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Since Carnival cancelled my cruise, this has become a moot point. (I'm relieved to have them cancel.) There are already stories of long lines for gas, and with the refineries in Houston being offline, the price of gas is rising, so I expect costs for an Uber could also be going up.

I am hoping that something comes up that changes Irma's path and spares everyone because right now it doesn't look good for the area.

NCL and Carnival has just cancelled some cruises out of Miami on 8 and 9 September. Offering 100% refund and future cruise credit. Check with your TA .

 

 

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Where do you see that? I still only see RCCL and NCL cancellations. I really hope they cancel. I can't imagine the liability of telling people that they need to travel to an area where evacuations are already being ordered.

Royal Caribbean has already canceled cruises out of Port Canaveral and Miami departing Friday. I hope Carnival makes their decisions and announcements quickly.

Me too. I don't think it's a good idea to be encouraging people to come to an area that's going to be hit by a major hurricane.

Interestingly, these are both 3 night cruises.

There's nowhere for them to go and potentially nowhere for them to return to. I'm on Victory out of Miami to Nassau and would be happy with a CTN if it weren't for the worry about the return.

I'm fairly confident that the Victory cruise that's supposed to depart on Friday will be able to do so. Getting back on Monday and flying home is definitely questionable and there's coming a time in which I must decide whether my presence at what is almost certainly going to be a disaster of some scope is really wise. If I had cancel for any reason with my insurance, I think I would be pulling the trigger.

We are flying out Thurs to Miami and I am not changing anything at this time. Our cruise is also on Friday, but not on Carnival. Still five days out for Irma and impossible to know what part of Florida she will hit. I have a friend who lives near Ft Lauderdale and his opinion is that Miami will be ok. I am trusting his judgment.

How are you planning to get around? I'm mostly concerned with transportation at this point. Irma's winds should arrive Friday night, and I'd be more concerned with preparing than driving a cab/shuttle/uber if I were a resident.

I'm scheduled to fly to FLL Thursday morning and then to depart Miami on Friday on Carnival Victory. I was planning to take an Uber from FLL to my Miami Beach hotel, and then Uber to the port on Friday at lunch time. Now I'm thinking that may not be such a good idea given that everyone should be preparing for Irma's arrival and a lot of people may have already left town. (Surge pricing perhaps?)

Sooo...Those of you more familiar with this type of thing, would it be wise to book a one way rental car from FLL to Miami? And should I change my hotel to one closer to the port? Maybe even walking distance (I consider less than 2 miles walking distance). I'm just at a loss on how to handle this one as everything looks fine for us to fly on Thursday and the odds seem good that the cruise will depart on Friday. (For what will probably end up a CTN)

I'm on the Friday departure of the Victory out of Miami. It's a 3 nighter that overnights Nassau, and if Irma doesn't change course, it looks like the entire trip is in the hurricane zone. I'm not even sure what they could do to re-route this.

Time to go make some sacrificies to the weather gods so Irma heads back out to sea and doesn't make landfall anywhere!

Not sure how to take your review. You say you want others to know your experience, yet you didn't state facts. I have been on several NCL cruises with my young grandchildren, and all restaurants have a children's menu and fruit and veggies was on them. Straws? I order water with every meal and I always receive a straw.

I never saw a straw when I dined. I never asked for one, so I can't say they don't have them, but I will say I was never voluntarily given a straw.

Also - the availablility of fresh fruits and vegetables has always bothered me while cruising NCL. Link to current kids menu: (Note - NO Fruits or Vegetables on it)

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Norwegian-Cruise-Kids-Menu-86.jpg

So maybe OP was giving some facts after all.

 

Of course this may have the unforeseen consequence of folks without the UBP not buying ANY mixed drinks at those prices. :eek:

That would be my husband and I. We are occassional drinkers, but tend to have a drink or two daily while on vacation. On our cruise in June, we paid corkage for 2 bottles of wine, and bought a few drinks in addition.

But these new prices are OUTRAGEOUS if you are paying per drink and we absolutely would not buy anything while onboard. We would rather abstain.

Just be prepared for huge pressure to order a main dish. We did appetizers and desserts in Le Bistro (completely NOT worth the cost when compared to what's free in the main dining rooms) and they didn't know what to do with us.

