6 days and counting

[OttawaJohn]

Until my wife and I board the Eclipse out of Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise. 

 

Since we cancelled our scheduled cruise in May of 2020 when this all first blew up, we've made and cancelled plans for 6 other trips. 

 

Finally, Air Canada willing, we are going on a real vacation for the first time in three years!

 

Cannot wait.  Heard a lot about Celebrity and looking forward to seeing how it rates as our first trip with them.

[mahdnc]

That is definitely good news for you.  I hope you come back a very happy camper.  We will get our first cruise "fix" since the pandemic in October. (89 days from now).  Cannot wait, either!

[boxkite]

16 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

Until my wife and I board the Eclipse out of Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise. 

 

Since we cancelled our scheduled cruise in May of 2020 when this all first blew up, we've made and cancelled plans for 6 other trips. 

 

Finally, Air Canada willing, we are going on a real vacation for the first time in three years!

 

Cannot wait.  Heard a lot about Celebrity and looking forward to seeing how it rates as our first trip with them.

 

OttawaJohn,

 

Good luck with your upcoming Alaska cruise!

 

We will be taking the same cruise on Eclipse out of Vancouver in August. It will be our fourth attempt to cruise Alaska as the first three were cancelled.

 

Celebrity is great and you should very much enjoy the cruise and of course Alaska!

[TraderSam]

How exciting! @OttawaJohn 

 

I hope you will consider doing a trip report as I am about to book the Eclipse for June 2023 and would love to hear about your experiences.

 

We have cruised to Alaska before but were on the Solstice from Seattle. This time, we are looking forward to cruising more of the Inside Passage.

 

I’m sure you are going to have a fabulous time.

 

 

Bon voyage!🛳

 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, OttawaJohn said:

Cannot wait.  Heard a lot about Celebrity and looking forward to seeing how it rates as our first trip with them.

Excited to follow along.    I am sure you will love getting back to sea. 

 

While I have no idea how much you enjoyed your first cruise I've noticed that the crew are really friendly and will go out of the way to make your cruise perfect.

[workstocruise]

Have a wonderful trip.  We leave this Saturday for Amsterdam to board the Apex for Iceland and Ireland and it will be our first cruise since Feb 2020.  We can’t wait either and we also have canceled 6 booked cruises due to Covid.  I will admit that this cruise has caused me some stress. We need to test negative on Saturday morning before we fly out, we are praying our luggage will arrive with us in Amsterdam, and that even though we are fully vaccinated and boosted, that we don’t get sick while on board. I wish the same for you. 
Celebrity, while not our favorite, is still one of the nicer Lines. I’m sure you will have a great time.

[Mimiya11]

I reluctantly agreed to go on an Alaskan cruise several years ago as it was on my husband's bucket list.  One of the best experiences. 

 

Some tips, which I suspect you already know - dress in layers, take excursions either through the ship or privately to see the beauty of Alaska or you will be stuck walking the ports and seeing only cruise owned crappy stores.   

Have a terrific time !  

Edited July 25, 2022 by Mimiya11

[OttawaJohn]

37 minutes ago, workstocruise said:

Have a wonderful trip.  We leave this Saturday for Amsterdam to board the Apex for Iceland and Ireland and it will be our first cruise since Feb 2020.  We can’t wait either and we also have canceled 6 booked cruises due to Covid.  I will admit that this cruise has caused me some stress. We need to test negative on Saturday morning before we fly out, we are praying our luggage will arrive with us in Amsterdam, and that even though we are fully vaccinated and boosted, that we don’t get sick while on board. I wish the same for you. 
Celebrity, while not our favorite, is still one of the nicer Lines. I’m sure you will have a great time.

 

I commented on this in another thread, and agree.  Counting down to a cruise should be a joy, not a sense of concern about what's to come.  Had issues getting my passport renewed but that's done now.  But still have to:

 

1-Test negative for Covid.

2-Have my flight take off.

 

Still, doing all we can.  Leaving first thing in the morning the day before.  Carry on luggage only.  And essentially are in isolation this week before we go, not going out except to get the test on Friday.

 

Then have to come home healthy!

 

I'm confident it will all work out.  But in the 70 odd trips I've done in the last 14 years, professional and personal, I've never felt so much anxiety about it all.  Really puts the damper on the joy sometimes.

 

But I'm choosing to believe it will be amazing and all work out!

[OttawaJohn]

36 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

I reluctantly agreed to go on an Alaskan cruise several years ago as it was on my husband's bucket list.  One of the best experiences. 

