Candy Apple 12

The problem is that “pretty” desserts do not always equate to delicious desserts.

Yes, but panna cotta uses gelatin as a thickener and crème brûlée uses eggs, so technically panna cotta isn’t a custard dessert because custards are made with eggs.

Panna cotta ≠ crème brûlée

Wow! This will make me think twice about booking NCL air. I wouldn’t want to have to travel three hours just to get to the airport, even if I had done the deviation.

I hadn’t considered that. Perhaps the Breakaway fried my bacon in a separate pan. Next time I will ask because the bacon just adds that extra umami that the wedge salad needs.

We did not use the concierge services very much other than making our specialty dinner reservations and getting escorted off the ship. I had interactions with multiple concierges, so I left a thank you card with $25 cash addressed to the concierge team at the concierge desk. I was unable to put it on our account because to do so I would have needed a specific employee’s name. In retrospect, the concierge team could have pointed out to me that our Sunday night specialty dining reservation was going to conflict with the Haven Captain’s reception so that we could have chosen a different date or time. That’s something basic that I think they should consider.

Wednesday May 18—Icy Straight Point This was another early port day, but our NCL Whale and Marine Mammals Cruise wasn’t scheduled until 10:30. We knew we wouldn’t have time to explore the port after the excursion, so DH and I got off early to explore. We took the green transporter from Wilderness Landing to the other side of the point where most of the activities are located. The green transporter is the only way to get to the other side where there’s a life size statue of an orca whale that was created by Wyland and dedicated in June 2021. There’s also a salmon cannery museum which is free to visit along with some shops. We took the green transporter back and then paid $50 each to take the red transporter up the mountain. They had a map showing many activities and trails. The map said opening May 2022, but failed to say that nothing was open except the zip rider, so although we didn’t get our money’s worth, the views were beautiful. There was a open air vehicle taking people down to the zip rider, so we hitched a ride down to see what it was like. The driver said he’d be back to pick us up on his next trip, but after he dropped us off, his vehicle had some mechanical trouble. He managed to get it restarted and back up the hill, but we knew he was probably not coming back down for us. We watched the zip riders for a bit and then hiked the quarter mile uphill to get back to the red transporter, so we ended up getting in the walk that I was hoping for when I saw trails on the map. It was very muddy, though, so later that day I asked our butler to clean my shoes. I figured it was better than trying to clean them with the washcloths in the room! We made it back to the ship just in time for our whale watching cruise. We had packed raincoats and warm clothing for this excursion, but this was not needed because it was a large boat with enclosed windows. You could head upstairs which I believe was open air. They had snacks and drinks to purchase, including Coke if you needed your Coke fix. They had samples of smoked salmon, but they placed the salmon on crackers so I did not partake. There were not a lot of whales, but we did end up seeing seven whale tails. They said it was early in the season for the whales coming north. The passengers were very good at pointing out the whales. The excursion was supposed to last 2 1/2 hours, but it lasted about three hours. This gave the two young men in our group just enough time to get off the boat, do the green transporter to the other side to see the orca sculpture, and return before all aboard. Three hours was definitely too long. I was glad to have seen the whales because I’ve never seen them before, but I’m not sure I would recommend this excursion to someone who is planning a cruise in May. Since we knew that we wouldn’t be back in time for lunch at the Haven, we went to the buffet after having a few GF chocolate chip cookies that the butler had left for us. Since we were booked at Ocean Blue that night, I just got some fruit, chips and salsa, and some beans. Dinner at Ocean Blue was very good, but the waiter said I couldn’t have bacon on my wedge salad due to cross contamination. That was weird because I had it on the Breakaway last November. The sea bass was delicious, as was the risotto, but my favorite was the cheesecake for dessert. At least I got cheesecake one time!

