sunbird21

OK, thank you!!!!

Hi,

What is the final time to check in for VIVA on embarkation day out of SJU? I am trying to determine if we have time to do an excursion to El Yunque that runs 830-2pm. I know the ship leaves at 8:30pm but didn't know if we had to be onboard by 4,5,6,etc. Am I risking it with this tour?

Hi,

I'm going with extended family on this cruise, and my brother's main excursion request was to go deep sea fishing. Of the following ports-Tortola,Antigua, St Maarten.St Thomas,Barbados, St Lucia- which is the best one to look for a tour? Bonus points if anyone has any recommendations! Extra bonus points if they are good for kids(DS is 6 and may be interested in seeing it)

Thanks

Stacey

Hi,

I am going on NCL Viva in January and staying one night pre-cruise, along with extended family. Unfortunately, we don't arrive until afternoon/early evening. I have previously cruised out of  SJ and went to Toro Verde in Orocovis, although I flew in two days prior and did it on a full day. I think the majority of my family would enjoy it, but is it pushing it to try to do on embarkation day? I know the ship leaves later in the evening but forgot what the cutoff time is to board.

Also in my group will be my mom(83) and DS (6), who obviously wouldn't be doing the ziplines. Does anyone know if they can go along as spectators? If we did not do this, does anyone know of any tours/excursions that would be elderly/child friendly for the rainforest( my mom does want to see it)?

TIA,

Stacey

I heard last Friday for my 9/10 BA sailing- sailing solo in an inside, bid $215( which got doubled) and won. Heard a lot of lower bids being accepted for the same trade though.

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We had hurricane Joaquin(?) two yrs ago for our BA to Bermuda in October, worried about diversion too- instead they held us in NYC until 2am to avoid it. We had a rough sailing the next day and got to Bermuda late on Wednesday( also had a medical that diverted us to Virginia) but sun was shining and the rest of the trip was uneventful. Just another possibility...

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Most downtown hotels are pretty pricy- I stayed at Embassy Suite by the airport, it was about $130 a night. It is a 40 minute ride on light rail to downtown but worth it for the price.

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Hi,

I will be here on a cruise in a couple of weeks, and have decided to make this day low key, as I've done excursions(horseback swim and DRF) the last time I was here. I have been researching beaches, but still undecided as to which is best for me.

I'm looking for a beach that's no more than 20 minutes from the pier, would like something prettier,less seaweed/dirty water. I don't mind crowds too much, as I would like facilities such as food,restroom, chairs, etc. I really would like to do parasailing here, so a beach that offers activities would be ideal. To give you an idea of beaches that are my favorite, I enjoyed Orient beach in St Maarten, Boatyard in Barbados, Horseshoe in Bermuda, Little French Key in Roatan-so if there's something close to these places, that would be my target:)

Thanks for any/all help,

Stacey

Hi all,

I'm so sorry- I haven't abandoned you. I am in midst of a health issue the last couple of weeks-stomach symptoms not resolving well, so I've been to multiple doctors/tests/ ED visits. Add my flight level anxiety (and I'm a nurse, go figure) and only eating soup, turkey sandwiches, and cereal( and NO COKE or coffee) for 2+ weeks...... I am barely dragging myself to work these days. I was finally started on multiple antibiotics today and am hoping to start feeling better in the next week or so....I will finish this, I promise, but just need to knock this out a bit[emoji4]

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Bye if you are reading both,kudos!!! I had very different adventures each cruise[emoji4]

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[emoji38] it's the social media site that they frown on us mentioning...starts with Face and ends with Book

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Yay, glad to have you!!! Love the hashtag, builds the suspense :)

I have my leadership class next semester so actually, I'll go ahead and let you write your own and then you'll be good to go to help me with mine. :D I have 3 more nursing classes and 3 electives to go before I finish the program. I'm dragging it out as much as possible because I only do 2 classes each semester instead of the normal 3 (because of cruising...isn't that funny?) :p I managed to get 298/300 this time around and even challenged my TA for a point because I knew my APA was correct and she counted a point off for it. After she looked it up, she stated that I was indeed correct and not many students would catch that, congratulated me, and then told me that I "was ready for the MSN program". LOL

 

Since Sakari has completed the PADI seal program, I have watched her do all those safety checks, including throwing the mouth piece over her shoulder and doing the arm swoop to return it, all while exhaling. She made it look like a piece of cake. The thing that freaks me out is clearing the mask: putting water in them, then lifting the mask while holding the top of them and blowing to get the water out. I watched a video of some diver doing their check off in the ocean and they completely removed their masks then put it back on and cleared the water out! :eek: I just don't get that. Don't salt water get in your eyes? Are your eyes closed? How do you know if the water is out if your eyes are closed??? It freaks me out. That and sharks. I will have a full blown MI at that point!

