cxc362

7 hours ago, durberville said:

Go to the box office to book what?? 

My thought exactly!

3 hours ago, I'manewbie said:

We are sailing on the 10/15 NCL Encore. I just recd an email that they are canceling our Choir of Man reservation. Has anyone else recd this or am I just special? They suggested we go to the ticket office on deck 6 but never mentioned if there was another performance of CofM that we could catch.

I also received the email this afternoon for the 10/22 cruise.

An update for the information of future cruisers:

There indeed was a "Transfer Voucher" included in our eDocs.  I have an extra copy printed to turn in at the port if needed.

19 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

If you don't want to be checking in at midnight Day 21, not sure why Day 18 and not when you wake up on Day 21. Anyways, no one can tell you what will be popular times week to week. And most ports are not checking times. Check in whenever you want.

 

Depending on the ship, Day 21 is also when entertainment reservations opens for most people (top tier a few days earlier)

Thanks Bird for the primer on check-in!  I'll be prepared with photos.  That's new for me (since 2019) as I didn't have to provide photos when we last cruised.

Were times being checked in Seattle?  Thanks again!

8 hours ago, www3traveler said:

She is a ship operated by a company out of Southern Norway.

Lots of ships are "Bahamas" flagged including all but ONE NCL ship for tax reasons.

 

Also lots of other regulatory reasons.

4 hours ago, Coastalbreezes said:

There are two episodes featuring Breakaway (BA: The Build and BA: The Voyage). I especially found The Build quite interesting and I was on BA when they were filming The Voyage. All passengers had to sign releases agreeing that we might be filmed and in fact I am in one of the scenes lol. My 15 minutes of fame. 😄

They are episodes 1 & 2 of season 7 of “Mighty Ships”. Episode 3 of that season is one of my favorites: Wind Surf.

The Wind Surf episode partially inspired our cruise on the Star as I wanted to visit Kotor even lot more after seeing it.

20 minutes ago, Jetswdo said:

I am embarrassed to tell you my cruise isn't until next year!  I'm just gathering information and putting in my file.

Oh. Because flight times were mentioned I assumed your cruise was this year.

I’ll plan on reporting back on how it goes (both Port Valet and the NCL transfer).

10 minutes ago, Jetswdo said:

Please post how it went.  Thanks.  Anita

Not happening until 10/29 (last Alaska cruise of the year) so unfortunately our transfer experience probably will not be of much help to you.

13 minutes ago, Jetswdo said:

My daughter used Shuttle Express and said it was quick and easy--- I think she was on a Princess cruise  (she didn't like it, prefers NCL but had a cheap deal that time)---- I am probably using shuttle express to get from pre cruise hotel near airport to the cruise.  After cruise is over, I just want the easiest experience to get to the airport-- Our flight will be leaving around 1:30 or so-- Alaska Airways----We were thinking to get to airport around 11:30 ish (we will hopefully just have our carry on luggage with us) --- want to get off the cruise ship 9:30? maybe----if this makes sense------- 

Haven't done it yet but our post-cruise flight is also 1:30ish and to limit the variables we've already booked NCL transfers.

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 

 

Unfortunately, due to the repeated rock slides, the port requires that you take the shuttles and not walk on the dock. That's 4000 passengers,,, 20 passengers at a time in a shuttle. 

 

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, at least there are shuttles. The ship in the first position on the dock has to tender its passengers the 100 yards beyond the slide area. 

 

Note: Our NCL Shore Ex ticket advised to allow at least 45 minutes to get from ship to the shore ex pick-up point. 

In other words it sounds like there is not priority boarding of shuttles for those who have NCL shore excursions booked.

7 hours ago, wodyer said:

Hi,

 

I'm going on the NCL Sky in a few months with a 6 year old. I know it's a smaller ship but was wondering what is the Splash Academy like, tried to find pictures and videos online but didn't see much. Does it offer similar activities the larger ships have? Anyone had any experience with their kids going to Splash Academy?

 

Thanks!

My daughter absolutely loved Splash Academy on the Gem at 4 1/2 years old and the Star at 6 years old. She was disappointed that we had no sea days on the Star cruise as she wouldn’t be able to spend as much time there. The counselors and the activities are great. The activities I remember are similar to what we’ve seen posted for the Encore as we research for our upcoming cruise.

Make sure to go visit upon embarkation to register your child and so you can see the club (adults are not allowed after then). Also make sure to take them the first night of the cruise to break the ice with the experience and to make friends. Hopefully they’ll love their time there and not want to leave!

19 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

With only one production show, they are putting Comedy, magic, and Beatles in the theater on some of the other nights. 1 night was just a movie. 1 night there was nothing in the theater. 
 

Since we don’t like the crowds in the Cavern Club and The Social, seeing the shows in the theater is fine for us. 