Tuesday May 17—Juneau We ordered breakfast in the room as we had some early tours. The first meal was delivered right at 6:15, as requested. The second meal arrived ten minutes early at 6:35. If you like Eggs Benedict, I highly recommend them with the GF English muffins. It was easy to get off the pier, but it was low tide so we had a steep hike up up the hill to the shuttle bus. There was a short bus ride to the tramway (much shorter than the bus in Sitka). We had some time for shopping before our private tours. If you’re looking for a zipper hoodie, I recommend the Alaska Shirt Company which is across the street from the tramway. It was the only location with lots of choices for hoodies. They also have a lot of T-shirts. I have a soft spot for seahorses which have nothing to do with Alaska, but I bought a little jeweled seahorse here. We did private tours with AAA again today. The young adults were scheduled to go on a sea kayaking tour, but it was not safe for them to do so due to the sea conditions that day, so they were transferred to the canoe tour. They were able to canoe very close to the Mendenhall glacier and did enjoy this excursion. The rest of us did the AAA Exclusive Juneau City and Mendenhall Glacier Tour. The city tour was basically the drive to the glacier. Our tour left on time at 9:30, but I think he cut it a little bit short so we didn’t have quite enough time do the trail to Nugget Falls. On the return ride we stopped for a photo op to see the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood statue of a whale. We had lunch at the Haven restaurant. They misunderstood the order for lunch and thought we both wanted eggplant Parmesan, but they quickly brought the correct order (a sandwich) for DS1 who does not like eggplant. I definitely recommend the GF eggplant Parmesan if that something you like. When we returned to the stateroom after lunch, we were pleasantly surprised by a congratulations sign which had been placed for our new college grad. I had mentioned the occasion for the cruise in our butler letter. Shortly thereafter, the new grad was then very happily surprised by a cake. It was not gluten-free, but the non-GFers said it was great! I carefully tasted the frosting and it was yummy, so later in the cruise I requested some strawberries with the frosting. Yum! We spent some time in the Horizon Lounge for the trip up Endicott. They allowed guests on the bow on deck 8, which is usually reserved for crew. There’s a bar there. I asked a crew member who said that the area is the smoking area for crew. The crew passed out blankets for those who needed them. Unfortunately, due to global warming, there were too many icebergs in our way to get very close to the glacier which gave us some time to relax before dinner. We decided to have dinner served in our room because we were tired of waiting for so long in the restaurant for the food to be brought out. The GF bruschetta is very good, as is the GF pizza, which they will make with whatever toppings you request.

Thank you! Feel free to plagiarize me. That’s what Cruise Critic friends are for!

Current CDC guidance goes beyond quarantining for 5 days. From the CDC website: Recommendations for People with COVID-19 Have you tested positive for COVID-19 or have mild symptoms and are waiting for test results? Here’s What To Do: Isolate. Stay at home for at least 5 days.* To keep others safe in your home, wear a mask, stay in a separate room and use a separate bathroom if you can. Do not travel for 10 days. If you can’t wear a mask, stay home and away from other people for 10 days. To calculate the recommended time frames, day 0 is the day you were tested if you don’t have symptoms, or the date your symptoms started. Contact your healthcare provider to discuss your test results and available treatment options. Watch for symptoms, especially fever. If you have an emergency warning sign, such as trouble breathing or persistent chest pain or pressure, seek emergency medical care immediately. Day 6: Do a self-check. How are you feeling? You could have loss of taste or smell for weeks or months after you feel better. These symptoms should not delay the end of isolation. No symptoms or symptoms improving. No fever without fever-reducing medication for 24 hours: You can leave isolation. Keep wearing a mask around other people at home and in public for 5 more days (days 6-10). Symptoms not improving and/or still have fever: Continue to stay home until 24 hours after your fever stops without using fever-reducing medication and your symptoms have improved. After you feel completely better, keep wearing a mask around other people at home and in public through day 10. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation-infographics.html

My butler letter stated, “Enclosed you will find an initial token of our appreciation. We are sure that you that you will exceed our expectations, and we will show our further appreciation at the end of this cruise.” Thanks for the idea of an alternate letter. I never thought about the butler not showing up on the first day!

Be happy with what you were offered. On a POA cruise in 2018, my SIL and BIL had a suite with two bathrooms and both toilets repeatedly stopped working for the entire cruise. They were told that another room was flushing things that shouldn’t be flushed. Engineering and their butler repeatedly worked on their toilets. That’s definitely not in the butler’s job description, but I think he felt sorry for them. Of note, we had been in that same room in 2017 with no issues. They were in a port side suite. My in-laws and my family were in two starboard suites on the same cruise and had no plumbing issues. Despite repeated complaints to the butler and concierge, the only compensation they received was a bottle of champagne. That was their first and last NCL cruise.