 

Some tips, which I suspect you already know - dress in layers, take excursions either through the ship or privately to see the beauty of Alaska or you will be stuck walking the ports and seeing only cruise owned crappy stores.   

Have a terrific time !  

 

Yes, though the 'dress in layers' is proving a challenge when we want to each just take a carry on!  Still, we think we have a plan to make it work.

 

Alaska looks gorgeous and we made sure to book through the ship for our excursions.  Two main ones, a Whale Watching out of the Icy Strait and a date with some sled dogs in Juneau 🙂

[Northern Aurora]

32 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

 

.......

 

Alaska looks gorgeous and we made sure to book through the ship for our excursions.  Two main ones, a Whale Watching out of the Icy Strait and a date with some sled dogs in Juneau 🙂

 

 

OOOOO -- whale watching at Icy Strait Point.  I certainly hope you have the experience we had last summer.  We had a great amount of non-refundable OBC so booked a whale watching excursion through the Millennium.  Ninety (yes -- 90) minutes of bubble feeding and total breaching.  

 

Hope all goes well and you test negative.  Bon voyage.

[Jim_Iain]

I have to say Whale Watching is a passion of ours and have done it a number of times. 

 

Last time we were tendered at Prince Rupert it was like on an excursion.   Whales were everywhere  and some breaching near the tender boats.   Never experienced that before or since but passengers were raving about it.   The Captain of course said he had arranged the show just for all of us.

[LGW59]

53 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

 

Yes, though the 'dress in layers' is proving a challenge when we want to each just take a carry on!  Still, we think we have a plan to make it work.

 

Alaska looks gorgeous and we made sure to book through the ship for our excursions.  Two main ones, a Whale Watching out of the Icy Strait and a date with some sled dogs in Juneau 🙂

This actually happened this weekend in Plymouth, MA on Cape Cod.

 

[upwarduk]

6 hours ago, OttawaJohn said:

I've never felt so much anxiety about it all.  Really puts the damper on the joy sometimes.

I agree. We hopefully sail on Saturday from Southampton, if we test negative on Thursday. 
Celebrity don’t help with the stress levels, constantly sending emails, asking me to add my vaccine status, which has been done and approved.😱

I’m getting to the point where I think this will be our last cruise, will all the IT that is demanded. At 80, I consider myself to be Tech savvy; how on earth do passengers who do not have smart phones cope?

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, upwarduk said:

I agree. We hopefully sail on Saturday from Southampton, if we test negative on Thursday. 
Celebrity don’t help with the stress levels, constantly sending emails, asking me to add my vaccine status, which has been done and approved.😱

I’m getting to the point where I think this will be our last cruise, will all the IT that is demanded. At 80, I consider myself to be Tech savvy; how on earth do passengers who do not have smart phones cope?

 

Good luck on the test.   You will be aboard shortly and all this pressure will be behind you.   One thing I've done in the past of stressing over the test is do a pre-test a day or 2 before.

 

Hope you will post  occasionally about your cruise.  

 

One member of your Cheering Squad. 

 

[OttawaJohn]

10 hours ago, upwarduk said:

I agree. We hopefully sail on Saturday from Southampton, if we test negative on Thursday. 
Celebrity don’t help with the stress levels, constantly sending emails, asking me to add my vaccine status, which has been done and approved.😱

I’m getting to the point where I think this will be our last cruise, will all the IT that is demanded. At 80, I consider myself to be Tech savvy; how on earth do passengers who do not have smart phones cope?

 

Having the same thing, I get 2-3 emails PER DAY telling me to update my stuff even though it's already done.

 

And I completely understand about the tech.  Hell, I'm an IT professional (in theory) and I'm trying to figure out ArriveCan and failing.

[Denny01]

18 hours ago, LGW59 said:

This actually happened this weekend in Plymouth, MA on Cape Cod.

 

East Coast whales are much more nasty and bad mannered than the very nice, calm West Coast whales……no reflection on people….of course!

 

den

[KnoxvilleSam]

3 hours ago, OttawaJohn said:

 

Having the same thing, I get 2-3 emails PER DAY telling me to update my stuff even though it's already done.

 

And I completely understand about the tech.  Hell, I'm an IT professional (in theory) and I'm trying to figure out ArriveCan and failing.

I’m certainly not an IT guy, but it’s strange to me that you can’t input your arrival date and time until EXACTLY 72 hours before arrival. I really don’t understand the logic of that restriction.