Candy Apple 12

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.

Sunday May 15—At sea I tried out the fitness center this morning. There is a water fountain there, but I forgot to bring a water bottle. It’s on my packing list now. We did receive four small and one large NCL water bottles in our room on embarkation day. I tried the Haven pool. The pool is about 7 feet wide x 24 feet long and 3 feet 11 inches deep, so it’s good for water walking and water aerobics. I didn’t try them, but the main pools are much deeper. There are towels available by the pool and hot tub, so you don’t need to bring any from your room. There’s a staircase on the starboard side that you can take from deck 18 down to deck 17 to get to the pool. There’s also an elevator that’s only accessible to Haven guests that goes between decks 17 and 19. Lunch—We got faster service by asking for all of our courses except dessert to be served at once. The French dip on a GF bun was yummy. I really liked the pavlova with lemon sorbet for dessert. The grands learned about the back entrance to the Haven restaurant, so they started to take the elevator to deck 18 and would meet us in the restaurant, saving a few steps. We met another couple at lunch. The wife is gluten-free, and they mentioned that there were GF blueberry muffins, so we had our butler get us some. They were the Kinnikinnick brand. There is a five hole mini golf course on deck 19 aft behind the racetrack. It’s only accessible via two flights of stairs. The butler brought lots of food for the PM snack, including good GF BLT’s. As requested in our butler letter, Rogiviel did clearly mark the GF items each day. The Haven Captain’s reception was 7 PM Sunday, but we had already made La Cucina reservations for 6:45. They could not do GF Osso Buco without 48 hour notice. Panna cotta is the GF dessert at La Cucina. I highly recommend the GF calamari at La Cucina.

Saturday May 14—Seattle We took a taxi to the pier. I called the number printed on the taxi from the airport (206-622-6500). They arrived right on time. Call the night before to schedule your cab. Make sure they run the meter. We took two cabs with three people per cab. The first cab didn’t run the meter and charged $10. The second cab ran the meter and it was $6.40, which was about what the phone operator had quoted. The cruise before us had norovirus outbreak. We were handed a paper offering us FCC if we wanted to cancel. The doors were not open when we arrived just after 9 for our 9-9:30 arrival time slot. They were still trying to kick off the passengers from the previous cruise, as well as doing a deep clean due to the GI outbreak. We entered the building around 9:45 AM. The first stop was the passport check. Then through security line. Then elevator or stairs (escalator was broken) up the stairs. Haven check in was to the right. Regular check in was to the left. At check in, you were required to show edocs, passport, COVID vaccination cards, and COVID test results. They also verbally asked the health questions. There were comfortable chairs for waiting, but they were quickly filled. I was surprised that there were no drinks or snacks offered. I’ve been in suites on the POA twice, and there were drinks and snacks in the waiting area. At 11:35 the concierge, Gian, gave his welcome speech and let us know they were sanitizing the ship for us and would take us to board via muster station when the ship was ready. At this point, the Haven waiting area was very full. At 11:59 AM Gian called muster station A, quickly followed by B, and C. We had a tour of the Haven area, and then went to the Haven restaurant for lunch. The Haven restaurant service was extremely slow, but the food was good. If you have the scallops as your main dish, be forewarned that you will get 3 small scallops, so if you’re hungry definitely order an appetizer, soup, or salad! Two of us are gluten-free. We chose items at this meal that we knew could be easily made GF. The maitre’d took our dinner pre-order while we were waiting for our appetizers to arrive, as well as the order for La Cucina for Sunday night. Right after lunch we went to our room. We called for butler to open the balcony door. I guess my son was already in vacation mode because he didn’t see how to operate the child lock. The butler, Rogiviel, went over everything in the room. I gave him our butler letter. He then came back with more key card holders and said that he had read the letter. Our butler then walked the grands to their room. Shortly afterwards, their butler, Samir, came and did a very thorough walkthrough of their room. The grands did not receive one of their luggages by 5 PM. They called their butler who quickly found it and said that at the Seattle port priority luggage gets mixed in with regular. The default GF dessert at dinner was flourless chocolate cake which is very rich. This was repeated at dinner many nights, and I got tired of it.

Friday May 13—Pre-cruise in Seattle We stayed at the Hyatt House Seattle downtown right across from the space needle. They have a full hot breakfast buffet and a rooftop terrace from which you can see the space needle. Our room had a small kitchenette with a table, two chairs, microwave, and mini-fridge with a small freezer. It was a nice room for a family with two queen beds and a sofa bed. Taxi ride from SEATAC to the airport at 3 AM on Friday morning with no traffic was $52 plus tip. It’s about a 20 minute walk to Pike Place Market from the hotel. There was a bakery there which had GF items, but it was not dedicated GF. We were there just after 1 PM, and they had run out of many of their GF items, but we did snag a yummy monster cookie. If you like Thai food, we highly recommend Golden Singha Thai cuisine which was about a 4 minute walk from the hotel. We ordered takeout on Friday night and took it back to the hotel. It was ready in 15 minutes, so it’s a good quick option. The pad Thai was a good GF option. The hotel had a full hot breakfast. They even offered GF bread which was enclosed in cellophane, so I knew there was no cross-contamination.

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.