffee and cookies! I was shocked to be asked for my SeaPass when I ordered a simple coffee at the cafe in the Centrum. That was free on the Explorer, but not here. Not a big deal, of course, but disappointing. I also didn’t like the fact that Art Auctions clogged up the Centrum for a few hours each day. They were loud, crowded, could be heard throughout the centrum, with art pieces everywhere, and we had to compete for elevators with the art staff sometimes. I preferred it on Explorer, where they tended to keep the auctions off of the main drag.

We had an oceanview room on Deck 3; I believe it was 3138. Very nice. We got rid of the coffee table so we didn’t bruise our shins on it, and never felt cramped for space. Our luggage arrived quickly. Our cabin steward was fine, but nothing spectacular. It took us a day more than it should have to get our coupon book, but that was no big deal.

The dining room was very nice. We had a table for 4 with my parents on Deck 5, at the window. Even though there’s glass everywhere, I loved having a window table so we didn’t have to look over anyone. The scenery was always great. Our waiter initially was Jayson, but he left for unexplained reasons after the 2nd night. We certainly had no complaints about his service. After that, our waiter was Murat from Turkey, who was wonderful, as was the assistant, Fortunata. I forget our headwaiter’s name, but he was quite nice and responsive anytime Murat was busy with another table. He also was the best singer when we had the anniversary cake and song for my parents.

The service was better than the food. We were at the late seating, and the biggest disappointment was bad salmon. You go on an Alaska cruise, you expect incredible salmon! Not only wasn’t it incredible, it wasn’t even good. Someone at the table ordered salmon each night, but it was regularly cold or dried out. Sending it back didn’t improve it. Perhaps this was because we were at the late dinner seating. When we went with other dishes, we were much, much happier. The appetizers, soups, and desserts were usually great.

We preferred the main dining room for breakfasts and lunches over Windjammer. Although Windjammer was obviously convenient, the quality of food in the main dining room was a little bit better at breakfast and lunch. We also enjoyed meeting new people this way. During main meal times in Windjammer, it was hard to find a table, and some of the beverage machines were broken, making it hard to find a cup of coffee. On Explorer, I was spoiled by the busstaff bringing you drinks automatically; it doesn’t happen on Serenade’s Windjammer.

The entertainment was hit-or-miss. The Royal Caribbean dancers and singers were great. The opening night comedian, Dan Barnhart (or something like that) was pretty funny. A comedian/musician named Judy Kolba was, as well. My parents raved about the violinist. Those were the ‘hits.’ The ‘misses’ were Jay Johnson (a ventriloquist who is best known for being on the TV show ‘Soap’) and some tango dancers name "Dos Gauchos" or something like that. Not worth the time. The Love & Marriage gameshow was very good. The orchestra and ship’s rock band were very good. There was a trio playing in the Centrum at night that was awful; I swear, I thought it was a bad ‘Yanni’ record over the PA when I first heard it. The Cruise Director, Alan, was good, but didn't quite have the flair for getting the crowd excited as James on the Explorer did.

We used the fitness center most days. From 7-9 am, it was always pretty crowded and a little difficult to get a treadmill or elliptical trainer. I switched my routine and started going late afternoon, and the place was usually deserted. I felt a little better about ordering dessert on those days where I’d worked out. Of course, just walking around the ship or port city is a lot more exercise then I usually get.

PORTS: For whatever reason, it seemed like we got the worst docking spots at each port--the longest walk (or shuttle ride) to the city from our ship in two of the ports, and tendering in the third.

HUBBARD GLACIER: Beautiful, spectacular, wonderful. Great viewing weather. Some sun, but not so much to lose the ‘blue’ effect of the glacier. It was a little tough to hear the Tlingit family narration from deck, but it was still neat. We watched from the helicopter pad, and weren’t disappointed. After 15 minutes, most people left to get warm, so we could be right up at the railing. Huge chunks of ice calved off the face of the glacier every few minutes. I wish we could have stayed longer there.

