eileeshb

I’ve seen a mix on previous cruises some of it seems to depend on their relationship with the theatre manager and restaurant maitre’ds and overall policy on the ship. I wanted feedback on Bliss so that I’d have an idea of whether they’re allowed to do the show bookings or not. The minimum for all hosts seems to be the MDR nightly reservation rotating between the MDRs and everything after that varies from ship to ship and host to host.

Just checked mine this morning, it's showing a €100 increase on the base fare but the balance owed hasn't changed. In my case there is the added uncertainty of changing exchange rates.

Thanks for that ! I'll definitely check into that organisation, I've a cousin who's an artist coordinator and curator, I know how widely she spreads her network of contacts so they're probably the same.

Btw a note about those 2 excursions, totem bight park is further North of ward cove so you don’t go anywhere near Ketchikan town. Saxman is south of the town so you pass through Ketchikan to get to it. from the research I did you can do a public bus from ward cove to totem bight park but it’s not well signposted and it’s a bit of a walk to the bus stop.

I’d check with a local transport company. NCL do an airport transfer to fiumico (?) but not ciampino. Ciampino is the airport used by Ryanair and other European budget airlines and is further from the port.

My personal rule on cruiseline v booking directly for excursions is that as long as there’s a possible alternative transport to get back to the ship then you don’t need to bother booking via the cruiseline. But if an excursion involves a boat or train then book via the cruiseline in case of mechanical failure. In the Caribbean there’ll be tour companies and taxis at the main ports offering all sorts of excursions and there’s usually flat fees for taxis to the most popular destinations if you want to wait until you reach the port to decide what you want to do or want to haggle with the locals. As others have suggested check the ports of call forums here, but also check trip advisor and viator. Do check the t&cs on excursions to ensure a full refund if the ship misses the port.

possibly and probably. But work means no holidays at any other date that works for Alaska. Plus I'm Irish and live on the west coast of Ireland in a surf town so the weather isn't a factor.

I'm having similar dilemmas but I discovered there are totem poles dotted around downtown that are within easy walking distance from the shuttle drop off. Unfortunately it looks like the Totem heritage centre hours won't align with Bliss' port times as it doesn't open until 1pm (according to google). You can however always go there and see the exterior and there is a circle of poles outside cape fox lodge which connects to Creek Street via a Funicular if you don't want to walk the married men's path. My plan at the moment is to get the earliest shuttle into town, head for creek street and then up to cape fox lodge and over to the heritage centre ..I've pinned a few of the spots around the town with totem poles on a google map along with the location I think the shuttle will be using for drop off and pick up. I am cheating a little by booking the lumberjack show simply because it finishes later than the last shuttle back to Ward cove but I need to talk to the excursion desk folks about whether they'll let me meet the excursion in town rather than have to return to ward cove to meet it.

I'm just wary of getting something expensive shipped to a hotel and being an international customer I'm probably going to have to jump through more hoops.

I'm hoping there are some folks who've been solo on Bliss lately that can answer this. Does the solos coordinator pre-book any of the shows for a solos group ? i.e. do I need to run off to the entertainment booking desk as soon as I embark to book Six and Jersey Boys ? I'm not cruising until October but from recent reviews it looks like it won't be possible to pre-book before embarkation and I haven't seen any posts about the solos hosts on Bliss. On my pre-covid cruises the hosts booked about 20 seats for the 2 main shows but I haven't heard if this is happening now.

In the few years I’ve been cruising it’s mostly been a 30day final payment, at one point briefly it was 60days but it’s always been a non refundable deposit (we do have 14day window for change of mind if booking online thanks to eu rules). I did manage to get a deposit transferred to a different booking once before covid, I’m not sure that would be possible these days.

I suspect a lot of places will already be closed. If it’s anything like Irish tourist towns they probably rely on a lot of students for in-season staffing and they’ll all be back at school by October. Or they’ll have switched focus to non-cruise tourists like we do.

