Pens fan

We had the shortened list on the Sun last summer, and I was bummed that there was no Albarino. I do enjoy sauvignon blanc though, and I thought the Matua was very good. The North South sauvignon blanc was borderline awful in my opinion. We also had the pinot noir and malbec and they were drinkable. The second glass was always better than the first ;)

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We will be on the Gem this fall sailing from Quebec to NYC. I can't wait, and this is just a nice preview of what we have to look forward to.

Great pictures - and I really appreciate you labelling them. Sometimes it's not always so obvious what we are looking at. :D

I brought a pair on our Alaska cruise last summer as we planned on doing some hiking during the land based portion of the trip. I packed them in my checked luggage and there were no issues at all. No one said a word about them.

Who knows how much of that article is legit anyway. They couldn't even get the basic facts right on what documentation is required. If you can't get a key part of the story right I have to question the rest of the heart tugging fluff.

I think this is what makes the whole article reek of click bait. I feel for the couple. It's awful that they missed their cruise, but when a "journalist" makes an error such as this one in the story you have to ask what else is simply incorrect or exaggerated? Having a drivers license and no other form of identification would not (and should not) get anyone on that ship. To imply otherwise, means the reporter/editor either couldn't be bother to fact check the article or is intentionally trying to mislead the readers to further enrage them. If you read some of the comments on their website (as well as a few on here), it worked!

My heart goes out to the couple, but I'm pretty sure the author of this article got one very important part wrong. It states that under NCL's procedures the couple should have been allowed to board with a drivers license, which they both had on them. Is that actually true? I have always thought (and see on their website) that in addition to a government issued photo ID, you had to have proof of citizenship (most people use a birth certificate).

That'a a pretty crucial piece of the article to get wrong, and makes NCL come of a lot worse than they actually should here. Don't get me wrong, what happened is heartbreaking, but mistakes were made all the way around, including the person who wrote the article.

Edited to add: Oops! I guess I should have read all the responses! This was already pointed out several times above. :p

The one surprise I had with the UBP was how eager the waiters were at bringing us drinks - especially in the dining rooms. The majority of the time, they would ask us if we wanted a second drink long before the first one was even gone. Sometimes they just brought a second one without asking. That surprised me, as I really expected just the opposite. Now, for sure, we rewarded those waiters for their service at the end of the meal, but they didn't know we were going to do that when they were bringing us drink after drink.

I understand completely. We are in the same situation. We enjoy Disney and have loved every DCL cruise we've taken. But now that our son is almost 20, I just can't justify the extra cost. Like you, I've found that we can sail in suites with all of their wonderful perks for less money that what we would spend on a regular balcony cabin with Disney. Having the characters around just isn't enough to balance that out for me. I keep looking at their cruises, though and maybe someday we will be back on one of their ships. But it will have to be a really, really good deal.

Our next two cruises are both with NCL in Aft Penthouse Suites and I'm very excited about both of them (and the price that we paid).

And the bed thing is just baffling to me. While we prefer the beds be together, I cannot understand Disney's choice to just eliminate the option of two separate beds completely. Lots of people cruise with friends, older children, etc. where having one bed would just be awkward. And most adults would prefer an actual bed to a pullout sofa or a bed coming out of the ceiling. As you suggested having some rooms with the single bed and some that can be split just makes good business sense. Sometimes I think Disney doesn't think they have to make those kind of accommodations to their customers (company wide). They just assume people will flock to see Mickey regardless, and for the most part they are correct. There is just an arrogance lately in a lot of my dealings with them (working on a WDW trip this Christmas) that is rubbing me the wrong way.

(Sorry for the rant!)

Enjoy your Princess cruise!!

I may have been unclear in my previous post about the dining. I was referring to having private breakfast & lunch in Cagney's (not in-room dining )as a non-haven suite perk. Sorry for any confusion. I would also add that I am a platinum plus cruiser and my CC is the same each cruise, not just whoever answers the phone during a booking. He has always been attentive and his information very accurate. I am still researching whether the perk has been eliminated for non-Haven suites. Thank you to all who have being responding.

I'm not sure if you were referring to my post that mentioned in-room dining, but you were very clear in your post. I'm probably the one that wasn't clear in making my point :'). What I was attempting to say was that if non Haven suite guests could no longer use the suite restaurant, then they would probably be more inclined to just order breakfast and lunch into their cabin rather that having to hit one of the more crowded venues available to all passengers. That would just make more work for the butlers, so it really wouldn't make sense for NCL to take away the suite restaurant perk for non Haven suite passengers.

