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Hello ChatGPT, nice to see you again.

Best of Sitka continues... OMG I SAW BEARS!!!! Okay I'm regular now. We brought a few gifts because the money supports the raptors.....our justification for spending . Anyway we got about an hour to spend there meeting all the Injured birds. I mean I don't fool with birds but I love the cute owls from a distance. We got back on the bus, Mike our driver was funny and friendly. He took us to the bear fortress. It was the shortest tour, about 30min. The had brown and black bears. One was trying to dig a hole out. One was shaking and a girl was making a TikTok about the bear "twerking" it was funny. The vintages were a smidge scared of the bears . It was a very short tour and with 8min to spare the vintages sent us to the little food truck for $9 popcorn that they throughly enjoyed. We then took our bus back to the national park/Totem place. We saw zombie salmon which was disgusting and then did the Totem trail. We had an hour here. With our photo ops and such it took us about 30min to do the trail and then we spent 15min in the Visitors center. It was pouring rain when we left. Even our driver was shocked by the heaviness of it. It was around 2 and our driver offered us the option of getting off downtown and catching a shuttle back. The vintages vetoed that and we stayed on back to the ship.

But did they enjoy feeding the bears? Also, that bear all splayed out on a log resembles me after a full dinner in the MDR. Truth.

Sitka, the Best of Sitka. The first stop was the raptor clinic. The vintages kept asking when we were going to see raptors. Despite the guide telling us there was 6 kinds of raptors there. It was informational and fun. Lots of owls, falcons and eagles spotted. I thought they were cute and Robin thought I was weird for thinking so.

That bear reminded me so much of my fur baby.

Windjammer for breakfast. And I must say, this comfort food is truly scrumpteous! And it is somewhat less crowded today.

BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i showed my dad and he was so sad because all he wanted to see was bears on their trip too but they didn’t. i love the one sprawled out and then the shot with you and it was in the background I love the bears!!!!!!

Sitka.... We went to Starwater...... It was pure tomfoolery. Like cats and the book were partying together and somehow committed a murder. I didn't dislike it but I definitely didn't love it. My brother said the story was about a powerful goddess who was discovering emotions from her worshippers......it seem to make sense. The goddess was beautiful and probably had the best voice I have ever heard on any Royal ship. Robin didn't make the show or dinner. She was wore out from the excursion. So much that her and MB have decided they want to cancel the other excursions they have. They have one goal, to get an Alaskan charm for their Pandora bracelets. So there are shenanigans and I will get around to mentioning when I am not so tired. Alaskan is less leisurely than expected . Anyway tonight was a taste of Asia and I wasn't impressed.

We were starving and the plan was to get lunch in port. I tried to explain it would be only one restaurant at the port by the ship but they said we can eat there. We get there and it is $15 for a cup of chowder and $17 for just a burger and no fries. MB is not having this......as she shouldn't. But it's 10min before the WJ closes, so we book it. I try a few desserts but end up getting chicken satay from Splash Away Cafe. It was delicious . We went back to the room to put up our stuff and get dry. We then filled out our Canadian customs forms. We took ours to guest services and got 2 for the vintages because they messed them up. It was close to 5,so we lleft the room to go to the library but went to the CL instead. We have Starwater at 7. My brother needed to answer some emails, and I needed to do this. It hasn't been full in here no evening. I plan to go in the morning and see if that's when it pops. Tonight is taste of Italy and that lemon tart is what I'm looking forward to most.

Kia ora koutou! Long time lurker, first time live blogger! I have read most if your blogs over the past year or two, gaining tips and tricks that you truly can't find anywhere else (as well as hilarious anecdotes.) I finally thought I should repay the favour and since we're doing a route that hasn't been blogged about it a long time, hopefully it may be of some inspiration! Who? Myself (Morgan, early thirties, stock standard millenial) & my mum (Carolyn, boomer set on spending my inheritance on travelling together! ) We live about as far apart as a mum and daughter can - she's back in my hometown in New Jersey and I've been living in New Zealand for the past 6 years! We only started cruising once I graduated from college and now usually go once a year-ish. We are destination cruisers - other than a 4 night trip to the Bahamas, we have never cruised the Caribbean! Because of this, we also have mainly been on Radiance class ships. What? We will be doing the 14 night Panamal Canal transit from LA to New Orleans on Brilliance of the Seas. We always have pretty limited options as I am a teacher and fit our trips in around my school breaks. Luckily, my principal has signed off on 3 extra days of leave so we will get some time in NOLA after the cruise. Day 1: Fly to LA (the time difference means I land before I left!) Day 2: Embarkation Day 3: Sea Day Day 4: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Day 5: Sea Day Day 6: Sea Day Day 7: Huatulco, Mexico Day 8: Sea Day Day 9: Sea Day Day 10: Sea Day Day 11: Sea Day - Panama Canal Transit Day 12: Cartagena, Colombia Day 13: Sea Day Day 14: Sea Day Day 15: Sea Day Day 16: Disembark in New Orleans Day 17-18: New Orleans Day 19/21: Fly back to Auckland (lose a day in the process so arrive 2 days later at 5 am and head straight to work!) I know this is a pretty unique itinerary, so please feel free to ask any questions! I am unfortunately not usually a shenanigans magnet, but will try to keep my eyes peeled. (The 14 nighter people are usually a bit quieter!)

