G
GoinSouth
Guest
Just back. Excellent cruise. My first Celebrity cruise.
The weather was beautiful. We had a little rain in Juneau in the afternoon, but Skagway and Ketchikan were beautiful sunny days. We also got to see the Hubbard Glacier on a beautiful bright day, which we understand in a little unusual.
I really liked the X cruise line. The food in the main dining room was definately a cut above Disney (except Palo's) and RCCL. Buffets and the grill were pretty standard cruise fare. The wine options were definately better. We drink a lot of wine and usually budget for it, and by the second day, our table was set with beautiful stemware every night. If we took wine away after dinner, our wine steward would bring the standard wine glasses back for us to take with us.
We had a Sky Suite and our butler was Kevin. He did a very good job of taking care of everything. The afternoon tea selections were pretty good. The canapes were really bad, as has been previously reported. We ended up ordering a cheese board from room service instead on most days.
Embarkation and debarkation was pretty easy. Final debarkation was a little held up as we were late getting back to Seattle. I liked Disney's debarkation process a lot more. Debarkation in other ports was easily the best we've seen. They were very fast and they had two lines for debarkation set up. We almost never stood in line to get into a port, which was a big improvement over other lines we've cruised with.
The enrichment series with Brent Nixon was very good. He was very enthusiastic and entertaining, and managed to impart a good bit of information. I learned a lot.
I did not participate in a lot of other activities, being content to sit on my veranda most days staring in awe at the incredibly beautiful coastline of Alaska. I got some wonderful video of humpbacks roiling within 20 feet of the ship.
Contrary to some other reports, I found the ship to be in pretty good shape. No really overt problems, some minor wear and tear.
All in all, one of the best cuises we've been on.
The weather was beautiful. We had a little rain in Juneau in the afternoon, but Skagway and Ketchikan were beautiful sunny days. We also got to see the Hubbard Glacier on a beautiful bright day, which we understand in a little unusual.
I really liked the X cruise line. The food in the main dining room was definately a cut above Disney (except Palo's) and RCCL. Buffets and the grill were pretty standard cruise fare. The wine options were definately better. We drink a lot of wine and usually budget for it, and by the second day, our table was set with beautiful stemware every night. If we took wine away after dinner, our wine steward would bring the standard wine glasses back for us to take with us.
We had a Sky Suite and our butler was Kevin. He did a very good job of taking care of everything. The afternoon tea selections were pretty good. The canapes were really bad, as has been previously reported. We ended up ordering a cheese board from room service instead on most days.
Embarkation and debarkation was pretty easy. Final debarkation was a little held up as we were late getting back to Seattle. I liked Disney's debarkation process a lot more. Debarkation in other ports was easily the best we've seen. They were very fast and they had two lines for debarkation set up. We almost never stood in line to get into a port, which was a big improvement over other lines we've cruised with.
The enrichment series with Brent Nixon was very good. He was very enthusiastic and entertaining, and managed to impart a good bit of information. I learned a lot.
I did not participate in a lot of other activities, being content to sit on my veranda most days staring in awe at the incredibly beautiful coastline of Alaska. I got some wonderful video of humpbacks roiling within 20 feet of the ship.
Contrary to some other reports, I found the ship to be in pretty good shape. No really overt problems, some minor wear and tear.
All in all, one of the best cuises we've been on.
