Sigyn

Determining what to pack for Alaska cruise. Plenty of time, but just got off one cruise and it's fun to start thinking about the next. Are there nice robes in the room in Aqua Class?

I can't decide whether it's worth the pricey upcharge to book Goldstar service on the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Anchorage. Has anyone done both for comparison?

12 hours ago, Coral said:

Must not have looked too far! Seward is amazing.

 

I would rather spend the day in Seward than Anchorage.

I must not have. It was 24 years ago. My memory isn't what it used to be. 🙂 

20 hours ago, AKStafford said:

The Alaska Railroad operated train runs in the evening. You'd have the day to explore Seward.

I've been to Seward before and I don't recall there being anything there to see. 

We disembark from our Celebrity cruise on July 14 in Seward and want to spend one night in Anchorage before flying home. If we take the Celebrity train transfer from Seward to Anchorage, it takes us directly to the airport. How would it work if we simply book the train ourselves to Anchorage? Has anyone done this who can explain the process to me? Would we have help transferring our luggage from the ship to the train? I've already booked us into a hotel in downtown Anchorage. 

On 12/18/2022 at 10:46 AM, 9tee2Sea said:

I start about 7 days before.  Have to try on clothes. Have to donate clothes that I never wear, have to buy new clothes that fit better. That's why it takes a week.

I like this approach. I've been wanting to purge my closet and donate clothes, so I've been going this route as well and trying on clothes and donating items, some designer with tags still on, just to cull the mass of items in my closet. 

12 hours ago, evandbob said:

For our "usual" week or 10 day Caribbean sailings, we pack up our clothes the night before we drive to the cruise.  With maybe 100 cruise and land vacations behind us, we could probably each pack our 1 carry on 22" luggage blindfolded.

 

The shorter amount of time our clothes spend in a suitcase, the less wrinkling can occur.

 

I may gather up my meds/hygiene 2 days prior.

 

Now cold weather sailings are another story........

Makes sense. I will have more trouble packing for our Alaska cruise next July than the Caribbean cruise I'm packing for right now. I mean, a July cruise to Alaska. That's just confusing!

20 hours ago, Blondilu said:

I usually start thinking about it a couple of months out.  Whenever I have an idle moment I think about my clothes, the weather and specific events and activities and just imagine what I might need.  I call it Zen packing; intuitive, meditative and contemplative.  LOL.

 

The real packing starts a week or so before when I start trying to put all that mental imaging into practical use.  I leave the suitcase out and things go in and out of the plan until I get it right and it all fits.  

 

Toiletries and personal items are usually already packed and left in my bag from the trip before.  Same for charger cords and all the other "stuff" I usually take with me.

 

I keep telling myself I need a list.  Never happens.  

 

 

I made a list this time since I pack for myself, my teenager and my husband. I did a document in Pages on my Mac and made a table with columns to check off each category for each one of us. If you knew me and how disorganized I normally am, you'd know what a big deal this is. 

8 hours ago, zitsky said:

@njsmom if you want to upgrade the drink package, the price was supposed to go up today.  I did it today and I’m preeety sure I got the old pricing.

I checked on 12/19 and it's the new pricing. I had looked a few days ago and still didn't want to upgrade. We are doing a cruise to Alaska and spending upwards of $600 to $1,000 on each excursion, so I have to draw the line somewhere and the upgrade to the drink package seems like one place I don't need to spend more. The classic drink package seems reasonable enough. 

5 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Sorry, more information needed.  Where does it say that drinks are included? Do you have your booking form? What code was used? 

It's on every AquaClass booking. Here's an example:

4 minutes ago, jelayne said:

It is probably the Classic package which is what the AI pricing includes.

yes, probably so

I booked an AquaClass cabin and it says that drinks are included. Which drink package is it referring to? 

I checked in for myself and my husband and my son from my laptop. It was super easy.

wow, that sounds delicious. I want one!

9 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I am basically looking for the same answer as you and hoping someone knows the answer. I am sailing on the Encore in February, I booked the Ocean Villa, we were to arrive on a Monday, the NCL switch up our itinerary. We now were at GSC on Saturday the last day of the cruise. For many weeks it showed my Booked Silver Cove Ocean Villa for Monday, well they finally moved it to Friday. But it now says it is a Beach Villa. My concern was our ship will be at GSC with Prima and was afraid we would not get our ocean Villa. 
By search on NCL s website it appears they changed the name of the Ocean Villa to Beach Villa. Just wondered if anyone knew for sure what is going on.

Thanks

NCL just changed the name of the Ocean Villa to Beach Villa. The size, price and description is exactly the same. The text on their excursion page has been updated to say Beach Villa but they haven't updated the video yet to say Beach Villa. It still says Ocean Villa: https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/NPI_45/Ocean-Villa-at-Silver-Cove

I've been paying attention to this because I booked one, too, and we leave on our cruise in five days. 

15 hours ago, sarahandmike23 said:

What’s the difference between Silver Cove Ocean Villa and Silver Cove Beach Villa?  They are the same price. 

They're the same thing. It looks like NCL just changed the name of them. 

My cruise is in five days. We leave in four. I have put together a few things, but haven't really started packing. I tried, but our cats got into it all, at 2 am, no less, so I closed up the suitcases and stopped. I did create a packing list. 

How soon do you start packing for a cruise? 

