AWESOME 14 day NCL Sun Alaska cruise with NO PLANS

Speechless,breath taking, amazing…are just a few words to describe Alaska

I read reviews..a lot of reviews. LOVE reading about everyone’s vacations. Their experiences, the planning, their expectations. First it gets me super excited for mine. Second..I just love to read. Have I ever wrote a review. Yes if you want to call it that. I have been tossing the “write a review” around, don’t bother in my head for the past month. Why am I deciding to write one. I think because of all the bad reviews some of these ships get. Seriously people, your vacation is what you make it. Yes, there may be things that are unpleasant, maybe something didn’t go your way. Maybe you expected more…I am not sure. But I can tell you, we have vacationed every year at least once, sometimes twice a year for the past 30 years ( ok…I am not that old). I really can’t say that I have ever had a horrible vacation. We just make the best of it. We haven’t always cruised. Started about 15 years ago…no I guess about 20 years ago. Wow..maybe I am old. Cruising is my favorite of all our vacations. We are not a “ sit at a beach for a week” type of people. I like to go..go..go. so cruising fits the bill for us. I have cruised Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL. Which is my favorite…..don’t have one. These three cruise lines to me all have their pluses and minuses. I would cruise on any one of these lines. We pick the line and the ship according to where we want to go. Then I start reading and reading. Normally I am a planner. I have every day planned. I want to make the most of our time in ports. I sure wouldn’t want to leave that up to my husband. This trip was completely different. So out of my comfort zone. And I LOVED every minute of it.

So how did we come about doing a 14 day Alaska Cruise. Well, every 5 years for our anniversary, we cruise to Bermuda. That is my ultimate favorite port. If you have never been, please give it a shot. Bermuda is beautiful ( as most islands are) but what I love most is the fact people don’t bother you there. No pulling you into shops, no pretty lady come here, no 5 car rental agencies fighting over who saw you first.

You dock for 3 days and use the ship as a floating hotel. You get to see the whole island, the whole beautiful island and beaches. It’s really my happy place. So in 2017 it would be our 35th wedding anniversary. I had said for the past few years, we are doing a back to back to Bermuda for our 35th. My husband kept saying he really wanted to see Alaska. Why on earth would I want to go somewhere freezing when I can go to Bermuda? Well I thought…ok let me read some reviews on Alaska. Now I am not a girly girl…we camp every weekend, we have vacationed in the smokies and we love to hike. I like the outdoors. So let’s read up on Alaska. Well the more I read the more I was intrigued. Mmmm….Maybe Alaska would be nice. In January of 2016 I started looking up cruises for 2017. I found one that sparked my interest. A 14 day starting in San Francisco and ending in Vancouver, with 3 glacier stops. It was booked within a week. So we had 1-1/2 years to wait for my husband’s dream cruise. Then I started reading more reviews. I seriously was sooooo excited. A 14 day Alaskan cruise.

I had plenty of time to research. So I put it off. As the time grew closer the more and more I did not want to plan anything. I figured we had 14 days on a cruise, we would primarily wing it ( oh my please don’t tell anyone). Seriously who goes on an Alaskan cruise with not one plan??? Well, I confess. I did have one plan. In Juneau I wanted to take the local bus to the Mendenhall glacier. Other than that…nothing planned. Oh..I read reviews up until the day before we left. I had ideas of what was in most of the ports. I was not booking one excursions. We would get off the boat in the ports and walk. We would find trails or something to do. I did not want to pay for excursions. When you have 8 ports and 3 glacier viewing, I would have drove myself nuts with trying to plan excursions.

My primary goal was to see the following:

Black bear

Brown bear

Eagle

Whale- whale tale

Dolphin

Moose

Glacier

Water falls

Beautiful scenery

So how did we end up. We saw all but one …no moose. And we had an added bonus of seeing something I did not expect. ( I’ll get to that eventually)

Would I ever plan another vacation with no plans???? Absolutely. We had the time of our life. Loved every minute of it. Can’t wait to do it again.

I did have to make hotel arrangements for San Francisco, make our flight arrangements, reserve a car in Vancouver to drive to Seattle, make hotel arrangements in Seattle, car service in San Fran to get us to the hotel, and car service at the end of our flights to get us back home. That was a work out .

