Haljo1935

Thanks for sharing and allowing us to.come along. LOVE Alaska and seeing the beautiful pictures - especially of places we have not been. Like your Glacier shots - really like the videos.🐳 Your next trip to AK, hope you make it to Icy Strait Point - it's small, but lovely. And the kids might enjoy the zip line; I'll leave it for you to research, but since you've got an adreline junkie dare devil in the making, it should be a winner!! Likely not as many kids on the ship and less for them to do than on a "regular" Carnival cruise, as Alaska tends to draw the older crowds. (We see fewer number of children on AK cruises than any others.) But the experiences they can have, as you're learning (and as your gut knew going into it), are bucket list, once in a lifetime memory makers, so nice selection. I hope they reward you well next Parent's Day, lol!! 💜 I have never cruised with children and am usually Team "leave the kids at home," but we're not talking infants & toddlers who will not remember the trip, nor are we talking kids who require diaper changes, strollers & constant hand holding. We're talking independent, curious, young people with hungry minds that deserve to have that curiosity fed and an opportunity to make their own memories. Congrats for finding a trip that allows them to do that while letting you make awesome memories watching them be them!! Now, if they beat on my cabin door at 2am while they're running up & down the hall or cut in front of me while I'm waiting for mint chocolate chip ice cream, I'm gonna have something to say, lol!! 🙄 I'll keep reading along and look forward to more amazing pictures!! Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

Congrats to your wife!! LOVE the Secret Deck and the forward OV cabins, even though I'm really a deck person - the forward views coming intonport are lovely. Quite enjoying following along. Raspberry noises to the Disney bunch - they have no idea how much fun they're missing.

Thank you for posting and allowing us to come along! We LOVE Alaska and have been blessed to go more than once each season a couple years. We go in May to open the season and Sept to close it out; both unique, both incredibly beautiful as your pictures remind me. The Baby Breach picture is special - you should crop it and do a large metal or glass print - it will be stunning. Good job!! Your family is lovely and looks like they had a great time. I'm excited to read the rest of your adventures. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise! Here's AK from a different CCL ship I was on a couple months ago.

As many as you're willing to pay for or reach the weight limit. Has nothing to do w/taking your luggage on cruise ship.

I hear ya; just saying I've had more than one cruise pulled due to charter. Probably sold out, but strange it's not showing - I just think it's worth asking.

Never heard of a Fall School Break in Oct, but whoever is needing to see that cruise that has disappeared might ask if it got pulled for a charter. Even if sold out, you should still be able to see it, just would show sold out on each cabin type.

We used ours before sailing to prepay for specialty dining & transfers. It was not listed under a person, it was just assigned to the cabin and we got an alert w/each purchase to be sure we wanted to use the OBC.

Sounds like DH except he MUST have candied back from the Pinnacle Grill.

Yeah, free sure is expensive sometimes.

We gave up on Corpus getting a cruise port before Covid and now Princess has too, lol!

Interesting you're finding better deals on Princess out of Galveston. We sailed almost exclusively on Princess until a few years ago when they left Galveston to wait for the new Corpus terminal. Because we'd gotten some great deals on Princess, now that they're back in Galveston, we were excited as we prefer them over Carnival & started looking to book them again. The prices have been through the roof! We keep looking every couple weeks for any itinerary, but so far haven't booked anything because of prices.

I had this happen recently on an Alaskan cruise we already had booked - it disappeared off both the website and my portal. When I called about it, was told it had been pulled and was now a charter. Same thing for a Caribbean sailing I was looking at - it was just gone one day. I had sent my siblings screenshots of that one to see if they wanted to go. Neither could find it and sure enough, when I looked again, it was gone. Called in - same answer - pulled for a charter. Could be a glitch, but it does frequently happen due to charters.

Just want to understand - you bring the plastic bags w/you just for storing your luggage during the cruise? Do you toss them before leaving the ship? Do you also put your luggage in bags once home before you store them? Saw someone say they change clothes in garage before going inside when they get home. I've certainly heard of bed bugs and the horrible experiences about them, but this is a new relatimg it to cruising, so I'm trying to figure all this out.

Would be interested in knowing if the self serve draft beer was operational. Never noticed those, but will be sure DH knows if they do work.

Hi - if he was able to get this resolved, what was the issue?

Although listed under packages in your booking, pressing services are also available by the item once onboard, so you do not have to buy for the entire cruise. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

Thermalspa pass is not discounted when purchased in advance - price is same on board. As mentioned, there is a risk of being sold out if you wait until onboard to purchase. If you book other services, you should get a reduction on the Thermalspa pass, even if you pre-paid. Just ask when you book.

My PCC is worse than horrible. She doesn't return my calls or messages even to book something for me after I've identified ship, cabin, dates - done all the work - much less to give me a heads-up about something like a fabulous promo. Yay and ugh.

We sailed Oct 2-8 last year Boston -> Quebec. We were exactly 1 week behind hurricane Fiona. Weather most beautiful - nothing heavier than a light jacket needed and rain only 1 dsy. We saw incredibly beautiful fall colors, even though Fiona had downed a lot of them, so I can only imagine how much we would have had she not come through. We will be going NY round trip this year Sept 16-29. I think that's just a bit too early, but that's when the ship is going, so that's when I'm going, lol. If you're not going for fall foliage, I think just check the almanac and go when you're most comfortable with the weather forecasts. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

I've noticed it to be that way on all the ships I've been on.

DH does not enjoy these types of events - likes wine, but not the tastings. I think these types of activities are better enjoyed with someone rather than alone, so I don't go. However, a couple years ago, I was blessed to spend my birthday doing a "wine tasting crawl" in South Africa w/my nephew. We had wine & chocolate, wine & cheese (of course), wine & bbq, wine & stained glass, wine & big cats (very cool), wine &... I had a fabulous time, tried some fabulous and some not so fabulous wines, saw some beautiful countryside, and came away w/a very important nugget of knowledge: nephew has an affinity for dark, woodsy 🍷 🍷 similar to DH and very different than my preference. So now when looking to get something new for him, I just run it past my nephew - if he'll like it, there's a good chance DH will too!! And since my next cruise is w/a friend who would enjoy the wine tasting rather than my husband, I think I'll go. Oh, I do promise to behave 🤭

Way to sell it - I'm going for sure now!! The "hint of kiwi" delivered w/a Southern twang, will be me!!

We fly from DFW and find Seattle is always much less expensive. Seattle you also avoid going through customs at the airport. Boarding ship in Seattle is MUCH quicker than Vancouver, as well, as you'll go through customs process a couple times in Vancouver boarding the ship (several threads on here about that). We have flown American and Alaska. Vancouver was a great city to play tourist - lots to do, just not worth it for the beat down at the cruise terminal. There are a couple other Alaskan ports that we enjoy that you get with Vancouver that you don't get with Seattle. And time in port seems to be longer for Vancouver sailings vs Seattle. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

I found "Cities on the Seas" interesting and informative. Assuming I've missed any opportunity to do an actual ship tour, I am glad I watched it.

I have not been on NCL, but have cruised Carnival and Princess. What is it about NCL that makes you mark it off your list?