bluesea777

On ship, the Spirit, see post # 268 (page 11).

Yes, they can be cheaper if you pre-book and pay for them months in advance. You book them at the price that was advertised at the time. Example: back in January this year I booked several excursions for our May/June Alaskan cruises, and paid for them. When we boarded and had a look at the current excursion price sheet and saw that some prices had increased!

And the new itinerary consists of all non-tendering ports.

Just KEEP CALM and CARRY ON WATCH THE MUSTER DRILL VIDEOS!

One more thing, only one other ship, smaller than Spirit, is in Vancouver as you embark … the same thing happened to us that the Canada Place is “almost” empty. You might as well as disregard the letter (think they are “canned” letters).

Onda has excellent vegetables as side dishes - there are 5. We went there 3 times. It’s on deck 12 aft in the corner with great views. Make sure you go to Taste as MDR rather than Windows. The service is excellent. Bistro is a lovely place - make sure you dress in black/blue so to blend in the decor! You and your Dad will enjoy trying out the Spirit - she is a special ship in her own. The Observation lounge (Spinnaker’s) is about the best in all NCL. IMG_4214.mov I’m sure the mid week embarkation will go well in Vancouver. We weee surprised how smoothly it was for us when we had to get off ship to go thru the US pre-clearance. It’s not chaos like your Jewel one. Enjoy!!!!

Yes, it is, but it's a good as a dessert if you don't have dessert at dinner. @Seas2mountains perhaps you might want to try Pistachio martini instead.

We'll have to try that next time we're in Cagney's. Thanks! One more martini ...Rum Cake martini 🍸 ... Spinnaker's. 😁

After reading the reviews of Prima I deduced that the Prima and Viva are better suited as warm-weather ships. We're booked on Viva's maiden transatlantic crossing this November from Lisbon to Miami via the Caribbean. I would not go on either for the Iceland or northerly transatlantic cruises. But yes for Caribbean and southerly TA cruises.

The Oct 22 Gem actually starts from Trieste and was going to Venice & Ravenna on Days 3&4 after Koper on Day 2. I have been reading not so good reviews about Venice - ships being docked in industrial port area where passengers aren't allowed to walk about freely and they have to take lengthy tenders to Venice proper. Not a timely operation. Ravenna is a long way from Venice. After having been to Venice a few times before, it's IMHO that it's better if these two ports of call are dropped from the itinerary, as these two aren't easy and simple for passengers to enjoy. I have been noticing NCL has been adding new Adriatic ports to other itineraries, so perhaps NCL will find two new ports to fill in for the 2 "sea days". If you were to take the Oct 22 Gem out of Trieste I would suggest you go to Venice on your own for a few days pre-cruise and have a magical time. Then travel to Trieste to board the ship. We were recently on the two back to back Alaskan cruises on the Spirit. Both itineraries included Valdez, a new port for NCL. Unfortunately the place wasn't quite ready for the influx of cruise ship passengers and to add to that the Spirit was too long to dock at the town's ship dock so had to dock at the Container Terminal over 3 miles away. It was a high security area and pax weren't allowed to walk away from ship to look around. The town supplied shuttles (school buses, motorcoaches) to transfer the pax between ship and town ... at a cost. There wasn't much to do in town, and what excursions the ship were selling were so expensive that noone were interested in. After 4 visits to Valdez NCL dropped this port from future itineraries this year. Not profitable.

I had a work colleague going big eyes and bought 8 CNs thinking she’d use em all at one when she booked a cabin on next cruise. That happened last year. I had to crush her hopes saying she can only use one or 2 per cabin each cruise. She didn’t listen well (perhaps she was a bit sloshed) when she was buying em. Luckily for her she rounded up her family, friends, etc to go on a cruise earlier this year using all the 8 CNs! She transferred some to others.

Give it a few days while NCL sorts it out and you might get a letter. Getaway is in Caribbean in April and in Greece in July which means Getaway is definitely going to cross the pond. Maybe itinerary change. Happened to our Nov 2023 Viva Transatlantic when they changed itinerary from Lisbon-NYC to Lisbon-Miami taking us on a more southerly route 🙂 We got 10% discount.

We also loved Onda - we went there 3 times in 2 weeks. Bistro 3 times, Cagney’s once (couldn’t get another reservation), Teppanyaki once, sushi twice, Taste several times.

There are still glitches on NCL.Com after the weekend’s upgrade to the system. Perhaps you want to call NCL about transfers from Seward to Anchorage airport, they have several motor coaches to take ppl to airport from ship. Do not take the train because it arrives after noon.

Also they don't require the Canadian Immigration forms from all passengers until later on in the cruise. We had to get off in Vancouver (turnaround point of our B2B) in order to go through the US pre-clearance Immigration. Took us about 20 minutes (most of it walking!).

@Seas2mountains although you're a b2b cruiser, you still need to go to your new muster station, and make sure they scan your cards! They didn't scan our cards at the turnaround point - they waved it off saying we're B2B .... our friend who was with us had different muster station, and they did scan his card .... later in the day we got a letter in our cabin (and our friend didn't) saying we missed the muster drill and had to attend a make-up muster drill the next morning at 10am! Enjoy the second week! We saw the Hubbard Glacier in its glory the first week but saw it in its dismal the following week.

In Henry’s Pub on Spirit …. Mini Beer Duck’s Fart Tip: Don’t ask for shots while there are people playing music/singing!

Pistachio martini 🍸 in Spinnaker. Lavender Patch martini 🍸 in Magnum’s.

If the ship is going from Reykjavik (next week) you will be bypassing Isafjordur and arrive in Akureyri at 1pm instead of Isafjordur, and stay there overnight until the next day and leave at normal departure time. If the ship is heading to Reykjavik (this week) you stay in Akureyri past the departure time until 4am and you bypass Isafjordur on way to Reykjavik, arriving there on schedule.

When NCL refund your cancelled excursions to your onboard account they are refundable therefore if you don’t spend it onboard on other things you get cash refund.

Aren’t you a serious gambler? 😎 You’ll be the first to find out, so please report back …. 😎

Give them a day or two, today is Monday … Then check your and your husband’s MyNCL accounts. If you and your husband cruise together it’s not necessary to transfer your CF to him.

It looks like Prima finally got the wind/idea about what Zuiderdam had to do while it was in Isafjordur yesterday. Maybe the new dock wasn’t fully finished?

When you called you spoke to people that aren’t on the ship and usually have no idea what’s going on aboard Prima. They are land-based people who may have been on less cruises than you have.

Ships are always full above double occupancy the Christmas and New Year weeks, so you need to take note. Because the schools are out and families want to cruise together for Xmas and/or New Year. We have done a few years ago pre-Epic (i.e before 2010) on med sized ships and they were good! Yes, there were LOTS of kids - they accounted for 1/3 of the whole pax count - that is still above double occupancy (there are cabins that sleep 3, 4 people). We haven’t done that since 2010 and now I shudder to imagine that on the mega ships! One poor Santa for some 2000 kids? Full and overflowing kids clubs? Need I say any more? Cruise at your risk those 2 weeks 😉😎😁. Maybe the med sized ships might be better if you have small kids so you don’t get caught up in crowds. JMHO. P. S. Forgot to mention that casino isn’t too busy/crowded those two weeks, lol.