AllenO

I just got back from an Alaskan cruise. We had dinner one night in the Brazilian steak house and we were all dressed up. My wife had on a nice dress with sandals. I had on a collared shirt and linen pants and dress sandals. She was fine. I was told I could not wear sandals. Instead I went back and put on my dirty muddy sneakers which I had just worn ashore that day and while they looked horrible, it met their requirements. Not sexist at all.

After a two year cruising haitus, we finally sailed again on the Jewel from Seward AK, to Vancouver BC. Overall, I would give the cruise a solid B, maybe a B- and I'll give you all the good and the bad from my particular POV. First the bad. I got COVID probably while I was on the ship. On the next to last day we were in Ketchikan. Had a great fishing trip with a wonderful guide and that night started to feel a tickle in the back of my throat which I naively attributed to being out in the open water and eating a wonderful meal of salmon that we caught cooked over an open smokey fire. On the last day we were at sea but started to have a stuffy nose so I wore my mask everywhere. However, there were people coughing, hacking and sneezing everywhere on board so me wearing my mask seemed like a drop in the bucket. The staff all wore masks all of the time, but even they were always taking them down slightly to talk and so they could be understood. By the time we got home on Monday night, I had a full blown "cold" and when I tested yesterday at home I was positive. My case is mild with stuffy nose and sneezing which I attribute to being fully vaxed and boosted. In retrospect, all the efforts to do pre-cruise testing and isolation we did seem to be just so much window dressing. I personally witnessed one guy sneeze into his hand then use the same hand to grab tongs in the cafe oblivious to what he just did. And don't get me started on the guy who I saw use a urinal while using his phone, put his phone away in his pocket (yes, he used THAT hand), wash his hands then take his phone back out and use it again. Ewww. Like COVID is the least of his worries. The only other bad incident I had onboard really seemed minor in comparison. We had reservations at Moderno one evening so we all dressed up a bit. I was wearing a nice shirt, linen pants and made the mistake of wearing dress sandals. I was told I needed close toed shoes. My wife was wearing open toed shoes, but that was OK because she was a lady. Not even the least bit sexist. I changed into my dirty muddy sneakers that I had worn ashore that day which apparently met their dress code and had a wonderful meal. Another item to watch out for are their after cruise excursions. We originally signed up for a ship to airport transfer. We had hoped for a Vancouver city tour, but as of a couple days before we left, nothing like that was offered. However, the last day before disembarkation we heard them announce city tours in combination with the transfers, but before we could get down to the excursion desk, they were sold out. Lesson learned: Check with the excursion desk every day if there is something you want because all the really fun excursions sell out fast. Another huge minus was letting NCL arrange your flights. Yes, two people flying for $750 sounds like a good deal, but when they initially split up our party of six and had us arriving in Anchorage TWO DAYS apart that savings was insignificant. We ended up rebooking two of our flights to arrive all together for the low low price of $2,700. Combine that with the initial $750 we paid and our airfare for two people cost $3,400. It made it even better that the airlines cancelled our first flight the night before we left and we were on the phone for several hours rebooking new flights which we successfully made. Now the good. Although bad for NCL, the ship was only at about half capacity. This made the ship not crowded at all, even on sea days when you'd expect the cafe to be packed. There was always plenty of overflow seating available. Staff was wonderful and accommodating at every turn, except the stuffy maitre d' at Moderno and I'm sure he was only doing what he was told. First was at Icy Point Straight in Hoonah. This is what they called a "wilderness" dock. This used to be a fishing village with a canning factory that was redesigned as a cruise ship stop in the 90's. When you first dock, you see nothing but the forest. No buildings whatsoever. First whale watching a half hour or so away which was great. Whales breaching and tail slapping everywhere followed by the zip chair ride back near the dock. Frankly, having done ziplining many times before I thought this would be too "tame" but you go really fast and are very high up and six of went at once and had a great time. The port doesn't have much in the way of services, but they have really made an effort to build an entertaining stop. The bored high school/college aged kids who were staffing most of the facilities could have used a few customer service lessons, but overall, it was a good stop. Next was Juneau and rafting on the Mendenhall River. Good outfitting, a fairly mild ride, but great weather and wonderful scenery. Our rafting was only three hours, but because the ship left at 1 p.m., there was no time to do any other activities on your own. The glacier in the afternoon was spectacular. No way could you do anything close to social distancing as everyone was elbow to elbow trying to get the best view of the glacier at all times. Skagway was a bit disappointing because none of the excursions interested us. However, we made the best of the day by just exploring on our own. The issue at play in Skagway is that one of their cruise ship docks is closed because of an unstable hillside right next to the dock. They have been having frequent rockslides that makes docking two cruise ships at the same time too dangerous so we were the only ship there, and we only had half as many tourists as normal. We did our level best to pump up the economy as we could and but you could tell the local merchants were desperate for business. I had never before seen shop owners hawking for people to enter their stores out on the boardwalk.\. Our last stop was in Ketchikan and we did the open water fishing in a 20 ft. open skiff followed by a wilderness campsite meal. Our guide was a local young woman who was third generation born and raised in Ketchikan. Her name is Jamie and her real job was junior high music teacher but had been raised around boats and on the water and we could not have been happier with the experience. We were caught probably around a dozen rockfish and two salmon that was cooked at their campsite on another island in the Tongass National Forest. I think the company they used was called Baranoff Fishing Excursions and they were excellent. So in summary, the cruise had more ups than downs. It could have been better in some areas, but was great in others. It was our second Alaskan cruise and the better of the two. However, I'll be glad when COVID is just a memory and things return closer to what we can call normal.

