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Quantum to Alaska! Fantastic news!


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Very excited about this news! So excited that we changed our Serenade July 2021 sailing to the Quantum out of Seattle! This change leads me to wonder if QOS will receive a refurb/update besides the laser tag to appeal to the American market. Since this ship has been in the Asian market for quite some time, it has a noodle shop among other Asian specialties and interests. Does anyone have any idea? Heard anything? Granted, we will still be in the #teamCK crew as we will be Sky Class, but just wondering about some of the other offerings. So Psyched! Now, if we could get that intern to show up again! 

Thanks Sharla at MEI for making this happen!!

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We were already booked on Ovation for next May but now I’m trying to decide about switching to Quantum?  I was excited to go to Skagway so I’m not sure I want to give that up. I need to do more research on Sitka and Icy Straight Point. 

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10 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

Very excited about this news! So excited that we changed our Serenade July 2021 sailing to the Quantum out of Seattle! This change leads me to wonder if QOS will receive a refurb/update besides the laser tag to appeal to the American market. Since this ship has been in the Asian market for quite some time, it has a noodle shop among other Asian specialties and interests. Does anyone have any idea? Heard anything? Granted, we will still be in the #teamCK crew as we will be Sky Class, but just wondering about some of the other offerings. So Psyched! Now, if we could get that intern to show up again! 

Thanks Sharla at MEI for making this happen!!

I'm a little surprised RCCL is taking these huge ships into the small spaces the Alaska experience is.  I didn't think they'd ever take anything bigger than a Voyager class up there.  Would be a site to see for sure.

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Ovation has had a successful Alaska cruise season and had planned to return in May 

Seattle round trip on any ship is an awesome Alaskan experience but the one-way North or South provide a better opportunity to see even more of Alaska.  

Quantum in Alaska should be very much like Ovation in Alaska and a great way to experience Alaska on a bigger and newer ship with lots of technology and things to do on those cool sea days.  As cold weather ships they are perfectly suited for Alaska.

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4 hours ago, twangster said:

Seattle round trip on any ship is an awesome Alaskan experience but the one-way North or South provide a better opportunity to see even more of Alaska.  

We loved the Radiance Southbound. The ports of call were fantastic, Juneau, Icy Strait, Skagway, and Ketchikan. We spent four days in Anchorage before taking the train to Seward, so there is another plus. There is so much to see and do in the Anchorage area, that four days was not even close to enough time spent there. 

My son will be bringing a friend for plenty of fly-fishing in Seattle before embarkation and then also while on the cruise. Because of the cost comparison for what we like to do, pre-cruise activities and port excursions (read: fishing), and the added cost that we are picking up for my son's buddy, selecting the Quantum sailing was a no brainer. If it were just the three of us, we would choose another Radiance southbound.

This Quantum sailing, as mentioned by @SpeedNoodles (I call you "Speedy" when I think of you and your posts) and @twangster, does have some fun port stops that others sailings, like Serenade, don't have. For our particular sailing, 8/9/2020, port stops are the same as the Radiance North/South sailings with one exception, and that is Skagway. Instead of Skagway, we will be visiting Victoria, BC. I hear it's a "yawner," but that's alright given all that the ship has to offer. I will research this more, though.

The fly-in-fly-out fly fishing excursion in Juneau was fun and could get them to remote places to fish.

This is a picture of my son and his guide, Zachary from Bear Creek Fly-fishing Outfitters:

image.png.689719708474af59224f6cb3bf273cb6.png

This is what I hooked into in Juneau at Tracy's ("If lov'n you is wrong, I don't wanna be right"):

image.png.3d0e1f3b4158eb8f73bbe9715fc9c4c4.pngThe picture doesn't do the king crab leg justice. It was HUGE!

