mleng

@meadowlanderThank you very much.  Fairfield Inn's package price is actually lower than Hampton Inn.  Coincidentally, I am a Marriott member and would love the opportunity to earn some points.  

If anybody else had first hand experience with Fairfield Inn, I would like to hear it.  Thank you in advance.

@meadowlander thank you for the input.  I just checked out the Hampton Inn prices.  It's actually quite reasonable.  $309 for a night for this package comparing to $150 for regular price.  So it's basically $160 extra.  

Have you used the Park and Fly package? I am curious about how the shuttle service is, especially on the return trip.  Will we have to wait a long time at the cruise terminal for the pickup?  

Also, there will be 4 of us, so we will drive down together in 1 car but need 2 hotel rooms.  Ideally we pay $309 for one room and the regular $150 for another room, but not sure if the hotel will allow that.  I can call and ask the hotel, but if you or somebody else has actually used the package, then I would really appreciate a first-hand account.  

@katesmum we are from Grand Island, NY, which is very close to Niagara Falls, so basically we are your neighbors across the border😀

We are planning to book a Carnival Venezia cruise at the end of Nov, and will do exactly what you are doing -- driving the day before, spending a night outside Manhattan, then driving to the terminal and park there the day of departure.  

While the idea of park&fly sounds good, I don't think it will be practical -- to carry all the suitcases onto public transportation will be a nightmare.  If you take Uber/Lyft from the hotel to the terminal, the cost will probably be quite high and offsets whatever saving you get from not paying for the $45 a day parking at the terminal.

When is your trip?  I would love to hear what you decide and how your experience is regarding the pre-cruise hotel. 

My wife and I just returned from a 10-day Panama Canal Cruise from HAL Eurodam.  Puerto Limon was our favorite stop on this trip.  We took an excursion with Relax Day Tour (Federico Shuster, a transplant originally from Austria, was the owner and the guide).  I had done my research ahead of time and contacted 3 different tour operators – Relax Day Tours, Your Lucky Tour, and Port Limon. All 3 companies have similar tours with similar prices, but Relax Day's itinerary had a little longer boat ride and more time in the national park, and included the stops at a fruit stand and a Banana Plantation - clearly the best value.  Plus Federico was the best with communications. His email response was very detailed. When I asked about bathrooms, he went through the entire trip’s schedule and listed the availability (and ranked their cleanness) of bathrooms on each stop.  We picked Relax Day Tour and were very glad that we did.  It was a group of 5 couples, with Federico as the guide and Eric as the driver in a late model van that was very clean and comfortable.  Eric was amazing in his ability to spot wildlife even when driving.  He pulled over to the side of the road multiple times to show us sloths, lizards, monkeys, toucans… Federico provides his commentary with a mix of European and Caribbean perspectives.

The canal ride was great with a smaller group, as each person had a "water side" seat, and could freely move to the front or back of the ship.  (12 people on a boat that normally held 20.)  The driver of the boat would frequently stop and get closer to the bank or into very shallow water to give us better views of lizards and birds.  It's such a contrast to several ship-organized excursions on the same canal where everybody was packed in like sardines.  After the boat ride, we drove to a fruit stand and enjoyed samples of petite bananas, papaya, pineapple, roasted cocoa beans.  Several of us bought fresh coconuts for $1 each.  After we sucked the juice first, they cut open the coconut and dug out the meat for us. There was a gift shop onsite, as well as interesting plants behind the stand next to people's houses. There was zero pressure to buy stuff, and frankly there was almost no time to shop, as we just followed Federido and listened to him talking about each fruit tree.

After that, we drove 30 minutes to a National Park, walking on a sandy path in the woods, while the ocean and its pounding surf was no more than 20 feet away. Sloths and monkeys were all over the trees. It was sprinkling a little at the time, but with the trees, we didn't really feel the rain, and the sandy path never got muddy or slippery.  Federico and Eric walked with us for half an hour, and gave us free time to relax on the beach or walk further. 

After a total of 90 minutes at the park, we drove to a Banana Plantation.  It's a weekend and it's closed.  (Even if it were open, I don't know if we would be allowed to enter.)  But we stood outside the fence while looking at the banana trees.  Federico explained to us how the business and operation of banana growing and harvesting was done, which was very informative.

