kitsVA

You need to have valid passport with expiry date over 6 months away and Canadian visa. Also, you need to make sure your USA Visa has multiple entry. I know of people who were not allowed to board ship as they had Indian passport with no Canadian visa.

Skagway, Alaska.

 

 

Chilkat Peninsula, Chilkat Inlet and the Sinclair Mountain in the background.

Thank you.

I see this image on NCl Bliss site for Alaska. Where is this location in Alaska? Will the ship pass by?

No. The promo SDP is only for guests 1 & 2. What you can do is drop the UBP and use the amount saved to buy the 3SDP for the kids.

Thank you. I called and found that's the best option.

Both passengers in the room have to have the same promotions.

I am aware of that. We booked balcony cabin with 2 adults and 2 kids and they offered UBP for 2 + SDP for 2 for 3 nights. My question is can we replace UBP for 2 with a second SDP for 2 so our kids also can eat with us. Plus replacing UBP with SDP should save $175.

Can we choose 2 Specialty Dinning instead of 1 Specialty Dinning + 1 Drinks? I see the price comes down by $175 if we remove Drinks which is added as free offer. Only one of us drinks once in 2-3 days and it will cost us less to pay when we drink then this free offer. I don't care about WiFi or Shore excursions but if they don't offer second dinning we might just choose Shore as maybe use at least at one port.

Thank you, kits. We'll be sailing on the MSC Musica. How did you enjoy the experience on the MSC Orchestra?

Frankly, I wasn't expecting the cruise experience to be great with 6 ports, tendering, short time at ports. We choose the cruise for it's ports and we had awesome time everywhere.

Ship was OK. Felt very crowded as we went during peak season. Breakfast and lunches are insanely crowded in the buffet. If you have time, better to go to main dinning rooms for those meals. Since we are rushing to get off the ship most of the time, we went for buffet. Entertainment was good on some nights.

Dinner menu is same as in buffet and it really is waste of time dressing to eat in there when the buffet area is all empty for dinner. You can enjoy nice scenery and enjoy casual dinner there. Also, they don't serve water in MDR. You have to buy bottled water. To get better experience in MDR we requested the manager for Indian food every night. So, we had something different and specially made every night. If we didn't like what they served we always has the option to get that days menu as well.

We'll be in Corfu (end of May '17) from 12:30 to 6:30 pm. What would you do in such a short period of time? We've been to Greece several times but Corfu is a new island for us. We're interested in history, architecture, food, ouzo and beautiful scenery. TIA

We had the exact time at Corfu on our recent MSC Orchestra. We booked half day private Yacht tour at http://www.dailycruisescorfu.com/cruises.html and it turned out to the highlight of the trip and all the kids in our group thanked me for planning this as they got bored and tired after Venice, Athens, Santorini, Katakolon (Olympia), etc and the heat and walking we made them go through. Even us adults loved it.

Check out some pictures I took on the boat tour. After eating at Venice and the lousy cruise ship food we felt we had the best food on this boat trip.

Just back from the trip and the train is not only running, it's just a fantastic ride. Super clean with AC and looks very spacious inside with huge windows. The train schedules change based on ships port times. Usually, it leaves 45 minutes after ship docks and arrives back 30 minutes before. It a short walk on waterfront from Port. At the end of waterfront, cross parking lot and you'll see train tracks that lead to small train station that has a cool Cafe. Enjoyed nice Greek Gelato before we got on train.

In Olympia, it stops right where all your buses park to get to Archeological site. About 15 min walk gets you to museum where we bought out tickets. On our way back we grabbed Gyros to go from restaurant near parking lot and enjoyed our food on train.

The train is running as of today. Since I couldn't get in touch with the train company I noticed there is "Museum of Ancient Greek Technology" near the Katakolon train station. I exchanged couple of emails with a gentleman there and he confirmed train is running and the schedules posted on site are right.

I sent email to the railway customer service I found on some site. I hope I will get some response. If not, I will be there in 10 days and will try to find if the train is running. Our group has 18. So, we are thinking to book a private 4 hour mini-bus trip which includes a stop at a Agios Andreas beach after Olympia for 300 Euros for 18 of us.

We we will be at Katakolon on August 2nd 12 pm to 6 pm and wondering if the trains are still running and where I can find details on schedules and cost. Lot of information I found using search and Google doesn't show recent experiences. Only several years old information.

Thank you

We booked on Feb 18th for July 6th, 2015 Northbound on NCL Sun. Our group grew from 10 cabins to 34 cabins. Lost count of how many people. Probably 80.

