Saint Greg's Jewels - Live - August 12, 2024

[Saint Greg]

Two Sea Otters with a pup in Alaska

 

 

[300dtc]

Wow, I can’t believe I missed an entire Saint Greg cruise! Hubby and I left same day for 2 weeks to Iceland and Greenland so I do have a cruise related excuse😀

[Saint Greg]

2 minutes ago, 300dtc said:

Wow, I can’t believe I missed an entire Saint Greg cruise! Hubby and I left same day for 2 weeks to Iceland and Greenland so I do have a cruise related excuse😀

How was it? I know the carnival Greenland cruises haven’t had much luck docking.

 

[300dtc]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

How was it? I know the carnival Greenland cruises haven’t had much luck docking.

 

We went on NCL and made it to Qaqortoq and Nanotalik Greenland. We did have to leave Qaqortoq 4 hours early because of bad weather moving in. Greenland is very barren and the villages looked poor from what we saw. We made it to Isafordur and Akureyri Iceland and ended the cruise in Reykjavik. Iceland is beautiful and other worldly. The center is mostly lava fields and deserts and the people live mostly on the coastline. We didn’t get to go to Grundarfordur, Iceland which was very disappointing but the tenders could not be safely launched. We are very glad that we went!

[Saint Greg]

8 minutes ago, 300dtc said:

We went on NCL and made it to Qaqortoq and Nanotalik Greenland. We did have to leave Qaqortoq 4 hours early because of bad weather moving in. Greenland is very barren and the villages looked poor from what we saw. We made it to Isafordur and Akureyri Iceland and ended the cruise in Reykjavik. Iceland is beautiful and other worldly. The center is mostly lava fields and deserts and the people live mostly on the coastline. We didn’t get to go to Grundarfordur, Iceland which was very disappointing but the tenders could not be safely launched. We are very glad that we went!

Nice!

[Saint Greg]

 Some videos from this cruise I’ve gotten uploaded on the past week.

 

The brown bear in Icy Strait

 

 

 

Black bear in Ketchikan 

 

 

Harbor seal by northwestern glacier on the major marine tour out of Seward

 

 

waterfall next to northwestern glacier

 

 

Anchor glacier also on the Major Marine tour

 

 

 

[Saint Greg]

Something I’ve never heard before that I learned in a Q&A. I’m guessing this is Alaska specific but up there the pilots stay on the ship for a couple days. We swapped in Icy strait and Ketchikan. I captured Ketchikan swap in these videos

 

Pilot boat approaching Norwegian Jewel in Ketchikan, Alaska

 

 

 

Pilot swap on Norwegian Jewel in Ketchikan, Alaska

 

[blarko]

That seems to be a rather large pilot boat

[YVRteacher]

6 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Something I’ve never heard before that I learned in a Q&A. I’m guessing this is Alaska specific but up there the pilots stay on the ship for a couple days. We swapped in Icy strait and Ketchikan. I captured Ketchikan swap in these videos

 

 

Pilot boat approaching Norwegian Jewel in Ketchikan, Alaska

 

 

 

Pilot swap on Norwegian Jewel in Ketchikan, Alaska

 

Alaskan state law requires all cruise ships to have local pilots when docking or tendering in any and all ports.

 

The only cruise ship port in the world that does not require a local pilot is Copenhagen. 

[Saint Greg]

On 9/2/2024 at 6:27 PM, YVRteacher said:

Alaskan state law requires all cruise ships to have local pilots when docking or tendering in any and all ports.

 

The only cruise ship port in the world that does not require a local pilot is Copenhagen. 

 

Right. Typically you don't see them stay on for multiple ports. You get a different one for each port. That's what I was talking about being different.

[Saint Greg]

Some Juneau videos

 

Before I left the ship I was watching the sea planes.

 

 

 

Gold panning

 

 

 

Gold Belt Tram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Saint Greg]

Sail away from juneau

 

 

 

[Saint Greg]

Remember I donated my mug to the original streetcar company in Skagway. Fortunately Amazon still carries my mug. $19.99.

 

 

[Saint Greg]

I added another NCL cruise. I already have Prima out of Galveston next year. I was planning on doing Viva out of Galveston in 2026. The price was up a bit from what I paid for Prima a few months ago. I shopped around and found that Escape is going to be in New Orleans at that time. For the benefit of Carnival people who don't know NCL, Escape is a Breakaway+ class ship. A slight upgrade from the Breakaway/Getaway ships that have coming to NOLA. 

 

The price was right. $1,320 for a studio. With my $500 CFC that I paid $250 for that makes it $1,070 for me with the basic drink package grats paid and a specialty dinner and grats paid.

 

To compare to Carnival. Carnival has a much older ship there Carnival Liberty. The price for the cheapest cabin 1A upper/lower was going to come to $1,542 for me the same week. To be fair I would've used a 10% off gift card and knocked my cost down to about 1,400. But then you have to buy a drink package. That's another $500. A dinner in their steakhouse is another $50. We're talking $2,000 vs. $1,000.

