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I almost always do specialty dining, but here is the MDR menu from tonight. I feel like the surf and turf was $35 last time I was onboard, now it is showing as $18.

After doing two cruises on Celebrity, the biggest thing I miss is the fact that Celebrity has somehow figured out how to not use up half of the guest elevators on embarkation day. HAL can you please study this and implement????? Particularly on full ships it is quite annoying that half or more of the elevators in each bank are off all day, especially when they didn't even have luggage to deliver... OK rant over. I am in 6107 which is a SC category. You could only book guarantees on the 1 night cruise unless you booked very close in, so I went with the SC guarantee (last time I was upgraded to an SA). I am usually opposed to guarantee rooms, but as it is only one night I figure who cares where they put you. The room is totally indistinguishable from the SAs on deck 7. If you are OK with the walk to the Neptune lounge the savings of an SC can be significant (on a 7 night cruise it is often a greater than $1K difference). Exactly the same room and perks other than location. The only Neptunes I don't like are the ones right around the midship elevators as the elevators have a spectacular view of your balcony the entire cruise. I cannot speak to the forward facing Neptunes as I have not yet stayed in one - and those who have followed my other threads know that my favorites are the SB aft wraps. In comparison to the SB aft wraps the cabin is larger (more space between the bed and the chairs/couch) but the balcony is much smaller. Being mid-ship you feel much less motion and there is less noise/rattling than you get on the aft wraps.

One of the easiest embarkations I have ever done. Arrived about 1:10 at the pier. There did not seem to be any porters to take luggage but there was a sign pointing back out front (since it is only a 1 night cruise I assume they figure no one has much luggage). We stood in a short line and went through security, next we went through US immigration (they had a lot of automated kiosks that printed a receipt that you handed to the officer). After that the standard HAL check in kiosks that use facial ID and then takes a picture of your passport (an agent was there to do everything for you). After that we walked directly on the ship. I boarded the ship at 1:20 or so. As has been the standard since the cruising restart HAL puts your key card in your door, and they are still doing the e-muster drill. Such a huge enhancement from a guest experience perspective, it lets you get right to relaxing and you have a 2 hour time frame to stop by and scan in to your station.

Hope you have a wonderful time back East!

The journey from Pacific Central Station to the Canada Place pier is very easy. It is roughly 1 block to the Sky Train, a 10 minute ride on the Sky Train, and less than 1 block to the pier (assuming you use the correct exit at Waterfront Station - read the signs carefully). We arrived at 12:25 PM, thanks to being one of the first off the train I walked into Canada Place at 1:10 PM (and that includes a couple detours to take pictures). After crossing the street from Pacific Central Station I took this, you can see the Sky Train station at the end of the path just past the little tent. If you manage to use the correct exit at Waterfront Station this is the view from the top of the escalator...the near side of Canada Place is the entrance for cruise ship passengers. The ramp takes you down to the passenger embarkation level. You can also go inside Canada Place and take an elevator downstairs. I think it is worth walking to the far side of Canada Place and getting some pictures of your ship. Canada Place has wonderful public access to walk alongside and depending on which ship is docked where (and what direction it is facing) you can get some nice pictures.

Arrival into Vancouver was easy, we got in about 12:30 PM which is half an hour late. You go through Canadian customs/immigration at the train station. Upon arrival everyone has to remain seated while the crew takes off all luggage. You must pick your checked luggage up train side and carry it in for customs inspection. Note that the baggage car was in the rear of the train so people with checked bags had to go to the rear to get their luggage and then walk to the front to exit the platform. They disembark one car at a time starting with business class. This alone makes business class worth the upgrade, there are only 15 passengers and they didn't start disembarking coach until all of us had gotten our luggage and walked to the front of the train to line up. They keep the side doors shut so other people can't get off early. I was the 3rd or 4th person in line because I stopped to take pictures of the train. The whole customs process took about 5 minutes once i got off the train. The customs agent did ask me to see my cruise ticket (boarding pass). I am traveling alone and not staying in Canada for even 12 hours so I wonder if they find that more suspicious. You do get a nice view of the Via Rail cars used on The Canadian route which is definitely on my bucket list (and will definitely get a trip report). Amtrak arrives on a separate track from the rest of the station that is fenced off for customs purposes. Our nice new Siemens Charger locomotive.