We had some ups and downs along the way, but even with those, I would not have wanted my vacation any other way. Some reviews I read about the ship made me a bit nervous. But I should have known better. The Sun is not a big new boat. It was just the right size, nothing to write home about but it served my 2 week vacation just right. The crew was SUPERB ….I don’t think we have ever had better service before. Never encountered a rude crew member. Encountered a few rude passengers but that was about it.

Ok I will quit rambling and get on with the review. Here goes:

We flew out of Chicago on Mothers Day. Flight was to leave at 9:30 am. We arrived at the airport at 6:30 and it was packed. I originally booked with Southwest using points. Our roundtrip air was a total of $22.00. No that is not a typo. Anyways, Southwest has where you can purchase their early bird check in. I believe it was $15.00 per person per flight. Since our flights were so cheap I purchased. When I printed our boarding passes, it showed priority on them. So when we proceeded to the long and I mean long check in line, I noticed the priority sign. Well I showed the lady our tickets and she lets us in that line. Took us 2 minutes to check in. Score. Now through security…again showed them the priority ticket and they sent us to the priority security line. Score. I was on cloud nine. For $30.00 total it was so worth it. ( now remember this for our flight home) We make it to the boarding area and sit. Next we hear an announcement that our flight would take off an hour late. Something to do with San Francisco. I knew our luck was too good to be true. Uggg…I hate flying and I hate waiting even more. ½ hour goes by and they tell us we are boarding on time. YES. Uneventful flight. Land in San Fran on time. Car service picks us up and off we go. Wow…what a trip riding in a shuttle to our hotel. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Had my eyes closed most of the way, but eventually we make it.

Now originally when I booked this hotel, I wanted near Fisherman’s Warf and pier 39. These hotels are pricey, but hey we are in San Fran. So we pull up to the hotel and walk in. Wow…the whole hotel was gutted inside. Walking over tool boxes to get to the check in. Was not pleased but as long as the rooms are good I am ok with this. We get checked in and up to our room. They have been recently remodeled and were nice. We head out and walk to Fisherman’s Warf. Loved the area, great food. Walked down to Pier 39 and loved it even more. Did the typical shopping and eating. Watching the seals. Head back to the room for the evening. Up early the next morning. Head out for breakfast, come across a few homeless. We ask them if they want some coffee. We take a few orders go and get coffee for them. Grabbed some snacks for them also. Eat breakfast, go back to hotel and to our room. No water. The water is shut off the rest of the day. Seriously….this did not go over to well. Down to the check out and voice my opinion. I paid top dollar for this hotel. Reserved it 6 months in advance and never once had an email of phone call about the renovations let alone that we would be without water. Ended up with $75.00 credit off our bill. That helped ease the pain a little.

We had scoped out the pier yesterday so knew that it wasn’t far of a walk, but with luggage for a 2 week cruise, we decided to take a taxi. We arrive at the pier a little before our designated 11:30 time. OMG….the line was a mile long outside ( over exaggerating here) . We get dropped off and find a porter for the luggage and then proceed to the end of the line. In the meantime, a few of the passengers that just got off the boat, proceeded to get in a brawl and I was in the middle of it. One guy was pushing the other guy…the one had a bloody nose..my husband is trying to get me out of the middle. Security finally came. Not sure what that was all about. So we head to the end of the long, long line. Start talking to a few passengers…they said the line hadn’t moved, they hadn’t let anyone in the check in yet. Something with no clearing the boat because of Noro virus????? This is the first of all our cruises that we were in that long of a line. No biggie…we have 2 weeks. Well it wasn’t 5-10 minutes later and the line started to move. I am going to guess that we arrived at the pier around 11:10 and we were on the boat at 11:30. That is the fastest I have ever had. Once that line moved it moved. I was amazed.

