BirdTravels

Actually no. It's a 4th hand account from grandgeezer with their spin and embellishments.

It is reasonable. But you need to be off the ship very early and head to LAX, handling your own bags. You are traveling in morning rush hour in Los Angeles. The drive from the port to the Airport can take from 45 minutes to 75 minutes ($$$ for taxi or Uber). The drive inside the airport can take as long a 15-30 minutes (depending on which terminal you are leaving from). Check-in lines at the airport depend on your airline and your frequent flyer status. Security lines for some airlines can be 30+ minutes on a weekday morning.

The concierge and butler are different people. The following thread provides useful information on what a Concierge and Butler can do for you. While the thread addresses the Haven, you will have similar support from the Concierge and Butler. You will have a dedicated restaurant with enhanced menu for breakfast and lunch. You just won't have access to the Haven courtyard unless you are booked in a Haven room. You can use or not use the pre-cruise concierge. They actually can not do anything that you can't do yourself. Dining reservations open 130 prior to departure (4/29/24). If the dates and times you want are not available online, you have waited too long and they are sold out. In this case, it is better to wait until you embark and ask the ship's concierge to help you. The ship's concierge can oversell a restaurant to get you a table (but you need to do that as soon as you embark). We actually don't use the pre-concierge. We prefer to build a rapport with the Concierge and Butler onboard as soon as embark. They will be the people supporting us on our cruise. The pre-concierge is calling a guest services call center. If they will try to help you and, like sold out restaurants, they just send an email to the ship which may/may not get acted on the week you cruise.

We always go to Chill Beach. Position ourselves between a bar and the buffet. And it is a very short walk over to the pool to keep the kids busy with the ocean, pool, ocean, buffet, pool.

NCL does a great job at keeping their ships up to date. They do major overhauls every 5 years and the ships are usually new and fresh. We have sailed on both the Epic and Breakaway over 6 times each and would sail on either again. Pick the ship with the itinerary that best suits your interests.

On our recent cruise, someone felling unwell did not go to the Medical Center. There was eventually a Code called, but she had already passed in her cabin. She road back to Miami with us. There are facilities for three people in that ship’s morgue (in the medical center) and in the past, they have had to divert when a 4th person passed and they did not have a proper. facility for the 4th person.

Ketchikans best medical facility is only a Level IV trauma center. Basic life support and transfer to a real hospital in Seattle. Basically an Urgent Care. Maybe a couple of doctors working in the ED. And what case would that be? The docs in Ketchikan would likely want to “get rid of” a sick person, and what easier place than sending her back to the ship.

That’s great! We did a standard renewal in November 2023 and it took over 3 months.

I am with schmoopie, I hate apps because developers try to make them too “user friendly” and you can’t really see everything you need to “get the job done”. The apps show you what they think you want to see… which is never what I want. Give me a good ‘ole desktop interface.

So,,, these are “normal” for us. Butler snacks and items sent by various departments. For the most part, they are not request we made. One of the nicer “snacks” is a chocolate box, made of chocolate, with a bon bon handle, filled with chocolate. And a bottle of wine and fresh fruit. This gift from the General Manager was in our Balcony stateroom in March.

While very true, there is only one “good” ferry in the morning that will allow you to spend the day in St George.

For a port like Costa Maya where NCL calls multiple times a week, the vendors may be jacking up prices for new dates (versus previously contracted prices). Or NCL is dumping a tour provider and shopping for new vendors based on poor performance of existing vendor (Too many last minute cancellations due to staffing shortages (no one to drive a bus)). Negative customer reviews. Failure of vendor to provide described services (e.g., “Stop at chocolate factory” that does not occur).

Ship's doctors are going to be risk adverse. Bronchitis or pneumonia is all the same based on the testing on the ship. And if you are sick and have the potential of becoming sicker, you will be put ashore. There is no reason to keep a sick person onboard which may have to get medivac'ed by the Canadian Coast Guard (putting their lives and the ship at risk). There are no Level I Trauma Centers in Alaska to handle urgently sick people. They have to be flown back to Seattle. Ketchikan has a Level IV center (if that is where the passenger was taken) which can provide basic life support/urgent care until the patient can be transported via air ambulance to a real ED. Ketchikan general hospital does not want a patient in questionable health and would gladly send her back to the ship. This is the Canadian Coast Guard doing a Medivac off of our Alaskan cruise. The helicopter is hovering a few feet outside the forward facing bow viewing windows and 50 feet off the deck.

You can cancel most shore excursions onboard up to 48 hours prior to arrival in a port. You will be given a refundable OBC which must be spent or cashed out on the last night of the cruise. There are a few exceptions for highly capacity controlled shore excursions like helicopter rides, float planes, etc. where you have to canceled 3 days prior to getting on the ship for the first time. NCL does not make any exceptions for weather. After 48 hours, they are committed to giving that money to their shore excursion vendors. HOWEVER, the vendor may cancel a tour if they are unable to operate (high winds, high seas for tours that require water transport). A few weeks ago, we had a beach day shore excursion cancel by the vendor due to extreme weather. For the most part, the tour providers want your money and don't cancel for a rainy day.

If you want to get on the first ferry, there is no issue if you make an effort and be there early. If you stroll up 5 minutes before departure time, you may find your self walking to the public ferry and paying. Also consider that there are NCL Shore Excursions that have "reserved" a number of seats on the ferry, so while you may peer in and see open seats, the ferry crew are holding some for Shore Ex.