Celebrity Cruises, Canadian Rockies, driving around west coast California

[Viridianne]

My first trip report! On May I embarked on a 5 week trip to North America with MumViridianne. We went on the Celebrity Cruises Solstice for 8 day trip to Alaska inside passage, Vancouver, Canadian rockies, and parts of west coast USA.

Originally MumViridianne planned this trip as I was living in Montreal, but then I went back home. I decided I'd join her in what sounds like an amazing journey as I have never been to west coast of Canada.

On the first flight we flew separately as MumViridianne had a stopover in Auckland for a couple of days.

The morning of my flight, the SYD Amex lounge was bordering on being full. It was terribly hot too.

Breakfast with a 'view'. I'm vegetarian and gf. That morning there wasn't much exciting options for breakfast. The day MumViridianne went (gave her a supplementary card to access the Amex lounges) there was poached egg with spinach. :evil: The iced long black was pretty good though and the staff were very friendly and attentive.

I flew to LAX on Air New Zealand. I was surprised they gave food on the short flight from SYD-AKL. On the transit at AKL I went to take advantage of the Emperor Lounge. My experience was pretty good although it could use some cleaning. I was happy to watch Legend of Korra at the kids corner (which smelled like spilt milk, ugh). At least I had some choice at the buffet although I wasn't very hungry.


The AKL-LAX haul was an older plane - although I purchased 'preferred seating' they didn't even offer priority boarding and the seat I received was no better than if I did not buy the seat. :/ I was very disappointed.

Reaching LAX, I took a shuttle to Anaheim and crashed with my sister's family, whom were also on a trip to the USA and coincidently was in the LAX area. Needless to say, my niece's jaw dropped when she saw me at their hotel door. I spent half a way at Disneyland with them before I had to catch a VA flight to SEA (point redemption for referring a friend and she took a flight).

The VA lounge "The Loft" felt more like a nightclub than a lounge. The only free amenities were fresh fruit and house drinks. If you wanted something more substantial, like a sandwich, you'd have to pay for it. I wouldn't pay for this lounge if I did not have the Priority Pass - it would not be worth it.

Being the idiot that I am, I actually took the wrong seat, and it was the premium seat. The FA never asked questions so I took advantage of the unlimited free food and drinks on flight. Best 3000 point redemption ever lol

More soon!

 

[get me outta here]

Looking forward to this. Thanks for going to the trouble.

 

[VPS]

I did the same cruise last year - looking forward to your opinion

 

[RB]

Looking forward to reading this. Love reading trip reports

 

[love_the_life]

I love the Solstice so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your TR.

 

[kermatu]

I'm becoming a fan of cruises - purely through TRs. Looking forward to this one too.

 

[Pushka]

Oh. Alaska cruise.

 

[love_the_life]

Oh. Alaska cruise.

Don't read it - you will just get upset
But then it is on the agenda again perhaps?

 

[Pushka]

Don't read it - you will just get upset
But then it is on the agenda again perhaps?

It is. Indeed. Would love to do it on the Solstice but want to visit Glacier Bay. So will be interested in this TR.

 

[stoneman]

Looking forward to reading this. Love reading trip reports

Me too :-D

 

[love_the_life]

It is. Indeed. Would love to do it on the Solstice but want to visit Glacier Bay. So will be interested in this TR.

Think it doesn't do GB but I had a feeling you were looking at Crystal. I read a review that Crystal although they say they do have a permit there is an * with a disclaimer that it is subject to permit for the dates required and in the past few years have not received a permit between June - August apparently - Princess and HAL seem to be the ones.

 

[Major]

We did a HAL cruise to GB a few years ago and loved it

Looking forward to the rest of your TR

 

[Viridianne]

Thank you for the support! I've been itching to post more. It's rather therapeutic, although going through all the photos makes me wish I was still on the trip. It's no wonder many of the travellers we met were doing repeat journeys to Alaska and Canadian rockies.

I took Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver, rendezvousing with ViridianneMum. 2 years ago I said to myself I had to go on the Amtrak Cascades. Then I'm on it and instead of enjoying the view, the stranger next to me is compelled to talk to me the entire trip. *Americans are very chatty.) I shall have take a second trip on the Cascade.

We spent a couple of days at Vancouver before the cruise. Explored the city and a trip to Capilano bridge. Vancouver was so clean! And nature was accessible


Walking across Capitano Bridge tested my bravery especially when the bridge rocked ...