We do the normal, go to the buffet for lunch, go check out our room, walk around the boat, go to muster drill, watch the sail away ( really cool going under Golden Gate Bridge)

The buffet was good, the boat clean and the crew awesome. Nothing on the boat stands out to me. Seemed like your typical cruise ship. I am not going to give details on the boat. It was clean, well kept. Crew was awesome, shows were typical. Easy to get around. We spend a lot of time in the casino. The casino crew was very friendly. The casino itself was ok. Normally the casinos at sea get the crowds going. This one was kind of boring. I know a few times we walked in with “ ok were here, let’s get the party started” I will say I saw a lady hit 5800.00 on a penny machine. That was the most excitement in there. At any given time, I bet the most amount in there was around 30 people. I had to keep telling myself that the crowd for Alaska is a bit different than the Caribbean. Nothing wrong with it but we did notice. Kind of funny the one day I text my daughter “ lots of old people on this cruise” She text me back “ well Mom, you are old” I text her back “ I might be old but I don’t act it”. There is a difference you know

Our first day was a sea day. We walked around, went to the shops, watched a show, ate and ate some more, hit the casino. The temperatures outside were a bit chilly. Definitely not a lay in the sun day. We had the lay of the ship figured out. All in all, a great relaxing day. The next day was our first stop. Astoria Oregon

The next morning we docked in Astoria. I was thoroughly amazed getting off the ship. No line…I mean no line. We walked right off. Weird. Usually you feel like cattle being herded. Was no one getting off the boat. Hmmm….anyways, remember I had no plans. Not much research. Well we got off the boat and just started walking. Temperatures this day were in the 50’s. Walked along the water into town. Took maybe 10 minutes. Pretty enough walk. Stopped at the visitor center and found out the Goonies was filmed in Astoria. I guess you used to be able to walk around the goonie house, but the new owners fenced it off. They were tired of 2000 people per day on their property. I kept thinking, charge a $1.00 per person and you could make a killing. Anyways, we went back to the trail and heard some seals. They were under the docks. Then we ended up in the shopping district. Not much for shopping except for antique and specialty stores. Can’t purchase with having to fly home. There were a couple of breweries. We stopped at one and had lunch. Very good. Headed back to the ship. Another nice relaxing day. Had dinner, went to the casino, stopped at a show.

Next day was another sea day. Not much for outside scenery. We did the usual of eating, shopping ( a lot of window shopping), gambling etc. Another cooler day and definitely not a lay in the sun day but not bad. Most of the days, I dressed for 50’s.

Our next day was Ketchikan. After reading reviews, everyone said this is a great shopping port. Plan for the day, try and find a trail and shop. Again, we docked and walked right off the boat. No waiting. Weird. I just couldn’t get over the fact that we never had to wait in a line for anything. Loved every minute of that. Beautiful port. Lots of shopping. We decided to head for a trail and shop on the way back. The only trail we could find was a little ways to get to. You actually had to walk up a huge hill ( there was a sidewalk). It was quite warm this day. Maybe in the lower 60’s with plenty of sunshine. I started to shed some layers. At one point I had decided to ditch the trail plan. I was sweating and it was quite an incline to get up to the top. We started in town, walked by the salmon run creek ( no salmon too early in the season) walked thru the city’s park ( beautiful) and then up the hill. We finally made it to the top and hit the trail. Not much of a trail. Very narrow and very dense forest. Wasn’t all that impressed. We walked for maybe an hour and headed back to town. Passed a lot of people on their way up the hill. They asked if it was worth it. Since they were almost to the top, we said to keep going. Passed a couple with a stroller at the bottom of the hill heading up. I told them to turn around. No way would I want to push that stroller up that hill.

So we get to town, walk around creek street ( cool area) and start heading back to the ship. This is where we saw a few eagles. One flew right over me and landed in the water. Perfect pictures. We did some shopping and yes the shopping was the best in this port. Your typical tourist shops. Had a great day and enjoyed just doing whatever.