SKAGWAY: In the morning, my wife & I looked through the town, and found a free walking tour leaving from the National Park Service office in town. Our afternoon excursion (booked through the ship) was the Chilkoot Trail hike followed by a float ride back to the trailhead. It was overcast, but not raining. Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable about gold rush history, and our group was small enough that everyone could hear, ask questions, and enjoy the magnificent sections of forest through which we hiked.

I was disappointed to learn that night that a guest relations staff member told my parents that there was "not much to do in Skagway, other than shopping." As a result, my parents were unaware of a number of different museums, walking tours, and interesting sites that they could have visited before their scheduled excursion. They were obviously disappointed to have missed out on it. Strike two against the guest relations staff for not being helpful.

JUNEAU: In Juneau, we had booked a helicopter flight to Mendenhall Glacier. The excursion staff was extremely disorganized. They could not manage to get an accurate count of the number of passengers on the bus or tickets collected, so we left the pier 20 minutes late. Upon arriving at the TEMSCO hangar late, they rushed us into ice boots and immediately onto the helicopters. We never got any kind of instructions or a safety briefing. The person who seemed to be in charge of the facility was heard telling someone, "we have four ships in port today; if we get behind, we’re dead."

At this point I should also mention how disorganized the Excursions desk staff was onboard the Serenade. The morning we were in Skagway, no one was at that desk. The morning we were in Juneau, only one woman was at the desk, and she didn’t know what she was doing. I requested her help changing our excursion for the next port, Ketchikan, so my wife, parents, and I could all go on the same tour. She booked everything for me, told me it was all set up, and would deliver the tickets to our cabin that night. The tickets she delivered were for a Juneau tour for the previous day, not for Ketchikan. By the time I figured this out, we weren’t able to get the tour we wanted because it was sold out. (They tried to argue with me and tell me this was the tour I requested, which obviously made no sense—why would I want to buy a tour for the port we had just left?!)

Anyhow, the Mendenhall glacier helicopter flight was amazing, and seemed safe. Although we were promised 25-30 minutes of flight, it turned out to be more like 20. The views of the waterfalls, crevices, glacier, mountains, etc., were incredible. It was raining a little bit, which affected visibility, but it was still great. The lecture while on the ground at the glacier was a little poorly done, but we had attended an onboard ship lecture about glaciers, so we already knew more than what they were telling us.

I lost count of the number of bald eagles we saw in Juneau. The first one was landing in a nasty looking field just outside our pier as we left on the bus to the helicopter tour. We saw several dozen on the ride out to the hangar. They were just everywhere.

We spent the afternoon walking around, enjoyed a beer at the Red Dog Saloon, and did some shopping. Sent some incredibly delicious smoked salmon back home from Taku. I highly recommend it. There was also an Alaska history museum in town, not far from the State Capitol building that was interesting.

The night we left Juneau, we passed by a number of whales. We watched them from aft of the ship in the Schooner Bar, while the Captain and cruise director tried to get our attention for the Crown & Anchor society reception. The whales won most peoples' attention.

KETCHIKAN: We had the worst weather in Ketchikan, drizzly and overcast, which we were told isn’t that unusual. We also had the disfortune of having to tender to/from the ship. The tendering process was poorly organized coming and going. They only had one staff member on the third floor stairwell where people were waiting, and that staff member was just small-talking with passengers, instead of helping give people information about where to go, etc. People cut in line, other people got angry, and it was not a good sight. I’m told they added more staff members later. The process took so long that we didn’t get much time to walk around town. We were able to go up and see a bald eagle rehabilitation facility for about 15 minutes. They had a pair of beautiful eagles there.

In Ketchikan, we did the Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary tour. It was too short (under a mile) to call it a hike. The description of this tour said, "During the spawning season bears and seals feed on salmon in Eagle Creek and the likelihood of viewing animals is good, although not guaranteed." Our guide was competent, but we were disappointed that there was no wildlife to be seen on the walk, other than slugs. Upon reflection, I think there was little chance for wildlife sightings given the location and number of tours going through there. (They over-promised in their tour description, I feel.) When we got back to the main reception building, which is next to an old sawmill, there was a Native American who was carving a totem pole, and we watched him work for awhile. There were plenty of bald eagles all around; at one point I counted 12 in the trees. As we were leaving, 8-10 of them were circling in the air. Totally impressive. It was a nice tour, but not quite up to what had been described in the excursions listing.

