LEtue

Celebrating today 

CELEBRITY MOVE UP TRACKER (effective April 19, 2019; but can back-fill data, if available)

• Ship:  Millennium
• Length of Cruise: 7 day
• Cruise Sail Date: August 30, 2019
• Date email offer received: N/A - bid through move up site early August
• Captain’s Club Tier:  Select and Elite
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA:  Celebrity 
• Current Cabin:  Inside
• Bid?  Yes/No:  Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

•  place winning category, if accepted (all category offers, can be mentioned in comments)
• Bid Offer: $200 pp
• Notification Date:  August 22, 2019
• Accepted / Rejected: Accepted
• General Comments (offer details, etc.)  Cruise has been in sold out status for about 2 weeks so figured we were out of luck.

7 hours ago, geoherb said:

I took back-to-back cruises in late June/early July this year. I needed several layers on the northbound cruise. By the time the ship headed back, though, the weather warmed up to where I was in a T-shirt and shorts in all the ports.

I wished I had shorts and more short sleeve tees with me on a few past trips.  I am packing for next week RT from Vancouver so the packing challenge is on.....

I'm traveling in steerage so I will hope for the same 

I am booked on the Crown Princess - July 25, 2020 sailing.  No itinerary changes revealed yet for this 8 night cruise.  May be worth considering for your family.

Royal Caribbean is offering a 5 night sailing on the Serenade of the Seas from Vancouver on May 26, 2020.  
 

On 7/25/2019 at 7:38 AM, Anita Latte said:

Nice. I would think there would be decent availability still in May for the up coming season. That’s what I’m curious about. We’re you able to book tours for what you wanted? 

No problem booking independent tours in all the ports other than Ketchikan where I booked Ben Fogle's Great Adventures: Tongass Rainforest Hiking Expedition.  I have read great things about the hike and It sold out shortly afterward (during a shore excursion sale).

I booked my cruise in May and leave August 30 on the Millennium!  Only 37 more days  

Itinerary, ship, price.....

I have used this booking site in the past for the Colosseum and they show availability for July 17.   

https://www.tickitaly.com/tickets/colosseum-tickets.php

I have gotten to the point of just checking the final price and comparing it to other similar sailings that I am interested in.  I don't really care how I get to my destination since I really just use the ship to eat and sleep.  

Booked on the Millennium to Alaska in August and just booked the Explorer to the Med in September 2020.  Both had the lowest price for the itinerary I wanted so that works for me!

Never sailed that late in the season either but the best weather I had on any of my Alaska cruises was when I sailed south from Whittier on August 30 and arrived in Vancouver on September 6.  Sunny all the way with only a few sprinkles in Ketchikan.   I wish I had packed shorts on that trip! The cruise tour passengers that spent time in Denali saw snow yet arrived in Whittier under sunny skies and 65 degree weather.

Had more rain on my May and May into early June sailings.  Hope we see the same this year when we sail RT from Vancouver on August 30   No matter what it is nice to get out of the FL heat by then!

Definitely check the Pan Pacific price.  I was able to book room for $263 US plus taxes.  The total came to $308 pre-paid.

Always wanted to stay there and take advantage of the luggage service and a quick walk to the boarding que 

Will be on board next June so following along.  We have some independent excursions planned so I hope we can get off quickly in the ports.....   

Glad that I saw this post! 

I love my coffee and after sailing on Princess for so many years I have gotten used to a coffee card so I will definitely ask about one!  Hot coffee in cold Alaska....yum 

I have been looking at the Skytrain option so can someone tell me how you pay?  Is there a kiosk or a machine?  Just want to be prepared and not fumbling around when we get there.

Thanks!

Something is definitely up with the excursions.  A 20% discount on a $174 pp (yesterday) shows it was only reduced to $163 with the 20% applied....  

I got a schedule change from Delta on Monday through a flight alert email.  I was surprised to see one this close to departure and usually see many because I normally book early too.  No problem with a plane change or seat assignment but I do leave later now and one of my connections was eliminated so that is a good thing!  

Based on past experience I check often no matter which airline and this is a good reminder 

Thank you for posting this.  I only need a few minutes a day to stay in touch with home so this will be fine for me.

Have a trip booked with Shawn on September 2nd and can't wait! 

This is my first visit to Icy Strait and after reading so much about Glacier Wind Charters I had to book with them   

12 minutes ago, martincath said:

Purchase together? No - but they'll need to show up at the station together, or at least join the queue for seat allocation together, in order to be seated together.

Perfect!  We are trying to keep our expenses separate and since passport info and more is needed it will be nice to each do our own....

We will definitely be arriving together 

19 hours ago, martincath said:

It actually is more often an issue south of Seattle, and therefore on the evening northbound train rather than morning: firstly, the Canadian railroad tracks are signficantly less impacted by any kind of landslide or treefall due to crossing virtually flat land and passing through almost all farmland and urban areas rather than forested wilderness; secondly the track improvements in WA stablized hillsides where trees were most prone to being brought down. It's also a shorter run than from Eugene to Seattle, so even if the risks per mile traveled were the same rather than reduced, there's less distance so less total risk of a tree faling on the track.

 

As to the communication, or lack thereof - I'm certainly not going to claim that our own experience is the norm and yours unusual, and I've found that service standards vary train by train down to individual conductors, bistor car attendants etc. Whether you have good or bad people working on that shift, who knows - but the same crappy communication happens with airlines, bus companies etc. so barring driving yourself you're always subject to that factor regardless of travel method (and frankly airlines in general suck much harder at communicating than Amtrak does!)

 

Sh*t happens - it also happens to the alternative travel methods. Cars and buses break down, border crossing have incidents that close them, planes have a vast array of problems due to 'your' plane potentially being the other side of the country before it comes to you so bad weather just about anywhere can compromise your flight. Sitting for four hours in Atlanta, while Delta delivered no useful communication whatsoever about how long it was going to take to replace the single windscreen wiper on our plane that had meant our flight was held on the tarmac - after an hour we were deplaned and then wandered the terminal checking departure screens as that was the only way to get updates on our delay - which eventually ended up being four hours late, was far worse than our three hours sitting on Amtrak waiting for the bridge check, especially considering the relative situations! Taking 4 hours to replace a wiper in your home base vs. having to get an engineer out to a random countryside bridge? But one crappy airline experience has not made us recommend everyone stop flying 😉

Can you tell me if 2 people traveling together in business class need to purchase their tickets together - to be seated together?  Or is it just general boarding that comes with the priority? 

I agree and "ship" happens but we're going ahead with the train.  A nice relaxing ride with gorgeous scenery!

I would be going NB so thanks for the clarification.

On 5/14/2019 at 12:15 AM, peety3 said:

Be very cautious about using Amtrak, as the Seattle to Vancouver leg is the "end of the run" and any delays earlier will snowball into a big mess for you (it did for us).

I haven't used the train in recent years but is this new?  With early morning departure and the train already in the depot I assumed it had been there overnight. 

I am planning a cruise now so good to know!