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Day 3 - Juneau We had a noon arrival scheduled so we spent the morning sailing up the channel towards Juneau enjoying rain wrapped mountains on both sides of the ship. The temperature in the mid-50s wasn't too bad but the light rain made it feel colder than it was. We joined a number of ships already in port including Radiance of the Seas and a Silverseas ship (Silver Spirit) at the main pier with a Seabourne ship at anchor (tendering). A Princess ship was in port. Our excursion would depart shortly after the ship's arrival in Juneau so we visited the Windjammer when they opened at 11am then got ready to depart as soon as we were given the all clear. Today we would be doing a two part excursion. The first part was whale watching by boat followed by a short hike in the rainforest to Mendenhall Glacier. We boarded a bus for a 20 minute ride to Auke Bay. Here we boarded the Navigator! No, not the Navigator of the Seas, but a small whale watching boat named Navigator. Before leaving the marina area we were treated to dozens or Bald Eagles sitting, flying, fishing and just hanging out all around us. Our guide tells us a lot of people get this next bird confused with something else but it is still a Bald Eagle, just a juvenile bird who will get it's white head after a few seasons. Captain Jen and our guide Jamie took us out away from land where we saw more Eagles. It didn't take long before Captain Jen spotted the first whale. This is apparently Sasha. Each whale has distinctive markings on their fluke and the boat carries a book with pictures of each fluke they use to identify them. Both our guide and Captain spend the winters in Hawaii and summer in Alaska following the whales. They breed and reproduce near Hawaii then migrate to Alaska each summer to feed. We zoomed off on a 20 minute boat ride to another area, listening to radio chatter from various other whale watching boats. In this next area the water is hundreds of feet deep and whales swim right next to the shore where it isn't shallow. The mountains rise hundreds of feet above us so you can imagine the steep, shear cliff walls plunging down underwater into the depths. There was a group of several whales swimming with each other, various spouts of water every time they came up for air. There must have been six or seven in close proximity. Possibly some juvenile whales and their family on their first trip to Alaska. There are many types of whale watching boats. This next one was similar to the size of boat I took last year. I spotted several Royal Caribbean jackets from the logo shop on board Explorer on this particular boat. It was likely another RC excursion. With only a dozen on our small boat it made for better viewing oportinities and being smaller and more agile Captain Jen was able to quickly maneuver us for the best photo angles.

