jlawrence01

Back in June, a friend asked me about helping him book a cruise for he and his wife. He mentioned Icon of the Seas. I took the date he was interested and found a December 9th cruise out of Miami. The cost of an inside cabin was $2995 pp for a seven day cruise with a very ordinary itinerary. I told him could book a suite room on a Windstar cruise with six port days, great food on a ship of about 400 people for $2295 pp. Some of the premium lines are not much less than some of the more luxury lines

Looking at the reserved seats on the Solstice, they were seats that I would never select unless they were the only ones available.

We were on Celebrity Solstice on the September 1st 7 day inside passage cruise. Then we were on the 14 day RT Alaskan cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam. In other words, we were in Alaska for 21 days in 2024. We did our research and we realized that September in Alaska weather wise is a crap shoot. We won. In three weeks, we had two bad weather days and one rough sea day. Period. We were planning to be in all three ports - Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan three times. If the weather was good, we were outside. If not, we had a list of museums and inside activities to do. Personally, I would go earlier than later due to weather although that is no guarantee. The Eurodam is almost the same as the NA and is pretty good in rough waters as long as you don't have mobility issues. As for stores being closed, it is generally the more touristy ones. As for Northern Lights, I saw them up around Whittier. An Inside Passage cruise generally does not get far north enough and even if they are out there, they are often obscured by clouds. I would carry a lot of layers. I did not find the interior of the ship to be that cold. However, I spent much of the 14 days of the cruise out on the Promenade.

We just got back from three cruises starting in Vancouver and ending in Honolulu. We booked a one way NS flight from Phoenix to Vancouver on Air Canada using Flights by Celebrity. We stayed overnight at the YVR airport LaQuinta using points ($289/ night). We used Uber which was US$30 including a large tip. Yes, when you have six bags, you tip Uber drivers If I were to redo it again, I would fly Tucson to Seattle on Southwest eliminating the need to pay for checked bags and the shuttle to Phoenix. I would take a transfer to Canada Place from Seattle. As for taking the Sky train, yes that sounds great when I was in my 20s backpacking Canada and staying in college dorms. I am in my 60s and all the effort of lugging six bags up and down elevators is no longer my cup of tea. And all to save $10-15. Not worth it.

On Nieuw Amsterdam, it was $35 + 18% great. The people who purchased it were very happy with it. In contrast, the Celebrity Solstice offered a very similar deal priced around $75 + 20% grat. We did not do it as that is a menu we do at home frequently.

A few people have mentioned tender ports as one potential problem. However no one has really discussed how difficult some of the docks can be to navigate. For example, in Skagway, AK, on the Solstice, during low tide, the ramp was very steep approaching a 20% grade. Motorized scooters could not make it up the grade. There was this frail woman trying to to push the scooter up the grade and she was struggling. Why she did not ask for help is beyond me. And conditions were not much better in Juneau depending on the tides. Another thing to consider is your ability to get around a ship in rough waters. On the Nieuw Amsterdam, the guy in the next cabin could not walk 50 feet in ten minutes in port in still water. Fortunately, his wife finally insisted on him using a wheelchair. On the Solstice, I served a lady breakfast in the Spa Cafe as she could not get her food and coffee and use her cane. There was no staff available to help.

As a budget cruiser, I have a completely different take. If someone is willing to pay 8-10x what I am paying to have a balcony, a room that is 50 sq ft larger, and to have a separate dining room, that is fine with me. Cruisers like that are financing those of us who need none of that. I have seen the mens of Luminae and Blu and while they are interesting, the regular venues are fine with us.

I was on the Regal Princess last year on its inaugural sailing out of Galveston, TX. That was the case and was pretty clearly communicated at the time of sailing. Cruise ships must obey local laws while at port. I know that on the Celebrity Solstice last month, certain bars were closed until we left the Port of Vancouver.

That all might be true in Alaska or New England but it just does NOT work in the humid environment in the Caribbean where you clothing comes back drenched at the end of the port day. The solution is to pack very light clothing tightly so it does not take up space. Or use the self laundry on the ship or hand wash and hang up the clothing. =========== The real guide to packing for a cruise is this. Find a YouTube content producer for cruising and get their list. Look it over quickly and see if there are additional things you need. Based on this, create a word document listing out your check list and save it to your computer: We have a series of lists for all of our travels including: Hospital check list Cruise check-list - Caribbean-Mexico Cruise check list - colder climates International travel check list Cruise booking check list OTC drug check list Hotel-Cruise check out Las Vegas Check list Going away - 7 day - check list Going away - 30+ day check list It sounds rather repetitive BUT we are not our at port having to buy bug spray or sunscreen or the like. We do not have to buy laundry sheets at 10x the price. Nor are we leaving things in the safe or leaving our power cords in t0eh cabin.

I just spent three weeks in Alaska followed by a repositioning cruise to Hawaii split equally on HAL and Celebrity. It was a packing nightmare - cold weather clothing, rain clothing and supplies that totaled close to 125# of luggage between the two of us. I am NOT packing a lot of formal clothing for a cruise to Alaska, especially when no one enforced the rules anyway.. I brought two dress shirts and two ties for the NINE formal days that we experienced and a sweater. Of course, I would have packed a lot lighter had either cruise line had access to guest laundries. I might add that was one of the factors in deciding to take Princess from Seattle to Singapore in 2025 over either HAL or Celebrity,

I live in Southern Arizona. Should I buy a standby cabin for one of the cruises out of San Diego, I leave the day before, spend the night in San Diego or Orange County. If I get on the ship, I have a good deal potentially. If I do not, I spend the weekend in San Diego or Las Vegas. The last time I parked long term in San Diego in December 2022, it was a whopping $9 per night. My problem with the program is that it is NOT a great deal on most of the sailings. All FOUR cruises that I have booked on HAL have all been under $99 pppd. It is a great deal for those who are solo cruisers.

I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam in September and the Eurodam in January, and there is no BB King on either ship. However, if you head around the internet on sites like Cruise Critic expert reviews of the two ships and a number of the travel agency sites, any non-frequent cruiser could easily get the impression that yes, BB King is on BOTH ships. In addition, I have seen deck plans recently where the Rolling Stone Lounge on one of the ships was still BB King Lounge. On the Eurodam in January, they had several maps around the ship where BB King Lounge was still present. Wonder why people are confused??

We have never been on a cruise ship for Christmas. However, we watched the crew of the Konigsdam creating a large village of gingerbread houses in early December 2022. It ws really cool watching them work on them.

When we were leaving Vancouver on the September 8th cruise, HAL invited about 50 of the blue vested employees of the Vancouver port who helped us board the ship into the Lido for lunch. For MOST of them, they had never been on a ship of that size even though they are critical to the operation of the cruise lines.

Having walked it several times, I would say that it is closer to 20 minutes as you are traveling along the side of a major thoroughfare. There are also handicapped accessible taxis at the port.