I'll take it one step further: Yes you can, and yes, you should.

I'm pretty particular about my tea. I regretted not bringing my own on. I kept trying different kinds, and the caffeinated ones always tasted "off." I will say the mint tea was excellent.

I'd say the best age to go to Alaska is the age where you are both interested and able to afford it. Sounds like OP is the perfect age.

We went on the Norwegian Sun at the end of May and were quite surprised at how "young" the average age must have been on the ship. Like others have said, Alaska is best while you're still active, and I think that's why we didn't see nearly as many people in scooters or wheelchairs like we saw on our Mediterannean cruises.

And the bonus of going while you're younger - you'll have more time to save for and schedule the return trip!

We docked at the AJ dock and thus had selected Juneau Car Rental for proximity. Very short walk, quick checkout. The cars are older and not typical rental cars (like a PT Cruiser) but we didn't have a problem. No one was there when we returned it (they had told us that would be the case) so we just dropped the keys.

We loved the Victorian Hotel. If you really are on a tight budget, you can get hotel rooms with a shared bath to save money. I picked a random date in June and rooms were as low was CAD 145. From the hotel we were able to walk to Chinatown, Gastown and the Cruise Terminal. Took a bus to Granville Island and Stanley Park. Hotel was clean, free wifi (and computer terminals with printers), and free light breakfast of breads, jams, fruit and coffee.

I have to agree that 12 is a pretty bad age for Splash Academy. I really wish NCL would make a 12-14 age group like Carnival. My 12yo found a friend that would also roll her eyes at how "babyish" everything was, which greatly helped her enjoyment of the program. My older two complained about the 13yos in Entourage (but that didn't stop them from having a fantastic time that week) and I don't think in two months my youngest would really be happy there either, even though she'd be 13.

And, TBH, the space they had for the 9-12yos on the Gem looks nicer than the actual Splash Academy space on the sun. That place is just a hard floor with white walls. Almost depressing. It was a good thing the counselors really worked hard to get activities going.

Family of 5, Norwegian Sun 7 day from Vancouver 5/2016. We kept food costs low by doing grocery store "picnics" a lot and by bringing our own snacks from home for excursions. We only ate out at a real restaurant once, although we got cheap sushi and doner kebob takeout in Vancouver. Souvenir costs not included below, although it wasn't much.

Midship Balcony + Tips + onboard spending : $3150 (KSF promotion + saved $100 with AmEx offer - and yes, the five of us shared one room)

Airfare: $56 (taxes on frequent flier tickets)

Pre-Cruise time in Vancouver: CAD 313 for 2 nights in hotel

Transportation: CAD 87 (we walked A LOT)

Meals, Entertainment (Granville Island Market + Aquabus tour + Bike Rental for three; also used reciprocating museum membership for free admission to science museum) ~CAD 250

Ketchikan: $250 for Ketchikan Taxi Company tour + $15 SE Alaska Discovery Center

Juneau: $885 (car rental, lunch, private whale watching tour, DIPAC admission, Mendenhall glacier hiking)

Skagway: $210 (rental car to drive Klondike Highway + lunch; also took free ranger tour of Klondike Gold Rush NHP)

Seward to Anchorage: $383 (rental car + Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center; also used reciprocating museum membership for free admission to Anchorage Museum)

Anchorage to Talkeetna for two nights and back: $372 lodging, redeemed points for free rental car, hiking (free), $50 sled dog ride + ~$145 food and beer :)

Used loyalty points for free week of airport parking, paid remainder of $24

Grand total was slightly over $100pp/day which we were quite happy with.

I have not yet receive notification from NCL. We sail in December.

I contacted NCL regards my daughter's situation and waiting for their response. Thanks!

Please post your response. We don't have any cruises planned, but my daughter's doctor has her drink Gatorade daily to ward off migraines. We brought a bunch on our last cruise.

We just completed an Alaskan cruise with my family of five. We chose NCL's Sun because 1) we got a kids sale free promotion and you could fit 5 in one room and 2) It had a great itinerary. We did two nights pre-cruise in Vancouver and 2 nights post-cruise in Talkeetna. Originally, we had planned to go up to Denali, but then when I learned that you had to ride a bus in the park and it could be 12 hours round trip (depending on how far in you go), I nixed that idea fast! Instead, we went as far as Talkeetna and explored Denali state park. We hiked and spent time watching to see if Denali would come out from the clouds (it did - two days in a row!).

