majmaj4

On 2/25/2023 at 10:59 AM, martincath said:

Then your third night is easy - Cactus Club at English Bay! Menu is plenty wide enough to easily do back-to-back dinners without repetition, but views are different, and if you can dine late enough that sunset happens it's possibly the best view of any resto in the city (certainly the best ground-level one).

 

T&B have also been slowly buying up every single resto with outdoor dining on the Seawall that hits the market - so if you'd rather double-down on their more casual menu, the Shipyards over in North Van gives you a view of Vancouver so that's a bit different - all of their other spots like Bridges on Granville Island or the original one in the Athletes Village are right next to the water too.

 

If you want something different though, a bit swankier, then I'd suggest Lift or Seasons in the Park if we're sticking to restos-with-a-view. I'd risk a sunset cocktail in Pan Pacific but I can't recommend the food in Five Sails any more - consistency went out the window after Ernst & Gerry sold it to Glowbal and retired; the only remaining key role since the TheBeforeTimes is the now-GM Jason who used to assist Gerry - so FoH remains a relatively safe bet for good service - but in the kitchen they've been unable to keep any key staff member from TheBeforeTimes and of all the new folks brought in since 2020 only the pastry chef has stuck around more than a few months. At their price point, you want a consistent team cooking and Five Sails hasn't had that since pre-Covid.

 

Whichever Birmingham you're from though OP, original/Alabama/the other few tiny ones in the US, I would wager good money that you don't have Chinese food remotely as good as we do - views are more likely to be of an urban street or suburban stripmall than nice scenery, but short of visiting some parts of LA or getting over to Hong Kong, Beijing etc. the food will be literally the best in the world. So if you want to break up the two nights of Western grub, I'd point you to Dynasty Seafood or Kirin if you're looking for high end food without having to leave downtown Vancouver; Chinatown BBQ for much more casual, old school food for locals actually in Chinatown; Peaceful for handmade noodles and interesting lamb dishes (Uighur/Xinjiang cuisine); Bao Bei for something more modern with a bit of a kick (Shanghai/Taiwanese flavours, Tapas-esque presentation with little nibbly individual plates or big shared ones, custom cocktails that match well with the food). If you don't mind going out to Richmond, the 'new Chinatown' of the region has a massive array of options from every region you can imagine - but since you also opened a thread specifically asking about restos walking distance from the PP, I won't go that far out!

Thank you for all the tips.  I will be in Vancouver a few days and would be interested in heading to Richmond for authentic Dim Sum... what are some of your favorites?

9 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Just to add a bit more confusion to the mix.  I have done the Kenai Fjord day trips out of Seward several times and the glaciers there are also very very good and you are almost certain to get into them.

 

I agree that the only way to do Tracy Arm is on a small boat or a small ship.  When we did AK on a small ship we got so close to the glacier that when it calved the boat rocked.  We also got to the glaciers last summer on zodiacs.  We were doing another small ship AK cruise. They got as close as they could and we went the rest of the way in on zodiac.

 

Just to clarify my verbiage.  To me a small boat is one that you take a day trip on.  A small ship is a cruise ship that holds no more than 200 or so passengers.  Our small ship cruises to AK were on ships that held 50 passengers and 150 passengers.  My goal is some day to do AK on a 10 passenger trawler ship.  

 

One of the times we were in Tracy Arm there were people there on a small sailboat.  That would also be way of doing it.  

 

DON

If you had to chose, would it be Tracy Arm or Kenai Fjord?

I was looking at the Anchor Point Inn.  Seemed very basic but clean and close to the port.   

3 hours ago, nini said:

This is so true... Even though it is very illogical!

Some have said that if you make reservations and they are charged on your CC, that once onboard, those charges can be reversed and be deducted from your OBC.

I called Princess and they said I could get the charges reverse on board.  Seems like a pain for the people on board to have to handle that.

1 hour ago, portiemom said:

You should have seen this on the payment screen when you were checking out. You can go back and do a mock payment and it will show you on the payments screen. So add any excursion, go through the process following Pay Now, etc., and when you get to the last screen you will see how much OBC has been used and what remainder you'd have to pay on your credit card. Obviously, that is as far as you go unless you actually want the excursion. From the same page, you can choose to Remove the excursion, as in cancel the payment process and remove the excursion from your cart.

Thanks that worked!

Is there somewhere to see the OBC balances.  I booked a few things but want to check to make sure it looks correct?

Pre cruise I am trying to make a reservation at Crown Grill using my OBC;  when I did the reservation I didn't see anything for payment, but now I see a charge on my credit card instead of using my (Shareholder) OBC.

Is there a way to make the reservation ahead of time and use the OBC.  

When I made an excursion reservation it looks like it did not charge me and so I assume used OBC.

Thanks,

4 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

My booking matches my name on my travel documents but the stinking Medallion app will not accept my name when entering passport information!!!  I have complained to the app developers but not heard back from them.  Back when the web based Personalizer had a place to enter document information it was not a problem to enter my passport information.

