Juneau

It is another early docking but we are not in a real rush to get off and head to the International Dining room for breakfast.  We had a great meal and got to speak with Irma again.  Need a high protein diet so that we have the energy this am for our hike.

Hey and guess what we turn on the morning show and our Jasper Moosejaw is on again.  He is comfortable with Brett.  Guess he is in good hands.

We head ashore just after 9 am and walk towards town and the main bus depot.  We are planning on taking local transit to the Mendenhall Glacier, but I did notice that the price for the local shuttles to the Glacier have gone up considerably.  They are now at $8 each way per person.  Still a reasonable cost considering the ship charges $40 per person and you only get a short time at the glacier.  But since we promote transit as transit drivers we decided to take transit.  The cost is $2 per person each way but you should be aware that the bus drops you about 1.5 miles from the visitor center.  But it is level and an easy walk.

We catch the 10:05 bus, you can take either the #3 or #4 bus and it takes about 45 minutes.  Note you can also take these same buses to Costco and the mall.  We arrive at the visitor center around 11:20 after walking in.  Oh and boy oh boy is it HOT, and I mean HOT.  When we dressed we both decided to wear pants and long sleeve t shirts, and we dragged along jackets.  In the end we were so hot we wish we would of worn t shirts and shorts and forget about the jacket.

We take the Trail of Time (about half a mile) to the East Glacier Trail and start heading up.  According to their info the East Glacier Trail is a 3 mile loop that is challenging with rocks, gravel and stairs.  It is definitely for those that are physically fit.  We don’t come across too many people but a few and a few tours.  We later read up on the Princess tours and the tour to the glacier with a guided trail hike that we did is $99 per person.  Our cost was $4 each person, but unguided.

We loved the hike, we had great views of the Glaciers and the mountains.  We didn’t see any bears but there were warnings.  We did see quite a few birds, a squirrel and a few eagles.  When we took a short hike up Nugget Falls trail we came across some bear scat and decided we would stick to the East Glacier Trail.

We went up to the lookout point and sat there for a bit drinking our water we brought.

this was our rest stop

In all the trail we took, took about 2 hours to do but we did it rather fast as we hike a lot.  We made our way back to the Visitor Center where you can enter for a $3 fee and learn more about the Glacier.  I encourage you to go as we learned a lot here and the guides were very helpful.

Bernie decided to head down to the Steep Creek Trail which is easy and I wanted to head to Nugget falls to take some pictures.  Even though it was later in the day we noticed there are quite a few people here.  A lot of the local high school students are here after school, or maybe they are skipping school.  They are enjoying the water.  Yes they are swimming, in fact a lot of people are swimming.  They told me it was nice but I think I will pass.

We walk back to the main road to catch the bus back to town.  It was very nice riding the bus and chatting with many of the locals.  A great experience I would highly recommend.

We get off at the Federal Building because we had heard of a great sushi restaurant that is right across the street from the Federal Building.  We had great sushi, but they also have some Chinese food items too.

We walk back to the pier, about 30 minutes and get back on board.  I did glance over at the table after the security screening and yes they were taking note of wine/alcohol brought on and they were charging the $15 corkage fee for those bringing wine on.

Back in the cabin and we are relaxing our bodies.  We are sore after about 18 km of walking (around 11 miles).

We are going to meet Peter for drinks in Wheelhouse around 9:30 and then we are going to go and see the Production Show “Do You Wanna Dance”.  It will be an early night.

A link to Mendenhall Glacier site  http://www.fs.usda.gov/tongass/

Friday and I am Feeling Lazy

Oh I feel lazy today!  Bernie decides to head out to get breakfast in the Solarium buffet again.  I take my time getting ready.

For my breakfast I go to the Park Cafe and have a breakfast burrito and take it down to Starbucks where I meet up with Bernie.

It is noisy on the Promenade though as Zumba is going on, again the crowds doing the zumba cause a bit of a traffic jam as others try to maneuver past them to the other venues on the Promenade. 

Bernie goes back to the cabin to read.  I head up on higher decks to see the ocean and read.  It is very very windy out.  Lots of people are out getting their last chance of some sun.

