Seas2mountains

Happy Cruise Day! It sounds like the human confirmation may pop up when posting photos? I did not have to confirm I’m human with this post.

Are you sailing from Vancouver to Seward or Seward to Vancouver? The ports are slightly different depending on the cruise with Icy Strait Point I highly recommend an excursion in Seward through Major Marine Tours or Kenai Fjord Tours. They will take you up close to see glaciers and wildlife while being protected from the unpredictable weather. In Skagway, you can do a price comparison for the White Pass Summit excursion directly with the railroad or through NCL. You get on the train close to the cruise ship if booking through NCL. You can book the Ghost and Good Times Girls tour independently or through NCL. I recommend both options if you have time.

Suites on Spirit, POA, Sun class and Jewel class ships have butler service. Suites on the Joy that are not in the Haven do not have butler service. There are suites on the Prima and Viva that I believe do have butler service but do not have access to the Haven or the Haven restaurant. All Haven suites have butler service.

I recommend going to Summer Palace to have a leisurely lunch while you are waiting for the cabins to be ready. You will likely have time to explore the ship after lunch. Here is a screenshot from the daily on 12/09/2023 with the times the restaurants were open. Boarding began at about 11:15am for our cruise.

That is a crazy price for a pre-order when you or they can order a cheese tray from room service for the $9.95 charge plus gratuity. Glad to hear your DD made it there safely.

I also had to Google FFS. Lol to @laudergayle 😎

Oh no. We hope your DD gets there safely soon. At least she drove up before embarkation day. Looking forward to following along. It sounds like a fun cruise! We had a DS join us on a cruise this year and it was a trip of a lifetime for more reasons than I can explain in this post. We are planning a cruise with a DD in May and will have the other three DS/DD join us soon after but one at a time we think so far. Looking forward to your live review! Again, enjoy the time with your DD’s, family and friends.

It was Rolland on the 12/9-12/18 Pearl cruise.

OCS? Officer Candidate School? If so, did you try to connect your new Latitudes number to ID.me to register as a military veteran? Here are details on the 10% discount. https://www.ncl.com/military If you register, you will get a military packet with a ship patch and veteran pin in a cute vacation packet that looks like military orders and assuming they still do this program in April 2025, you will get invited to a military reception which has been neat. When these first started, there were probably 15-20 veterans in attendance but on our most recent cruises on the Spirit in September it was about 40-50 people and last week on the Pearl we were stunned to see about 200 people or so. We love the Thermal Spa on all ships. Do avoid the peak times if you want to avoid people.

There is a glitch with the reservations for Onda on the Spirit. You should be able to call to make reservations or make them after embarkation. Onda was excellent on the Spirit! While Windows is a beautiful dining room with huge windows, Taste is smaller and more intimate. As Windows is so large, we found the food tended to be served hotter in Taste and service was faster as the servers didn’t have to travel as far with the food in most cases. The updated guidance when we were on for Hawaii to Tahiti in September allowed shorts in both dining rooms. Enjoy your cruise on my favorite NCL ship! I also think it’s the happiest crew we have encountered on any NCL ship. Sailing at much less than capacity may have factored into the reason why, too.

We love the thermal spa and purchase the passes for almost all cruises. The only bummer is you have to wait until around or after sail away to use it on the first day as they give spa tours. We highly recommend it and choose it over Vibe passes.

Thank you for posting this update. We appreciate knowing this as we are on the Pearl and should be in Miami early tomorrow. We know the delays today could impact our arrival tomorrow and we do have early flights. For us, we had a really calm night but we are now sailing into the pouring rain with poor visibility. I hope you all can enjoy the extended time on the ship without too much stress of missing a flight.

We also enjoyed listening to Familiar Strangers but on a different NCL ship.The one song they either played often or it was a coincidence that we heard it a few times was the song originally performed by Bill Withers called Lovely Day. When I see the name of Familiar Strangers, I think of that song. Duo Rika is also a good and fun option. The male singer likes to dress like Elvis for an Elvis set. You have some good choices if both groups stay on the ship.

Enjoying your honest and humorous comments along with the photos. Thank you for the time you are spending on this live review. It’s been wonderful to follow the live reviews on the Prima and Viva the past two weeks. 😎 I’m glad you still have several more days remaining. I know it’s rare to find decent pizza on the ship. For some reason, the La Cucina pizza served at lunch on the Sky has been the only pizza that seemed decent. But have you tried the mushroom flatbread in the Haven for lunch? It’s not pizza but my husband and I get addicted to it when we are in a suite or when we were in the Haven.