The tendering process back to the ship was out of control. We were supposed to be on board at 2:30. We got to the pier at 1:30, and the line was hundreds of people long. The line doubled and tripled back. Other ships leaving port halted our tenders, so the line took us over an hour to wait through. When we got back onboard the ship, we watched as they continued to tender people under close to 4:30 pm.

MISTY FJORDS NATIONAL MONUMENT: We sailed through Misty Fjords late, due to the tender problems in Ketchikan. It was quite pretty, with pretty mountains and occasional small waterfalls. It was still a little bit underwhelming. The Captain had been describing this as the "magnificent" misty fjords every time he talked about it. So, upon seeing it, I was expecting more, I guess. The Captain said that one area ahead was known at "Bear Beach," and said a bear was spotted, but even with binoculars, it was difficult to see it very well. It was pretty, but nowhere near as pretty as Hubbard Glacier.

As we started back towards Vancouver that night, and lasting until the next afternoon, we hit some rough seas. We spent a good chunk of the evening and next day in the Solarium reading and relaxing. Friday night was the midnight buffet; the fruit and ice sculptures were beyond description. The waitstaff was pretty forward about encouraging people to leave the dining area after getting their food, to the point of being pushy. (They obviously did not want people staying late there.)

On Saturday, our final day at sea, we still hadn’t received our luggage tags. When we inquired with the Guest Relations Desk, we were told that they would arrive later in the morning. We became worried, because the Cruise Compass instructed us that any problems with luggage tags had to be brought to the guest relations desk before 11 a.m. Saturday. When the tags still had not arrived by noon, my wife called the Guest Relations desk and was told to come see them immediately. She waited patiently in line for fifteen minutes, and when she explained our situation to the person at the desk, she was told to go back to the cabin and wait, as the tags would arrive later that afternoon. By 3 p.m., no tags had arrived. Strike three against the guest relations staff for not being helpful.

I found and spoke to the Hotel Director (Terry Lunder), who assured me the problem would be addressed. By 4 p.m., luggage tags were delivered to our cabin, but they were the wrong tags given the time our flight departed. We waited through the guest relations line, again, in order to FINALLY obtain the proper tags. We used the airport transportation service for $40, and were told that our bags would be waiting for us at the airport.

DISEMBARKATION: We ate breakfast in the main dining room, our tag color was called, and we cleared customs very quickly. The level of disorganization at the pier in Vancouver was appalling. There were no signs marked telling people where to go. A few staff members provided verbal instructions, but what one person said often contradicted what the last person had said. Due to staff members giving contradictory instructions about which lines we were supposed to stand in for busses, people with different colored departure tickets did not know where to go or what busses to board. The situation at the pier was so bad that one of Royal Caribbean’s staff members near the busses screamed at passengers to get back in line, and then shouted to other staff in the pier, "Where’s the crowd control?"

Given the problems we had just getting luggage tags, and the disorganization in the ground transfers at the pier, I can’t say I was shocked when 1 of our 4 bags never make it to the airport from the ship. The missing bag had most of my dirty clothing, a winter coat, a handmade wool hat, a pair of binoculars, sunglasses, hiking boots, library books, and several souvenirs from our trip. The RCCL ground staff at Vancouver airport was not helpful, and merely suggested that we wait for the next several busses to come and go for the possibility that the bag would be there. When my wife commented on the general lack of organization and security at the pier, the ground employee was very rude to her.

When I called Royal Caribbean’s customer service department Monday morning after returning home to see if they had found the lost luggage, their employee had no idea what the procedures were that the Serenade used for departing guests, despite the fact that I attempted to explain it to her several times. When I called her eight hours later, she merely told me I would have to wait 7-10 days. It was clear she hadn’t even contacted Vancouver to see if the luggage had been found. A supervisory employee was much more helpful, and at least called Vancouver to ask the ground staff whether they had located my bag. They hadn’t. They were quite blunt in telling me that they would not pay me any more than $300 for the lost luggage, when I asked what to do. Moral: Read the fine print in your ticket contract, buy travel insurance, or carry your own bags. Even if you're C&A society, they don't care.

