Seas2mountains

Yes, see this post. Northbound - swap dates for Hubbard Glacier and Icy Straight Point. Add Sitka. Southbound - go to Hubbard Glacier instead of Valdez and go to Icy Straight Point on day listed for Hubbard Glacier. On some cruises, it’s two hours more in Skagway on Sunday stops.

Wednesday, June 21st and 28th B2B. Thank you!

Yes, @quack2, the radio silence continues. Even an email from NCL to say there is a change and more information will be coming would be appreciated. We are now 6 days away from sailing. What will come first, 4-8 safety video emails or the notification of the port changes? My bet is on at least 1-2 safety video emails before seeing the email notification from NCL about the port changes. Our Icy Straight Point excursions appear on the new date but we can't see the new itinerary or book anything for Sitka yet. Who thinks we won't get notified until embarking on Wednesday? That is a possibility, too.

Here is the news release from the City of Valdez as of today: Norwegian Cruise Line Cancels the Remainder of the Valdez Port Calls for the 2023 Season For immediate release: 06/14/2023, 3:00 p.m. Valdez, AK - The City of Valdez profoundly regrets to announce the cancellation of all Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) port calls to Valdez, Alaska, for the remainder of the 2023 season. The City understands and shares the disappointment that may arise from this cancellation. We sincerely apologize to the passengers and all those who eagerly anticipated the arrival of the NCL ship in our picturesque port. The City of Valdez remains committed to supporting the tourism industry and fostering the growth of our local economy. We will work closely with Norwegian Cruise Line to explore alternative opportunities and future collaborations. The Port of Valdez remains an enchanting destination, and we are actively engaged in efforts to develop exciting new itineraries that will continue to showcase the natural beauty and unique experiences our city has to offer. About the Port of Valdez The Port of Valdez is a critical maritime gateway in Valdez, Alaska. It is known for its scenic beauty and strategic importance to Alaska's economy. As a vital hub for commerce, tourism, seafood, and marine transportation, the port supports local businesses and fosters regional economic growth. The Port of Valdez ensures the highest safety, sustainability, and community engagement standards. For media inquiries, please contact: Jeremy Talbott, Ports & Harbor Director City of Valdez, Alaska 907-202-0016 jtalbott@valdezak.gov

We have experienced the YC on Seaside and Divina and have two more MSC YC cruises booked in 2023 and 2024. We love the special treatment from the time you arrive at the white tent outside the port until disembarkation which included waiting comfortably and peacefully in Topsail to be among the last passengers to disembark. One thing that seems to happen more frequently in YC than we noticed in the Haven is the number of people who are not in the YC who make it into the YC areas like Topsail or One Pool or the restaurant and then get turned away. Some do get away with sneaking in a gate or door that doesn't lock properly but do get chased away eventually by the staff. You will see this often. Look at the current MSC YC live review on the Seascape. We have not tried a YC interior cabin but are considering this. We found that many people were allowed to go to dinner in shorts, tank tops, and flip flops and were not turned away. We did like the menu choices at both the Haven restaurant and in the YC restaurant. We do love the pool area of One Pool and the buffet options in that area if we didn't want to go to the YC restaurant. We did not find One Pool to be crowded and there always seemed to be some lounge chairs or tables with chairs available. The pizza on MSC is Ohhh so good!!!! You can order it from room service or get a slice from the main buffet. We did not care for the limited entertainment in Top Sail as it was really inconsistent but did like one duo who performed on Seaside. On Divina, a pianist came in occasionally for about 45 minutes. On MSC, if a performer was listed on the daily as performing at a lounge from say 6pm-10pm, you might arrive at 6:30pm to hear the performer mention at 6:40pm that they were taking a "15 minute break" only to not come back until 7:05ish and take 5 minutes to start performing and then the cycle would continue so they really actually performed about 30-35 minutes and found a way to stretch their 15 minute breaks to 20-30 minutes. We like the consistency of NCL and knowing a performer is scheduled and is there according to the daily schedule and you know exactly when they are on a break except in the District. If you go to the lounges on MSC to hear other entertainers, good luck on getting a drink as it may take awhile from servers who may or may not come to your table and you might need to wait at the bar. The one thing we LOVE about MSC YC is the stop at Ocean Cay. The restaurant there for YC guests is really nice and Ocean Cay being a dock and not requiring tender service is one of our favorite amenities of cruising MSC. We will continue to book NCL and will upgrade to Haven or Suites occasionally but are also happy in Club Balcony Suites. We also love the YC experience. Neither cruise line is perfect but we like many aspects of each choice. Please do report back on your experience.

