dmwnc1959

6 hours ago, umaine89 said:

I am operating with no dinner reservations so I appreciate the board telling me how busy things are. 

It's mind-blowing (to me, at least) that the complimentary dining options are just wide open and not a slot to be had for the specialty restaurants until after 8pm. I'm an early eater i.e. 530pm for dinner, and usually in bed by 10pm. It's also why I had mentioned earlier about having 5:30am breakfasts a lot at O'Sheehan's. 
 

6 hours ago, umaine89 said:

Dinner at Sushi 11/10. Couldn’t have been better. With the meal package you get to order any 4 things on the menu. I was stuffed. 

 

 

Yes that was all free for one speciality dining credit. 

😳 This does look very good! 
 

6 hours ago, umaine89 said:

I heard some people talking in the casino and they said their kids were bored. I agree, I wouldn’t bring kids. This is classic cruising. Playing bingo, sitting by pool, listening to piano guy, singing karaoke, going to a show, gambling in casino, eating good food (specialty restaurants), walking on deck, drinking pina coladas, a couple of stops on the itinerary. 
 

While I have done the Rock climbing wall and zip line and water slides and surf riding and ice skating and other stuff I’m forgetting, I don’t need it on a cruise. 

I am counting on this big time for next year. Can't imagine someone wanting to book an extended cruise knowing there are much more kid- and family-friendlier options. What you described as 'classic cruising'... perfection. 🥰

12 hours ago, umaine89 said:

Ok the rest of day 2. Walked 3 miles on jogging track. Very nice but kind of short... Then found a nice walking path on deck 6 (I think. Right outside guest services). It goes all the way around the ship and is in the shade. Walked another mile. Excellent walk. 

 

Dinner at La Cusina. Italian. 815 was not busy. 
 

Excellent food. I will be back this week. I can’t say enough good things about the food and the service. 

I can see me spending a LOT of time at O'Sheehan's for breakfast. And I can also see me spending an hour or so every morning out on the promenade deck walking track trying not to get any fatter. Lol 😉 been on a diet since January getting ready. 
 

Any plans on eating at the Jasmine Garden? It's complimentary and the menu looks pretty tasty. 

10 hours ago, umaine89 said:

So it turns out we were parked next to Harmony of the Seas today. It’s hard to explain but I am a Royal Caribbean fanboy... and am 3 nights away from Diamond...That said I am really enjoying NCL and this ship. 

Glad to hear this. Having been on Allure of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas, it's been a good number of years since I've cruised on a ship the size of Norwegian Jade.  

Just now, quillwercruisers said:

This is the coolest thing to go through.

 

I understand the wanting to plan things out as soon as the decision is made to book the cruise. I am the same way. But, just remember as well, that with the people doing B2B's as mentioned above, some people could be staying in Whittier even though it is a pretty remote town, or they could have people picking them up, so they all may not be trying to get an excursion or a transfer. Like said above, transfers are usually pretty easy to do. If it makes you feel more comfortable, call NCL and ask them to add the transfer on to your reservation. Then if an excursion does show up that you want to take instead, just cancel the transfer and book the excursion. That way, even if you are unable to book an excursion before it fills up, your trip to the airport would still be covered.

All great advice! 👍 Unless things change, I’m booked on the B2B where Whittier is now my turnaround day from the 25-night coming from Florida through the Panama Canal. The idea of spending another week on board Norwegian Jade and ending up in Vancouver, maybe spending a night or two post-cruise then flying home, was quite appealing. 
 

21 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

Has anyone here actually done this transfer yet?  Anyone able to comment on the logistics and how well it went?

NCL hasn't yet used Whittier (first visit will be in April 2025). I know Princess Cruises and Holland-America were frequent users last season. Maybe ask over on the Princess Cruises Forum since their ships visit most often.  

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but the cruise ship pier for Sitka is several miles outside of the main town. In these screen grabs from Marine Traffic you can see Carnival Spirit pulling in…

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

For glacier day...we have a winter coat, hat and gloves. That, and a hot adult drink from the sundeck drink station 🙂 

It never ceased to amaze me that how you could be wearing shorts in Juneau, but on glacier day you're bundled up! I remember on Holland-America they served split pea soup on the bow. One of my most fondest memories. 🥰

COZUMEL! Hope you're having a great (and relaxing) time!

21 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Sorry, I know nothing of the Hubbard Glacier excursion.

About the biggest difference (according to the description) is you board the small boat alongside directly from the cruise ship as it enters Disenchantment Bay, stay on the small excursion boat the entire time, and when the tour is done you re-embark the cruise ship when the small boat pulls alongside. Other than maybe the transfer process there should not be anything strenuous about it at all. I'll have to give the Shore Excursions Desk a call first thing in the morning and try to get through. 
 

In your journeys around Norwegian Jade, if you happen to see a Restaurant Dress Code sign or placard can you take a picture of it please? It may look like this one posted in my MDR Shorts thread by @cruiseny4life from Norwegian Prima. 
 

17 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

I too was grossly disappointed in the misleading title. Was hoping you could now get a growler to go, or order beer by the growler similar to wine by the bottle.

 

As for the Tracy Arms excursion, I too put my vote in that it's worth the price. Super close up, and on our journey we saw so much wildlife on the way there that I have over 1K pictures of seals, whales, eagles, and everything else Alaska has to offer. When we were near the glacier, the crew pulled up a smallish iceberg on board for folks to hold and take photos with, then a separate smaller one that they put into a blender and made margaritas with. Nothing colder or fresher than that.

Sorry! ☹️ Seriously did not know there was an alcohol-related definition, I've only ever been aware of the baby icebergs. 
 

