billsgal

Canal cruise stops are easy to find, but you can buy tickets at or near Tivoli Gardens for the canal boats and HOHO bus.

We did need a PIN number to use the ATM,s. Bring lots of cash or a credit cad, as COP is very expensive.

We did the fjords cruise out of Copenhagen and it ranks among our very favorite cruises. Just an FYI...if you do the HOHO bus, keep your receipt. We could get a discount on the HOHObus in the next city by showing our receipt. Maybe that is still going on, we did that cruise in 2015.

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I haven’t been to Copenhagen, but I believe that you are always paying too much when you book pre cruise thru the cruiseline. You can book the hotel directly or similar hotel for a lot less money, and save enough to buy some meals and transportation. If you are able to get around on your own.

 

JC

And I agree with you 99,9% of the time. However, this year we are staying at the Movenpick Hotel in Amsterdam for 3 pre cruise nights and it was less expensive than booking on our own at any of the travel sites or directly with the hotel. ROYAL included breakfast and transfer, although my understanding is the pier is directly next to the hotel so you can walk there and don't need the transfer. We may just put our suitcases on the transfer vehicle:). This was the only time I have seen booking thru Royal be less expensive than booking direct.....and notice I didn't say "cheaper". Hotel is expensive and perhaps as it gets closer to the sail date the price will come down, but I kept checking from the time we selected the hotel up until final payment and Royal was always less.

Royal's pre cruise hotel package only includes the transfer FROM the hotel to the pier.

Most times it also includes breakfast at your hotel.

Scandia Palace is very centrally located in COP, a short walk from Tivoli Gardens, the HOHO boat stops and many restaurants and shops.

The central train station in COP is within walking distance of the Scandia hotel, probably about a 10 minute walk.

There are many modes of transportation available from the airport to the hotel. Besides the train there are taxis and shuttle services available.

Just remember to watch out for the bicycles:)

Our first Royal cruise was on Song of Norway (we had cruised Costa and Carnival before).

i remember having to walk up stairs to the Viking Crown Lounge, and in those days most ladies wore dresses and heels for dinner. It was like a wind tunnel going up those stairs, and it took a lot of effort to hold the dresses from flying up over your head! We also have the souvenir booklet with names and home towns listed......remember laughing that we hoped no one was onboard with their "secretary" instead of their wife! White glove service all the time, and who can forget "If I were not upon the sea".

Still loyal to Royal, but I can see the cutbacks. I also know that even with the cutbacks, there is value in today's cruise pricing. Sodas were included, drinks were much less money, food was better, no specialty restaurants, no My Time Dining, and the ships itself of yesterday, while beautiful, cannot compare with the vessels today.

Even though we like the Oasis class, our favorite remains the Radiance class. When we sailed Azamara I was really reminded of the Song of Norway.

Our first cruise was in 1980 on Carla C......six ports in seven days because it was going to be a once in a lifetime thing........now we are Pinnacle so I guess we are hooked:D

Hi,

We have done a number of cruise tours, been to Anchorage, Denal and Talkeetna a number of times, but never to Aleyska.

When you arrive in the airport in Alaska, there is a Royal desk which will check your name off, direct you to show them where your luggage is, and they will direct you to the transportation to your hotel. At your hotel you will meet your tour guide, be given the keys to your room, and he/she will provide you with a packet of information on extra excursions you can take, all the times you need to meet your transportation and all other pertinent info to your tour. Your luggage will be delivered to your room, and each day will be picked up and delivered to your room at your next location. If you can pack things for the land portion in one suitcase, it makes it easier for you not to have to go looking thru a couple of pieces of luggage for something.

Your final documents will have the names of the hotels you will be staying in. We were told that the excursions can change from tour to tour for many reasons, so a lot of tour info is not available until you arrive at your first hotel. That same tour director will be with you on your transports, be they train or bus. Don't stress, they have been doing this for quite a while and our tour guides have been very knowledgeable.

As far as extra excursions go, some of our group did the white water rafting in Talkeetna and loved it. They were in a raft that had sides and a cover, so they didn't get very wet. We have also done the Cabin nite show in Denali, and while it was a little corny, it was fun. The visit to the kennels where they have the sled dogs is also fun, and the longer tour into Denali is a must if you want to see bears and wolves. The shorter tour doesn't go in very far, and although the longer tour is quite a bit longer, you do get to see more wildlife and experience some scenery (and some scary roads) you don't get on the Natural History Tour. Also, if your tour guide offer you a train ride from Anchorage to Seward instead of the bus, grab it. The ride is about 5 hours long by train, but it is more than worth what they charge for it. The bus ride is OK, but having done both, I would opt for the train every time. We tried to book it before we left, were told it was not offered, but our guide offered it to us for $25 per person, and it was placed on our SeaPass card.

