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Ireland won their game yesterday so that means they'll be playing their quarterfinal against New Zealand on Saturday 8pm irish time which should be noon in Seattle. Nice day at work today, even warmer than yesterday 19C(66F). We just had a customer in saying when she was here in July she couldn't even have a coffee on the promenade because the weather was so bad. Today she's wandering about in shorts. July this year was the wettest in Ireland since records began. This is the view from one of the windows upstairs at work.

Best to just do it onboard, the price I'm seeing on the app is buying the streaming plan with no credit from the FAS+ . Depending on the ship it may be worth testing if the unlimited actually allows you access to whatever you were wanting to stream as there have been some comments from recent cruisers that they didn't need to upgrade when it was just for calls via whatsapp or messenger. Also if you don't need streaming on embarkation day wait until the second day to request it and it should be a little cheaper.

The problem is if you have an excursion booked, when you look in the explore & plan area on the app or when logged into the website and your cruise you won't see any excursions listed that conflict with the timing of your booked excursion. That is why bird said to look at the main website under explore - Shore excursions. But even that is not a guarantee as some items listed in that area of the website may not be available on your particular itinerary due to the scheduled time in port.

Halftime in the rugby.. Fabulous day here, no rain, no wind, mild temperatures and good waves makes everyone happy. Had a trio of American surfers in this afternoon only one of whom had brought his own board so the other 2 had to buy one each to get into the water. This was the view as I was leaving work today

the only thing to watch out for is the flat charge restaurants Teppanyaki or Moderno, sometimes you may be asked to pay them upfront if you don't have a dining credit available to apply against them

The numbers for the meet & mingle are growing steadily. it is scheduled for the Sunday at 10.30am in Cagney’s with a shot glass/gift exchange optional for those attending. The weather forecast for the day we’ll be in glacier bay is suggesting sleet or snow! Meanwhile there are expected to be unusually warm temperatures here in Ireland this weekend. After endless drizzle yesterday we got a break from the rain today and it’s supposed to be warm (by Irish standards) tomorrow. Hopefully the surf will be nice this weekend to help keep all the surfers happy. 6 of the juniors from our local surf club and their coach will be on the Irish team heading to the world championships in Brazil at the end of November so they’re all frantically trying to get as much practice as possible before then. Each of the kids had to raise €3,000 to cover the cost of sending them which the club managed to raise within a couple of weeks. Thankfully the coach is having his travel covered by our national sports council. only 3 work days left … the shop is closed on Mondays at this time of year and I’ll be flying to Seattle on Wednesday. I do have to laugh at some folks who continue to be surprised that we keep the shop open all year round, most of the businesses in the village close for a few weeks at some point during the winter, the surf schools almost take it in turn to close and most of the pubs reduce their days open quite drastically. Basic rule of thumb for surf is there’s generally far more waves anytime but summer. However, the waves in the summer are usually suitable for beginners. As a result anyone in the surf business deals with more people in the summer but more serious surfers the rest of the year. The jet skis are being dusted off and prepped for towing surfers into 60ft waves. I was checking on surf shops in Seattle and discover the one at Alki beach is only open at weekends from noon so I don’t think I’ll make it over there until after the cruise. Particularly because I booked a Wine, bread, cheese & chocolate tour for Friday afternoon in Seattle. 🍷🥏🧀🥖🍫 The Irish rugby team have their final pool game at the World Cup against Scotland tomorrow and the result of that will determine if/when I’ll be glued to a tv screen/ipad next weekend in Seattle.

I think this is a universal problem, it’s the same in Ireland but a lot of the drivers are on the freenow (used to be hailo) or Uber apps which means you can summon one on those apps and pay that way without cash. Uber drivers in Ireland are registered taxi drivers because that’s the way our laws work.

It looks like I will be using every ounce of my baggage allowance, my largest spinner suitcase to be checked in, a cabin size spinner and a camera backpack for carry on…. Now if I can just locate my tech cables pack. As I pack I’m putting items aside for AC in case she needs them.. monopod, plug adapter .. And I’m mentally trying to remember what I still haven’t packed for myself… waterproof trousers, charging cables, sunglasses … ahh ad on the tv for the An Post Currency Card which I just topped up today, € to $ is basically 1:1 at the moment, the worst it’s been for me in all the years I’ve travelled to the states. I’d usually get at least $1.10 to €1 and frequently a lot more than that. So for those of you stateside considering a European vacation this is the best exchange rate since the beginning of the € euro currency. The only problem is that the costs of accommodation have gone sky high due to the energy prices here. rotten weather here today so we had a grand total of 3 customers today, latest admin task to be done before I go on holiday is get an appeal lodged against the new commercial rates valuation for the shop.

Hmm I wonder will we be allowed to use 2 CNs if we book a solo balcony. It’s rather annoying when most of the double up promos explicitly exclude studios.

FYI euro notes smallest denomination is €5, you may want to get a bag of €2s or €1s at a local bank when you get there for tipping, but tipping is also not required in Europe so just a euro or two is generally plenty.

I certainly hope the spa stays open too! Waves don’t bother me as long as I get a view of them every now and then.

