Wildblue

Alaskan here, booked on Alaskan cruise 14 June on the NCL Bliss, SEA-SEA.  The "token" foreign port on our itinerary was 5 hours in Victoria, on the way back to SEA.  I'm waiting for the actual decision, but am anticipating the entire cruise to be canceled.  Was "given" this cruise by Park West as an art VIP cruise.  Interesting to see how this turns out.

2 minutes ago, Psoque said:

But unless the US evacuees are going to individualized respiratory isolation rooms (I don't think that US government has even 380 of those available immediately, but I could be wrong...) the situation at thew new "home" in US will not be that different.  Reading the news reports of the US evacuees from Wuhan, their quarantine facility was even more open that the situation on the ship.

No argument there.  But you were addressing the supposition that quarantining thousands of people together on the ship may have infected other healthy people onboard.

This article someone else posted is of interest.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/14/escaping-the-coronavirus-petri-dish-doctor-lawmakers-seek-evacuations-from-quarantined-cruise-115143

3 minutes ago, Psoque said:

We still don't know for sure if those who became ill and/or tested positive during the quarantine were exposed to and infected by the virus during the quarantine and/or because of the quarantine.  I think your statement is a bit premature at best.

Agreed that it's speculation what the source is for any given person that's sick.  But certainly, being confined on a ship with thousands of people, hundreds of which are sick, with transmissions happening multiple times a day, such as the delivery of food, increases the risk of disease transmissions.  No stateroom cabin is a CDC-approved isolation facility.

Oh, man.  Having sailed on the Diamond only a year ago, I'm particularly saddened to have watched this story unfold.  And that more and more passengers fall sick.  It seems like quarantining everybody onboard has had the side effect of infecting other healthy passengers (and I assume crew) onboard.  Continuing to watch this story.

I am having trouble finding information about NCL Haven perks as they relate to laundry. We will be on a 17 day cruise, so going without laundry is not an option. In our past experiences, I know there is generally a time or two when they offer laundry at 19.95 per bag, which is helpful. My specific question, however, is - Does booking "HAVEN" suite entitle you to any laundry perks? Thank you.

Here's my experience, just off the Diamond Princess.

- Onboard, each cabin occupant can create a login profile for the ship intranet network. (Note: This is NOT the internet) The ship-wide intranet network works very well, and has multiple features, including seeing your onboard portfolio charges, and creating a personalized activity calendar each day from the scheduled ship activities. (an online Patter) One cool thing is, you can send free text messages to each other and other cruisers through this intranet. Very useful for a family of 4, as long as each person is carrying a wi-fi device and is logged into their profile.

- Each cruiser can be logged in to their own profile, at the same time, and even with multiple devices. Several times on the cruise, I was logged into my profile simultaneously on my iPad and two iPhones.

- However, if you've purchased internet service, it is only available for THAT person that purchased it. And then that person can only use it on one device at a time. We were told that buying an internet package, anybody in the cabin could use it. That's technically true--for the others in my cabin to use the internet, they had to log out of their profile, log in with my profile, and then connect to the internet, which prohibited me and anyone else using my profile from using the internet. Of course, this also blocks the whole purpose of having a separate profile for each person, so you can text each other, and each person can have their own personal daily calendar. It would be better if an internet package purchase was automatically shared with each cabin occupant.

Heck, they way they make you share internet with the rest of your cabin, you could just as easily share it with anyone else on the cruise, just have them log in with your profile.

Definitely possible. I have found Princess to be quite variable and often conflicting in stated information and policies. FWIW, this was on the Diamond Princess, sailing out of Sydney.

If we do this again, I'll definitely be asking onboard.

For what it's worth, I discovered something interesting for back-to-back cruises. I bit the bullet and got us the $199 photo package for the first cruise. Still felt like even $199 would be too much for the 2nd of the B2B, so we didn't get that. On the 2nd cruise, they snapped a good picture of me, so I asked them to confirm it'd be $25 for the picture. Really nice guy in the photo team responded, "well, it's only $50 to continue the photo package onto the 2nd cruise for a back to back".

So, yay... $50 for the photo package, another 2 weeks, that's definitely a deal. Unfortunately, it was later on in the cruise before we found this out, but still, good deal!

Does anyone have a link then, to a GBR day trip that they’d recommend OTHER than Green Island? I can’t find any actual trips, only people saying to do something else

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I’m onboard the diamond right now and it’s $249

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Living in the Anchorage area, I always use the Hilton when staying in town. They give great service, and we always enjoy our time there. Highly recommended.

Plus, it's just across the street from the hard Rock Cafe, one of my favorites. Right there by everything else, too.

Got me my rum "flask" to carry around the ship. :) Figure if it's washed out well, should be perfect. Small, fits in pocket, nice and discrete. 200ml allows for 4 big shots.

Particularly liking the kid insight. We're on the Diamond with kids this week. They'll be disappointed if there's no water slide.

But the kids love the Duck Song. If they can do it for karaoke, they'll be ecstatic.

How often are these upsells offered by phone? I never answer calls I don't recognize, wonder what I might have missed?

Me, offering you a free million dollars?

Recommend Port Douglas over Cairns. The latter is the largest town in the North, whilst Port Douglas is a tropical resort town, with a beautiful long beach, close to Daintree.

 

Port Douglas is where the GBR and rainforest meet. If you have time, I recommend a drive north to Daintree and Cape Tribulation.

 

www.pddt.com.au

 

I would also recommend a trip to GBR rather than Green Island.

Well now I'm confused. I realize Green Island isn't deep in the GBR, but it's still part of the reef, and you'll see a sample of the coral and marine life, no? What's a good place or company that does a better GBR day trip?

Good discussion!

Thanks.

Here's another perhaps-uncouth question. The soda package includes mocktails. Could you just buy a shot of rum, and mix it into your mocktail?

Or I suppose if you buy a bottle of rum from the ship, just mix in your own shot, to your mocktail. Perhaps I should just bring a flask and carry it around the ship, to stir into my mocktails. :)

Generally, I'd have to say port side, Ontario, based on you being in a northern latitude and the sun being generally south, as it travels from east to west. If you want more, book a forward or aft-facing cabin for direct views of sunrise and sunset.

If you have no enroute stops and are purely Vancouver to Japan, my guess is the ship will follow a Great Circle Route, and the heading will be gradually changing, starting northwest and gradually shifting a little bit south.

FWIW, the Soda Package is $6.95/day on our Cruise Personalizer, for two sailings from Sydney.

Strangely enough, I can't find the bottled water on our Cruise Personalizer, in the Beverage Package or any other sections. Not available when you sail from Sydney?

Very good, am following this thread with keen interest. We sail on the Diamond this Thursday on a B2B from Sydney. First to the South Pacific and Fiji, then to New Zealand.

I think we might be sailing with you, partybarbie. We're a family of 4 in a mini suite, so I'm hoping the room turns out to be everything we're imagining. (B2B, actually, D732 on the first sailing, D707 on the second)

We are popcorn junkies, so we will definitely be looking for it on Diamond Princess next week, sailing from Sydney

Thanks, all. Good to know it's the same price onboard. Can't think of any reason to give Princess my money early. Gonna wait and use OBC as well.

And if you leave your cabin door open all night, you get all SORTS of interesting sounds.