CaptnG

Our interior room on Harmony had the virtual balcony screen, was perfect, dark at night and wake up to “daylight”.

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Are those your only two stops in Alaska? I’m not sure about Ketchikan, but in Juneau both the stores you listed are pretty far from the cruise ship. I’m sure you’d spend more than $40 there and back in a taxi.

I live in Anchorage and they do have the “you are here mugs” at all the grocery store Starbucks as far as I can tell. If you’re flying they have em at the airport location too.

If it were me id save the taxi fare and instead find a local pottery shop and get yourself a mug made in Alaska.

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https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/world-map-areas-with-zika

CDC does not list Hawaii as being a risk for Zika exposure. I recall seeing on CC review of POA from a woman who was in her second trimester. I bet if you search the ncl board you’ll find it.

Happy 30th and congratulations on your little one!

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We took the shuttle to and from EWR, stopped at port authority which is very close to the Manhattan cruise terminal. Was very efficient and affordable.

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Having read the entire thread, I can provide some additional information, having spent 40 years at sea, mostly Ro/Pax, but with the initial 7 yrs working on UK flag passenger ships. My experience is limited to a couple of cruise lines, who I worked for, our son worked for and we cruised with until 2015 - P&O & Princess.

 

 

 

I will start by responding to some of the individual posts

 

- #6 Stated some crew never see tips. We have met many, many crew that keep returning to the same company. If those in the tip pool were being stiffed by the company, I can't see them returning to the same company. The composition of the tip pool is a closely guarded secret, even our son, as a senior Deck Officer, was not privy to that info. Many are not included, which I know includes - Deck dept, engineering dept, security, spa, shoppies, cruise staff. Singers/Dancers? I certainly don't believe cruise lines are witholding funds, but do question the % given to the Maitre'D, as opposed to the crew that provide the service.

 

 

 

- #7 Complained about low wages. Salaries/wages are supply & demand. When I started as 3rd Officer in 1978, my salary was the minimum required by UK shipping, as most officers wanted cruise ships. Cargo ships paid 10% more and tankers 30% more, however I still made more money than most 21 yr olds at the time and my benefits were extensive. Standards have reduced significantly, as our son received a N/American contract, receiving cash on board every month. No benefits or vacation were provided. He later received a UK contact with the same company receiving a significant increase and benefits. Therefore, if we have a complaint over wages, I suggest rather than being concerned about low wages, I suggest the concern should be inequality for the same job.

 

 

 

The service crews, while they receive comparatively low remuneration compared to N/American & EU standards, they are frequently very well off in their own countries. Hence the reason they keep returning.

 

 

 

- #11 - An excellent summation of MLC 2006 and impact on cruise ship staff, by a fellow mariner. MLC 2006 was ratified in 2013 when the required 30 countries ratified the convention & incorporated the standards into their Flag State regulations. At present I believe over 80 countries accounting for >90% of tonnage have ratified the agreement. Unfortunately, countries that have not ratified the convention may not have implemented the standards. Fortunately countries that have ratified, can impose the standards on ships that visit their ports. I do not believe the U.S. has ratified MLC 2006.

 

 

 

- #39 - Australia cruise fares include DSC - this has been our experience with cruises based from Australia

 

 

 

- #42 - Not sure I would agree that a 6 to 9 month contract is relatively short. Yes, many years ago we had 30 month foreign service contracts, but having completed one 9-month trip as a cadet, it was a long time away from home working/studying at least 12 yrs per day, every day (remember seafarers don't get weekends)

 

 

 

- #43 - Do seafarers get free room & board. In most cases the answer is yes - the spa employees on Princess being the only exception that I am aware of. However, most crew must maintain a residence ashore and also have additional costs keeping in touch with family & friends.

 

 

 

Personally, I have great difficulty with the cruise line's DSC, as I believe tipping is personal and is provided after the fact, recognising service above and beyond. However, that is no longer the custom on cruises, so if I wish to embark on a cruise, I put my personal thoughts aside and accept the DSC, unless the cruise has gratuities included.

 

 

 

The percentage for front line staff (DR waiters - fixed seating & Cabin Stewards) are based on the number of pax they look after. On our last Princess Cruise, our cabin steward had 4 more cabins than the steward in the next section. Consequently he received more from the DSC pool. As a pax, if you deleted or reduced the DSC your cabin steward's percentage dropped. On our last cruise they also mentioned that the DSC pool is now spread across the company's entire fleet and not by individual ship.

