The Traveling Man

Both my wife and I used to travel extensively for business, especially her. We received tons of frequent flyer, rental car, and hotel loyalty points, so we often use them for upgrades or free hotel nights. We rarely fly coach on flights over three hours and we rarely stay at anything other than major hotel chains. If we had to pay cash for everything, we might consider more economical travel. Fortunately, we usually don't have to make that choice.

@Riverbound @cruiseny4life @slidemaster5 @carohs On many NCL ships, the interior size (not counting the balcony itself) on standard Balcony staterooms is about 40 to 100 square feet larger than Ocean View or Inside staterooms on the same ship. Balconies also include a sofa which usually is not available on I or OV cabins. For us, the extra space is the deal breaker for not sailing I or OV. The lack of outside awareness Inside is another major hurdle for us. Whether we actually make use of the balcony or not, the extra space makes it worthwhile for us to sail in a Balcony room. On some other cruise ships, such as Celebrity Edge class ships, rooms without a balcony are about the same size as an NCL Balcony stateroom. They also include a sofa. We're quite happy to forego an actual outside area on those ships while enjoying the extra space. A number of frequent posters, such as @ChiefMateJRK, have made it clear over the years that they don't value that extra space as much as we do. As many others have said, it's a personal choice, so YMMV.

It's a bit unusual for the price difference between Inside and Balcony to be that small, but it does occur sometimes. In your case it really wouldn't make much sense to use points since it cost so little more to upgrade using cash. A better choice under the circumstances would be to save the points for an upgrade on a different cruise. The most unusual case we ever encountered was on a 14 day cruise on the Breakaway in 2016. We originally booked an Inside at a reasonable price. When fares dropped just after final payment due date, we were able to change our booking to a Balcony for about $75 more. When the prices dropped again a few days before sailing, we were able to upgrade again, this time to the Haven for another $75.

The last time we were there was August 2021 on the Encore. I think ours was just the second cruise to dock at Ward Cove. The shuttle drop off was near Pier 2, next to the Visitors Center. Things may have changed in the last few years.

Was that the price per person or the total cost for all persons in the stateroom? Using points for an upgrade covers all the paying guests in a stateroom. Still, we usually hold onto our points and only use them when the price difference on a cruise that we find interesting is at least $500, and preferably more than $1000 per person. That way our $10,000 buys us 30,000 points which are worth at least $2000 in upgrade value, for a return of at least 20%.

If you have a great PCC like we do and you do your research before putting in your upgrade request, you generally get to select the room of your choice.

That's true. As I said, cashing in for a room upgrade really only works well if you're happy with a Balcony. We are, so it works well for us. For those who prefer a Suite or Haven room and are not happy with a Balcony, the best return you can get is 3%. We get to enjoy returns up to 30%.

Much, much greater in most cases. Assuming that all your purchases are with NCL and that you use another card for other expenses, all your purchases will be rewarded with three points per dollar. That means that you will need to spend $20,000.00 to earn 60,000 points, which can be redeemed for $600 in OBC, or a 3% return on your purchases. Not bad. Better than the typical 1% or 2% cash back on some cards. Or you can forego the OBC and use the points to upgrade from Inside to Balcony for all paying customers in your stateroom. That's typically at least $1000.00 per person or $2000.00 per room, or $1400.00 when accounting for the OBC that you don't receive. That works out to 7%. On most of the cruises on which we used the points to upgrade, the differential from Inside to Ocean View was very little, but the delta from OV to Balcony was substantial. In those cases we paid for an OV and used just 30,000 points to upgrade to Balcony. Some of the longer, more expensive cruises, resulted in a return of up to 30%.

When we have been there, the Ketchikan shuttle stopped and picked up near berth 2, next to the visitors bureau, on Front St. between Mill and Mission.

Already taken into account. Even counting the OBC we gave up, we still have received some $10.000.00 value by using World Points for upgrades instead of OBC.

That's true, but at least it doesn't cost several thousand more. If your preference is for a Balcony stateroom, it's a better use of World Points than simply taking the OBC. We used to travel in Inside rooms early during our cruise career, but now it's almost always a Balcony, sometimes a Suite or Haven. We have saved at least $10,000.00 over the years compared to what we would have spent if we paid full price for a Balcony and took the OBC.

Or you are giving up $600.00 OBC to get a Balcony stateroom which otherwise might have cost you several thousands of dollars more than an Inside.

