eileeshb

On 3/29/2024 at 9:54 AM, ConnieTact said:

Looks like it was abandoned. I wonder if it was because she was enjoying herself so much?! I hope so as we are on the shop soon and I was hoping to pick up some tips! 

My Sincere apologies to all, this cruise was the first time I had someone with me, previously I'd been solo so thought I'd have plenty of time for posting as we'd have so much at sea time.

It was a great cruise but the shorter hours of daylight and the end of season nature of the cruise definitely impacted on what we could do in port. Skagway was like a ghost town with so many places closed, Juneau was dark by the time we finished our whale watching excursion, we didn't bother getting off the ship in Victoria and Ketchikan was definitely a bit of a rush around due to the short time in port

3 minutes ago, Royals Carol said:

I read where the Gem is possibly Dock port or tender port. Can someone confirm, please?

We docked when I was there in 2022 but cruising wasn’t back up to max capacity at that point. 
I honestly think NCL has taken to tagging every port as potentially a tender port for CYA reasons. I’d say try to find the schedule for the port and see how many other ships are scheduled for the same date. Generally the piers are allocated in order of arrival at the ports.

Assignment of a PCC is very random.. I usually call the main phone number and have had various PCCs reach out to me over the years, only the most recent has actually hung around long enough for me to use more than once. 
of course she has an Irish name (both first and second names) but is American and doesn’t pronounce it correctly so I have to remind myself that Ciara says Sierra instead of keer-ah. Thankfully she works Irish hours which is a first for an English speaking PCC I’ve been assigned.

I use her for my payments on the cruises and to select my cabin since the ncl website doesn’t work consistently. I normally book my accommodation and flights myself but will check with a local TA to see if they can get a better deal. My mother is considering joining me on my next cruise so I’ll definitely use a TA for her bookings. 

On 3/16/2024 at 4:23 PM, Ramblin and Gamblin said:

Thanks for taking the time to share this semi-live report.  I have been looking at this cruise and your posts have been very helpful.  On NCL's website, several of the ports on this cruise are flagged as "dock or tender".  Based on your comments and pictures, it looks like you docked at every port.  Is that correct or did you have to use tenders anywhere?

Thanks again.

Roatan and Cozumel can potentially be tender ports if there are too many ships in port on the same day and they run out of piers. A rare occurrence.

there’s also the chance of piers getting damaged and reducing capacity as happened in the past at Harvest Caye and Roatan. Harvest Caye currently only has 1 pier but NCLH controls the schedule there so unless someone wrecks the pier again you shouldn’t be at risk of having to tender there. 

On 1/30/2024 at 9:01 PM, ken8631 said:

Thanks - didn't know you could do that......  Been on over 20 cruises and have never done it.....

It's become more commonplace since the reduction in housekeeping staff. Previously most staterooms would be ready by 1pm but now it could be be 3 or 4pm on the larger ships.

On Bliss in October the drop off was outside Q restaurant and on Escape last month it was in the Casino, crew told me the location when I checked in at my muster station. 

On 1/8/2024 at 6:34 PM, SRQMom said:

Which cooking excursion is that??  I looked online (booking Cozumel excursions today) and can't find an actual cooking excursion listed.  Your posts are so cool and full of useful info.  Thanks!!!  

I saw a salsa & salsa excursion listed for next week that also mentioned margaritas in the description. 

1 hour ago, kbonasch said:

I called Celebrity- 5 cruises with them. Not at all helpful- said if they weren't listed on the site they weren't available - didn't seem interested in me remaining with them. Had some issues with their air and they didn't pick me up at the airport on a March 2023 Cruise- Some points that should have been awarded to me were given my husband's instead of me after he passed away. They refused to work with me so I didn't move up to Select which was the plan by taking the cruise.. Went on a very nice Norwegian cruise to Alaska 10 years ago. I was SO excited to chat with a someone at Norwegian yesterday- nice and informative.  Now to decide where to go several ideas in mind- Norwegian here I come!

Be careful about booking air through NCL, it is a bit hit and miss judging from comments on this forum. I’m international so I deal with air and hotel myself as I’ve had fun explaining where my closest airport is even with business travel in the past. 

9 hours ago, Elsammo46 said:

Absolutely insane waves overnight. I’ve been in lots of cruises and NEVER have felt anything quite like this. 