The fly-fishing in Icy Strait (Hoonah) was a lot of fun, too. Below are pictures of my husband and a Char (aka Dog Toothed Salmon) he hooked into and me with my pink salmon (aka Humpy). For the squeamish, that is not blood on the Char's lip. That is the breeding coloring of this beautiful fish during its final trek back home.

image.png.86774ac4007c266e988ca6b9adbbf87b.png

The Pink and I were not getting along in the photo. 

image.png.836167d8d128d71ca886d5701f7d527f.png

Our son likes to tie his flies, so on our next sailing, he will be using his own. Of the three of us, he is the most accomplished fly fisherman. Living in the Ozarks, we have abundant clean streams and waterways for this type of fishing. Below are two pics of him hooking into one of the many pinks he caught just outside of Icy Strait:

image.png.9a585739c1dbf039b06f800352a7ff8c.png        image.png.e30ed7c561911c9d9f7bc0c676f11e73.png


I should mention that on the guided stream trips, one of the guides always had a shotgun on his shoulder. It was the end of July, and the bears are hungry for the salmon swimming upstream. No bears encountered us. Just as here in the Ozarks, and especially more so up north, we must be "bear aware." 

Ketchikan afforded some regular open water salmon fishing. We got to ship our catch home, and it was delicious. 

The bottom line, we can't wait to go back and excited to try a big ship. Flying out on a float plane ensures that we get to some pretty remote areas to wet the line. We prefer the Alaskan cruises, and like @SpeedNoodles "Speedy," we have Norway/Finland on the bucket list.

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On 3/20/2020 at 6:53 PM, Baked Alaska said:

Very excited about this news! So excited that we changed our Serenade July 2021 sailing to the Quantum out of Seattle! This change leads me to wonder if QOS will receive a refurb/update besides the laser tag to appeal to the American market. Since this ship has been in the Asian market for quite some time, it has a noodle shop among other Asian specialties and interests. Does anyone have any idea? Heard anything? Granted, we will still be in the #teamCK crew as we will be Sky Class, but just wondering about some of the other offerings. So Psyched! Now, if we could get that intern to show up again! 

Thanks Sharla at MEI for making this happen!!

This Itenerary looks interesting. We sailed Alaska on Ovation but slightly different Itenerary. Wasn’t Ovation sailing in 2021? Was there a reason you’d sail Quantum and not Ovation originally? We enjoyed both the cruise and ship. Considering cruising Alaska again. Would love your insight. ( I fear the way I phrased my original question may have seemed rude. Was not intended, the delivery is lost in the Typing!! ?

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44 minutes ago, Kathleen said:

This Itenerary looks interesting. We sailed Alaska on Ovation but slightly different Itenerary. Wasn’t Ovation sailing in 2021? Was there a reason you’d sail Quantum and not Ovation originally? We enjoyed both the cruise and ship. Considering cruising Alaska again. Would love your insight. ( I fear the way I phrased my original question may have seemed rude. Was not intended, the delivery is lost in the Typing!! ?

Hi @Kathleen, I didn't take your question as rude at all. We selected Quantum because the price was a bit less than Ovation, and we will now be in a GS-2 bedroom, so that's why. If you sail Alaska again and can swing it, I'd suggest one of the open-jaw sailings that Radiance does and spend some time in Anchorage! When we go for the third time (summer 2022), we will do just that again. 

Also, I think it will be at least 6 to 12 months before sailings start up again. I also believe that the industry as a whole will take a PR beating and will see overall bookings drop for years to come. Therefore, I think that pricing will come down a lot and that our fare will fall further. Will still stay with Quantum and will enjoy any rate drops for a Radiance sailing.

Edited by Baked Alaska
another thought
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@Baked Alaska my husband is a fly fisherman also. Last time we cruised Alaska (2019) we went in May and had fabulous weather but he did not fish then. I know salmon are generally later in the season than May, but other than salmon what other species are prevalent. We live in Kentucky and have a place in the Smokies where he does a lot of fishing, but that is mostly trout. TIA

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