twangster

Welcome to the message boards. How many are traveling? The Royal transfer is predictable and if you have lots of time a safe and easy way to go. With two or more people the Royal transfer can become more costly. With each additional person it becomes less and less attractive. I often do the self-assist option where I carry all my own luggage off the ship which allows me to disembark early in the process before long cab lines have formed.

Goldstar service became available today for the direct train on the 31st. So I've cancelled the train through Royal and I am booked Goldstar direct with the railroad. I'm glad I grabbed it while I could. Checking back and it looks like I got the last Goldstar seat. Only Adventure class tickets are available now.

There are two trains. Both trains simply get you to the cruise terminal. In both cases you need to check in for the cruise and get your seapass card in the cruise terminal.

Here is the Seward cruise terminal as seen once on board the ship. The train in this photo is the charter train booked through the cruise line. For a train booked direct, the Seward train station is 1/2 mile from the cruise terminal. In the upper left of this Google Earth screen shot you can see the Seward train station labeled "Alaskan Railroad Corporation" and toward the right the cruise terminal labelled "Dale R. Lindsey Intermodal Facility". You can see it's not a long walk at all and after sitting on a train for 4 hours it felt good to walk. In that port area to the right of the cruise terminal we saw a humpback whale feeding as soon I ventured onto my balcony while we were still tied up at the pier. Keep an eye out for wildlife.

I booked with Royal for my trip in a few weeks. That train stops very close to the cruise terminal but Goldstar wasn't available on it when I booked. I wanted to try it compared to direct. Here is the train station inside when you book direct. When you first get there you need to get your train tickets at the window toward the left. Do this as soon as you get there because lines will get long. Then it's just a matter of waiting until they open the doors to board the train. It's assigned seating so no need to be the first out the door.

Did you book direct with the railroad? If so, you have to go to the train station downtown, not the airport. The airport station is where the train picks up for the transfer charter booked through Royal. I booked direct with the railroad in 2017. My blog starts here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5211-alaska-recap-celebrity-millennium-june-2017/&do=findComment&comment=51827 I took my hotel shuttle to the train. Early wasn't a problem because my body clock was 2 hours earlier than local time. Once at the station they had a tent like structure outside where they accepted bags for the ship. At this point it was like arriving at a cruise terminal anywhere. Ship luggage tags on, hand them my bags, give them a few bucks and walk into the train station to check in and get my tickets. Luggage is actually put on a truck and driven to the ship. No sense wasting space on a train for luggage, they would rather add another passenger car. I never saw my luggage again until it was outside the cabin door on the ship. It's a small train station and will become packed later so I'd advise getting there early. There was a small store with train souvenirs. Not much else and it became pretty packed so I waited outside and watched the train pull up. In this Google Earth screen shot you can see the train station and a white tent building beside it where they collected luggage. Once you arrive in Seward you are approximately 1/2 mile from the ship and cruise terminal. They have free buses or you can walk like I did. Because you will never see your luggage until on board the ship, make sure all your cruise docs and passports are with you on the train, not in your checked bags, just like when arriving at a cruise terminal in Florida. Once at the Seward cruise terminal you check in and get your seapass card.

People abuse the system all the time. A former neighbor claimed support animal so he wouldn't have to pay pet rent. I drove him to pick up his puppy from the breeder. It wasn't trained at anything, it was a ten week old puppy. Sure enough though, he didn't have to pay pet fees. With the talk of more restrictions coming, a year later he signed up for a 4 hour session that provided a whimsical certificate so that he could argue the dog had received professional support animal training. It was basically a play session with other dogs or so he told me as he encouraged me to follow suit. There have been many incidents reported on trains, planes and ships where a claimed 'service' or 'support' animal bit someone or otherwise behaved inconsistent with a properly trained service animal. I imagine there is potential liability if another guest is injured by a fake service animal. Even if the risk of legal action against Royal is low (or the chance of winning a suit is low), it certainly will create a negative experience for a guest to be impacted and have their vacation ruined by a misbehaving fake service or support animal. Seeing someone else getting away with it may tempt more to try it. "Why not bring Fluffy?, they did". If Royal needs to lean on the ADA to support this change in policy, I'm all for it.

I'm glad they proactively provided notice, just curious though why it will take 7 days to reconfigure the system? Ship categories change often. On Ovation I'm booked in a J3 next year which right now is an FJ. Will they lock Ovation reservations for a week as that change occurs? I just noticed that their Ovation deck plans have a ~7 day gap between them: Quantum's deck plans change 12/29/18 to 1/3/19 yet the reservation lock is 8/13/18 - 8/20/18. Here is what you get if you try to access a Quantum reservation during the maintenance:

Getting a bite to eat (not always WJ) is often top of my list. Explore a little but I usually wait until cabins have opened to drop off my carry on and without having to drag that around then I explore. I know many people who do traditional dining find their table to make sure it will work for them. I tend to do MTD so this I skip this step.

While Labadee isn't known for jellyfish it is the ocean and like much of the mid to Southern Atlantic they can happen. Squid on the arm would be cool. I'm jealous!

