volk904

If your husband was in Quarantine and the rest of the family was not why should Royal being refunding the rest of the party? Just my opinion but I think Royal does a good job of covering customer who were Quarantined and asking them to cover guests who were still free to go about their cruise is asking a lot.

I think the SW card is pretty good and while it has a fee it gives you annual points worth about what the fee cost. Here is a creative option to getting more points. When you apply for a card don’t get one for your spouse. You will get the 50,000 points for joining. Wait a bit and then let your spouse apply for their own card and get another 50,000 points. Right now Delta is giving 70,000 for a new gold card. No fee for the first year. I don’t think Delta is the best long term card but 70,000 might be a great card short term. Finally get a American Express Blue Card. Not for the points but they offer. Deals on Royal and Celebrity. Right now I have a spend $1000 and get a $250 credit.

Our Explorer cruise arrived in Miami in late April. Our flight from FLL was at 10:45 am. We walked off self assist and were through customs by about 7:45 am. We used the S&S Transportation shuttle. THey picked us up quickly and we were at FLL about 8:30 am. We did this in November from the Symphony as well. I recommend S&S highly. Early is actually a great pick up time for them because with many ships arriving they usually have lost of early flight people. $15 PP plus tip. You need to make a reservation on line. THey will confirm. THe morning of the cruise they will call you early to confirm your pick up time and give you the drivers number.

It is easy to complain. We cruised on the Explorer in April and Serenade in early June. Both ships were under staffed and the ships could use some work and the entertainment was not as good as pre covid but we knew this going in. We had a good time and were happy to have a crise to take. Right now I am willing to understand that Royal and all the cruise lines have lost hundreds of millions which has no doubt delayed some dry dock maintenance and are having trouble staffing up.

Looks like your option is a short cruise before your Oct cruise. Sounds like a good excuse to extend your vacation. When you think about the only cost is about $300-$400. But on your longer cruise 4 free drinks a day will save you almost as much.

I would not let the worry ruin your vacation. Since you are on the Symphony you don’t have to deal with and Canada required quarantine. no doubt there is omicron cases on every cruise but the know numbers are not that high. As posted there is probably people who self test and don’t turn themselves in. If you do test positive by the ship they will put you in a quarantine cabin. Your cabin mates will be tested if negative they stay in your cabin. If you are in a quarantine cabin Royal will provide room service for meals and drink no extra charge. If you are flying home you will need to complete your quarantine at a hotel or you can drive home. Royal will pay toward hotel. It was $250 per day in Vancouver. Just get travel insurance and don’t worry about it. Final note if you do test positive make sure to get a doc from the ships Med on when you tested positive for Ins purposes.

We used Viator for several excursions in Alaska last month. They have a website and app. Offer pretty much the same as the cruise lines. There is another ShoreExcusionsgroup.com we have used as well. That said there is more than 1 way to do things but it depends upon what you are looking for. IN Ketchikan there was several places selling excursions right at the Pier. We booked a trolly tours for $45 per person that we really liked. My brother and sister took a cab to a trail they had read about and hiked up a mountain. In Juno there is a whole row of stands selling whale watch excursions. Glaciers tours etc. right next to the sky lift station at the main pier. If you are on the far pier the shuttle buses drop you off at the same place. We used Alaskan Tales for our Whale watch. It was pretty good. In Stika they had excursion stands at the building where the shuttle bus drops you off from the ship. Id you get off early you can probably find plenty of options at every port. The key is get off early.

We took the Quick Shuttle after our cruise in early June from Canada place Port to downtown Seattle. Bus was decent and it took about 3 hour's drive time and 75 minutes to process thru US Customs and the border. I would say that was on the long side because 3 buses arrived together and ours was last. The quick shuttle has 3 stops in Vancouver. Not sure where the first is. Second stop is Canada Place and the 3rd pick up is downtown near some hotels. After that it stops at a small airport just across the border and then on to Seattle. The Amtrack bus leaves from the Amtrac Station and goes to the Amtrac station in Seattle. for you that might be the better Bus route.