Just booked the car park for my local airport, the cheapest option is all booked out so it's back to their original long-term car park €110 for 11 days. It seems the airport is finally growing the range of flights year-round which is leading to car park congestion. It is only a 15 minute drive from my house rather than the 3+hours to Dublin and they have the new security scanners that means no liquid limits in carry-ons. I'm hoping it will also mean not having to extract all the camera gear too ! Looking at the long term swell forecasts they don't quite reach to the start of the cruise but it looks like there could still be rocky conditions.

Basically if you ring them to reprice when the price drops you would lose the spa pass. Same idea as when the FAS terms change after your initial booking, when you re-price you get switched to the new FAS terms. It effectively means that unless the fare drops far more than the cost of a spa pass you better not call for a re-price.

Just a heads up about Galway … it has the WORST traffic in the entire country! It’s a small city, more a town by most standards and it’s easy to walk around, but it is a complete nightmare for driving. I say this as someone from the neighbouring county and have driven in many places around Western Europe and the USA , Galway has the worst traffic. Get a guided tour, it’s an incredibly popular tourist destination. You may see ads for the Cliffs of Moher, this is literally a stones throw from my home village, it is a solid 90mins drive to get there from Galway city. Very scenic roads if you go via the Burren, but narrow and windy with intermittent road signs.

I see another thread about the disappearance of spa cabins, it looks like the changes happened this past weekend and went live today as they’re showing deck plans for pre January 7th and plans for post January 7th.

They have been getting more and more granular with their cabin pricing over the past year, they now use the exact locations to determine cabin price not just the classification of the cabin. so say it’s a mid-ship cabin on deck 12, you would pay more or less if you opted for a different deck and a forward or aft location. AFAIK all the spa balcony cabins were located at the one end of the ship closest to the spa, that location alone seems to cause a price increase in a standard balcony. also note the spa pass on a 7 days cruise has increased in price since about the start of this summer… previously it was about $220, now it’s over $330. the timing for buying a spa pass was at about the 120days mark but occasionally became available to purchase before that. The joys of the weird and wacky world of the NCL website.

That doesn’t sound right.. you shouldn’t be seeing solo rates or cabins unless you specifically selected a single traveller by going into the filters. also since when does NCL have solo balconies? the only scenario I could see where a balcony may be restricted to a single guest is if the part of the ship it is in doesn’t have sufficient lifeboat space for 2 guests due to to 3 or 4 guests in all the other cabins in the area

No travel agent is an expert in visa requirements, they’ll have a fair idea of what’s required for citizens of the country they are in when travelling to major common destinations. E.g. a US travel agent probably knows what US citizens need going to Western Europe or the various Caribbean and Central American countries. when I worked for a multinational we used American Express’ travel agents but had to work with a specialist travel visa company when we went anywhere outside of USA or the EU. Thankfully I’m Irish and had an Australian passport too (dual citizenship) so if one passport was at an embassy to get a visa for a business trip I still had the other to use for leisure travel and the visa requirements for both are pretty similar. I’ve only had to get embassy issued visas 3 times - Russia, Malaysia and J1 for USA, most others were issued at point of entry or were electronic applications like the US ESTA or Canadian eTA.

The first time I got a spa pass was for a med cruise on Epic, definitely well worth it as a lot of the excursions involve quite a bit of walking or long bus rides so the jets and the waterfall in the main thermal pool were great therapy for sore muscles and feet. I was only on a 7 day cruise and we did have 1 sea day due to covid testing for Spain back in 2021.

Compared to my previous cruises we will have a lot of @sea time on this one so I made sure to book the thermal spa pass. I just hope if we hit rough seas that facility won’t be closed! I’m likely to be the loon in the pool as waves are breaking in it. I grew up in a fishing village and work in a surf shop so waves are just fun to me !

Some of the NCL ships have “the great outdoors” area just outside the buffet or in Spice H20 but those are public areas and not specific to haven. It usually served burgers and hotdogs in the time between lunch and dinner when the buffet was closed.

The weather in Ireland right now is pretty changeable so I'm having to resist using anything I want to pack for Alaska. I also seem to have mislaid my luggage scales .. this may be a problem. I just got the 10-days to go reminder for my flights from Aer Lingus .. Thankfully our outbound flight from Ireland is not super early in the morning which would normally be the case for flights to the USA, but the flip side is it will be close to midnight by the time we reach the hotel in Seattle. I'm currently checking for options of activities to do in Skagway as the morning excursion we had booked has been cancelled. We will be doing the train in the afternoon, 1pm. NCL notified us that the train has been shortened due to works on the track so we will only be going as far as Inspiration Point. What is interesting is that on the excursion list they are still showing the excursion I booked, as well as the altered version. The inspiration point version is both shorter AND more expensive. So if you happen to be on one of the cruises this month, pick the cheaper one.

If it's any consolation the temperatures for Seattle were higher than Ireland a couple of days ago. I'm sailing October 14th from Seattle and packing as if it's Ireland with just a couple of extra thermal layers. I'm just hoping none of our ports are cancelled and the whale watching excursion I have booked in Juneau goes ahead.

It could be interesting! I’ve had my fair share of experiencing rough seas in fishing boats and ferries in the past; I now know as long as I can see the waves and am not in the proximity of smokers or lingering smoke I should be fine.

I was surprised when the app was suggested as I was pulling the esta application web address for AC, hopefully it will be handy in future.