I also go out with my camera to get more shots.  I come across the Captain giving his talk in the Opus Theatre.  It started with a very well done professional video showing the behind the scenes like the crew area, engine room, bridge.  I like the video and especially liked that the Captain was the one that offered commentary throughout the video.  After the video he took questions and that lasted for 45 minutes.  That impressed me, he was very personable and funny.

I head up to the Windjammer for a small bite to eat at around 2 pm and it was busy but definitely not crazy.  Food was good but definitely not great.

I am back in the cabin and I need a nap.  Now we were suppose to see the show Come Fly With Me at 5 pm but we are too tired and the nap wins out.  Of course one down fall of being overly scheduled with shows and dinners is you sometimes have to forgo a nap or a show for every one's sanity.  I would of loved to have seen the show, I heard great things about it, but again this trip was just all consuming with events planned.

Oh in our cabin was a paper survey.  Surprised since RCI seems so much more tech savvy and they do everything else has been done electronically which impressed me they still are in the dark ages when it comes to surveys.  I am surprised we don't get an email with a survey attached or at least the option.  We fill it out and have to drop it off at guest services. 

We also got our luggage tags.  A few days into the cruise we were given a form asking us what time we would like to get off at, and we selected 9 am.  But today when we were given our luggage tags it was set for 10:15.  Again why ask if you aren't going to give us the time we request anyways.  Now sure I could of gone and gotten earlier tags, and many people did but after discussing it we agreed that 10:15 would be fine as we are only going to a hotel anyways. 

Dinner tonight is one of my highlights that I was looking forward to.  Tonight's dinner is at 150 Central Park.

We are sat at a quiet table and we are given the choice of color napkin, white or black.... okay I pick black and Bernie picks white - that is a first.

Then we are asked if we want their signature Martini which sounded great so we each get it.  Yes it was darn good, but we later see it was a $15 Martini for each one!  I figured it would of been more in line with other Martini prices on board, maybe a bit more but no.... okay we drank $30 and it was just a glass.  I would definitely pass on this the next time.

We order a bottle of our wine from our wine package, although the wine pairing option looks good too and our waiter worked very hard trying to get us to get the wine pairing.  When I said we had one bottle left in our package, he said you could take it home with you, or you could get one of the pairings.  We said no again and I think he finally got the hint... again more up sell.

We start with a roast vegetable appetizer.   Butternut squash then a wonderful salmon dish (our favorite of the meal).  Then a serving of pork, which was our least favorite and didn't finish.  To the final main which was lamb.  I am not a huge fan of lamb but Bernie loved it. 

We loved the variety of salts at the table and the bread was very good too.  The chocolate dessert was also to die for and small amount of salt on it only intensified the flavours.

We are presented with a personalized menu to keep as a souvenir - actually I was waiting for him to say here you go and that will be an added $5 for the personalize menu but no it was free.

The waiter then comes and brings us the chef's cookbook and asks to look at it and also the wine decanter (which has been pushed on us at every meal) and then comes back and asks if we would like to purchase them.  Sadly this last part put a real damper on a top notch meal.  It made the whole experience kind of cheap.  Another sales push and after we had spent money on the specialty meal and that pricey drink. 

Our evening here was the best all week.  Service was the best also.  Our waiter was very attentive and informative explaining each course.  We are glad we decided to do it on the last night so we left with on a high note.  I would highly recommend dining at 150 Central Park on your cruise, but don't bring kids (they will get bored very very easily), and forgo the martini.

Also one thing we noticed, other waiters helped each other here.  Other waiters cleared and severed our food even if it wasn't in their section.  This is the first time we have seen this all week, and something we are use to.  Glad to see it here.

We decided to tip extra and that shows how impressed we were about the whole experience.

We return to the cabin to change and pack up the last of our clothes and put our bags out.  The halls are full of bags and they don't start collecting them until after midnight for some reason.  Which really created a lot of noise and hard to maneuver down the hallways.  Wonder why they can't pick up the bags throughout the night as people put out.

We head to Schooners to meet up with Fran and Curt for one last drink together.  It was lovely seeing them again and getting to know them better. They are a lovely couple.