Pros and cons of old vs new locks, anyone?

You’re welcome. If more people would state how much they tipped it would help everyone know what’s a good tip versus a poor tip, especially since NCL doesn’t help us on this. In a similar vein, if people were more open with discussing their salaries, the gender pay gap could be lessened. This website has some very interesting information regarding this. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations

I’m glad you’re enjoying my TR. I’m enjoying reliving it while I write it up. I’ve taken many cruises, but this is my first TR. I started writing down some notes while we were waiting to embark on the first day. Then, I just jotted down some notes each day. The notes plus my photos help jog my memory. Please sign up with the Access Desk prior to the cruise so they know you eat GF and can order the correct provisions. I believe they request at least 30 days notice. It is frustrating when they run out of GF items partway through the cruise. Luckily, this did not happen on this cruise.

No, the restaurant is closed. You can call your butler to bring you food if you want to eat something when the Haven restaurant is closed. Of note, on our recent Bliss cruise, the breakfast times were adjusted depending on the arrival time into the port. We had some very early port arrival times and the restaurant opened earlier for breakfast on those days.

AirTags were helpful when one of our luggages decided to spend the night gambling in Las Vegas on our way back from our recent cruise. While waiting for our luggage to appear on the carousel I used the Find My app and noticed one luggage had not made the second flight with us. This saved us time because I could immediately go to the lost luggage desk and show them exactly where my luggage was. It was late at night, but the luggage was located and returned to our airport the next morning. I picked it up that day and now have $150 to use for our next flight. They could have delivered it to me, but I knew we could use the flight credit. If it had been delayed on our outgoing flight, I would have let the airline deliver it. Delayed luggage is one reason we like to fly in a day or two early and always mix and match clothing items so no one arrives without clean clothing.

Monday May 16—Sitka We took our robes for a quick snack in the lounge at 6:30 before going in the pool and hot tub when they opened at 7. The robes are very soft, but one size fits all isn’t very accurate if you’re taller than 6 feet! I tried the GF Shrimp avocado toast for breakfast. It was yummy. At breakfast I requested GF crab cakes for dinner. The Maître d' said she’d check with the chef because she wasn’t sure whether they made them on the ship or they came prepared already. I requested eggplant parmigiana for lunch on Tuesday and crustless cheesecake and flan for dessert. I never got the cheesecake. I did get flan later in the week, but it wasn’t very good. I happened to meet the chef in the Haven lounge that morning. He said that he understood that there were so many things that we couldn’t have because we couldn’t have gluten, so he would try to make anything that he was able to so that we could enjoy our meals. This was our first port day. You have to take a bus from the pier to the city. It took about 15 minutes. The bus drops you off at Harrigan Centennial Hall where we met our tour. Keep this in mind if you book a private tour because there was quite a long line for the buses. Haven has priority, but we didn’t get off the ship quite fast enough on this day. We took a private AAA tour that day called Sitka Scenic Tour. It was a ten passenger van. There was another group of three in our van. We went to Japonski Island and did not see any wildlife as was promised, so on to our next stop, Silver Bay, for a nice photo op. The next stop was Fortress of the Bear where they have black and brown bears that they rehab. It was fun to watch the bears eating. The last stop was the Sitka National Historical Park, also known as Totem Park. The tour guide took us a short way into the park and then told us we could leave the tour and walk our way back to where the buses were. I would have liked to explore more, but we needed to get back to the town before three to visit St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral. We made it back just in time to visit the cathedral before it closed and then walked around the town and visited the Baranof Castle historic site. If you’re a history buff, I highly recommend it. You can hike up steps from Lincoln Street or take a ramp from Harbor Road. On the bus back to the ship, the bus driver told us about the Sitka 1974 volcano prank. I won’t give away the details, but if you don’t get to Sitka, it’s an interesting story to look up on Google.

We gave $60 cash at the beginning and $125 to his account at the end. Tipping is always an individual decision, so you need to keep in mind how many people are in your stateroom and how much you avail yourself of the butler’s services. Unfortunately, NCL doesn’t give any tipping guidelines for the butler or the concierge.