 

So are you telling during this discover scuba that we have to do all those skills too? :eek:

I'm not sure how your school scores, but that sounds pretty good to me!!Sigh....I just had a somewhat humiliating call from one of my course mentors on a pharm paper that I had written. Apparently, "essay style writing" is for undergrads, and was told that while I wrote a "beautiful story about CHF" , masters program wants you to basically write a separate document for each question that they ask, i.e., they don't want the paper to "flow together." So basically they want very dry, choppy papers. Yay. If you are getting feedback that you are MSN ready, you're way ahead of the game!!!

BTW, factoring in cruising isn't insane...its necessary!! You should enjoy life while you are in school, working, raising a child,etc. Otherwise, what are you working so hard for?

I'm glad I didn't freak you out with the mask swoop thing, sounds like it was no big deal in the pool, which tells me again that I should try a class. I can't remember the mask thing specifically(its been almost 5 years) but I do remember that there were two other safety procedures besides the swoop that we had to do, so I *think* that the possibility is there. I don't get the logic behind the mask cleaning either-especially if you have contacts or something. They should do the safety stuff right by the boat, so if it gets complicated you are not out in the middle of the ocean. If you are going with a private company, do they have reviews on TA that describe what the briefing is like? (I prob don't need to ask-I think you and I have similar pre planning research habits:) )

Anyway, hope your family is having a Happy Halloween!!! Did I miss a post as to what she's dressing up as or should I just go with some type of female sea creature with a fin? ;)

Congrats on finishing the semester!!! If you're feeling deprived, I have a paper on organizational leadership and management that I'd be happy to let you write[emoji4]

Nassau- probably not too much help- been there thrice and last time was on Epic, and I chose to stay on the ship. It was nice and quiet. When I did go, I did a stingray excursion the first time that went to a halfway decent island, and the second time went to Junkanoo beach- which was as nice as the name. I think I remember reading that you've been there before??

I do recall reading on Gambees Escape review that he went to an AI that looked kind of nice-check it out if you hadn't already.

Uh-oh, I think I opened a can of worms with scuba... only continue if you aren't easily freaked out. I don't want to be responsible for you canceling Sakari's lessons.....j/k. It was probably the way it was worded and me being a bit paranoid....

Anyway I was doing the beginners dive in Cairns and they gave us a briefing on the way out of all of the "safety checks" they have you do underwater.i forget the first two, but the third was taking the mouthpiece out and throwing it behind your back, grabbing it, clearing it, and putting it back in. Simple, right? The problem was that they told us we had to exhale continuously during this process. The instructor told us if we stopped- just the exhaling, not breathing in- that our lungs would burst( basically a pulmonary embolism). They tried to say that it wasn't that difficult to keep exhaling, but once I had the gear on and went underwater and tried it, I couldn't get that image out and freaked.

I kept telling myself that I should take a REAL class, and get the technique down, which other scuba people said that I met later, just haven't gotten around to it.

All in all, it was probably the way they worded it and the fact that it was a 20 min briefing instead of thorough instruction.

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Hi there Stacey!!! So good to hear from you and I can't wait to see some pictures of your cruise!!! I hope you had a wonderful time. Let me know when you do the Alaskan cruise and come back here and link it. I'm so busy with school work, work and now .... Sakari's new scuba diving classes that I rarely have time to come over here to read for "pleasure" and I'm only on here when I get a notification of a response to a thread I'm subscribed to.

 

So messaged that guy several times about the monkey after she got home with no answer from him...until about a week ago and he only replied "hi". :rolleyes: I have no idea about the rules in Ohio, but I do know they did find a place that sells all kinds of exotic animals in Tennessee (and has a farm). So if she wants one, she'll know where to get one. But, she has decided to hold off. They are buying another home (actually the closing is tomorrow) and will be moving out of their current home right after we return from our Epic cruise.

 

Our Epic cruise is going to St Thomas, TORTOLA (new port for us) and Great Stirrup Cay....fingers crossed there was no damage to it during Matthews rampage in the Bahamas plus there's the factor that it has been closed for remodeling and is supposed to reopen in November...cutting it close.