Finally, we drove back toward the cruise terminal and were given the option to stop at a local supermarket to buy things or to see how daily life was for the residents.  My wife and I chose to go straight back to the ship instead, as it had been a long day.  We thoroughly enjoyed the entire 7 hours of the trip and highly recommend Federido and Relax Day Tour to anybody.

My wife and I will be on Eurodam departing 3/25/2023.  Does anybody know if they still provide bathrobes in the cabin? If so, it will help us pack a little lighter. We are in plain Oceanview cabin, not in any fancy suite.  

I tried to search in the New To Holland America topic, but only found a couple of references by people who were staying in suites.  

Thanks.

If anybody has been on Eurodam recently, can you tell me how cold they set the temperature in the public area, especially in the main dining room?  We have been to places that they keep it so cold that people would need to wear a sweater.  If that's the case, then we will have to make sure to pack at least one set of warm clothes.  (My wife and I will be on the March 25 sailing.)

My wife and I will be on Eurodam stopping at Port Limon on Wednesday April 1, 2023.  This is an excursion offered by the ship at $140 pp, but it's sold out.  I have not been able to find an equivalent tour offered by private operators -- to be fair, I am only aware of Your Lucky Tour and PortLimon.com (by Jorge Ramirez). 

If anybody knows another private operator that offers this tour and had good experience with it, I would appreciate a recommendatioin.

Following the thread...

My wife and I are interested in this information as well.  We always try to book directly with local tour providers instead of through the cruise line. Besides Mr. Whitaker, is there any other recommendation?

Folks, thank you so much for the detailed answers. 

Hi, my wife and I will be on Eurodam March 25-April 2 trip.  It will be at Panama Canal on March 31, but the itinerary description by the cruise line is a little confusing.  Here is a direct copy&paste from the website:

Enter Panama Canal Cristobal
Arrive: 5:00 AM Depart: 5:00 AM

Cruising Panama Canal and Gatun Lake
Gatun Lake, Panama
Arrive: 9:00 AM Depart: 10:00 AM

Cruising Gatun Lake and Panama Canal
Exit Panama Canal Cristobal
Arrive: 1:00 PM Depart: 1:00 PM

Colon, Panama
Arrive: 3:00 PM Depart: 8:00 PM

We are not familiar with the detailed locations of everything, but based on my understanding, all the excursions will depart the ship at Gatun Lake (9 AM according to the itinerary above), then rejoin the ship in Colon between 3 and 8 PM.  

Our questions are:

1. What time range is optimal viewing from the ship? 

2. Even if the ship is in the lock between Cristobal and Gatun Lake, it's between 5 and 9 AM.  Between getting up in the morning, breakfast, and getting ready to go on the excursion, we won't have time to see any of the canal. Is this understanding correct? It boils down to one key question: if we take an excursion and get off the ship at 9 AM and rejoin at 3 PM, are we missing all the good viewing? 

3. Where exactly does the ship dock at Gatun Lake to let people off for excursions? 

4. Also, just for my own understanding, on a partial transit, does the ship go through the Gatun locks, hang out in Gatun Lake for a while, then go back through the Agua Clara Locks?  How far into the Gatun Lake does the ship usually go?  Based on Google Map, the 

5. One of the excursions we are looking at is a kayak trip.  Its description is not very clear about exactly what's entailed.  It talks about Agua Clara locks, but I am not sure if we actually paddle through the locks or we are just paddling in the lake for a while, then be taken to the Aqua Clara locks on land.  And where is the area that we will be kayaking?  If anybody has done this excursion, I would appreciate a detailed play-by-play.

Thanks.

Thanks to all for the great advice. 

It's amazing there are 3 or 4 different types of public transportation in the Baltimore, DC area, each serving a different geographic area but also overlapping somewhat.  It's going to make a very interesting decision-making process to compare all the hotel prices with the amenities they offer, and taking into consideration their proximity to various train/light rail routes.  🙂

One more thing to add to my request:  we will have a car, so we don't want to stay in a hotel in downtown Baltimore or Inner Harbor that charges $30~40 a day for parking.  We are willing to stay a little farther out of the city so that we can park for free, then drive to the nearest MARC station and do a free park&ride. (Obviously don't want to be too far out of the city.)  

