cruisequeen4ever

This was such an informative thread for those of us doing these sailings; thank you to the primary blogger as well as everyone else who contributed!

I’m so sorry you have gone through all of that! Thank you for sharing your experience, so we can all go into Med cruises without eyes open. I had thought, based on one Holland America passenger’s experience at a Rome hospital a few years ago, that Italy was actually a safe place to get medical care if necessary. Perhaps they got lucky with the hospital, or perhaps the pandemic wrecked the medical care there. Regardless, it is scary to think of having a medical emergency in many cruise ports. The MedJet idea sounds best to reduce risk. I hope you recover well and quickly!

It’s my understanding that as long as the girl was not person #1 on the stateroom, she can be dropped or replaced. If it is a two person stateroom, and she is just dropped, then your son would become a solo passenger in the stateroom, and he would still be paying just about what it costs for two people. As a result, it would be more cost-effective to just have one of his buddies join him. Alternatively, since you’re so far out, as long as you don’t have a nonrefundable deposit, you could just have the three of you in one stateroom and save a ton of money!

Woohoo for you!!!

I’m so relieved to hear there is still bingo! I read that Celebrity is no longer offering bingo, only Deal or No Deal. Though I like Deal or No Deal and look forward to playing it also, it is by no means a replacement for tried-and-true bingo. I did try playing bingo remotely from the Royal Tea in the Piazza ad they overlapped. It made me nervous that if I won, I somehow would not get the prize, but I would assume they have a way of getting it to me??

My travel agent told us that they are actually letting some people other than suite guests go, but it’s by invitation only. Sure hope we somehow get an invite!

I sure hope they go back to putting new releases on Movies Under the Stars in December and not just on one ship but on them all! My husband and I were literally just talking this week about how we need to make sure we don’t watch too many new movies in preparation for our cruise.

“The Princess bed” as it is truly named is my dream bed, and I am so sad that they do not ship to Alaska! Of course we know that one bed does not fit all, and that is why there are so many different beds out there. I really believe Princess hit gold with theirs though. The only person I have encountered complaining about it was my mother-in-law because it was too soft for her.

I live in Anchorage, and I don’t walk around downtown Anchorage alone probably for the same reason you were talking about, the homeless people. Just like other cities around America, it’s a huge issue. We are ashamed the tourists Experience this and wish the government would clean up downtown. Aside from the homeless, it’s a beautiful downtown with great gift shops and wonderful restaurants. A lot of tours launch from downtown, too. In the summer, tourists really don’t have a problem as there are so many tourists milling around, and I have honestly never read about tourists having ever been attacked or had a crime committed against them.

As an Alaskan who has done the one-way Alaska cruise many ways, both starting in Alaska and starting in Vancouver, I can tell you that both ways are fun, but if you want an easy embarkation, starting in Alaska is hands-down easiest. I hope you get the flights that you want; you could call and request to fly in a day or two early by paying their fee to do so. I would think it wouldn’t be too late since your cruise is so far off from now. Spending more time in Anchorage is what I would recommend and just a little time in Seward as there’s much more to do out of Anchorage than Seward. The boat tour others are referencing is excellent and one night in Seward would certainly be fun. it’s an adorable town. Happy planning!

How scary! I hope that they investigate the root cause and make sure it never happens again.

That’s awesome! Your room upgrade I’m sure is a for sure thing, but like others have said, I wouldn’t quite hang my hat on the drinks package upgrades until you’re onboard and see them truly loaded to your account. I too have read accounts of Celebrity and Royal Caribbean IT making mistakes and then fixing them later instead of honoring them. Hopefully it really truly is just a wonderful gift from Celebrity, though!

I’m trying to get the bonus for using Flights by Celebrity, but the site hasn’t been working for me. I was also hoping for a price drop on onboard packages and services, but it doesn’t look like they put those on sale unless it’s just not being advertised.

I read all the major cruise line forums on here, and I’ve heard similar feedback across the lines. Don’t get me wrong; plenty of people are still having great experiences, but I’m just saying that this experience is not limited to Carnival. Also, I read similar experiences on one of the new Carnival ships, so new doesn’t guarantee better. Times are tough right now for cruise lines. I hope things improve!

I’m so glad the Royal has changed your mind about Princess! I can’t wait to be onboard next month!

Carnival and NCL do the same thing.

Thank you! It shows we will be at B93. 👍

Does anyone have a copy of the Solstice’s disembarkation schedule from a Mexican Riviera cruise this year? Or if not, can you recall the earliest time people started disembarking? Has anyone experience a delayed disembarkation at the end of their Mexican Riviera cruise?

This was really helpful as I intend to start using these. I was gonna go with Tiles; is there any difference I should know of between them and Air Tags?

I do really missing having an indoor pool when sailing AK because I love to swim. Many wouldn’t think twice about it, though, because they’re so busy exploring AK and wouldn’t think about swimming for such a cruise. The Royal is beautiful and has some cool viewing areas for scenic cruising, so I wouldn’t make it a deal breaker. If you must swim for sure, though, switch to a different ship.

We are on the same cruise, and it’s not available yet. Hopefully it’ll be opened soon!

Goodness, $15 seems doubly too much; glad it’s not $19! (expressed by one who really wants to go in Bolt!)

NCL uses Alaska Premier Tours to host their land portion. You can probably call Alaska Premier Tours to get some more info if you have specific questions like names of lodges used etc. I agree with what someone else said to do the land portion first; it gets the longest flight and most go go go portion of the trip done first, and then you can relax on the ship.

I was shocked this wasn’t a huge thread after I heard about it in the news yesterday. Was anyone onboard that cruise who could give insight? Tragic ending to her life no matter how it happened!

Seward is an easy embarkation port. You can walk to the port and likely wait in a short line to check in unless you happen to get there right after a bus arrived. Embarkation is so spread out throughout the day that it prevents large lines. If you’re done exploring Seward, you might as well head right to the cruise terminal around 11:00 before the train drops off the first set of pax around 11:15.