Our next day was cruising Sawyer Glacier. We got up super early and headed outside to the upper deck. I would say we were outside around 5:30 a.m. It was cold and drizzly out but OMG the scenery was just breathtaking. We were running from side to side. I believe we saw a few whales this day. Most from a bit of a distance. I took tons of pictures. You would see chunks of glacier just floating in the water. Then we saw the glacier. There were little ones along the way. We were outside till around 12:30. Cold and a little wet but worth every second of it. This is what I came to Alaska for. This day was worth every penny we spent. LOVED…LOVED it. Went in and had lunch then got ready for Juneau. We docked at 2:00 . Now remember, Juneau was the only port were we knew where we wanted to go. So get off the boat…again NO LINES…and walk around a bit. This port we decided to walk around town first because it was raining out. So we walked around then headed back to figure out how to get to Mendenhaul Glacier. I knew reading about this you could take public transportation. Well right by the cruise ships are vendors selling shuttle bus tickets to the glacier. For $35.00 a person round trip. I wanted to find the public, my husband said. Let’s just take this. The only difference between these shuttles and "public transportation”

Shuttle bus drops you right off in front of the trail to the glacier. Shuttle does not stop at different stops along the way $35.00 per person round trip

Public transportation stops at a bunch of stops and drops you off in lower parking area. You have to walk a mile to get to trail head. $2.00 per person per way

Hello….for $62.00 difference I will walk. Husband not having it. Whatever. So we take the shuttle. They drop us off and tell us last pick up is at 6:00 exactly where he dropped us off. We walk the trail and literally you are like right on the glacier. Not really…but seriously you can’t get any closer. The falls are right there. Just stunning. We take lots of photos, got a little wet ( still raining but not freezing out) and start heading back. Saw a few bear tracks in the sand ( kind of cool) . We get back to the area we are supposed to wait at 5:15. They pick up every ½ hour and last pick up is 6. 5:30 and no shuttle. 6 and no shuttle. Now I am getting nervous. Husband calls the shuttle service. No answer. They do call back and say that the driver is running late and also that we are waiting in wrong area. We are to wait at lower parking lot. ???????? no…he dropped us off right in front and said he would pick us up there. So we walk to lower parking and wait and wait. Still no shuttle. There was a different shuttle service there. The driver said if ours didn’t show up by the time he left, he would take us free of charge. Well that is what ended up happening. I text our shuttle place and let them know we are not HAPPY after paying 70.00. They really don’t care . Lesson learned..take the public transportation and save $62.00. Head back to ship and enjoy the rest of the evening. I keep forgetting that NCL always has warm wash clothes for you when you come back on the boat. Also they offer you hot chocolate. Such a nice touch!

Our next day was cruising Glacier bay. That’s all everyone talks about. This is where the park rangers get on board and talk while you spin 180 degrees watching the glacier. Well our luck kind of ran out this day. It was foggy, cruising into the bay you could see NOTHING. It was POURING down rain and cold. Once we got to the glacier, it did clear up a bit. It was amazing to see. We then headed back out to fog again. So this was probably the worst day as far as weather. We were so fortunate to have a beautiful viewing day at Sawyer Glacier, that not seeing Glacier Bay did not damper our cruise at all. We were so fortunate that we had 3 glaciers on our cruise.

Next up is Skagway. Now reading reviews I know a lot of people do the train up to Canada and back. We decided to walk into town and see about renting a car. Just a note that every day off the boat, I never brought my actual credit card. I always took my bank debit card. For some reason, I thought I should bring the actual credit card ( this is a key point). We got off the boat…again no lines. Walked into town and looked for a car rental company. We found one and started the paperwork for renting the car. Our plan was to drive to the capital of the Yukon and head back. My husband is always the driver and they were entering his information. When asked for the credit card, my husband hands them his check card. They asked if we had an actual credit card. Yep…luckily I brought it. Well good thing Avis allows both husband and wife to drive at no extra cost. Since the credit card was in my name, they had to change all paper work to me ( another key point). Waived the extra insurance since our car insurance covers rentals. We got in our car and drove. Wow…just beautiful. All the way up the mountain.