Thank you for any suggestion you guys may have.

Hi, my family will extend the cruise vacation by a few days afterward.  We want to stay in a long-term-stay type of hotel (Residence Inn, Towne Place Suites, Homewood Suites, or similar type with free breakfast and a kitchen) and do some sightseeing in Baltimore and in Washington DC.  Based on my research, the best way to go into DC is via MARC train.  So I would like to get recommendations on hotels that are near a MARC station that I can park&ride for free.  Any advice?  Thanks.

My extended family will be on Veendam at Amber Cove on Nov 29.  6 or 7 of us are planning to take the taxi to 27 waterfalls.  I have read in other reviews that the taxi driver will stay at the park and drive us back.  The person who wrote the review said that he/she left their phones and wallets in the taxi.  Have anybody else done that?  I find this slightly risky and nerve-wrecking.  I also heard the park has locker that we can rent.  Does anybody know the price and the size of the locker?  I will probably feel better leaving the valuables in the locker, but I also don't want to offend the taxi driver and tell him "I don't want to leave my stuff in your car.  I would rather pay for a locker."  

Any suggestion?  

Thanks.  The place closes at 3 PM, and our ship docks at 11 AM.  By the time we get off and take the taxi to get there, it will be about 1.  We won't have time to do all 27 anyway. 

I read in a few threads on this board that due to drought conditions, the 27 Waterfalls only had 12 that were open. That was during the summer of 2019.  Now it's Nov, and my family are on a Holland America cruiseship Veendam that will stop at Amber Cove on Nov 29.  I am wondering if the drought condition has improved?  If anybody knows the latest condition, or knows where I can find out, please let me know.  Thanks.

Mabones,

On our tour with Trail of 98, we were given the options to do extra stops at the Suspension Bridge, and the Dog Sled camp (there are 2 different camps).  These places are run by other entities and charge separate admissions.  Tom and Michelle, the owner of the Trail of 98 Tour, will give you the info before the trip, during your reservation, so that you can decide which of these extra stops you want to make.  You don't need to do any if you don't want to.  We stopped at one of the Dog Sled camp, I think it's called Tutshi Camp.  Some of us just walked around and petted the dogs.  Some others actually did a ride on the sled.  The sled ride cost something like $35 for a 10 minute ride.  There was an admission ($5) to just enter the camp, but because half of our group did the sled ride and probably also because Trail of 98 had some kind of relationship with the camp, they didn't charge the rest of us who just wanted to walk around. 

For lunch, we stopped at the village of Caribou Crossing.  It was basically 90 minutes of free time.  There were a sit-down restaurant and a quick sandwich place.  Some of us (myself included) had a big breakfast on the ship and then just brought some granola bars, while some others went to the sandwich place.  There was a beautiful lake in the village, with a beach and a railroad bridge nearby.  My wife and I spent most of the hour walking around, also used the free wifi at the town visitor center to catch up on some emails.

We left about 9:30 AM and got back to the ship around 4:30 PM.  But the exact timing really isn't that important.  Our ship wasn't scheduled to leave Skagway until 8 PM, so there was no risk of missing the boat.  Because we were basically hiring the van and a tour guide for the whole day, Tom made it clear to us that we could make the trip as short or as long as we like.  He had no other tourist to pick up that day.  And along the way, as he stopped at each "sightseeing" spot, the group decided to stay longer or shorter based on our preferences.  We had 3 families, so some people might decided after 10 minutes they had enough at this one spot, so they just went back and sat in the van, while others could stay out and spend more time until they felt that they had enough.  For instance, at Caribou Crossing, originally it was supposed to be a 60-min stop, but our group went each other's way and didn't get back until 90 minutes later.  On a tightly scheduled tour that would have angered some passengers because that would mean a shorter stay at the next stop in order to make up time, but since we didn't have a deadline, there was no hurry.  