I felt the rocking increase but it was pretty mild by my standards.  There has been one person cry off from the m&m due to sea sickness though.  

There is a bit of a swell running but it only feels and looks like a couple of meters.  

Unfortunately the rugby didn't go our way as the irish men's team crashed out of the World Cup at the quarterfinal stage... Again! 

Anyhow,  checked in with my muster station and then started showing AC around the ship. We dropped our carry-ons at the storage area near Q.

AC was starting to feel overwhelmed by the crowds so I introduced her to the waterfront area on deck 8. 

About 20 minutes later they announced that staterooms on ACs deck are ready. In bringing her to find her room we collected another lost solo . While there are plenty of signs with arrows and a big sign on the wall near the entry to the studio area it was not glaringly obvious to the newbies.

From memory I think the older ships have the sign on the actual doors as well as the wall. 

Anyhow, we found ACs room and our lost friend who also hadn't experienced the card slot for power  setup before. We then came across 2 other novices asking how they could get the lights on in their rooms. 

By the time we had done that exploration my deck was declared ready for access. Off we trotted to reclaim our baggage and get it squared away in our rooms. 

I discovered a few treats waiting in my room as the coordinator for this sailings meet and mingle. 

after we unpacked AC and i went to check out the thermal spa 

I found a note on a group page that apparently the hot tub and a bunch of the pool jets weren't working for last weeks sailing. I tried the button for the hot tub but nothing happened.   So I guess that hasn't been fixed today. 

The ship started up her engines as we went downstairs so we had our drinks on the waterfront. ..

More to come but I am crashing into sleep right now. Even the fancy chocolate tart in La Cucina couldn't give me sufficient energy to keep going.

Safely ensconced in the Local with a view of the TV for the rugby World Cup quarterfinal Ireland v New Zealand. 

the weather this morning was dry and clear when we came to check out of the hotel so we walked down  to Pier 66

nice little downhill stroll to the pedestrian bridge. Took a minute to figure out whether to turn right or left when we came out of the elevator. We had to go left to drop bags with the porters and then back past the elevator to go to checkin.

We had to split up for checking as they had 2 areas split up by batches of decks. I was in the 5-11 area while AC had to go to 12+. 

She wound up on board thr ship way faster than me and grabbed a table at the local for us. They're definitely keen to get everyone to go straight to their assembly stations the moment you board the ship. I ignored that to get to the local in time for kick off. Ireland had the lead at halftime so I made my dash to check-in at the muster station. 

Now watching the second half of the match .. 

After a little brunch at La Prisienne bakery 

 we continued to Seattle centre to check our Chiuhly garden and glass. 

 we're waiting for the next demo before heading to mopop

15 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

 

What hotel did you stay in? 

We're in the belltown Inn which has a few more also on this cruise. Ideal location

10minutes from pike place market in one direction and Mopop etc in the opposite  direction 

Our flight arrived in Seattle almost an hour early but then had to wait quite a while to get to our gate, and also a lengthy wait for our baggage so there was no actual gain. We got to the Premier airport shuttle about 11.15pm. Our driver was at the booth and brought us over to his van, we lucked our and had it to ourselves. 

I had emailed the hotel to make sure they'd be expecting us super late.  So when we got to the belltown Inn they were ready for us to get a quick check-in. We got a corner room on the fifth floor, with plenty of space for all our baggage.  

This morning we walked down to pier 66 and then over to pike place Market.

there are a bunch of roadworks and construction on Alaskan way near pike place market which may affect anyone coming from hotels in that area. 

We spent the day wandering around pike place Market 

got the obligatory shots of the pigs

This is our carry on collection! I do not travel light and I may influenced AC to overpack too. 

Halfway point on the journey, leaving the rain in shannon and arriving to dry weather in Seattle  

Picked up a few bits & bobs for the m&m I'm coordinating for the roll call. We currently have 53 people who say they're coming to it. 

I did the final round of packing last night, just a couple of odds and ends to tuck in tonight. I finally found the travel pouch with my cables and iPad accessories. AC is staying at my place tonight and reckons she'll have room for any overflow in her bags. I have an airtag put aside for her checked bag. 

The nice weather here has disappeared again, it has turned windy and drizzly. It looks like Seattle will be much warmer than here on Thursday. 