We did see a black bear on the way up. He was far enough way but close enough for pictures. Lots of pull offs on the way up. Lots of water falls and just gorgeous scenery. Lots of signs “ do not pull over, avalanche area” . That scared the crap out of me. Top of mountain and eerie. Snow and not much else but ROCK everywhere. We past the smallest desert ( stopped there on the way back). Please note that if you do this drive it takes about 2 hours to get there. There was only one rest stop on the way ( if you want to call it that). A few restaurants also. So we make it to the capital. Not much there and headed back. Stopped at the Green blue lake ( don’t remember the name) just beautiful. Stopped and had lunch. Stopped at the smallest desert…really cool. At this point I need a shut eye. I close my eyes and my husband yells “ BOBCAT” I jump, grab camera open car door and wow. That was really cool. Get back in car and shut my eyes again. Husband yells BEAR. A brown bear jumps on guard rail and crosses road. I roll down my window and start snapping away. AMAZING. Not more than 15 feet away from us. Head back into town. We were going to try and find the gold diggers cemetery but decided to gas up and take car back. Well backing the car into the SMALL 2 pump gas station was not good. My husband ended up hitting a window box on the building while he was watching not to hit the pump. Knocked the side mirror right off the car. OMG…we have a $1500.00 deductible on our insurance. This sucks. Take car back…right down what happened. They tell us Avis will be intouch.

We start walking around town. I needed a beer at this point ( haha). Stop at one of the hopping bars but it was too packed. Stopped at a little café but no one was in there. So did a little shopping and then my husband suggested just stopping at this little café. We went in and there was a couple from another cruise sitting at the small bar. We started talking with them. I told them about our little mishap. The gentleman asked if I used a credit card. Why yes. He said that most credit card companies give you insurance for rentals. Really??? I grabbed my husband’s phone, walked outside and called. Yes they do cover accidents with rentals using the credit card. Now remember when I said that I brought my credit card. And Avis puts both husband and wife on the rental. This is key because in order for the credit card company to pay, the rental needs to be in the card holders name. SCORE! Boy that was a relief off my shoulders. So the credit card company pays what the car insurance doesn’t. Please note that it is now July and we still have no idea what the damages cost. When calling Avis they said it could take months. They have to ship the cars to somewhere else. They do no repairs in Skagway. EEEKKS….can you imagine the cost to ship the car somewhere. I wish that part was over.

So anyways….for some reason I think everything happened for a reason on this day. All in all..it was a fantastic day..even with the car damage.

Back to the boat and our normal eating dinner, watching the scenery float by and probably hitting the casino.

Now a lot of these evenings we would be on the back of the boat outside looking for whales. We had a group of us ( people that we met) and some would be on one side and some on the other. If we saw whale, we would yell and everyone would come running. It was quite comical and a lot of fun. I did not take notes so not sure what days or evenings this took place. All I know is we saw a lot of whales.

Next up Icy Straight.

Wow…this port was just beautiful. All new, a few shops and a restaurant. You can book excursions here also. Not sure what all they had. I know there was a whale watching one. Also you could rent open jeeps. Once you dock you can go left along the bay into the woods and the trail comes back out at the welcome center. Or you can just walk straight into the welcome center. Then you walk along a little path to the shops and such. I am not sure how to even describe this area. Once outside of the little port there is a walking path into town. This is all like a bay area. I will say that this was my favorite port. We decided to walk the path into the woods. Short EASY walk. Then we walked into town. The walk is maybe a mile or so. Once you get into town there is not much there. Maybe a restaurant or two. There is a couple of brewing companies. Lots of boats to see. Eagles everywhere. On the walk back…we see WHALES….and lots of them. They are swimming back and forth along the bay. We stopped and watched, walked, stopped and watch for a few hours. Just beautiful. Bubble feeding, whale tale. After watching them for a while, we decided to get back on the boat and eat. Watch the whales from the upper deck. We did notice a lot of whale watching cruises. After lunch we noticed one whale watching cruise. The whales were right by them. Then they bubble fed right by them. How lucky were those people.

Next thing the whales started coming toward the ship. Camera ready we waited. Then you see the sea gulls all swarm…camera ready and YES…right below us and I mean right below us they bubble fed. WOW…never seen anything like it. It was purely amazing.

Now from my understanding, there is not a lot of cruises that stop at Icy Straight. If you can find one….book it. This port is totally worth it.

After all that excitement we did the normal evening routine. I think this evening we saw a lot of dolphins. Tons riding in our wake. It was awesome to see.