@Ampurp85 I SEE A BEACH! Time to break out the sunscreen and swimwear - ready for an Alaskan tan!

Yep, that's where we wound up dog sledding up on a mountain glacier after the one we originally booked for Girdwood was cancelled during our pre-cruise land portion due to bad weather. I have nothing to compare it to and we had to go through Royal due to the last minute booking (which cost us some extra $ of course) but the company they used was great and we weren't going to skip it since it was a special trip and we didn't know if we'd ever do it again so we were channeling Sabrina's YOLO attitude and my frugality was temporarily suspended.

The Solarium ... other than passing through, one time, on a different ship, I've spent no time. I visited the Solarum yesterday on Quantum, and I was surprised again hiw expansive it is. The view from that area is also quite great.

Cruise planner closes tonight! It is getting super real! I have one more shopping stop at Target for a prescription and toiletries. Then cleaning the house and packing! We aren't going to visit with our friends on Saturday after all so we are going to leave home mid-morning and get down to the hotel by Newark in the afternoon. We will go into Manhattan for dinner but still unsure if we will go to the Comedy Cellar or a musical. Luggage tags printed Passports taken out of the safe Packing list made Laundry done MTD, Entertainment, and excursions booked Trivia, activities, and random events onboard "liked" in the app _ Packing _ Cleaning _ Self-Care primping

I pick random machines most of the time and have had some success. The best gameplan in a casino for me is no gameplan. The big piggies are deceptive as the RNG dictates the pop. Skinny piggy can become fat exploding piggy in a single spin while big fat piggy can happily watch you spin for hours. Good luck

We have been moved from deck 4 to deck 3 in main dining. Seems to me from my new view, the 3rd floor is somewhat more elegant. Plus we are closer to a sea view. Oh... our new servers were quite good. And our steak tonight was our best MDR meal of this cruise

Probably removed the surge protected language because no one in baggage screening had any idea how to identify one vs the other. Now just blanket language forbidding any item that turns one 120V plug into multiple 120V plugs.

The ability to actually use the provided hair dryer at the vanity with the provided outlets.

I'm still waiting on that digital diary to upload . I'm dressed and waiting to head down to my meeting spot. We went to the WJ as soon as it opened today and the line was to the deck. I love how people were rushing to eat before their 7am excursion. I let two groups in front of me because I had time but man it was a mess. I only got fruit. I took a photo of ONE of the five plates my brother ate. A lady fell, rushing, in the WJ. She hurt herself really bad. Thankfully we are in port do she can go to the hospital. I hope she ends up okay. The coastline of Skagway is gorgeous. I saw several helicopter excursions take off from my balcony. I should mention I am solo. My brother's excursion starts at noon and we plan to meet up for lunch. I will check in with the vintages but they might still be down for the count.

I would think an officer would decline a tip. BUT who knows. I wouldn't even put them in the position, just use that for extra toward the crew..

Skagway, Day 4 .. Wow. The slide is cleaned up, but that was a lot of material.

Day 4 Skagway. It was beautiful when we docked and now it is raining. My excursion is at 10:30, so hopefully it won't be raining then. This weather is truly a mixed bag. Stray observations as I wait for my digital diary to load. The crew is really new. I haven't seen much cleaning around the ship. Also, room stewards seem to be MIA. The vintages say they have yet to meet theirs.................despite napping in the room a lot. I have seen ours twice. TV was stuck on the shopping channel since the first night and we saw him yesterday and he fixed it. Crew members all have different ideas about everything. Nobody knows anything apparently. We asked about the Canadian customs forms and got 6 different answers from 3 crew members. Guest service for the win. The bathrooms seem to be the source of shenanigans. Twice I have gone in to naked women changing, and countless times of women not closing the bathroom door and using it. Specialty dining must not be popping. We have had a crew member pestering us at all the lunches we have attended. Best deal was 50% and BOGO at Jamie's yesterday. This morning in the WJ it was 40% and BOGO for Chops. More children than expected on board. Seeing tiny little Sorel boot struggle over rocks is a sight......especially since they probably just learned to walk. We saw several little boots left behind, until the parents realized they were barefooted. Communication and reading seems to be nonexistent. An excursion was cancelled. They called the rooms and was telling people when they met up. But people weren't looking at messages or meeting in the appropriate area. Then proceeded to curse out the shore excursion team.

