**Live from the NCL Encore** July 21-28, 2024: Alaskan Cruise Itinerary

[Ellis1138]

14 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I'm not sure if it's on all the ships but I had read about it on the Encore and I asked while we were there and the staff confirmed it is going away. 

 

Aw no. I was going to use one of my 2 specialty nights for Los Lobos. 😞

I guess it will be two Ocean Blue.

Too bad the Encore doesn't have Moderno. That's always my pick for both nights when the ship has it.

[brookie848]

14 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I'm not sure if it's on all the ships but I had read about it on the Encore and I asked while we were there and the staff confirmed it is going away. 

I could make reservations for Los Lobos on our cruise (the first after dry dock), but only for large parties.

 

I hope they don't get rid of Los Lobos. I really want those chips.

[Calicoskies1234]

On 7/21/2024 at 3:03 PM, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We made it onto the ship shortly after 11am and one of the odd things about it compared to other embarkations was that once you boarded the ship, you had to walk down the length of the ship on the exterior between the ship wall and the lifeboats. This perhaps wouldn't have been a big deal except that we were stuck behind a very slow walker so it seemed to take forever before we actually made it inside the ship (on Deck 7).

 

The very first thing we had to do upon boarding was check-in at our muster station, which for us was E-2 on Deck 6.

I’m sorry if you were stuck walking behind me or my bro in law. We both hv bad knees and he’s also got torn rotator cuff. Slow, injured ppl try to keep up with everyone else the best we can. I always apologized to anyone stuck walking behind me. I don’t mean this snarky, just explaining that sometimes ppl walk slow bc that’s the only pace they can walk. 

[schmoopie17]

I find it ironic that you Docked at Ward Cove and you flew on a Beaver plane. I guess there wasn't any way to work in June and Wally, or you'd have the whole Cleaver family.

[schmoopie17]

Did that "burger" in the American Diner taste as bad as it looked?

 

YIKES!!

[Saint Greg]

24 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

I find it ironic that you Docked at Ward Cove and you flew on a Beaver plane. I guess there wasn't any way to work in June and Wally, or you'd have the whole Cleaver family.

If only the cruise was last month…

[azappraiser]

24 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

I find it ironic that you Docked at Ward Cove and you flew on a Beaver plane. I guess there wasn't any way to work in June and Wally, or you'd have the whole Cleaver family.

It would be even more ironic if the two kids are named June & Wally.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 hour ago, Calicoskies1234 said:

I’m sorry if you were stuck walking behind me or my bro in law. We both hv bad knees and he’s also got torn rotator cuff. Slow, injured ppl try to keep up with everyone else the best we can. I always apologized to anyone stuck walking behind me. I don’t mean this snarky, just explaining that sometimes ppl walk slow bc that’s the only pace they can walk. 

I'm sorry, I should have thought about how that may come across to others when I made the comment. 

 

For what it's worth, I don't think it was you unless you had children in your group.

 

I hope you enjoyed your cruise as much as we did!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

15 minutes ago, azappraiser said:

It would be even more ironic if the two kids are named June & Wally.

They are not, but I agree 😂

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

35 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Did that "burger" in the American Diner taste as bad as it looked?

 

YIKES!!

My kids were happy with them but I agree... They were clearly frozen (but it would probably be difficult to do anything else at scale).

[kona_wahine]

We were on there with you. I think I recognize your picture! 🤣

 

we went to Cagney’s the last night and I could not have been more disappointed! 6:15 reservations for 9 and we just left at 8:15 without dessert. Teresa was our waiter and she was SLOW, but maybe they were understaffed. She appeared to have one main helper but there were others around. The meat was good but most of us spent the $25 for lobster. Small tales, overcooked, and cold. The sides were all cold also. it was not the upscale meal we were expecting. 
 

the buffet was always good, Taste was probably the best meal all week. Savor was another SLOW meal, like it was 1/2 hour just to get water. Super annoying, as we had reservations for a party of 9. 
 

someone mentioned Tracey Arm excursion out of Juneau. Tracy arm is beautiful but the trip there and back from Juneau was a very boring boat ride. It’s a 6-7 hour excursion and most of that is the ride to the fjord. No entertainment , no narration. I would not take it again. My family is not happy with me over that! I did redeem myself with the Neets bear by land and sea. We all loved it, saw 3 bears, lots of eagles, salmon jumping around. And we got to see whales playing around and flipping their tales. Over all we all had a great time, several first time cruisers. Just a couple bumps. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

