Zippeedee

I just finished the reverse cruise from Seward to Vancouver. I’m currently on a Jet Blue red eye from Vancouver to Boston. If you fly from Anchorage to Vancouver it should be an easy connection to Boston. You should also be able to connect to a non-stop through Seattle. I used Viking Air plus and only paid for my seat upgrade.

I just disembarked in Vancouver this morning. I collected my luggage, went through customs and met the driver outside the terminal. The same process as Los Angeles last December. Simple and easy.

I sent my suitcase home from Los Angeles last December. Simple process at the port and it arrived a week earlier than promised during Christmas week. I’ll be using them again in two days to ship my bag home from Vancouver.

1 hour ago, lackcreativity said:

Sorry, not going to convince us to go somewhere with snow on purpose! The South American one is on my list of possibilities.

I’m in Juneau Alaska right now on the Orion. It is sunny and 70 degrees. Unless you go directly to a glacier there is no snow.

To answer your question, I went to Hawaii and French Polynesia on the Star last November and I just booked it again on the Neptune at the end of January 2025. I love sea days and tropical islands.

8 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

A UK 18 is about a US 16.  This is right at the cusp of plus sized clothing.  But thanks for your suggestions, as it’s a place to start if I’m ever in this situation again.
 

My point in all of this is that when you see someone dressed in something that doesn’t look right, don’t assume that there is much of a choice in the matter and have a bit of compassion about their situation.  

I’m in the US and wear a size26/28. Most of my clothes are from the Ulla Popken catalog which is based in Germany. I’m really looking forward to finding their store in Salzburg when I do a Christmas Markets tour in December.

On 7/20/2024 at 11:02 AM, Groovybusybee said:

Gosh, it takes real talent to home bake stuff that tastes factory made!! I was never 100% sure if the white sliced stuff at breakfast was supposed to be bread or cake……..so sweet!

 

 

If it’s not near the toaster it’s brioche. I learned the hard way that it’s not near the toaster because it burns very quickly. I thought it was delicious. I could live on bread and bakery items (though not for very long!) and I never found anything I didn’t like. I avoid bagels pretty much everywhere though.

The water in the sink isn’t filtered like the drinking water. 

Just a suggestion, coffee and tea will both taste better if you use the water provided in the carafes than the water from the bathroom sink. 

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

 

PRH says no guidance and Zippeedee says "classes"?

 

So is there guidance or classes, or just groups of guests coming together voluntarily?  

There were classes with a teacher and provided materials. The watercolor classes had a little art show near the end of the cruise. I think the other classes were macrame but I’m not certain. There was supposed to be a Zentangle class but the person teaching it had to leave due to an emergency.

We also had 21 sea days so there was plenty of time. 

On the Hawaii and French Polynesia cruise in November we had both craft corner in the Wintergarden and watercolor and other craft classes in another area.

There was a shared table option when I made my dinner reservations last month. I prefer to sit alone but the tables are so close together I make friends anyway.

5 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

Really surprised they didn’t close the thermal spa during rough seas. I have been on VO when they have drained the warm pool & the pool midships.

Our weather wasn’t dangerously bad. I never saw the seasick bags out at least. It was a weird bumpy ride, but apparently I was the only one trying to enjoy the spa pool.

5 hours ago, Patriot1791 said:

Star Feb14, 2024 - deck 5 midship - 40ft seas for 3 days going out and slightly less returning. We don't suffer sea sickness so we never missed a meal. The thermal spa was particularly invigorating and cresting a 40 ft swell, becoming weightless (floating in bed) was added enjoyment. Bottom line, we chose this cruise for the sea days and we enjoyed every one of then despite and due to the weather. Crew was great and entertainment top notch  🙂

This past November I found out why no one else was in the spa pool when we hit a huge swell and I got thrown into a wall. The sauna was much safer. It did feel at one point that we were bouncing to Bora Bora but I’d do it again anytime!

This is the Starlink coverage map. There is less coverage at the poles. This is interactive on the website so you can move to any part of the earth.

This is not the totality of products available on the Star but I do think they have their priorities in order. 