On the day of boarding the Solstice we arrived at around 12pm and we were surprised there were thousands of people already. Norwegian Pearl, Holland America were also departing on that day. We were given numbers and when the numbers were called, we'd proceed to a different room. More waiting, followed by moving into a different room. This went on for over 4 hours and there were times we had to stand up while queuing to get to customs and boarding. We were glad we had lunch already. It was a total disaster. I heard Port of Vancouver was always unprepared handling the influx of cruise passengers. Next time, we'll board the cruise from Seattle.

It was a relieve when all passengers were boarded and we finally set sail.
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We got a Concierge class balcony cabin. It seems I didn't take photos of the cabin! Blargh! The highlight was waking up to this every morning:



ViridianneMum doesn't drink so we didn't get the drinks package. We did got a really coughpy champagne that comes with the Concierge class. The Martini Bar crew and Cellar bartender were very nice to give me free drinks, I was eternally grateful. The Martini Bar crew also loved to put up a show.


There were so many Australians on the Solstice (and Canadian rockies) it felt like we never left Australia at all. The cruise director of entertainment was an Oz, and one of the chef was one too. And I remember there was a Canadian head chef. There wasn't much Canadians. Most of the passengers were Americans, mainly from Florida.

The Solstice had arrived from a journey via Sydney. (there was an English couple who was on their honeymoon, and have been on the ship for at least 20 days when we met them!) So, there were Vegemite and pies at the main buffet. I was very surprised how accomodating the restaurants were to food allergies. I must have sampled at least everything once. Of course buffet food is nothing special - sometimes undercooked - but some passengers commented it was better than at the Norwegian Pearl.

 

[Viridianne]

We spent an entire day at sea after we departed. Day 3 we arrived at Ketchikan.


A local thought I was Alaskan native. Blended right well eh!

We had a good couple of hours in town before our excursion. We took the Saxman native village excursion and a salmon hatchery that also had an eagle rescue centre.


There was a totem of Abraham Lincoln, who looked like a leprechaun.

We didn't see any wildlife yet.

 

[Pushka]

Ive heard of similar stories about departure in Vancouver. Sounds awful.

The sparkling wine on arrival is disgusting. We also received it and didn't open it immediately. We had the drinks package and one dat had a glass of the same brew to see if it was worth getting it iced. Blech. Left the unopened bottle in the cabin.

 

[VPS]

Ive heard of similar stories about departure in Vancouver. Sounds awful.

The sparkling wine on arrival is disgusting. We also received it and didn't open it immediately. We had the drinks package and one dat had a glass of the same brew to see if it was worth getting it iced. Blech. Left the unopened bottle in the cabin.

I arrived in Vancouver - did the cruise from Seward down - it was chaos - took ages to get off the boat and then over an hour to get a taxi

 

[zig]

I must have been lucky on the two ocassions in Vancouver and didn't experience any chaos, queues or delays. Departed Vancouver on Silver Shadow, admittedly a much smaller ship, but was on board about 10 minutes after the porters took the luggage out of the taxi. Arrived into Vancouver on Crystal and came off easily, collected luggage and straight into a waiting taxi.

Pushka, the Crystal cruise I was on spent a full day in Glacier Bay and it was one of the cruise highlights for me, a really magical day, so I hope you find a cruise which offers it

 

[Viridianne]

I totally forgot to complete this and my next trip is a couple of weeks away!

Day 3 Ketchikan (cont.)


bubble tea

On our excursion we also visited a salmon farm. (we didn't see any though)
We learned American bears are bigger than their Canadian counterparts as they feed on fatty, delicious salmon.





There was also a they have a raptor rescue area.



This American guy's been around for 20 years.

 

[Viridianne]

Day 4

Onward to Juneau, we pass through Tracy Arms Fjord.







Because of the ice bergs we had to navigate carefully lest be come Titanic. Despite the clouds and some rain, I reckon we had amazing views.

There was some cruise crew running around with hot chocolate.

 

[Viridianne]

Juneau

My mother and I separate as we went on excursions.

I went to the Glacier Gardens I didn't take many photos of it. Since the south coast of Alaska has a maritime climate, there are rainforests, hence the rainy weather around these areas.



View from the highest point at the gardens:


And then I went to Mendenhall Glaciers.





I didn't get close as I took the wrong path.
I nearly missed the bus back to the cruise.