bluesea777

^^^^ this !!!

The latter 2 are for Diamonds and above. WE get to experience them on our next cruise!!! We made Diamond during our last cruise!

@TfromBC Hi Terry, we went on Major Marine’s 7.5 hour Kenai Fjords National Park cruise and the boat went over the ice to get as close to the two Glaciers. It was a fantastic experience not to be missed! We saw wild sea life as well. There is a free shuttle bus courtesy of Seward that stops at the ship terminal and will take you to the stop opposite Harbor 360 Hotel where you need to check in by 8:30 am for the 9:30 am cruise (finishes at 5pm). You can book online. (the Kenai Fjords cruise, I mean). I would suggest you get off ship at about 7:45 am for the shuttle bus as it goes to other stops before the Harbor 360 stop. After the Kenai Fjords cruise you might want to go back to the same free shuttle bus stop and hop on bus for a ride thru Seward to sightsee and head back to ship for dinner! We spent 2 nights in Harbor 350 hotel and loved it. We ate in Ray’s restaurant close by both nights - fantastic crab legs!! we loved Seward!

So, there are over one thousand and four hundred NCL virgins .... it's a game - how many orange/gold/tan cruise cards can you spot? 😁

Yvonne, I'm so glad you are safely on the Star! You sure had good flight over and had a good two days on Reykjavik. We have been to Reykjavik & Iceland several times and love that city and country. We were on the Star a year ago this month for the Iceland & Greenland cruise but sadly we had to skip Greenland due to some nasty storm brewing up in the ocean between Iceland and Greenland, and went east to Norway. Greenland had been on numerous ppl’s bucket list and needless to say there were unhappy ppl … d@mn Mother Nature! NCL was so kind enough to refund 25% of our cruise fares. Now after that we have been complementing trying to do the Iceland & Greenland cruise on the Star in 2024, but lately, so far this season Star hasn’t made to Greenland ports 100% of the time. Latest cruise (the one before yours) Star made it to only one of the 3 Greenland ports. And I noticed on CruiseMapper that a couple of other ships did make it to the “missing” ports or in their vicinity. This is making us feel reluctant in booking and going on the I & G cruise in 2024. I’d (and I’m sure @Seas2mountains would agree) like you to do me/us a favour … ask appropriate staff/crew about why they have been missing the Greenland ports in the last few cruises. And also ask if they’re worth going (after the back to back Alaskan cruises on the Spirit!!!). Thanks! We’ve been on Star twice so far, still not our fave ship but it is dependent on the itinerary. Carry on enjoying the cruise and I look forward to reading more of your dailies!

@Bandit2301 Do you have the Latitude numbers? I understand it's your first NCL cruise, but when you booked the cruise you received the confirmation email (the one with pdf attached), right? You'll find the latitude numbers there, send an email to pricedrop@ncl.com with the latitude numbers, reservation number, details of the sailing (dates, ship, destination), and ask for the one time price drop FCC. And, in future, when you see a cruise you like, go ahead and book it no matter how far ahead and pay the deposit. Then watch it go up or down! When it goes down call NCL to re-price the cruise, as long as it's before the final payment date. Do you have a PCC or someone with NCL that you can contact? If not, best to get someone. We just completed our 29th cruise with NCL, and have just made final payment for our 30th one coming up in November. This cruise had several price drops since we booked it back in early Sept 2022, and we saved $3800. I contacted our PCC about 6 times! On the other hand, last year's cruise that we went on had vast price increases in the 2 years between the time we booked (yep, 2 years in advance) and the sailing ... prices tripled! So it pays to book cruises far in advance and watch the space!

Portland, Maine is not a tender port. You will dock. Newport, RI and Bar Harbor, ME are tender ports.

Wait a month or so .... methinks the Port St. Maarten may need to update their port schedule for March 2024. NCL, Cruisemapper and Cruisetimetables have the Viva in St. Maarten on March 15th 2024 (not 12th or 14th).

