booinla

As a rule of thumb, the NCL 7-day round trip from Seattle calls at Glacier Bay, and the 7-day northbound/southbound trip calls at Hubbard Glacier. (There are exceptions to the rule, no doubt)

17 hours ago, motheroftwocats814 said:

We just got off Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas..and never before have we seen soooo many children..to the point where at the end of the week we were done.

We have been wanting to book HAL for a while, and the Wonder sailing sealed the deal.

We understand there may be some kids on this sailing, but not a ton.

We are booked on the Koningsdam March 29, 2025. Yes, 2025.

Starting in San Diego and ending in Vancouver.

We are HUGE music fans, namely the blues, so we are really looking forward to BB King's.

Anyone have any tips or experience with HAL and Koningsdam?

I, too, have booked my first HAL cruise. On the Koningsdam. In 2025 (January). And I'm very much looking forward to trying a new-to-me thing as well! I'll be on a San Diego round-trip to Mexico/Sea of Cortez.

I guess that means we are in a club now 😉

5 hours ago, Avon_Princess said:

Hi!  We will be on the NCL Bliss in February of 2024.  Curious what the table minimums are in the casino?  Craps, Blackjack, poker, etc.  Thank you for any information that you have!

The last time I played in the casino (aboard Encore, 10/1 sailing) the roulette table had a $10 minimum

Thank you ever so much for your review of Navigator! Being a native Angeleño, I have sailed the four-day Ensenada cruise numerous times, on several different cruise lines, but haven't been aboard a Royal ship since the Viking Serenade days. (That's one for the Way-Back Machine.) But I am booked for Catalina & Ensenada aboard the Navigator Of The Seas for next January, so I came to CC to find a little info. Imagine my delight to discover your fun/fact-filled/entertaining post here. Many thanks.

If you'll allow one tiny addendum: I was surprised that you did not include a link to "26 Miles" by the Four Preps (or a cover version) in your discussion of Catalina. It's the iconic song about an iconic Southern California destination, but since the original is from 1958, I think by now it's just about faded away from memory.

On 9/18/2023 at 8:28 AM, Mademypoint said:

Someone or some people decided to take this "find a duck" obsession to the next stage and hid creepy little naked babies around the ship. 

They must be laughing endlessly at the excitement it generated when people found them. 

 

It's NOT a thing....

 

Anyone else found them? Picture added for authenticity. If I'd found any, I would have run the other way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, the ducks.

Next, the naked mohawk-baby carrot jockeys.

(oh dear, I am really dating myself with that reference, aren't I?)

I've used the NCL transfer to/from SeaTac several times and have been quite happy with it. They've always had plenty of signs out so I could figure out where to go, I never had to wait long for the bus, and it was easily the best price point for a solo cruiser like me.

I did this excursion in Oct of 2022. The escape room was fun and decently entertaining. How it worked was the escape room managers had the excursion participants split up into groups: challenging, less challenging, easy, etc., and we sorted ourselves out fairly quickly. We were given our instructions, and then we went off a-solvin' in our separate rooms. I think there were four total.

The "Victoria By Night" part is the tour bus guide pointing out landmarks as you drive to and from the escape room via scenic route. You don't get to get off the bus and walk around due to the time limit.

On 4/13/2023 at 5:13 PM, GmaCruzer said:

What about mid October? Is there anything still open?  Don't mind cold weather but will it be rainy? What about trips to glaciers?

I was on Norwegian Bliss mid-October of last year. We made all our ports, it was cold and rainy most of the time, and the weather was too rough to board the park rangers on glacier day. We did not sail to the top of Glacier Bay due to fog and ice.

Ports are definitely NOT bustling that late in the year (personally I enjoyed the laid-back vibe, but it would not be for everyone, for sure)

I was on one of the CCL Panamax-sized ships, and we got two days' worth of a winter Caribbean storm. Seas eight to ten feet, which isn't huge by most standards, but they cancelled my scuba shore excursion in Roatán, and deployed the barf bags in all the stairwells. I take Bonine for the duration of a cruise and I had no problems. It became a little hard to walk a straight line down the hallway and I would occasionally drift into the wall a bit but I suspect the Cheers! package had at least part of the blame for that 😉🍸

If I am not at the Alchemy bar, I love an Ultimate XO.

