Oakman58

LOL, I forgot that I was on my wife's computer when I responded under Jebby. Oh well, she needs to have a higher post count anyway. 😆

1. Glacier Bay National Park is a must for a first time cruiser. 2. June is a good month with moderate temps and lots and lots of daylight. 3. Royal Princess RT out of Seattle, Majestic Princess or Sapphire Princess for one-way trips. 4. They are all good. Picture of the Coral Princess cruising in Glacier Bay National Park. One of my favorite pics from Alaska.

We were on the Glory in September and here’s a short review. OUR CABIN We loved our aft-wrap cabin 7445. It had excellent storage space and lots of natural lighting with the windows. The bed was a little too soft for my liking and it gave me a stiff back but my wife was good with it. I love the hinged door to the balcony vs. the sliding doors on NCL. The wrap-around balcony was awesome. The temperature in our room was always between 69 and 71 degrees, very comfortable. We had the Value wifi package and it worked quite well in our cabin and the rest of the ship for that matter. I wasn’t a fan of the safe in our cabin because it required a card with a magnetic strip to open and close which meant only the person with the card could open it. I prefer keypad safes. THE FOOD Wife and I disagree on some aspects of the food in the main dining room. She wasn’t a fan of most of the dishes while I enjoyed everything except for the lobster tail which was tasteless. Guys Burger Joint, without question we both agree it is the best hamburger you can have at sea, on any cruise line. The Ol’ Fashioned BBQ was very good also and you had a choice of three of Guy’s BBQ sauces. We ate breakfast at the buffet most mornings and it was good but careful with the scrambled eggs, they can be watery at times. We also ate breakfast twice in the Platinum dining room where service and food were good. The Deli was good for a sandwich but the Rueben was tragic, no dressing and you couldn’t taste the sauerkraut. They should rename it Corned-Beef sandwich. We both enjoyed the Pizzeria which was popular late in the evening. Neither of us liked the food at the Seafood Shack and it certainly wasn’t worth paying for. The food at the Blue Iguana Cantina was good also, but it’s hard to mess up Mexican. The meal we had in the Steakhouse was outstanding. THE CREW The crew was awesome, you couldn’t ask for better. The same goes for our cabin steward who always made sure he fulfilled our few requests. ENTERTAINMENT We loved the design of the theater on the Glory. The theater shows were entertaining but not the production quality we've seen on NCL. Two shows in the theater, Showdown and Love and Marriage were very funny mainly due to the host and Cruise Director Christian. We also watched Deal or No Deal in the theater and one stage participant walked away with $350 which is the most I’ve ever seen anyone win in that game. The stage participant in the second game walked away with just $10. The theater production of Getaway Island with Carnival’s singers and dancers was very entertaining. The Cruise Director Christian was the best CD we’ve experienced in our 17 previous cruises with various cruise lines. There were a lot of trivia and other games played in the Atrium which was entertaining. COMEDY We watched the early show of 3 of the 4 comedians that were onboard in the Punchliner Club. Only one was somewhat funny while the other 2 were lousy. I had to wonder how they got into that line of work, not funny. One of those 2 was fired the next cruise after ours because of use of the “N” word in his routine. Something is wrong when the Cruise Director is not only more entertaining but also much funnier than the comedians. THE SHIP I had read some reviews that said the Glory was starting to show her age but I didn’t find this to be the case. I thought she looked clean and beautiful. For me personally though, the ship’s layout was a big negative. I didn’t like the “you can’t get there from here” layout on decks 3 and 4. Our assigned dining table was on deck three so after dinner you had to take the elevator to go anywhere on the ship. I also didn’t like that the Glory didn’t have a wrap-around promenade deck. Finally, on deck 10 there are two restaurants but no restrooms…I mean really? You had to go down to the Lido deck to use a bathroom. The layout is the reason I probably would not cruise on her again unless she was sailing to ports I wanted to see and at a great price. COVID The morning we debarked the shipped I was feeling a bit wonky. We had a long travel day to get back home and by that time I knew I was sick. The next morning, Monday, I tested myself and was positive for Covid even though I was fully vaccinated and boosted. My doctor prescribed the Paxlovid treatment. Unfortunately I was one of the lucky ones and 2 days after treatment I had Covid rebound and tested positive again. I’m find now but I’m questioning my judgement about going on future cruises. The above is just my opinion so YMMV.

This was something I’ve never seen before. It was in the afternoon in Cozumel when a Pilot boat cruised very slowly toward our ship. Since it was still and hour before our departure and we were docked I thought this was unusual. The boat came very close to our ship and then slowly turned away. It was then I saw a guy at the back of the boat pulling something hand over hand out of the water and it wasn’t rope. He pulled and pulled and suddenly I realized they had been trolling for fish as he began to pull fish onto the boat. They ended up with quite a nice mess of fish. I’ve never seen a pilot boat used for fishing before.

