Slow sailing threads

I've never been on a cruise when the Roll Call thread started so slowly!! We sail August 29 from Seattle and we only have about 4 regular responders with 10 total responders! How can we get this going? I have never been to Seattle or Alaska, and the Rhapsody is a new ship for me. Help!!

Could be a few things;

A) Lots of seniors on your cruise who don't know what a computer is

B) People on your cruise haven't heard of CC (yes, there are many)

C)Your fellow cruisers are active outdoorsy people who don't want to sit in front of a computer and visit message boards.

D) It's still pretty early

Be patient and have a great cruise! We did Rhapsody out of Seattle in 2011 and it was a blast! It did rain every day but we went in September and it is a rain forest after all.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend the White Pass train.

Could be a few things;

 

A) Lots of seniors on your cruise who don't know what a computer is

B) People on your cruise haven't heard of CC (yes, there are many)

C)Your fellow cruisers are active outdoorsy people who don't want to sit in front of a computer and visit message boards.

D) It's still pretty early

 

Be patient and have a great cruise! We did Rhapsody out of Seattle in 2011 and it was a blast! It did rain every day but we went in September and it is a rain forest after all.

 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend the White Pass train.

Thank you for the encouraging comments! I am considering the White Pass RR. Did you book it yourself or through the cruise line?

Thank you for the encouraging comments! I am considering the White Pass RR. Did you book it yourself or through the cruise line?

We booked it directly with WYPR and went right to Whitehorse, Yukon. It was definitely cheaper than booking with the cruise line. We will never forget it.

Our Alaska cruise was the same way.

I did the ship tour for the railroad and it was good. Really enjoyed it!

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To the OP.

Yup our sailing thread is very slow, It is like I am talking to myself (I am).

I keep posting so others can find it, then I realize they should have found it by now.

Only couple families.

Maybe it will get better with all these 'VORTEX, AND WINTER STORMS, people will be indoors with nother else better to do.

Wish us luck

Sea You

Another option is to use the search function and read all the topics on Alaska from previous cruisers that have sailed or been to these areas.

Also check the Alaska area under the Port if Calls. There is a wealth of info one can find with a little digging.

We are going in June on the Radiance and most of what I have been curious about I have found using the above suggestions.

Have a great trip!!!

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It is odd how they differ from cruise to cruise. We are booked on a B2B in OCT and NOV this year. First roll call is dead like yours, second is real active. :confused:

It is odd how they differ from cruise to cruise. We are booked on a B2B in OCT and NOV this year. First roll call is dead like yours, second is real active. :confused:

It is very unpredictable. I posted a similar response on another thread with the same concerns, but I started our July '14 Grandeur roll call and to date there are only about 5 people on it with at total of 34 posts. By comparison, we are on a roll call for an October '14 Freedom cruise that was started in April with dozens of people on it and and 1467 posts to date.

I'm sure as you get closer to your sailing date it will pick up. But it is true that only a very small percentage of cruisers are part of CC and only some of them join the roll calls.

Alaska is a cruise many people do as new cruisers, or the only cruise they ever take. They may not have heard of CC, and therefore don't know that a roll call exists. Caribbean cruises are more often populated by people who like cruising and have cruised before, so those roll calls are often more active. I'd say the age thing plays a part- I've been trying to get involved in the river cruising boards, and I just think the demo is too old, so there aren't too many postings over there.

I vote yes on the railway too. It's an amazing trip! You can book it through the ship, but the "station" is right there on the dock, so you can walk off the ship and buy your tickets. Beware that the cruise ships may have booked out a lot of the popular times, so you may have fewer choices, so if there isn't a big price difference, you might as well book through the CL. Unless things have changed, you just get the tix in your cabin ahead of time and you leave the ship at the appointed time and present yourself at the station- it's not like there is a tour guide or anything like that.

I've never been on a cruise when the Roll Call thread started so slowly!! We sail August 29 from Seattle and we only have about 4 regular responders with 10 total responders! How can we get this going? I have never been to Seattle or Alaska, and the Rhapsody is a new ship for me. Help!!

You'll be on the very last Alaska run for the Rhapsody before it repositions forever away from our West Coast... I wonder if therre will be any special events for you?