As far as places to eat, the hotels will all have restaurants, and your other options in Denali are a bit limited Talkeetna has some restaurants downtown, but that is about a 2 miles walk or a ride on the shuttle, but that shuttle stopped early, if I remember correctly. There is a great breakfast place in downtown Talkeetna, but I am sorry I can't remember the name. The restaurants another poster mentioned in Anchorage are great. Be aware that food in Alaska is pricey, but the fresh fish was wonderful, and I am from New England and used to very good seafood.

As far as the ports go, I liked the White Pass Railroad in Skagway. Make sure you walk downtown, short 10 minute walk (they did have a shuttle also) and check out the Red Dog Saloon. (I hope that is the right name).

Years ago it used to be a brothel and they still do tours of the upstairs!

Also, there is a crab shack on the pier in Ketchikan, but we ate at a restaurant right across from the pier and a big gift ship.......which will ship any souveirs home for you for free. Sure beats carrying them.

All the ports till have Diamonds International, Columbian Emeralds, Cariloha, along with the shops selling Alaskan merchandise.

Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Hop on Hop off bus is a great way to get an overall view of Vancouver, and the harbor area has lovely scenery and great restaurants. Stanley Park, Gastown District and Granville Island are highlights and are visited by the HOHO bus. If you have time you could visit Whistler and the Capilano Suspension Bridge (but that is a whole day tour) and the ride to and from there is spectacular. Sorry, it's late and my mind is getting fuzzy about the names of other places in Vancouver, but I am sure you will love the city,

We have done cruise tours on both Princess (1) and Royal (2), the last one being in June 2017. Frankly, I don't see much difference in the accommodations.......these are lodges,not 5 star hotels. They both have nice rooms, clean and a restaurant attached or close by.

Princess does have their own lodges, but they were no different than the ones used by Royal. Only one that was "primitive" IMHO, was the Seward Winding Lodge, and it was clean and had a restaurant, the staff was very nice, but it was nestled among the pine trees and not as new as any others used by the lines. The lodge in Talkeetna used by Royal is gorgeous and has great views. We have stayed in a couple of different ones in Fairbanks, and they were both equally fine.

The train cars use by both lines are very similar....only difference I noticed was we sat in groups of 4 on the Princess cars (so 2 people sat facing forward and 2 sat facing backwards) and the seats on Royal and Celebrity trains were all in groups of 2 and forward

facing.

I don't think you can go wrong going with either line, but we did two on Royal after we did Princess, so I perfer Royal.

We went into Hubbard Glacier both times with Royal and the views were spectacular.

Holland and Princess have been doing the cruise tours longer than Royal, but it should depend on itinerary, timing and price. Whichever you choose, have a great time!

I think it depends upon the numbers. On some repositioning sailings of Jewel, BR and SR a few times the DP have been allowed into Chops for breakfast........not Junior Suites, just DP in addition to suites and Pinnacles.

The last few repo sailings of SR it has been suites and pinnacles only,because numbers of D+ were quite high.

Last week on Empress D+ were allowed into Chops for breakfast along with suites and pinnacles.

rita

Cannot comment on table play, but you must play $5 in slots to reach 1 point on your card. You need 400 points to earn $100 off a cruise, and then the award goes up $100 for each additional 400 points, until you reach 2400 points, which gives you a free cruise (I think thats right, we just got off the Empress and I think I remember what the awards were, but feel free to correct me.

The award certificates we received waived the service charge on cash advances in the casino. However, they are supposed to be used within 30 days of the cruise end, but I think there is some leeway there.

You need 1000 points to get comped drinks in the casino for that cruise.

Point awards don't change depending upon the number of cruise days....of course, we tend to accumulate more points on longer cruises.

We were also on this sailing. We are frequent cruisers (Pinnacle) with Royal and our embarkation was very easy......drove from Vero Beach and arrived at the port around noon.......only difficulty was finding the right garage for our cruise terminal. Signage at Miami Port is severely lacking.

Finally parked in garage and walked across to ship and were onboard in about 15 minutes. going thru security was easy and there was a line of about 100 people waiting to check in. We stood in line and listened to some guy complaining that he was platinum and was supposed to have "priority" checkin.......just had to laugh:).

Arrived and had lunch at WJ and our rooms were ready by 1. Our room was quite small, outside on deck 7. Usually we cruise in a balcony, but we booked late and got the last outside room. Room was immaculate, room steward was outstanding always had fresh ice and the best towel animals every night!

We stayed onboard in Nassau and spent the day at the pool. Weather was cool and sunny, and breezy, but there were some hardy folks in the pool. Key West we did the Conch train tour.......had to see the changes from a visit a few years ago and we were glad to hear and see that KW was pretty much intact from the hurricane, most damage was a bit further north.

