Lineaway

Thanks, I really like the ease of just walking up one level of stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. I would have moved cabins if there were no stairs. We are right off that lobby area.

Great review, I do have a question about deck 15. We just booked on Wed. for a cruise next Oct. When I look closer at the deckplan I noticed that the center lifts go to level 16 but it looks like the stairs stop on 15. I picked a cabin in the center of the ship so I could use the stairs to get to the pool deck and Horizon court. I looked at multi deckplans showing deck 15 and they all seem to use a copy and paste off the Princess site. Do you remember if there were stairs going up to deck 16 from the Scenic lift lobby? Its not clear if thats just a misprint. One picture showed a peek a boo shot of the stairs but only the edge going down not up. Hoping you could remember.

So what is the GO Green Program? We keep our cabin picked up and besides wanting towels each day I really don't need much.

Snohomish

We haven't done any of those specific tours but have done Alaskan cruises 3X in the last 8 years. Always gone in August and have another booked the end of the month. Skagway: I liked walking around the town the best. Typical touristy place but they mix history in with the experience. Every shop seems to have Spruce or Birch syrup and Ulu knives. Ulu knives are worthless so don't waste your money, I did buy one to try it though. On NCL that time and had it in my backpack. Walked right through security with it. Luckily it wasn't something dangerous like a bottle of Scotch. The different tree syrups are worth getting a small bottle for the novelty of it. My Daughter and Son in Law did the hiking experience. They enjoyed it. Ketchikan: I thought this place had the most shops to walk around and explore. Did the Totem pole excursion and thought that was boring. Wasn't much to see. Creek street is always worth exploring. Should be Salmon runs in the creek. Your really limited on time here. Juneau: Tram is worth it. I thought pricey at 50 bucks pp, kids are less but cheaper than some other tours. I think its an all day pass but the evening is the most scenic time to go and get pictures of the ships below the mountain. Whale watching was good here. Juneau is alot bigger city than what you see from the port and downtown area. Its spread out alot. Definitely see Mendenhall glacier as its going to go away soon. I would take a shuttle and do my own hiking. Then you can come back when you want. City bus is another option. Victoria: We stayed on the ship the last time. Most of the shops were closed. Bars are open. Butchart Gardens is nice at night but your 14yo won't enjoy it. We docked out from the main part of the city. The one time we went in we walked and that was a bad idea. Safe but took up too much time. Glacier Bay is nice too. You have a choice, Get your chairs early as the decks and inside Observation areas fill up fast. Both have advantages. Outside is nice because the Glaciers Calf, you can hear and feel the air blast sometimes when your outside but not inside. But its also mostly standing and the weather is usually crappy. I've done both and prefer inside. Kids get bored after a bit too. We live north of Seattle so August is our dry and sunny time but wet for Alaska. Bring really good binoculars, raincoats, Umbrellas and bug spray. On your first night leaving Seattle the scenery is amazing. We enjoy sitting up on the top decks. Starboard side you won't have the sun in your eyes. You'll go by Edmonds, Whidbey Island, Useless Bay, and then you see the south end of the San Juans and after that a very distant Victoria. Port side you will see the Olympic mountains, Kingston, Point no Point, entrance to Hood Canal and Port Townsend. Sun will be in your eyes until you turn at Point no Point. We stay on deck until you get to Port Angeles, roughly about 2-3 hours after leaving Seattle. The ships usually slow and the Pilot gets out and transfers to a little boat. Neat to see if you haven't seen that before. After that your in the Straights and it will be getting dark. If you only get one thing out of this post it should be bring a quality pair of Binoculars. We bought a compact pair for under 50 bucks and they were useless. We next borrowed my Dads, 250 dollar Minoltas. They were awesome. You get what you pay for.

The video does a good job of showing you what the balcony will be like. I used to look for the angled ones but you get a slightly larger / longer side on one end which when sitting out there, it kinda becomes a wall that blocks your view to the side. We were on the Bliss (sister ship) a month ago to Alaska and had great weather so sat out there a lot. I wanted a more 180 degree view as you will be looking for whales and the scenery is amazing vs in the Caribbean I didn't care and just wanted a larger balcony. BTW what you may not have noticed which to me is a plus was the overhang of the 16th floor. It does drizzle in Alaska and that overhang protects you from the rain and keeps the balcony dry. We saw more whales on the last day towards the south end of Vancouver Island that the entire trip. We also spent a lot of time in the Observations lounge in the front of the ship on your deck. It does get crowded so then we ended up on our balcony. As for the NCL Air. Don't do it. Not worth the risk you could get a bad flight time. Its nice your planning this surprise. Imagine your surprise if your flight is a redeye connecting thru DFW, LAX and Jersey. 😞 I always want control over my flights and which airline. The less you have to deal with NCL and their customer service reps the better. Less for them to mess up. I don't think air out of SLC is that much anyway. Alaska and Southwest are my go to airlines out of Seattle. Not a fan of Victoria. Been there several times. The late arrival of the cruise ships limits what to see and do. This last time we just stayed on the ship as the time before , we found a lot of the shops had closed around 6. Just leaves the restaurants and bars open. Buchart Gardens is nice but not my thing.

Like the idea of a flat fee but make it reasonable. We were on the Bliss last week and walked by it alot. It was empty then too.

Had 4 cruises cancelled since March 2020. 2 were less than 2 weeks out. Both were NCL. One was last January and one was at the start of Covid. Of the other two they were cancelled months out so we weren't scrambling last minute to get refunds (we are out over 350 bucks for cancelled flights). One was NCL and one was Princess. Point being they can cancel any time and you just have to deal with it. You can get insurance or hope your credit card covers you.

Carnival gives you the basic cruise experience for a good price. NCL is a step up but your paying for it. For instance, Carnival will do a lunch buffet by the pool. Its a Salad Bar, basic, with Hamburgers and Hotdogs. NCL will add chicken patties, maybe fish and chips or some other condiment like Chili for the Hotdogs. Salad bar will be a bit more expanded. Still an inexpensive buffet just a bit more over what Carnival does. Same with entertainment, and food in the main dinning room. Nothing wrong with Carnival, been on 3 and was happy with them. Both cater to families but I thought the entertainment on NCL was alot more adult oriented. NCL also has more gimmics, take the sales and all the perks that are "free but really aren't." Hence they are known to nickle and dime you. NCL was our first cruise in 97. We decided after that to try as many as we could then we could decide which one we liked the best. Been on 8 different lines. You should try NCL at least once. FWIW, Celebrity is our favorite. Fits us better. Just trying to use up our cancelled cruise credits on NCL now.

Your post got me thinking and I did a search. Not sure if its good info but it said updated March 2022. Drink lists show Sugarfree Redbull, 3 flavored seltzers, lemon lime, Mango and Grapefruit, along with Diet Pepsi but that was it. Also showed generic diet lemon lime but didn't say they were in cans. I will be on the Bliss in August so was interested in what they had too. Will still bring my Mio Drops.

They did have diet (Sprite, 7 Up, Sierra Mist, not sure which) Only had in Cans. However, that was on my last cruise just before the Pandemic hit. I doubt they expanded any in the no sugar category. I avoid carbs too. Not to go off topic but I use those MIO drops with the club soda. They are small, fit in my pocket and the Bartenders seem to know what they are.