Seas2mountains

Pricing for the Haven on NCL Joy in September is actually lower than other times of the year and is quite comparable to MSC YC pricing for deluxe balcony cabins. You could pay to upgrade to get a confirmed cabin. The Haven pool area on the Joy has a retractable roof for the poor weather days. The NCL ships have much better entertainment options than I have experienced on MSC when in YC and the staff on NCL provide excellent service throughout the ship. When on MSC, we have had great service in YC but it’s not as great when leaving the YC area. You may be surprised to find out that NCL can provide a wonderful cruise experience whether in the Haven or not.

You can arrive at any time for check-in. We haven’t had anyone ask for our check-in time when embarking in Miami this year. Since you are in the Haven, you will get to board ahead of the others close to 11am. Have a wonderful cruise!

That's great to hear you got a Matador made by Froilan! He does make the best Matador's and other drinks! I do agree with you about the acoustics in Henry's Pub as it was frustrating to try to hear the musicians play when people were yelling or speaking so loud in that venue. Wow on all the crew turnover to include Jerry being replaced with Jeimy. Do you know how long Jeimy will be on the Spirit? We are still hoping my husband can get time off from work for the Sept. 15-27 Honolulu to Papeete so we hope some of the crew will still be on the ship in two months. The Spirit Bridge camera does not look good right now. Was there "too much ice" again? Did I miss your update about the Dinner with the Officers or did that not happen as planned? How sweet on the Peach Bellini with your name on it in Magnums! Was that Jane or Cherryl? I think she had two R's in her name and not two Y's. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed listening to Valentyna and are now liking Anfisa's music. That is too funny about Dad finding his truffles in the safe. Yes, sometimes you just have to go with his answer. 🤣

I'm so glad to hear you are having a wonderful cruise! Was that Cheryyl (I might have the spelling wrong but I don't think it was Cheryl) or was it Jane? Cheryyl went all the way to Henry's Pub to get me a Matador. In either case, they were wonderful. Do you know who will be replacing Valentyna? We also loved Onda. Have you had a chance to go to Taste for dinner? Sorry about your Cagney's experience earlier in the week for dinner. I'm hoping you can get closer to Hubbard tomorrow.

When considering the big NCL ships, Bliss is my favorite over Encore, Getaway, and Breakaway but we have not tried Joy or Epic. I agree with you about Bliss in Alaska. It’s also one choppy sea day to get there and another on the way back. It’s best to consider Jewel or a longer Sun cruise or my new favorite, the Spirit for the short time left in Alaska this season.

Port: Seward Ship: Spirit Room: I initially thought you meant room/venue on the ship. Lol. Doesn't matter. Whatever you can afford. Room/venue on ship: We hung out in Spinnaker lounge (a beautiful observation lounge) when it was cold but scenic and in Spice H2O when the weather was nice.

Cruised several times on NCL in the past two months. Sky - May 5th. Cabins ready at 2:30pm Escape - May 28th Cabins ready at 2:30pm Spirit - June 21st. Cabins ready at 1:11pm Spirit- June 28th Cabins ready at about 1pm.

@YVRteacher I’m dying laughing about your spa etiquette class. When we were there one day last week, a man was in the jetted shower area and was apparently quite happy with it. He sounded like the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally and he did that for several minutes. Those of us in the spa area were all giggling as I think he must have had no idea we could all hear him. 🤣 On the passenger counts for our cruise last week, I kept getting different answers but they ranged from 1500-1700. I got the latitude level info from Ray and I was also disappointed that Stephanie didn’t mention it during the party. For me, it’s interesting to hear the numbers by level and I do think they should recognize the Ambassador and Diamond guests. We had the same thing happen at Onda when we had one night with a late reservation at 8:45pm but they had no problem seating us at 6pm. Next time you go, you’ll have to see if you like the San Remo if you haven’t already tried it. I’m glad you like B12 as much as we did and I’m sorry to hear they are too loud for Dad. Yes, Over the Moon is fantastic. I hope you can catch Jonathan when he plays Free Bird from Lynyrd Skynyrd as he is so talented as is Jellica with the amazing range of songs she can sing. If you are in Magnum’s when Over the Moon is there and also when the server, Jane, is present, please encourage her to sing with them as they did have her sing the first week and we really enjoyed it. I hope you can get into Henry’s Pub as Froilan was the best bartender and we also loved the server, Orlando. If Over the Moon is playing there, you can ask if Orlando can sing with them as he did last week and he was also excellent. He was nervous as is expected but also so proud of how the crowd cheered him on during and after his performance. Did anyone touch the sheets during the BTS tour? @bluesea777 is spot on about going to Taste for dinner. Have a wonderful day in Sitka! I’m so glad to hear you are having a great time and I’m sure the seas will be calmer soon. P.S. We had no noise issues in the balcony cabins on deck 10 except hearing one of our neighbors sound like he was going to cough up his lungs every night the second week. We took plenty of Airborne and have had no cold symptoms so far. Several people on the social media group for our cruise are reporting they have Covid but those reports seem to happen after every cruise we have taken post-Covid. Oh and another P.S., you took amazing notes on the BTS tour. I’m so impressed as I would not have been able to remember 1/10th of the ones you wrote about.