There are so many activities you can do in Alaska, that it really doesn't make sense to do a cruise sponsored tour with a family of five. Take the money you would have spent on the tour and do something more active: rafting, hiking, ziplining, boat tour, etc. You can pack light and rent a car (we did) or rent a minivan or full size SUV and go about things your own pace. We went to Exit Glacier, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, the Anchorage Museum (big hit when it was raining), the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla (free to pet the puppies, and only $10/person for a sled dog led ride in a cart), in addition to Denali State Park - and a stop at the Denali Brewing Company for us adults :) It was a great trip and we all enjoyed it.

We had a bear bonanza driving on the Klondike Highway from Skagway to Emerald Lake. (Done first days of June of this year)

We saw a brown bear on the Alaska side from about 200 yards away. There was a mother (black bear) with two brown cubs just off the side of the road. We got to watch the cubs wrestling and playing - they were adorable! Another mother + cubs (all black) just off the side of the road eating wildflowers and a solo black bear sleeping on a rock in the distance.

I need to get photos on a sharing site to post them.

We took a tour with Ketchikan Taxi Company, and they said that later in the season, when the salmon are running, you can almost always see bears if you get up early enough. Unfortunately, we were too early to see them there.

We had wonderfully gorgeous weather for 5 of the 7 days. I spent a great deal of time on the balcony, and only smelled the foul odor briefly, and faintly this morning just prior to disembarking.

I'm beginning to suspect that the odor on the Sun is similar to what you'll get at outhouses and port-a-lets; it's worse in warmer weather. That would explain why some cruises (like SA) have more people reporting the problems and why those of us on the May 30th sailing, which was never really hot, reported that the odor wasn't a problem.

I went with one pair for ship (black go with everything slip on) and one pair for shore (waterproof trail shoe). Although I wore the "shore" shoes around the ship a bit. I didn't go to the pool or hot tub, but if I'd planned for it, a pair of cheapo flip flops would have been added.

We did 12 days of cruise + land with only a carry on bag + backpack per person. Didn't have a choice because we were renting a car and not a minivan or full size SUV and had to be able to fit all the luggage for all five of us in there. It meant washing socks and underwear in the sink and wearing each article of clothes at least 3 times, but we knew we weren't overpacking!

They never stopped my son from signing himself in or out on either Epic or Getaway while we were in port.

 

 

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We sailed three weeks ago on the Sun. First time we'd run in to this. Makes me wonder whether it's just that ship or a new policy. We talked to another family that was surprised by it as well.

The answer is Yes and No. Sometimes they can sign themselves in, sometimes they can't. We found it a bit frustrating. Apparently, if you're still in port, a parent has to sign them in (even if you've stayed past your scheduled port departure). When you're at sea, they can sign themselves in.

Also keep in mind that they must be there for 2 hours before they can sign themselves out, unless they sign in less than 2 hours before the session ends, in which case they will be dismissed at the end of the session. (And there are frequent periods throughout the day in which Splash Academy is closed.)

Yes, they still have the white hot party. My daughter went, but I did not, so I'm going on her word of it not being very crowded. She did not get hot. She was in a short sleeved T-shirt and danced some., but not a lot.

We recently ordered just appetizers and dessert in Le Bistro. It was allowed, but our waitress kinda pressured us to order entrees at the time we ordered our appetizers. She really seemed perplexed that we weren't ordering it. (We even told her we were a la carte customers and not on a meal plan - seemed they don't get many people like that in there)

TBH, We thought it was a horrible value and would never do it again. (Also the food wasn't any better than what we got in the MDRs on this cruise. In fact, the duck salad in the MDR Was actually better.) The bill seemed really high for what we got, when you think about what you used to get for a cover charge. We only did it because we had a specialty dining credit of $100 from when we booked the cruise. At the time of booking, that $100 would have covered the cost of my family's cover charges to Le Bistro. By the time we sailed, it covered one app, one dessert per person and a couple drinks for my husband and I.