azbirdmom

Me too. We were on one of the last ships to berth at the forward Railroad dock a week and a half ago and were also there last year on the Majestic. Both times we stopped at a small book store talking to the owner (as I call it helping the local economy by spending $$). I said that I bet she was glad that the ships were back in force and she said it helps but the ships aren't full yet so it's nowhere near back to normal. And now this. I do feel bad for the local business owners as they haven't had normal business since the summer of 2019.

If you like wildlife I can highly recommend the Otters, Raptors and Bears excursion. We did it a couple of years ago and loved it. You will be on a boat for part of the excursion to see whales, otters and perhaps some seals and eagles. We saw them all. Then on to the Raptor sanctuary and finally the Bear sanctuary. Someone posted an excursion sheet on FB that they received last week and it's still being offered.

Caribbean Princess indeed has a new captain but Tim Stringer is now at the helm of the Discovery Princess. We were on the Caribbean Princess at the end of May / early June and on the Discovery last week. First time we've had the same captain two cruises in a row.

I saw them in every stop, it just depends how much your hubbs wants to spend. Ketchikan does have a store that pretty much sells nothing but gold nugget jewelry. It's in the Creek Street area. We've looked but have never priced.

If that was on the deck plan then it probably is a restaurant. But with all of the fanfare I had been thinking that it might be a Cirque du Soleil type show.

We just got back from our fourth cruise since the restart which is also our fourth cruise since we have been required to use the Medallion app for check in. For each of these cruises we have used my credit card. For cruise #1 both of our folios were visible to me. For cruise #2 I could only see my charges but my husband could see both. We didn't think anything of it. For cruise #3 the same thing happened but I went to passenger services and they just asked me to confirm that I was the cardholder and within seconds they corrected it so that I could then see both folios. And the exact same thing happened on cruise #4. My suspicion is that something happens in the app when credit card and other information is carried forward to another cruise. I've thought of deleting my credit card in the app and then reentering it but the app has been working great for me and I don't want to chance messing anything up. So I will just continue to look at the folio on the app and if only my folio appears, I will simply go to the PSD to have them fix it.

Makes sense. They keep kicking the can down the road to provide information about the new ship so it's very likely that there is a delay. I'm still holding out hope that they launch from Port Canaveral and will use the new facility built for the Mardi Gras. Our good friends have a condo in Cape Canaveral and it's a two block walk from their place to that terminal. Would be awesome to walk to a cruise LOL.

The replay is here. And there won't be an announcement about the Sphere class ship until September.

There was a webinar for TAs this morning that I listened to. At the end it was mentioned that they will probably be able to share more info about the new Sphere class ships in September. They had said earlier this year that it would be in June so we shall see if there is something shared in two months!

Here’s a picture I took from our balcony last Thursday of the older slide that is deemed capable of causing catastrophic damage. Very glad they have closed this area of the dock.

Oops. Last week! I claim to be suffering from CWS (cruise withdrawal syndrome).

We were on the Discovery Princess next week and saw that the brands of wine by the glass were shown in the online dining room menu and for some of the bar menus too.

We just disembarked the Discovery on Sunday. I live in Arizona and tend to get cold easily but I did fine indoors with three quarter sleeve tops. It was comfortable. I did see folks in sleeveless dresses and they didn't outwardly appear to be uncomfortable but who knows?

Looks like the cancellations may just be to give them time to change things on the dock. https://alaskapublic.org/2022/07/25/skagways-busiest-cruise-ship-dock-at-risk-of-catastrophic-rockslide-study-says/ ETA: There is a link to the actual report in this article. Very interesting reading. I feel bad for the storeowners there who are just starting to get a more normal amount of business. They have been barely hanging on since 2019.

We were just there last week and the smaller slide that happened last month still seemed to be shedding rock. There was a larger one that happened before the cruise season started. I don’t recall seeing it like that last year. It’s sad because that’s where they berth two ships plus the busy small boat and ferry harbor.

We just disembarked today. Production shows were Rock Opera and Spotlight Bar. Saw the latter which is an exclusive show for the Discovery and loved it. Saw Carlos Oscar and he is a funny comedian who we have seen before. Also had an illusionist and a Las Vegas singer.

It was there when I did a mock booking but not after my TA booked it. Thinking that your TA should be able to do it, or Celebrity if you booked direct since it clearly was an option at booking.

It's been my experience that they charge the difference between the cost of the free cabin and the cabin that you want to upgrade to up through a mini suite (they have basically quoted rack rates when I've asked about upgrades to Club Class or full suites by the way). But we've only been charged this for one person not two so the cost is basically half the differential. It's been a great deal for us but I suspect that there can be lot of variability in what they will quote and things can change. It costs nothing to ask. Just remember you're on the hook for taxes / port fees, insurance, air, and the $200 pp nonrefundable deposit (that turns into OBC after you board).

You should be able to waitlist for their anytime dining. I saw that option available when I was doing a mock booking on their site. I did end up booking our cruise with a TA and only late traditional was available when we finally got around to booking. I was going to ask her about waitlisting for our preferred dining time but I kept checking the Celebrity website and the anytime option opened up. She grabbed it for us immediately which was a good thing as only late dining is available again. So if you would prefer anytime, you might want to ask about the waitlist and periodically check the website to see if they show it's opened up.

I sure hope it is. We may forego our traditional MDR embarkation lunch and go straight for Gigi's and Agnolotti on Sunday!

I wish they would just remove that language from the app because it just continues to confuse people. What matters are the timelines specified on the Princess website. If it says 2 days for your situation, then you can do the test any time two days prior to embarkation - the number of hours does not matter.

It seems like Skagway has come up with a solution that has allowed them to use the forward Railroad dock again. Someone on the Discovery posted the picture below this morning and they no longer need to tender folks off the ship.

Hmmm. I had thought that the Owner's Suites on the Royal class ships were all re-categorized to Penthouse Suites? These are at the aft of the ship and have wraparound balconies, some wider than others. I did check the deck plan for Discovery and see that there are two Owner's Suites, both on Emerald deck. If I had my choice of any aft suite I would pick ones on Dolphin, Baja, or Riviera decks for the larger balcony before I would select the ones on Emerald deck. Not sure what they would have changed inside to make these Owner's Suites. Generally on the older ships an Owner's Suite would have a dining room table with 4 chairs which is a nice addition but hopefully someone has stayed in these Emerald Deck suites and can answer your question definitively.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in late May / early June and experienced toilet issues. It started with delayed flushing which we told our steward about and he reported it. The plumber was going to look at it the next morning as it wasn’t urgent. Late that night the toilet would only fill and not empty when flushed. I knew enough to not keep flushing as that could cause it to overflow into the room. I wound up at passenger service at 3 AM and they immediately got a plumber ti check it. There was a blockage but it was all human waste. And he replaced a very old part which solved the problem. He did that all from the hallway and we didn’t have another problem for the rest of the cruise. We were in D625.

Shortly after I made this post, I submitted a request under the “Contact Us” / post cruise function. And today I finally received the folio I requested. So they do seem to respond to requests eventually.