itsanita

We just used this 2 days ago off the Solstice. We filled everything out at home before we boarded. I did check with guest relations desk while on the ship to make sure that they had us listed...they did. The night before we got off, we got our luggage tags and boarding passes. We had pre booked a ride to the airport and had a Hertz rental car. So we were taken straight to the Hertz rental at the airport where we picked up our car for a great day outside of Seattle..Snoqualmie Falls, lunch at Salish Lodge, and a visit with the kangaroos at The Fall City Wallaby Ranch. Back to the airport to drop off the car and on to our red eye flights home. Worked perfectly.

Sounds a lot like the port of Fort Lauderdale! Not sure if Seattle is in the same boat, but FL cruise port is way understaffed. Can't find people to work. I think a lot of the confusion is that we all don't read all the emails and instructions that are sent to us. And not sure that the staggered arrival times are working either. A lot harder to get on a ship than it used to be pre covid.

Agree with everything said above. Only want to add that the clothes we brought to wear to dinner at night were the ones we brought home clean! The only nights we ended up changing for dinner were the sea days. The rest of the days we went to dinner pretty much in what we had worn all day. Relaxing with a drink or 2 before dinner on the balcony/bar/outer decks was much more fun than spending that time changing for dinner. Here in Florida that would not be possible! But in the cool weather in Alaska it was fine. We did make the kids change a couple times, but they were a bit more active off the beaten track than we were!

We almost always book our own shore excursions. Have been crujsing for years, never had a single problem. But last week in Ketchikan, the guys chartered a boat and went fishing with the 4 older kids. Us ladies took the 2 younger kids on a canoe/jeep excursion through the ship, as everything else we looked at privately was booked. You drove your own 4-5 passenger jeep. Yikes were we lucky. One of the jeeps broke down in the middle of a one way old logging road in the rain forest. There were about 6 jeeps, all of us except our leader were behind the one that broke down. All the men were out of their jeeps trying to figure out how to fix it. They decided to tow it to an area that we could get around it, but the wheels were locked...it would not budge. So we ended up backing down a very muddy, difficult road till we got to an area that we could do a 3 point turn to go foward. We were late getting back to the ship, that was waiting for us! The ship actually notified our very worried husbands that we were fine, but late and they would not go without us. So....... a lesson for us! Make sure that when we book our own excursions, that we have some time built in for something of this sort.

Download the app and just follow the directions. We did it a couple weeks before our cruise. YOu can add your family on the same one. You need to take pictures of your passport (birth cert for kids). But very easy...it will guide you. Just remember your password!! Then the day before we boarded we re opened and finished it. It required date of entry and how arriving etc. Then when done it gave us a QR code that we presented at the pier. Those that did not have it done were pulled out of line and in clusters attempting to do it then.

We were cancelled last week too. Too windy. The flights were able to go in the afternoon. We had VERY disappointed kids...to the point of tears for the little ones. Wish we would have kept it a surprise. We had booked an excursion in the afternoon to meet the pups and go gold panning. That saved the day.

We did Juneau Whale Watching last week with our family of 12 which included 6 kids. We choose it because we could all go together and they also had a combination trip...whale watching and the Mendenhall Glacier. We did the whale watching first...saw many whales, kids loved it. Then we were dropped off at the Glacier. We had pick up every 1/2 hour and we stayed until the last pick up. Great day!

Just back from Alaska. The train was sold out when we arrived. We had booked a helicopter flight to a glacier with dog sledding. It was cancelled due to wind, so we immediately tried to get a seat on the train that morning...all times were sold out.

Yes! There were long lines of people waiting to fill out their luggage tags at the pier....made things even more congested. I don't remember that happening when they used to just mail you your luggage tags. Maybe staggering the ships departure and arrival days would be helpful. I'm sure Celebrity has thought of that...must be reasons that they are on the same day.

Interesting, as last week the large 'water doors' that lead to the halls to the cabins were closed and locked as the crew were cleaning the rooms. Unlocked only when done. The bartenders just asked for room numbers when ordering drinks if you had the drink packages, as we did not have our sea passes yet.

Yes you can bring carry on bags when embarking. And it depends on how early you are on ship as to if you can drop off in cabin. Most of the time cabins are open and available after 1pm.

There ended up being 12 of us in aft cabins on deck 10. All five cabins were opened by our room steward for a nice long balcony!