No surprise as I expect NCL hasn’t prepared a communication for them yet.

I agree. Two ISP stops instead of one and a stop in Sitka should make this change okay. But, I’m hoping it’s worth a little on board credit. Yes, that is the website where I found the schedule changes. Sorry about the Meares Glacier cancelation with this change.

Oh no! Sorry to hear that! The whale watching in ISP is supposed to be among the best. We do have an excursion for whale watching in ISP but it is through NCL. I hope it works out to change the dates with the private excursion operator.

Yes, that is what I was seeing, too. We have only been to Sitka on one other cruise so will look forward to stopping again.

Using the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska website and assuming it is accurate, here is our old and new itinerary: Wed. June 21st - Depart Vancouver Thurs. June 22nd - At Sea - no change Fri. June 23rd - Was Icy Straight Point - now Sitka - 11:30am-6:00pm Sat. June 24th - Juneau - no change Sun. June 25th - Skagway - no port change but time was 7am-5pm, port schedule shows 7am-7pm Mon. June 26th - was Hubbard Glacier - now Icy Straight Point - 7am-6:30pm Tues. June 27th - was Valdez - now Hubbard Glacier - 7am-11:30am Wed. June 28th - Depart Seward Thurs. June 29th - was Valdez - now Hubbard Glacier- 2pm-8pm Fri, June 30th - was Hubbard Glacier - now Icy Straight Point - 7am-6pm Sat. July 1st - Skagway - no change Sun. July 2nd - Juneau - no change Mon. July 3rd - Ketchikan - no change Tues. July 4th - At sea - no change Wed. July 5th - Vancouver No word from NCL so far. We were excited to check out Valdez but are excited about stopping at Icy Straight Point twice and adding in Sitka - again if this information is factual.

I saw some posts on another internet location from people who are currently on the NCL Spirit as they reported that tour operators told them today was the last time NCL Spirit will stop in Valdez. We have a B2B booked on NCL Spirit starting in 8 days. The itinerary still shows Valdez but no excursions are available to be booked in Valdez. According to Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska website and calendar that was updated today, it appears to be true. https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/VDZ-Valdez-2023.pdf It seems we may have a stop added at Icy Straight Point. I have not seen any communications from NCL, yet. https://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ISP-Icy-Strait-Point-2023.pdf Is there anyone on NCL Spirit today or anyone getting on tomorrow who knows why this port stop is being canceled?

In Miami, they did not check for our check-in time on our paperwork in May for two different cruises but in New York in March, they would not let people through the line if the check-in time did not match. I think you should be able to get reservations on the first day for Moderno or Food Republic but Cagney's will fill up much faster. Are you able to get a reservation for Moderno by trying to book online?

The staff will direct you to the muster station as soon as you board the ship. It takes less than a minute to scan your key card and you can then go to restaurant reservations. You could go immediately to restaurant reservations and then to the muster station but in some cases the muster station may be on the way anyways.

How many people are in your party for dinner reservations? If it is for 2 people, it will be much easier than for a larger group. On May 28th, we boarded a few minutes after 11am and were among the first to board from the priority group. After going to our muster station, we went directly to restaurant reservations. We had to adjust some specialty dining reservations and it was more challenging for the ones with a party of 5 people than the ones for a party of 3 people. There have been times I have booked online for a party of 4 or 6 for the time that I wanted but then let them know once I got onboard that we are a party of 2. When we were disembarking with 5100 people on June 4th, we didn’t step into the cruise terminal until 10:55am or so. They were people behind us in line to disembark so I expect the cruise happening now didn’t start boarding until after 11am. You won’t need reservations for Manhattan if they handle it the way it was on our cruise with one mixed line for those with and without reservations.

Actually, you are the lucky one as you will get to embark early and can either enjoy the extra time on the ship before many others embark or can use the time to explore Seward. Since it looks like you are coming from the Eastern time zone, 6:45am is 10:45am in your time zone unless you plan to come in several days prior to adjust to the time change. You can get some breakfast options (not great but okay) on the train. It is worth the early wake up.

