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

[Saint Greg]

While I'm thinking of last year vs. this year, NCL didn't have a naturalist onboard like Carnival did. No glacier lectures or calling out wildlife on the scenic cruising days this time.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Saint Greg

[Mommapadraig]

16 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I doubt the cruise line is going to book you an 11am flight on debarkation day. They'll probably stick you with a late one. Before I booked my Barcelona flight with Carnival the best deal for me was going to be Air Portugal. 

I’m watching TAP every day. So far the prices are high. Being all day in Barcelona wouldn’t be the worst thing that happens. Our friends who are traveling with us have never been there. I know last time NCL had a tour that ended at the airport for evening flights. 

[Saint Greg]

5 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

I’m watching TAP every day. So far the prices are high. Being all day in Barcelona wouldn’t be the worst thing that happens. Our friends who are traveling with us have never been there. I know last time NCL had a tour that ended at the airport for evening flights. 

 

I wish they had that in Vancouver. They only had two hour tours ending at the airport.

[Ragdollbd]

15 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

I’m watching TAP every day. So far the prices are high. Being all day in Barcelona wouldn’t be the worst thing that happens. Our friends who are traveling with us have never been there. I know last time NCL had a tour that ended at the airport for evening flights. 

What part of Michigan do you live?  If you could cross the border to Windsor, you can fly to Europe and back for about $1100.00 Canadian.  It's usually Air Canada though.   My son lives in France but I have flown to Italy also a couple times and it's still around the same price.  There is usually one stop in Toronto or one in Montreal.  Greg would not recommend Air Canada after what he's been through but I have never had any problems (yet)

[Mommapadraig]

6 minutes ago, Ragdollbd said:

What part of Michigan do you live?  If you could cross the border to Windsor, you can fly to Europe and back for about $1100.00 Canadian.  It's usually Air Canada though.   My son lives in France but I have flown to Italy also a couple times and it's still around the same price.  There is usually one stop in Toronto or one in Montreal.  Greg would not recommend Air Canada after what he's been through but I have never had any problems (yet)

I’ll check that out. In the past we flew out of Toronto and saved a lot. I’d forgotten about that. Thanks! 

[brookie848]

2 hours ago, HxFx said:

I know you mentioned your ABC cruise next year but I’m not sure what other Southern Caribbean islands you have gone to so far. If you’re going to have to fly anyway, I highly recommend cruises out of San Juan (a relatively short distance flight with minimal time change) . A lot of different ports from Florida ports. I loved Dominica and Grenada especially and they have a lot of varied scenery to offer. Ships out of San Juan routinely hit St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Antigua, and Barbados. I’m hoping to hit Martinique in the not too distant future. They are often very port intensive cruises.

San Juan is now our preferred cruise port. We've done three cruises from there with our fourth in February. We did the ABCs earlier this year along with St. Kitts and St. Lucia on a 7-day cruise.

 

I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but our February cruise has zero sea days (Tortola, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados). It will be interesting pacing ourselves.

[bluesea777]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I wish they had that in Vancouver. They only had two hour tours ending at the airport.

Yes. When we were planning the B2B Alaskan cruises we originally booked the Van-Sew-Van and I’d decided that we’d take the NCL disembark city tour that ended up at airport, put our luggage in the left luggage storage at airport and take the train back into city to do sh!t until it was time to catch the late flight to YYZ and BDA. But it fell thru when I found Vancouver hotels extremely expensive, AC wasn’t flying out of Bermuda on the day we wanted (and also expensive). So I researched more and was able to nag better deals if we changed our B2B to Sew-Van-Sew. 
 

The rest is history and we had fantastic trip pre-cruise and the cruise itself. 
 

We’d been to Vancouver before and did the HOHO bus and now it’s the been there done that place.

 

We spent an overnight in Anchorage (did the floatplane city sightseeing tour (30 mins) that was great!) before heading to Seward on the early morning train to Seward (GoldStar dome class) and staying 2 nights in Seward. We did the Kenai Fjords cruise the next day. 
 

 

[Uff da]

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I have done San Juan, St. Kitts, St. Maarten. The one cruise I was looking at with CruiseNext was Viva out of the DR hitting some of those Southern Caribbean ports I haven't been to. But I did not purchase CruiseNext.