Looks like you had a gorgeous day at ISP followed by a great dinner at Cagney’s. That’s wonderful! I’m sorry to hear about the underwhelming whale watching and seafood fest tour. Was it a tour through NCL or an independent operator? We did the 2.5 hour whale watching one through NCL at ISP and it was actually really good. I’m loving your review! Thank you for all the great photos. Hope you are feeling better. Happy Birthday!

While the first time listed for disembarkation on this says 8:30am, they actually started it at 7:30am. With it being a smaller ship, we had no lines when we got off at 8:30am.

Day 7/14 daily. I was not able to get the PDF version to download as the wifi was too slow.

My final update may be a bit delayed as my summer break ended yesterday and I was back at school where I work at an alternative school that follows a year-round calendar. My husband is also back at work. We keep trying to decide if the extended vacation like a 14 day cruise plus travel time is worth the craziness of diving back into work before getting all laundry and other tasks done. I think it may be worth it. 😃 My next extended school break is in September so we would love to go on the 12-day Spirit cruise from Hawaii to French Polynesia and Tahiti. We loved the crew and the design of the Spirit. We did miss some comforts from other ships but also love the itinerary of that cruise. I also need to post the final daily. Thank you for following along.

Your backpacking trip sounds fun and that time of year is nice in that area. That is great that you have FCC to use, too! We were surprised by the Fourth of July celebration, too, and how many people attended. Now the one thing that really surprised me was the fact that they had the Boston Pops concert and fireworks broadcast on the big screen in the atrium beginning at 5pm Pacific time. I did not realize how many people were interested in it as the atrium was filled during the before dinner crowd.

We are home now and I am so excited to stay on the ship through your updates. Ray (I think he referred to himself as Ray and not Raymond) gave an outstanding BTS tour. When you go, watch to see how many people touch the clean sheets after he asks them not to touch them. Ewww - so gross. We loved Jerry the cruise director! He was one of the best ones we have had in awhile. You should not miss the Cake decorating session which may be tomorrow. But it is also a little gross as he feeds some of the chocolate, cake and whipped cream directly to the kids' by putting them inside their mouths. By the end my husband and I wondered, how many times his gloved hands touched the saliva in kids' mouths and in some cases adults were happy to be fed those items in their mouth, too. That is really neat that he is related to a cruise director you know.

We enjoyed lunch outside at the Great Outdoors followed by most of the afternoon in the hot tub and soaking up the sun in H2O. They did serve grilled salmon on the pool deck and in Garden Cafe. It tasted really good so maybe it was somewhat fresh? They also had Fourth of July BBQ items. Throughout the cruise, we really enjoyed meeting new people and having fun conversations about their excursions and their travels. When at the pool, people were commenting that they didn’t plan on having a nice tan after an Alaskan cruise. Since we wanted to see a before dinner set by Over the Moon, we didn’t leave time for a nap but could have used one. We had a delicious final dinner at Cagney’s but ordered one appetizer and skipped the salad or soup option even through we tried eating light for lunch. We had no room for dessert so we were able to catch the final songs played by Over the Moon in a busy Henry’s Pub as they have created many fans of their music. Now that we said our goodbyes to the servers in Magnums and Henry’s Pub, we needed to get to Spinnaker to say goodbye there after hearing B12 and a combined performance by B12, Over the Moon and Nature’s Rhythm. As we tend to focus on live music and don’t go to too many theater events, I dragged my husband to Elements earlier in the evening but we sat on deck 8 in the back row where we were able to quietly slip out when we decided it wasn’t something we cared to stay for the entire time. We loved World Beat and Blazing Boots but this was just not our favorite. On our flight now so will update with final comments later. We hope to be home tonight when the Spirit is beginning. sail away.