The aft cabins on deck 10 are not covered. For Alaska it was an issue when raining. Fortunately we had very little wind on those balconies compared to open areas on the ship. So we were still able to enjoy with our umbrellas!

The Ovation OTS and Celebrity's Solstice are both at Pier 91 on Fridays, going and when returning. It was a cluster. I have never had such a chaotic experience at a port. And it is true about the luggage missing on our cruise that departed on July 15th. We spoke with a lady that had a missing suitcase...found on the Ovation. She had only one suitcase missing from their party of 5. All the suitcases were together and properly tagged. It was returned to her at our first stop, as that was also the Ovations first port. They gave her a 200.00 voucher to spend on the ship for clothes etc. They also gave her a little gift box with toothpaste, brush, deodorant, t-shirt etc.

We avoid the specialty restaurants on the last Chic night, as that is usually the lobster night in the main dining rooms. Personally, I would avoid them while cruising the Inside Passage, as the view itself is amazing and would take away from the relaxing diner experience. Same feelings about the sail aways....love them with cocktails in hand. Would not want to be trying to enjoy both. We always go for the sea days.

Just got off the Solstice Friday, and Brent and Amanda were both there. We all enjoyed their talks. If you miss them, they are recorded and played on "Celebrity Entertainment" on the tv in your cabin. Unfortunately it was hit or miss to find them. Our kids loved Brent's talks and did not miss one! I have our daily's, but don't have a clue as to how I would get them on this platform! If you have any specific questions, I would be happy to check for you.

Did you check with a whale watching excursion in Juneau? We used Juneau Tours and Whale Watch. We took the Juneau Whale Watch & Mendenhall Glacier Combo reservations@juneauwhalewatch.com It was a perfect day with whale watching and then hiking to the waterfall and Glacier. A very easy walk, about a mile round trip. As far as dressing. The kids each brought a sport jacket and wore it with jeans and a polo like shirt on the 2 chic nights. But that was not even needed. Their parents just decided they wanted some pictures for their Christmas cards. The only thing not allowed in the dining room at night were shorts.....not too many of them on this cruise anyway. Some people did dress up, but most did not.

Just back from our cruise. The kids had a great time. Ate most nights off the adult menu as the kids menu in the main dining is limited. They too enjoyed the pool, the kid activities and never missed a Brent Nixon talk.

We just got back from our cruise on Solstice to Alaska. I had 6 kids with me , 14,13,12,11,9, and 8. We were a group of 12. We ate everynight in the main dining room. The waiters were amazing...they took such great care of the kids. Some nights they finished before us, and would head up to the 'Camp at sea". The older kids loved it, made lots of friends and were all over the place. The outdoor pools are heated so they were in them a bit, as well as the hot tubs. The Camp at Sea was open every day from 9:00am - 10:00pm, with some planned activities that lasted about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. They had a small game room that was open all the time. From 13-17 they could come and go as they pleased...did not have to sign in or out. The younger kids could do the same, but they were supposed to sign themselves in and out so the counselors knew who was there. Kids 6-9 had to be signed in and out by an adult....but after they got to know us, they allowed our teenages to sign them in. The 'teens' had their own area....not sure what's in there.?? it was TEENS ONLY. The kids said some of the stuff was 'lame', but they went anyway and had fun. The kids menu was limited in the dining room, so our kids ate most nights off the adult menu...a great time to try new foods. We could not get chocolate milk anywhere on the ship. The waiter/bar tenders all had hot chocolate, so the kids ordered that with ice and it worked. White milk is most places. By the time we left the ice cream area knew our kids by name!

I was laying awake at night worrying about how to get this all handled before we flew from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle. No sense getting on the plane before we even knew we were all negative. But this was so very very easy.

We had seven, so they had us make two appointments. One was for 7 AM the second one was for 730. The first appointment had four of us and she had us do all four of them at the same time. She did ask us to show us the unopened box. We sat those four aside and then she immediately did the other three even though it was only 10 minutes later. We sat those three aside and then we showed her the first four that were negative and then we showed her that the last three were negative. We had to go onto the portal to get our results. I couldn’t do a screenshot because it was on two pages so I just printed them out.

Thanks for your quick reply. 🙂

We just used Onpoint to virtually test this am at 7am via zoom. We are flying out later today for our cruise on Friday. It was very very easy for the 7 of us. Done in about 20 minutes. However, the report does not have a QR code. Hopefully that is ok.

I answered my own question! just went online to purchase...adults only.