3 minutes ago, kona_wahine said:

We were on there with you. I think I recognize your picture! 🤣

 

we went to Cagney’s the last night and I could not have been more disappointed! 6:15 reservations for 9 and we just left at 8:15 without dessert. Teresa was our waiter and she was SLOW, but maybe they were understaffed. She appeared to have one main helper but there were others around. The meat was good but most of us spent the $25 for lobster. Small tales, overcooked, and cold. The sides were all cold also. it was not the upscale meal we were expecting. 
 

the buffet was always good, Taste was probably the best meal all week. Savor was another SLOW meal, like it was 1/2 hour just to get water. Super annoying, as we had reservations for a party of 9. 
 

someone mentioned Tracey Arm excursion out of Juneau. Tracy arm is beautiful but the trip there and back from Juneau was a very boring boat ride. It’s a 6-7 hour excursion and most of that is the ride to the fjord. No entertainment , no narration. I would not take it again. My family is not happy with me over that! I did redeem myself with the Neets bear by land and sea. We all loved it, saw 3 bears, lots of eagles, salmon jumping around. And we got to see whales playing around and flipping their tales. Over all we all had a great time, several first time cruisers. Just a couple bumps. 

It was not the perfect cruise experience, but that's just part of it... We've learned to roll with the punches and to keep a positive outlook and that helps so much! 

 

We were the crazy family walking around with the video camera at times... We always get some funny looks but it's worth it to capture the memories while our kids are still young!

[Ellis1138]

42 minutes ago, kona_wahine said:

We were on there with you. I think I recognize your picture! 🤣

 

we went to Cagney’s the last night and I could not have been more disappointed! 

 

The meat was good but most of us spent the $25 for lobster. Small tales, overcooked, and cold. The sides were all cold also. it was not the upscale meal we were expecting. 
 

the buffet was always good, Taste was probably the best meal all week. Savor was another SLOW meal, like it was 1/2 hour just to get water. Super annoying, as we had reservations for a party of 9. 

 

I just heard the the Encore will be getting rid of Los Lobos to expand Cagneys. I've been trying to figure out my 2 specialty dinings and which restaurants will have the least allergy impact. I settled on Ocean Blue for one. This now leaves Le Bistro or Cagneys... or Ocean blue a second time. The Teppanyaki is problematic and I don't want to be the one person there who holds up the whole cooking process.

 

I usually do NOT get lobster on a cruise ship, because I live in NJ and during the summer, we get live lobster for about $8 a pound on sale. I assume the lobster on the ship is frozen and not in a water tank. Unless someone who did the behind the scenes kitchen tour knows?

 

Glad to hear the buffet is good.

 

 

[kona_wahine]

Another thing, we all feeling a bit crummy last few days and one has a positive covid test. Not enough “washy washy” 🤣

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, kona_wahine said:

someone mentioned Tracey Arm excursion out of Juneau. Tracy arm is beautiful but the trip there and back from Juneau was a very boring boat ride. It’s a 6-7 hour excursion and most of that is the ride to the fjord. No entertainment , no narration. I would not take it again. My family is not happy with me over that! I did redeem myself with the Neets bear by land and sea. We all loved it, saw 3 bears, lots of eagles, salmon jumping around. And we got to see whales playing around and flipping their tales. Over all we all had a great time, several first time cruisers. Just a couple bumps. 

The Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer is the absolute best excursion to get up close and personal with a glacier. 

Edited July 29 by BirdTravels

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

2 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

The Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer is the absolute best excursion to get up close and personal with a glacier. 

Is that even better than our helicopter ride to a glacier would have been? 

 

I don't know what glacier those go to.

[BirdTravels]

1 minute ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Is that even better than our helicopter ride to a glacier would have been? 

 

I don't know what glacier those go to.

Depends on your priority. We have taken a helicopter to walk on a glacier. Fun, expensive, experience, but we spend a lot of time walking on ice/snow at home. Being on a small boat at the face of the glacier as it calves and the power of nature is spectacular. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, BirdTravels said:

Depends on your priority. We have taken a helicopter to walk on a glacier. Fun, expensive, experience, but we spend a lot of time walking on ice/snow at home. Being on a small boat at the face of the glacier as it calves and the power of nature is spectacular. 