Next up cruising Hubbard Glacier. this was another not so good day for glacier viewing. I am so glad we had 3 glacier viewing days on this cruise. If we would have only had 1 and had the same weather as we had for Glacier Bay or Hubbard, we would have been very disappointed. Luckily Sawyer Glacier was perfect.

So back to Hubbard. Again, we had fog so could not see much cruising. At one point the captain came on the speaker and said we had to turn around. Way to much ice in the water and with all the fog he was afraid to move forward. Disappointing but glad he was keeping us all safe. Did not want to hit an iceberg. Not much scenery outside since it was very foggy. So stayed indoors most of the day.

Next up was Sitka.

Sitka was a great little town. Shuttle buses bused us into town. We walked around a bit then decided to find a trail. There was one maybe 6 blocks from town. Nice trail. It was not paved but very wide and had stone on it. We walked for a little while then I was getting a little nervous. It was just my husband and I and we had not seen anyone else. I had bear on my mind. I was ready to turn back when a couple of people were just ahead. We decided to walk longer and try and keep up with them. The walk was just beautiful. Pretty flat for the most part. We walked maybe an hour and decided to turn back. At one point my husband screamed my name and grabbed me. He thought a wolf was on the trail. Here it was a dog…the owners had him off his leash. Scared the crap out of me. HAHA…..we ended up back in town. They did have a nice trail that walked along the water. We walked that a ways and then turned around and walked back to the shops. Did the mandatory shopping, Stopped and had a subway sub and headed back to the boat. The weather was a little cooler and misty this day. I believe this was our last day in Alaska. Up next is a couple of stops in Canada.

I had forgot to mention that at Christmas, my daughter had bought me rubber boots for the trip. They came in a little carrying case, were very flexible boots. I wore these boots everyday but one . They kept my feet dry and mud free. I really never noticed anyone else with rubber boots. My husband thought I was nuts, but I will tell you, I had more compliments on those boots. So if you are planning on doing any hiking these boots are great.

Next up was Prince Rupert. We had hooked up with a couple from England for this day. We were walking to Butze Rapids Trail. We decided to walk from the port to the trail. I do not know exactly how far away it was but it was far! We walked thru another trail which was kind of cool. They walked thru a residential area. At one point, we asked a guy who was washing his car how far away it was. He said “FAR”. He was even nice enough to offer us a ride. We turned him down and kept walking. We eventually found it. Now I will say that it was not that great of an idea to walk to there. You had to walk a ways on a highway and that was pretty scary. Otherwise it wasn’t too bad. We found the trail and it was beautiful. Loved the trail. It is hilly and a little of a challenge. At the beginning of the trail, there is a sign that wolves are present. They suggest you do not bring dogs and if you do, make sure they are leashed. Weird, on that sign, was a leash and a glove. Hope that didn’t mean the dog got attached by a wolf. Anyways, walked the trail to the rapids overlook. The rapids really aren’t much to look at, but the trail was really cool. After we walked the trail, we walked back to the ship. All in all I think we walked about 10 miles. Once back into town, we walked into a few shops. There really isn’t much at this port and I am not sure what excursions they offered. I believe this was the evening where we saw an Orca. Only one.

Next was cruising the inside passage. Wow…really cool, awesome. They only part I didn’t like was the fact that we didn’t cruise this till the evening. You were so close to land on both sides you felt like you could almost touch it. I believe only one ship can cruise at a time..and I guess our time was towards the evening. It was really something to see. Enjoyed every bit of this.