Hahaha I hear you-reading for pleasure? Whats that? My three obligations have kept me so busy the last few weeks that my poor body gave out LOL. I have mine about half written-at a slow space b/c of the above BUT at least since fit was the second to last sailing it will still be "fresh material" for next season's Alaskan cruisers….which will hopefully include you guys:)

Anyway, link is http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2409184 but if you don't get to it it right away,there will be more later:)

I'm looking forward to your next Epic review-she is my favorite ship currently, too(though we will see if Vista knocks her out). I predict that Sakari will be deeply attached to the bowl slide….I do hope you make it to Great Stirrup Cay-it sounds like a gorgeous location that only half of the cruisers get to. I forget, have you been to Half Moon Cay? It sounds similar.

I'm super impressed that she's trying scuba, although I'm sorry about the ear trouble-at least you know she will outgrow it at some point. I tried the beginner scuba once, and, well, long story short, they freaked me out with some of their precautionary tales.

Good luck on getting to do some type of scuba activity together though! I'm curious to learn more about this bubble maker thing…

Hope school is going well!!!

Stacey

OK, in interest of fair disclosure, I got behind schedule this week when I started to feel under the weather again. Long story short, turns out I have an ulcer, so I've been waiting for the meds to kick in and trying to adapt to ulcer friendly foods while it heals…which is basically vegetables and water. As you can probably see from my food posts, that has NOT been going well.

Anyway, I do have Skagway and Glacier Bay written, but need to upload photos, will probably get it by next weekend hopefully.

Boscodog Thank you!! I would ABSOLUTELY plan on this cruise, and in 2018, if you are planning NCL, they are sending one of their newer ships, with more bells and whistles, so there will be more to do on the sea days!

NancyL2 Thank you!!! I'm glad you are enjoying!!!

Gannk Thank you, I'm glad that I am entertaining you!! It's probably not as lively as some, but it was a relaxing cruise, and beautiful itinerary-well,despite my cold LOL:)

Cruisermom2nick Thank you!!! Love your handle!!!

Josieallen Thank you!! I hope you continue to enjoy!

SenatorsFan Hi Heather!!! I'm happy to have you along!! How is your cruising going?? Yes, I would rather have a great FA than shuttle driver, but it was a rough start at an early hour…luckily service quality kept improving!!

Dporter Thank you!! Hope you enjoy!!

luvs2beachit Aww, thats a great handle too…I'm glad you like them!! I have one more on the horizon after this(well, Horizon's sister LOL)

Cincicruisers Thank you!! It's a little slow going, but I think I'll be done by my deadline of Thanksgiving:)

OK, that will do me for tonight…off to another LONG week of work, and arguing with my second job that chose NOT to compensate me for the extra visits that i did at the rate that was agreed(arg). Final payment is due in 8 days-can't be fooling around esp. after I literally worked myself into the ground this month!!!

(This aft balcony had better be worth it…)

Stacey

We hadn't really eaten since lunch, so we decided to try one of the main dining rooms for dinner,which would be our first time doing so. I'm not sure why we chose Summer Place over Indigo, but we did.

It was not crowded at all, and we were escorted to a window table, which was pretty to watch Juneau lit up and the Princess ship sail away.

We both decided on the spaghetti carbonara,skipping appetizers.

Well, the good news is that the service was pretty good,although there weren't many people in there. The bad news was, the spaghetti was DISGUSTING. And it's pretty darn hard to ruin spaghetti.

If you want to simulate the taste of this, open a can of tomato sauce and heat it up. Then pour in a pint of salt and stir. Mix in some meat. Then pour another pint of salt in.

Do this, and you've got the idea of what our spaghetti tasted like.

We really tried to choke it down, but after a few bites, we couldn't. This dish would send a CHF-er into immediate crisis.

Finally, we gave up and signaled so to the server. of course, he offers due something else, but again, we declined.We did get dessert this time.

I got the chocolate volcano cake, which was wonderful. Yay, NCL!

It was just after 8:30 at this time, so we went upstairs to Spinnaker for a beverage(or two). The "Who wants to be a Bazillionaire" game started at 9, so we watched that while enjoying our Bailey's and coffee. I noticed that a lot of people were ordering mudslides this evening, which seemed an odd drink for Alaska, but ok. I wasn't going to argue, so I tried one on my next trip to the bar.

Whoa. NCL may have been off on some of their dinners-or my taste buds were off due to cold-but their drinks were sublime. it was the best mudslide EVER. No wonder they were selling like water!