Point of reference from Empress a few weeks ago. Kraken and diet Coke - $9.38 Kraken Lavaflow - $12.98 Gray Goose and Tonic - $11.74 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc - $14.16 (I asked for Kim but they had something equivalent) Corona - $9.03 All prices include gratuity.

I think that was exactly the strategy when they AMPED Mariner and immediately placed her into the 3/4 night FL short cruise market. Instead of having people experience the oldest and smallest ships as their first cruise as they test the waters on cheap short cruises, have them experience something that leaves them with a desire to cruise again, and again. If they later try NCL or Carnival in this same short cruise market, they will be left with a 'should have sailed Royal' moment.

Email sent to travel agents: Dear Travel Partner, We know your clients are eager to start planning their Quantum of the Seas sailing, but before they do, we have a quick update to share with them. Over the next few days we'll be conducting a system reconfiguration of our stateroom categories, which means they won't have access to their reservation from August 13th to August 20th. Rest assured, their stateroom location, dimensions, and amenities will remain the same. There is no action necessary on your part, but we are here to help or answer questions, should you have any questions please contact us at: [email protected] We can't wait to welcome you onboard the beautiful Quantum of the Seas for an amazing cruise vacation! Sincerely, Royal Caribbean International

Straws are low hanging fruit. Something easy to eliminate. Over the past 30+ years when I've been provided a straw in a drink (soda, water, cocktail, etc) I haven't used it. Frozen drinks excluded from that list, so eliminating straws is a no-brainier for me. Zero impact to me and they went into the trash unused with each drink I ordered. To draw the conclusion that to give up straws one should also give up everything industrial in life such as cruising, flying, cars, electricity, processed foods, and so on is hyperbole. I've stopped drinking from plastic water bottles at home. I still use them while traveling on occasion, including at sporting events and yes on cruise ships. You don't have to take everything to the extreme to have an impact. Humans do cause a lot of pollution. Many cities suffered terribly from smog issues decades ago. By putting restrictions in place and changing human behavior that smog has been reduced. Industrial cities in Asia are living this today, where North America was 40 years ago. Mass transit supporters often cite pollution reduction as a benefit but that isn't the primary driver for mass transit solutions. Building 30+ lane highways in all major cities isn't feasible just to handle the volume of cars with a single occupant inside. You simply can't build infrastructure big enough to avoid traffic jams without looking at means to more efficiently move tens of thousands of people. Emissions reductions is just a side benefit of mass transit. Electric cars simply move the problem to someone else's backyard. Generate electricity here and through a maze of transmission systems recharge your car hundred of miles away over there. Energy required to move a mass doesn't change because the car is electric. This is especially true where electricity is generated by coal but nuclear is no saint either. You are simply pushing the pollution somewhere else.

Great photos but I prefer container pictures.

Welcome to the message boards! The Cape Liberty terminal does not offer wifi that I have observed. Outside of the terminal cell service worked ok. Inside the terminal it was bad for AT&T and T-Mobile, Vz was marginal. However once outside (which happens very quickly after clearing customs) I was able to make calls and use data for all 3 cell providers. I always use Lyft/Uber there and usually have to call the driver to tell them the zone where I am waiting. You are not supposed to use your phone in the US customs area so you pretty much to wait until your are outside anyways so it isn't a huge issue.

Queue @Matt - he loves the Spaghetti Bolognese! So you survived a trip to the MDR sans Coastal Kitchen. I'm impressed.

Who knew straws could lead to such drastic measures. "We shall have straws or not cruise at all." LOL!

A well known storm chaser died on a Harmony full ship charter last year. Most ship charters don't have the draw to fill a ship that size so they tend to charter smaller ships (compared to OA class). RC isn't alone here, Carnival, NCL and Celebrity do them as well. Even an Azamara luxury cruise ship has been chartered. 99.9% of cruises operate normally.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycle is the last option and a far from perfect option. Tremendous energy is required to recycle plastics. If you want to call doing the right thing being PC, fine. It's very PC.

I have a phone that supports wifi calling and much of the time the plain Voom Surf level can be used for wifi phone calls. Facetime video will need Surf and Stream. Grandeur wifi, like many older ships, works okay but there are some weak wifi locations on the ship. Depending where your cabin is, wifi coverage in your cabin may not be perfect. Satellite internet isn't like home internet but it works most of the time. Heavy rain can weaken the satellite signal and slow down Voom. Given all that, Voom works better compared to the internet on most other cruise lines, just understand it won't be the same as internet on land.

Carnival tends to operate that way. I'm not sure if you get VIFP points as an American sailing out of Australia. If you are thinking about booking and that's important to you, make sure to ask.

Woohoo! Cruise day! Have a great cruise!

marinetraffic.com allows you to search by ship. Looks like Spirit left VLI and is heading to SYD.

For the same reason they charge the same for Voom across the fleet yet it's different experience depending on the ship. However to be fair, they don't claim Voom is O3b on all ships and they don't claim all have ships have Freestyle dispensers. Just be glad they don't charge for a 'premium' soda package (*available on select ships) versus a 'standard' soda package.