We missed our airline connection in Chicago and therfore missed the boat in Anchorage. If we had travelled to Alaska a day in advance, we still would have missed the boat because most of the flights were full. So the lesson we learned is: If you are travelling to Alaska from the midwest or east coast--go 2 days in advance. The other piece of advice I have is: buy travel insurance--which we had! Hotel rooms and meals were covered until we were able to reconnect with the cruise ship in Juneau. There were 42 passengers who missed the boat in Anchorage--so apparently this is not a rare thing to happen. Make sure you have a charged up cell phone with you because I spent incredible amounts of time on the phone talking to the airline (very rude and unhelpful), talking to the emergency travel contacts at Celebrity (more helpful) and trying to figure out where our luggage was (it got flown to Anchorage.) Kudos to Celebrity for hiring the nicest travel agency in Juneau to pick us up at the airport, deliver us to our hotel, orient us to the city, help us find our luggage, and deliver us to the pier the next day!

So, bright and early on day 3 of the cruise--we were at the front of the crowd joining the ship in Juneau and were expecting tons of paperwork and were also expecting to probably miss our early shore excursion. Celebrity got us checked in in 5 minutes and made sure that we were able to meet up with the shore excursion scheduled to start at 9:30AM.

We had booked inside cabins--they were small. Next time I do an Alaskan cruise, I will get a balcony cabin--totally worth it for the scenery. The room steward was incredible--very attentive and helpful--what a refreshing change from other cruise lines! No--towel animals, but great service instead. Read more