Looks like Taino Bay from the posted photo

Thank you for sharing the shrimp photos. I thought 13 was the magic number. 😄 That is crazy that they insist on serving it with the Shrimp Louie salad. I’m sorry to hear about the food quality this cruise and the ongoing absence of the breakfast hash browns. I can’t say death of them as I have to hold out hope for them coming back some day. The only other big changes we noticed with the 30% cuts in food have been the change in steak quality (was filet and now is NY strip) at Teppanyaki. We no longer order the steak and shrimp but now order chicken and shrimp. The second big change was when the buffet closed a few hours earlier which had to save a lot of $ in food waste. We also tend to avoid most of the production shows in the theater but loved Choir of Man. I think my husband would not want to see the Donna Summer in the theater but he’d enjoy the music if it were played by a band or duo or soloist in a smaller venue. Thank you for taking us along! I want to be like the ambassador couple constantly on cruises, too, but also without the crankiness and public arguments. Lol on the pajamas family. We had a similar sighting in a hotel in Florida this week. It completely ruined our getaway - Not! Haha. Enjoy the rest of the cruise!

The thing is the “proper hash browns” are rare to have a layer of crispiness in most restaurants and I’ve unfortunately been served barely thawed soggy shredded potatoes with no crispy top layers.

They do have crepes but for some unknown reason, they ditched the breakfast hash browns. My husband and I have been on 24 NCL cruises and have not consumed a single crepe. We may need to remember to skip dessert and try a crepe on the next cruise. I think I’m glad they kept the crepes for those who love these but really wish the hash browns would return to the breakfast menu. The breakfast potatoes with onions and peppers are not even close and are such a waste.

Oops. I got mixed up on the day you leave. It’s been a quite the week with kids at my school. Wait, no, it’s not the kids but the adult staff and teachers. IYKYK. I’m wondering how many shrimp 🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤will be in your husband’s shrimp cocktail? Was it 13 in the past? Will you or your husband order any other off menu items in the Haven? Are you mentally prepared for a cruise without the breakfast hash browns? 😂🤣 By the time you get caught up on CC, my husband and I will be almost getting on the Pearl out of Miami for 9 nights. Your review will make the days go by faster. We are looking forward to the mushroom flatbread. Yum! And I guess I’ll somehow survive without the hash browns by consoling myself with the almond croissants. 🥐 I’d still take hash browns instead of almond croissants. If you feel like posting pics of mushroom flatbread and almond croissants and of course the number of shrimp in your husband’s off menu shrimp cocktail, I won’t mind at all. 😎

Thank you for the suggestions. I tend to read more don't tend to listen to podcasts but several that you suggested do sound really interesting and I may need to check them out. I also have an MBA and enjoy keeping up with the economy and financial markets, too, so I will check out Kai Ryssdal. Sorry I don't have any suggestions to share with you. Have a safe and hopefully uneventful travel day tomorrow! Can't wait to follow along! 😎

Thank you. Will you be doing the Major Marine or the Kenai Fjords tour in Seward? I highly recommend it if you haven’t experienced one of these tours in Seward. We prefer Vancouver to Seward or vice versa rather than the Seattle round trip. We actually have had hotel rooms reserved at Harbor 360 hotel in Seward for June ‘24 as we thought one of our our daughters could get the time off work but she can only take one week at a time so the Jewel plans were scrapped. So it’s either the Encore or something else.

Happy Birthday to you! I'm so sorry to hear about your fall. That sure sounds painful. I hope your bruise goes away quickly. Thank you again for taking the time to provide a wonderful review and photos! I appreciate your reminder last night about the Bliss not going to Glacier Bay. I'm sure we will stick with Encore if we do choose to do this with family this summer. When and where is your next cruise if you have one planned? When in Le Bistro on Escape in May/June, two people in our family ordered the filet de boeuf without the foie gras and those entrees were not charged the $10 supplement. However, when my husband tried to do this on the Spirit this summer, we initially got charged the $10 but it was corrected.

I do work at a school but don't send out too many emails to parents. I don't completely trust it as I have found some inaccuracies. It has been interesting to read what ChatGPT produces as I have not ever copied and pasted the suggested email but used it as a guide. When reading that you were putting together your plans for Barcelona, I wondered if ChatGPT could help as I have been experimenting with it for travel plans. I'm excited to read all about your adventures and to get some ideas for Barcelona! That is wonderful that you and your husband are just a few days away from this adventure!

You are correct. We honestly only want to the Vancouver to Seward and back routes but have to consider our family limited vacation time to offer the shortened Bliss or Encore options. Would choose @laudergayle 's suggestion of Encore with Glacier Bay over the Bliss options. We were deeply disappointed when our B2B Spirit skipped Hubbard Glacier the entire Alaskian cruise session.

Lucky!!! We are so jealous. Trying to figure out a weekend getaway soon to Redondo Beach and we walk past Hermosa Beach as we love taking a long walk along the beach past the pier and going North of that area. It’s fun to see all the volleyball players as we dodge the bikes. If you are considering the Bliss for this itinerary, do consider staying in this area as highly recommended by two of us on this thread. 😁