Plan to do 3-4 days pre-cruise tours and 3-5 days land in Alaska.

I would spend the day in the Seward area, maybe a trip to Kenai Fjords National Park tour, then take the train up. It is a spectacular ride, and much more relaxing than the drive.

Haven't been to Alaska yet but this sounds like a great plan. Also, when I think of Alaska I think of the dome train along with snow covered mountains, bears, and whales. Nice to have all signature attractions covered.

We are a very very large group(19 and growing families) and many of us plan to split in groups and do our own land tours but, most of the families plan to rent their own car and try to stay at the same hotel as everyone. So, how early can one book without running into problem of "not available"? Don't want to book too early and get money stucked either.

I am guessing Oct, 2014 would be right time to do after booking the flights or is that too early/late?

Don't add a membership number :)

 

Applies to any hotel, flight, cruise or suchlike

 

You can always add it later.

 

NCL like other lines has an automated system. Not the agents fault.

 

If you wish to add a number, change their email address first to yours.

We did a recent booking on NCL for a group of 79 members and around 70 of them sailed on NCL before. We didn't even book through NCL or gave the TA our Latitude numbers but the TA confirmation came with all our Latitude numbers and when most of us who have NCL online accounts logged our bookings already showed there with Congratulations 499 days to your cruise screen :-)

I did lot of deal hunting for our 2015 Alaska group booking for 29 cabins and no one was able to beat the prices of the big box store who has online travel site. I even requested NCL I will book for entire group with them if they can match the price but they said that is one place they can't match as they buy in bulk and set their own price.

However, we have also had some really bad luck with smokers and balconies so we won't chance it on NCL. So for this cruise, we will be doing an inside cabin -- we are fine with our decision.

One of the reasons several of our friends booked inside cabins is so their husbands don't smoke in the balcony and ruin their cabin :-)

We will be sailing northbound after you return. :). Already our group of friends from Northern VA booked 29 cabins on Deck 10.

I think they all include Glacier Bay for 2014 on selected trips. Although I haven't looked someone said Carnival only does it early spring/late fall.

Also OP is planning to do one-way so he can do Alaska land tours. I think HAL, Princess, and NCL are the only options. At least for us as I looked for sailings in July on standard cruiselines. Not smaller or luxury.

There are 8 or 9 lines that have permits to go into Glacier Bay.

I just looked at RCL, Carnival, Celebrity, HAL, Princess, NCL which are all in similar price range. Are there more large cruise ships in this price range that go to Glacier Bay?

I did similar research and only considered cruiselines that go to Glacier Bay. NCL, Princess, and HAL are the only one's that go to Glacier Bay. Then we settled with NCL Sun Northbound for several reasons and already booked 29 cabins for our group of friends and cousins :-)

1. It goes to both Glacier Bay and Hubbard and stops at all three top ports.

2. Leaves on Monday and that somehow felt good. We can use the longweekend to cover both Seattle and Vancouver.

3. Costs less than Pricess and HAL.

From my reading some Alaska pros seems to think Hubbard and Tracy Arm are higher up the list than Glacier Bay. But, I am not sure if most of us from East coast will ever go back on Alaska cruise so, didn't want to come out with a feeling that we missed something. So, decided to cover it all. In Alaska, we plan to fill-fill desire to take the train, drive to Denali, and also cover Prince William Sound and maybe one more tour before flying back.

A friend is trying to decide between a few roundtrip from Seattle cruises; one is the Grand Princess that visits Tracy Arm, another is the Golden Princess that visits Glacier Bay and the last is Norwegian Pear that visits Glacier Bay.

 

Any thoughts on Glacier Bay vs Tracy Arm, or on Norwegian as opposed to Princess? Thanks so much.

Better to sail on one that goes to Glacier Bay and maybe take excursion to Tracy Arm. I think young crowd will like Ncl more than Princess. Loved Pearl. Spinnaker Louge is awesome place to sit inside on a bad weather day to watch scenery go by.

Just what I need for my July 6th Northbound sail on Ncl Sun. Planning to reach Seattle 3rd night, spend a day there and next two and half in Vancouver before cruise. Looks like I can follow your trail most of the time:-). Looking forward to reading more and noting your photography skills. It's a lovely hobby that makes any vacations lot more fun.

Couldn't wait for Princess or HAL to annouce. So, our group already booked over 25 cabins on NCL Sun Northbound July 6th sailing. We already drive the prices up for the last 3 families who booked inside cabins near us :-).