We had dinner most nights in the MDR and found the food to be pretty good, but the servers were great. The menus were pretty much the same every night, with only one or two entrees difference each night. Of course, they had the usual Shrimp cocktail, caesar salad apps every night, but escargot only one night (might have missed one night when we went to Chops), but the presentation of the food and the taste of each dish was definitely very good.

We had breakfast in Chops every morning and despite a limited menu we enjoyed the peace and quiet of Chops versus WJ. Again, service was very good.

Our visit to Havana was interesting. We had a great guide, she was about 30 and the mother of 3 year old twin girls, one of which had a heart condition. She filled us in on the medical care, surgery and medications for her daughter (all at no charge), but that was about as political as she got. The buildings in Havana range from beautiful to falling apart, and a lot of the streets were very dirty. However, the buildings they are renovating will be spectacular.

Our tour did no include lunch, but did include a trip to the marketplace, really a large flea market. Here there were many kiosks selling t shirts, rum, leather goods,

clothing of all types, and all kinds of other stuff. It was in a large warehouse area, and was about 6 blocks from the cruise terminal, so if you wanted to stay longer than the tour allowed, you could just walk back to the ship.

Once the tour was over you didn't have to reboard the ship, and you could walk around or find another tour (private) to do. Lots of old cars in great condition were available for a fee.

We found the crew and staff onboard Empress to be wonderful. Everyone we encountered went out of their way to be friendly and accommodating. To me the best thing about the ship was the fact that the casino was non smoking. I could enjoy the casino and not smell any smoke!

We would like to go back to Havana and have an overnight stop to see and experience the night life. Also would like to see some other Cuban ports, so may have to go on Azamara.

Our debarkation was moved from one terminal to another, but we had no trouble getting our luggage (we had tag #1, got off about 8:35), got thru US Customs very quickly, and were directed to the shuttle bus, which was a full size bus for us, and our porter brought our luggage right to the bus, we didn't have to carry it. The

port congestion (six ships in Miami on Sunday) was the reason for the change, but we didn't think it was a big deal. A bigger deal was trying to find our car:evilsmile:.

Arrived back home around noon time and already thinking about going to Cuba again, either on Empress on another vessel.

I hate auto correct don't know where "rubies" came from[emoji15].

Make sure you take gloves, an umbrella, a rain jacket and some warm stuff. I had a fleece jacket that I wore a lot. Comfy shoes are a must. Dress is casual on tour and on the ship. Lots of jeans, flannel shirts and sweatshirts. Even at night it was much more casual than a Caribbean cruise.

We have done 3 Alaska cruisetours and would do it again. Just relax and enjoy......if one of your stops is Talkeetna, the hotel royal uses has washers and dryers, for a fee, but that can cut down on what you need to take.

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Yes, if you can pack one for the tour and one for the. Rubies it is better. However, our experience has been that the other suitcase is available to you should you need it. We tagged one for the ship and it travelled with us under the bus, but if we needed it we only had to tell the tour director.

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We live in the Boston area. A few years ago we took a transatlantic cruise that left for Europe from Tampa, with the first stop being Boston. We spent a day or so in Tampa prior to the cruise. I planned on taking off a small suitcase with my warm weather clothes that I needed for Tampa, some laundry to be done at home (we live about 1/2 hour south of the port, so we are going home, doing laundry, and then reboarding for the transatlantic portion. We were not allowed to take the suitcase off, something to do with the fact that it was only a port of call, not a debarkation port. So, we went home, and picked up another suitcase with the stuff we needed for the transatlantic and we had to go through a hassle bring that garment bag onboard.....it was opened and searched. We were told it had something to do with Customs, as it was only a port of call. I know Guest Services called the Port Authority and tried to get permission for us to take off the suitcase, but they were denied, so our dirty clothes went to Europe with us and it cost us $100 extra to take the extra suitcase home.

Solarium does not have reserved seating for suite guests in the solarium or around the main pool. Solarium does get crowded. Main pool also gets crowded, and no bleacher seating at main pool.

Reserved theater seating is in the first couple of rows in the balcony. Other guests are allowed there 10 minutes before showtime, so if you want reserved seats, be there at least 15 minutes before the show. The reserved seats are OK, nothing special, IMO.

Chops has breakfast for suite and pinnacle guests and is open same hours as the main dining room. I believe there is no charge for suite guests for room service, but I'm not sure.

ski lady is spot on with her comments.

As regards the optional tours, we tried to find out for our cruise tour in June 2017, and were unsuccessful. My understanding is that the tours can change from week to week, depending upon the availability of the tour operators and the vendors involved. Even if someone did the same tour as you just before you, the optional tours could and probably would be different for each tour. I know that doesn't make it easy to plan, but you will be given a list of optional tours when you meet your tour guide, and you should have no problem booking what you want at that time.