Sorry to pile on, but yes, you are SOL. We are preparing to sail on the Jewel out of Anchorage to Vancouver. There were three of us couples traveling together. Two couples were to arrive on 7/30 but our flights had us coming in TWO DAYS LATER on 8/1. We spent hours on hold, talking to Customer-No-Service and finally got to the Dispute Resolutions people. I told them I could accept all of us being on separate flights, but asked if they thought it was reasonable that we would arrive two days apart. They said no, but there was nothing they could do. We elected to book our own flights to arrive with our friends but had to spend another $2,700 on last minute flights. Once they have your money you are completely at their mercy.

We did this cruise twice, but the most recent was in February 2019 right before the shutdowns, but we had a great time. We saw a few spouts from the ship, but the best viewing was on Maui where we took a whale watching excursion. The whales were everywhere. Saw breaches, lots of fin waiving and tons of sightings one after the other. Don't count on great sightings from the ship. Take an excursion.

The airline did not change the flight times. This was the info as received directly from NCL.

We did not receive our flight information until 25 days prior to departure for a domestic flight. NCL simply kept putting us off even after we saw the departure dates on our cruise summary.

Very unhappy with the Second Person Flies Free promotion. We had three couples traveling to Alaska leaving on 8/1. Although we knew we might all be on different flights and times, two couples were to arrive two whole days ahead of us, the third couple. After spending about 8 hours on hold over two days with Customer-No-Service I was eventually transfered to the Resolution Dispute office. When I asked if arriving two days apart was reasonable, the lady I spoke with said, no, it did not seem reasonable but that there was nothing she could do about it. Ended up having to book our own flights to arrive with the other couples. No refunds, no changes, not even an "I'm sorry for your trouble." Once they get your money, you are on your own.

Finally got our airline issue resolved, and it only cost me an additional $2,700 and an extra Airbnb for two nights. To recap, three couples are traveling to Anchorage and all booked our air at the same time and linked our reservations with NCL. (This was confirmed multiple times with different NCL agents while we were setting up our trip.) When it came time to issue the airline tickets, they split up our party of three couples to arrive in Anchorage, separated not by a few hours, but by TWO DAYS. Hours spent on hold for the Flight Arrangements line before I asked for the issue to be elevated. Hours more time on hold (about 8 hours in total) before I spoke with a lady in Dispute Resolution. She agreed it seemed an unreasonable separation but said there was nothing she could do about it because the tickets had been "released to the airline" 8 days before we got the flight arrangements. She then conveniently dropped my call after I asked to speak with her supervisor. The two of us who would arrive two days after the other couples cancelled our original NCL arranged flights (no refunds but I'd been worn down enough to expect that, thank you) and spent an additional $2,700 to arrive at least on the same day as our earlier arriving companions. Decided to book an Airbnb where we can all decompress and are going to make the best of this mess. After this cruise, we are done with NCL. This will be our 3rd NCL cruise and 10th overall, so we are not newbies by any means. I accept that most poor level of service is still all the lingering effects of COVID and the economy but it's also just another nasty reminder that it's "Caveat Emptor" out there and that once the cruise line gets your money, you can pretty much expect to be on your own.

I have been on the phone with NCL for hours. Don't you think I know "cruise critic friends" have no power to do anything? Trying to let people know that once they have your money, customer-no-service is the rule.

Yes, we purchased the travel insurance. However, this is not covered. NCL has graciously allowed us to cancel the train excursion and ride the bus from Ankorage to Seward.

Yes, my fault for not doing that and trusting that they would catch that. Currently we are still trying to figure out how they split up our "linked" reservations so some of us arrive two days early.

The airlines did not change a thing. NCL simply screwed up the reservations, split up our "linked" party by two days and then tried to say we didn't book correctly. On the phone currently for hours getting cut off and transferred from one supervisor to the next.

Still hear...amazing how people who only half read things can try to make it somebody elses fault.

It gets even better than the screw ups they've done so far. We are one of three couples traveling together and our reservations are all linked since we made reservations. We and one other couple are scheduled to arrive an hour after the train departs. The other couple is scheduled to arrive TWO DAYS before embarkation. I could understand a few hours but TWO DAYS?!?!?!?!? Just when I think they could not screw this up any more, they manage to outdo themselves.