You'll be getting off in Vancouver... if you've never visited here, be sure to save at least one day (definitely not enough) to stay overnight and enjoy this city. You will regret it if you don't once you sail-in to port.

I did this exact cruise and itinerary last year. This ship stops in Ketchikan rather than Victoria which is great. Be sure to look up "Bering Sea Crab Fishing" excursions (I think they're called that). You sail on the exact trauler (refurbished to fit visitors), with some original crew, of the 2nd season of "Dangerous Catch" TV show. Google this excursion and read reviews on TripAdvisor. I had a supremely great day and very highly rated as a top Alaskan port excursion.

If you have a chance, open your wallet and take a helicopter up to actually land and walk on the Glaciers... I cannot explain it in words, and videos don't do the trick either. At first I thought the money was really too much, but I closed my eyes and did it... I will do it again in a heart beat:)

I don't have time right now, but I will post a couple of photos later today or tomorrow to really get you amped up :p

Hi Cardamon,

On our Rhapsody Alaska cruise, May 2010, the Roll Call was really slow. We didn't get the 25 persons signed up for the M&M either. For the ones that did post, we had our own M&M. We each brought a little something from where we were from and had a good time getting to know each other.

Julie

I don't have time right now, but I will post a couple of photos later today or tomorrow to really get you amped up :p

As promised....

I originally booked the full Dog Sled plus glacier landing privately (you cannot get both combined off the ship for some reason) but weather prevented us flying to the very top where the dogs are. So at least we got to do 1/2 of the excursion and land/walk on the Glacier. Note, the weather was not ideal this day for flying, and I understand this company had the most experienced pilots (two other companies did not fly that day so I would have missed this). These pics do not do this trip justice, everyone should do this at least once in their lifetime

The Helicopter Glacier trip was out of Juneau... the following are a full day tour bus trip using FrontierTours. You can book them inline or find their office on the main drag about 1 block up from the Saloon. The bud tour bade a ton of stops that the train doesn't, and went farther than Carcross. Here's a couple of pics:

And here's Emerald Lake in Yukon, the farhest point we reached on this tour.

Here's the ship the morning we sailed into Tracey Arm Fjord

We did not get to reach the Glacier aslate into the season there were too many ice flows. The pictures does not do this justice... tey can be as large as cars underneath the surface

You cannot believe what you see when sailing out of Tracey Arm... the water was smoother than glass, absolutely still. The imagery of the sub and reflection of the clouds and mountains into the water are breath taking!

These pics are from my handheld simple digital camera on auto-settings.

This was my favorite day of the entire trip. Google this boat "The Aleutian Ballad". It was almost destroyed by a rogue wave several years ago during filming of the Dangerous Catch TV series. The same owner still owns the ship, and the crew sailed on the various boats that made the show during the years. What an excellent day... I have about a hundred photos I could share! We held all the creatures also (except for the wolf eel.... dangerous!!!). Various crabs (Snow, hermit, dungeoness), starfish, eels, we even got to see octupuss close up from their cage which had crawled in. They also fed eagles who flew in from the trees toward the ship and dove into the water right in front of us. Read some reviews of this excursion and also on Tripadvisor. I HIGHLY recommend this

Lastly, earlier season cruises will likely get within a kilometer of the glacier when sailing into the fjords. In 2010, I was again on the Rhapsody... Tracey Arm at that time was closed to us do to ice, but we travelled down another fjord (I can't remember the name) and our view of the morning was the following:

And after the spinning in place for a couple of hours while they served coffee+baileys top deck here's the view as we pull away:

Magical!!!!

And lastly... While videoing a pod of humpack whales in the distance from deck 5 alongside a few hundred others, all of a sudden there was screamming and shouting... this small family (3 were seen, 1 baby) of Killer whales appeared right below us swimming alongside the ship!!! I was filming video at the time and I am able to snap stills, but of course in my excitement and trying to move the camera, etc... this is the best picture I got. My video is much better! I tell you what, just an awesome day. Half the crew was out there with there cameras also

Here's another set of photos back up for anyone trying to view them. These ones were down almost immediately after I posted them :)

These are so good!