 

 

 

Provided you do not adjust the DSC, my understanding is that any additional cash provided to a crew member can be retained by that crew member. However, I have never seen it in writing and as previously mentioned the DSC is a closely guarded secret.

 

 

 

In response to the OP question, would I pre-pay. Personally - No, but again this is personal preference, as the crew get no benefit to pre-paying. However, the cruise line has your money for a longer period before disbursing to the crew.

Thanks for sharing all that information. I will definitely consider your recommendation of lobbying for equal pay and benefits for like jobs.

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Forgot to say both drink packages include bottled water and Coke not Pepsi and gelato.

Also in the deluxe package the mini bar is included.

 

 

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Ok! Good to know, I couldn’t find any information beyond the offers included with the various room packages. Do you happen to know the average cost if you upgrade from the classic package, or what the deluxe package costs on own?

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The best package is MSC! And without the package cocktails and wine approx $7.50 and service charge is only 15%.

 

 

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Can you purchase UBP on MSC cruises, or are they only offered as packages with your room category?

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It's not just here. It's on other topics, too.

 

 

 

The $236 is your personal choice.

 

 

 

If you want to rip into Royal Caribbean for the pricing, talk about the $74 or the $44.

Not sure if this was directed at me or not, but to clarify I’m not “ripping into Royal Caribbean”, just saying that the cost for our family is higher than we’d be willing to pay for the experience.

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Sorry, I am a little confused. We haven’t been on a Disney cruise since 2014.

 

When you talk about the water park included in ticket price, what exactly do you mean?

 

Has Disney opened a water park on Castaway Cay or are you talking about the water parks by WDW?

 

The water slides don’t thrill me to much, neither does the balloon, but that pool looks pretty amazing!

 

 

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Sorry should have been more clear, but I was referring to the cost for Disney worlds water parks. That’s my basis for comparison since it’s the only water parks we’ve been too.

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I call BS on that.

 

1) Every thing I had seen says they are paid a wage, plus tips.

 

2) If things were that bad, why would he have worked at least 10 contracts?????

 

Sounds like he had a spiel, like the "homeless" asking for money.

To clarify, this was a beverage waiter and 10 years ago.. I was very young and had no money to drink, let alone tip.. so I’m not sure what the point of telling a story would be. We hung when it was slow and chatted, not a lot of young passengers on celebrity at the time, so we ended up making friends with a lot of the crew.

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The low wages for the crew is very frustrating to me. I have started writing in comments post cruise about how I feel, but I’m not sure it changes anything in the corporations mind. I spoke with a waiter on celebrity 10 years ago and he explained that tips were his only wage. Since then I’ve tried to give extra whenever possible, but What I’d rather see is a decent wage for all employees, I’d rather see gratuity be rolled into the cost of the cruise like U.K., and then tip extra as deserving. But that’s just my preference, not the current reality.

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And.. I’ve answered my own question.. [emoji5] in case anyone is interested, the balloon experience is 10 min, and accommodates 30 people. For our trip on the symphony they want 74$ per adult and 44$ per child. Not positive if 12yo qualifies for child rate, but at a minimum it would be $236 for our family, possibly more.. sooo not something we’ll be doing.

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Personally I’m excited about the water park and pools. We’re a family of four (kids 9&12) from Alaska .. pools and water slides are a rarity for us! We got an email last week announcing that perfect day would be available for cruises starting May 2019. I feel like the cost for the water slide park is totally reasonable atm, but we’ll see if I have the same opinion afterwards.. Disney water park package included with tickets was very affordable and it was a huge water park with great amenities,currently costs $65 pp w/o package. I’m not expecting Disney for $44, but I hope I don’t have to carry my tube up huge staircases, or wait in outrageously long lines for all the slides.. guess we’ll see when we get there. [emoji41]

I’m excited about all the free dinning there too. Hopefully more options than just the plain old bbq offered on Labadee.

Is anyone interested in the hot air balloon? I haven’t noticed anyone even mentioning this experience on CC.