If you are thinking about going with Trail of 98 tours in Skagway, go for it, you won't be disappointed.  I assume you have a relatively large group?  They don't charge per person, but for an entire van.  If you have at least 6 or 7 people, the cost will work out to be better than booking individually with other tour operators.  

My family just came back from the cruise Aug 10-17.

In Skagway, we chartered a private small bus from a companycalled Trail of 98 Tours. (Look them up on TripAdvisor -- they have nothing but 5 star reviews.) The owner Tomwas the driver and tour guide. That wasthe highlight of our trip. The famousWhitePass railroad sounded good, but most people only rode on it for a veryshort segment – without even leaving Alaska. Our driver took us about 3 times as far, leaving Alaska, going throughBritish Columbia, and into Yukon, stopping at various scenic spots as well asmajor stopping/playing locations such as Tutshi Dog camp, Village of Carcross,Bennett Lake, Emerald Lake, and Carcross Desert. I highly recommend Trail of 98 Tours if youhave a large group or if you are able to find some people to share thebus. The bus could seat 14. We teamed up with 2 other families (throughRoll Call on CruiseCritic) to split the flat rate of approximately $900 for awhole day’s worth of sightseeing, which worked out to be about $70 perperson. That’s a great deal, considering the train ride (covering 1/3 of the distance) is $130 per person.

My family just came back from Explorer of the Seas RT from Seattle, Aug 10-17. The passport check was the loosest ever. When getting off the ship at each port, we were told by the cruise people to have photo ID along with the ship card, but we were never asked to show the photo ID by the port people, even when going on and off the ship at Victoria.

When returning to Seattle, we didn't have to fill out the blue custom form. The agents didn't stop anybody to check the passport or ask any question. They just stood by the door and asked everybody to hold up the passport open at the photo page, and everybody just walking through at normal speed. (That's for all passports, regardless of the country.)

RT from Seattle, Aug 10-17.

Overall:

My family had cruised more than a dozen times in the past,on Carnival, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean. We are all Platinum, including our 2 teenage kids. This is actually our 3rd time onEOS, with the first 2 times to Bermuda and Caribbean when EOS was home-portedat NJ. This review is not much of a blow-by-blow description of thetrip, but more of a collection of practical observation and tips.

Seattle:

Our family of 6 (3 generations) flew to Seattle on Wed. We spent 2 nights at Fairfield Inn by theSEATAC airport. I had lots of Marriottpoints from business travels, so it came in handy for summer peak season whenthe room rate would have been more than $250 per night. If you stay there, and if you are sensitiveto noise, ask for rooms on the top floor. The building is wood-framed, not concrete. You could hear the footsteps of the guestsabove you if you were a light sleeper.

We bought ORCA cards ahead of time and loaded them withRegional Day pass for our sightseeing on Thur.

Tips: (1). Senior andYouth pay half price for the Day Pass, but I had to order the special ORCAcards ahead of time via postal mail. Ibasically had to prove to them the users were indeed senior and youth. (2). Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn Express, andHampton Inn were next to each other, all within 3~5 minute walking distance tothe Angle Lake Light Rail station. (3).For the day, we took the Light Rail to downtown Seattle for a walking tour,then took a bus to Ballard Lock, then another bus back to Chinatown for latelunch, and finally Light Rail back to the hotel. Google Map was great for directions – I couldchoose the option of “public transit”, and it would tell me how to walk to thenearest bus station and when the next bus would come. I could optimize on Quickest Trip or LeastAmount of Walking or Fewest Number of Bus Transfer.

Embarking:

We booked Seattle Express for roundtrip to Cruise port. 6 of us plus luggage would have been toolarge a crowd for any normal vehicle. Asmaller family might be able to spend less money by taking an Uber ortaxi. Seattle Express offers a discount forAAA member, and there is another discount if you take the earliest shuttle at 9AM. I initially was concerned that 9 AMwould be too early, but as it turned out, it was perfect. And due to the time difference (we are fromthe east coast), everybody was up and about by 7 AM anyway, so it was noproblem at all to get ready by 9.