Issues with lost luggage aside, there was a level of apathy among many of the ship’s employees that was disappointing, especially compared to the outstanding staff on the Explorer. The Guest Relations staff and the Excursions staff were poor, as I described. Likewise, staff members involved in the art auctions frequently monopolized elevators, at the expense of paying passengers, to move pieces of artwork between the Centrum area auction and storage areas. One time, during one of the comedian’s performances, we were sitting near the back of the theater. My wife and I actually had to tell three bar employees standing by the rear railing of the theater to stop their loud personal conversation so we could listen to the show. They appeared offended when I asked them to please be quiet. Differing and contradictory instructions on procedures were given by various staff members. As an example, the night before the ship docked, the Cruise Compass, the Cruise Director, and the video shown on RCTV all had different instructions for what time baggage needed to be outside of the stateroom. While this is minor, it's indicative of the type of disorganization and below average customer service we received.

Alaska is amazing, no doubt about it. The skies were lit from 6am to midnight. The majesty of the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Bald eagles everywhere. Humpback whales coming up for air. Blue glaciers and clean, clear air. I loved Alaska. I liked this trip. But, I was disappointed in the Serenade of the Seas. For future cruises, I will probably now explore other cruise lines to see what's out there.

mkall,

Thanks for sharing your experience. We enjoyed reading your review.

:) :cool: :D

Wow. Apparently, you and I seemed to have very different experiences of the same cruise. I, too, was on the Serenade of the Seas on July 3-10. We had a slight issue arriving into Vancouver, but that was due to our own fault. I thought that the wait staff I had on this cruise was better than my previous 7 cruises. I thought that the only downside to the cruise was the docking position of the ship in town, but that is due mainly to scheduling that can not be avoided. On the last sea day the captain and some of the crew had a Q&A session, the captain noted at that time that 1 year in advance all of the reps from the cruise lines gather and then they set forth the docking schedule for each day on each ship. It so happened that we got the short end of the stick because it was our turn to rotate to the bad spot. But if you watch the live web cams each week, as I was watching, and have been watching since we returned, almost every single week you can see that Serenade has a much better docking position than the ones we were given. Except for our day in Ketchikan, at no other point will Serenade be anchoring offshore in Ketchikan.

I also will have to make a remark about Guest Relations. I am sorry to see that you didnt have a very good experience with them. I actually had an issue with onboard credit that was not recorded onto my account. When I discovered the problem, I went to Guest Relations to talk to them about it. They listened to me, made a photocopy of all my documentation, emailed it overnight to the Miami headquarters and and followed up with me personally the next day with the situation all taken care of.

I agree that the tendering issue was a bit of a problem on Ketchikan day. But I don't think that being delayed into Misty Fjords was really a problem at all. I dont think that what we saw would have been any different if we had arrived earlier. And I will have to disagree with your account of Bear Beach. When we rounded the corner and arrived there, I had my binoculars and I could see the bear right away. It was very easy for me to see the bear walking in the stream then out into the meadow. By the end, me and the 40 people standing around where I was could see the bear with our eyes without having to have binoculars. I also thought it was spectacular when we were leaving Misty Fjords that we saw 4 orcas swim right by the ship. That was an added bonus.

Anyhow, I'm sorry to hear that your experience on Serenade wasn't that great. I thought she was a great ship and had a great crew. My 3rd trip to Alaska was even better than the first 2. I chose Serenade specifically for my 3rd Alaska cruise because it is an RCI cruise (my first 2 experiences in Alaska were on HAL/Princess) and because it was a radiance class ship with all that glass. I would gladly go back to Alaska again in a heartbeat. And I liked my experience on Serenade so much that I booked her sister ship Brilliance for the Med next summer.

