Yesterday was a great day. We decided to upgrade to the train out of Anchorage to Seward and we were so glad we did! I had read many negative comments about the train on different message boards, but my husband and I absolutely loved it. The train does take much longer than the bus (it took us about 4 1/2 hours vs 3), but the scenery is stunning. The train only goes 40 mph top speed and we were glad so we could take in the scenery and take photos. Our weather was perfect. I would not have traded our domed ceilings wine/lunch plus the great company of our train mates that we met on board for any bus. The train is Alaska Railroads but it is exclusively for Regent passengers. It does follow the same road as the bus for much of the way, except for 60 miles of inland passage. We saw 3 or 4 glaciers. The staff were so nice and I think they had the best cookies I have ever had. Lunch is pretty much sandwiches (but good)for about $8 and cocktails are about $6.00. I don't know why but Regent charged only $50 per person when purchased in Anchorage vs $90 per person when you prebooked. People are trying to get reimbursed for the difference. Unless you are in a hurry to get to the ship, we honestly did not find any negatives with the train. One lady did complain that it was too much motion for her (the train does sway some down the tracks).

The Mariner is a beautiful ship. Since I have only been on the Diamond and Navigator it seems so big to me! Embarkation was easy since they had crew on the train to check everyone in. Even though the ship is completely full, it seems so empty. The 24 hour coffee bar is a real plus and I'm really enjoying it. We had dinner at Prime 7 last night and was so excited to see Chimi who worked on the Diamond. We really enjoyed dinner, I had clam chowder(wow), steak and lobster. My husband had crabcakes, lobster and halibut. Everything was excellent and we loved the atmosphere. We are trying to maneuver another dinner reservation but don't know if we will be successful.
The nightlife last night was pretty much nonexistent. But it was ok with us since we were tired. I think the Observation Lounge will be a major hangout for us. (Charlene/Wendy - found a great outdoor space out of the wind for after dinner drinks - wish you were here!)
Today is pretty much a cruising day - we've got our binoculars ready and hoping for some wildlife. Life is very, very good on the Mariner - the staff has been great.

Glad to hear that you loved the Grandview train! Since we're in no hurry when we disembark in Seward on June 10, we thought it was a good way to get to Anchorage, and you've confirmed that. Strange about the $50 versus $90 when pre-booked, though.

Prime 7 sounds wonderful. I'm not much of a beef eater but love good seafood, so we're looking forward to trying the new venue.

Enjoy ... and keep the seamail coming!

I'm so glad you got to take the train! Len and I loved the experience when we went in 2006. As you said, the scenery was gorgeous and it really got us in the right frame of mind for the cruise that waited for us in Whittier.

Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

Andrea

I'm glad you are enjoying your Mariner cruise. Your description of your Prime 7 dinner made my mouth water!

Keep having fun and keep telling us all about it!

Thanks so much for checking in, I am loving the reports!

The computers were down nearly all day yesterday so I didn't have a chance to check in. This has been such a fabulous cruise, I just love the Mariner. Our cabin is beautiful and I'm really glad we got one with a shower. Nice big rain head and roomy. They must have upgraded the beds too during dry dock, extremely comfy. Every public area looks brand new to me. The staff has been superb.

I must admit the first night we ate at Compass Rose we were a little disappointed in the food, but they sure made up for it last night! My husband and I special ordered halibut fish and chips for him and grilled halibut for me. Our wonderful waiter Sylvester said that the fish was fresh from the dock. Can't say enough about our dinner last night - really, really good. Except for that one evening, overall the food has been fantastic. We are going to try the Alaskan Grill tonight in La Verandah and Signatures tomorrow night.
I am still in awe with Alaska - sure cannot complain about the weather! Mostly in the 50's with bright blue skies. As McKeever said in his write up we had a medical evacuation (nothing life threatening, a broken arm) so we were late getting into Sitka. Several morning excursions were cancelled. But we hadn't planned anything so we hopped on the tender and walked through town to the National Park. Lots of totem poles, beautiful forest and bald eagles.
We have met some very nice passengers on this cruise. One couple generously invited us to join them on a private, custom whale watching/bear watching/Mendenhall glacier boat excursion in Juneau this afternoon. So we are very much looking forward to that event! We also plan on taking the tram up Mount Roberts. We will be sailing Tracy Arm Fjord until we dock in Juneau at 1pm. By the way, Terry Breen (not sure I am spelling her name correctly) is as good as everyone has said about her. We are very lucky to have her on board!

Dixiechick has arrived in Skagway :)

Skagway cam

Great stalk, Karen! Beautiful shot of the Mariner!

Dixiechick, enjoying your seamail.
Karen, how many more days until we are there?

107, Betty :)

107 and we'll be there. Let the countdown begin. I better get a move on booking those excursions.