We arrived at the cruise port about 10 AM due to 3 stops atdifferent hotels for pickup, and a little bit of traffic through downtown. Already quite a few people had arrived, andthere was somewhat of a line, but the line kept moving at a good pace. We basically never stood still in the line,and went through security and check-in within 20~25 minutes. 5 minutes after we finished check-in, theyopened up the ramp for getting on the ship. By 10:45, we were on the ship. Wecamped out at the library, played some board games, picked out some books, andtook turns to go to lunch, and before you know it, it’s 1 PM and the cabins areopen.

Cabins:

I booked this cruise on the first day the itinerary openedup (about 18 months before the departure date). I accidentally stumbled upon a new category of rooms called PanoramicOceanview room, on 12th floor all the way to the front, basicallyright above the ship’s bridge. Isnatched up room 1864 for my family of 4 and room 1866 for my parents. There were a lot of discussions of theserooms on the boards. You can go and seesome photos for yourself. 1864 wasespecially gorgeous with 5 floor-to-ceiling windows covering the entire frontwall that faced the ocean. For an Alaskacruise, it’s especially nice because we were able to sit in the cabin and watchthe postcard-worth view of Seattle skyline and later the fjord andglacier. However, there were some practicalconsiderations: (1) If there is a fog at night, the ship is required to soundthe fog horn repeatedly. I didn’t timeit, but it seemed to be about every 30~60 seconds. The horn was above the bridge, so basically rightoutside of our window or the windows of any of these panoramic view cabins. On this trip, the horn went off for 2 hoursfrom 10:30 to 12:30 during the first night and 3 hours (1 to 4 AM) during thesecond night. It was brutal. The Guest Service desk gave us freeearplugs. I also had a White Noise appon my phone. I turned the volume to thehighest level, and with the earplugs, my kids and I were able to drift off tosleep. My wife, who must have had moresensitive hearing, got barely any sleep in those 2 nights. (2) The closet space was bad. The quirk in the layout of the room that madethe cabin twice as large as a normal cabin also made the closet space only halfas large as a normal cabin. We had tohang our windbreakers and sweatshirts in our parents’ cabin next door. (3) When the ship was going at full speed andthe wind picked up, it was rocking! Thehigher the floor, the closest to the front, the more you would feel it, andthis cabin was basically on the highest floor and closest to the front. (4). We had 4 people in the cabin and wasable to sleep comfortably. I wasinitially a little concerned about the pullout couch since my teenage son anddaughter wouldn’t want to share a couch bed. To our delight, the cabin steward converted the couch into 2 separatetwin beds. Problem solved!

Food:

We had My Time Dining and I made reservations ahead of timefor most of the days. For the 2 days inport we didn’t have reservations because we didn’t know how late we were goingto be. When we did come back and decidedto go to the dining room, even though we didn’t have a reservation, we wereseated without any wait. The actual foodin MDR was so so. My family and many ofthe fellow passengers agreed on one thing: all the dishes, from appetizer to entrée to dessert, looked better thanthey tasted. Don’t get me wrong. They were not bad, but they felt more likeApplebee’s or Friendly’s food than a fine dining establishment.

We ate 2 evening meals at Windjammer. I had to admit that I was pleasantlysurprised. In the past, the eveningbuffet was basically the same food as MDR but sitting under heat lamps for along time. This time, they had uniquechoices and the food was all very fresh. One night was Asian night – not genuine dim sum or sushi, but at least avaliant attempt with roast duck, bok choy, snowpeas, noodles, miso soup, andetc. And the other night was Seafood –raw oysters and clams on ice, freshly fried crab cakes and tempura fish andshrimps… And they always had a bigselection of dessert, including a chocolate fountain. They definitely had put more efforts to makeWindjammer a better dinner option. If Ihad known, I might have gone to Windjammer for dinner more often.

Entertainment:

Nothing new to say about the regular entertainment. Having been on multiple RCCL ships, I haveseen the same ice show and production show a few times.

They did have a new game show which was basically an EscapeRoom, but adapted to an open lounge area with 30 or so teams competing to solvea series of riddles. That was veryenjoyable. I hope they keep trying andcoming up with new entertainment ideas. In reality, they probably could set up a real Escape room on board andtake reservations for one group at a time to solve it.