Comments on the butler letter: The butler did a wonderful job with our allergies. When he brought snacks, he clearly marked which were GF. If he brought sandwiches, he’d bring both GF and regular. He brought tea every morning and left a pitcher of apple juice in the fridge which he had cleared out of all the mini-bar items. On the days we ate breakfast in the suite, we gave our order to the maître d’ at dinner the night before and told the butler what time we wanted to eat. The NCL app has all the menus for the Haven restaurant and the specialty restaurants, so he didn’t need to bring us the menus except for once or twice when we wanted to see what was on the MDR menu. The ice bucket was filled regularly. We received four soft blankets for the balcony and a mattress topper for the bottom bunk. We never got one for the top bunk, but DS1 said the mattress was fine. DS2 got a special celebration surprise which I’ll include later in this trip report. We included some cash with the letter and put some money on the butler’s account on the last day. We actually put in more than we had planned because Rogiviel definitely exceeded our expectations!

Re: Suite 18704 Dear Butler, We are excited to be sailing to Alaska with you! Embarkation day can be stressful, so instead of trying to remember what we need to tell you on that day, this letter will hopefully be a good introduction to the XXXXX family’s likes, dislikes, wants, and needs, so embarkation day can be easier for all of us (including you), and we can start our vacation! Allergies: DW and DS1 are allergic to gluten, but DH and DS2 are not. For our suite snacks, please clearly label which snacks are gluten-free and which contain gluten. DS1 would love gluten-free cookies for snacks. DW would love chocolate covered strawberries and/or pineapple. DH and DS2 do not want to be limited to gluten-free items, though! DS2 does not eat cheese of any kind, but DH and DW do. If there is a cheese platter, please make sure that the crackers are separate from the cheese. Food: We are not coffee drinkers, but would like some beverages each morning: hot water and sliced lemons for tea (English Breakfast, both regular and decaffeinated), and one apple juice. In suite dining: We will probably be eating breakfast in the suite on the early port days. Please let us know how and when to place our order. Menus: Can we please have a copy of the menus for all of the main restaurants, the Haven restaurant, Ocean Blue, and La Cucina? This will greatly help DW and DS2 with meal planning. Refrigerator: Can you please empty the refrigerator of all mini-bar items? Ice: DW is rehabbing from knee surgery, so she needs the ice bucket filled at all times. Blanket: Can we have a lightweight blanket to use on the verandah? Bedding: Can we have a mattress topper for the beds in the second bedroom? Are there different pillows we can choose from if needed? Special Occasion: We are celebrating DS2’s graduation from Butler University. Enclosed you will find an initial token of our appreciation. We are sure that you that you will exceed our expectations, and we will show our further appreciation at the end of this cruise. Sincerely, DW, DH, DS1, and DW XXXXX

It was very helpful to have everything written down, so we could get into vacation mode. Next post I’ll include our redacted letter.

It’s been a few weeks since we sailed, but I still wanted to post this trip report in case it helps anyone else. There were six of us in two cabins. One cabin was in the Haven proper. We had The Haven 2-Bedroom Family Villa with Balcony (category H6) on deck 18 with the parents in the main bedroom and two young adult sons in the second bedroom. The grandparents had The Haven Forward-Facing Penthouse with Balcony (category HG) on deck 11. The grandparents had considered The Haven Courtyard Penthouse with Balcony (category HF), but the high sided tub made it a no-go. The grands did enjoy the large room despite the long walk to the elevators, but I don’t think they were able to take full advantage of the Haven itself due to the distance, so keep this in mind when booking your room. The two bedroom villa was perfect for our family of four. I had some concerns because our room was directly below the Haven sun deck, but we only heard noise from deck chairs scraping on the second sea day, so it definitely was not something that ever bothered us. The sun deck wasn’t used very much, so things might be different on a Mexican Riviera cruise.

I have booked an independent shore excursion in Juneau for our Bliss cruise. According to the documents I received, there are four cruise docks in Juneau: the Cruise Ship Terminal, the Franklin Street Dock, the Alaska Steamship Dock, and the AJ Dock. Historically, where has the Bliss docked? Thank you.