Anyhow, if you want to see how my experience compares to yours, you can check out my review/pictures in my signature.

I agree with jstducky...We were last on the Serenade in June and again had an awesome trip. We did not have to tender anywhere, but I have heard it can take some time due to the ships coming in and out. The only thing that happened to us out of the norm was that we were the very last people to leave the ship and one of our bags were missing. RCCL was GREAT. They were in constant contact with us throughout the day. When someone returned our luggage, they called, put it on a taxi and met us at the airport with it before we ever left Vancouver that evening. They even held the ship our first night from leaving because a family with a baby has lost luggage with the airline. RC sent an employee out to purchase diapers for the baby and we left 20 minutes late when they made it back. Not bad PR.

I'm sorry you felt you had a bad trip, hopefully your next one will be better on which ever ship you choose.

I enjoyed reading your review even though it was a bit negative...I've been on Serenade before which is why we booked this to Alaska for 9/18...I love the ship, no question about that and did encounter a mix of good and negativity among the crew...

I think that the weather always has a lot to do with our idea of a good time...if it's rainy, we tend to be miserable..tendering is a pain in the butt no matter what, it could be a sunny day in the Caribbean..I hate tenders!!!

Entertainment is hit or miss on any cruise...we've had headliners that we've loved or hated, comedians, ice shows etc...I go to NY (Broadway shows) regularly and have paid big bucks to see a show. Sometimes the cruise shows were better than Broadway. Other times they were awful.. You never know.

Food is a personal issue...on our last two cruises we never ate in the dining room at all..but the selections of food on a cruise should leave no one hungry...one thing we were looking forward to was the salmon in Alaska simply because it is...salmon in Alaska!! My husband doesn't eat but I was looking forward to it..I'll let you know what I thought...

We booked this a year ago and still have not decided what excursions to do..

Maybe we'll just "wing it" and see what the weather is when we get to each port..

Personally, this cruise for me will be SO different...I'm a Caribbean cruise girl.

Never been to Vancouver either...

Thanks for your review...I'm curious to see what others say before we leave...

Wow. Apparently, you and I seemed to have very different experiences of the same cruise. I, too, was on the Serenade of the Seas on July 3-10.

It's interesting to read your review as well. I had read it a few weeks ago after the cruise, and I waited to post mine until a little time had passed to see if any of my problems seemed less important in hindsight. Obviously, I had a somewhat different opinion of a few things.

I did look through your pictures and saw Bear Beach. (Photo 791). I can tell based on where the ship was that this picture was taken with a pretty good zoom lens, and I still can't make out a bear. I had decent sized binoculars with me. I can't tell you what zoom precisely right now (they were in my lost luggage). And by leaving Ketchikan late, we entered Misty Fjords either during the early dinner or the early showtime that night. If you wanted to be outside enjoying the view, you had to either skip out on dinner or the show. You're right, it didn't change how the Fjords looked, but it was inconvenient.

I know the ships rotate turns at various docks, but you do agree we happened to have the worst spot at each port that week, right?

I'm still trying to get them to credit my account for the ship-to-shore transfer in which they lost our luggage. I've been told 3 different times by customer service that I would receive a credit, but it hasn't appeared on my credit card yet.

I agree that the main dining room service was great. (Windjammers' service wasn't very good, at least when compared to my trip on Explorer.) My only real criticism of the main dining room experience was the salmon. It just was not well prepared--not hot, or very dry. Between the 4 of us at the table, someone ordered a salmon dish just about every night. The rest of the main courses we had were almost always outstanding. But Alaska is known for salmon, and the ship's salmon was way below average. I had much better salmon both nights I spent out in Vancouver.

It sounds like you just grabbed a cab in Vancouver. That probably would have been a better option, but the ship was warning that there aren't enough cabs in port, so we spent the money for their service. The ground transfers in Vancouver from the pier to the airport booked through the ship were poorly organized. And they lost my bag. I guess it was sort of the last straw for me.

We're considering booking a Mediterranean cruise next fall; I think we're going to try another cruise line so we have some basis for comparison.