 

That's why I keep booking NCL. I have Encore, Prima, Epic, and Escape booked now and I think I'm going to book a Getaway out of NYC next summer as well.

[Andi Land]

50 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

I added another NCL cruise. I already have Prima out of Galveston next year. I was planning on doing Viva out of Galveston in 2026. The price was up a bit from what I paid for Prima a few months ago. I shopped around and found that Escape is going to be in New Orleans at that time. For the benefit of Carnival people who don't know NCL, Escape is a Breakaway+ class ship. A slight upgrade from the Breakaway/Getaway ships that have coming to NOLA. 

 

The price was right. $1,320 for a studio. With my $500 CFC that I paid $250 for that makes it $1,070 for me with the basic drink package grats paid and a specialty dinner and grats paid.

 

To compare to Carnival. Carnival has a much older ship there Carnival Liberty. The price for the cheapest cabin 1A upper/lower was going to come to $1,542 for me the same week. To be fair I would've used a 10% off gift card and knocked my cost down to about 1,400. But then you have to buy a drink package. That's another $500. A dinner in their steakhouse is another $50. We're talking $2,000 vs. $1,000.

 

That's why I keep booking NCL. I have Encore, Prima, Epic, and Escape booked now and I think I'm going to book a Getaway out of NYC next summer as well.

I just booked NCL Canada New England for 2025. The dates were right for my work schedule and my other cruises on Carnival and HAL. Fingers crossed we enjoy it. 

[Saint Greg]

3 minutes ago, Andi Land said:

I just booked NCL Canada New England for 2025. The dates were right for my work schedule and my other cruises on Carnival and HAL. Fingers crossed we enjoy it. 

 

I've been wanting to do it out of Boston. I said I wasn't going to do Jewel again next year and I know they are up there. There is a Gem one. But both of those run Fri-Fri and I really don't want to take 7 days off for a 7 day cruise. The NYC one runs Sun-Sun which is much better for me. I can probably do the Boston-Quebec City one another year which hits a couple different ports. I haven't booked yet but I do have a room on hold for it and another $500 CFC in my back pocket.

[Andi Land]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I've been wanting to do it out of Boston. I said I wasn't going to do Jewel again next year and I know they are up there. There is a Gem one. But both of those run Fri-Fri and I really don't want to take 7 days off for a 7 day cruise. The NYC one runs Sun-Sun which is much better for me. I can probably do the Boston-Quebec City one another year which hits a couple different ports. I haven't booked yet but I do have a room on hold for it and another $500 CFC in my back pocket.

I booked the RT Boston on the Gem in October. I looked at the one way and it’s a great itinerary but the preliminary research on flights from Quebec City were really expensive. I didn’t look at the NYC ones but maybe I should. I’ve been to Boston but not NYC and a Sunday departure does make it easier. Decisions, decisions! 

[pcrum]

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Remember I donated my mug to the original streetcar company in Skagway. Fortunately Amazon still carries my mug. $19.99.

 

 

Can it go in the dishwasher? I’d love to find one of these types of cups that is dishwasher safe.  

[Saint Greg]

31 minutes ago, pcrum said:

Can it go in the dishwasher? I’d love to find one of these types of cups that is dishwasher safe.  

 

It's supposed to be hand washed.

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, Andi Land said:

I booked the RT Boston on the Gem in October. I looked at the one way and it’s a great itinerary but the preliminary research on flights from Quebec City were really expensive. I didn’t look at the NYC ones but maybe I should. I’ve been to Boston but not NYC and a Sunday departure does make it easier. Decisions, decisions! 

 

I'm not surprised. I know that's the biggest issue with the one way Alaska is flights to/from Anchorage and Vancouver aren't plentiful. 

 

I've had good luck with NYC the past couple years. I flew in/out of LaGuardia two years ago for my Bermuda cruise. Then last year I flew out of Newark after my Venezia TA. I've heard JFK is the airport to avoid if possible. 

[Saint Greg]

Here’s the full gold panning tutorial 

 

How to Pan for Gold in Alaska

 

 

 

 

[depplep]

Have you ever considered NCL for Hawaii? I keep looking at this cruise but it seems pretty pricey.

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, depplep said:

Have you ever considered NCL for Hawaii? I keep looking at this cruise but it seems pretty pricey.

It looks considerably cheaper the Carnival ones but the Carnival ones are two weeks out of California with a Mexico stop. NCL has the ship that just goes around the islands for a week….Which has to have an American crew. But with that you have to fly to/from Honolulu which probably isn’t cheap.

 

[depplep]

Yes, everytime I price it from Orlando the cruise and air through NCL comes out between 6k-7k for two for an oceanview room. 

[depplep]

I'm really thinking European river cruise next fall.