Happy belated birthday @OCSC Mike. We have good Asian food in Chicago and I think Izumi does a good job with Japanese food but the taste of Asia night was really lackluster. Even my brother was disappointed. He said the best thing was the vegan spring rolls......which is saying a lot.

Reps are notorious for not knowing what is included with Star Class. As far as a "good deal", there are so many factors to consider. I just go by if I can do it, we do it. If we cannot, we skip it and go to Sky.

What a great day in Sitka! We were too early for bears but saw lots of birds and plants and the totems. My vintages-in-law ate at the port restaurant and they felt the food was fine but not worth it so you didn't miss much by going to the WJ. We skipped Asian night. Alaska is definitely different vibes from Caribbean/hot weather cruises. Reminded us much more like Mediterranean than Caribbean. You also are on a much larger ship with more bells and whistles and more to do than our Vision/Radiance class ships. I was a bit bored on Brilliance but the scenery makes up for it!

The CS rep gave you bad gauge. SC still includes the dining and beverage packages.

Well, yes and no. The only Asian fare I had was the Tom Yum soup. I also ordered the shrimp cocktail, so I asked for only a half serving of the soup. It was quite good.

This is what we do, too

He was my favorite, too !

i do not tangle with birds and their talons i love the pic of you and your brother before dinner last night (actually unsure if it’s before dinner???) stray observations: - what in the world is with the diapers??? - my lord the motion is A LOT - i forgot to mention this earlier, but i loved seeing all the evian water bottles. - the vintages continue to vintage - i am team cheese roll, so i am glad to see you at least are getting your roll of choice. - i echo @SweetPea - that shirt is hilarious

Pre-cruise - Flights The beauty of embarking in Los Angeles is that we can both take direct flights! I will be flying Air New Zealand from Auckland, leaving 8:15 pm on Friday night here only to arrive at about 1 pm on Friday in LA. Mum has a direct flight from EWR that arrives roughly the same time. From there, we will get an Uber or Lyft together. Pre-cruise Hotel We are staying 1 night at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbour. When looking at it, it seemed there were really two main choices, this or the Doubletree San Pedro. I was very tempted by the cookies but we like to walk to port when we can and the Crowne Plaza is less than a mile walk. When we arrive, I have one goal and one goal only - find some decent Mexican food. This is always my first mission when getting back to the US. (Yes, I realise I can get Mexican food while in Mexico this cruise but you can never have too much and there is very limited options while in New Zealand.) Pre-cruise Purchases The Key: When booking, we noticed we had a tender port so got The Key for priority tendering. To us, this is the main benefit and I would not likely consider it on any itinerary that had no tenders. We had it during our NE/Canada cruise and were able to skip straight to the front of the immigration processes which was amazing. When we purchased, it was on sale for just $2 more a day than internet. So essentially, for $28 each we got priority tendering and a calm lunch on embarkation day. I think that's about what it's worth. Dining: We are usually very happy with the MDR, and UDP is wasted on Radiance class as there are not heaps of options. But 14 nights is a lot, and I don't love every MDR menu. So we have booked dinner at Chops and Izumi and a lunch at GT. When I booked there was a very strange sale so even if I had booked 3 nights at Chops, it was cheaper than the 3 night dining package (I did double check the gratuity situation in my cart, and still cheaper!) I guestimated days though, but without knowing the order of the menus will likely have to go and swap them around when we get on board. Excursions: This is where I dropped the ball. Usually I am exceptionally organised and have these sorted months ahead. However, I just finished them yesterday, with 10 days to go. Cabo San Lucas: Cabo Luxury Day Sailing, which we booked through Royal. We usually don't anymore but we don't get in until the afternoon and most places I looked at went out in the morning. This is also the only day we're in port with another decent sized ship - Navigator. Huatulco: Huatulco Walking Food Tour. Originally I had a cooking class booked but it was cancelled so this is the next best thing and it probably what I'm looking forward to most! Puntarenas: Zipline Canopy & Crocodile Safari. We went to Costa Rica about 10 years ago and loved it and did some zip lining. Happy to do it again and is about mum's limit for adventure activities Cartagena: Private Tour. Both mum and I speak reasonable French, but no Spanish so a guide seemed like the best option to get an in depth look at the city. It was pretty reasonably priced. Post-Cruise Plans Hotel: We are staying at The Roosevelt for three nights. It came recommended by a family friend that spends a good portion of the year down there. Other: I've booked us a cooking class, a walking tour of the French Quarter, dinner at GW Fins, and a visit to the Sazerac House. I've also got two friends that live down there so need to fit in some time to catch up with them! I've got one week of school left until the term finishes, so need to push through and find some packing time as well!