4 hours ago, durberville said:

That whale photo!! 😳 Wow!! 👏🏻

You know it’s a sculpture, right? That’s why scuba had whale as “whale” 

For my cruise next week I paid €307 , I think the price in dollars at  the time was $339 for a 7 day on Bliss 

After the fog comments yesterday I find this headline about my departure airport this morning. 

This is NOT normal for Shannon, it's normally the airport other flights get diverted TO when there's fog. 

49 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Following along.  Please post a daily or two if you have a chance.  No problem if you don't.  You need to spend your time enjoying a fantastic AK cruise.  I'll be curious to hear if Siglo is still performing on the ship.  Best classic rock band I've ever had on an NCL ship.  

If the WiFi cooperates I shall try my best. 
I have ordered the Holafly eSIM for unlimited data while in the US ports but I’m not entirely sure whether that will work as the information from their chat support conflicts with the info on their website. At least one of their partner carriers has 3G around all the ports but their chat support reckoned I’d have no coverage at all for Ketchikan. 

4 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

This has been true, wait until it's past midnight or 00:01 to do the onboard WiFi upgrade, and save 1 day's worth of unlimited WiFi charge.   We did that trade-up in April on a 15 nights TA ... but the daily charge was $25 instead of $30 as it's based on 15 days,  When we did that on Day 2, the calculated daily rate became $30 per day, didn't save any money despite trading in our 300 x 2 minutes with the allowance. 

 

More recently, last month on the Escape, the upgrade price for unlimited WiFi remained unchanged, whether it was done at 00:01 after midnight on Day 2 or Day 3.  Reasons to wait until onboard is that we can use non-refundable OBC for the trade-up ($100 allowance for the 150 unused minutes as trade, higher allowance on a longer cruise with 300 airtime minutes.)  

Personally I’m going to wait until I’m on board to see what will be blocked using the regular unlimited wifi anyway, plus the upgrade price on the app and website is out of whack at the moment.

24 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Watching the Seattle Space Needle between 9:00 A.M. and 11:30 A.M. this morning, it was very very foggy.  I could not see from The Encore to the other side of Elliott Bay.

Not surprised, by the coast here today there wasn’t enough of a breeze to dissipate the sea spray from the waves so it was just hanging in the air making it appear like a very light fog. This time of year along coasts and other bodies of water in the northern latitudes is prime fog time. 
I deliberately booked the afternoon slot for the train in Skagway as whomever did the live in April mentioned it was foggy in the morning at a few of the ports but clear in the afternoon. 

Had another copy of the visa email from Norwegian.. reiterating that as a dirty foreigner I might need the eTA for Canada. Hate to say it but as an Irish woman born in Australia neither of my citizenships are detrimental to have as both are amongst the most widely accepted for visa-free travel, particularly to commonwealth countries like Canada. I think the Australian one might even be more acceptable to US ICE than the Irish given the number of Irish that have stayed in the US illegally. But I let the Australian passport lapse as they decided to jack up the price for renewal to over €200! + embassy interview! My Irish passport costs less than €100 and I don’t have to go have an interview to renew it.

So far there has been no email reminders to watch the safety video (I’m knocking on wood as I write that ).

Looking at the long term weather forecast it seems likely to be dry for the 2 days in Seattle pre-cruise and possibly even sunny on Thursday, just as well I packed the sunscreen. I need to add a cap now too in addition to the beanie I’ve already packed. 
It looks like it is a 50:50 chance of rain for Juneau and definitely precipitation for Skagway which may be sleet or snow. Glacier Bay is going to be near freezing temperatures and probably sleet/snow.  (I think freezing rain in USA is what we call sleet in Ireland) 

6 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

Understood.

My comment was based on someone knowing, or suspecting, that their was a new alternative that they were interested in.

Otherwise, I would periodically call for assistance and query about any offering (per the general lists, as you mentioned) that was not previously listed. Annoying to do, but that's the only way to play the game other than checking when you get aboard or using a non-ship operator.

One more "wild card". NCL's shorex lists are inconsistent. For my January cruise, I have reservations in 6 ports. For 3, only my choice remains in the listing; the other 3 still show all of the options. Oops.

There are some "excursions" that don't have a time implication, e.g. the goldbelt tram in Juneau, if you book that one you still see everything else in that port. There's a similar one in St Thomas I think, I got that one before. I think it was called the skylift to Paradise Point, it was a gondola lift that you could use at any time while we were in port.