After having been to Nachi Cocom in Cozumel twice and Maya Chan in Costa Maya once, I wanted to list the differences and similarities based on my experiences at both. These are only my impressions from my visits and are not definitive at all Entry and Getting There Entry Fees Nachi Cocom — $55 Maya Chan — $59 Transportation Nachi Cocom — from the International Pier, the cost is $17 each way for a taxi trip. Once the shops are navigated to the taxi stand, the trip takes about 20 minutes. Let them know when you want to return to the ship, and a taxi will be waiting. Costa Maya — once you exit the controlled shops and terminal area, the meeting spot is about two blocks away. The trip cost is included in the price and organized by the staff and takes 25-30 minutes on rough dirt roads south from Mahahual paralleling the coast. Return trips to the ship came in thirty minute increments starting at 1:30 for a 4:30 all on board time. The last taxi was scheduled at 3:30 and drops you off inside the controlled port area, which I liked better than the original pick up area. Clear Edge to Maya Chan when combining entry and transportation for the right number of people. It doesn’t favor Nachi Cocom cost-wise unless you have a large number of people and a bus. Total Cost for Two Adults Nachi Cocom — $144 Maya Chan — $118 Clear Edge to Maya Chan Greeting and Orientation Nachi Cocom — upon arrival, you are greeted by a staff member who takes pictures of you with a sombrero and then directs you to the cashier who takes your payment receipt. After a brief wait, you are introduced to your waiter who takes you to your palapa Maya Chan — when arriving at the meet up point outside of the port area which is fairly easy to find on the right next to a small convenience store, you are advised of the conditions and given the opportunity to cancel if there is a lot of seaweed in the beach. They have your name and number in your party on a list, check you off and match you with other guests for the trip which is usually in a 12 passenger van. A rep, for us, it was one of the American ex-pat owners gives a brief orientation. Edge to Maya Chan What’s Included (The Basics) Nachi Cocom — all food and beverages as well as access to all facilities. Your waiter brings anything you like to your palapa, or you can use the swim up bar in the pool or the restaurant area. Food is ordered off a fairly extensive menu. Beach toys are extra. Maya Chan — an attendant will bring an introductory rum punch and any other beverages you like. Other than chips, guac and salsa, food is buffet style in the small All beach toys are included. They range from water shoes, snorkeling gear, floating chairs and stand up paddle boards. Edge to Nachi Cocom (I don’t mind paying a little extra for a kayak or floating mat) The Facilities Nachi Cocom — there are two sets of bathrooms, a large outdoor seating area in the restaurant/bar, palapas that run two deep the full width of the property, which I am guessing is about 250 feet of water frontage. Each palapa has two chairs and a small table. There is a nice second bar on the beach. There is a small dock. The pool is great, and has a swim up bar which I love. There is also a hot tub. The beach is wide and clean. It’s easy to wade in with your floating device and a cold beverage. The restaurant is very nice and under shade, so even on the hottest days, is a great place to be. There are about 20 tables in the space. Maya Chan — palapas include 1-5 chairs and a beach bed which provided one of the best naps I’ve ever had. They are larger than what is available at Nachi Cocom. There was an unattended second bar behind the line of palapas. I am guessing there is about 150 feet of water frontage. There is no pool. The day I was there was not ideal, sadly, because a storm washed an unbelievable amount of seaweed ashore. It was quite staggering, actually. Three dedicated staff members were putting in huge efforts to clear paths to the water. Even then, when wading out, the seaweed was so thick, it wrapped around your legs for 10-15 feet until you reached clearer water. The bottom was rocky, though not as rocky as Adrenalin Beach at Labadee. Water shoes are a good idea. The restaurant/bar area is somewhat small and pleasant with about 8 tables. The cooking occurs right there, so you can enjoy the skilled cooking. Edge to Nachi Cocom Staff Nachi Cocom — absolutely fantastic. I had the same waiter both times, he remembered me. The bar tenders are quick and generous with the mixed drinks and the beers are cold. Maya Chan — absolutely fantastic. They are extra attentive to your needs yet they don’t pester you. I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Dan, one of the owners. Slight Edge to Maya Chan — Nachi is wonderful however Food and Beverage Nachi Cocom — I like the option to be served at a table or at your palapa. All tropical drinks I had were very good, and the beer was cold. The menu has numerous Mexican and some American selections. Maya Chan — The tropical drinks were very tasty and the beer was cold. Food was served buffet style and limited to assembling tacos using shredded skirt steak, chicken, sea bass (dripping in garlic butter — omg), and pork. All had Mexican seasoning and were fresh, plentiful and wonderful with all the fixings including really, really good guacamole. Edge to Nachi Cocom because of the style of servïce and variety. Quality at both were good. Edges to Nachi Cocom — 3 Maya Chan — 4 Conclusion Because I am happy with a cold beer on the beach to keep me happy, and the lower overall cost, I would give an edge to Maya Chan especially on a good beach day when the seaweed is gone. If I’m in the mood for a pool day and a swim up bar, I’ll pick Nachi Cocom and conclude the total extra cost is worth it knowing that I could have stayed at the port at Costa Maya and had swim up bar action all day if I wanted. Despite how the edges came out above, I think Nachi Cocom would win over in my book because of more variety. My daughter picks Nachi Cocom because she remembers that the drink portions are larger and the large menu. So I would say that for us, the more developed facilities and the food variety are weighed more heavily than some of the other categories. I would be curious to know what others who have been to both think. Maya Chan — hammock in the back of our palapa Maya Chan — raised observation tower great place to charge your phone Maya Chan — our palapa Maya Chan — our palapa Maya Chan — view from our palapa Maya Chan — buffet area in the left foreground, and the bar in the back this was taken upon entering for the first time Maya Chan — this is an example of an area of seaweed that was cleared the most. The thicker areas were unreal I waded through it several times, and it’s not bad if your mind is focused on the goal of getting to the other side. If you dwell on it, I will tell no lie, it’s pretty gross. If you don’t intend to go in the water on days when this happens, it won’t be an issue. Maya Chan — bar/restaurant from the beach Maya Chan — beach toys — note the mounds of seaweed Nachi Cocom — very nice beach Nachi Cocom — palapas on the beach Nachi Cocom Menu Nachi Cocom Bathroom Nachi Cocom pool and hot tub Nachi Cocom massage palapa Nachi Cocom secondary bathrooms and shower Nachi Cocom — secondary beach bar Nachi Cocom — pool with restaurant bar on the other side Nachi Cocom — swim up bar on the other side fro. The restaurant side bar. Nachi Cocom resultant seating

I don't think I could live long enough to care about a 3AM sunrise! Although Alaska is on our bucket list. Bald and juvenile eagles can be seen from time to time over the Manasquan Reservoir in New Jersey. Let me know if that makes you want to come here and we will make you feel welcome!?? @twangster --cannot say it enough...you are AWESOME!