I did this last year in the other direction which runs Saturday-Sunday in early October. It is as close to a party cruise as you can get on HAL. Much younger crowd overall. Many more people who are are first time cruisers. Makes for a very different vibe than even a 7 night cruise in the summer. Keep in mind that the pricing starts around $75/person for an inside cabin and $300/person for a Neptune suite. In the Pinnacle Grill the people at the table next to me somehow didn't understand that the PG is a speciality restaurant and were arguing that if they bought only up charge items that they should not have to pay the PG cover charge also. I have never heard such an argument in 20+ cruises. There are also multiple people in cabins near mine blasting music on the balcony. I could hear it inside my room for a while from one of the cabins next door playing it outside. Thankfully they have since stopped and turned it down. Hard to gauge the number of back to back folks, when I have done the San Diego-Vancouver leg there are usually around 600 people who stay onboard. Not sure how many of those continue between Vancouver/Seattle. Ship is definitely full this time. The spa folks were telling me they have been at 100% and will be at 100%+ all summer. The days of 60% occupancy as a regular occurrence seem to be a thing of the past. I can definitely tell there are more people at the buffet and walking around than there have been on my cruises earlier in the pandemic. HAL seems to try to put their best foot forward on these 1 night cruises. They know they only have 1 chance to get it right, and that a lot of these people are new. On the cruise in October I never saw a more full schedule of entertainment on HAL. Every venue did a full 3 sets of 45 minutes each plus they had Humanity on twice. If they ran main stage shows daily every day (like every single other cruise line) plus all the music venues played 3 full sets consistently (not a shortened 10 minute set twice) I think there would be a lot fewer complaints about the entertainment. I will post the program later tonight as internet allows, but it is similar. Major Fourth (new Quartet with harmonies) twice on the main stage. BB Kings x3, Billboard Onboard x3, and Third Avenue West in the Ocean Bar x4 (no clue what this is and the internet won't let me look it up right now). I would bet someone money that when I return in 2 weeks the nightly entertainment will be slimmed down on the standard 7 day run.

Absolutely could not have asked for better weather! We shall see if I am so lucky in 2 weeks when I go farther north.

Good Morning from the Pacific Northwest! I am taking the train up this morning (I usually arrive at least a day early but as this is just a one night cruise I figure if something goes wrong I will simply give up). Taking the train out of Seattle is very easy, I got to the station at 7:30 for a 7:50 AM departure, showed my passport and boarded. Train is quite full, every seat is taken and I am definitely glad I did business class. If you are planning to take the train I strongly recommend booking early - Amtrak has a number of equipment shortages so trains may not have as many cars as they ideally would which means trains are more likely to sell out earlier. The ride up is quite pretty. You spend most of the along Puget Sound which is quite scenic. The train is FAR more comfortable than a bus - and they have a cafe car with snacks for purchase. If you book business class you get a $3 off coupon on one item purchased. They also have wifi onboard which works while in the US. Currently sitting about 15 minutes south of the boarder waiting for the train before us to clear customs. Running about 15 minutes late but that could change one way or the other depending on how long customs takes. The last few days the train arrived around 1 PM in Vancouver and my goal is to be on the ship by 2. If you are taking the train up and need a hotel in Seattle, the Embassy Suites is immediately across the street from King Street station. There are a number of other nearby hotels and anything downtown would be relatively close, but you can't beat walking across the street. Also, for cruises departing Vancouver, Seattle is often much cheaper to fly in and out of. I would definitely take the train over a bus any day.

Gearing up for a very short live thread for a very short cruise. As a Seattle resident, sometimes these one night repositioning cruises fit into my schedule and are always quite affordable. I will be taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver Friday Morning, board Eurodam in the early afternoon and be back home Saturday morning. Looking forward to getting back onboard one of my favorite ships - of course 18 hours is not enough, so I will be back in 2 weeks for a 7 night Alaska cruise to really satisfy my cruise fix.

You may also want to check the third party excursion providers - both Project Expedition and Shore Excursion Group are reputable and may have something the cruise line doesn't offer. Project Expedition in particular has great customer service and if you reach out they may be able to get something set up even if it is not publicly available.

Anywhere from 7 to 14 days out is pretty typical, sometimes you will not get it until you arrive at the pier and sometimes you will get it earlier. I just got an assignment slightly over a month out for a one night cruise at the end of April. You can see it online when you view your reservation - the cabin picture that says the category will be replaced and say the stateroom number. You will also see on luggage tags and boarding pass. Guarantee cabin unassigned: After assignment:

If everything happened as it has been reported this is a very poor policy and I think this type of thing will hurt them in the long run. It would cost them absolutely nothing to reinstate the reservation. The customer will probably spend money onboard. 21 days out they probably won't even fill the cabin. I totally agree, there are a lot of choices in cruising. I don't know of any other company that is as inflexible and unfriendly to customers with their policies. Every company has mistakes happen, customer service failures, etc. Every company has done cost cutting after the pandemic. But NCL appears to be unabashed and happy to do this to their customers.