I enjoyed reading your review even though it was a bit negative...I've been on Serenade before which is why we booked this to Alaska for 9/18...I love the ship, no question about that and did encounter a mix of good and negativity among the crew...

 

I think that the weather always has a lot to do with our idea of a good time...if it's rainy, we tend to be miserable..tendering is a pain in the butt no matter what, it could be a sunny day in the Caribbean..I hate tenders!!!

Prepare for rainy. That's just the nature of Alaska. Especially in shoulder season. I don't think our trip was significantly affected by it. It was never a downpour, but it's certainly not the caribbean. If you go in expecting blue skies and sunshine, you'll be really disappointed. That's not what this trip is about.

You said you might "wing it" in port. Despite the problems I had with the RCI Excursions desk, I recommend you think twice. Most excursions through the ship sold out. I didn't check to see what was still available at the pier, but in Juneau, many of the booths were not even staffed. Given how many ships were in port, I think most tours were booked solid.

Entertainment is hit or miss on any cruise...we've had headliners that we've loved or hated, comedians, ice shows etc...I go to NY (Broadway shows) regularly and have paid big bucks to see a show. Sometimes the cruise shows were better than Broadway. Other times they were awful.. You never know.

Most of them were good. The ship's performers are always enjoyable. Dan Barnhart, Judy Korba, and the violinist (darn, I still can't remember her name) were all entertaining. The worst was the ventriloquist, Jay Johnstone. I could finish his jokes before he did. "I suffer from dyslexia. I'm also agnostic. Last night I was wandering around the ship wondering if there really is a Dog." Has anyone not heard a version of that joke before? If I had been drinking, I would have heckled.

I hope you enjoy your trip. Alaska's incredible; I just had a run of bad luck with some below par service from guest relations. I'm sure part of my negativity is due to them losing my luggage, too.

JstDucky refers to the live "web cam" - where can one access that? And, thanks for your comments on this cruise. (We hope to go in August 2006 - hope it won't be too cold then:) ).

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/ports/canaveral.htm

Go to this site for webcams....just check out the list. You can get to all three ports of the Serenade. At Juneau, the Serenade is hard to see after the other ships port.

You are about the tenth person that suggested Red Dog Saloon on this board and others...we will try it...

I know that this cruise will not be like the Caribbean..Closest I came to Alaska was Canada on Serenade when the ship was new...it was cloudy, rainy, sunny...we still had a great time....(Sept).

I just love the pool bar and have heard it's not open often...some days it was on our Canada trip and others it wasn't...not really a "drinking thing"...just like to sit there!!!

Like your suggestions for Vancouver...we're at Westin Grand the night before and get in early enough to see the city for a day...

I guess we'll have the best of both since we get in from this cruise on Sunday and then leave for Adventure of the Seas and San Juan Caribbean on Saturday...

Excursions are still uncertain for Alaska...I'd love to do the helicopter (glacier landing)..my husband isn't so sure...

I'm packing for any kind of weather...I have friends who went to Alaska years ago when they had a heat wave in July...over 90 degrees every day...they just cut their jeans down into shorts!!!

No matter, what...I'm still looking forward to it!!!!!!!!!!!Thanks....

I did look through your pictures and saw Bear Beach. (Photo 791). I can tell based on where the ship was that this picture was taken with a pretty good zoom lens, and I still can't make out a bear. I had decent sized binoculars with me. I can't tell you what zoom precisely right now (they were in my lost luggage). And by leaving Ketchikan late, we entered Misty Fjords either during the early dinner or the early showtime that night. If you wanted to be outside enjoying the view, you had to either skip out on dinner or the show. You're right, it didn't change how the Fjords looked, but it was inconvenient.

I agree that the timing of Misty Fjords was a bit incovenient, but for me it actually worked out nicely. I had early dinner and I was afraid all week of missing Misty Fjords because our original plan put us there between 6-8, right in the middle of early dinner. But due to our late start out of Ketchikan, we didn't arrive at Misty Fjords until after 7ish. I saw a lot of Misty Fjords out the dining room window, then when we got close to Bear Beach, I came outside on Deck 5. We saw the bear, took pictures, etc. then I went back to the dining room table to grab dessert (yummy Banana's Foster that night!). so for me the timing worked out better than I could have expected!