Day 2 - cruising and Hubbard Glacier We slept great! Woke up early and had a latte from Cafe Latte-itudes before the 4 of us headed to the Windjammer for breakfast. Food was pretty good and then we headed back to the balcony to satisfy my need to see some birds. Saw some Surf Scoters and Tufted Puffins.... For lunch we went back to the Windjammer and then went to the front of the boat on Deck 12 to check out Hubbard Glacier. The captain does a great of explaining the glacier and the history of the area. Knowing that we would eventually see it again from our balcony we went back to our cabin and got some great views. The pictures just don't do it justice! As we started to pull out we got to watch a playful sea lion and got a so-so picture. Also caught a waterfall as we pulled away..... Captain said the trip up 2 days ago had a lot of fog so didn't have nearly as good a view as we had today.

Twangster is pretty specific about who he will adopt, from a previous post he only considers pinnacle+. And you know you would end up being his camera mule don't you.

Found this just now...she looks great! @KLAconQueso and @AGSLC5...if you read through, OP said that cabins were not refreshed.....

Starting August 3 Netflix airs their original movie Like Father starring Kristen Bell, Kelsey Grammer and Seth Rogen. Personally we are not Seth Rogen fans, but do like Kristen Bell. We have never sailed Harmony so for that reason alone, we'll watch it. https://www.netflix.com/title/80174897 https://youtu.be/_bfqsNh6U7c

Yes...I've heard the same....I just don't like the late, late sunset and the 3am sunrise! I told Hubby this is in the 10 year plan, lol so perhaps by then I won't feel the need to sleep as much! ?

The main takeaway from following your blogs and scopes so far....if we ever venture to Alaska (which Hubby says we will now after watching your scopes), I'll be booking an inside cabin because 1) there are way too many hours of daylight there 2) need to use the money for excursions instead. But then the balcony would give awesome views....Hmmm... Beautiful pics @twangster!

I'll be crossing my fingers as well, fellow Stubborn Canadian Scorpio ? (Woooo, we have a few things in common!)

Yep. RCL BINGO is pretty expensive but every once in a while you get lucky. Two cruises ago, I won the "Free Cruise for Two" final bingo of the cruise. I used that (with an upgrade I paid for) to get a nice nine day cruise to the Southern Caribbean this past January. Of course, I played bingo on that cruise and didn't win a thing - not even their little pull tabs. Oh well. You win some and lose a lot more!

Yup, the September 2017 RCB group cruise ? I think the cast and crew were onboard Harmony for several weeks, I’m looking forward to this film later this summer!

@Joe01, I also use the “Image Size” app on my iPhone before posting to the blog. Make the shorter dimension 900 pixels and you’re good to go; not a big image for bandwidth, but still very good resolution for live blogs. That app also has a basic text tool I use for watermarking, although big images like panoramics tend to make the app crash when editing the text. For those huge images, I’ll use the app “Snapseed” from Google; that app also has a bunch of nice tools that the stock photo apps don’t include, sort of a Photoshop/Lightroom Lite.

Food for thought on B2B - best B2B is final seasonal cruise followed by a repositioning cruise! Usually daily rate on repo cruise drops, sometimes dramatically. And staying in same cabin really makes great sense: your room attendant knows what you like, and you "hit the ground running".

Day 3 Morning - Entering Frederick Sound On our way for a noon arrival into Juneau we have entered Frederick Sound. Weather is typical Alaska weather, rainy and cold. Still very beautiful though. The mountains, even shrouded in clouds, have a beauty to them. We approached the Kake pilot station to pickup our local pilot who will stay on board for a few days and assist the bridge safely navigate. Here is the pilot in the bridge: Our progress so far... A lot of whales mostly in the distance. Some seals popped up close to the ship but they are fast it's hard to get pictures of them. Since we are doing a whale watching tour in Juneau later today I'm not spending a lot of effort trying to get many photos right now.

