Dave - we're taking our 2nd cruise this summer, 1st with RC. if you buy a bottle of liquor on an island & don't open it will they take it away while boarding ship? What if your wanting to take it home?

Dave is on a cruise right now, so I'll help out. They will take a bottle of liquor from you and return it on the last night of the cruise.

We are sitting at gate A12 of SEA right now waiting for our 11:45 flight to ATL. The airport has access to AT&T wi-fi so I can use my home account to log in for no extra fee.

Very smooth debarkation this morning. As I said, we used luggage valet so our bags were checked with Delta and all we had was our carry-on items when we left the ship. We had barely got seated in the Diamond/Platinum private debarkation lounge when they called for us to leave. This was at 7:50am. We were in our shuttle and headed to the airport by 8:10. Funny how Customs can be so foreboding in Miami but so easy in Seattle. We literally waved our passports at the officer and never stopped walking. They just kept waving us through. A cruise line employee then collected the declarations. I guess when a cruise goes to Alaska and Canada there is less concern over security and customs issues.

Captain Bjorn Johansen is a great officer and fun person. He is actually doing relief duty and is supposed to be on his 10 weeks off. He is filling in for the Captain who is supposed to be on duty but is on his honeymoon. Bjorn will return home to Miami after the next cruise (I think that is what he said).

He told us we got closer to a glacier than any other cruise ship has done. He told us it was 600 feet from Dawes Glacier but it looked to be more like 300 feet. He e-mailed a photo to the RCI Fleet Captain (I think that is Captain Bill Wright) taken from the port bridge wing showing the glacier. Captain Bjorn said the reply was "are you crazy?"

This has been a thoroughly wonderful cruise. We ended up with the best dinner mates ever after the shuffling around ended on the 3rd night. Great people. You know it when we were all hugging goodbye last night.

Superb crew. Friendliest and most helpful we've had on any cruise, on any line.

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Superb crew. Friendliest and most helpful we've had on any cruise, on any line.

What a strong endorsment for Rhapsody! I sailed her in 2006 and felt the same way then. At that time, Dan Dan the party man was CD and we had a Flilpino waiter that was as funny as the comedian on the ship and very personable and engaging. Everyone in his sections loved the guy. Bjorn was the Captain at that time too and had his family onboard at the time of our sailing so he wasn't quite as accessible for our cruise, I didn't get a chance to meet him. I did feel like everyone on the staff of the ship when I sailed her was exceptional as well. That is usually a sign of a great Captain.

Dave, I'm really happy to hear you had such a great cruise. It'll be good to have you back though. Cruise-Chat isn't quite the same when you're away. Always seems like somethings missing when you're not posting regularly. So, welcome back!

Cheers, Neil

Dave, maybe now you can understand why my last 46 cruises were on Royal Caribbean. Arn't you about 1 cruise away from becoming a diamond member?

Sonny

Welcome back, Dave!

Hope your last leg of the flights went smoothly. I am sure you have a ton of things to catch up on, and the time difference too.

Can't wait to see your pictures when you have time.

Dwayne

Thanks everyone.

A significant thing about my ringing endorsement of Rhapsody...the Vision class of ships is my least favorite so the crew really made a difference. The Rhapsody motto is "the friendliest ship on the seas". This was certainly true for us.

Flights were fine but I am dragging this morning because of the time changes.

Sonny, yes, I need one credit to reach Diamond. I'm trying to figure out how to get it, and soon just in case they change the rules.

I'll post a photo later showing how close we got to Dawes Glacier.

Welcome back, Dave! Glad to hear you had such a great time. Did you wonder why you waited so long to see Alaska?

Sandy

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Did you wonder why you waited so long to see Alaska?

Yeah, the thought crossed my mind a few hundred times! It isn't an itinerary I want to do often because of the overall cost, but we'll do it again sometime - perhaps the long haul from Seward.

Welcome back, Dave. I have a feeling we'll also be considering a one-way with land tour after returning from our own Inside Passage cruise in August. Hmmm.... do I sense another possibility for a cruise-chat cruise?

I look forward to your review once you've had a chance to catch up. I've found it usually takes me the same number of days to recover as the number of time zones traveled.

LisaP

Glad you had a great time Dave. We just booked a short cruise to the bahamas in Oct. Been trying to convince the wife we should do an Alaskan cruise but she doesn't want to cruise were it is cold. Hope to see some really great pictures.

Bill,

Not sure about great photos. I think I had my SLR settings a bit off because I have lots of sky washout. I guess all the white from the snow and ice created some electronic havoc.

We had mostly 50 degree weather and clouds/mist. The forecast was actually 15 degrees higher but I guess that is Alaska weather...you can never forecast it accurately.

I prefer warm water cruising, but you have to do Alaska at least once. Go in July or early August when it is warmer.

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The curfew has been a policy for awhile.

Bill,

I'm a little late on my reply, but I checked all of my Cruise Compasses for the past three RCI cruises prior to the Rhapsody and a ship-wide curfew is not mentioned. It was mentioned only on the recent Rhapsody cruise. The other cruises did have area-specific age limits but none of them were ship-wide.

I'll be looking to see if the verbiage is in the Compass for my upcoming Sovereign cruise.

It could very well be this is ship or itinerary specific. I should also note that Alaskan law forbids minors in the "bar area" of any lounge, even on a ship. They could get a soda but couldn't stay or sit at a bar. They had to leave.

I'm looking at my June 6 compass from the Liberty and it has the statement "Important notice to our young cruisers. Those guest 17 years of age and under who are not accompanied by an adult must be clear of all public areas by 1:00am each evening unless involved in an Adventure Ocean activity/Teen Activity. For further guidance please refer to the Guest Conduct Policy which can be found in the Cruise Services Directory in your stateroom."

Dave,
Yeah not sure when it went official. I just checked some of our old Compasses also and it is only mentioned on the one from March which was when we were on the Sovereign. I see we are just missing each other on the Sovereign by a few months. We are going in October for the four day cruise.

Well, I am going to have to figure out a way to cruise (non-Navy) with my old pal Bill!

I thought the teen clubs were open til 2, which would make a l am curfew a bit odd?

The teen club is supervised by the youth staff so it is exempt from the curfew.

Curfews are not a general policy for RCCL. If there are issues that warrant it, the Captian of the ship may impose a curfew, which would be announced at that time.

Sonny

We had a large group of girls about from a private highschool in Panama on the Liberty this winter. I never did figure out who was chaperoning them--they were everywhere, adult venues, games, you name it. They did not apparently have the requisite one adult per room RCCL likes when booking a family group. The cabin stewards were complaining about their mess and disrespect and the activities people had to keep asking them for ID when they wanted to participate in adult activities like the battle of the sexes, etc. I wish their curfew had been 10 p.m. !