Seas2mountains

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. 😁

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.