You can easily switch 1 connection between devices. My wife and I always just purchase 1 connection and use it between two i phones, 1 ipad and 1 laptop. Pretty simple to just log off one device and then log on another. The system you if a device is log on your plan and you can even get the other off.

My daughter has a cruise late next week. Now I have read Walgreens is charming $128 per covid test. Not enough time to order the Royal proctor test. What are the places that do an accepted on line test of government or purchased test kits .

Do you have the info on the on line tests sites you used that were approved by the cruise line?

It depends on what the Engine issue is. There is a very good chance that the ship would need to be taken out of service to make the repair especially if it is a Azopod which requires a short dry dock to replace the unit. You would be talking about canceling 2-3 full cruises if they can even get a West Coast dry dock For RCCL it is better to work around the issue as they have in the past until a repair can be scheduled.

NCL is having a hiring event in Louisville KY this week. They must really be working to find American crew for that ship. I wonder what they get paid? It has to be more because of US laws.

While the next Sun cruise out of Seattle is canceled there is 3-4 cruises with cabins sailing out Seattle this weekend including a. 7 day on the NCL Bliss. Princess has some really good prices on their cruise.

Looks like the Beach at the Marriott was mostly clean. We were there in late April and the seed weed was over a foot deep. Spent most of the day at the pool.

If you are talking about the Raptor center in Sitka I don’t know where a mile walk comes in. You part pretty close and the building and outdoor area is not that large. I would call it a pretty easy tour unless they are letting you off at some distant.lot.

I think on Cruises especially Alaska now you have to accept that catching Covid is possible. The new variant is more like a cold or minor flu and the vaccine does little to stop it. Maybe it makes the effect less. The thing about Covid is in 2020 and 2021 it was very serious and killed a lot of people. In 2022 it is not the same virus other than by name. My wife tested positive after we returned and I did not. We had a great time on the cruise so we can deal with the post covid. I have had more friend test positive in the last 6 months than the previous 2 years.

Back in 2020 I kicked myself for not buying 100 shares RCCL stock at $35. With back in the same range I bought 100 shares today. I think it will go up pretty quick and if I can get the cabin credits on cruises that is a bonus. Royal is running with pretty full cruises this summer and should start showing some quarterly profits.

The shuttle bus drop off is in town and you can walk to the National Park with the trails and totem poles from there. We took an excursion to the Raptor center ( they have some eagles, Owls etc, then went went to Bear Fortress which was interesting. You can get pretty close to them. One big guy like to stand up which I had not seen before. Final stop was the park. My brother walked back from there but we rode the van back. Nice little town.

We were on the Senerade the first week of June. We got really close in my opinion. The cruise director said it was the closest they had been. The small boat excursion they had 50+ took a group right up to it very close.

We were on this cruise. My brother was doing back to back and tested positive on day 3 of second week after we left and was sent to quarantine and has to deal with the same issues. He had travel insurance to pick up the difference between what Royal pays on the hotel. That said he talked to a guy in quarantine next to him. That guy was able to rent a uhaul van one way to Seattle to escape Canada with his wife. Apparently they will let you go it you drive straight to the border. No public transportation allowed. All of that said I thought Royal treated him well except for poor communication on what do do when he leaves the ship.

Everyone seems to consider Stika and Ketchikan similar and I agree but it might depend on what you want to do in port. One plus for Ketchikan is it offers close to port in walking distance places you can watch the Salmon go up stream and the ladders. In July they will be running. We went to the Raptor center, Bear place and park with all the totem poles in Stika which was nice. I will also agree the Hubbard Glacier out of Vancouver was great but Getting to VCR is a pain and if somehow you catch Covid the real pain begins.

Thread seems have ended.

We were on the Senerade the first week of June. Ship was pretty full. I would guess most in Alaska are in the 95%+ range. I don’t think any ship will be at 100% because they have some outside cabins set aside for Covid quarantine. My brother spent the last 5 days in his back to back in one. i read that last week the ship could not get close to the Hubbard Glacier. On our cruise we got really far back. Guess it is luck or the draw. We did enjoy the cruise.