At Alchemy, I usually start out with the lavender thing they make. Later, I'll ask the bartender, "do you have time to create a new drink for me?" I will answer a few questions from them (what alcohol? bourbon or vodka or rum, based on my mood. Sweet? No. Spicy? Yes, but not over the top) and then I sit back and see what they come up with. I am rarely disappointed.

The Alchemy bartenders know me quite well by the second day of the cruise, it's my favorite place to hang out. 

2 hours ago, Doribeans said:

Yes, I probably am!

I don't quite remember which handle I went by back in those days, booinla or wrrknggrrl 

but great to see you again, and I am wild with jealousy (happy jealousy!) for your transatlantic cruise, it sounds wonderful. Bon voyage!!

On 9/12/2022 at 7:04 PM, bcwife76 said:

I don't know about the LAX part but during the flight they will ask you to put your mask on once you enter CDN airspace and yes you will need to wear it the entire time you are in the Vancouver airport.

LAX (and all transportation hubs in Los Angeles County) requires masking

It is announced every few minutes over the loudspeakers, but unenforced

I last flew through there mid-August

Hello, off topic, but are you the Doribeans I knew from online chatrooms many years ago?

if yes, {{{big hug}}}

if no, sorry, I hope you have a fabulous cruise!

Whatchu talkin bout? There was an Euro plug in our Pearl cabin, by the desk.

No there wasn't! Or, there was & the dumb thing was in front of my face the whole time & I never saw it despite looking for it! One of these two things is true. [emoji12]

Curiosity question: does the Miracle have both U.S. and Euro electrical outlets in the cabins? I am in an 8K ext balcony, deck 7, if that makes a difference.

I ask because when I was on the NCL Pearl in May 2016, and it had U.S. only, and I couldn't use a handy little 5-port USB charger I carry internationally ... no biggie, just surprised me a little!

Yes, I never used to get any kind of motion sickness, but it's apparently come to me in middle age. Bonine handles it. I had a pretty good case of "land sickness" after my cruise last May.

A peach bellini makes a lovely change-up from a mimosa ... try it on your next cruise :)

boolinla;

 

Nice review. I will be on the Pearl with my family on the July 3rd Alaskan 7-day.

 

We are also planning on just doing complimentary dining also. That has worked well enough for us on other cruises. Can you please tell me what in the MDR you particularly enjoyed, appetizer, main, dessert? I have heard from other reviewers that desserts were not a strong suite for NCL with the exception of the chocolate lava cake.

 

Did you enjoy any of the other entertainers, singers comedians?

 

What excursions did you do? We are doing the Medenhall and Whale watch, Skagway Railroad trip and Lumberjack show.

 

Oh, we will have 4 people in the smaller family balcony room. Ouch!

 

Also, if you happened to have kept any dailies I would really like to see them posted.

 

Thanks again for your review.

I think the best meal I had was a churrasco flank steak at Indigo - my heavens, it was good. The appetizer I really loved, and ordered multiple times, was the salmon tartare. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I did get a lovely opera cake dessert one evening, only ate about half because it was a little rich for my taste. I often ate breakfast at the buffet just for expediency, but if I had a do-over button I would get a sit-down breakfast instead. I particularly liked the "country platter" breakfast served at O'Sheehans.

One night early in the cruise I caught a "guy with a guitar" act in the Atrium, playing old-school pop/rock tunes that folks my age know and love, heavy on Clapton and Carlos Santana. He was really good! Named Lace (or something like that.) After that I would look at the dailies to see where he was performing, and catch a little more of it if I could.

In Juneau, we did Mendenhall & whalewatching, and got lucky with a close-up view of a whale calf playing around for a good long while. In Skagway, my group did the Original Streetcar Tour, we enjoyed it a lot, and then I split off and did National Park film & walking tour (I am likely the only person who is not interested in the train.) In Ketchikan, I split off from my group - they went to the lumberjack show, which they liked, while I went for the Rainforest Canoe Adventure which was 100% awesome in my book! It was pretty low-key but just enough different to be just what I wanted. We also booked a horse-drawn carriage in Victoria, so we got to see a little of the town on our short stop there.

