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DocLC

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Everything posted by DocLC

  1. I agree with Bryce G. I am price conscious and often book interior unless an ocean view or balcony are only $100 or so more per person as my family does use our balcony nearly as much as we use to when my son was younger. However, in Alaska, you miss out on a lot of scenery without a balcony and you're going to fight your way for rail space when viewing the glaciers. It was also nice to have a room to retreat to. We also ordered room service to enjoy when visiting Glacier Bay.
  2. No Izumi (the sushi restaurant)? The sheer number of times you've eaten there should place it in your Top 5. :)
  3. I've done Alaska twice on two different lines from Seattle. It's a great trip and one of my favorite itineraries in all of my cruises. Canada/New England would be a close second, which I've also done twice. The scenery is amazing and the glacier viewing is something that I think everyone needs to experience at least once in their lives. Seattle is a great city, as is Vancouver, but Seattle is easier and much more affordable to fly into. The downside, though, is that you'll likely sail outside of Vancouver Island. As a result, your "Inside Passage" cruise is significantly truncated as a result as you don't cut into the Inside Passage until after you're past Vancouver Island. From Vancouver, you're always in the inside passage. Also, depending on the ship and itinerary, you may have a very late night port of call in Victoria for the required foreign port stop, which doesn't really give you a lot of time to enjoy the beautiful city. If I had to do it over again, I'd fly into Seattle and take the train or the shuttle services, some run by the cruise lines, to Vancouver to get the full Inside Passage experience and to reduce costs compared to flying in. However, there's a lack of convenience as a result. In addition, the cruises I've priced out of Vancouver have always been more expensive than out of Seattle. Let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer.
  4. I've never done the laundry bag for fear that they'll boil the laundry in scalding hot water. However, with fewer and fewer ships having self-service laundries, I'm going to need to rely on the discount bag.
  5. It would only be shameless if you were plugging yourself. ;)
  6. We did the equivalent package on Celebrity and figured we'd only break even at best as it was a port intensive (7 ports in 7 days) cruise. However, I figured the convenience and having it paid for upfront would be worth it. In the end, we really saw the value in it. I would start with fresh squeezed orange juice and a sugar free vanilla latte in the morning, have an ice-blended coffee when we returned, a couples of bottles of water on excursions, a soda or two with dinner, cappuccino with dessert, and a nonalcoholic cocktail with the show. In the end, it more than paid off. We're doing the same on the Jewel this January on another port intensive cruise. I'll consider it for our European cruise, too, if it's offered as I hear they raise the bar prices when the ships are in Europe.
  7. I've actually been one to do laundry on a cruise a couple of times as we had an extended precruise trip and needed to do essentials. Fortunately, that ship had a laundromat. I'm glad to hear that RCI does the discounted bag of laundry as we'll be needing to use it next summer. Thanks for the info and for asking the question.
  8. If you're not getting enough of Matt on the blog, the discussion boards, or through the podcast, check out this week's episode of The Weekend Travel Show. Doug Parker interviews Matt regarding the Quantum of the Seas and Matt identifies what he thinks are the ship's Top 5 features.
  9. I've never had it happen on any cruise line. However, I'm also very picky about my cabin's location, so I would not allow for automatic upgrades anyways.
  10. I think you may be correct. I've been reading a lot of reviews for European sailings on RCI and one of the complaints is the high price of drinks at the bars. I think they may preload the service fee into the cost of the drink instead of adding on afterwards.
  11. I mostly listen to cruise related podcasts to help the time pass and to add to the excitement. I must admit that I've listened to various RCBlog podcast episodes repeatedly just in case I missed something. YouTube videos help as well and have the advantage of giving you a good feel for the ship.
  12. I agree with Matt. Given that there's no penalty for canceling prior to final payment, there's always a chance that someone will cancel as they may be holding multiple reservations waiting to decide which one will be best for them (e.g., airfare costs).
  13. I say go for it. My one experience with Celebrity had quite a young crowd, but that was during Spring break. I've also been on other lines that skewed way older and never had a problem because of it.
  14. I'm sure the service fee will apply just like in any other venue including the cabin's minibar. We used the self-serve wine dispensers on another line and were surprised that a service fee was added.
  15. Note, also, that a venue may appear that you don't recognize as the soda package and or a drink seminar is billed to a specific venue even though it's actually the charge for the special vent or beverage package.
  16. We did the Legend out of Tampa years back. It was a great port to cruise out of and a very scenic departure. Unfortunately, I can't comment on the ship, yet, as I don't sail on her until July 2015, although I'll be on her sister, Jewel, in January. Kris
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