Ports:

Juneau had terrible weather, resulting in our HelicopterRide to Glacier being cancelled. We wentwith the backup plan of Whale Watch. Itwas ok, not that great. I never understoodthe fascination of some people had with watching whales. This was not like a BBC or Animal Planetdocumentary. The boat had to stay atleast 300 ft away from the whale. All wesaw was a spray of water which indicated there was a whale, then everybody onboard rushed over to the side and stared intently at a lump of a thing barelypeaking above the water. A few seconds later, the tail flipped up when thewhale dove down into deep water. Theneverybody started scanned the horizon for the next spray of water. Repeat this process 5 or 6 times during anhour, and that was it.

In Skagway, we chartered a private small bus from a companycalled Trail of 98 Tours. The owner Tomwas the driver and tour guide. That wasthe highlight of our trip. The famousWhitePass railroad sounded good, but most people only rode on it for a veryshort segment – without even leaving Alaska. Our driver took us about 3 times as far, leaving Alaska, going throughBritish Columbia, and into Yukon, stopping at various scenic spots as well asmajor stopping/playing locations such as Tutshi Dog camp, Village of Carcross,Bennett Lake, Emerald Lake, and Carcross Desert. I highly recommend Trail of 98 Tours if youhave a large group or if you are able to find some people to share thebus. The bus could seat 14. We teamed up with 2 other families (throughRoll Call on CruiseCritic) to split the flat rate of approximately $900 for awhole day’s worth of sightseeing, which worked out to be about $70 perperson. That’s a great deal!

Victoria was ok. Thewalk from the dock to downtown was only 20 minutes, about 1.5~2 miles. There were things to look at and most of thesidewalk was under shady trees – very easy and pleasant walk. The CruiseCompass mistakenly said it would take 40 minutes to walk. I wondered if they tried to scare people intotaking the shuttle bus ($13 round trip – a ripoff in my opinion). After walking to and back from downtown, wewalked 10~15 minutes in the other direction to the beautiful Beacon Hill park,where my wife and I sat on a bench on the cliff, overlooking the ocean and theship in distance. It was very relaxingand a great end to the vacation.

Disembarkation:

It was very easy. Wehad a late flight out of SEA (around 2 PM), so we chose as late adisembarkation time as possible. We wereassigned to leave at 8:45. The LCDscreens by every elevator showed which group could go off – much better alternativethan loud speaker throughout the ship. Westayed in our room until 8:40 when the screen showed that our group could gooff. We could have stayed later if we wanted, but since we were ready, wewalked off. It was very quick to get offthe ship and pick out our suitcases in the designated areas. The customs agents were not checking any IDor asking any questions – they simply stood by the door and asked everybody tohold up the passport showing the ID page (regardless which country’s passport). Everybody just walked on at a normal speedwith the passport in their hands. Ididn’t see them stopping anybody. By 9AM we were outside the terminal.

Seattle Express had its dedicated spot for their vans. We went to it, checked in with somebody whohad a list of names who had reservations, and boarded the bus.

As the bus was pulling out of the area, I noticed a fewinteresting things: (1). 3 lanes oftraffic had to merge into one. Theperson directing traffic always gave shuttle buses the priority. Quite a few yellow taxis were lined up inqueue waiting for the buses to leave first. (2). There was a sign advertisingfixed rate for taxi rides: up to 4 persons, $40 flat rate to airport. For a party with 2, 3 or 4 people, this wouldhave been a better deal than Seattle Express shuttle. (3) As our shuttle was driving away, I saw lotsof people were dragging suitcases and walking on the side of the road. The normal sized 3-ft wide sidewalk certainlywasn’t big enough for the number of people and suitcases, so a lot of peoplewere walking in the road where the buses and cars were squeezing by with inchesto spare. They literally looked likerefugees. I thought they were walkingtoward the parking lot to their own cars, but a minute or so later, I realizedthat they were going to a remote area that’s designated for Private andRide-sharing pickup. That place wastotally congested with hundreds of people and dozens of cars. Walking ½ mile with suitcases, spending 20~30minutes trying to find your driver, then another 10 minutes trying to get outof the port – in exchange for a saving of $5 or $10? Not worth it.