You are gonna have a great time - a hint on that many people sharing that small a space, keep on top of the sprawl as much as possible & it will make the cabin much more livable. There is lots of space to put stuff away & keep things neat.

Good luck and have a great trip!

-- Boo

Recently returned from my first NCL cruise. My sister, my niece and I were aboard the Pearl for the 7-day Alaska sailing out of Seattle. Had a WONDERFUL time. For me, the trip was all about the itinerary and it certainly did not disappoint. I did shore excursions at every port & spend glacier day wandering the decks, in love with all the sights. I attended the Cruise Critic M&G at the start of the cruise, as well as the Cruise Critic wrap-up the day before debark (which was, sadly, quite lightly attended.) This was my first cruise in a couple of decades - I had sailed on one of those three-day Los Angeles-Ensenada cruises in the mid-nineties, an "employee of the quarter" prize I had somehow won, plus a seven-day Greek cruise in 1981 back when cruise amenities were QUITE different.

Here are my impressions about the Pearl.

The room: With three adults, we splurged a bit with a mini-suite. It was cramped but not as bad as I had imagined, and we managed just fine with a large helping of "'scuse me" and "let me sneak past you here." Pearl is going to dry dock soon, and she does show she needs it with tired carpeting, etc, but everything in our cabin (11096) was in perfect working order. I volunteered to be the one who slept on the fold-out sofa (on the theory that I would mind it the least) and it was NOT great, but acceptable. My roomies tell me the twin beds were not all that much better - more comfortable bedding is probably the biggest improvement they can make to the cabins at dry dock! Our cabin steward, Angelo, did a great job, always friendly & working around our often-varied schedule.

The public areas: Lots to do, there always seemed to be an entertainer somewhere that I wanted to sit down and see if I was in the mood for it. I went to the "Legends In Concert" (which was FANTASTIC) and one other show - and found the seating in the Stardust Theater to be perfectly awful. Tiny seats/no legroom made it much worse than airplane seating, and that's saying something. I am tall+obese, and finding non-painful seating can sometimes be an issue for me. Most other places on board I was able to find places to sit that were OK. One of my favorite daytime places to hang out became the Great Outdoors, they have a nice bar and a small buffet back there & it's a great area. It took me a while to find my way around the ship but everything is sufficiently signed & if you are paying attention you will learn it in a couple of days. I really did appreciate the "fish swim forward" on the hallway carpeting, they saved me numerous times!

The spa: I did not get a spa pass, but my sister and niece did, and they LOVED it. Eventually I figured out that if I didn't know where they were ... they were at the spa. Every. Time.

The meals: I adore the freestyle dining concept, and will probably never cruise any other way again. This cruise, we opted for complimentary dining only. We had some pretty good meals at Indigo, O'Sheehans and Lotus Garden, but a couple of times managed to order something that was a downright clinker. (Hint: do not order the pho. It isn't pho. It is vermicelli noodles in unappealing broth.) Next time we will probably start hitting the specialty restaurants, because by the end of the cruise, we were pretty tired of the offerings at the MDRs and buffets. It's decent, but far from gourmet. Then again, I am a foodie living in a major metro area, so I am accustomed to cuisine best described as "adventurous." Norwegian will never be able to offer that level of cuisine because they are serving 2000+ guests daily with a weekly resupply, and a good portion of those folks do not want "adventurous" meals. The food staff does very well with what they have.

The bars: Turned out to be my favorite part of the cruise! We got the UBP promo when we booked, and I figured since I was on vacation and not driving anywhere, well ... let's just say I gave the package a good workout. I did not find one single bad bartender the entire cruise. (There was this one guy up in Spinnaker that was pretty obviously being trained who did not know what the heck was going on, but even he was smiling & friendly!) Never had to wait more than a few moments to be served. The three little bars down on 6 became my favorite nighttime hangout - great space to get a whiskey, martini, or champagne cocktail & enjoy the entertainment on the small stage. Best of all, the UBP let me order all kinds of fun premium brands that I hadn't tried before. I have a new second-favorite bourbon now (Bulleit) which is just lovely on the rocks or neat.

Overall I thought the entire cruise was GREAT, and I am already planning the next one!

That's too bad about AARP - I am a lifetime member so of course I was one who appreciated the option. Oh well!