Next we have Nanaimo. And our last port. Wow…this port does it right. You have to be bussed into town or walk. The walk was maybe a 15 minutes. They have foot prints on the trail to lead you to town or the trail that goes along the water. We followed that for about an hour. I believe there are excursions you can take a boat to an island, lots of float planes that take you to islands. Really cool place and very beautiful. One we finished our walk we headed to town to walk around. The shuttles for the boat had 4 or 5 stops in town. They had huge signs so you couldn’t miss them. You can hop on and off as much as you liked and the best part was there was no charge. The people were very friendly. This was a beautiful area. Nanaimo was our last port. We really enjoyed this day. The weather was around 75 degrees this day with lot

We ended the cruise in Vancouver. We picked an 8:30 depart. We were off the boat in 10 minutes. No going through customs. Walked right off. We had rented a car and were heading towards Seattle. For some reason I had Avis on my brain. Surely couldn’t be because we had just rented from them. Found the shuttle that takes you to Avis. Rode the shuttle, stood in line at Avis..only to find out I did not have a reservation there. What??????? Looked at my paperwork…yep no reservation. I had it from another place that was back at the port. Yikes..had to take the Avis shuttle back to the port. Then get in line for the correct rental agency. Can’t for the life of me remember who that was. Finally get our car. Now my husband did not add Canada to our GPS. Big mistake. We were lost for over an hour. The people at the car rental told us a wrong turn out of Canada Place. It spiraled down from that. What we needed was to drive in the direction of the airport. We Finally make it out of Vancouver and head to Seatle. Hit the border and customs. That took over an hour.

Once through customs it was a pretty uneventful drive to Seattle. So again, we literally got off the boat at 8:30 and didn’t get to the hotel till around 5:00. So glad we had flights the next day. I almost thought of flying out the same day.

We did stop along the way and have lunch. Once we got to the car rental drop off at the airport, we had to take a shuttle to the airport and then wait for the hotel shuttle to take us to the hotel. That took about an hour. Once at hotel, we decided to walk to a close restaurant. Then we hit the sack. We had a 6:30 am flight.

Our hotel provided transportation to the airport. We were up and ready to leave at 3:30. Made it to the airport. Now In Chicago, my priority check in that I paid for worked like a charm. NOT in Seattle. We showed the lady our tickets at the start of the line. She let us through. Then when we got to the ticket counter….she made us go and get in the other line. I told her that Chicago said we were priority. She said “ not in Seattle” . Not sure what the difference was. The way home was uneventful.

My overview on this cruise.

Norwegian SUN- Awesome ship for Alaska. No it is not new, huge and fancy. It was just the right size. Crew couldn’t have been better. Food was very good. I seriously could not complain about one thing. Again....we never had to wait once in a line. Every port was a walk off. Buffet lines for breakfast or lunch were most of the time non existent.

Not sure if it just happened to be this ship or if Norwegian just knows how to do it right. No wait for anything. No lines. No feeling like cattle being herded. LOVED every minute of that.

Alaska- Trip of a lifetime. If you are pondering a cruise to Alaska…just do it. You will not be disappointed. We had a mix of weather. Wear layers. Had some ups and downs and still would redo this same experience. Would I cruise again with no plans or researching better. YES. This was awesome for us. Did we maybe miss something in a port or two. I am sure. But our experience in each port was just enough for us. DO not regret not booking excursions. Do not regret just going with the flow.

Passengers- for the most part everyone was wonderful. We met a few people on this cruise. Wish we would have met them in the beginning. Most that we met were from England. Really enjoyed them. Yes there were a few passengers that were rude or seemed unhappy. One lady was extremely rude to crew. She needed an attitude adjustment. Still remember this one guy, we were in the sports bar just hanging with our England friends. Someone asked “ are orca fish” or something like that. They were thinking of something else and as soon as they said it they realized. This guy sitting a few tables from us said “ if people would just research they would know these answers”. Well excuse me. Mind your own business. So our motto after that was “ if we would have researched better”

Overall Vacation- A++++++++++++++++++++ it was so worth it. Would do again in a heartbeat.

Love your review. Alaska is too cold for me. But it sounds like a wonderful cruise to take if I ever get pass the fact that it's not going to be warm.

Excellent review. Thanks and glad to know you can go without any prior arrangements.

Thank you for your review.

I am heading out on The Jewel to Alaska this September.

I am planning to book The Sun's 17 Panama Cruise from Seattle, Washington to Port Canaveral next April. Can not wait to be back on board Her once again.

I started reading this as I was on the same cruise!

The bit about the renovations at the hotel in SF sounded familiar...

The Glacier bay day running from side to side of the ship sounded familiar...