You don't have to purchase CruiseNext. If you want to sail with NCL again, you can purchase a CruiseFirst any time you want. 
If you have not been to St. Thomas or St. Lucia yet, you should go. Beautiful. There's nothing like taking the tram up to the scenic overlook in St. Thomas and having a Bushwhacker. I still think about that drink. 

[Saint Greg]

1 minute ago, Uff da said:

You don't have to purchase CruiseNext. If you want to sail with NCL again, you can purchase a CruiseFirst any time you want. 
If you have not been to St. Thomas or St. Lucia yet, you should go. Beautiful. There's nothing like taking the tram up to the scenic overlook in St. Thomas and having a Bushwhacker. I still think about that drink. 

They’re definitely on my list. I was originally planning on a celebration cruise partially because it went to St. Thomas. I pivoted to Alaska after the price doubled in the spring.

 

[Saint Greg]

7 minutes ago, Uff da said:

You don't have to purchase CruiseNext. If you want to sail with NCL again, you can purchase a CruiseFirst any time you want. 
If you have not been to St. Thomas or St. Lucia yet, you should go. Beautiful. There's nothing like taking the tram up to the scenic overlook in St. Thomas and having a Bushwhacker. I still think about that drink. 

That’s what I thought cruise next was. $250 for a $500 certificate. But it turned out to be $250 for $100 OBC.

 

[The Traveling Man]

23 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

That’s what I thought cruise next was. $250 for a $500 certificate. But it turned out to be $250 for $100 OBC.

 

If you purchase two Cruise Next Deposits at $250 each, you get a $500 value and receive $250 in OBC.  If you only buy one CND, you get a $250 value, but only $100 in OBC.  Many people have commented on CC that it seems that NCL intentionally obfuscates the terms and conditions.

[Saint Greg]

8 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

If you purchase two Cruise Next Deposits at $250 each, you get a $500 value and receive $250 in OBC.  If you only buy one CND, you get a $250 value, but only $100 in OBC.  Many people have commented on CC that it seems that NCL intentionally obfuscates the terms and conditions.

For as much as they shove that down your throat, they advertise it poorly. I even sat through an entire presentation and the guy never said that. He only talked about getting $100 OBC for $250 deposits.

 

Yeah it’s clear they don’t try to help you. Otherwise shouldn’t my vacation planner have said “hey you can get your $500 cruise for $250 if you buy a cruise first certificate.”

[Stratford1950]

2 hours ago, brookie848 said:

San Juan is now our preferred cruise port. We've done three cruises from there with our fourth in February. We did the ABCs earlier this year along with St. Kitts and St. Lucia on a 7-day cruise.

 

I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but our February cruise has zero sea days (Tortola, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados). It will be interesting pacing ourselves.

I think you’ll enjoy Barbados…my parents moved us to the island in 1967, 4 kids and a total culture shock.

Saint Lawrence Gap is interesting but exploring Bridgetown can be fun…if you like rum. I could go on but there is not enough space to talk about living there. 
Have fun…

[brookie848]

13 minutes ago, Stratford1950 said:

I think you’ll enjoy Barbados…my parents moved us to the island in 1967, 4 kids and a total culture shock.

Saint Lawrence Gap is interesting but exploring Bridgetown can be fun…if you like rum. I could go on but there is not enough space to talk about living there. 
Have fun…

These are actually all repeat ports for us -- every San Juan cruise has been a more southern route. This will be our third time in Barbados.

 

Our current thoughts are to make solid plans on three islands (Tortola, Antigua and St. Maarten). We will just stay on the ship or wing the rest.

[Saint Greg]

12 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

 

Our current thoughts are to make solid plans on three islands (Tortola, Antigua and St. Maarten). We will just stay on the ship or wing the rest.

My suggestion for St. Maarten

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Saint Greg

[ninjacat123]

19 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

These are actually all repeat ports for us -- every San Juan cruise has been a more southern route. This will be our third time in Barbados.

 

Our current thoughts are to make solid plans on three islands (Tortola, Antigua and St. Maarten). We will just stay on the ship or wing the rest.

DH and I had a wonderful time in St Maarten doing the America's Cup Regatta through Carnival.  Maybe they run it through other cruise lines as well👍

[Etta1213]

1 hour ago, Stratford1950 said:

I think you’ll enjoy Barbados…my parents moved us to the island in 1967, 4 kids and a total culture shock.