I know the ships rotate turns at various docks, but you do agree we happened to have the worst spot at each port that week, right?

I do agree that we had the worst spot at each port that week. But I don't blame that on the ship. Its just a matter of bad timing on our part. At Skagway, I knew that we would be at Railroad Dock aft since I checked out the ship docking schedule in advance. Therefore, I booked the morning train excursion, knowing that the train picks up right off the ship. And in the afternoon, I knew that I would just leave the ship once to take my afternoon excursion plus walk around town before finally coming back to the ship and calling it a day. I knew ahead of time that I didnt want to walk back and forth. In Juneau, I was lucky since I took a morning shore excursion which gave us the option of dropping us back in town when we were done so we wouldn't have to deal with the shuttle. And if you took an excursion and got dropped back in town, you could take the shuttle back to the ship for free. So that was convenient for us. As for Ketchikan, we were on a morning ship excursion so they provided the tender which we just go on to. In the afternoon, yes we waited about an hour for the tender, but it wasn't so bad. The line pretty much moved constantly except for the 15 minutes they stopped when the Amsterdam left and the Ryndam came in. And then again for 15 minutes when the Norwegian Star left. Other than that we had a few good laughs with the people in line with us and we just kind of took it all in stride.

It sounds like you just grabbed a cab in Vancouver. That probably would have been a better option, but the ship was warning that there aren't enough cabs in port, so we spent the money for their service. The ground transfers in Vancouver from the pier to the airport booked through the ship were poorly organized. And they lost my bag. I guess it was sort of the last straw for me.

I did just grab a cab once we got to Vancouver. I had already planned to stay there the day and rent a car to drive around town. I had known from previous people who went before us that the ship warns you that there are not enough cabs for the number of passengers, but that it wasn't true because others reported not having a problem getting a cab at all. We probably waited no more than 5 minutes in line for a cab and we took it to the car rental agency and picked up our rental car. We just knew that for the 6 of us in my group, getting 2 cabs was cheaper than using ship transpo for anything.

We're considering booking a Mediterranean cruise next fall; I think we're going to try another cruise line so we have some basis for comparison.

Good luck with that. I have a Med Cruise booked and I can't wait. You shouldn't wait too long to book whatever cruiseline you choose. The Med is the hot spot for next year. I've already seen the prices on the Med cruise I'm taking jump $200 per person.

I'm sorry that RCI kind of put a damper on your experience in Alaska along with your folks. I hope that it didn't put a damper on Alaska itself. Alaska is a truly magical place and one I believe that you really need to visit more than once to get a true feel for the place. I love it so much I can't wait for my 4th trip back there, hopefully sometime in the next few years!

You mentioned that you "checked out the ship docking schedule in advance." I hope this isn't a silly question, but where is that information located?

Thanks very much for all the helpful info.

cruising3

Empress of the Seas '03

Granduer of the Seas '04 & '05

Serenade of the Seas August '06

sgttami, just wanted to tell you that we did Alaska on the Serenade last September and had beautiful weather every day, even in Ketchikan, the rain capital of Alaska! The only time I wore a jacket was at Mendenhall Glacier. We didn't do a lot of excursions (the White Pass RR in Skagway and Mendenhall Glacier and Gardens tour in Juneau) but walked around the towns a lot. I was kind of shocked at Skagway and felt that the emphasis was on shopping, not one of my favorite activities. I mean, who goes to Alaska to buy diamonds???

We were also fortunate that we docked in each port and had great docking locations.....just walk off the ship and there you are in the middle of town!

Don't forget your binoculars! We spent one afternoon on our balcony spotting all the bald eagles in the trees as we sailed past.

The Serenade was the 3rd Radiance class ship we've been on (everything but BOS) and I just love them. Even the QM2 could not top them. And in my book, nobody tops RCL for service (in the mass market category, and even on the QM2). Just my 2¢.