On 5/9/2024 at 7:30 PM, z111 said:

 

 

We're in NW Montana and up until literally today, it's been pretty wintry. 🙂 
We prefer cooler weather and don't do well in heat. (I've also wondered if the room would have some way to get cool air in but i guess with the balcony that's all good.)

My favorite weather is sunny, dry, 40°-70F (but sunny and dry might not happen either, but that's ok.)
 

The air conditioning works quite well. In Hawaii and Tahiti it was in the upper 80’s and very humid. My cabin was cool and comfortable all the time.

7 hours ago, CJANDH said:

As I cannot see yet what the included excursions are for my cruise, I was basing my "lame" comment on WanderingBrit's description: Many included excursions will be a bus ride to local sights, with commentary by a guide and stops for photos or exploration.

 

Glad that this may not be as lame as it sounds.

The opposite is also true. As one with mobility issues (the literal definition of “lame” I suppose) if the included excursion is a walking tour, I have to hope I can book an optional tour before they sell out. 

I’m booked on this cruise too. The gratuity is $289 per person. 

2 hours ago, rmalbers said:

Ya, eat, sleep, drink.  But one thing, I'm not sure about  what the loyalty rate is on the different ships/lines, but I see/hear people talk about stuff where they really picked the wrong ship/line just to be loyal.  An example I saw just the other day they were complaining about not enough indoor public space on the ship when the weather was bad.  (I think it was Iceland) VO ships are great small ships for that with the retractable roof but they were on a small ship with open upper decks. So in that way, it's best to pick the ship over being loyal to a line.  

I canceled my last cruise on that line for exactly that reason. No way I was going to be in small crowded spaces in 2021 just to sail on a new ship. I’m a stock holder in that line and they can keep their onboard credit. I much prefer Viking’s smaller number of passengers in bigger spaces.

There were a few nights near the end of my 33 days on the Star when all I wanted was something simple. Shrimp cocktail and cheese pizza. I’m very picky about pizza and thought it was quite good. Not Regina’s in Boston’s North End good, but still done well.

8 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I wasn’t on that cruise…this was on Dawn (maybe Star?) and we played out back. 
 

We also had some fun LCR play on Celebrity Millennium on our transpacific where they gave us a conference room. 

I realized after I posted that obviously we would have met if you were there. Sorry!

Our group was so big we were afraid we’d get shut down for competing with the casino. We did get asked to quiet down by the Mah Jong ladies across the hall in the game room.

Growing up on the north shore of Boston with a father who was a lobster fisherman, I chose to skip the lobster nights and leave it for those who would likely appreciate it. I’m so picky I buy my lobsters alive and cook them myself.

31 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Just last month we had an Excursion Manager come on board in the middle of our B2B cruise.  He was easily the most informative (and understandable) speaker at Port Talk/Excursion Talks.  He really laid it out for people in detail on the amount of effort required on excursions.  Telling us roughly how many steps to get to a bus, or to downtown, how many steps in the tour, what kind of grade we'd face, estimate of total steps on the tour, total time walking, total time standing, bathroom break times, minutes for shopping and when, and so much more.  He also gave good limitation examples - for instance, if you cannot use the stairs to go from deck 4 to 5, then you shouldn't do this tour as their are no lifts, or if you cannot walk 1/4 mile on your own over cobblestones, you should consider other alternatives, or if you cannot make that first 2 foot step up into a bus, then bypass...  and more like that.  Very practical.

 

Wish this was put into the Excursion descriptions when you purchase them however.

The excursions manager on the Star in November was exceedingly thorough like that. He helped me so much. I wish they would let him train every excursion manager to do the same, or let him print out a version for every sailing.

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

No issues so far on Viking and in fact Max, our shore excursion manager mentioned in his port talk yesterday about Dakar (where we will be tomorrow) that guests should have dollar bills if they wish to pay for souvenirs and suggested stopping by the pool bar at 3:30 today if anyone need to change larger bills. 😂

 

Also have never had any issues on NCL where on one TA our pot was typically over $100!

Was that on the Getaway where we had a conference room booked and played every afternoon? I had so much fun and met so many nice people by playing that game.

I know search isn’t great here but there was a long thread about the beds because of that video last fall. You can request a mattress topper or a couple of extra duvets to help pad it.