Seas2mountains

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. 😁

Thank you @Rob_H for your wonderful live review. I appreciate the time you spent to update us on each port. Welcome home! We were on the Sky in early May and also loved the Sonata band!! I think they are on a break in the Philippines now until early January. I am following them on social media as I agree with you regarding how talented they are.

Thank you for your review. We also love the Bliss for all the reasons you mentioned and the Mexican port itinerary. Wow on all the time changes. We love going on cruises from Mountain time to Pacific time or Alaskan time or even Hawaiian time but going from Mountain time to Eastern time and island time always kicks our butts trying to adjust. That veggie pizza did look amazing and that corner room in the hotel looks awesome. I know what you mean about not wanting to eat on the bed. When we cruise out of LA, we love to stay in the Redondo Beach area. It’s a short drive to the cruise port but we love walking around that area as there is no need for a car with easy walking access to Whole Foods and many restaurants. Our favorites are Captain Kidds for lunch and Bluewater Grill for dinner. Standing by to learn what happens next. 😁. We would go back on the Bliss any day and are eyeing it for an Alaskan cruise to bring family in May. So glad to hear you had a wonderful cruise.

That looks great! I am having fun seeing what ChatGPT can do for several things including emails to parents and I do use it a lot when helping students research potential careers. That turned out better than I would have expected. Will you be using any of the suggested locations? I have not used it for travel yet but have used it for travel research.

Enjoying your live review - just read all of it now. That’s really neat that @Sugar Magnolia and @bluesea777 will be on with you on the TA in a few days. Will you all get to meet in person? Between this Viva live and the Prima live reviews by @cruiseny4life and @mking8288 I’ll definitely look forward to checking out CC during and before my week long Thanksgiving break. Have a wonderful cruise! Thank you all for taking the time to post updates and photos. Someday we will be on Prima and Viva but until then I’ll enjoy reading about all of your adventures and experiences.

There are the following Haven suites still available for that sailing: H6 - 1 HC - 1 HE - 9 HG - 3

The emails encouraging upgrades bids automatically get sent even if the Haven is sold out. If you can provide the ship name and sailing date, myself or others can look to see if there is any availability for the Haven. If it’s not full now, it may be sold out before they award upgrade bids. I’m not sure why, people believe a cabin category listed for an upgrade bid means there is availability for that category when the ship may be sold out except for oceanview and inside cabins. All cabins seem to be listed for upgrade bids even if they are sold out.

Do you live in the US? I assume you do since you are interested in an eTrade account. Do you have any retirement savings accounts through an employer such as a 401k, 403b or 457b or an IRA? If so, you may be able to trade shares from funds within the account to purchase 100 shares of NCL. This would mean that you wouldn’t have to create a new brokerage account just for NCL. My NCL shares are in a retirement account.

Thank you for providing details on your plans in Barcelona. That sounds like a great mix of locations to visit when you are there. I'm super excited to follow along. I did travel to Barcelona in May 2012 but immediately got on a cruise ship as it did not work in our schedule to arrive early as the 12 day Italy/Croatia/Greece cruise was already stretching our vacation days thin. We do need to go back to Spain and I look forward to getting ideas from your review. 🙂 I really wanted to see all the Gaudi places. Have you tried using Chat GPT to help you plan travel? I am finding it more useful than I expected. My husband was in Jackson, WY last night for a business trip. I often try to tag along with him when I can. We love it there but you are right about how expensive it is. It does sound like hiring 300 people will make the time fly by fast until you depart. Again, thank you for taking the time to write a live review. Besides reading about your travel adventures, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Prima as they are very mixed. Some love the Prima and others do not love her at all. Wishing you the best as you wrap up one more week at work.

Just found your review. Not sure how I missed seeing it last week. Thank you for doing a live review! I have enjoyed all your past reviews. I hope the days fly by for you until cruise day. Will you have any extra days pre-cruise in Barcelona? Love the photos and description of the Grand Canyon adventures. Cute dogs!

I found pics from our May/June 2023 cruise on the Escape.

That is true. We have had to adjust reservations to attend the dinner with the officers or in one case we declined the dinner when it conflicted with plans we didn’t want to change. We really enjoyed the dinner we have attended.

This is disappointing. We avoid eating potatoes when at home or at restaurants. The NCL breakfast hash browns were a treat. The breakfast potatoes they serve don’t taste good enough to consume the calories and carbs. We usually request no potatoes when ordering breakfast in the dining room but sometimes they add them to the plate despite us saying we won’t eat them. Oh well, I guess my body will thank me later. I wish they got rid of the breakfast potatoes and brought back the hash browns. Maybe if we add that to our end of cruise reviews??

Thank you for taking the time to do a live review and post photos! It is fun to follow along with you. Thank you for the update on the hash brown situation. It really is disappointing as they are oh soooo good! Have safe travels back and enjoy the sea days.

