My wife had no desire to go to Alaska. Some friends convinced her to do it. While sitting in the airport, she said she would love to do it again.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Sign up for early embarkation. You can come late, but don’t come early. We were on the ship 15 minutes after we got off the shuttle.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Only ate in windjammer and MDR. If you travel RCCL a lot, you will recognize the menus. There are a couple things that are not good. When the menu says “buttered corn”, it is really frozen 1/2 corn on the cob. They char them on a grill, and they are not edible. Very dry. They would be better off with frozen corn (of the cob), with butter. Service was exceptionally good. We were a table of 11 family members and interacted a lot with servers and head waiter.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
There were great amenities. We plaid foosball and ping pong. People signed up to play pickleball, and there were bumper cars as well. Nice pools, and hot tubs were large and hot.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Quality of the shows was great, but I thought the show “Sequins and Feathers” was a 45 minute pole dancing show. Not appropriate for children by any means. The show in 270 was similarly risqué.
Children's Programs
No kids
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Top notch. Really really good.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
It was a new design we had never been on. It feels more like a resort hotel than a cruise ship. No real view of the ocean unless you are on the top decks. To be fair, this ship was designed for cold weather cruising. It is kinda fun to sit in a hot tub when it’s 50 degrees and spitting rain.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Bed super comfy, room very clean, and our room steward (Made’) was very good. Showers are bigger than any other ship I have been on. Lots of outlets to plug in phones.
Ship tip
Pay attention to the maps. Also, on the map, the Diamond Lounge is called the Golden lounge. Unlike the Explorer of the seas, it has no outside area.
We went a few days early. We did go to Pike’s Market. It has been about 15 years since I have been there, and probably won’t go back. The “Instagram”generation has decided it’s the place to show off. People were waiting in line for an hour to get coffee at Starbucks, just for the picture. The town is dirty, the homeless population is out of control, as is open drug use.
No excursion. Salmon were running, and the science center had outdoor viewing areas to watch salmon jump the ladders. Walked thru the “Totem Pole” national park. The forest was amazing. When we got to the Indian River, I felt like I was in a National Geographic video. Thousands of salmon fighting their way up stream. You could walk right down to the water.
We did the ship excursion of the White River railroad. You must do this. I think if I were to do it again, I would have done the train up, and the bus down. They stopped and got put for pictures. SO MANY WATERFALLS! We probably saw more than 50 waterfalls. Our friends did the train, but they bought in Sitka for $70 less. We tried to book direct, but it was shown as sold out. There were lots of seats available. Also, they will tell you it is 1 1/2 miles to town from port. We measured it at .45 miles. You don’t need to pay for the shuttle unless you can’t walk.
We spent $60 for the trolly to Mendenhall Glacier. You could do city bus for much less, but it would be a long uphill walk to the visitor center, (1 1/2 miles) and then another mile to Nugget falls. It was raining, so we chose to spend the money to save time. We didn’t go whale watching. I had seen whales from my balcony, and Nugget Falls was epic. We could hear it more than a mile away. We had lunch at Tracy’s Crab Shack. We spent $165 for lunch for the two of us. Worth every penny. We budgeted for this. We could have spent less, but we got two lbs of king crab, a cup of crab chowder (YUM), four mini crab cakes. The wait was only about 10 minutes. I would probably stand in line for an hour to do again. I think it would be amazing to wake up every morning and see the 1000 ft long waterfalls coming down the mountains.
We tried to buy a whale watching trip at fisherman’s wharf. Because we didn’t dock until 3 pm, there were only 2 companies doing afternoon cruises, and they were sold out. Victoria has another city full of homeless people, and addicts sitting on the streets begging for more drug money. While we were having supper by the bay, someone broke the windows out of a car in the parking lot to snatch a bag. Police showed up on bikes to investigate. There was another guy shooting up near there while we were eating supper. Red Fish, Blue Fish had amazing fish and chips though.
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