In summary, it was a nice trip. The ship was good, the food/service/entertainmentwere about par for the course for RCCL. Our room was great 99% of the time, when the fog horn wasn’t goingoff. The pictures taken out of the cabinwindows certainly elicited a lot of “cruise envy” or “cabin envy” amongfriends. Weather didn’t completelycooperate but it’s expected. Is it timeto plan my next cruise vacation yet?

We are back from the Alaska cruise Aug 10-17 on EOS. I had asked about the fog horn noise during trip planning, so I thought I would provide a first-hand account.

Our cabin 1864was gorgeous with 5 floor-to-ceiling windows covering the entirefront wall that faced the ocean. For anAlaska cruise, it’s especially nice because we were able to sit in the cabinand watch the postcard-worth view of Seattle skyline and later the fjord andglacier. However, there were some practicalconsiderations: (1) If there is a fog at night, the ship is required to soundthe fog horn regularly (I didn't time the interval, but it felt like every minute or so). The hornwas above the bridge, so practically right outside of our window or the windows of any of these Panoramic view cabins. On thistrip, the horn went off for 2 hours during the first night from 10:30 to 12:30 and 3 hours during thesecond night (1 to 4 AM). It was brutal. The Guest Service desk gave us freeearplugs. I also had a White Noise appon my phone. I turned the volume to thehighest level, and with the earplugs, my kids and I were able to drift off tosleep. My wife, who must have had moresensitive hearing, got barely any sleep in those 2 nights. (2) The closet space was bad. The quirk in the layout of the room that madethe cabin twice as large as a normal cabin also made the closet space only halfas large as a normal cabin. We had tohang our windbreakers and sweatshirts in our parents’ cabin next door. (3) When the ship was going at full speed andthe wind picked up, it was rocking! Thehigher the floor, the closest to the front, the more you would feel it, andthis cabin was basically on the highest floor and closest to the front. (4). We had 4 people in the cabin and wasable to sleep comfortably. I wasinitially a little concerned about the pullout couch since my teenage son anddaughter wouldn’t want to share a couch bed. To our delight, the cabin steward converted the couch into 2 separatetwin beds.

In summary, this was a beautiful room and I would definitely book it again if the price is reasonable. In my opinion, it should be about equal to a balcony room.

Hi budget queen, if the fog horn is right outside the room, no earplug is going to block that. I am debating if we should give up the Panoramic rooms and switch to something on lower deck and near the aft. That's why I am hoping to hear from somebody who was in one of these rooms and actually heard the horn going off in the middle of the night.

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. I live about an hour north of Chautauqua, closer to Niagara Falls. I assume you go to Chautauqua Institution? Great place for the summer.

If I can trouble you for one more question. You won't have the answer until after the trip, so hopefully you will remember it later. I would like to know how foggy it is at night in Alaska and how often the ship has to sound the fog horn. We will have 2 rooms on Deck 12, those Panoramic Oceanview cabins with floor to ceiling glasses. I was pretty psyched to score those rooms until I read one post saying that the ship's fog horn is right above the rooms. It makes sense since the rooms are all the way forward, literally above the bridge. Some members of my family suffer from insomnia so loud noise at night is obviously not a good thing. I am just curious how big a problem it is.

Thanks again, and hopefully you will see some sunshine up north!

Hi Mark from Pittsburgh,

Enjoy your trip. I did my undergrad at Grove City College, an hour north of the Steel City. I am living in Western NY now, but I till have my Terrible Towel that I break out every Jan during the playoffs.

My family will be on EOS to Alaska in August. I am just about to book the shuttle bus to take us from the hotel near the airport to the cruise port. What time did the boarding start today, and what time did you board? The shuttle company has bus every hour (takes about 45~60 minutes from the airport area to the pier), but they are offering 10% discount to those who are willing to take the 9 AM shuttle, which means we will arrive at the pier at 10. I am tempted to do that -- not only do we get a discount on the shuttle, but also we will be first inline to board. But, if they don't allow us to board until 11 or 12, I may choose to spend the extra 2 hours in the hotel instead of standing inline at the pier.

Thanks in advance for your reply. Again, wish you a wonderful week!