patrickmoran

The cruises show but pricing is unavailable. That usually means P is repricing the cruises.

Carnival has billions in debt to repay. Got to pay!

Two must haves:

1. the cruise MUST go to Glacier Bay; and

2. land portion must have 2 days in Denali.

The rest is just noise.

Flying is such a crap shoot any more I strongly advise flying to Orlando the day before. Hotels are plentiful near the airport and prices are reasonable.

Trip insurance is another must.

I would book the air special and when you get close to final payment, use Google flights to see if you save any significant $$s. If not, book your own flights and cancel NCL's air.

I've booked our 1st NCL cruise: 16 days in November 2024 through the Suez Canal. The gratuities for the "Free Open Bar" are pretty high, probably more than I would pay if I paid for drinks as I go. I like the other perks that are included in the booking and the stripped down fare is "Sold Out" for our cruise. So would NCL remove the free drinks and delete the gratuities from the invoice if requested?

Also, we have the BOGO air special. Would I be able to remove it prior to final payment, and have a lower final payment, or would I have to cancel and rebook at whatever the cruise fare is at that time? 

Thanks

Eliminated years ago

If you all eat together it is going to be really long, long meals. Better to spread the group over a couple of sections.

Generally, the buffet will have the same soup of the day as the MDR. Otherwise, the menu is different. Sometimes the food theme (Italian, etc) maybe be the same.

Post-covid, the buffet desserts have been poor. Sometimes I'll go later to the MDR just for dessert.

I would consider booking my flights and from JFK myself and use EZ Air for the flights to and from Athens.

Does V dock its ships near the Eiffel Tower now? I know when V introduced the longships they were forced to dock outside of Paris and passengers were bussed in. They built the special ships to accommodate French authority requirements. Thanks 

We'll be doing 7 days Tahiti cruise in early December. It's time to start looking to book our flights. Does PG have better fares, or other advantage, to book flights through them? I haven't talked to a PG rep yet and have just started checking prices through Google Flights. Looks like flying from SFO may be a bit cheaper than LAX or SEA. Any recommendations? We will be flying Economy and don't have enough points with any carrier to make much of a difference which airline to use.

I think you mean a different ship. There are no cabins on Emerald's Sun Deck

No

9 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Somewhere on the thread you mentioned that your sailing did have positive covid cases?

 

In another discussion here one member stated that last year Hurtigruten cancelled their Antarctica cruise because the previous cruise had 10 positive cases on board.

 

In the end, did you know how many cases your sailing havd and how does Hurtigruten deal with Covid?

 

Thanks!

I do not know the final count. I would guess about 10. I have no idea what was required of the infected though I do recall an a comment during the morning announcement one day that people were being released from quarantine.

Try Macon or Valdosta

I just used Park by the Port

Last sea day and the waves are a bit bigger. We have been sitting on the balcony this morning. It’s in the shade with a breeze. There’s an issue when you are out on the balcony and there’s a bit of a rock and roll. The sliding door keeps sliding open then closed. It bangs around quite loudly. 

You can swap for a bottle of wine. Though glasses of wine are included in the drink package, there may be a bottle of a wine that is not included. Otherwise take the bottle home with you. Worth probably $12 in local liquor store, so some savings down the road 

Today is a day at sea and we’re heading home. The balcony is shaded and there is a pleasant breeze. I’m sitting out reading and not having to fight the unwashed masses for a pool chair! Nice

i think the number of loungers around the pools is significantly less than what are on the Royal or the Regal. They align the chairs to the MUTS screen rather than facing the pools. 

On 11/29/2022 at 11:03 AM, Belci said:

Eastern!

Formal nights are 3 and 6 which is lobster night 

ReedPrincess, no problem using your balcony on sea days as far as P is concerned. Ship’s speed and weather are the practical factors that will determine whether you can enjoy the balcony 

Belci, are you doing eastern or western Caribbean cruise?

I’m on the Sky now for an eastern Caribbean cruise. I booked L101 specifically for the huge balcony. I thought I’d make a couple of comments regarding the balcony that I didn’t find prior to the cruise. 
The balcony is 2/3rds covered. There were 2 chairs and a table on the balcony. Neither chair reclined. My wife asked the stewardess for loungers and 2 were brought! The seas have been exceptionally calm so no issues so far with motion and wind today (day at sea) is mild so balcony is usable while sailing.
First time on the Sky and the decor is fantastic. I hadn’t realized how boring and dark the older ships were. 
Food has been good, particularly the buffet. Quality is about back to pre-Covid and the best in the 5 cruises we’ve had since sailing restarted. 

I should add that Peterman Island was as far south as the cruise goes.

Also we were told that in a couple of months we will receive a link that will take us to cruise log with pictures and lots info from the cruise.

Landings

We made 5 landings and had 2 cruising opportunity

Half Moon Island: afternoon of 2nd day (11/11/22)

Cuverville Island: afternoon of 3rd day (11/12/22) There was also expedition cruising

Peterman Island (canceled due to too much ice): afternoon of 4th day (11/13/22)

  (We did sail to Dorian Bay and there was expedition cruising late that afternoon)

Damoy Point: morning of 5th day (11/14/22)

Base Brown at Neko Bay (landing on the Antarctica continent): afternoon of 6th day (11/15/22)

Beach of Whalers Bay in Deception Island: late morning of 7th day (11/16/22)

All of landings involved up to 1 hour on land plus transfers to and from the ship for each group. Only 100 people were allowed on land at a time. So the passengers were divided into 4 main groups and each group was divided into 3 subgroups. Each subgroup would be called to the launch deck to board the boats to be transferred to shore. The crew would help you into and out of the boats and onshore.  They were very good at helping. Climbing up off the beach could be very challenging (steep, slippery, etc). The whole process of all of the passengers going ashore, set up and tearing down was about 8 hours so there was quite a bit of waiting around.

Once ashore, you would collect hiking poles and follow the paths that the landing team had established. The paths would take you by wildlife (usually penguins) and scenic points. Hiking in the snow was tiring and it did not take much climbing to wear me out.

All of the landings were good. Each site was different in its own way but many were pretty similar.

I will be traveling for the next 3 weeks so I may not get back to this post to regularly to answer any follow up questions or post some info. So be patient.