They had it at Disney world when we were there, was pretty expensive as I recall , so it wasn’t very appealing to us. I’m surprised that they went with such a large attraction, with what I expect will be a low capacity ride. Any idea how long the experience lasts or how many it holds?

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Thank you, sure wish your answer was different but thank you just the same.

Just an FYI that I was able to get unlimited bottles of pallengrino on RCCL with their ubp. They even had little bottles at the bars you could take with you, was really nice having a cold one for my room in the morning.

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It doesn’t include San pallengrino or Perrier water. However you can get soda water at no cost, and there was always a bottle of Pallengrino available in the stateroom for purchase, I believe it was $5 for the large bottle.

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I think paper straws may be a little cheaper... :cool:

Yeah! This one is very expensive [emoji53] I still bought it, cause if it works it’s perfect for me. I hate having to carry things around, I needed something like this that I could clip on..no straw on cruise was not an option for me personally.

But I thought for sure someone would get a laugh out of the video.. you have to admit it’s pretty ridiculous!

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https://youtu.be/5BslNm9Yo5s

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3 days in Girdwood could be great! Tons of hiking trails near by, trip to Whittier for kayaking or glacier tour. Portage glacier visitors center, The Alaska wildlife conservation center. Dinner at the double musky, ride the tram to the top of alyeska. Sooo many options!

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So now we need a combo lanyard that holds our keycard and reusable straw.....hard to picture but surely someone will come up with it:confused:

I recently ordered something called the final straw, it’s collapsible and has a key chain storage case. Little pricey, but I’m just not willing to go without a straw, and i wanted something that was little and easy to carry.

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I actually started reading this thread to defend children in the swimming pools.. NCL BA with this spring we had an issue where a few adults were hanging out in the pool near the kids aqua park, she was super annoyed that the kids were playing a game of pool volleyball with a small beachball and tried to pop their ball. Just seemed really unreasonable to spoil the fun for all those kids just cause she didn’t want to get splashed, especially since the main pool doesn’t allow children.... anyway.. I was all set to defend the rights of kids to enjoy themselves right up until I read that these kids are in diapers outside the pool and they’re still allowing them in.. 🤢 that’s just not ok. I would not let this issue drop. Maybe you can inform the hotel director you intend to contact the CDC vessel sanitation program at the next port to complain if they don’t immediately address the problem and sanitize the pool and spas.

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I’d recommend checking the construction updates. Only one highway north and south, and although I’m not sure about the summer of 2019, this summer they are expecting hours long delays as the road will be a single lane for a large portion between Seward and girdwood. I would take the train this year just to avoid the traffic.

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We had to pay taxes until after the ship departure, but the drink package covered the cost of the drinks themselves.

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Bring an all white outfit for the glow party. We brought a bunch of glow sticks I bought from amazon, kit had connectors that could make glasses, flowers, a big globe.. cost less than 10$ and we made a ton of friends handing out necklaces and bracelets throughout night.

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I’m sorta non traditional, so this might not be for everyone.. but we had a destination wedding and the logistics of getting a permit and applying for the marriage license was expensive and tedious, so we decided to go ahead without any of the legal paperwork in place . We had our ceremony with friends and family at the location of our choice and then waited to get home and filed for a friend to “officiate “ our wedding and just filed paperwork like we’d done it in our home state. Now maybe I’ll get flamed for this, but I’m just sharing how we did it. We didn’t bother bringing chairs or settings up decorations, the natural surroundings were far more beautiful than anything we could have done anyway.

If it’s a small group going you could always consider something similar.. go to a great beach or wherever and have the ceremony. Just a thought 🤷

Congratulations to your daughter!!

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One of the things I most liked about my cruise with NCL was the everything goes vibe.

Most other cruise lines I’ve felt compelled to comply with the formal nights, but I hate traveling with my fancy clothes. So this time I wore sundresses, husband wore T-shirt and jeans, kids in their normal athletic pants and shirts.. never felt out of place..I brought my high heels, but I won’t the next time because sandals were way more comfortable, and I never felt like I needed to be that dressy. The rest of the crowd was a mix from sparkles and gowns to tanks and shorts, and everything in between.

Gotta dress up for work most days, but personally I’m much happier wearing whatever’s comfortable on vacation.

Bring what you love and who cares what everyone else does. [emoji41]

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