Below is the full text from the TA email they sent. Apparently some items like transfers are considered an "invoice item" and these will trigger auto cancel. Other items are an "amenity item" and will not cancel trigger the auto cancel. Why they expect the general public to have an understanding of this is beyond me - if you don't checkout and pay for the item it should be dropped off of your cart. Furthermore if you immediately notice and call back there should be someone who can reinstate it. INFORMATION The auto-cancel process is enabled for all North America NCL Direct and Trade agencies. It applies to booked (BK) reservations with a balance (net due) owed of $1 or more, based on the final payment due date (120 days from the sail date). If an invoice item is added to a reservation inside the final payment and the payment is not immediately collected or is declined when the item is added, the reservation will automatically cancel. Invoice items that do and do not trigger the auto-cancelation process are listed below. Additionally, if an amenity item is added to a reservation and the payment is not immediately collected or is declined at the time the item is added, the amenity will automatically be removed from the reservation. A list of applicable amenities that will cancel from the reservation if the payment is not collected can be found in NCL Help’s “Amenity and Gift Orders” article. If you have any questions, please contact your sales manager. Below are some of the invoice items that cause automatic cancelations. Please note that the triggers are not limited to the following items: Air that was not originally added to the reservation Essential Travel Protection Ground transfers Land items, such as pre and post hotels and cruisetours The below invoice items do not trigger the auto-cancelation process: Amenity Beverage service charge Penalty charges Dining Dining service charge Entertainment FAS+ upgrade Pre-book Spa/Thermal Suite Pass Pre-paid service charges Priority Access Package Shore Excursion Shore Excursion Get Tax Soda Service Charge Spa Spa Service Fee Streaming Wi-Fi Travel With promo code: TWITH Upsell Beverage Upsell DIN (dining) Upsell Wi-fi Vibe Valet promo code: Valet & ValetAdd Visa Fee

I always have the HIA restored almost immediately after cancelling

I would head over between 10:30 and 11. Both times I have sailed they had suites boarded by then. The room may not be ready but you can always dump your luggage and head off to explore the ship.

Great ship, and in good condition. Definitely older, especially with the outlets in the room. But I would absolutely sail on her again. That is funny, Connie was my first M class ship, I had no clue they were opposite on the other ships.

The food was great! Luminae and Tuscan both get 5 stars. Everything from the MDR menu I had in Luminae was great, but I wasn't impressed when I dined in the MDR. Not sure if they dress it up a bit or if I just didn't make a good choice.

When we got back I found that Luminae was open for lunch. They actually had Luminae open a couple of port days (2nd day in Cartagena & in Limon). And a beautiful sail away from Costa Rica

Day 8 - Puerto Limon, Costa Rica With an early start I had room service delivered by my butler. A very nice way to start the day. And now for the train...a bus picked us up and took us over to the train. A few things about the train. 1) It is not at all accessible. You must climb stairs onto the train and step over a gap between cars. You also do not get on and off at a station, basically the bus drives up to the right of way and you just climb on. 2) It is an antique (which is not a problem), but of course no air conditioning or anything like that - just the breeze through the windows. It gets quite hot onboard. 3) There are ladies onboard who will try to sell you store bought snacks and sodas. 4) The train goes through the jungle/plantations. If you sit on the right side you can see the beach/coast for a while at a distance before the track turns and goes more inland. 5) Our bus was the last to arrive and so we were in the very front car which got a lot of diesel smoke and was very loud from the train horn which bothered a lot of folks. 6) The train ride is about an hour. If you are lucky they will stop and you will be able to see a monkey up in the trees. After getting off the train and back on the bus they stop at a fruit stand/banana plantation type place for a few minutes. They were supposed to drop us off very far from the ship at some stands and then you would have to walk very far to get back, but thankfully the guide spared us this. If they try to drop you off at the flea market say that you cannot walk and insist they take you back to the gangway. It is roughly 6 blocks distance if I had to guess. No one on this tour was happy, after you see 5 minutes of the jungle/banana plants you have seen it all. I spoke with folks who did the Sloth Sanctuary tour which includes a ride on the boat canal and they all loved it so I would say go with that. The train does pass over a bridge that crosses the canal where the boats go. People walking from the flea market which is off to the far side of the NCL ship.

I had dinner in Luminae tonight, complete with mandatory pasta.

OK so I actually bailed on that one and decided to do absolutely nothing on the ship (which was lovely). But I spoke with a few folks who went and loved it.

I definitely recommend it! But 100% sit downstairs in the air conditioning. And bring some stuff to put on your seat. The lunch on the tour was OK. Nothing to write home about but edible and decent considering there is no galley on the boat and they had to have it all pre-made (chicken tenders, salad, pasta salad, half a ham and cheese sandwich and a cookie).

I do not recommend the train. Will post more on that shortly. I don't think anyone on the tour was happy with it. Everyone I talked to LOVED the sloth tour with the boat ride so I would probably go that way.

We did an evening city tour which was done by the group and is not offered by Celebrity (except as a group excursion). We had dinner at a restaurant called Andrés Cartagena (a Colombian chain) which is extremely lively - they had an acrobatic artist, live music, etc. Food was excellent and it was fun to get off the ship for the evening. I wish I had photos, but it was a lot of fun.