I don't see any advantage for the cruise line should they do this (they are still going to feed those guests, regardless of venue), and it would be extremely unpopular with the affected passengers.

If you think about it, this wouldn't even make sense for NCL to take that away from the non Haven suites. It would probably make more work for the butlers, as I imagine passengers in those suites would be more inclined to order breakfast and lunch in their cabin. I know that's what we would do.

Thanks! That makes sense. I wanted to make sure if we headed back out to explore Quebec City some more on the first day, we wouldn't miss the drill.

We just switched from the cancelled 9/28 Gem cruise to the 10/08 one. It begins in Quebec City with an overnight on the 8th and sail away on the 9th. I'm wondering when they will hold the muster drill - on the 8th or the 9th?

Has anyone experienced this before? Thanks!

While I'm bummed about the one way trip - now we will have to fly vs an easy drive to and from NYC, I do like the extra ports. I haven't received an email, but we booked through a TA, so I imagine I'll be getting one shortly.

I hope that's all this is. While I would miss the overnight in Quebec, it's still a nice long day and that's a decent trade off for us, at least, to keep this r/t out of NYC. I also like the longer time in Halifax - love that city!

For excursion recommendations, I'll share what we have done in the past:

Juneau - whale watching and fishing excursion through Rum Runners - can't say enough good things about Captain Chris (and his adorable lab Brandi) - just a wonderful day - and we now have a freezer full of salmon!!

Ketchikan - we did a float plane trip to Anan Creek through Island Wings to go bear watching. This was a day we will never forget - so many bears and eagles!!

Skagway - We used Skagway Private Tours for a trip into the Yukon and Emerald Lake. This was a wonderful day. Touring with Sherry is not like your typical tour. It's like spending the day with an old friend. We still keep in touch.

As for renting a car in Seward - yes you can. Hertz does one way rentals between Seward and Anchorage, so I would assume you can also drop off in Fairbanks. They also have a free shuttle from the port to their office. When I checked prices last summer the price difference between a one way rental vs renting in Anchorage was minimal and in no way justified the cost of getting to Anchorage from Seward by either bus or train. We had been to Denali (and Fairbanks) previously on a land based trip, so we opted to spend the week on the Kenai peninsula. We spent four nights in Homer and honestly, it wasn't nearly enough. It's probably our favorite place we have been in Alaska. One day we used Alaska Ultimate Safaris to fly by helicopter to Lake Clarke National park to look for Alaskan brown bears (basically grizzlies). At one point we were completely surrounded by about 20 of them. Honestly, the coolest thing we have ever done in our entire lives.

Have fun planning! As others have mentioned, the port of call boards will have tons of info for you.

We are on one of these cruises. When we booked a year ago it was a round trip from NYC. A few days ago, my reservation showed the disembarkation port changing from NYC to Quebec City. As I had not received any notification from NCL that they had changed from a round trip cruise to a one way cruise to Quebec, I called them. That was a complete waste of time. The rep tried to convince me that it had always been a one way cruise to Quebec. Ummm - no. I can read my confirmation, thank you very much - and it showed a round trip out of NYC.

A couple of days later, my reservation now shows no itinerary at all. It all just disappeared. Still no notification from NCL as to what they doing with this cruise. After years of sailing with Disney (with fantastic customer service) , we tried NCL last summer for the first time and were extremely impressed. Now ....... not so much.

The NCL rep that I talked to was completely useless. It appears they have no clue as to what is going on with these cruises. It's not just this cruise, but all of the 10 day Canadian cruises in Sept / Oct. They are just gone and if anyone at NCL knows why, they don't feel the need to share that with the passengers at this point.

Frustrating.

I called NCL yesterday to inquired about the 9/28 cruise, and it was a complete waste of time. At first the rep told me that as she couldn't see any change of itinerary notice for that cruise in her system, it must have always been a one way cruise to Quebec :rolleyes:. Ummmm - no.

When I finally convinced her that, yes, it was a round trip cruise out of NYC when I booked a year ago, she just played the "cruise contract gives us the right to change ports" card. I told her that I understood that, but that I thought switching from a round trip cruise to a one way, disembarking in another country, should at least warrant an email from the company alerting passengers if this is actually what's happening.

The only other information she had was that they had received a notice that day stating that those cruises were not available for sale at this time. Whatever that means. :mad:

I really hope this is a glitch. The main selling point for this cruise for us was the fact that it was a roundtrip out of NYC. While I understand that ports are subject to change, switching the cruise from a round trip to a one way is not cool. At all.