We have done 3 different cruise tours in Alaska and would do another in a heartbeat. You will have a fabulous time, Alaska is gorgeous!

we just last week got off Serenade and were in 9078, and we have had that cabin about 10 times over the past few years (even when the library was there instead of 9077). It used to be noisy when the music was playing in the Centrum, and I seriously considered giving up that cabin, but the past two times the fire doors have been closed at 10 p.m. and they really deaden the noise once you are inside your room.

As for which way the door on 9077 opens, it opens into the hallway directly across from 9078, I think that is what you are asking, but I could be wrong.

Why do you believe that they would depart from their time-honored practice of releasing their next year itineraries before next Feb/Mar? That schedule seems to have satisfied them for the past decade or more and I can't believe that they feel any urgent need to depart from their normal schedule.

I believe you have to "requalify each cruise. Did you get a certificate for an offer of a free cruise or money off on your next cruise, if you book it within 30 days of the date on the certificate. If you did, you can book thru the number on the cert, pick a cruise and get either the cruise free or dollars off. You will then be a VIP on that cruise.

I have been given the sticker a number of times, and it has never carried over to the next cruise, unless I book using their Casino at sea program listed on the certificate.

Anyone ever stay at Ramada Plaza?

 

 

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Yes, 16 of us did in August. Room with parking and transportation to and from the per was $235 per night and $185 without the parking. Hotel was fine, shuttle to and from the pier took about 20

Minutes each way. Would stay there again, very convenient to the highway, restaurant was a typical hotel restaurant.

Cannot be booked directly with the hotel, must be booked thru

http://Www.trinityreservations.com

Rits

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Depending On the numbers, I have seen the concierge lounge limited to suites and pinnacles. On those cruises diamond and diamond plus have been limited to the diamond lounge.

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Thanks to Carol's recommendation , we stayed at the Ramada Inn in August and found it fine. Some had dinner, some had snacks and some had breakfast, and the food was fine, if a bit expensive. Since there were 16 of us traveling, the free shuttle and parking were great perks for us. I would definitely recommend trinity reservations (you have to book the Ramada package thru them) as they were very easy to deal with. The Ramada people were fine, the rooms were more than adequate, but the hotel could use a bit of updating in the hallways.

Given the price, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again.

Rita

Stayed last month at Ramada. Hotel was fine. Shuttle provided to transit station for those wanting to visit NYC. Shuttle to and from cruise terminal was excellent, thought the whole package was very good value. Including parking for 9 nights cost was $235 per room.

Considering parking at pier for 9 nights would have been around $180, hotel was a bargain.Cruise package can only be booked with trinity reservations, not directly with hotel but Trinity was very easy to work with. I would stay there again.

No need to give up your early reservations. Just go to the Coastal Kitchen on embarkation day and make a reservation for that night. If you like the menu, you can then make reservations for the rest of the days and just ask the concierge to cancel your main dining room reservations.

We only dined for dinner the first night in CK and had no issue with reservations. We didn't particularly care for the menu, so the rest of the nights we dined either in the MDR or a specialty. We had family onboard and they couldn't utilize CK, so sometimes we dined with them. The Maitre'd asked if we would like to have them join us in CK one night, be since there were 20 of them, we declined. However, we had breakfast in CK each morning and it was never full and we always had the same table.

If you want, you can always ask to see the dinner menu (breakfast menu doesn't change) and decide if you want to eat there that night.

They didn't serve champagne, Rita? Every one of my Anthem cruises has had champagne served at the M 'n' M.

Carol, I had forgotten that, but yes, they did serve champagne.:D

We were onboard this month and the Meet and Mingle was held in the music hall. One of the members of the activities staff was the Master of Ceremonies for the M&M, he gave lots of info and various prizes. The Cruise Director stopped by. They did ask where people came from, but there was not much "mingling", mostly just with the people in your seating area. It lasted about 1/2 hour, was pretty much the same as other M&M's. Much better than the one we did in June on Radiance where the activities staff member told us all about herself and not much else. In neither case did we get the paper pads and lanyards that we have gotten in the past.....not a big deal as we have so many of them, but for first timers it would have been nice.

Both M&M's had various prize drawings with the usual RCI stuff, water bottles, wine,

caps, etc. We won the backpack which contained lots of RCI stuff, and really came in handy in Labadee.....for a change DH could carry the beach stuff in the backpack and I didn't have to carry it in my beach bag! :)

Had a great burger and my DH had the fried chicken, which was enough for two. Burger was great. They told us the chicken would take a half hour and it did, but DH said it was worth the wait.

Great service for us but our daughter and her family went the next afternoon and had very poor service, took over an hour for the chicken and the waiter took my son in law's beer off the table before he finished it........not such a big deal as he had the drink package, just another irritant after waiting so long for the food.