Thanks again. That will work out well for us too.

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

First and foremost, don't call the kids club "babysitting" because that has a different connotation to the person you are talking to. 

 

Attached are the terms and conditions of the Splash Academy. 

 

You can see from the example program, there were no planned activities while the ship was in port. 

 

Splash Academy Only.pdf 709.67 kB · 3 downloads

 

 

Thanks for posting this! I showed it to my daughter from your live thread yesterday and she’s more excited for Splash Academy than she was before she saw the activities.
 

She loved Splash Academy on the Gem and the Star (in fact she was sad in advance of the Star cruise that there were no sea days because her time there would be less than it could have been), but she’s older now and we haven’t cruised in 4 years.

I think being able to see what’s available in advance was very helpful for her (by extension and me).

31 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

The following are Freestyle Dailies from the Norwegian Encore to Alaska calling in Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, and Victoria.

 

 

 

Day 1 - Seattle.pdf 1.41 MB · 3 downloads

 

Day 2 - Sea Day.pdf 1.45 MB · 2 downloads

 

Day 3 - Juneau.pdf 1.48 MB · 2 downloads

 

Day 4 - Skagway.pdf 1.49 MB · 2 downloads

 

Day 5 - Glacier Bay.pdf 1.59 MB · 2 downloads

 

Day 6 - Ketchikan.pdf 1.51 MB · 2 downloads

 

Day 7 - Victoria.pdf 1.48 MB · 2 downloads

Thank you for these!!!

2 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Shows on the Encore last week (also realizing that itinerary had several very late port calls, so entertainment was light on the nights people were ashore)

 

Thanks!

I ready your trip report thread last night and found it very helpful. I was very glad to hear that reservations are now not required for the comedy shows.

3 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

But,, they just installed a Broadway show on the brand new Viva.... so they aren't all old school cruise shows. 

Fingers crossed!

1 minute ago, BirdTravels said:

Making reservations for shows on big ships is common across the cruise industry. It is not an NCL thing. If you were on Royal bigger ships, you should have to reserve theater shows, ice chows, aqua shows. It is all about crowd control. The theater on the Encore holds just shy of 900 people. We sailed with 4260 last week. You can't have all 4260 show up on the last day last show and be disappointed that they didn't get one of the 900 seats. 

Totally understand the need on a megaship. I’m just more of midsize ship kind of person.

On 9/6/2023 at 3:04 PM, depplep said:

I got an email from NCL yesterday stating my White Pass Railway excursion was changed to the White Pass Train going to Inspiration Point due to operational needs. I can't see what the difference would be other than the destination?

I believe that the route will be the same it will just be 3.4 miles shorter round trip. The full route (Summit Excursion) is supposed to run until 10/4 and the Journey to Inspiration Point is supposed to run from 10/6 - 10/25.

Our excursion for the 10/22 sailing is to Inspiration Point and I was curious why it was titled as such so I did the research.

Forgot to Quote:

From what I remeber when the announcements of bshows being canceled or not renewed, there would be NEW rproduction shows coming on board after the 1st of the year.  Sounded like "inhouse" like the "Jewel" class ships or maybe something like the Jean Ann Ryan productions.

New productions are supposedly “in development” but I’m not aware of any announcements or details as to what will replace the current/past shows or when. Color me very skeptical.

4 minutes ago, durberville said:

Agree. I’m booked on the Encore for an upcoming cruise and rather shocked at the lack of entertainment. Doesn’t even sound like they have entertainers coming in for one offs in the theater like other lines. So many passengers and so many small venue, repetitive shows (comedy 🥱). Looking forward to Choir of Man but…🫤

This is a big concern for me too for our upcoming cruise. I’m also not looking forward to having to make reservations for entertainment.

Thank you everyone for your responses!

Hello. Yesterday I purchased NCL transfers from Pier 66 to Sea-Tac for when we disembark after our upcoming Seattle-Alaska cruise on the Encore. I have not received email confirmation as the NCL app said I would.

In a 2019 thread it was stated in a response when no email confirmation was received that the transfer vouchers would be in the edocs when they become available. I cannot check in yet as we’re more than 3 weeks away from sailing. Is it the same now that email confirmation is not actually sent and that the transfer vouchers will just show up in our edocs? Thanks in advance!

1 hour ago, Russiamomm said:

Excellent!  I’ve never used it either, but have it scheduled for our sailing.  Which ship/sailing are you on?  We’re on the Encore on October 8.

10/22 on Encore.

On 9/6/2023 at 4:24 PM, Russiamomm said:

https://maketraveleasier.com/PortValet
 

Easy, peasy.  😃

Thanks so much for the Port Valet insight and link! I just made my reservation for next month.

The Tennis Channel just showed Koningsdam moored off of Monte Carlo.

Thanks to this post I was able to identify her!