On Tuesday morning, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Great Outdoors as the weather was gorgeous. This was later for us than normal as we turned clocks ahead an hour that night. After breakfast, we went to the talk given by the cruise director, Jerry, about the Spirit. Jerry used slides and gave handouts on the technical specifications. Jerry spoke for about 20 minutes until the Captain, Chief Engineer and General Manager for Q&A. That lasted about another 20 minutes of questions. One guest did ask why the tug was used in Skagway as the guest asked if something on the ship was broken to require the use of the tug. The captain explained it was needed due to the strong cross winds which we blowing at about 25-27 knots. He said the Spirit needs the extra power as a safety precaution to ensure the ship didn’t get pushed into the dock by the wind. We definitely saw the tug pushing and pulling. Another guest asked about missing Hubbard Glacier due to weather. The captain explained that it can be a difficult decision to make as they also have to anticipate changing weather conditions on the return from the glacier and the tight timelines they have as other ships are scheduled along with the pilot. After the talk, we watched another really funny Battle of the Cake Masters (can’t remember the name) and then walked on the promenade level and it was a little busy with other walkers and shuffleboard players as the weather was so nice. We enjoyed a very challenging Fourth of July trivia where most of the crowd struggled to get more than 5 questions correct. After trivia, they had a very nice and well attended a Fourth of July veteran event in Spinnaker. They honored the veteran with the most years of service and the one with the least on active duty. They served a cake for all and had singers to sing the National anthem.

After the dinner on Monday night, we enjoyed all three sets played by Jonathan and Jellica with Over the Moon. After they go on vacation at the end of July, they think their next ship may be the Epic. We did find their group page on social media to follow them.

On the first half of the B2B, we let the Cruise Next representative know we were interested in the Dinner with the Officers when we scheduled the Behind the Scenes tour and wine tasting. They told us we would be contacted in a few days. We never got contacted for the dinner. We let them know at the beginning of the second half that we were interested in the dinner and also let them know we were never contacted for it on the first half. Both CN reps apologized and assured us we would be scheduled this time. I believe we got the letter for the dinner on Friday night and were asked to RSVP by Saturday morning for a dinner scheduled on Monday evening. When we were at Onda for dinner on Monday evening, the person who organizes the dinners is named Lovely and she came into Onda to let us know there was a change to our time and the officers. Her personality matches her name. It was kind of creepy that she knew how to find us until we realized they can see where we are by our card scans for food, drinks and when we are in the room. When we arrived at Guest Services at the time for the dinner, we were directed to seats to wait and offered champagne. We joined four other guests with two of the officers/managers for dinner in Windows. It was really nice to hear the experiences of the managers and the other guests who were all frequent cruisers. The only downside to the dinner was the wine wasn’t very good so myself and others didn’t drink it. We would do this again based on the nice conversations. We did ask what the funniest things the managers had heard guests ask and both said they have guests who ask which elevator will get them to the aft or forward area of the ship. 🤣 Last night when we returned to our room before dinner, there were cheese treats and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, with it being the last night, all the cheese went to waste as we were not hungry after dinner. We did have plastic bags to put it in the refrigerator but forgot about it this morning but would not have been able to take it through customs. Since we didn’t care for the wine, we left the bottle in the room.

Thank you for your kind comments and for following along. Do you have a future cruise planned? I love your live reviews.

Thank you! We did. I’m so excited for you and your Dad. I’m also looking forward to reading your review these next two weeks. I hope you and your Dad have a wonderful cruise! We really liked eating outside at the Great Outdoors the last three mornings for breakfast. It looks like you will have gorgeous weather on most days. I know you and Dad will get to eat in Cagney’s for breakfast and lunch. There is a wonderful waitress we had at Cagney’s who I believe also works there for the earlier meals for the suite guests. Her name on her name tag says Katherine but she introduces herself as Kat.

We disembarked this morning at 8:30am and carried all luggage with us as was recommended with the strike but we almost always carry all of our bags off the ship. This process was so easy and we were through Canadian customs in a few minutes and in a cab on the way to the airport. Disembarkation started at 7:30am which was earlier than expected. While we know the train to the airport is easy to take and we have done this on past trips, we wanted to be pampered and not hassle with carrying all bags too far. With the current exchange rate, it really wasn’t too bad for the cost. We kept our flight as scheduled before 1pm and did not change the time as NCL recommended due to possible disembarkation delays due to the strike. It took an hour to check bags, get through Global Entry and US customs. After waiting in the Global Entry line for security, we realized the line and wait was much longer than if we had gone in the regular line. I’ll update on our last day and the Dinner with the Officers on Monday night.

Sunny and warm at sea day warm enough for people to be in the pool and using most lounge chairs + slow Wifi 🐢 + last day + having lots of fun = delayed update until we disembark tomorrow 😎

Yes. On the Spirit now. Here is a photo.

The new-to-me drink for today is an unknown drink called the “‘my name” special made by Kenny at Spice H2O. It had a nice hint of peach to it and wasn’t too sweet. I have no idea what is in it but was assured there was no pineapple involved. I did like it.

The new-to-me drink/shot from yesterday was the Duck Fart in Henry’s pub. The bottom layer is Kahlua, the middle layer is Bailey’s and the top layer is whiskey. It was pretty good.