And back at the ship, our ship dwarfs the Eurodam.

Adventure was our first ship back in 2002 and we fell in love with cruising on her. We just sailed her again this past July, and we had a great time. You have to go in with the right expectations. She's older, without the bells and whistles of the big ships. There are shows, but they are not big and splashy like Oasis class or Icon Class. You have to be ok with visiting the WJ. But the crew is great, and it takes you back a bit to what many loved about cruising in the first place.

While the mattress protector may look/feel like a sheet, there's a liquid repellent barrier under the fabric layer. We've used protectors for as long as we've owned bedding. Protection against liquids and effective protection against dust mites inhabiting the mattress fabric. After doing the all access tour and seeing the laundry operation, the automatic bed linen folder really makes short work of the flat sheets. Never dismantled our bed on a ship and I flop around like a boated tuna at night.

Update: Monos II arrived yesterday! Seriously, if you want to invest in luggage that withstands pretty much everything and does a great job with maximizing space, I definitely recommend Monos. Everyone seems to be an Away fan, but my heart belongs Monos. Bag on the left is brand new, bag on the right has been to Timbuktu and back with me (not really, but you get the idea).

A friendly reminder to Hoppy2BHere that I would appreciate you returning Wonder on time and intact for my cruise.

Never tried this menu (obviously not to be found on my generic Caribbean itineraries) but I’m not too surprised. I had my bday dinner 2 weeks ago at a local Asian buffet that we hadn’t been to in years b/c I wanted unlimited sushi (it’s freshly made & kept cold) & they also have cook-to-order hibachi for my wife. It was really good, including the hot items sitting out. I think I’d sooner just try Chinese food from WJ like I do Indian. Of course, it might not be great there either.

The vintages tried feeding the bears because of course they almost fell in . But yes she was my favorite, laid out like my fur baby does. The vintages distracted me and I missed when her sister and brother came and was messing with the logs.

Another way to increase the number of outlets you can use in your stateroom is to buy a European power adapter in addition to what others have already posted. I have a multi USB charger and I also have European power adapters so we can use any power outlet in our stateroom instead of only being able to use the US power outlets.

i love the tiny towel animal!!!

It’s nice to be old. 2 iPhones & 1 Fitbit. Hubby’s phone will live in the safe all week, my Fitbit goes 5 days on a charge, my phone won’t get much, if any, use. A few pictures & a couple calls home to check on family. Anybody need extra plugs can use mine!

^^This^^

I have one of the now banned plug in "cubes". In 4 cruises, didn't need it at all on Wonder, found it unplugged from an outlet on Jewel. I think the cabin stewards are drilled on this issue. On Wonder I left a 110v charger plugged in at the desk, was unplugged on our return. On Mariner, returned from a shore day and found our toothbrush charger unplugged. No harm no foul, the brush was fully charged. I understand and appreciate their vigilance. Can't imagine a ship fire is a lot of fun......

Today was Sitka. We were unable to get an excursion, so we did the walk around. Surprising to me, Sitka has a relatively large shopping district.

Just like @OCSC Mike, life/work stress has kept me from following along the way I normally like to. I am glad you made it there safely, and that you are still sane with the vintages lol. The rest of the week looks to be more calm so hopefully I can stay more "live" with your trip!

Day 3 Sitka They delivered a Chef's amenity and it wasn't appearing at all. Got our first towel animal. We hung a tag for continental breakfast outside our door last night. It was to be scheduled 6:30-7 and at 6:47 we got a call he was on his way....only for him to knock on the door as soon as we hung up. We are currently watching the ship edge into Sitka, it is lightly raining.

I have sea legs but this 60+ knot winds are killing me. I nearly flew away leaving the puzzle break. Which was a little harder than the one on Wonder......but fun nonetheless. I met @WAYNO who was super nice. We chatted about the casino taking our hard earned cash So on the way back from puzzle break I saw several diapers just sitting outside the cabins.....is this how they are disposed??? I don't have children but this doesn't seem like protocol. We brought binoculars and I spend 20min or so looking out. I saw a shark! It was so cool.

We were bored and tired late in the cruise, and enjoyed relaxing in our cabin and vedging out on some movies. Sometimes, I like to do nothing when I am so busy doing nothing...