flskiergirl

As others have mentioned, prices vary widely. I have a full day pass for our cruise next week for $39 but have not purchased for a December cruise as the passes are at $91. 

Personally I would not take my baby on-shore in Jamaica.

Why is that? Did you have a bad experience with your child?

It seems like you never got a reply, but I'm curious to see if you ended up doing anything in this port. We are trying to plan with our 7 month old and our current plan is to just stay on the boat.

We are looking at this excursion but read online that you are not allowed to bring a camera on the tour. Can anyone confirm this?

My mother in law is looking to join us for our upcoming cruise. She holds a Colombian passport and has a current US visa. It seems like she will not need any additional visas for our stops, except for Tortola. We are having a hard time getting a straight answer from Royal on the visa requirements. We are wondering if it is possible for her to skip getting off at this one port rather than trying to process this visa on short notice.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is it possible to not have visas for all the ports? I'm assuming the answer is that we need to try to get the visa, but wondering if there are other options.

Thanks for any help!

Excellent review and photos.

 

Keith

Thank you!

Thank you for the review- on the same cruise in June next year so all excited now! Do you have a copy of a wine list? Given the mix of port and sea days we weren't going to take a beverage package but not sure how expensive a bottle of wine is to have with dinner.

Thanks in advance. sue

I didn't take photos of the wine list since I had seen it online before here: http://crew-center.com/sites/default/files/crew-board/files/celebrity-cruises-cellar-masters-wine-menu.pdf

But looking back at it now it does not seem to be the full list. You do get 10% off bottles if you have the premium package as well. Will have to remember to do more pictures of these in the future to have up to date ones.

This site also has lots of menu pictures: http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/celebrity-drink-lists/

We were just there last week and used the white cabs (Sourdough I believe) to do some sightseeing after our tour. It was $70 for the hour.

Link to Celebrity Today Newsletters (all but 1)

https://www.flickr.com/gp/135575730@N03/s8263V

Link to Celebrity Today Newsletters in Spanish (some of them)

https://www.flickr.com/gp/135575730@N03/imk7kK

Celebrity Infinity

Sail Dates: 09 August 2015 – 16 August 2015

Departing from Vancouver, BC (roundtrip)

Ports: Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Juneau, Ketchikan + Hubbard glacier viewing

Room: 9193 (C3)

General Tips:

The most important thing for you to know: We had the classic beverage package and an onboard credit as part of the 123go promotion. The classic beverage package only includes drinks up to $6.50, which basically means beer and house wine. If you want a more expensive drink, you will need to pay for the entire cost. You can upgrade the included package to the premium package for $10/day. This will now cover drinks up to $13 and if you want a more expensive drink, you just have to pay the difference. This is definitely the best move if you like to drink. Fortunately, I realized this before our trip so we knew that we would need to upgrade. Unfortunately, this seemed to be news to most people and they only found out on their first trip to the bar and it probably started off their trip on a sour note. We still felt it was a good deal to have $385 pp covered and only need to pay the additional $70 pp, but it’s certainly better to know this up front.

The dress onboard was very casual. I had read this before and it was certainly true. I wore yoga pants and a sweater most of the time onboard as the main activity was sightseeing. We did dress up a bit for dinner, but not as much as on some other cruises. Sweaters with jeans or a dress with tights was fine. For formal night I did a nice cocktail dress and my husband wore his tux, but many were not this dressed up.

Embarkation: Canada Place

A friend drove us to the port. We had him drop us off in front of the Starbucks, rather than drive down into the garage. This ended up being a very smart idea as it was quite hectic down there and us walking down was much easier than him waiting in traffic to get in and out.

Arrived for check in around 11:30 am. Waited about 30 minutes in line to check in. The Concierge Class & Aqua Class rooms had a separate check in line so this was a bit shorter than the general line. The suite lines were obviously much shorted and moved much faster. It took about an additional 30 minutes to get through security and immigration. There was no Global Entry option, just one big line. The set up was a bit odd for us as we have only sailed out of Florida so far where there are ships year round. This means that the cruise lines have more permanent facilities for their check in etc. But being in Canada Place it seems as though they make temporary use of the conference rooms for the summer season.

