North2Alaska10

We’re hoping Brent will be onboard the Solstice next June for our Vancouver cruise.

Our travel agent usually asks how many bag tags we want printed to label our checked bags with porters. We normally get 2 each and then she laminates them. We always keep a bag with our meds or any valuables with us. Our town car driver (Quality Town Car) usually unloads our luggage and tracks down a porter so we don’t have to handle any luggage but carryon. Make sure you have your travel and boarding documents with you (we bring paper copies as once our computerized docs didn’t work).

If you would decide to stay near the airport we usually stay at the Cedar Brook lodge. It has beautiful flower gardens and fish filled ponds with nature trails. It’s not your typical airport hotel. Free airport shuttle and free breakfast on weekends. They have gathering areas in each building filled with complimentary sparkling water, chocolate raisins, malted milk balls, yogurt, and frozen ice cream treats. We no longer stay downtown since we found this place.

During the past 2 years we have had to sign up for an arrival time in our cruise ship app check in. Last year we were assigned an 11:00-11:30 arrival. In years past our favorite arrival time was 10:30. Sometimes we had to wait 15 or 20 minutes before boarding, but then we were one of the 1st on the ship. When we arrived at the port one of luggage valets will load your luggage on a cart. We usually tip them at that time. Cruise employees will be there to guide you to the correct lines. After they check your passports and boarding passes you go through security with any carry on items. You will then be directed to the suites check in. Enjoy!

I have always signed up for it on the ship. Usually the 2 nd or 3rd cruise day. The cruise ship then processes you airline baggage fees for you. They will give you special tags to put on your luggage the last night. Your luggage will be taken to the airport and you’ll pick it up after your flight at your final destination. We always had to book a flight between noon and midnight on disembarkation day though. It always worked great. Also there were no luggage weight restrictions, which was really nice.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn airport this past February. Sad to say it was terrible. A lot of customers were complaining about the free airport shuttle, lack of working elevators, and extremely poor free breakfast (waffle maker out of order,etc). We checked in at 4:30 pm and didn’t get our room until 7 pm. We plan to stay at the Hyatt for our next cruise.

We use it every year when we do our Alaska cruise. We always sign up on the cruise ship and pay our airline baggage fees at that time. The cruise ship prints out our valet luggage tags and our boarding passes. We put our luggage out of our cabin on the last cruise night and don’t see it until we arrive home the next evening. Although I believe your flight must be after 12 noon and before midnight. We have never had any problems.

We sailed Celebrity this past February and rented a car through National with a drop off at Disney Car Care. Upon disembarkation there was a small airport shuttle that dropped us off by Southwest Airlines. The elevators to the car rental were right there. Walked across the bridge to National. Took us 5-10 minutes. We took the tollway which had plenty of Oasis’ for stops. We stopped at Target Hunters Creek picked up a few things and headed to the Polynesian. Unloaded at the Polynesian and went to the Car Center. They shuttled us back to the resort. We left FL at 10:30a and got to Disney 2-2:30 with 2 stops. It went much more smoothly than we expected. We would do it again. The Car Center also had Alamo and Enterprise.

This our first NCL cruise. We have the unlimited open bar package. Does this include bottled water? I don’t see water listed in the list of qualified drinks.

I would sign up for the earliest pier check in. You’ll probably get to the pier around 10 after picking up baggage, finding a ride and traveling to the pier. Enjoy an early lunch on the ship. You would probably have to catch a cab to Pike market. We walked once and it was a really long walk. We took a cab back.

We usually book our ride with Quality Town car. We tell them our assigned boarding time and then they tell us what their pick up time at the hotel is. It’s really nice to have your transportation to the pier figured out in advance. In the past when we dealt with shuttles we had late drivers, overcrowded vans making for an uncomfortable ride ti the pier. Dirty cars or vans. The ride from an airport hotel to the pier is about 35 minutes. Quality Town car shows up on time with super clean vehicles, bottles of water, great service and friendly drivers. We do an Alaskan cruise every summer and have been using them for 6 years now.

One year we took a late flight into Seattle. We decided to stay at the inexpensive Best Western Airport with free airport shuttle. They had a pretty nice breakfast buffet included. Then took a Town car to the pier. Now we fly in early the day before and stay at the Cedar Brook lodge to relax. It has a free airport shuttle and breakfast. Then we take a town car to the pier.

We were on the the Feb 5-12 cruise. We did not wear masks. We did avoid large gatherings but did eat in the MDR for breakfast, lunch when available and dinner. We felt fine but the Monday after the cruise ended I had some mild symptoms and tested positive. The other 3 of us were negative. I did see public areas being cleaned. I hope everyone is making a quick recovery.

We usually take an Alaskan cruise each year. Most have been on the Solstice, but we also enjoyed a Holland America (Westerdam) and Princess Cruise (Crown Princess). The Princess cruise was in 2015 and was a wonderful cruise. The captain spent a lot of time at the glacier and rotated the ship several times. It was disappointing on the Solstice this year as the captain spent very little time at the glacier rotating only once. (Probably the worst glacier experience from our 10 Alaskan cruises) Brent Nixon’s monologue on glacier days always adds to the experience which we will miss. All of our cruises were out of Seattle. Although we traveled on the Solstice again this past August we were looking for a bit of different experience for next year. Sitka and Icy Straight point were on our list. So next year we will be trying Norwegian. I was thrilled to see recently that Celebrity is moving the Solstice to Vancouver and bringing the Edge to Seattle in 2024. I am wondering if Captain Tasos and Brent Nixon will be back for any of those cruises. Good luck on your decision! Alaska is always enjoyable!

If we book AQ class we always choose deck 11 between the elevators and aft cabins. It’s always been very quiet and relaxing. No notable smells at all. Once we stayed close to the elevators near the front of the ship. We were pleasantly surprised how quiet the cabin was being close to the elevator.