As many others have said, "it depends." My wife and I have sailed with NCL 35 times out of about 50 total cruises. Seven of our 35 NCL cruises have been in Inside rooms, although we haven't sailed Inside in over six years. While there are several advantages to steerage, such as price and the ability to completely block out the light, the disadvantage of cramped quarters became too much for us to put up with as we got older. Several of the times that we have sailed in Balcony, Suite, or Haven staterooms we barely used the balcony. The additional space around the bed, the presence of a sofa, the sometimes larger bathroom, and the additional privileges, amenities, and the occasional extra nights of specialty dining swing the pendulum for us. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford the more expensive stateroom, so I'm not sure there even is a monetary decision point for us. Plus, as others have said, we have a Bank of America NCL Master Card which accumulates World Points that can be used for room upgrades. There is a thread on the CC NCL forum dedicated to this card. It has over 6,000 posts, so I won't bother to cite the details here. Suffice it to say that we rarely pay for a Balcony stateroom. Instead, we pay thousands of dollars less for an Ocean View, then use the card for an upgrade to a Balcony. On some other cruise lines, the relative sizes of Inside, Ocean View, and Balcony staterooms break down differently than they do on NCL. Inside rooms usually are smaller than any other, of course. On NCL, though, Ocean View rooms are generally about as cramped as Insides. On several other lines, Ocean View rooms are much larger, about the same size as Balconies in some cases. On Celebrity, for example, we have sailed on each of their Edge class ships. Those ships feature what they call an "Infinite Veranda," which actually is just an Ocean View room, but with a full width, floor to ceiling window. There is not an actual balcony in those rooms, but the interior room space is about the same as an NCL Balcony stateroom including the actual balcony itself. We love those rooms, although many complain that there isn't an actual balcony, or veranda as Celebrity calls it. So, would we ever be willing to travel in an Inside room again? Not unless the floor space were at least as generous as an NCL Balcony stateroom. The lack of any outside awareness in an Inside room would probably be a deal breaker anyway. So, maybe an Ocean View? Probably, but only if the room were at least as large as a standard Balcony room. That's my two cents worth. YMMV.

Juneau: The shuttle drops off and picks up at the base of the Mount Roberts Tramway, right in the heart of the city. Ketchikan: The shuttle drops off and picks up at the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau on Front Street, next to the main city cruise docks where most other cruise ships will dock. As in Juneau, this spot is at the heart of the city. You are not alone in questioning the wisdom of NCL docking farther away from the heart of town at several locations in Alaska. In some cases it appears that NCL has chosen to dock at an industrial port instead of the busy central cruise terminal. In other cases, such as Icy Strait and Ketchikan, NCL has invested heavily in their own facilities located a significant distance from the heart of town. The reasons are unclear, but seem to be related to port fees, pier availability, ease of docking, and controlling their own destiny.

We prefer longer cruises. If you’re going to take the time and expense of flying to the port of departure, why not get the most bang for your buck? Our average is about 10 days per cruise, with the longest single cruise being 19 days. We also frequently take two or more cruises back to back, so our longest cruise vacation was about seven weeks. We have taken two cruises of just three days each. Those were B2B repositioning extensions of trans Atlantic cruises, so they really don’t count, do they? The shortest stand alone cruise for us was a four day trip out of Miami on the Pearl. Our primary reason for taking it was to check another NCL ship off our list. We have a week long cruise booked this fall on the Jade. That will leave us just the V!va and the Aqua as the only ships in the NCL fleet that we haven’t sailed. Almost all of our cruises have included a sea day or two. The TAs usually have five or six in a row plus one or two others on a two week trip. On our first TA, we thought we would be bored out of our minds, but there were a surprising number of activities on board and we really enjoyed our time.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. As others have said, you likely would need to raise your bid to near the maximum to have a realistic shot. The upgrades usually are sorted out about 48 hours prior to boarding, so you do have some time to raise your bid if you choose. Regardless of whether you win or lose your bid, you should receive an email a day or two before boarding to advise your status.

That’s a bit worse than our last experience debarking in Miami. It took us about 90 minutes from getting off the ship’s elevator to reaching the curb. The ironic aspect is that although they have “global entry” signs all over the terminal and one of the Customs stations is marked “global entry”, they lumped everyone together, Heaven, Latitudes, Global Entry, and any other possible form of priority into one line before getting to the Customs officers.

I have noticed on several cruises that NCL stationed a security officer near the stairs to turn back any line jumpers.

We absolutely loved our tour to Schwerin.

Another thing to consider is that short NCL cruises (less than five days) do not qualify for many of the benefits available on longer cruises. Check to see what Free at Sea offers are available. I’m not sure what perks Carnival offers on their five day cruises, but the two sea days may be a relaxing experience for you, anyway.

We have been wait listed a few times. NCL almost always managed to come through for us. So far as I know, you can only get on the wait list at the Shorex office once you are on board, so checking in early and being among the first to board helps tremendously in getting an edge.

I completely forgot to mention our favorite embarkation afternoon activity - people watching. We really enjoy sitting in the atrium in a relaxed and carefree atmosphere, a beverage at hand, looking over our itinerary to discuss what we will be doing when, and watching the parade of our fellow passengers strolling past.

Likewise Rostock, just a short train ride away.

If that was on the Star in 2013, I was on that cruise with you. We were back from Hamburg for hours before the train from Berlin arrived.

That’s fine by me, but obviously I march to the beat of a different drummer. You do you, and as @KeithJenner suggested, let the rest of us do us.