Sadly the bar staff have a hard time with Bernie drink of vodka, soda and lime cordial.  The first attempt is just lime juice we ask for them to put some lime cordial in the glass.  The second attempt is some red liqueur added to it.  Finally the third attempt is done right.  Now I will say the lounge was noisy and they may of had a hard time hearing.

The next morning we take our time and we head to get breakfast in the Solarium Buffet and after reviewing our bill we see the only error was late last night in Schooners.  Bernie was charged for his drink twice and only a minute apart.  I guess when they remade the drink they charged him again.  We went to the Guest Services and was impressed to see lots of staff addressing issues and we were dealt with efficiently and it was corrected no questions asked.  Something we sometimes have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt with Princess that we did not make that charge to the point that they have to go thru each bill from that venue to find.  Every time we have had an error it has been corrected but it is often a pain.  This time it was very smooth and easy, way to go Oasis.

We hang out in the Solarium until around 10 am and then make our way to the Opus Theater and sit for about 10 minutes when our number was called.

Oasis has disembarkation down pat!  I always thought Princess' was good but nope, Oasis was much much smoother.  There were almost 80 numbers and the first few numbers were off very early like around 7 am.  The screens throughout the ship identify what numbers have been called so you just have to hang out and relax and then proceed to either the Theater or the dining room just before your scheduled departure.  Once we were called there were no stairs involved, no long walks thru crowded corridors, no elevators just a flat walk to one of the two gangways and then you are on shore.  We quickly found our bags (thanks again to huge signs identifying your number) and then thru customs to a waiting taxi all within 15 minutes.  This is probably the smoothest disembarkation we have every experienced.

My next report will be a final summary and comparison.

What we think so far about Oasis the Pros and Cons

As many of you know we are booked to sail on Oasis of the Seas in December.  Why do a blog now about it, well I wanted to share how it has been preparing for a cruise on the 2nd largest cruise ship in the world, yup Allure is just a smidgen bigger.  And also to sail a cruise line I have never sailed on after sailing over 30 times with Princess.

First off I should explain why we are even sailing another line other than Princess.  Reason:  Vickie wanted to sail Oasis or Allure.  I am laughing cause really when I first mentioned this to my lovely accommodating husband Bernie a few years ago he said "no way".  So I know every wife is wanting to know "how did you change his mind?"  Well it started that we had a weeks vacation scheduled for December (on our job we schedule our vacation in October for the entire following year) and there is no way to change that week's time so I started to peek at what was available. 

When I found this cruise it was selling for $750 for the week in an inside cabin.  I quickly checked airfare and saw we could get airfare return from Seattle for $300 so after showing this to Bernie, and him knowing how much I wanted to try it he said "YES". 

So after booking I knew I was needing to learn EVERYTHING about Royal Caribbean and my days were then spent doing just that. 

I joined the Cruise Critic Roll call and there was already a great group there and they were so welcoming and helpful with my numerous questions.  They also set up a facebook group and I joined that and put faces to names.

A month prior to the cruise I was checking prices and noticed that prices for Boardwalk and Central Park Balcony Cabins had gone down.  In fact we could upgrade for no price and $20 for a bit better cabin.  Heck we jumped on that.  We now have a cabin on deck 12 facing Central Park. 

I am excited to check it out, the cabin looks lovely.  I see that it has a couch which with Princess you only get a chair.  But I will miss that extra space at the closet that gives you a bit more privacy that cabins on Princess have.

big closet/storage and privacy on Princess ship

I want to now write on what my experience has been with RCI and where I see differences with Princess.

Pros:

• RCI has an amazing website with so much more on it than with Princess.  We were able to book our dining reservations, specialty restaurants' package, book show reservations, wine packages, soda packages, gifts & services.  Their site has numerous videos explaining so much including: dining options, the entertainment options, ports, spas, all areas of the ship.  They have menus for pretty much every restaurant including the main dining room.  Princess has some options, but really you still need to print out an order form and fax it to them if you wish to order a gift!  Really!

• Wine Package is available and explained very clearly on their website.  Princess now has a wine package but it is only available on ten days or longer; however we didn't have it on our last b2b cruises.

 

 

• You can prereserve your shows.  It is nice to know we have shows reserved and will definitely get to see them.