Thank you so much for your wonderful and detailed review! It makes it more exciting to hear that your husband and others who are experienced cruisers are saying that the Spirit is their favorite ship. We will get on the Spirit on June 21st-July 5th for a B2B. It looks like there are plenty of cabins still available for both sailings and I am sure while the cost to cruise may be low, the cost to get to and from Anchorage or Vancouver is the barrier for people to book last minute. We are hoping that neither cruise is at capacity like you experienced. Thank you for providing details on what you did at each port. We are still trying to figure out what to do in Valdez and it is what got us so interested in this itinerary rather than the Jewel is because of Valdez. Your comments are helpful. I'm sorry you weren't able to take the train and also missed having a car rental in Valdez. We have also stayed at Harbor 360 in Seward and do recommend it and find it so convenient to get to the port or to explore the city. We also loved the excursion with Major Marine. We found it easy to walk down to the Sea Life Center, too, from the hotel as we love taking long walks. I agree with you that many on the Alaskan cruise don't tend to dress up as much in the evening compared to warm weather cruises but I think it is also because of the long stops in each port. It's also helpful that you noted you were asked to get off earlier than listed in the disembarkation guide. Have a great time on your next cruise!

I am not sure if I mentioned that cabins were ready at 2:30pm for our floor and by 2:45pm or so all cabins were ready. They had announced that cabins would be available by 3pm in an early announcement about 12 Noon or 1pm. Our cabin steward, Nooman, (spelling?) was among the best we have had. The room was very clean and the bed for our granddaughter was ready when we got to the room after 2:30pm. Bags were ready at that time, too, but we did have to go down the hall to find them. He had our cabin cleaned before 10am on all days but one day. With how happy we were with how clean things were the first day, we tipped him that first day to thank him for having everything in order. As we were so pleased with how he came early to our room each day -something we appreciated, we tipped him on day 4 and again at the end of the cruise. We were in a Club Balcony Suite on deck 15 below the pool deck. We occasionally heard some pool chairs being moved but it wasn't too early or too late. The walls of the cabins seemed to be sound proof as we could not hear any conversations from neighbors and we sure hope they didn't hear our granddaughter when she was singing loud in the shower or singing and dancing in the room. Lol. We did not hear any cabin toilets being flushed which we can easily hear on other ships such as the Jewel class or Sun class ships.

Thank you! I bet your 12/9/23 cruise won't have too many kids to drive up the numbers. We have been on the Encore, Breakaway, Getaway and Bliss so we were familiar with the large numbers with Breakaway and Breakaway Plus ships but we were told there were 5118 passengers on this cruise which made it very crowded in the atrium, pool and main dining rooms at dinner. If we were a party of 2 people rather than 5 people, they said they had more options for us to modify our reservations.

Thank you for the suggestion. When I read live reviews, I prefer to see the photos as the PDF appears as a file that I then have to download and open to view. Are you suggesting that you can download the PDF and have it appear like photos or do you have to click on the file and open the attachment to view as a reader?

I really liked Casablanca and would choose that option for the food options and views over Mike's but we were in a situation with some really hungry family members and Mike's worked just fine for our group. I would warn that there are no views from Mike's and it is a bar restaurant.

Thank you for your kind words. Do you have an upcoming cruise planned? MSC Yacht Club is definitely relaxing and their One Pool area is much better than the Haven pool area. Yes, everyone had a great time and we really enjoyed the time with our granddaughter.

We waited until about 10:40am to disembark. While the lines were shorter than they had been, it still took until 10:56am to get into the cruise terminal and it was a little after 11am when we got through customs. The area outside the cruise terminal area was very crowded between the 5000+ people getting off the ship and 5000+ people getting on the ship. Since we didn't trust that an Uber XL would fit our 5 suitcases plus the 5 of us, we walked over to the taxi stand and waited about 3 minutes for a taxi mini-van to arrive to take us to the FLL airport. We don't know if the taxi driver charged extra for the five of us or for the tolls as he used the express lane and it cost $130 before tip which was much more than we paid in early May to take a taxi from the same cruise terminal to FLL - I think it was $80 then for two of us.

Thank you! Cane Garden Bay. It was about a 20 minute taxi ride.

Our son and his fiancée absolutely loved Choir of Man and were stunned to hear it was the first full performance by this new cast on this ship. My husband and I had seen the performance on another ship and while we also loved it, we had conflicts with dinner reservations and decided to listen to Ben in The District instead. They also loved hanging out in Syd’s Norman Pour House for the different performances and karaoke. People were in Syd’s long before the performance and it looked like every seat was taken. My husband and I enjoyed the performances on other less crowded ships so we again decided to go to The District instead.

Ropes course and Spice H20 photos.