@twangster @JLMoran @CGTLH ? For periscope help @CruisingKat(Kathy) And have you joined the RC Periscopers FB group? That is run by @CruisingKat(Kathy) and you can also post your periscope questions there. Or PM Kathy. She's great with helping! Also get yourself added to the July Periscopers list so people will know you are scoping ?

LOL, I did the same thing! If that were me, I believe the last thing I would do is sign into a Blog to complain and ask questions. I think I would be raising holy hell at the port! LOL

I'm with Twangbot on this one. Even if I was inclined to buy a drinks package (which I am not) I don't think I could sustain it for 12 straight days. I would be a zombie by day 6.

Hi All! Like @Disneynorth we have a NE and E. Canada cruise coming up--over Labor Day weekend for us--with stops in Portland and Bar Harbor, ME, St John's, NB, and Halifax, NS. At this point we are not overly-intrigued by the RC excursions offered through cruise planner so far, but might consider taking one. Currently offered RC excursions are: Best of Portland & Kennebunkport, Arcadia National Park and Lobster Bake, and Best of Halifax. We will peruse Trip Advisor for tips on some port activities, but wanted to hear from others on any experiences with this itinerary that stood out for them, not necessarily for an RC excursion, but that would be good info as well. We are also looking forward to sailing on Adventure of the Seas on this cruise out of Bayonne with sail-away around NYC and near Statue of Liberty...and sampling some great beer in the port stops! Thanks for any feedback on what you liked best on cruising in the northeast!

Day 3 - Juneau, continued Part 2 - Mendenhall Glacier Part two of our tour brings us to a hike in the forest to the Mendenhall Glacier. You can drive closer but part of our Photo Safari included this 1 mile hike. Southeast Alaska has is home to some rain forests and is very lush. Our first peak at the glacier comes just before reaching the official visitors center. There is another hike you can take to the waterfall but that wasn't part of our plan today. Here is the visitors center. From here it is a short walk down to the lake. There are plenty of wildflowers in this area just to attest to how lush this part of Alaska is. There are small nature walks you can take. Part of this is an elevated boardwalk where you can sometimes catch a bear eating Salmon when they are running later in the summer. Here is the view of such a stream from the boardwalk. No bears today but our guide pointed out evidence of recent bear activity. Back to the port area here is Radiance of the Seas up close. Compared to the earlier photos you can see how it is cleared up a bit. It's hard to capture detail and sight of the mountains rising up above the ships. You have to see it. Here is Radiance pulling out just before we do. Finally our turn we pulled and started following Radiance to Skagway tomorrow. Here is the sunset at 10:30pm over Juneau as we sail South away.

I got the same email (except mine said estimated upcharge will be $500 ? ). The fine print at the bottom said they will call once and if you don't answer you are marked off the list and they go to the next person. I clicked add to list because it's not set in stone. If they call and offer me the upgrade (even at a cheaper than stated price) I can still decline if its not in a location I am happy with. We are already in a midship, but slightly closer to front, oceanview balcony stateroom that we got for $1633 total for my wife and I on a 7 night Oasis cruise on Sept. 9, 2018 that we are very pleased with. I did read on cruise critic that when the junior suite upgrade is presented and you accept it you do NOT get double crown and anchor points. Which would be my only reason to consider paying more for the upgrade. The list of perks is pretty small for junior suites. Pretty much a slightly larger balcony room. We once had an oceanview balcony on independence of the seas that was on the hump so it had a larger balcony. They now sell that same room as a junior suite. I would not have paid extra for it.

And apparently a really nice human too (according to @crzycatldy5) ?

Sounds like its time to open a cupcake shop. They are all the rage these days. Especially with her talent and creativity skills she seems to posses.

That is a high compliment @Skid!! Not sure if @twangster will think the same...?

Between her cruises, posts and tech help, I started calling @Lovetocruise2002 Twangster Jr!!!

Love this place! We've been there 3 times and never had a single complaint.

It's expensive, but a good way to kill a couple of hours. Great for rainy sea days.

We better be able to get in from Netflix Canada!

Yes!

Sorry folks but this last blog should have been under the customs for dummies. This is the second time I have done this recently. I guess I m losing it.