•  You can pre sign waivers for the flow rider, zip line, ice skating, and rock climbing wall

• Their electronic documents were sent to my email and when you open it is a lovely 36 page colored document (that you can print out if you wish) that is totally personalized and included our cabin, our pre reserved items including our specialty restaurant package, our one Main Dining Room reservations.  Shore Excursions would also show up if we had booked them.  It felt really.... nice... made me feel special.

• Specialty Restaurant Package:  we booked a package that including dining at Chops (their steak house) Giovanis (their Italian restaurant) and 150 Central Park (fancy fancy foo foo place) for a total price of $65 per person which was a savings of $25.  The one thing is we have to dine at Giovanis on the first night (reservation is made) but we can't book the other two until we get on board.

• RCI organizes the Cruise Critic meet and greet and offers prizes and snacks.  Princess could certainly do this for the good public relations it would give. 

• Originally this was going to be a con, but recently RCI changed their policy on bringing wine on board.  Currently you can bring two bottles of wine or champagne per cabin to consume in your cabin.  If you take to a public venue corkage fee is $25 per bottle!  A little high compared to Princess' $15 per bottle.  Way to go RCI for this. 

• They have a Starbucks on board.  Okay this might just be a pro for me and other addicts, but it is a definitely pro to me.

Cons:

• First and foremost we will really miss all of our Elite perks with Princess (free laundry, mini bar, Internet etc), our loyalty credit $50 now, and our stock holder benefit ($100).  But RCI has a loyalty program (but you have to sign up for it, whereas Princess is automatic) and their loyalty program is definately not as good as Princess' (mini bar, internet, loyalty credit, special disembarkation lounge, priority tendering, free afternoon tea in the cabin, laundry, suite toilitries).

• With RCI you get to book everything ahead of time but you also have to pay for it ahead of time!  So we had to pay for our dining package.

Chops

• Since we chose My Time Dining we had to prepay our tips.  We have never had a problem paying the tips and much prefer to have it automatically added to our bill as oppose to the way it use to be where we had to pay out the tips at the end of the cruise.  But we don't like that we had to pay the tips when booking and them having our money ahead of time.

• Even though I loved their website (but I am very tech savvy) it would be confusing to someone who is just into checking email/surfing the web.  To print out the luggage tag you have to open your e document booklet, select the page the luggage tags are on and print out just that page however many tags you need.  I loved it, but most of my family if they were sailing would be calling me to say "Vickie how do I print this".  I also found that when you went into your reservation it was a bit cumbersome and a little difficult to surf around it to find what you needed, again for someone who is tech savvy no problem, but anyone else I imagine some frustration and a lot of cruisers' kids would have to do it.

 

• Reserving shows.... I know I know, it was also on my pro side, but when I go on vacation I want to rest.  I don't want to end my vacation in need of a restful vacation when I go back to work.  Right now I feel my week is scheduled too much and I hate being so scheduled (too much like work).  I do love that with Princess the major shows are repeated a few times a night and often another day too so I have many options to see it.  Along with many other evening options that I can choose on the day of depending on my night and what we want to do. 

• It appears that there are a lot of things we have to pay for that we don't have to on Princess.  Princess only has two specialty restaurants and all other venues are free.  Whereas the Oasis of the Seas has numerous added fee venues, sure we can manage to eat at all the free venues but my point is I don't want to have to feel like "oh can't eat here cause it isn't free" whereas on Princess it is very clear everything dining venue is free unless you actually book Sabatinis or Crown Grill.

• The cabin looks great but I have recently found out that the only toiletries that are offered are soap and shampoo.  With Princess I get soap, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and lotion.

• I have also just found out that we can't access our cabin on embarkation day until 1 pm.  Although I have experienced this on other lines (Carnival) I like that with Princess we get to access our cabins right away.  But it truly is not a big deal as we don't normally board until around 1-2 pm.

I am so excited about trying out a new thing.... and meeting my new sailing mates.  And guess what now Bernie is excited too.

Stay tuned.  I will not be doing a live blog as we don't want to spend the money on the Internet packages on board, but I will  be keeping a journal of our experience and sharing it with all of you.