rnr4thatsme

Following!   Also, best month to book to ensure you have your pick of excursions!  Don't want to book too late and see the best excursions sold out!   We are thinking of going late June 2025.

Anyone have any advice on the best time of year to book an Alaskan cruise on NCL?  Looking at going late June 2025 probably Encore out of Seattle due to time constraints...

Hi there!  Just wondering, on a transatlantic, does one usually encounter rough seas?   Since you are unsheltered by land?

On 11/19/2023 at 12:09 PM, no1racefan1 said:

Hey everyone! Haven't had too much to report on lately, but I decided to check excursions this morning and to my surprise, the Hubbard Glacier small boat excursion has gone up in price from $299 to $359pp. That is a huge price increase for those of you planning to take this excursion!  It still shows at least 20 spots available. This is just another reason to book excursions as soon as you know what you want. 

 

Of course this made me curious so I started checking out some other excursions. The lumberjack show has gone up from $39.95 to $43.00. The fishing excursion I booked for DH has gone up from $369.95 to $419.95. Yikes! The interesting thing about that is it still shows 11 spots available, meaning DH is the only person booked.

 

Our other two excursions have not changed in price since we purchased.

Hi @no1racefan1, I'm sorry if you said this before, but when did the excursions become available to book on Princess?  

Just now, CaribbeanIsland said:

This!

To be fair, I think it's probably hard to imagine until you are there.  A big chunk of ice doesn't sound too exciting, but I'll bet that when it's actually in front of you, it's amazing!   I'm very familiar with snow being Canadian, and the photos to me, look similar to snow, but I'm hoping in person it will be more awe-inspiring!   

Just now, UGACamper said:

I'm heading to Alaska in July on Carnival because of price - casino offering for free balcony.  BUT because of the "free" offer (I know, let's not discuss the meaning of free), it affords us to be able to do more excursions, fly first class, etc. It is a bucket list item that we are crossing off. CANT WAIT!

I'd love to see more Carnival Alaska reviews!  I know it's not the most popular line, but there must be some pros as people are obviously sailing there!

Ok, before you shoot me down, lol... we are a group of middle aged couples planning an Alaskan cruise - high priority on a nice ship/good entertainment - balanced with desire to see Alaska for the first time.  One party put forth the request to consider Luminosa as they love Carnival.  I see nothing on this board about them. I enjoy their southern cruises, I'm ok with the Walmart of the Seas in general, lol, and would go on a southern trip again with them.

I wonder if I'm the only one getting confused... What exactly is the inside passage and how do I know if a ship passes through it?  I've read the bigger ships from Seattle don't, however, Discovery Princess June 22, 2025 and Royal Princess June 28, 2025, both depart from Seattle, are larger ships, and have the Inside Passage on the itinerary.  Norwegian Encore June 22, 2025 and Carnival Luminosa July 31, 2025, do not go through the Inside Passage, correct?  Carnival is far down on my list, but one of our party asked they be included on the vote, lol... HAL has been voted out due to their lack of nightlife.

Hi!  How can I tell if the June 22, 2025, Encore Alaska cruise is inside passage or not?   Would it say?  I've heard some are, some aren't?

Hi there!  We are looking at booking a cruise with a group of friends to Alaska 2025.  The friends we are travelling with much prefer a newer ship with lots of entertainment options, and want to leave out of Seattle.  I have recently travelled on Discovery Princess and thought it was wonderful, but I know that Royal Princess is quite a bit older.  Would we be disappointed with Royal Princess after being on Discovery Princess?  The two are priced similarly. I prefer the Royal itinerary, but if the ship is disappointing, I don't think it would be the ship for us (maybe consider a different line in that case).

