JustAllie

I've definitely seen some people at wine tastings pour out the tasting of a wine they really didn't like. I've also seen the person presenting the wines carefully swirl, sniff, and taste the wine and then pour it out. That person is there to host and present the wines, not to get tipsy. I rarely find a wine so unpalatable that I will pour it out, but it has probably happened a couple of times over the years. Usually it's the really sweet wines that I reject.

I forgot to mention that on my most recent cruise, from Southampton to Tromsø on the Star, there was quite a large group at the Meet & Greet. People mostly seemed interested in organizing private excursions, which was not something I had seen at M&G events before. But this cruise had a lot of experienced cruisers and I'm sure that played a role.

When my friends and I sailed to Alaska on the Jewel in May 2022, we could never get enough interest in a Meet & Greet either on the Roll Call thread here at CC or on the social media group. So nobody contacted the ship about setting up a Meet & Greet with the officers, and instead we set up an informal gathering just among the roll call folks. But apparently the ship really wanted there to be a M&G with the officers, so they set one up without being asked! We found it in the daily newsletter and a couple dozen people attended. The General Manager (Steven Jacobsen) for that cruise was great, and really wanted feedback from people about the cruise and the guest services. When a disabled friend of mine had problems with getting wheelchair service to get off the ship for a shore excursion, he helped her get in touch with the Access Officer and share her experiences so that the staff could learn how they can serve disabled cruisers better. My lesson learned from that is that it's probably worth trying a bit harder to organize those events -- they are not just fun for us, but apparently they are an opportunity for the staff to make connections with people and offer help if something comes up. They give out their phone extension numbers and do respond if you contact them. 👍

What do you lose if you cancel and rebook?

Our favorite use for the free sparkling wine was to take it down to breakfast at the main dining room, order some orange juice, and make some mimosas for everyone sitting near us. 😁

I forgot to mention that this was also the first cruise where we could use our Platinum meal vouchers at the Sushi Bar. You can get up to 4 of the à la carte menu items per person, and OMG, 4 of those items will be too much for you to eat! The servers encouraged us to order several rolls, and we had to leave so much behind. It wasn't the best sushi I've ever had, but it was very tasty and a nice change from the other specialty restaurants! This is a good place to use your voucher that doesn't include a bottle of wine -- save the dinner+wine voucher for one of the other specialty restaurants. Ginza, in basically the same location as the Sushi Bar, is a complimentary venue, and I highly recommend both of the noodle soups. Yum. Also, be sure to try the panda salad (tasty fruit salad) for dessert, but ask them if it has any panda in it -- that got a laugh from our server!

I sailed on the Star May 31-June 12 from Southampton to Tomsø. Overall we had a great experience. Our only significant issues were: Tender ports were increased from 1 to 5 with no warning before the cruise. They MUST have known about this well before sailing. This substantially affected my disabled friends' experience, because they could not disembark at some ports. The shore excursion descriptions were messed up and clearly wrong sometimes. Again this made it difficult for my disabled friends to pick excursions that worked for them, because the details about walking distance etc. were not correct. We had one bad experience with a server in one of the main dining rooms. We spoke to the server's superiors and the issue was addressed to our satisfaction. We never saw that server again, so he may have been reassigned after multiple complaints. We ran out of hand soap in our cabin and the room steward said they didn't have any to replace it. After we complained, he found a suitable substitute from somewhere and we no longer had to wash our hands in shampoo. 🙂 Everything else was great as far as we were concerned. We barely had the energy to attend the evening entertainment, we only had one sea day so who knows what the daytime activities were, and we don't expect much of the shops, art shows, etc. We especially enjoyed the Platinum behind-the-scenes tour, as this was our first cruise as Platinum members where it was actually offered. Our tour ran quite long, so we missed the Platinum wine tasting, but it was worth it to see the rest of the tour of the backstage theater, laundry, and galley areas. We had some lovely meals at Cagney's, Le Bistro, La Cucina, Ginza, and the Sushi Bar. We also very much enjoyed our meals at Versailles main dining room and at O'Sheehans. I had a few long waits at some of the bars -- you have to be assertive sometimes to get the attention of the bartenders. My absolute favorite bar was Proof Whiskey Bar, which also treated me well even when they were busy. I also had good service at Spice H2O, but that bar was never really busy on this cruise. Anyway we had no issues with food or general quality of service with rare exceptions. The Shore Excursions desk needed to up their game, and the communication about docked vs. tender ports has to improve. Scotland and Norway are beautiful, definitely get the fish soup wherever you eat in Norway. Have a great time on your cruises, everyone!

I've always noticed that the cruise ships are lacking in salty crunchy snack foods. I sometimes haunt the buffet line in the evening looking for things like crackers, breadsticks, etc. when what I really want is some potato chips or popcorn!

On the Star recently, the Munchie Crunchie mix was available at Gatsby's. The Proof Whiskey Bar offered the dried fruit mix. I don't remember what other bars were offering, if anything!

