KaydenDeen

@MicDay I’m glad you’re here! The more information I have on Alaska the better! It just makes me MORE excited for this trip

Not sure when you might be going, but the Crab Boat Tour on the Aleutian Ballad is one of our absolute favorite excursions anywhere.  The ship was on Deadliest Catch and was later converted to an educational tour boat.  They take you to a nearby bay and feed eagles with frozen fish, so you can take pictures and then show you pre-caught live fish and sea life.  Everything is catch and released and eco friendly.  The Aleutian Ballad is docked right next to the cruise ship wharf.   If you have a choice, don't do like I did and leave your good camera on the cruise ship and take a "point and shoot" camera.  The point and shoot does not have a fast enough mechanism to catch the eagles grabbing the fish.  I got lots of blurry eagle pictures and pictures of eagle butts.

I think that The Quest game show is a little strange for newcomers who are not familiar with this tradition.  The first time I saw the show, a drunk contestant took off his pants during a challenge, but wasn’t wearing underwear. His back was to the audience, but he didn’t conceal things well while disrobing. I’m not easily shocked, but I was surprised. I don’t recall how Royal handled that situation, but the crowd went wild. I’ve seen the show one other time, but it wasn’t nearly as crazy as that experience.

Hi Nick. I think they are permitted. I found this link to something posted on this blog back in May…
Hope that helps

I just checked cruise planner and I GOT IT. Thanks to all that chimed in! 
 

I knew that was coming. LOL. 
Usually, I have better luck on my own. I have the time to do the research and I have an obsession (maybe an unhealthy obsession) with planning. As far as I’m concerned, this is half the fun of the trip.  I won’t rule out using a TA in the future. 

I just checked cruise planner and I GOT IT. Thanks to all that chimed in! 
 

I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL. 
 

I just checked cruise planner and I GOT IT. Thanks to all that chimed in! 
 

I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL. 
 

I’m hoping that my odds of winning a bid will go up on my Alaska cruise if the passenger count remains low.  I placed a bid for the first time and bid low. Either way, I’m going on an Alaskan cruise! There are no losers in the game I’m playing. 

I’m hoping that my odds of winning a bid will go up on my Alaska cruise if the passenger count remains low.  I placed a bid for the first time and bid low. Either way, I’m going on an Alaskan cruise! There are no losers in the game I’m playing. 

It's been 9 years, but on our cruise to Alaska, I had read a guidebook and we took a public bus to Totem Bight State Park. It was chilly and rainy at first (the sun came out later) so it was pretty much deserted on the bus and in the park - it was a cool place to visit and wander around in. I believe that we rode the bus back to town and did a little souvenir shopping, then walked back to the ship.  
We would love to return for a second cruise to Alaska, and since Sitka was not even an option, we'd love to go there.
Our favorite port had to be Skagway - we booked an independent tour. They took us on the Yukon Railway, then a minibus that went into Canada and we stopped to eat lunch and play with the Alaskan sled puppies (and dogs) at one training "farm." It was absolutely one of our top shore excursions.

I thought this was normal.. 

@SpeedNoodles
So I wasn’t the only cruise enthusiast that has seen naked people during The Quest

@SpeedNoodles
So I wasn’t the only cruise enthusiast that has seen naked people during The Quest

So, yeah ... The Quest.  When I was on Navigator in Dec 2019 with some girlfriends we were at The Quest when we got quite a show.  The task was "find a piercing".  Well, one guy had his junk pierced, he pulled down his pants, and the camera happened to be right on him.  So it wasn't just in full view, it was zoomed in upon and broadcast, lol.  

Roy@Matt
I was honored and surprised to be part of your video! Made my night. Thanks, Matt! 

I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL. 
 

I just checked cruise planner and I GOT IT. Thanks to all that chimed in! 
 

@KristiZ
Ooh! Thanks for the suggestion. I love a good cemetery! 

I agree with @AshleyDilloabout Ketchikan. The downtown area is nice and very walkable.  We had hoped to go to Totem Bight State Park, but it was a rainy day.  So we donned our rainjackets and trampled around town.
http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspunits/southeast/totembigshp.htm
We walked around Creek Street, tasting samples of smoked salmon along the way, and ended up on the Married Man's Trail, which took us up to a beautiful oversight of the area, plus Cape Fox Lodge and some totem poles to see:
https://ketchikannow.com/2015/09/married-mans-trail/\
We meandered back down the hillside, and ended up watching a guy fishing as the salmon were jumping upstream.  He caught a salmon on his line and we watched this fish literally jump and dance on the top of the river until it snapped his line.  It was amazing to see the strength of this fish, and the guy who lost his hook, looked over and yelled, "Did you see that?!?!" ?
We also went to the Totem Heritage Center.  It was a great way to pass the time during a heavier downpour:
https://www.experienceketchikan.com/totem-heritage-center.html
It was a great day.  ?

There’s a neat old Russian cemetery in Sitka. We walked up to it from the port and then spent a couple of hours wandering through the overgrown and forested site. It was really fun!

I just did a reprice for Oasis of the Sea for 9/26 sailing during the WOW sale.  There is a form you can fill out for the reprice but you need to have your sailing price without taxes and fees.  Which I did not seem to have so I called, very nice agent said that it was no problem and she could handle the reprice.  She told us that it could take up to 10 days for the credit to be APPROVED but usually it is not an issue.  We had the $314 OBC posted to our account in 48 hours.  

I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL.