njkate

Please if your tushy is so special you need tushy wipes please DO NOT flush them even if they say flushable

Currently on Jewel with a toilet issue every day, per NCL the line keeps clogging due to someone flushing tushy wipes!!!  Real pain to have to keep going to a common toilet as the one on our cabin isn’t flushing 

Someone on my roll call said the other day she saw someone come back with a package of Northern that fluffy tp also a no no they should have confiscated until cruise end

4 minutes ago, Steve in Omaha said:

We leave Vancouver on Monday for a 7-day Alaskan cruise.  Via a site with a webcam, I've noticed people in the absolute front/point of the ship while in Glacier Bay.  I've only been on 2 cruises, but I believe that front/point area was reserved for crew.  So does NCL allow passengers out to that viewing area while in Glacier Bay?  What deck is it and how do you get to it?  Thanks!

I’m on ship now and yes they open it for viewing

Deck 8 forward

I’m on this cruise. See you on board

36 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

 Cruise ships pay substantial reservation fees to secure scheduled time slots for their canal passages. Cargo ships generally don't pay for reserved transit slots so their transits are on a space-available basis. The result is that cruise ships generally have priority.

Reading the article I can understand why some cruise lines may avoid canal crossings at the current time.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/08/09/panama-canal-shipping-pileup-due-to-drought-reaches-154-vessels.html
 

Sorry but imo and I know many will not agree but cargo ships going through canal take precedence over cruise ships

On 8/9/2023 at 8:40 AM, RocketMan275 said:

Just my opinion.  Life is too short to drink cheap wine.

 

Oh just belly up to the bar and order some Boones Farm or something similar lol j/k

1 hour ago, bbnmom said:

So what I am saying is I have always been able to see what staterooms were available when selecting anything not sail away.  This time I wanted a club balcony but not sail away but it automatically came up as guaranteed and I see no way to bypass that in order to see what decks and staterooms are available.

I’ve come across this lately as well and I know a cruise I’m looking at that is over a year away isn’t sold out. 
Last cruise I wanted to book was getting that but I was on a cruise the following week so I booked on board and there were plenty of cabins available so I was able to get what I wanted as far as deck and section of ship.

Ive read others that had this issue called to book do try calling

16 hours ago, susiesan said:

Not a single note or update regarding POA Hawaii cruises on the NCL website. The least they could do is put up a banner newsflash about Maui before final changes/details about itineraries on future cruises are worked out.

NCL is always late to the party in making announcements of changes. 
People booked on POA or Spirit should assume Maui stop will be cancelled for several months if not longer. 

39 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

If I felt ill, I'd stay in the cabin....covid, cold, flu, noro etc.

No matter what I had....I wouldn't go out of my way "to spread the love".

Totally agree only mentioned covid as that was the topic posted

I always take covid tests with me, if I felt Ill would self test, if positive I’d self quarantine myself. Unfortunately it’s here to stay

Last July I had a balcony on Bliss, it was nice but we didn’t use much as it was chilly.

This year at end of this month we are booked on Jewel, we booked an ocean view as the difference in price was our self booked air from Savannah to Anchorage for 2, which was a considerable chunk of change. I just could not justify a balcony at the price. 
You will get responses saying you MUST have a balcony for Alaska in the end only you can decide 

Cruises across the board and all lines have indeed gone up. So has gas, food, utilities, rents, mortgage , air fare, just about every consumer service/product has been raised by the global inflation and I don't see any light at end of tunnel just yet.

I've downgraded haven to club to balcony and now my alaskan cruise end of month I'm in an OV, the difference in price was more then air for 2 from Savannah to Anchorage, no brainer for me

As long as one is totally flexible about where you want to cruise to, which departure port etc you can find some good deals.

BLAH, food is not great after trying twice we just sat at bar with drink to listen to the music

18 hours ago, zqvol said:

She doesn’t need a passport. A state issued ID and a state issued birth certificate will be fine unless she is doing a one way out of Vancouver. 

I do believe that is exactly what I posted

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

I have a friend who is an extremely unseasoned traveler of any sorts.  I doubt she has a passport, even less likely she has an enhanced driver's license...and even more remote she has a raised seal of her birth certificate.

 

She's been talking about "Alaska" for years.  Last week she said "my travel agents said there are no more cruises to Alaska this year (all booked up)".  I looked on the NCL site...and there was loads of availability.  I told her....gave her the number of a PCC I used once....and 5 minutes later she called me back with the news "I'm going to Alaska in August".  I really and absolutely never thought she was going to book a cruise that fast.

 

Now the  guilt part....the cruises all leave from or stop in Canada.  I assume she needs proof of American citizenship....and would need one of the 3 forms I mentioned.   Am I correct?  I want to inform her of such....but only if I'm 100% sure she will need the proof.