All guests were greeted with complimentary champagne on boarding, which was nice. Once on the boat we chose to wait in the Rendezvous Lounge where there was plenty of space since we were told that our room would be ready relatively soon. The rooms were ready around 1pm so we dropped our bags and head out to explore. We like to walk the entire boat on boarding to get an idea of where things are located. We started at the top and worked our way down, grabbed a couple of drinks along the way. We eventually grabbed lunch from the buffet (salad) and ate it back on the open deck.

Ship overall: It is obviously an older ship, but we felt that things were in good shape. It was clear that some areas had been updated and this lead to the ship having an overall good appearance. There were not a lot of public spaces compared to larger ships, but that’s to be expected.

Food: We primarily ate in the main dining room. The service on the first night was a bit shaky, but after that it was fine. Food was good, not great. There was lots of fresh fish on the menu though so I kept pretty happy with that. They were pretty accommodating of my gluten allergy. I ordered the night before and there were plenty of dishes that they were willing to modify if ordered in advance. The only thing that was a bust was their gluten free pasta. Very limited selection of gluten free desserts, but that’s to be expected.

We got lunch a couple of times from the ocean view café. We mainly stuck with salads from there but the salad bar setup was nice. We also got our breakfasts from here a couple of times, as it was very easy to pop up from our room. The room service menu for breakfast was kind of limited, so it was easier to pop up and get our omelets here and have a wider variety of options.

We ate at Bistro on 5 once for lunch. The crepes were delicious (both regular and gluten free). The shrimp in the Caesar salad were huge, much better than what was in the main dining room. The milkshakes we had for dessert were great as well. Definitely recommend this one as it is only at $10pp charge and gives you a great meal.

We did the S.S. United States for dinner on the last night. The food and service here were excellent. It’s definitely a bit pricy and we only went for it as we still had remaining onboard credit. They have a gluten free chocolate soufflé that was excellent. Definitely the best dessert I had onboard.

Bars: For us, the Martini bar was hands down the best. Strongest drinks and friendliest bartenders. We tried all of the bars on board but the Martini bar quickly became our go-to spot.

Room: Our room was a good size. Our stateroom attendant was very friendly. There were some perks with the Concierge class, but I’m not sure if it would be worth the additional cost in the future. There was a bottle of bubbles in the room on arrival, but we already had the drink package. There was an option for canapés to be delivered to the room in the afternoon and there was always fresh fruit in the room. There were binoculars in the room to use, which was handy, as we purposefully didn’t purchase them for the trip knowing that we would have these available. Being on deck 9, there was an overhang from deck 10. This did inhibit views some, but we were still able to get excellent photos from our balcony. We did not have any problems with noise from the restaurant above.

Onboard Entertainment

We did not attend most of the evening’s entertainment, as musicals really aren’t my husbands’ thing and 5 out of the 7 evening shows were musical acts. We did attend one of the comedians, which was fun, but did not attend the 2nd as it was early and we were more interested in enjoying the scenery on our as it was the last night.

The best entertainment on board, by far, was the naturalist Milos. We attended all of his programs and spent a lot of time in the Constellation lounge when he was up there pointing out the marine life. You do not want to miss him. There was even a star gazing one night, which was very fun. We came to Alaska for the landscapes and wildlife and he was great in making sure this happened.

Ports:

I’ll separate out the ports versus the excursions so just information about the ports here.

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah): Tendered

There is very little to do here other than go on an excursion. It seems like the main thing people did without an excursion was walk over to Hoonah and walk around there a bit. We never made it to Hoonah due to time constraints, so I can’t really comment there.

Juneau: Docked

We were docked at the furthest spot away from town, so we had about a mile walk each way. There was a shuttle running that charged $4 round trip, but we chose to walk since it was a nice day. Since we were docked all day we figured we would have plenty of time to walk around after our morning excursion but unfortunately our tour was moved to the afternoon so this threw off our plan a bit. After finding out about the change, we headed in to town. It was somewhat disappointing to see all the same shops that you would see in any other port. There were some local places mixed in, but we didn’t shop. We walked all the way across town and found a nice park (Cope Park) and spent some time walking around there. That’s as much exploring as we had time to do before our excursion.

Ketchikan: Docked

We were only in port about 6 hours so we didn’t have much time beyond our excursion. Afterwards we got a cab near the park to go explore Saxman Village and Herring Cove. It was definitely a good decision to go late in the day when everyone else was heading back for dinner as we had both places practically to ourselves. We were able to see a couple of bears at Herring Cove. At this point we didn’t have time to walk around Creek Street since we stayed so long watching the bears, but that was worth it. It looked quite cute driving by and we’ll definitely head there if we are here again.