Obviously by the time I got to "BOBCAT" and the wing mirror incident I knew it was you!!!! lol

Lorna xx

PS "WHALE" "BLOW" "BACK" "TAIL"

Great review, thanks for posting! I hope to see Alaska in a few years.

Great review! We are so excited for our upcoming trip on the NCL Sun for our back to back Vancouver to Seward to Vancouver for 14 days. We only have one excursion planned, the train in Skagway. The rest, we are playing by ear. So it's wonderful to hear that you enjoyed that. Thank you for the review!!

Thankyou for your detailed review.

I was booked on the Sun July 2018 one way Land/Sea from Seward to Vancouver.

NCL switched ships to Jewel.

Dosen't matter what ship I know it will be amazing, all the ports sound so awesome!

Kerri

Thanks so much for writing this review. Sounds like a great trip. Hmmmm guess I should look into Alaska cruises!

I actually got a tan. Once back to work i had so many people say " I thought you went to Alaska"

Thanks so much for writing this review. Sounds like a great trip. Hmmmm guess I should look into Alaska cruises!

I started reading this as I was on the same cruise!

The bit about the renovations at the hotel in SF sounded familiar...

The Glacier bay day running from side to side of the ship sounded familiar...

Obviously by the time I got to "BOBCAT" and the wing mirror incident I knew it was you!!!! lol

 

Lorna xx

 

PS "WHALE" "BLOW" "BACK" "TAIL"

HAHA......I miss you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had such a blast. Seriously you need to book the Bermuda cruise September 8 of 2018.

Great review! We are so excited for our upcoming trip on the NCL Sun for our back to back Vancouver to Seward to Vancouver for 14 days. We only have one excursion planned, the train in Skagway. The rest, we are playing by ear. So it's wonderful to hear that you enjoyed that. Thank you for the review!!

It was really hard for me not planning anything but I figured with 14 days we would just wing it. Everyone usually calls me the cruise director because I always have every day planned out. This worked for us perfectly. I don't feel as though I missed out on anything.

I cannot wait until the 31st when I board the Sun for Northbound cruise! This review got me pumped! Thanks!

As I was on the same cruise as you I really enjoyed your report - brings back lots of pleasant memories - but a couple of points need clarification - while we were suppose to go to Sawyer Glacier on Tracy Arm we didn't - we actually sailed up Endicott Arm to the Dawes Glacier - I have been to Sawyer in the past so I knew we weren't going up Tracey Arm.

The Blue Green Lake is Emerald Lake - that was the turn around point for my private tour.

It was a bummer not to be able to see the Hubbard Glacier - that is the only place on that cruise that I haven't visited before.

As for walking to Butze Rapids - I did that years ago - this time I took a tour - we just missed the full effect of the tide change but did get a good idea of the power of the oceans current.

Thanks again for the report and cheers!

Dennis

:):):):):)

As I was on the same cruise as you I really enjoyed your report - brings back lots of pleasant memories - but a couple of points need clarification - while we were suppose to go to Sawyer Glacier on Tracy Arm we didn't - we actually sailed up Endicott Arm to the Dawes Glacier - I have been to Sawyer in the past so I knew we weren't going up Tracey Arm.

 

The Blue Green Lake is Emerald Lake - that was the turn around point for my private tour.

 

It was a bummer not to be able to see the Hubbard Glacier - that is the only place on that cruise that I haven't visited before.

 

As for walking to Butze Rapids - I did that years ago - this time I took a tour - we just missed the full effect of the tide change but did get a good idea of the power of the oceans current.

 

Thanks again for the report and cheers!

 

Dennis

 

:):):):):)

ahhh...glad someone was paying attention:)

Thanks for your review...we're actually doing 2 weeks with only two excursions planned, and I'm totally jazzed for it! This will be my third time in Alaska, and we decided to pick one "major indulgence" for the entire vacation, so we're doing a helicopter glacier landing and dogsled ride. DH has not been to Seward, so I booked a boat tour to check out the Kenai Peninsula....other than that, we're winging it. We have hotels in Seattle, train travel to Vancouver, a hotel the night prior to our cruise, and a rental car back to Seattle....but no plans to fill our days.