Btw in terms of changing itineraries “after final payment “ what is that window for most of you? My deadline for final payment is 30 days before sailing but then my deposit is also non refundable. If they change itineraries within the 30day window then it’d better be a damn good reason. They changed the arrival time for Victoria on my Alaska cruise but they gave me that update a year before the sail date and it doesn’t make much of a difference on that itinerary anyway.

Warnemunde was the one that some passengers embarked at and was affected by high winds, and I think Stockholm city was the other but there is another pier/port outside the city that is accessible to the ship in windy conditions. I think they've switched to that pier entirely for the Breakaway/+ class ships and then run a shuttle bus into the city from there. Basically there's a narrow channel on the approach to Warnemunde and Stockholm so if the wind is from the wrong direction on the big ships you could wind up with an evergiven situation.

I'm cruising Alaska in October (I know it's late in the season but I have no choice due to work) and I'm thinking about renting a lens or 2 in Seattle rather than bringing all my kit from Ireland. Has anyone had any experience with Glazer's Rental ? They seem to be the one place in Seattle that might work. I don't want to do an online rental as I'd have to have it shipped with all the risks associated with that. I got a lens back from a friend previously that had the O-haze filter smashed on it, lucky was an add on filter rather than the lens.

I'm actually on the October 14th sailing so in Juneau on the 16th. I'm from the west coast of Ireland and grew up in watersports so heavy seas don't worry me. I helped haul fishing boats out of the water as a kid when storms came in earlier than expected. As long as I can see the waves the motion doesn't bother me. I know the exhausted feeling after a busy season, I work in a surf shop 6 days a week in the summer, thankfully we close on Mondays once it starts to get quiet and I have another day off mid week. I am so happy we don't do rentals or lessons anymore as that used to turn into 12-hr days when the tide was right/wrong. I'm hoping I might see the northern lights if the weather cooperates on such a late sailing as a possible silver lining to a later date.

I sailed on Epic early last year when a big storm caused flight delays across the northern US. They held the ship for one flight load so we departed a couple of hours late and another group were flown to our second port of call as they couldn't get flights to the first port. The passengers flown to the port of call were put up in a hotel for the couple of days they had to wait for the ship to arrive. I don't know how normal that was or if those passengers also had insurance from NCL but they have delayed departures and flown guests out to meet the ship if they couldn't hold the departure.

I haven't looked at the Baltics itineraries lately but there are 2 ports with issues when there's high winds and one of those is/was an embarkation port so they have to wait for the winds to behave instead of skipping it which can lead to the next port stop getting shortened or skipped.

Unfortunately October is the one month that works for me and only NCL sail Alaska that late in the season and only with Bliss, Encore or Sun, and Sun doesn't include Glacier Bay on it's itinerary.

I work in a resort town so can't take vacation between May and September which leaves October as the only option for Alaska. April is hit & miss at work depending on when Easter falls and this year it's quite early which eliminates that month too.

I've noticed a few things seem to be closed there on a Monday which happens to be the day we're scheduled to be in port. I can't complain as I work in a resort town and we close on Mondays out of high season.

They don't always make them available, it depends on how many guests have bought a full cruise spa pass.

I'm going solo to Alaska with NCL in October, I've been solo on every cruise I've done. One of my friends is keen to do Alaska too so she may come along and celebrate a roundy birthday on the ship. Her father wanted to do Alaska too but her mother just isn't into travelling and he has Parkinson's. As she describes his mobility these days, he can run no problem he just can't walk and she doesn't think he'd be able for the long haul flights from Ireland.

I've only sailed with NCL and out of school holiday windows so the age spread tends to be quite varied. You can get a look at all of their excursions regardless of specific itinerary https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/shore-excursions Not all will be offered on each itinerary but I found it was good for getting ideas of what's available at different ports and I could then search for local providers (check trip advisor and CC for reviews). Also the prices on the webpage above are the full normal price without the $50 excursion credit discount.

My last cruise was March last year, my next will be October of this year and since the end of last summer I've been doing endless research on the ports and having it in the back of my mind with any shopping I'm doing. My amazon save for later list gets longer week by week..