Saint Lawrence Gap is interesting but exploring Bridgetown can be fun…if you like rum. I could go on but there is not enough space to talk about living there. 
Have fun…

This fascinates me! Did you live there for years?

[Stratford1950]

My parents lived there from 1967 to 1983… they built a hotel on St.Lawrence Gap in 1968 and another on the beach in the early 70s…I headed back to Canada to go to teacher’s college but finished gr.12&13 first in Stratford Ontario…my one brother followed me became an engineer the other hung around for a few years…our sister went to Bishop Strahan for HS…none of us wanted to live there except my youngest brother.

[ninjacat123]

7 minutes ago, Stratford1950 said:

My parents lived there from 1967 to 1983… they built a hotel on St.Lawrence Gap in 1968 and another on the beach in the early 70s…I headed back to Canada to go to teacher’s college but finished gr.12&13 first in Stratford Ontario…my one brother followed me became an engineer the other hung around for a few years…our sister went to Bishop Strahan for HS…none of us wanted to live there except my youngest brother.

I would think living in the Caribbean would be fantastic.  Was the opportunity not there to pursue your goals?

[brookie848]

59 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

My suggestion for St. Maarten

 

 

 

Yep. We got to see the KLM 747 on our first cruise back in the day. We're disappointed that one that size no longer lands there, but Maho Beach is the main point of our stop. The friend who sails with us isn't looking forward to this, but she considers it her "payment" for her free stay in the second bedroom of our cabin.

[JeanKC]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:40 PM, Uff da said:

We've done it 4 times without issues including an international flight to Panama and back. Stuff happens. There is no guarantee you won't have your own issues, you can't control everything even if you book on your own. Flying is not fun these days.
My biggest issue was exactly what happened to Greg today, missed flight in Houston because customs took so long. I thought I had plenty of time, apparently I did not. That was not an NCL flight. 

It's great that you have not had issues with NCL air but I think the issue that people are taking with Greg's situation is the crazy short connection time between flights which NCL air seem to think is okay to book. So, yes, while things happen and flights can be delayed and customs queues can be long and none of that would the fault of the NCL Air (or any TA booking flights). But what is very much in the control of NCL Air is allowing for a reasonable connection time between flights.....and even without a customs queue or flight delays, they did not leave enough time in this case. And, if it is true what the NCL agent told Greg, that provided they leave at least 30 minutes between flights, they can book it......then whoever is in charge of those policies must never, ever have been in an airport.....ever!! 

 

To be honest, I would probably never use NCL air mainly because, unlike with a regular TA or self-booking, you get no say at all in your flights, and so even if you think the connection time is too short (and my husband gets very stressed in airports at the best of times so throw in a tight connection......it wouldn't end well 😀) tough, you have to take it. I would prefer be in control of these things myself and yes, I guess, it might cost a little more, but to me, it's probably worth it for reduced stress. 

[Stratford1950]

8 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I would think living in the Caribbean would be fantastic.  Was the opportunity not there to pursue your goals?

It was the school system it was extremely bad and we knew we had to get back to something better…but that was over 50 years ago I’m sure it’s much better now.

[HxFx]

10 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I had a wonderful time in St Maarten doing the America's Cup Regatta through Carnival.  Maybe they run it through other cruise lines as well👍

That one was available through Celebrity last April. I was very intrigued but the no bathroom facilities worried me. And you don't even go in the water 😉  I ended up doing the Rhino Rider and that was fun.

[ninjacat123]

30 minutes ago, HxFx said:

That one was available through Celebrity last April. I was very intrigued but the no bathroom facilities worried me. And you don't even go in the water 😉  I ended up doing the Rhino Rider and that was fun.

I agree, the no bathroom issue concerned me as well.  I was so busy being the bartender (passing out waters, soda & beer and collecting empties) and watching my DH be a grinder and after the race, steer the boat, that I didn't think about it.  There is a port a potty next to the dock just before you get on board.

[Saint Greg]

6 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I agree, the no bathroom issue concerned me as well.  I was so busy being the bartender (passing out waters, soda & beer and collecting empties) and watching my DH be a grinder and after the race, steer the boat, that I didn't think about it.  There is a port a potty next to the dock just before you get on board.

Jeff Corwin did that on Ocean Treks.