Upper Deck Dad

Just get off the ship and walk into town, it's absolutely gorgeous. We have lots of old buildings, an interesting China Town, many many very good restaurants. No end of things to see. We also have a street full of tacky tourist shops and they'll be open. The horse carriages will be out as well. Please come and enjoy our city, we are very proud of it.

Do you know how much the horse & carriage rides are? That sounds like a nice option.

We are looking into Wild Wolf Tours, its a combo Rainforest & Totem Pole Tour. I hope it's as good as the reviews say.

Is the spa for couples or is it separated for men and women? Has is ever been so crowded that you can't get a lounger or have room in the pool?

Final payment was made a while ago and I have been checked in, but just got the email around the 50 day mark that the edocs were

ready to print.

Great review. Glad you had a wonderful trip to celebrate your anniversary. Where was the picture taken with the ship in the back? You're across the street, maybe at the Marriott? That's a great picture.

What happens when most of the cruise is American ports, like Alaska or New England Cruises, where you're not in International Waters very much? Are you taxed at all the ports?

Thanks for the info on disembarkation day as well. It's 7 nights on the ship, which I assume is why they cut off on the 8th day. Good to know.

Can't speak for Bermuda, never been. I kind of doubt it would apply there though. This is the kind of thing that the US and EU dream up.

Sure sounds like it.

In LA yes, and yes, even with UBP, which we had. We typically pre-purchase champagne and drink that on sail away. We will buy our first specialty drink when we board (pay taxes) then have our champagne during sail away. LA just raised taxes to 10%. I can't answer for the other states/ports.

 

 

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Pre-purchasing the champagne is a good idea. I assume the tax also applies to drinks ordered with lunch in the MDR prior to sail away?

It definitely applies to the perk UBP, yes.

 

 

Edit: I went back and looked at a folio from 2015 -- we embarked in Seattle and had promo UBP. It looks like there are a couple of charges like, 1.54, 0.86, etc... where DW or I ordered drinks for each of us on UBP with one card (not uncommon). That's all those charges could be. There's a handful of them, probably totaling $6 or so -- on a $4,200 cruise. Sleep lost = 0.

That's no big deal, so I guess the same would apply when your docked in Bermuda for 2-1/2 days with a lot more charges adding up

Yes. You are charged NY taxes until in international waters. By dinner all was good!

 

 

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Does this apply to all cities port cities, Miami, Boston, Seattle, LA, San Juan, Tampa, etc.?

Does it also apply when the UBP is a free perk?

Megabus leaves out of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to the Port Authority in NYC daily with several different departure times, some as low as $1.00 for one way. You can pick your own seats on some of the schedules. Take an Uber or Lyft to the station, or maybe someone could drive you there and pick you up.

Thanks VibeGuy! I will check into that. We will be there Sept 1 (Fri of Labor Day weekend) and I read there is a big music festival so prices are high due to demand and selling out.

Check out the Moore Hotel downtown, it's recommended on this board and more reasonable than the other hotels.

We are staying in the Seattle area for 8 nights pre-cruise. Could we leave a case of dirty clothing at the luggage store and retrieve when we disembark?

 

Thanks

 

 

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Not sure if you could do this or not, but why don't you think about shipping the dirty clothes home (to a relative or neighbor) before you board the ship or wash them and use them for the cruise. If you could store them you would have to pay a daily rate per bag which would cost the same as shipping a box home. Doing a load of laundry would be cheaper.

I sure hope Pier 66 (NCL) will eventually join in with this program, and Carnival, since it says they already do.

NCL doesn't offer their own luggage valet service any longer so you're on your own to figure out what to do. There are places downtown that will store the luggage, but the Port Valet would have been so convenient. And yes, you can't beat the price.....

Well then the info is wrong. I disembarked from Pier 91 on Tuesday and Carnival was not participating.

I hope it is incorrect and they get it straightened out. Too many answered questions with a potentially excellent program that should have been all figured out before they rolled it out.

Because it's not offered--at least yesterday when I got off it wasn't. Not sure why they aren't participating, but they are not!

According to this link, Carnival is participating, it's only Pier 91 that is, not Pier 66 (NCL)

http://www.visitseattle.org/things-to-do/cruise-information/port-valet/

Some people like to take the ships excursions because of the peace of mind in not missing the ship if they are delayed .

The extra money is worth it to them. They do realize they are paying more, but have chosen to do so.

I am also the "planner" for our vacations, these boards do help tremendously as well as other boards, blogs and such on the internet.

Just received my jacket I ordered. This jacket is seriously nice! Well worth $19.99 plus $10 shipping. It's got a great fleece inside and is fully reversible and even has "Alaska" printed on the inside fleece part so it shows when you reverse it. It's heavier than the Columbia rain jacket I bought so I'll be using this jacket on colder days most likely.

 

 

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We, too, just received our jackets. My husband and I cannot believe how nice they are and plan to buy one or two more when we get to Alaska for gifts.

How did you both find the sizing?

Thank you very much Tom for taking the time to find out answers. I appreciate it. If Princess uses the same paperwork as Celebrity I would not be able to participate because my flight leaves at 10:55PM. Oh well it was a nice gesture

Our flight is 11:30pm (got changed from 1045PM) and I emailed the port directly and they said we still qualify but to contact the Cruise Director for further information. I contacted NCL and they knew very little about the program, only that they are most likely participating.

The White Pass bus trips have been with M&M and Frontier in the past. Of course the White Pass RR runs their own company.

 

Whale watches in Juneau are mostly by Allen Marine, a few with dolphin

 

Frankly, just my opinion, but all these are poor choices with a cruise shore excursion. Far superior with other choices, especially with the Skagway bus, and Mendenhall options.

Which would you recommend for the Skagway bus trips?

Yes, very interesting.

I would call the downtown Nordstrom store at 500 Pine St to verify. Please post back with the answer.

I just called. It's the Concierge Service that handles it and it is complementary. Use the 6th Ave entrance. Sundays they close at 7pm.

It's first come, first serve, no appointments necessary but occasionally they do fill up. The number is 206-628-2111 if anyone has additional questions.

Nordstrom downtown Seattle has a place that will hold your luggage.. We kept our there from 11am to 8:30pm without charge :)

Interesting. How do you go about setting this up? Where in the store do you bring your luggage?

Totally enjoy taking pictures, especially of scenery. I would say I'll average 50 per day on the cruise since there are a lot of ports involved. One day I'll be too old to remember the trip clearly and these photos might help, plus it's something to share with the grandchildren.

If you buy the ships internet package, is that only good for one device? If so, would you have to sign off your phone to get on your laptop and vice versa?

What would their package include? Texts, email, surfing the web?

I surely hope to be able to use this service next week. Our flight back is not until 10pm. That's a lot of time after disembarking for site seeing.

Our flight back is 10:45pm and I hope they will accommodate that too. Will there by any maximum allowance of bags? We'll have 2-3 checked bags the way I figure now, only because I don't want to carry another one around town all day. Unless I do just store a carry-on at the Edgewater for the day.