As for taking tons of pictures, pre-digital photography I'd often take +50 rolls of film on an Alaska cruise and then spends days putting them all in photo albums, which all now sit on shelves collecting dust. I seriously need to find a way to get through this cruise with as few pictures as possible. I tend to live the cruise through the viewfinder. 

26 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

The Jade has two Main Dining Rooms...Alizar and Grand Pacific. We only ate in Alizar once in 14 nights...just didn't "do it" for us. We thought it had a "different" vibe...not horrible, just different. Not as elegant (or as "Grand") as Grand Pacific. On the bright side, you can wear shorts in there.

 

Grand Pacific we ate in three or four times and I believe I needed to wear long pants (in my case, jeans). But don't quote me on that (although, this is CC, so someone will probably end up quoting me 😁)...

 

Oh, one more thing. Baseball caps are not allowed in Jasmine, the Asian restaurant where we ate at least four times.

 

Even in pictures the visual appeal of Alizar falls well short of the Grand Pacific. If I have to wear long pants in the latter for dinner, I'll make that 'sacrifice'. However, in the beginning I'll split 'visitation rights' between the two just to get first-hand experiences. 
 

And I've always hated wearing hats of any kind, ball caps especially. Must have gotten that from my Navy days. 😉

THANK YOU for posting the Freestyle Daily. I very much enjoy poring over all of the little details and daily events. So much going on all the time! 

@PATRLR  @vacation44 

I wonder what makes this particular NCL Shore Excursion experience different from the one conducted at Hubbard Glacier, whereas yours is rated as an Activity Level 1 (easiest) and the latter is rated as Activity Level 3 (most strenuous). I did try and call the NCL Shore Excursions Desk but after waiting on the phone for 30 minutes gave up. 

16 minutes ago, umaine89 said:

I sat out in the sun, where there were more open tables and had a lovely breakfast looking at the wake. 
 

 

THIS is why I cruise 🥰

22 minutes ago, umaine89 said:

One thing I really like is O’Sheehan’s is open 24 hours. You can get more than a slice of pizza at weird hours. It’s has sports bar-like food. 
 

They also serve a pretty amazing breakfast from what I hear. 

45 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

You'll be fine with shorts. They even let me in with my athletic shorts (think soccer-type). Just so long as they're not short shorts, per NCL. And mine are definitely not short. I just stay away from whatever restaurant does not allow shorts/t-shirts. It's easy to do! 

 

From our November Pr1ma cruise at Hudson's (same placard was at all restaurants):

 

 

And yes, I know I'm a slob. It's vacation, yo! 

Very helpful! Thank you! 👍😁

17 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Yes, it was booked through NCL.  Bliss was in Juneau in the morning with early afternoon departure to head up the Arm.  Just before Bliss left the pier, we boarded the Allen Marine vessel and took off ahead of Bliss up the Arm.  We made a few stops and slow downs along the way for various sites and wildlife (bears, whales, etc)  and eventually got up close to the glacier.  At some point we looked back and there was Bliss, doing it's pirouette.  It was waaayyy back there (I'd guess 3/4 or mile or more back). We then headed back down the Arm and met the Bliss where it was pirouetting and transferred onto her there (end of excursion).

Sounds really amazing, and your pictures are fantastic! The one for Hubbard Glacier is running $350 even with the discount, and appears to be run by the same company. Definitely going to have to do some thinking on that one, but on the B2B I hit Hubbard Glacier twice. 

1 minute ago, PATRLR said:

The picture above seems to be about as close as Bliss got.  If ever there was a testimonial for getting onto the Allen Marine excursion (called "TRACY ARM FJORD & GLACIER EXPLORER" in 2018) it's that picture.  This is how close we got to the glacier in 2018:

 

 

 

Is that one that you booked through NCL? I think they also offer one of these for Hubbard Glacier, and I've been eye-balling it as well. 

A couple of screenshots I grabbed from her bridge cam back on April 29th while sitting in drydock...

Realizing that Norwegian Jade will be the NCL guinea pig for this port in 2025, stumbled across the fact that there's apparently a 2-1/2 mile one-way tunnel in and out, and it's the the longest (2.5 miles) highway tunnel in North America.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?id=100044584939798&story_fbid=1865960627184285

https://www.whittieralaska.gov/tunnel/

https://dot.alaska.gov/creg/whittiertunnel/schedule.shtml

9 minutes ago, umaine89 said:

It was cool to see the ship name on the  digital signs coming in. I’m in an interior room. It’s only me and I won’t spend much time there. 

Nice! I've got an inside solo down on Deck 5 for next year. 

2 minutes ago, PC Skier said:

Does the Encore go through the old or new locks in Panama?

 
She goes through the new locks. 

"When the ship is at sea or anchored, nudity is generally allowed. However, when the ship is docked, all passengers must be fully clothed on all parts of the vessel, including private balconies, until an announcement is made that it is acceptable to be nude again.

Clothing is also required in all dining areas, not including bathrobes or lingerie, the latter of which is forbidden as general attire, along with fetish wear. Specific rules regarding appropriate conduct in public areas will also be enforced.

Additional precautions, such as mandatory towel use on shared seating and strict non-photo zones throughout the ship, will also ensure privacy and comfort for all passengers."  - Cruise Hive 

Still not my cup of tea. 😳

Just now, ggTexasGal said:

Your vacation sounds wonderful. I hope that you both have a wonderful time and take home great memories!

THANKS! I do a little planning every day, little things like researching some of the new ports and what there is to do, watching youtube travel videos on how to pack lightly, checking the shore excursions on my bookings to see what new things pop up - I already have 9 booked - and checking what time sunrise and sunset is for each port against what time we arrive and depart. Loved watching the NCL bridge cams as the ships moved up the West Coast and made note of where they docked. It's a lot of fun!