So glad you stalked the Mariner, Karen. For John and me, the wait until Skagway is only 13 days! I cannot wait to get onboard the Mariner on June 3 and see the beauty of Alaska.

It's great to be reading your seamail, Sally, I'm so happy that the Mariner is so wonderful!! Can't wait to board her in September. If it wasn't football season, you and Ron would likely come back for it!!

I remember Chimi from the Diamond, I'm so happy he's on the Mariner! Ask him if he'll be there in September? If he is, I'll get his section!!

Keep the updates coming, I'm living vicariously through you. Thanks for stalking her, Karen!!

Love, Charlene

I think that means 106 more sleeps for me!! Lee

Well, the internet has once again been down. I just have time for a quick note. We are trying Signatures tonight for dinner. The weather continues to be fantastic, all of the locals are even saying how lucky and blessed we are for such beautiful weather. Had 2 wonderful days. I know everyone has different ideas on what is a good excursion, but we had 2 great ones - both private. Did a private whale watching/sea lion excursion in Juneau, felt very special and saw GREAT whale (humpback) and sea lion watching. There was just 4 of us on board. Today we did Dyea Dave in Skagway. Can't say enough about him. Took the train up to Fraser where he met us. We then proceeded to Yukon Territory and Emerald Lake. Just beautiful. Saw bears, mountain goats and visited the very interesting town of Carcross in the Yukon. Gotta run to get ready for sail away with Terry Breen and get dressed for dinner.

The excursions sound perfect, Sally! So glad you are enjoying this cruise. Love the sea mail - especial when we're talking seals!

Cheers, Anne

Charlene, Chimi says "hi". He does not know yet if he will be on board when you are here. He is Matre D now at Prime 7 so he doesn't have a section. At Signatures Anna from the Diamond (do you remember her?)is also a Matre D. She is so sweet but will be on holiday when you cruise. It has been fun reminising about the Diamond with Anna and Chimi and catching up on the crew.
Signatures was great, Ron had halibut and I had rack of lamb. Dessert was a soaked sponge cake that was really yummy. For Compass Rose we really enjoyed having Sylvester as our head waiter so you might try his section.
Sail away from Skagway last night was beautiful. Saw lots of harbor seals and a few isolated whales. We are passing through "light house" territory on our way to Ketchikan. We arrive at 1pm today. We are taking a Misty Fjords Flight Seeing excursion. Sure wish we had time for a fishing excursion, since Ketchikan is kind of the fishing capital of the world. They say on board you should make a point of taking a seaplane/helicopter excursion, adventure excursion, wildlife excursion and an ocean excursion. I agree with that advise. There is so much to experience in Alaska it is impossible to do everything we would like to in 7 days. Personally, I wouldn't mind a bit if they would just get rid of the dress code. After having such busy days in port it has been kind of a pain to have to think about a second shower and getting dressed for dinner - especially with narrated sight seeing during cruising between ports. We have been so enchanted with Alaska (and the weather) we find we much rather spend our time sightseeing than getting ready for dinner, especially when there is so much daylight! We are going to try La Verandah tonight for dinner since we don't return to ship until 6:30pm with sailaway at 7pm.
We are looking forward to another great day. What is also good about this cruise is we only have one other ship (Carnival) in ports with us at the same time.
By they way Karen - thanks for the stalk!

Thanks so much for the great seamail! Continue to enjoy!

Oh man, Sally, I was really hoping it was "country club casual" all the way. From what you report, there must be informal at least - what a bummer. I'm so glad Chimi is Maitre D, he deserves it. And as for Anna, is that lovely Anna who was on the Voyager during my nightmarish Non Chocolate cruise? Was she moved over to the Mariner as a Maitre D? If so, kudos to Regent, she should be a Maitre D for sure!!

I'm such a chicken, I don't know if I can do the Heli or seaplane tour, but the rest of the group will certainly do so. I'll go fishing, how's that? And when the others zipline, I'll do sea kayaking!! I mean, I'll get out there....whale watching etc., but floatplanes and helicopters and ziplines scare the $%^&%#$ out of me!!!

Keep the posts coming, especially your excursion and MEAL reviews!! Wish I were with you and Ron!