I would rule out any ship that didn't visit Glacier Bay National Park. IMO the best choice in your list is the NCl Encore. Also the Encore has studio cabins for singles, so no supplement. Just my opinion

Coke is the only way, after all, it's called rum and coke, not rum and pepsi. BTW rum and pepsi is horrible.

I'll be on the Glory Sep 11th and will be trying a Guy's Burger for the first time. I hope I'm not disappointed.

For a first time cruiser to Alaska, Glacier Bay National Park is a must do. Just remember that Royal Caribbean doesn't do Glacier Bay anymore. I would consider Princess or NCL.

With the auto-gratuity now $32 per day for a couple in a balcony cabin and the automatic 20% tip on drinks, maybe I should just quit tipping extra altogether. No big deal since $2 bills aren't appreciated anyway.

I've never had trouble spending $2 bills. The cashier puts them under the cash drawer just like they do with $50's and $100's. Wouldn't the ship's purser be able to turn them into $1 bills?

The reason they are on a cruise ship and away from their families is to make decent money. I give a bag of M&M's and a chunk of money.

I mailed (USPS) my request to Princess on the 10th of June and the OBC was posted to our January cruise on June 29th. That $250 shareholder credit is for our 16 day Hawaiian cruise. When we booked this cruise it was during a sale and we received a $100 OBC. Also I'm a veteran so I also received the $250 thank you bonus for vets. I truly appreciate Princess recognizing veterans with the OBC. This is our first cruise with Princess and because of the recognition of vets I'm sure it won't be the last.

I mailed my request for shareholder credit on June 10th for my 16 day Hawaiian cruise in January and it showed up on my account yesterday, June29th. Coupled with my $250 veterans benefit I have a nice little OBC for that cruise.

I wake up very early (between 4 AM and 5 AM) and want coffee quickly. My wife sleeps in till a normal wake up time for most folks. So that rules out room service for me since a knock on the cabin door is akin to poking a sleeping bear. 😆 The fact that NCL has a coffee maker in balcony cabins and above is the reason the majority of our cruises have been with them. However, I have decided to spread my wings and try other cruise lines again and my next three cruises are with Carnival, Princess, and Holland in that order.

It has been awhile since the Epic was refurbished. I wonder if they will install USB ports in the cabins during the next refurbishment.

Generally the price you see on the NCL website for cruisetours includes both portions. It also includes all transportation during the cruisetour, rail, transfers to ship, etc.

I booked a cruise on the Glory solely for the rear Vista Balcony but I'm going to miss not having a coffee maker in the room. I'm a very early riser and like to have coffee when I wake up.

Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading it, especially the lessons learned part. We learned to fly in one day early after our very first cruise in 2005. We didn't find out our flight to the cruise port was cancelled until we arrived at the airport. The airline managed to get us on a different flight and we made our cruise but just barely. Since then we always fly in a day early.

This is how it went yesterday. After being on hold for 30 minutes I was finally connected to Customer Support. I was on the phone with her for 20 minutes and then she said she would have to transfer me to Customer Solutions. I thought I would be connected immediately but no, I was on hold for another 60 minutes. The Customer Solutions lady told me I qualified but wanted to find out why the OBC wasn’t automatically applied. After another 20 minutes with her she told me she was applying the credit to my cruise but was still looking into why the credit wasn’t automatically applied. I thanked her and we hung up. I received a booking confirmation in an email almost immediately and it showed the Veterans Credit. I’m not overly confident that the credit will be automatically applied on any future cruise so we shall see. Regardless I really appreciate that Princess recognizes veterans with an OBC. Hopefully the shareholders credit can be combined with the veterans credit and if so, I will end up with a $600 OBC for my 16 day Hawaiian cruise in January.

I called Princess this morning about the Veterans OBC not showing on my cruise and although I had to be on hold for a very long time, the credit has now been applied to my cruise. I am truly thankful to Princess for offering this credit. While I was on hold, I was beginning to think like this cartoon.

Yes, the outlets are where BirdTravels pointed out. Just follow the cord from the coffee pot and you will find them.

For the life of me I don't remember the Epic having USB ports. The cabins do have both European and U.S.

Nope, no lobster in the main dining.

For me it doesn't matter where the floor is unless they go belly-up and then I would lose less than 1200 dollars. I bought my 100 shares when the stock went below $12. If you can't afford to take the loss you probably shouldn't be spending money on cruising either. Along with the shareholder benefit, I also bought for the long-term potential of the stock. Since I have three future cruises under the Carnival umbrella in the next 12 months, I should get $100, $250, and $100 OBC. That's a 37.5% dividend on a $1200 investment.