Kellie in Texas

@texasts we are on Harmony in Jan. 2024 in 11604, almost directly on the other side of the ship from 11198. 🙂

If the cruise is still a year away, seems like the RCCL excursions wouldn't be available yet. But as OCSC Mike said, there are lots of independent tours in Alaska that are great.

I have the same question. This is my first time to follow a deployment thread from the beginning so I don't know where the "new" information is coming from.

Noticed this afternoon that the GGG link is now updated to July 11 and 12. One day when we're retired, we'll be able to take advantage of some of these.

I don't know anything about Royal Up but we were in an aft junior suite on Serenade (sister ship to Jewel) last summer (June 2022) and we loved it. It was on 10 under the Windjammer. We would occasionally hear people talking but it was never too loud. Rarely heard any chairs scraping. I can't tell you what to bid on, but I got very spoiled to that aft balcony.

@Tree_skier when I posted, I didn't realize it was a 4-night sailing.

One difference you might not expect (especially with little kids) is that RCCL doesn't have self-serve laundry rooms like Princess does. You can have laundry done in the hot water and hot dryers by the staff, at a cost per item or a once-a-week stuff-everything-you-can-into-this-plastic-bag for $30-35.

Without going back four years and 19 pages in this thread, I see the GGG flier somebody linked for July 4th and 5th. Biker19, do I understand your post to mean that it usually comes out on Tuesdays but sometimes not? If there is a new GGG flier, is it on the RCCL website?

@Gitanaif you look at the link that @TxShipShape provided, there are two parking lot diagrams so be sure and look at the one for Terminal 10 (the new RCCL terminal). We've parked in the North lot (shown in pink on the diagram) and it was very convenient and close to the front doors.

We were on Adventure in January this year and I can confirm that 8538 has a Pullman bed for the third person.

Our first Alaska cruise was on Princess, albeit 12 years ago. At the time, as I recall, Princess was only one of perhaps two cruiselines that were allowed into Glacier Bay National Park, which we definitely wanted to see. I do agree with @firefly333that it was a little quieter than Royal, but I think that's also due to nearly all ships having more "stuff" going on all the time nowadays. Our stops were in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria. I would definitely cruise Princess again based on itinerary and price.

I suspect the OP may have posted this because there was an earlier thread where somebody was asking where Navigator was.

We were on Adventure out of Galveston for a five-day this past January (2023) in two balcony cabins. Adventure and Liberty are the two largest ships we've been on so far; we actually prefer the Radiance class, mainly because we don't have little kids that need water slides and splash pads. 🙂 I thought Adventure was fine. The main thing I didn't like was the rounded metal structure of the ship that made the balcony have an oval-shaped opening instead of a more open rectangular shape. We actually boarded on New Year's Eve so they had formal night that night; way more people dressed up than we've seen on previous ships for formal night, but I'm sure that's because it was also NYE. We usually only eat in the main dining room once, maybe twice, per cruise, but we did eat in the MDR that night. Our food was fine, as I recall.

Many of your questions can be answered if you look at the West Coast Departures forum (lots of Seattle stuff in there) and the Ports of Call forum for Alaska.

We stopped at Haines on Serenade last June (2022). @wheelchair mamawe did not have to tender. Walked off the ship, down the gangway, and across a pier. The interesting thing was, by the time we were going to leave, the tide had started coming in and they had to actually move the gangway to a different deck, so they were holding the early returners on the pier until they got everything moved. We did not do an excursion. We walked off the ship, turned right and walked a few blocks to a place that had fish and chips at the Frog Lady food truck and it was excellent! Then me and younger son went back to the ship while older son and DH found a pub and had a couple of ales. It was a beautiful place.

If you stop in Ketchikan, go to the lumberjack show. It's really fun for kids of all ages.

My mother is still waiting on her passport renewal. Mailed it in February. In the mean time, they've already been on their cruise; fortunately, she was able to use her birth certificate.

I am also of the "give them experiences, not stuff" philosophy. Oldest son got a cruise for high school graduation and for college graduation; younger son got one for high school graduation -- postponed two years due to Covid. He's still in college so we haven't determined his graduation trip yet. I hate to be the fly in the ointment but I really think you should tell them ahead of time. They may want to enjoy the anticipation, look for excursions, research the ship, etc. You could have a "Christmas in July" celebration maybe.

Looks lovely and sounds yummy.

@CatLadyFemme as you can see, some of us have been wondering what happened and missing your wonderful review and all the lovely photos. I see that today is the last day of the cruise so hopefully it's been a delightful week and you had so much fun that you forgot about us peasants. 😄

We booked the Taste of Royal lunch but it's not until January 2024 on Harmony. DH was especially leery of the tuna tartare; however, I'm thinking just take a bite or two and if you really don't like it, eat a roll and hold on for the little steak and shrimp that are coming up. 😁

Yes, the JS early boarding and the larger bathroom are definite perks. Also a walk-in closet. We also had a single-serve coffee maker in the JS. I haven't sailed from Tampa but I can say that Vancouver last summer was the worst boarding we've ever had. There appeared to be nobody in charge in the large waiting room where everybody was (mostly) seated and waiting to be called. That being said, even though it was really disorganized, once they started, we got on fairly quickly. Sounds to me like you are talking yourself into the JS. 🙂

We were on Serenade last June (2022) and had the aft JS 1602, just a few doors down from 1100. LOVED IT! We also had four people in the cabin so the extra space inside and on the balcony was very nice. I can't tell from the deck plan for 9256 whether the balcony is out to the side? I guess it must be, so you'd have a side or maybe corner view? We loved JS 1602 and yes, we did have the occasional noise from the outdoor area of the Windjammer, but that balcony is so deep, you could scoot back towards the door and avoid some of the noise. The noise was mostly just people talking; I don't recall any loud noises like scraping chairs, etc. There were a couple of days when the balcony and all the furniture was wet, which made me wonder if they hose off the Windjammer floor in the middle of the night. Yes, we were in Alaska and yes, we had some rain, but the mornings when the balcony was all wet, it was a sunny morning. So I'm not sure if it was rain or cleaning during the night. I can't say whether I think it's worth an extra $700. You didn't say where you are sailing; that might make a difference. We sailed from Vancouver so it was very cool to be on the back, see the other ships in port with us, and the Vancouver cruise terminal as we sailed away.

We were on Adventure in January, first cruise as Emerald. We had two bottles of water. So, presumably ... you'll get more than two. 🙂

Those are all good points @Mum2Mercury.