My aunt just did a POA cruise - got off a day or two ago - and absolutely loved it. They're now spending a couple days on land. She's been to Hawaii a few times on land, and so this was a perfect way for her and her family (husband and adult kids) to see several islands at once. 

Personally, I've only been to Kauai for four nights, back when I lived in Los Angeles and it was a relatively easy flight over to the island, and while I absolutely loved it, after five days/four nights, we'd seen absolutely everything there was to do, and if we had been going to stay longer, I would have wanted to add in another island. It's not expensive to fly island to island, but it would take a half day out of your vacation to go to/from an airport and deal with that aspect of island hopping. 

All of this is my long winded way of saying I'd consider a POA cruise to either get to know the islands and pick one for a future land vacation, or after I'd done a land vacation or two to Hawaii and wanted to see more islands even if just for a quick stop on each.

It looks like most colleges do spring break in March and it peaks the second and third week of March: https://www.studentcity.com/plan-a-trip/when-is-my-spring-break/

But to show how varied public schools are, here's Los Angeles and Orange County spring breaks: https://www.lovecatalina.com/community-information/school-break-calendar/

Using just California as an example, Los Angeles public schools are out April 1-9, while Long Beach schools are out April 7-16. 

2 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

HMMM. Just booked Bliss Mexican Riviera for 4/2/23 - 4/9/23. Hopefully it's the next week that the kids are off. Didn't even think about Easter because it's the next week. 

that's the week our school district is off.

My son goes to Catholic school and they have the week of April 2-9 off, for whatever that's worth. I have a friend who worked in customer service in the cruise industry for two decades and she said spring break is March and April - any weeks in those months are full of kids, teenagers and college students and best avoided unless you want chaos. She said sometimes she even found poop in the hallways of the ships. 

6 hours ago, zackarykeef said:

I’ll try to get the review out before you sail! And if you’ve never sailed NCL before, you should have the best experience, as you aren’t comparing to other NCL ships! Hopefully it turns you into an NCL fan!

I only have Carnival to compare it to, so I'm thinking it will be a stunning win overall. 🙂 

8

1 hour ago, zackarykeef said:

I just got off Prima 12/10. I’ll be doing a full review in the next few days, but I loved it. Speaking to those on our sailing, many were happy as well. It seems a lot of the issues from early sailings have starting working themselves out.

 

If you check the other social media site, for every negative review/post, there are 100+ comments underneath stating the exact opposite and that people loved it. The ship is stunning…and I wasn’t in Haven.

 

We had no problem getting reservations on the ship. I walked into every main theater show shortly after they began just to check them out and see if people truly were unable to get seats as they’re saying, and the balcony was always almost completely empty. I feel people are unable to secure a standard reservation and then just throw their hands up and complain without actually checking.

 

Syd’s is the same size as the Breakaway/+ class…the seating is just poorly designed. I was also able to get in for SRO without waiting in line.

 

Yes, the comedy club is a little small, but honestly…the comedians were so bad, it didn’t matter 🤣

 

I don’t think it’s claustrophobic at all, and feel many of the bars are actually larger than other ships. 
 

I wouldn’t stress. Remember that the CC community is only a very small percentage of cruisers, so those complaining are an even smaller percent. Not to mention that the majority of people on here are long time cruisers that, let’s be honest, are resistant to change…no matter what people say.

 

You’ll have a great time, and 💯 the best crew at sea I have ever experienced. Already trying to book Prima or Viva again soon!

We board the Prima in 8 days and you voice everything that I've been thinking based on what I've read. It seems that many of the people complaining are resistant to change. The ship is clearly different and many people are familiar with a standard type of ship for NCL, and this one does not fit in with their expectations. That doesn't make it bad, just different. I, personally, am looking very forward to it. I've never sailed on NCL, and I think the photos look gorgeous, and I cannot wait to board the Prima. I'll share my post-cruise report as well, the good and bad, if I find anything negative to say about it. 

That's very helpful to know about the shows and the balcony being empty at the start of each show. Thank you for sharing this info, and I look forward to your full review. 

It's quiet, relaxing, and you don't have to deal with masses of people. It's a spa sanctuary type environment. 

7 minutes ago, evandbob said:

I'm not sure the OPs statement is factual, it's probably based just on their own opinion and observations.  I've read many postings on both sides of this issue, seems to be purely a personal choice either way.

 

Anyone have any factual #.s to support (or contradict) the OP?

I based it on how many cruise lines discount the first night in specialty restaurants to encourage people to book, since there are fewer reservations that night. And how if I look even now at the Prima, on which we're sailing in 9 days, there are still reservations open for the first night at specialty restaurants and every single other night is booked. 

This article also supports it: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-dining-mistakes/

"It’s tradition for many cruisers to eat in the main dining room on the first night of the cruise. You’re still getting the lay of the land, and if you’ve selected assigned-seating dining, you’re eager to meet your waiters. Also, some avid cruisers remember a time when the best dishes, such as lobster, were served on the first night and don’t want to miss them – even though the cruise lines now often save their best dishes for formal night.

Because of this mindset, reservations can be easier to get in specialty restaurants on the first night of the cruise. Some lines even offer incentives if you book a table on the eve of embarkation. Carnival, for example, offers a free bottle of house wine or 50% off the regular wine list to cruisers who choose to dine in certain extra-fee restaurants on night one."