Alaska Cruise Ship Experiences

[jr6431]

Obviously things may not be the same as they were in the past but I wanted to see if anybody here had insight from their previous Alaska cruise experiences onboard the ship.

1. I’ve seen the VIP character breakfast is offered on these sailings. Does anybody remember if it is offered on the Glacier day?
2. If you stayed on the ship during port days (specifically Ketchikan) did you find the ship to be pretty empty?
3. Do you recall if the hot tubs were crowded on at sea days and/or at night?
4. Naturalist Talks - do you recommend any of them or would you have skipped them if you did attend?

Thank you for any and all input!

 

[Cruising Engineer]

1. From researching vblogs for 2019, they were all on Day 2 at sea.
2. Probably. Ketchikan is pretty popular. Two cruises to Alaska and never stayed on the ship while in port.
3. Depends on the weather. If it's a rainy day the hot tubs tend to be empty just like the pools. You may be enjoying the warmth but your towel and things are getting damp (very dense wet air).
4. Great information in the theater but they also talk on the loudspeaker on the top deck while in the glacier area.

 

[jenmiller114]

As I recall, they offered 3 days for VIP character breakfasts. I don't know if they were on the Glacier day but I do know one was on Ketchikan day because that is the day we went. The ship doesn't arrive until 11:15 so it's business as usual in the morning. Seems like there were a fair number of activities throughout the day, as well. Ketchikan is a cute little town but we did most of our big excursions at the other ports so we stayed low key. We used that for Character Breakfast and our spa day so we could get the port day 20% discount. We went to the lumberjack show which started at 3 and then walked around the town. Not sure how old your kids are but we did the axe throwing after the show and my kids loved it. They are teen boys but there were people of all ages participating.

Not sure on the pool and hot tubs in general, but we did use the hot tub prior to our visit to the spa. The ship was pretty well cleared out by then. I think we were the only people in there at the time.

In addition to having the naturalist talks in the theater, They are recorded so they can be watched any time on demand in your stateroom. That's a plus so you don't have to plan your day around it if you aren't sure.

 

[Shellyred8]

We LOVED the naturalist talks! To this day we still talk about how good those were.

 

[TestingH2O]

Now that the Wonder has the upgraded TV system, I assume you will be able to watch the Naturalist talks On Demand in your stateroom as well. We did that with a couple of the historian talks on the Panama Canal last spring. It was great when we had other things that conflicted.

I agree with PP that the naturalist talks in Alaska were top notch.

 

[jr6431]

Thank you so much for all the input! I really appreciate it!