We definitely would have loved to see a glacier calving...I naively thought we'd see that in Glacier Bay but know now we need to schedule our next Alaskan cruise earlier in the year to see that (guessing early May).

[kona_wahine]

We did both, went on the helicopter from Skagway and it was an awesome experience. I’m standing by my Tracey arm statement. It was great from the carnival ship when they picked us up on the fjord. That’s why I talked e1 into it. The ride from Juneau was just too far. There was no time to see anything else after. And the view of sawyer glacier wasn’t any better than the 3 at glacier bay. Just my opinion  🤷‍♀️

Edited July 29 by kona_wahine

[Saint Greg]

40 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We definitely would have loved to see a glacier calving...I naively thought we'd see that in Glacier Bay but know now we need to schedule our next Alaskan cruise earlier in the year to see that (guessing early May).

 

Wouldn't that be later when it's melting? I saw a bunch of calving at Hubbard glacier last August.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Wouldn't that be later when it's melting? I saw a bunch of calving at Hubbard glacier last August.

There was very little left to break off that I saw. 

 

I asked one of the crew members and they said there's more earlier in the season but I didn't ask a Ranger so I may be wrong as I haven't done any research yet. 

[Saint Greg]

6 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

There was very little left to break off that I saw. 

 

I asked one of the crew members and they said there's more earlier in the season but I didn't ask a Ranger so I may be wrong as I haven't done any research yet. 

 

Sounds like if you go in May you may want to do a tour in Seward because those calve that time. It says August-September for Hubbard which is consistent with what I saw. i was there at the very end of August.

 

Glaciers in Alaska can calve at different times of year depending on their location:

• Hubbard Glacier

  Located off the coast of Yakutat, this glacier is most likely to calve in August and September.
• Kenai Fjords Tidewater Glaciers

  These glaciers are most active in May and June, but calving can happen at any time during the late spring and early summer.
• Portage Glacier

  Located at Portage Lake, about an hour south of Anchorage, this glacier is best viewed at any time during the warmest months of June, July, and August

   

[Kealy]

Thank you for sharing your cruise and family's adventures.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

It's been a long day and we're just back to our hotel before we fly out early in the morning so I'm not sure how many posts I'll get done before I call it a night, but I still have things to share so I want to get some done. I'm hoping to get more done on the long flight back to Virginia tomorrow (WiFi willing).

 

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I just checked our footage and it took 9 minutes from the moment we left our room on Deck 9 (9242) to clear disembarkation, work our way down the gangway, walk through the terminal, and get to our bags. 

 

Unfortunately a careless fellow cruiser took one of our bags that looked similar to theirs so it took another 2 hours to get all of our bags as they weren't checking text messages or answering their phone (and then had to drive back when they finally did).

 

Once we confirmed another passenger had it (vs the terminal) they advised us to take their bag with us so we could go about our day and have the person who took our bag meet up with us in the city, so that's what we did. 

 

In retrospect, that was pretty stupid of me because if they were smuggling drugs into the country in their bag or something crazy like that, I could have put myself in a really bad spot. 

 

Fortunately nothing bad happened (beyond losing two hours of our day).

 

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I'm not going to go into any depth about what we did today but we went to the Pacific Science Center for a few hours (including an IMAX movie about Blue Whales) and then did a tour of the Boeing factory where they're building planes (my son has recently shown a big interest in aviation so this was incredible). 

 

We grabbed dinner at Fogo De Chao and we're now settling into our hotel for evening at the Kimpton Monaco.

 

Our Seattle > Dulles flight leaves at 8:30am tomorrow so it will be an early morning and a long trip home as we have a 2.5 hour drive back to the Shenandoah Valley once our flight lands. 

 

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Making Our Way Through Disembarkation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Made it into the Terminal: 

 

 

 

Edited July 29 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[ryarger]

2 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

I assume the lobster on the ship is frozen and not in a water tank. Unless someone who did the behind the scenes kitchen tour knows?

All protein on any cruise ship comes on board frozen. It can still taste great when prepared well but yeah, if you’re from a land of abundant lobster nothing on a cruise ship is going to impress you.