After the show had ended, I was pretty exhausted, though I think it was all cold at this point. However, we did have an EARLY excursion the next day, so it wasn't so bad going to bed early.

Even though it was after 10, the ship hadn't left the port.

Back in our cabin, Anthony was at it again-2 towel animals a day 2 days in a row!

Also, since I was now a silver(climbing that Latitudes ladder) we got chocolates at night. I had missed them on NCL cruises, and my last Carnival cruise(only platinum gets them now-sigh).

So, with my third dose of meds, I collapsed, praying that my energy would increase and symptoms would decrease for our LONG excursion the next day.

We did want to see the shops, but I was desperate for some stronger cold medicine and tissues at this point. A few souvenir shops yielded nothing, so we asked and were directed to a general store down the street.

Oh,this place was heaven at this point-basically a full sized grocery store. I stocked up on giant boxes of tissues, Dayquil, and even Flonase, which my mom insisted would "dry me up" (it didn't,which I knew it wouldn't).

Outside, I downed the Dayquil and we explored the street. As I had been told,several stores were selling off souvenirs and jackets at pretty cheap prices-basic windbreakers were about $25.

These are the bear-safe garbage cans on the streets...

We did go into the Red Dog Saloon, a famous bar for Juneau, but since it was kind of crowded, we opted not to get a drink. I usually don't like to buy drinks when I have a package on the ship,even if ours was included (gotta love NCL's perks).

When we reached the port village, it was dusky and the ship buses were lined up, so we were on our way back to the Pearl pretty quickly.

It was still early as related to all aboard time,so there was no crowd getting back on the ship,which was nice.

Upstairs,we found another towel animal and treat in our cabin,as well as priority disembarkation papers for Skagway.

I thought I had taken a separate photo of the rabbit, but apparently not. Anyway, there's a sneak peak of our turndown service towel animal as well-our collection so far!

We also noticed that our phones were still working on the ship, so we did a little catching up with people for a bit.

I will digress here because I am getting into a hot topic for Alaska cruises-cell service.

My mom has Verizon, and I have a little no name company in NYC that has unlimited everything for about a third of the price of Verizon(and others). it works just as well,except I can't send picture messages for some reason, and of course have to purchase my own phone upgrades. In either case, both of our phones worked on embarkation day but switched over to maritime communications(i.e., ROAMING) that night and the next day. Then it flipped back once we were about an hour outside Juneau.

Then we head down the shorter trail and got some pics by the waterfall.

Iceberg, right ahead!!! (Sorry, couldn't resist).

As we were walking back, I saw some people on a boulder taking pictures away from the glacier. Thinking that there was another bear sighting, I handed my mom my purse,grabbed the camera, and hoisted myself onto the boulder.

No more bears, but I did get a good shot of this guy…

All in all, not bad sightings for the day!

We wandered back to the visitors center and inside for a bit before it was time to meet the bus.

As we were waiting, I ran into one of the roll call group members,who had also seen the bears. She wan't on our tour, but was on the whale/glacier combo and awaiting the ride out to the whales.

I wished her luck in her whale spotting, but at that exact moment, my cold was in HIGH gear,and it had started to rain lightly, so I wasn't in any shape to go on for much longer. Thus, any whale tours would've been a waste for me-at that point.

On our ride back, Fred was on a roll with his jokes,though they were more personal by then. He offered to drop anyone who wanted off in the downtown area, so we took advantage of that. He told us it was about a ten minute walk back to the place where we had started the tour.

We thanked and tipped him. He was a nice tour guide!

When we arrived, it was actually sunny out, and we made our way to the immediate viewing point of the glacier.

We wandered down the paths to the left of the parking lotto get some more pictures, then head back to the visitors center, which is located on a cliff. there are several trails surrounding the area, and signs marking each trail and difficulty. The Nugget Falls trail is popular and goes right to the waterfall, and it accessible-but there is also a very short trail that gets you a decent look as well-I think it was called the viewpoint trail?

Anyway, as we walked towards the visitors center, we noticed some restrooms right there with minimal line, so we took advantage of that.

As I came out a few minutes later, I noticed a sizable crowd outside staring at the cliff. No one was making a move towards the restroom, so something else had to be going on.

I asked a woman standing near me, and she pointed to the cliff. "There are a couple of bears up there!" she said excitedly.

WHAT???

Well, of course I had the camera out and was scanning the cliff rapidly, but I must have been looking too high at first. Then I glimpsed the bear much further down-as in, RIGHT OUTSIDE the visitors center.

