SE Alaska: Sitka, Juneau, Skagway

[KevinJames]

My wife scheduled a 10 cruise for us. Had service in all three towns. Also had service in BC but didn't use the phone in BC.

GSM, Cingular.

Highlights of cruise:

1. Seeing the Northern Lights for with my own eyes for the time in my life.
2. Seeing the Glaciers: Tracy Arm & Mendenhall
3. Train ride out of Skagway

[Tony E!]

Awesome Kevin.....glad to hear you had fun..

[Airb330]

Nice! Which cruise line? My mom and stepdad want to go someday, I'm thinking Princess or Celebrity for them.

[larry]

Sprint has some screwed up roaming in Alaska. I hear the phones are incorrectly displaying that they are on the Sprint network even though it's not true and roaming charges apply. Apparently they have an affiliation with a carrier called Alaska Digitel who isn't an official affiliate and the billing is not going right.

[KevinJames]

We cruised on Princess. However, while on the cruise I found out that Carnival purchased Princess. One prior cruise with Carnival left me with the impression that it was the the least desirable of the cruise lines. This cruise on Princess shows Carnival's negative influence. We were nickeled and dimed to death with things that should have have been included. For example, hot chocolate was an extra charge. Only water, coffee and ice tea were free except that at breakfast they made a couple juices available. Milk was available on request only.

Gratuities are now automatically added to your daily cabin bill. Ten dollars per person per day. If you eat in the formal dining hall, that is an extra charge per person.

Entertainment was reserved for the evening hours so that there was virtually nothing to do before 3pm. That's fine on days when the ship was in port, but on the full-days at sea it was really boring. Prior cruises had some fun activities.

My daughter & her husband recently cruised on Royal Carribean and had free internet service. If we wanted to use the internet (wi fi in lobby), it was $10.50 for 30 minutes. they also had a room with several computers setup but that also was expensive. I got so paronoid that I one point when I went to the Purser's desk, I asked if i had to pay to speak to them.

In my personal opinion, Royal Carribean is the "top of the line" for cruise companies. I have not ever sailed with Celebrity so I can't comment on them.

Originally Posted by Airb330

Nice! Which cruise line? My mom and stepdad want to go someday, I'm thinking Princess or Celebrity for them.

[TProphet]

I'm glad to hear that Dobson Cellular is fully up and running with their new GSM network! The only GSM coverage available previously was a roamer-only network operated by Alaska DigiTel that covered downtown Juneau and the airport.

As regards Sprint roaming in Alaska, since the new Fair and Flexible plans include roaming, this will gradually stop being a problem for most users. However, it's still a recurring issue that I've personally observed since 2001 and it still hasn't been fixed (nor do I expect that it ever will, because it's seemingly impossible to report the problem to anyone at Sprint who can actually fix it). Alaska DigiTel broadcasts Sprint SIDs on their network in order to allow Sprint to retain their PCS licenses in the area (as Sprint has no service of their own). I am not completely sure what Sprint gives them in exchange, but I suspect that it is the use of the PCS spectrum that they own in the Fairbanks area.

The FCC requires that Sprint maintain service by broadcasting their SIDs, but it doesn't require that Sprint actually operate it or charge the same rates for its use as anywhere else. It also doesn't require Sprint to program its PRLs to accurately reflect this condition.

Things have gotten even worse since Alaska DigiTel finally upgraded their IS-95 network to 1xRTT. If you have Ready Link, it will think you're on the Sprint 1xRTT network, and will continually attempt to register on the network--billing 1 minute of use for each attempt.

My recommendation? Turn off Ready Link, assume all calls you make in Alaska will be billed as roaming, and ensure that you have a Sprint plan that covers this. I have a Free and Clear plan with the Free and Clear America option, and can roam all day long in Alaska while being billed at home rate. I can also use the Alaska DigiTel (CDMA), ACS (CDMA & AMPS), and Dobson Cellular (AMPS) networks almost in their entirety, an option that definitely isn't available to GSM users.

Originally Posted by larry

Sprint has some screwed up roaming in Alaska. I hear the phones are incorrectly displaying that they are on the Sprint network even though it's not true and roaming charges apply. Apparently they have an affiliation with a carrier called Alaska Digitel who isn't an official affiliate and the billing is not going right.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Airb330

Nice! Which cruise line? My mom and stepdad want to go someday, I'm thinking Princess or Celebrity for them.

I took an Alaska cruise on Holland America. It was nice. They gave me booze. Of course, I was about 13 at the time. At that age ny cruise line would have been nice I'm sure

[Airb330]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

I took an Alaska cruise on Holland America. It was nice. They gave me booze. Of course, I was about 13 at the time. At that age ny cruise line would have been nice I'm sure

I'm going in January on Royal Carribean. They let me drink so I chose them. I'm 20, and in international waters...and Princess/Carnival won't let me? Screw em!

Celebrity/RC are together. Princess/Carnival are together. I think the 1st 'merger' made both lines better. I heard bad things about Carnival as well (smoky).
Hopefully Cingular will have some GSM on our ship by then, as many Norwegian, RC, and Celebrity ships do. 1.99 a minute is better than 7!