We love doing B2B cruises as we find just one is never enough! We always stay in the same stateroom as we book early enough to get the room we want. However, we have met many people who have changed staterooms and it is made very simple for them. I believe everything hanging in the wardrobe can be left there and the stateroom attendants will transfer it to the next room. So the amount of packing is substantially reduced. All of our B2Bs have had different itineraries, which has been great for variety, but I wouldn't totally discount doing the same itinerary on consecutive cruises. Our best B2B was a repositioning cruise on Explorer, starting from Sydney, going to Seattle, then going to British Columbia, then going to Alaska. It was well worth traveling right around the world to do.

You can either copy all (and have a backup), copy or move some, or move all. You just highlight and select. Jane

We had a busy sea day. There was a flurry of activities, all day long. We started with breakfast at the Windjammer and then walked the decks for a bit. It was very windy and cold as one would expect. We went to a lecture about Juneau which was a bit dry. Next up we went to the Cruise Critic meet up. Only 13 people of 27 showed up so most won prizes. I got to meet a fellow RCBlog follower there that I hadn't run into yet so it was fun. They had refreshment available. We ran over to Family Feud after that and it was packed. We had to stand in the back. We grabbed a bit of lunch and popped outside on deck 4 aft and found it to be more pleasant than our morning stroll. It was at that time we had our first whale sighting. They seemed to be surrounding us in the distance. We then went to the RCBlog Welcome Party where we met a few more from our group. The Flowrider was up and running after that so we went and watched a few crazy guys surf in the freezing cold. The Pub Crawl took place a little later. Annette warned the bars ahead of time so the would be prepared for us and I heard one bartender warn the next stop when we were heading out. The evening consisted of watching a movie, eating dinner and watching Finish That Lyric game show. I found that it was hard to see the mo e on the outside screen when it was light out. Tomorrow begins the port fun in Juneau.

Radiance, south bound with pre cruise land tour (8B). Land part was was essentially flying into Fairbanks and taking the train down to Anchorage. At that point we seperated from the land group and instead of taking a bus to Seward we booked last minute on the train. Did plenty of excursions, none booked with the ship for the cruise part. On the land tour did I think three.

We are staying in an ocean view cabin, number 3612. The window is quite large and the room size isn't too bad either. I asked Jacki York at MEI Travel to have them separate the beds. It was done before we arrived to the room. The configuration makes it seem roomier and makes looking out the window easier. I don't regret booking this one.

We arrived and our bags were outside our cabin. We moved bags in and then it was time for muster and then went to dinner. We had a 6:15 PM reservation for My Time Dining. While there was quite a line we got to our table in the Cascades dining room in a timely manner. We had the calamari and shrimp cocktail appetizers. Both were good though shrimp was small and only 4. We followed up with prime rib which was delicious and I had the pistachio ice cream for dessert which was very good. After dinner we roamed around the boat, unpacked, spent time on the balcony taking in the views as pulled out of Seward and then I made a donation at the casino at the blackjack table. We turned in pretty early with our 1st day of our 1st cruise under our belt. Again - this blog is priceless. I was answering people's questions and felt like I knew my way around enough to find most of the places. My sister-in-law and her husband were on the ship a few hours before us so they showed us around, too!

OK....resizing pictures with the upload.... Here's a few from our arrival at the Pier in Seward. The train drops you steps away. Because we took care of Sea Pass card and registration at the train depot we go right through the security building, only scanning our carry on bags after a quick check of Sea Pass cards and passports. We have a "spacious balcony", cabin 9064. Plenty of room for the 2 of us and we are spending a lot of time on the balcony. Ask for extra blankets as soon as you meet your cabin steward!

These blogs are a lifesaver! We had a Voom package for 2 devices. We connected 2 phones and then couldn't figure out how to delete a device so I could connect the laptop. I git a quick response here - go to your web browser and enter "logoff.com". And tada! I'm online with the laptop. Note that I have difficulty uploading pictures from the camera. Suspect it's Voom. As a result I'm not posting as many pictures right now... will post more when the upload works better.... So, since the last update we got on the bus from the Egan Center in downtown Anchorage to the airport/train depot and had a great train ride to Seward. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and the train slows down of some of the best ones. We saw 2 dall sheep, 3 moose but no bear.Waterfalls, lakes, rivers and glaciers abound! Here are some pictures I took from the train.