Hubbard Glacier (Not a port, but an important “stop”)

We were very lucky with the weather and had an excellent day. Good spots for viewing were filled up early, so if this is important for you, get up early. We went up to the constellation lounge around 8:30 am and we got one of the last seats in there. We got to warmly watch the approach for the glacier and then went outside for better photos once we were there. The helipad was initially very crowded. We waited until the boat started doing its turns and went down there when it was turning back to the front. There was no crowd then. The boat turned so that all sides had a front-on view so if you have a balcony, you can enjoy it from your room for a bit. But be sure to get out to the front of the boat for the best viewing.

Excursions:

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah): Icy Strait Point Advanced Kayak Adventure (IC38)

We overall enjoyed this tour. The gear shed was a bit dingy, but the staff setting us up was very friendly. We were able to leave our camera bag there, as we didn’t want to risk it getting wet. There was not really any instruction at the beginning, which was fine for me as I had kayaking experience, but my husband really struggled at the beginning. They eventually realized he was having trouble and were then attentive. Our two guides were very nice and able to answer lots of questions about the area and growing up in Alaska. They didn’t really have a set plan of where we would be going, but that was fine with us. I guess we had a pretty fast paddling group since they were trying to decide on other places to bring us since we had additional time. We appreciated them extending our time in the water rather than just wrapping up early. We took a break at the halfway point and were given a snack of water, chips, a granola bar, and fruit snacks. So we really didn’t need to carry anything other than bug spray. Do not forget the bug spray as there are lots of small bugs on the water. We only saw 1 dolphin in the water but LOTS of bald eagles.

Juneau: Extended Helicopter Glacier Trek (JU10)

Beyond Amazing. This is by far my favorite excursion that I’ve ever done. The helicopter ride was amazing. We had such a great clear day with amazing views. Our glacier trek was gorgeous and the ice climbing was so much fun. Our two guides were excellent. I really cannot recommend this tour enough. We were certainly hesitant due to the cost but we both agreed that it was well worth it.

I was very impressed with the organization of this company. On meeting at the dock they took our weight and shoe size so that when we arrived at their shop all of our gear was ready to go. They provided waterproof pants, jacket, gloves, boots, and backpack. You had to wear their jacket (unless your own was red) and boots, but you had the choice on the pants and gloves. I already had my own but was happy that I took theirs as an additional layer. My gloves got soaking wet climbing and I was happy that I had my own dry ones in the backpack to switch to. They provided a labeled tote bag to leave behind anything that we wanted. Such an excellent system.

Ketchikan: Adventure Kart Expedition (KE75)

We went on a very dry day, so this was not nearly as fun as I was expecting it to be. Without the mud it was just kind of like driving down a bumpy dirt road. We still had a good time and there were 2 scenic stops (that were a bit too long). The karts went at a decent speed and the trails were well maintained. We were probably a bit spoiled from the helicopter and ice climbing the day before, so maybe I am a bit biased in my opinion here.

Disembarkation:

We waited until 9am to leave the ship, as we were not in a rush. This is the first time that we have not done the express walk off option, and it will probably be the only time. The cluster to retrieve bags and exit was a bit much for us.

Pre-Cruise:

We came in on Friday to visit with friends. We did a day trip to Victoria to visit Butchart gardens. It was very beautiful. The cost of the ferry with a car is quite pricy, but we had a good time with the gardens and spending a bit of time in Victoria as well.

Post-Cruise:

Upon exiting we immediately went to the Starbucks to get internet and check in since we hadn’t had a signal since Ketchikan.

We used hotwire to book the Four Seasons in Vancouver for Sunday night. Definitely a great way to book for the area as it is quite pricy. We spent the day walking around Stanley Park and Gastown and visiting with friends

No! Not necessary to order ahead. The only food I recall having to wait for' date=' 20 minutes, was the gluten-free pizza. I have never tried it, but heard it was good.[/quote']

 

That's great! Thank you for the info. We're going in 3 weeks and I'm really looking forward to these.

As a very senstive' date=' gluten-free passenger, I thoroughly enjoyed the crepes at Bistro, and was assured by the waiter about the precautions taken regarding cross-contamination. I've never had a problem with them, as well as all the gluten-free selections offered through the cruises. Creme brulee, YUM.[/quote']

 

Glad to hear it! Did you have to order ahead?