I'm still thinking this is just a website screw up and will all be resolved shortly. Time will tell.

I guess I will have to get out my Rick Steves books and look into these places

Unfortunately I don't think Plitvice is doable from Dubrovnik, but it's definitely something to plan for on a land based trip to Croatia. Dubrovnik looks like it will easily fill a day.

And, yes, I'm sitting here right now surrounded by Rick Steves books!!! :') I mean it's never too early to start planning.

I'm booked on this cruise, too. But, it's the wrong cruise! When I mapped it out I figured out that it is, in fact a 14-night itinerary. That would require 14 vacation days, which is too much for me. So I'm moving to the 12-night out of Venice. It eliminates the Greek island I had never heard of, Sicily and one port day, but it adds Marseille and Barcelona. Since my sister has never been to Europe, I think this is a better itinerary for us. Unfortunately the cruise is on Star, but she's going in for dry dock in the spring. I'm praying for a substantial gut job.

 

Sorry I won't be sailing with you, but congratulations on your dream cruise!!

Thanks! We were torn between those exact same two cruise and finally decided to go for long one. Your itinerary was tempting, though. I especially liked the idea of embarking in Venice and ending in Barcelona. The deciding factor for us though, was price. We stayed in an aft penthouse on the Sun last summer and it basically ruined us for any other type of cabin :p. The aft penthouse on the 12 day Star cruise was $1500 more than the 14 day on the Jade. This being such a port intensive cruise, I don't think the ship really matters. The pictures I've seen of the Jade post dry-dock look beautiful, but if the Star is going to be renovated, I'm sure it will as well.

Honestly, either one looks amazing and we are beyond excited. My husband has been to Italy, but I haven't and neither of us have been to any of the other ports.

Dubrovnik is very cool, my son has been there twice and loved it. He's with the Peace Corps working in Macedonia and my wife and I are going to Croatia for a week next June and will meet up with him there

Plitvice Lakes National Park looks beautiful!

The price is reasonable - it will cost us less than a B2B we were going to book and the extended time in Venice without paying for a hotel is even better. I have so much planning to do and am already researching.

 

Are you all spending any time pre or post cruise in Rome?

We will definitely spend some time somewhere in Italy prior to the cruise at least and maybe just an overnight in Rome afterwards. I'd love to spend a couple of days in Tuscany, so that might be an option along with Rome. So much planning to do - and that's half the fun!! :cool:

I'm really excited about Dubrovnik and Montenegro as well. We've been contemplating a land trip to that area in the future, so this will give us a nice preview.

We booked the same cruise last night! I think the itinerary is a perfect. At first I was confused as NCL calls it an 11 night cruise on their website, but it's actually 14 days. We thought the price we paid was very reasonable for a 2 week cruise and the ports are all places we've wanted to see. But then, most of our cruising history has been on Disney, so pretty much anything seems reasonable to us after paying their prices.

I've got Cruise Next certificates burning a hole in my pocket. I've been stalking this board and their website looking for 2019 Europe offerings. Hopefully soon!

We were on the NCL Sun last summer in Alaska which sailed one way from Vancouver to Seward and absolutely loved it. I agree that Glacier Bay is special, though we also enjoyed our Disney cruise that went through Tracy Arm Fjord. Previously we had sailed five times on Disney and once on Carnival (years ago). Our son is nineteen and for there adults traveling together, we thought NCL was a great fit - so much so that we purchased four cruise next certificates while on board. We don't gamble, so we just didn't go into the casino except to pass through a couple of times going somewhere else.

We did enjoy the specialty restaurants very much, but found the MDR food to be more than adequate and frankly so much better than what we had experienced on Disney in the past. We are casual folks, and really don't enjoy dressing up when on vacation, so found NCL's "freestyle" vibe perfect for us. We do drink alcohol, so appreciated the drink packages, but you certainly don't have to choose that as one of your perks.

I will give you one piece of advice. I know you said you don't do shore excursions and just walk around the ports. If there is one place you really need to get out of the ports and explore, it's Alaska. The port towns have their own charms, for sure, but make no mistake - they are basically the same old cruise ship shops dressed up in an Alaskan theme. But a quick trip to the surrounding wilderness will make for some marvelous adventures. You don't have to go through the cruise line (we don't!!), as there are plenty of reputable tour providers in all of these towns.

Have fun! You will love Alaska. This was our second cruise there and third trip to Alaska overall, and I'm sure we will be back again.