woostercruise

On 5/30/2023 at 5:03 PM, Sea-n-Ease said:

Thanks all!  Was really hoping to avoid a helicopter ride (a huge phobia).  Our ship only stops in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan.  It is not this year.  Looks like nothing I can do via bus. 🙁

If you do have a phobia of it I definitely would not recommend it. They have to balance the weight in the helicopter so you would not even necessarily get a more inside seat. In our case it was 4 people in the back, heaviest in the middle, 2 passengers plus pilot in the front, smallest by the door.

9 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

No offense to RCL fans, but that is exactly why we cruise HAL (Holland America) for Alaska  - being smaller ships, they can go places the larger ships can't go.

Not that HAL (or any cruiseline/ship) is immune to berthing issues or Acts of God/construction delays/...

Truly sorry you will miss out on Skagway. ISP is not a comparable port, but does have unique offerings (nothing can replace the White Pass train ride, so let's not pretend) - we did a bear watching hike a couple years ago that was fabulous and not offered in other port.

No offense taken. I knew Quantum wasn't ideal, but we are taking our 20 and 22 year old sons so the ship choice was more for them. I'm glad to know the bear watching hike was great, I did see that through an independent excursion. Hopefully we will do it again sometime and will definitely be looking at smaller ships.

8 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Agree.  It really feels like Royal thought of themselves first rather than their customer in this case, especially knowing the extenuating circumstances.  It’s one thing when unexpected weather or mechanical difficulties cause unexpected port disruption, However this was known over a year ago, and they still let us book this itinerary, knowing full well that the situation was not resolved.  This is souring to say the least 

I know there were a couple of ships that cancelled Skagway back towards the end of February, I think, from reading the Skagway thread in the Port section. We go on the 22nd, so we were thinking we were good to go. With Skagway announcing before Royal, I wonder if Royal was offered a solution that they didn't like, tendering or hot berthing, so they decided just not to go. Having not done Alaska before I'm wondering if Quantum and Ovation are really just too big to be doing Alaska?

1 hour ago, Cruise5life said:

Here’s the schedule for Skagway 

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SKG-Skagway-2023.pdf

 

 

and sitka

 

https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SIT-Sitka-2023.pdf

Unfortunately that hasn't been updated since February, We booked our Skagway tour through RCCL as I knew there was the possibility of issues and if we ended up tendering then we would have priority by booking through them. I called the independent tour operator I am using in Juneau and they confirmed that this was announced on Friday. Obviously not official until we hear from Royal, I'm just hoping they tell us soon instead of waiting until we are on the ship in 3 weeks.

4 minutes ago, ukbballfan said:

Looking like Sitka.

Our Quantum cruise on the 22nd already goes to Sitka. I know things were iffy, but when I saw that we were docking in the aft berth I thought we were good to go. I'm bummed, hopefully they can add a port, otherwise with the late call in Victoria it will be more like having 4 sea days.

We are on the week before you and you can book the escape room (it is free) in the online planner. I think it was under activities. 

I sure hope this is an IT issue, a 7 day cruise with 2 1/2 (Victoria in the evening) ports would be very disappointing. There were only 3 ships even in port in Juneau for the May 22 cruise.

1 hour ago, barbeyg said:

We were there last May. While Seattle is not as organized as the FL ports, the people are very nice (nicest people I’ve ever dealt with in a port city — everywhere we went), and there is assistance if you need it.  We walked off with luggage, used the same car service we used during our stay in Seattle. We stayed overnight after the cruise, but were at the airport to pick our rental car up at 8:30.  And that was with two seniors that needed assistance.   We were told, by those working at the airport, that on turnaround day for cruises, the security lines get hectic by mid-morning.  We will walk off next time if our flight is late morning, early afternoon.

May I ask what car service you used? We are a family of 4 and I think a car service might be our best bet.

We sailed on Carnival quite a few years ago now, and we took a couple trays (thanks to seeing the tip here) from the buffet to fill in areas that the rail didn't cover. I don't know if Carnival still has trays at the buffet, and neither Royal Caribbean cruise we went on had trays, but it worked well at the time.

Your review is wonderful! We leave in a week on the same 6 night, and I just used your wonderful luggage tag program the other day to print our tags. Thanks for putting that together!

Thank you! Lucky you - one planned in March...can I go along?? As you can see, I'm not shy in inviting myself along....

Absolutely! I'd love to cruise with you! March 10th Indy, it is only a 6 day you can swing that :) I kept myself away from the review until this afternoon - it was my after work treat!

Yay! I love your reviews! This will help pass the time until our cruise on Indy in March.

Aw, thank you!

 

To answer your question: yes. If I had one complaint about the Freedom (and trust me - I really don't), it's that lack of "being on the sea" feeling that I so love with the Radiance-class ships. I DID indeed miss that, compared to the Serenade. I mentioned it several times while onboard to Mickey, so yes, it did bother me.

 

With that said...I LOVED the Freedom, as you will see! :)

Thanks, I sort of figured it would be like that. I am hoping the difference will be that there are more outdoor activities, like the rock wall & flowrider to keep us up on the outdoor decks. The Legend just had the pool, mini golf and basketball. We do also have a balcony. Looking forward to hearing more!

We need to pool our money to keep you cruising and writing reviews!

Here is another mostly lurker chiming in on your excellent writing! I even checked out your blog. I love how far you managed to carry the surprise. We did the Disney surprise 4 years ago when the our boys were 5 & 7, but told them in the airport parking lot.

We are headed out on the Independence of the Seas for spring break in March, so I am anxious to hear your impressions of the Freedom. We were on Carnival Legend a few years ago and my husband felt that the ship lacked windows and a feeling that you were at sea. Did you still feel like you were at sea on the Freedom? How did it compare in that sense to the Serenade?

I hope to be lucky enough to run into you on a cruise sometime :)

I'm hoping you can help me with.

 

Do you know if Enchantment has hook ups if we were to take a dvd player for our room?

 

Did the cabin stewards leave a towel animal for each child each day? Serioulsy, I can see my 6, 4 and 1.5 year old fighting over towel animals :o .

 

I am thinking of booking another Cruise, tossing around the idea of Carnival. I have been on one cruise with them. I remember a few differences I didn't like. I haven't cruised on them with kids though. Can you tell me the major differences regarding kids. Why do you like RCI better?

 

Thanks!!!!

We were just on Enchantment. There were hookups on our TV, but for some reason we could not get the picture to work, just the sound. I'd be happy to answer any Enchantment questions. My boys are 4 & 6 and loved it!

Kate