I need to go on a GC ? It looks like so much fun!! Love the elevator pic that was just posted on the RCPeriscopers page too!

That’s the film they were shooting when @Matt and a few others (@twangster?) were on board and even had a chance to be extras!

It is finally embarkation day. We started off at Biscuit Bitch a block over from the Moore Inn. I'm a simple gal so I got a Buttered Up Biscuit with maple peanut butter. It was pretty filling. We took an Uber to the cruise port. I had a code for a free first ride but didn't see anywhere to add the code. The ride was $10 plus tip. We chose to walk from the drop off point to the ship. It wasn't far. We checked out the Windjammer for lunch. We then went to the lava flow meet up where the bartender clearly did not anticipate making so many of the frozen Kraken drinks. He suspected correctly that a Caribbean cruiser was to blame. After muster we went to the spa raffle. Unfortunately a lot of people showed up and we did not win any prizes. The sail away party was a good time where we got to meet more group cruisers. It was fun today to see all the familiar shirts around the ship. It makes it feel like you have many friends. We got a little taste of the entertainment at the comedian's show. On the way out of the theater we stopped to listen to the piano player and stayed to see if our skills at music trivia were up to par. I should have jumped on a team. I knew the "hard one". It has been a other exhausting day. Thank goodness for a sea day tomorrow.

Exactly ..... which makes me suspicious of the post to begin with. I notice @SPS sort of got the same vibe.

We are traveling on a budget so I decided to ride the Lite Rail to the hotel. You have to do quite a bit of walking to get to it from the airport so it is not a good option for people with limited mobility. It did just cost us $3 a person though and took around 45 minutes to get to the Moore Inn where we are staying. It was also a bit of a hike from the train station to the hotel too. I was glad it wasn't too hot today. The Moore is a neat historic building with a theater at street level. It is basic though. There is no air conditioning so we get a lot of street noise from having the windows open. I like this place though. There are even euro rooms with a shared bathroom if you want to go really budget but we weren't that cheap.

I love reading the different perspectives of the same cruise. Everyone has their unique experiences and it will be fun to follow along!

I wonder if anyone would notice if I were to use this as my silhouette in my sig line... As a seeeeeenior gold C&A member, I get first dibs on my oar and window.

We always stopped every night ay vintages pre dinner and ordered the next glass right away. It usually came with the entree...it takes a very long time sometimes! Though a couple years ago the wine steward saw I had a 2nd glass every dinner and just brought it right away without swiping... it saved him a bunch of time! Jane

Yes, the Chef’s Table includes 5 wines that are paired with the various courses. At least in my case, we were allowed to have extra glasses of our favorites from the meal at no extra charge, as long as we had them before we left the meal. Absolutely! Alex covered all the key points. Only thing I’ll add is that they take your SeaPass card for scanning when you order, even if the per-glass price falls within the drink package limit. Other thing to note is that it might take a fair while for it to show up, so you may want to get a glass of something from a Vintages and bring that with you into the MDR to have while you wait.

Sure can. Some wines are available by the glass, but others only by bottle, which would obviously incur a cost if you were using the drink package. There appears to be 1 or 2 wines of each type (pink noir, merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio etc.) that fall at $13 or less mark at most restaurants. To be clear though I don’t think any specialty restaurants include wine in the cover charge. Maybe Chefs Table?

Hi All! My wife and I would love to hear from any members on what they enjoyed most about sailing on Adventure of the Seas and/or taking in a Maine and eastern Canada itinerary. We have not cruised on Voyager Class before, but our excitement is mounting for a cruise on Adventure over Labor Day weekend this year, including the sail-away from Bayonne around Manhattan and near the Statue of Liberty--fingers will be crossed for good weather to view NYC during sail-away. Adventure also looks big enough to offer a great range of onboard entertainment and dining, which we both enjoy, but will give us a nice change in experience from our last cruise, which was on Oasis. We also posted a more port-specific inquiry on the excursions board. Thanks for any comments on what stood out for you about the ship or cruising the northeast!

Welcome to the boards. I like doing something private with my family of 6. I typically book a private guide but I don't know what they would have for that area...I look at Trip Advisor for that. I thinking having some type of private tour is the way to go with that many kids. Matt's blog post about Private Journeys was very intriguing and would make me look into it. I don't know at what point you need to book it vs get info from it but I would explore the idea. I have never booked it myself but I would consider it on our next cruise.