Love, Charlene

Well the weather finally caught up with us. It was gray and light rain in Ketchikan, but the weather here is like that 95% of the time, so can't complain. But the weather did not stop us from taking the Misty Fjords floatplane ride. All the seats were window seats with head sets playing beautiful music as we glided through the fjords and Tongas National Park (as big as the state of West Virgina!). I kept thinking if your go into the fjords by boat and didn't know what you were doing you would be lost forever. Needless to say we loved the ride and could imagine how beautiful it would be with a bright blue sky. Takeoff and landing on water is so smooth. We also landed in a remote area of the fjords, got to get out and take pictures from the plane floats. We spoke with another couple who did the fishing adventure expedition and it sounded like alot of fun. They cooked the fish they caught for a prepared lunch in a beautiful setting-saw their pictures, looked wonderful. If we come back, we would definitely do that especially during salmon season. Ketchikan is the salmon capital of the world. Kayaking would also be fun. I wish we would have done that in Sitka. Just to also let everyone know, the Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan is within very easy walking distance of the ship. I don't know what they charge for the excursion, but you really don't need a bus ride to get there unless walking is difficult for you.
We had dinner in La Verandah last night-hardly anyone there. Since I grew up on the West Coast I can't get enough of the halibut (can't get it in the south). So I had them fix me steak and grilled halibut. It was very good. I am an ice cream fan (I'm really not much of a dessert/pastry person) so I had triple brownie chocolate for dessert (bad me). We may be going to Prime 7 again tonight if there is an opening. Wanted to see Chimi one more time. I can honestly say that all of our meals were very good. Yes Charlene there is on informal night. But since this is somewhat of an older crowd people are dressing up for all evenings-men wearing jackets and many cocktail dresses for women. I had on jeans one evening using the elevator and got a rude comment from one of the passengers (I wasn't even in a restaurant!), but that was a very isolated/one time ocurrence. You can probably imagine what Ron popped back to her :) .
I was surprised to learn they are using Navigator for the Alaska season in 2010. Mariner will be in the Med. So I'm very glad I got to experience her while she is here. Although we really haven't used out balcony much because of limited viewing and cool temperatures. The Observation Lounge is awesome for viewing while cruising/sail ins and sail aways with all the windows and Terry Breen narrating.
I was also told by the on board cruise consultant that our Navigator Australia/NZ cruise in 2010 is sold out.
Well we have left Alaska (sigh, sigh) and are on our way to Vancouver BC. We will be doing my husband's mandatory Bridge Tour today, packing and downing loading pictures to make room on my camera for our post-cruise during this sea day. We are meeting my sister and brother-in-law in Vancouver for 2 days, then up to Whistler and over to Victoria.
For all you future cruisers, I hope all of you have a chance to meet the local Alaskans, they are very, very nice, love their state and many have no desire to leave it. They are also very good caretakers of their environment. I must say also, the passengers on the Mariner this cruise have been great-we have met such nice, fun people. I haven't heard a negative comment from anyone.

Well Charlene, not much traffic on this thread so I will e-mail you when I get home. I will sign off from the message board.

Dixie Chick, I've enjoyed your posts, especially reading about the excursions. I'm having a hard time deciding on the ones for our Alaskan cruise in September. Thanks for taking the time to keep us informed. It sounded like a terrific cruise.

Welcome home, Dixiechick!

Dixiechick, I so enjoyed your sea mails from the Mariner in Alaska! All of your descriptive posts brought back great memories from my trips there, and are enough to "fire up" the ones who are headed there this summer. Thank you for taking the time to post, I know the internet connection can be a pain in that part of the world!

There's the Mariner leaving Canada Place for another Alaskan cruise. :hello1:

Thanks for taking us along with you. Sounds like you had a great time.

Thanks Sally, I enjoyed the seamail, and all the information. Can't wait for my 9/9/9 cruise!!!!

Is anyone from LCT aboard Mariner now? Would love to know how Vancouver embarkation went.

Priscilla is embarking this Wednesday. Maybe she can post once onboard.

Whats up from Mariner? I really would like to know how Vancouver Embarkation went. I hear horror stories on CC about Vancouver on other lines annd long waits. Maybe internet is down since we ahve not heard from boat for a while, and I am pretty sure there are some LCTers aboard

Tyler, Priscilla just boarded yesterday, maybe she will check in. I don't think she will check this thread, since this one is from Dixiechicks cruise.

As far as embarking, last time for us it was a breeze boarding at CanadaPlace, maybe something has changed since then?

Yep agree with you Karen, assuming you are talking about MUSH. Check in was a breeze and we were on the ship in about 25 minutes from the time we got in the line.

We will be doing a Vancouver to LA 3 night coastal in Sept on Princess, then staying on for a 7 night Mex Riv, with two couples joining us in LA, so will have a chance to see how it goes then, and with a much larger ship. Gaassssppp! Actually we have priorty boarding since we are both Platinum, plus I am Elite on Princess, so I hope they offer that in Vancouver).

We were not boarding Mariner, but we did spend the past few nights at the Pan Pacific at Canada Place. We saw the Regent Hospitality desk and room yesterday in the hotel, and all seemed to be going very smoothly. Regent certainly had a contingent of 'facilitators' available on site. From what we saw, I can't imagine there were any major problems. Mariner was right there, (NOT!) waiting for us.

Betty