Hello!   Just beginning to look at Alaska options for 2025...  We a group of middle-aged couples - the majority of whom greatly value the onboard evening entertainment options available (contemporary music, comedians, production shows) - yes, some of the spouses are more Caribbean cruise types but they are coming along anyways, lol...  I know Alaska is about the ports, but we are trying to strike a balance, and prefer newer, well-maintained ships.  My main question is if there are two similar itineraries - one with a smaller ship, would the smaller ship be the better choice as it would be easier to disembark at ports and the ports themselves would be less crowded?   Or is that not really a factor when visiting Alaska? Would booking a cruise line excursion to get off the ship sooner negate any difference?   Thanks in advance!

Hello!  Debating about booking a spa balcony to get access to the thermal spa area, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with same?  I saw the spa on the Radiance and it was very small with only a few stone loungers.  How does the thermal spa area on the Luminosa compare?  Thanks!

19 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

I am in the US and I see the same prices as you. 

Thank you!!!   That is what I expected that I was looking at USD prices!

Hello!  I was just checking my account on NCL today and noticed a 10% offer it says for any 2024 cruise.  Does this happen often?  I can't find the terms and conditions for the offer, but it seems like it works on various Alaska cruises (which are 7 days), but not the 5 day one from LA in December 2024?  

Just as an example, in Ketchikan, the Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer cruise, the price I see is $229.95.  The Backcountry Jeep and Canoe Safari is $234.95.

Are most of the excursions the same price and quality etc when compared between the two lines or?  Is one line better than the other in this regard?  I know there are private operators, but friends that I'm travelling with insist on only doing cruise line arranged tours.

When I am looking at the shore excursions, are the prices in USD or CAD?  I am comparing the prices of NCL shore excursions and Princess shore excursions and Princess are much cheaper.  

When I go through a mock booking, however, it gives me the cruise cost in CAD.  I am waiting on chat to ask Princess but leery of customer service rep's not having accurate info.

Has anyone on the Canadian site booked a shore excursion in the past and were they charged in USD or CAD?

Is Princess usually so much cheaper for shore excursions?

I checked Heald's facebook page, but couldn't find anything.  When does this info usually get released?

Hello!  I've sailed on the Jade in the Caribbean and one thing I noticed was not a lot of seating on the promenade and outer decks.  For Alaska, do they put more seating out on the Promenade decks?  Debating whether to bite the bullet and pay more for a balcony room (instead of oceanview), or if there would be somewhere to sit outside with a good view.  We are debating between the Jade and Encore for Alaska in May 2025.

Thank you so much!

Following and loving your review!

Hi there!  Will much be open in Avalon in early December?  Would love to find a little pub type of place to relax in after a walk along the shore, maybe buy a few souvenirs.

Hello!  We are considering a Mediterranean cruise on MSC in 2025.  We have only cruised the more American cruiselines (RCCL/NCL/Princess/Carnival).  What can we expect to see as far as evening entertainment?  I'm guessing no comedians due the language barriers, but what else?

22 hours ago, lisiamc said:

We were very unhappy about the hair on the floor! The steward was a really nice person, and very overwhelmed by his job. We did not speak to the Head of Housekeeping, and instead just tried to make it easy for him to do a good job. 
 

We had eight friends in total on this cruise, and the ones in the other three cabins did not report any problems with housekeeping. Service for everything else, like coffees, cocktails, meals, etc. was good to very good.
 

Many of the servers we chatted to had worked for other cruise lines, and said that MSC was a good company to work for, and they liked it better than their previous companies. They might have been spouting the company line, but they seemed happy with their jobs. 

 

One thing that really impressed me was that no one pressured us to give them a good evaluation on the post-cruise surgery. In fact, no one even mentioned a post-cruise survey at all. When it arrived in the email, we were very happy to name and praise the people who had looked after us so well. 
 

At busy places like the Pool Bar at lunchtime, they were using the traditional Italian method of queueing up to pay, then taking the slip to the bartender to pick up the drink. It may lack a certain panache, but it’s efficient for serving a lot of people very quickly.

How did that work if people had the Easy Plus package since they weren't paying for individual drinks?

It's my son's birthday on our cruise and I was going to buy birthday cruise magnets from Amazon.