Thank you. I wondered how far in advance you plan these long B2B and B2B2Bs and more. Do you have any tips or suggestions on cruising so much within a year? My husband and I want to be just like you when we retire. Thank you again for your excellent review!

Our most recent cruise was in September of this year on NCL Spirit. Prior to that cruise, I remember reading a few live reviews noting the absence of the much beloved breakfast hash browns. I mentally prepared myself that there might not be any hash browns for that cruise. It's a good thing I did as we didn't see a single hash brown on the cruise and they were no longer listed on the menu in Windows. I swear we had breakfast hash browns on the Spirit in June/July but I honestly don't remember. Has anyone seen those awesome, yummy hash browns that are so crisp with just the right amount of oil so they just the right texture with each bite? I was thinking this was a temporary thing but noticed this mentioned in a few recent reviews including on @OrcaGirl 's live review on the Escape this week. If they are gone, can we petition to bring them back? Much like we need the buffalo chicken wings in the Local/O'Sheehan's to be fried again and not baked. Please NCL, can you get them on the Pearl by December, please, pretty please..... 😀 🥔

Yes, both will bring out the special wine menu for the free bottle. We usually take the unopened bottle back to our cabin. On our most recent cruise, it was great to enjoy the wine in our hotel room in Tahiti after the cruise ended. If you have a hotel stay after the cruise, it may save you $ to take the bottle with you. When we don’t have an overnight stay, we usually enjoy having a bottle in the cabin for the times we have gone back to the cabin early in the evening.

Do you plan to eat at Teppanyaki or Moderno? If so, I recommend using your platinum vouchers there. While we have not had many issue this past year with being limited on what we can order with vouchers vs. FAS, we tend to use the voucher at the specialty restaurants with a fixed price.

Thank you for doing the live review and sharing your adventures for each stop. Since it looks like you cruise every few months, when and where is your next cruise?

Here is an aft hot tub with views of Tahiti in the background.

Here is the two amazing seating areas on the Spirit in Spinnaker. It’s definitely better for the Alaska itineraries but it was also in demand when we were on in September for Hawai’i to Tahiti.

NCL Spirit. The observation lounge AKA Spinnaker Lounge is a great place to watch the views while listening to music - especially in two special seating areas in the front corners. Also, the H2O area in the aft with an adults only pool area with two hot tubs and tiered seating is really neat. The crew seem happier than on other ships for some reason. Love all Jewel class ships, too.

Thank you for doing a live review! It was interesting to read about your week before the cruise. It sounds like the Duke of Wellington is highly recommended when in Southampton. Have a wonderful cruise! I look forward to reading your comments and appreciate the photos.

Had dinner with the officers on the Spirit at the end of September (Hawaii to Tahiti cruise).

I think you are making a great decision to DIY with rental cars at the ports. We wish we would have done that in Kauai to go see Waimea Canyon as we would have rather had lunch at Duke's or even on the ship instead of in the town of Waimea. Due to the stop in Waimea that was not listed on the NCL tour description, we were much later getting back to the ship than projected. I look forward to reading your live review! We did consider POA but found the itinerary and cost of being on the Spirit for 12 days in a balcony was so much less than POA. I do understand how expensive the POA is compared to other NCL itineraries and do get how this is quite an investment. We take the same approach that you do about knowing that you may return to these ports in the future and don't need to see every sight with each stop. Since we only rented a car at Hilo, I can say that it took about 10 minutes to get from the port to the airport and cost $16 each way before tip. The taxis were lined up and very available at all ports. We rented from National and the pick-up and drop-off was very easy with no lines. At the Hilo airport, there is a special phone to use to request a taxi pick-up and it took about 2-3 minutes from the time we called to have the taxi arrive. I hope you are able to visit VNP whether the government shuts down or not. As long as they allow access at the park gate and give a map, you will be just fine with seeing the sites and do not need the visitor center to be open. Since you are traveling with kids, be sure to save time to walk through the lava tube. That was really neat to walk through the cave like area in the dark. https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/day-hike-nahuku.htm Embarkation at the port in Honolulu was very different from what we experienced in other NCL embarkation ports. While our check-in time was at 10:30am-11:00am, when we arrived just before 10:30am, we had to wait with our bags until about 10:40am when they would allow the porters to take the bags. We had to wait in a line to have access to a stapler as we usually had the porters staple the tags when we arrived at the port. They had only one stapler and that was why they had us in the same line as people who arrived without tags. After dropping our bags, we were directed to the security line which did not open until a little after 11am. Once the security line did open, people went from security to check-in and then immediately on the ship with no waiting. For people with mobility challenges or who found standing to be challenging, it would be better to arrive later as there was no sitting involved or chairs available when waiting to drop bags or to go through security. I don't know if this is how it works for POA or if there were unique delays with the Spirit? Looking forward to your review! Have safe travels and enjoy the beautiful Hawaiian Islands and weather!