It seems like almost as much work to type DH (with the shift key) as to type hubby, so I've never quite understood why people bother with those abbreviations. I did not know about the chicken salad at O'Sheehans! I will be sure to check it out on my next cruise. So far my favorite food there is the fish & chips. 😋

On my recent trip on the Norwegian Star, I seem to recall that there was food (of some sort) available 24 hours a day, but the bar itself was closed for a few hours in the middle of the night. I assume that was designed to reduce the number of late night drunken ramblers? I think there was another bar open somewhere on the ship during those hours, but unfortunately I didn't think to keep one of the daily newsletters to check.

Right, sorry!

There is a drop-down bunk bed in the 2nd bedroom, but not every adult is interested in climbing up into a bunk bed. You can Google photos of the 2nd bedroom. I found this for the Encore:

They will still have access to the living room and balcony, so they don't have to spend much time in the tiny 2nd bedroom. If you want to be generous, you could offer them some time alone in the suite to use the fancy bigger bathroom for a luxurious bath or shower!

My friend and I were lucky enough to have an aft-facing cabin that was pointed in just the right direction during the America's Cup sailing races when they were in Bermuda in 2017. What a view! But there was a 50/50 chance we would have been facing the wrong direction, and it's also possible that another ship could have been in our way. So we knew were were very lucky that "operational considerations" were on our side that time.

The Star and the Sun have forward-facing Owner's Suites with balconies, as well.

One of my friends uses crutches and can't walk far. When we stopped at Great Stirrup Cay in December 2021, she left her mobility scooter behind and took her crutches with her on the tender boat (which is a sort of ferry boat as shown here, not one of the ship's lifeboats). I don't think I saw anyone with a scooter on the tender boat, so I suspect they aren't allowed. We had rented a villa for the day at Silver Cove. As soon as we got on shore, we got onto an electric tram that took us to the villa. They went to great lengths to get my friend as close as possible to the villa. It was great. I think the prices of the villas have gone up quite a bit, although I guess it varies by cruise. I think a disabled visitor might want to ask the ship's Access Officer* ahead of time to figure out the details of getting around the island. There may be electric trams or carts that can assist you to other parts of the island, not just Silver Cove. *I didn't even know this was a job until my last cruise to Alaska. My friend had some trouble with getting assistance off the ship in Skagway, and she ended up sitting down with the Access Officer afterward to share her concerns about the issues. (The Access Officer had other roles on the ship, in this case being the Group Services Officer.) Now that we know that there should be an officer tasked with accessibility issues on any NCL ship, we will know to seek that person out whenever we have trouble or questions.

Folks who are worried about crowding during COVID should probably wear their highest-quality mask to the muster drill. It certainly seems like one time when it's clearly warranted.

Not a thrift store, but prices were pretty affordable at Lindex (Strømgaten 8, 5015 Bergen, Norway). http://www.lindex.com

If you ask for a wheelchair to use for embarkation only, those will not be available until everyone who needed one for disembarkation of the previous cruise is done with them. So my disabled friend and our group had to wait another hour after our early designated time for boarding so that we could put her in that wheelchair. Bringing your own would eliminate this problem. Renting one from the ship would mean you won't have it until you get to the cabin, because they leave the rental wheelchairs and scooters in the cabin for you. You could always have 2 able-bodied people board ASAP to make reservations and the rest of the group stay with the elderly passenger to make sure she gets a wheelchair and is assisted through the check-in and embarkation process.

One thing I like about the older ships (e.g. Jewel class) is that they have 3 banks of elevators (Forward, Mid-ship, and Aft) instead of 2. That and the lower occupancy tend to ease the elevator crowding.

I noticed that reservations for larger groups (e.g. 6-8 people) are often the first to book up for convenient times, so if you are sailing with family or another group, you definitely want to book promptly.

My friends and I did the northbound route in May 2022, and it was great. We arranged our own land-based travel. We did a mix of Alaska Rail "Adventure Class" and Alaska Rail "Gold Star." Both were fun, but I think I have a preference for the "Adventure Class" because then you are riding with locals who are happy to share their advice and experience with you. I recommend that you also go to the Alaska Ports of Call forum and ask your questions there.

It's probably not included because when there's no bartender present, it's too hard to make sure the drinks aren't being passed on to someone else who doesn't have the beverage package.

The Kenai Fjords boat tours are awesome. Such an amazing amount of wildlife and natural scenery! You will really enjoy it. Wear lots of layers -- this was the excursion that made me very glad that I paid attention to the advice to pack lots of layers when traveling to Alaska! I wore every single layer that day including raincoat and winter scarf/hat/gloves. The Sea Life Center is also great. It's a good chance to get up close to wildlife since it's in a controlled environment. I think my favorite thing was watching the puffins swim underwater. It looked like they were flying, not swimming! Sorry, I'm not much help with walkability in town, because I was having serious knee problems during my Alaska trip. I do recall that the shuttle buses and other services in Seward are very limited on days when there's no cruise ship in port. So keep that in mind! There were plenty of good places to eat and shop in certain parts of town, especially near the Sea Life Center.