She needs a passport and the odds are not in her favor to receive it back in time for an August cruise unless it's august 2024 or she is leaving and returning from Seattle then no passport needed

28 minutes ago, hallux said:

I wonder if that FB post originated from a post here - one of those "I heard from someone who heard from someone that spoke to a chef that has family that works near the drydock" type of deals.  Though that origination might have been during a dinner with the officers on board, but until someone can post the technical drawings or show the work being done it's all speculation. 

 

I find it hard to believe that an officer would be cleared to make such statements this far in advance of the scheduled drydock.  I also find it unusual that they're removing, arguably, some of the best space for Alaska scenery observation just in time for deploying the ship to... ALASKA.  That makes me just as suspect about the claims.

 

They're actually returning the ship partially to as-built - she originally had cabins in some or all of the OL space when she was in Asia, the OL was added or expanded when she was reconfigured for the US in 2019.

 

There's another thread here where this was discussed...

 

I read it as an announcement from a travel agent that does a tremendous amount of bookings for NCL, main focus is Haven but he does all bookings. 
He is always on a cruise on NcL on their dime checking things out

Be it on land or sea in the end the house always wins lol

16 hours ago, hallux said:

This is the part I was referring to

 

Gotcha! I detest people lighting up in areas that are non smoking, they make it bad for all the people that abide by the rules. Agree with you 100% on that, they are selfish 

22 minutes ago, hallux said:

Nope, still the smoker's problem.  Their selfishness shouldn't cause problems for others...

Enlighten me how is one smoking in  designated area selfishness?? Not asking about someone who doesn’t abide by rules but those that do

1 minute ago, hallux said:

Too bad, so sad.  It's a THEM problem as far as I'm concerned, it shouldn't be someone else's issue that they don't want to go that distance.

Hence the reason you see people lighting up outside of smoking areas.

It’s also a THEM problem when people b!tch about smoking in a designated smoking area, simple avoid the area. I can see both sides of the coin and try to coexist 

53 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I don't even think KY or TN (alleged tobacco states) are doing any long term planning on tobacco taxes....or, at least they shouldn't be.  That's a very rapidly declining tax base.  Depending on it is a fool's exercise.

Lol we are talking about government lol 

NY and NJ cigarettes are very high around $10 or better mark and 80% of it is taxes

5 hours ago, UKstages said:

hmmm… many smokers on the ships I’ve been on do not.
 

they smoke on their balconies, they smoke at the pool, they decide somehow to extend the area of the designated smoking section all on their own and smoke outside the periphery of that section. and they smoke in the cigar room, which is prohibited.  (the reason this matters is because it leads to more frequent opening of the doors through which the smoke escapes and spreads to the adjacent areas.)

 

cigarettes, marijuana and e-cigarettes. 

 

vaping is quite common throughout all ships, indoors and out, even though it is allowed only where smoking is allowed.

 

 

Probably because the smoking areas have shrunk down considerably. Bliss, Encore, Joy the only smoking areas are Spice H2O that’s quite a hike if one’s cabin is forward. 
 

Smoking is a legal substance that isn’t going away, no state wants to give up those taxes. People just need to learn to coexist and perhaps if the mega ships scattered a few more smoking areas on the ship you wouldn’t have people breaking the rules of course this is just my opinion 

1 hour ago, justhappy said:

We had to divert to Icy Strait due to the rockslide in Skagway last year. We walked the road into Hoonah Alaska and glad we did. The walk along the water is so beautiful and whales are often seen here. 
It is a town of mostly native Tlingit people 

and a rich history of its own if you strike up a conversation with a local.

Dont rule it out even if you don’t book an excursion for us it was still worth it.

Added some photos of the walk to Hoonah.

Thanks! Maybe it was just the grossly overpriced boring NCl excursion, I think I’ll do this next month

3 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Favorite port-St. Petersburg, but unfortunately, no one is going there any time soon or possibly ever again. So, for ports that still exist, going to Florence (though that is not actually the port).

 

Favorite ship--the very, very small Ocean Princess. Again, no longer a ship, or at least one in the Princess line. If I have to post an NCL ship, I hope after next month, I can say Prima.

 

Favorite cabin was on a Carnival ship where we ended up on the Lido deck after 2 upgrades. DW is a swimmer and loved being so near to the pool.

Loved St Petersburg so glad we were there in 2018. I enjoyed so much I was researching a land vacation there as 2 days just wasn’t enough time but that’s not happening 

2 hours ago, smillerholmes said:

What an awesome thread idea!

 

Port: Sitka - just love that little Alaskan town with it's Russian influenced architecture

 

Ship: Pearl (so far) the Jewel class ships are just the perfect size for me

 

Room:  Aft Balcony - preferably decks 9 or 10

 

I love Sitka but sadly it’s not on the itinerary for my Alaska cruise next month, we get Icy Strait YAWNING think I’ll just stay on the ship