Saint Greg's Alaska Jewel - Live - August 28, 2023

[Saint Greg]

I suspect this could be a hanging glacier, but I’m not an expert.

 

[Roscoe13]

On 8/28/2023 at 8:09 PM, Saint Greg said:

Wait what? Who designed that?

 

Spirit Airlines...

[Saint Greg]

You should know better than to post that drivel on my thread.

 

[eileeshb]

2 hours ago, carohs said:

$250 off a future cruise isn't that great to me. Don't get me wrong I'll utilize any savings available to me but comparatively to the cost of the cruise and fluctuating prices it's a small discount. You can buy AARP Carnival gift cards for 10% savings, for example. Disney offers a $250 placeholder deposit onboard which also includes 10% savings on a future booked cruise. Depending on how many days you sail and which cabin, $250 may be a better deal or not. When deciding on a cruise, you bet I'm going to compare all-in pricing and any available discounts to me.

 

Another example of NCL's murky advertising! I'm not 100% certain of this. It may be CF or CN or both, but NCL did have a 120 day stipulation. Basically you can't use them within the PIF window, which includes new bookings too. 

officially you can always use a single cruise next voucher, they call them deposits but never enforce that as the required deposit rarely matches the value of the CN. Also as a general rule you can always use 2 CNs on balcony or above cabins when booking 6months or more out. As others have mentioned there are regular promos to allow 2 CNs on any class of cabin or cruise date, and very very rarely there’s a triple promo. I’ve only seen the triple promo once and that was during the resumption after covid so it basically allowed people to use CNs that were about to expire.

I have booked cruises when only a single CN was allowed but then used a second one as a part payment when the double up promo came along. 
ignore the OBC nonsense in the marketing bumpf , it’s a deliberately fake sales tactic as the OBC is the discount on the CN purchase.  
The CNs are valid for 4 years, they did extend a lot of them for a year or 2 due to the covid shutdowns and that saved mine from going entirely to waste, but I still wound up using one for a friend’s cruise booking as it was due to expire December 31st 2022. As it was one of the extended dates I could use it to book a cruise happening in 2023 so my friend is sailing to Alaska with me later this year as a result. 

[Saint Greg]

The highlight is sawyer glacier. This is as close in as we’re getting due to the ice but if you’re interested in more you can check out my glacier explorer there from last year

 

 

[Saint Greg]

I got my pics and let someone else have my spot. Let’s check the other side.

 

[Saint Greg]

 

[Saint Greg]

[Saint Greg]

They have the forward cam on the big screen in the atrium. I believe this is also where they show movies but not as much as carnival and not as new as carnival. They had temple of doom last night like 10pm.

 

[depplep]

I was going to ask what's with the jumbo tron. I'm not a fan of tv's and movies playing everywhere. Royal started that crap at the pool and you can't get away from it.

[princess76021]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

Actually miss the monkey!! Your coffee looks lonely!!!

hugs from Texas!

[Hogladyrider]

@Saint Greg.....a ship excursion to get closer to a glacier is definitely on my "to do" list for our 14 day Alaska cruise in 2025.  I've watched some You Tube videos and it looks like a well worth $$$$ excursion.  Weather looks pretty decent!

[Andi Land]

2 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@Saint Greg.....a ship excursion to get closer to a glacier is definitely on my "to do" list for our 14 day Alaska cruise in 2025.  I've watched some You Tube videos and it looks like a well worth $$$$ excursion.  Weather looks pretty decent!

Just as an FYI, I see you’re going to Alaska in May next year. The general rule of thumb is that they don’t go into Tracy Arm until after Memorial Day. You may want to go at a later time to make sure you’ll make the small boat excursion. 

[Saint Greg]

4 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@Saint Greg.....a ship excursion to get closer to a glacier is definitely on my "to do" list for our 14 day Alaska cruise in 2025.  I've watched some You Tube videos and it looks like a well worth $$$$ excursion.  Weather looks pretty decent!

Yep. So far it’s been worth it for me. Nobody on the ship got to see Hubbard. Today there wasn’t anything offered. I’m not even sure if we planned on coming in here or if it was a makeup for Hubbard but we’re heading to Juneau today 2-9pm.

 

 

[Saint Greg]

11 minutes ago, Andi Land said:

Just as an FYI, I see you’re going to Alaska in May next year. The general rule of thumb is that they don’t go into Tracy Arm until after Memorial Day. You may want to go at a later time to make sure you’ll make the small boat excursion. 

I did Tracy Arm May 26th last year. And I was originally on the cruise before that and I also had it booked for that one. So definitely worth her checking into before doing anything too drastic.

 

[Saint Greg]

We are hours behind but these pics just aren’t uploading. I’ve had like 7 drinks since that coffee.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Saint Greg

[ronkeykong]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:02 PM, Saint Greg said:

I am interested in cruise next info. It sounds like he’s saying it’s good for four years. If so I’m interested. Those of you in the know waiting to spew info feel free.

 

Yeah, I'm way behind and this is probably already discussed. 

 

Our first NCL and Alaska was in early May.  We bought 1 $250 Cruise Next "thing".  It was on the last sea day so we declined the $100 OBC and got another $250 CN "thing" instead (only paying $250 total).  Knew we couldn't use them in 2024, but something came up with $100 credits for each of us when we returned.  They were expiring in late July, maybe, so we booked a 2025 LA cruise.  It was a double up, and we were able to use both $250's and both $100's to put $700 down. 

 

Worked out pretty well for us! 

[Saint Greg]

9 by noon

 

[pcrum]

17 hours ago, HxFx said:

So funny you say that. We just realized a few days ago how much in-laws are paying for insurance (we are currently visiting them in the house we will move into) and it's 6 times what we pay in Virginia. Yikes!!

Look into car insurance rates too. They just keep going up after each hurricane, even for those of us with no accidents or traffic tickets. 

[MississippiMom]

On 8/28/2023 at 8:39 PM, Saint Greg said:

Sorry, @Saint Greg, I think I missed something.  Were you sitting at tables for 4.5 hours?  Or just to eat?

[Saint Greg]

1 minute ago, MississippiMom said:

Sorry, @Saint Greg, I think I missed something.  Were you sitting at tables for 4.5 hours?  Or just to eat?

That’s your seat. 

[Saint Greg]

Let me just try skipping that one pic I’ve been trying to upload for an hour.

nope

[Saint Greg]

Worth noting I had internet problems in Alaska last year so I’m not blaming this on NCL at all.

 

[Saint Greg]

I say until they get a Guinness or a smithwicks or something around here they should change then name to Sheehan’s.

 

[Hogladyrider]

47 minutes ago, Andi Land said:

Just as an FYI, I see you’re going to Alaska in May next year. The general rule of thumb is that they don’t go into Tracy Arm until after Memorial Day. You may want to go at a later time to make sure you’ll make the small boat excursion. 

May 2025 but on HAL, thanks for the advice.  I have been to Alaska in May on Carnival we did Glacier Bay before Carnival was "excommunicated" from Glacier Bay 🙂