If you can, go up to top of Hallgrimskirkja tomorrow morning to enjoy the bird’s eye views and the Star. Make sure you are at the top when the hour strikes (like at 9 or 10am). 🤭

On Joy until early Jan 2024, and it is removed during dry dock and replaced with Vibe sun deck. The Escape has 3-levels high Ropes Course with walk on plank!

that would be a good tour! Warning: do not ask the Sami ppl how many reindeer they have … it’s like asking them how much money they have. 🤷‍♀️

I did see that post, and now it’s gone. @YVRteacher safe flight to Keflavik. Icelandair Saga class is lovely 😉. Upon arrival in Keflavik you can buy booze duty free upon exit … you can buy a few bottles of wine there to take on ship and pay $15 corkage fee … wait … you don’t drink wine …. looking forward to reading more!!!

NCL no longer credit the refundable OB credits back to passengers' credit cards. They give out cash instead. Call NCL again and hopefully you'll speak to another rep.

@ontheweb it looks like you're giving NCL a hard time! When a port is cancelled, the NCL excursions are cancelled and refunded to your on board account as refundable OBC!! Last year NCL cancelled all 3 Greenland ports and we went to Norway instead. All our Greenland excursions booked thru NCL were cancelled and refunded to our OBA as refundable OBC. At the end of the cruise I was refunded in cash for the credit remaining on our OBA. Remember the ppl you speak to over the phone are land-based and they prolly have no idea what's going on when a port is cancelled and that ppl have their NCL excursions booked for the cancelled port cancelled and refunded to their OBA as refundable credit.

If it were us, we’d take 5581 over the other 3 (5521, 5021, 5081) because it’s by mid-ship elevators. 5081 is below the public bathrooms that are used a lot.

Methinks you’ve got the star/port mixed up. The Joy is having the port side part converted to balcony cabins.

NCL needs to change the OL from sleeping/napping lounge to proper OL by getting rid of those chaise loungers and replacing them with 3-4 nice contemporary chairs each. That would allow more people in the OL and still have seating for viewing. On Spirit last month during Alaskan cruises the OL (aka Spinnaker’s) was quite filled up during the Hubbard Glacier cruising - quite a lot of ppl were in there and were able to get seats. There were no chaise loungers, maybe there were a couple or so but they were in far corners. JMHO.

Galaxy Pavilion: we have been in that on two different ships: Encore and Joy - been there done that and we would not go again. Also, our DS and his gf were on the Joy with us and they also went there. Fun, but once is enough. Not like the Arcade that is used a lot. Laser Tag: we didn't bother as we're too fat and unfit. I suspect this would also be a once is enough thing. Observation lounge ... we didn't use it much on Joy as we were in the Caribbean, meaning we're out on the deck. Also, the lounge seem to be used more for sleeping than observing! On smaller ships their OL, aka Spinnaker, are used more during the day AND in the evenings .... why? ... because they are also used for some game shows (like Trivia, Bingo, Not so Newly-weds, Perfect Couple, etc), and dancing, bands, etc. On the mega-ships (Joy, Encore, Bliss) these are held in the Atrium that is so small and over-flowing.

The main pool on the Star is heated!! Not sure about the Prima.

Ittoqqortoormiit (wow, many double letters!) is on the east coast of Greenland, whereas the ports that are on Star's Iceland & Greenland itineraries are on the west coast.

If you can, ask to move to deck 10 mid to aft starboard side, so it's an easy walk to aft Spice H2O.

The Local and O'Sheehan's are the same thing ... it's the name. When Kevin Sheehan was CEO, the ships that were current at the time had their 24-hour pub/restaurants named as O'Sheehan's. With KS gone they become The Local on new ships.

Spirit's casino is "non-smoking" 😁

Well, a crowd of ppl just exited from a bus outside terminal.

2 runners @ 2.59pm