I had a similar issue when I tried to scan the passport, but when I picked the manual enter option it worked okay.  The scanning option just kept telling me the first name wasn’t legal. 

I called the enterprise office, and they said they do not have a shuttle.   So I will probably walk over to the crown plaza if I have luggage still with me or walk back to port if no luggage.

Fantastic review thank you!  I will be on the Jewel in a few weeks.  

What was your favorite bar?  Any favorite drinks?

Hi,  I read that there is a shuttle from Victoria Ogden port to the downtown area.  Do you know where it

downtown it drops off?

YWCA is the most reasonably priced hotel I found.  It  isn’t walking distance with luggage  but not too far from Canada place.  Their web site seems to have some cheaper rooms than the aggregators are showing.

Viator and tripadvisor seem to have some.  I am interested to see inputs from those that have done the cruise before about NCL specific tours.

Great to get confirmation.  was the non-refundable OBC put against gratuities or not?  

Wow you have done a wide variety of excursions.  Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show  - is this mostly for kids or is it enjoyable for adults?    Look forward to reading your review.  thanks

51 minutes ago, jcollin said:

Hello Natefish95,

Maybe you can answer my question as I can't seem to get an answer elsewhere.  If I use one of my FAS for dinner at the Sushi restaurant how many items can I get?  I would think its more than one otherwise why would I use it?  Thanks

I have it written in some reviews  that you get 4 items at the sushi restaurant.

14 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Almost every US Port city has the same issue: Miami, New York City, Los Angeles (San Pedro), Seattle (Smith Cove and sometimes the Bell Street Terminal).  If you read this forum very often, you will read horror story after horror story.

Hopefully when I board in a few weeks it won’t be as bad.
 

I didn’t mean to imply there weren’t issues.  Just that I believe the cruise line can impact the port.  Singapore I went through one week and it was terribly organized and then the next week with another cruise line and bigger ship and it was very organized and efficient. 

Thanks.  Since it doesn't look like it is easy to drop off luggage I will give Enterprise a call.  I think they have shuttle but I saw people complain about shuttle delays so if delayed I will try the Crowne Plaza.

Do you know how much it is to park at the port?   Any tips for breakfast places if I get there early.  

Hi I am leaving on a Princess Discovery in a few weeks out of the San Pedro port.

I am solo and renting a car from Enterprise since it seems to be the closest to the port.  I was thinking of dropping off my luggage first and then the car 2nd.  That would give me some options - shuttle, uber or walk from the drop off.

Help with any of the following questions would be great;

1)  How hard would it be for me to drop off the luggage at the port - being solo.  Is there an easy in out to drop off my luggage?

2)  How early could I drop off my luggage?

3) Looks like it is about a 20 minute walk from enterprise - is that about correct.  

TIA,

46 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Please reaize that NCL can DO NOTHING until you are on the ship.  The Embarkation process from the time you arrive at the Port (any port) until you board the ship is the RESPONSIBILITY of the Port Authority.  Sounds like there were not enough trained people to handle to ships at the same.  It is possible that some of the people hired by the Port for that day might have come from a Temp (Day Labor) Agency.  Have several that happen in a couple of Ports.  They are hired just for the "Day" and have little or training.  Boarding a ship requires packing your patience.

thanks for the recap natefish95!  I will be on the Jewel in May.  Sorry you had such a stressful trip getting there!  Glad you were so persistent.  
 

I find it hard to believe the cruise line base nothing to do with the on boarding.  I recently did 2 cruises out of Singapore - same cruise terminal but different cruise lines.  They were handled very differently.    I find it hard to imagine that was all driven by the port agents.   
 

Last time I went to the solo events and invited one of the other people at the events to the comp dinners.  Nice to share the perk.

5 hours ago, mistertomatoe said:

 

Looks like my Cagney's and Le Bistro went through online because they were $0. However, Teppanyaki and Moderna require payment. Any way around that? I don't think it matters but I have one for FAS and two for Platinum. It shouldn't matter where the Platinum dining is since it's now at any restaurant.

 

For OP, don't forget the free laundry bag and Internet and Shore Excursions discounts which have to be booked while onboard to apply. They also did the wine tasting and cocktail party on the cruise I was on last week.

I am seeing the shore excursion discounts when I am booking ahead of time.

I understand there is luggage storage at Canada Place cruise storage. So you could have a backup plan of touring on your own and storing luggage during the day with non NCL excursion.

7 hours ago, latebuyer said:

The reviews of the trolley are bad on trip advisor but i think its because people expect a city tour and don’t realize its main purpose is to get to the totem park. Personally i wouldn’t take a bus that only runs every hour to totem park. What if you miss it or mechanical failure or driver problem? The trolley is your best bet to get there. It must be cheaper than 50.00 though?

The trolley is ~$80 through NCL  so would be ~$30.  I looked on trip advisor and even direct was showing about ~$80

I am traveling by NCL Jewel in Early May.  If you did the Trolley what are your thoughts.  I would probably just walk around town;  but

I have $50 off bonus on NCL, and thought the visit to the Totem polls might make this tour worthwhile.  

If you took this tour what are your thoughts?