I immediately raised my camera, and then heard several gasps.

I looked up-AND THERE WAS THE BEAR AND THREE CUBS, JUMPING DOWN FROM THE CLIFF AND STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PATH!!!!!!

The crowd immediately cleared the way as the bears sauntered in between us,crossing the gravel, and climbing down the hill on the other side.

Well, of course I was racing to the guardrail and managed to get there about .02 seconds before everyone else. Somehow, my fingers gained some control as I snapped half a dozen shots of the mama bear and her cubs strolling across the grass and edge of the lake towards the people standing down on those trails.

Of the shots I took, these were the best. No, they won't be in National Geographic anytime soon, but its my proof that I SAW A BEAR!!!

I tried to estimate the likelihood of getting back to the other trail to get closer shots,but figured that it was unlikely.

Instead, I gleefully showed my mom the shots I did get and we were thrilled that we had a significant wildlife sighting on day 1 in Alaska!

More pictures of downtown Juneau

My only whale sighting so far….

There was a long wooden bridge outside the ship leading to a parking lot, where some Greyhound buses were-this was a free shuttle to the end of the port terminal.

It was a 3 minute ride, and once there, the ship and private tours awaited.

If you chose not to prebook something, don't despair-there were SEVERAL booths of tour companies still offering glacier and whale tours, helicopter flights, city tours,etc. The tram to Mt Roberts is also right there.

Originally, I had researched and planned to take the "blue bus" to the Mendenhall glacier, which is the big Kahuna in Juneau. The RT bus is $30pp and you can choose when to go and come back. As I had said, my mom had no interest in whale watching,so we didn't go for any of those combos( the going private excursion for these two is about $130pp). I could have gone by myself, but I allowed myself to listen to everyone and figured I wouldn't waste the money since I WOULD BE SEEING WHALES FROM THE SHIP(sigh).

In any case, I also found that there was a salmon hatchery in town, and that you could either cab it there or take a city tour trolley for $25 pp. Since salmon=increased bear sightings, I figured we would do this and the blue bus to the glacier, and still come out ahead since the ship sells this combo for $80pp.

With that in mind, I walked up to a tour kiosk and inquired about just that.

Unfortunately, the hatchery had closed for the day due to the "rain." (It was still very lightly drizzling).

The guide did offer us a city/glacier combo for $40 each, which we took,as it allowed 90 minutes at the glacier. He pointed to a green school bus in the parking lot and said that it was leaving in a few minutes.

Once on the bus, we met our tour guide, Fred, a native Alaskan with a VERY dry sense of humor. His speech was flat,which made his jokes a bit more funny. To give you an example of his humor, he gave out a strict warning to not litter food, which would encourage bears to approach , saying that he didn't want anyone to get hurt. "That would be unbearable," he stated.

He also told us to hurry up and look outside as we drove away as he spotted an eagle. Unfortunately, said eagle was a statue.

All in all, he was entertaining, and his narration of the city was interesting. We drove along the immediate town outside with all of the usual port village shops(again, Del Sol and Diamonds International looked quite out of place). Then we were in the downtown area before crossing the river(?) to the other side of town.

Fred pointed out the Governors Mansion, citing it as having a "wonderful view of Russia from the backyard." Or, "as we like to call it, the financial district of Juneau," Fred joked.

On the other side of the river/bay/whatever, he stopped at a scenic viewpoint, and we got out to take some pictures.We had a good view of the three ships in port.

After this stop, we head out to the glacier, which was about a 15 minute ride. The area was a bit on the suburban side, which I thought was surprising,especially close to the glacier.

Some more sail in pictures….

Guess who was waiting there?

Almost forgot my dessert…

Tuesday, September 13,2016-Juneau

Well, my cold had me sleeping in a bit longer this morning, but I was still up at about 7-ish local time.

Looking out of the window, I saw some mountains in the distance. Alaska at last!!!

http://i1362.photobucket.com/albums/r689/Sunbird21/Alaska%20Cruise/Juneau/IMG_6943_zpsnvqy8fnw.jpg[/img]

Since I was feeling pretty cruddy, I skipped the gym today in lieu of a warm bath.

Once we were both moving around, it was back to Moderno for breakfast again. The hostess recognized us, and we had Dovie serving breakfast,who quickly remembered that I drank Coke-well,Pepsi- and had my mom's coffee out within seconds.

She went for her waffle again, and I went for the eggs Benedict today.

Yahira greeted us again,asking what our plans for the day in Juneau were, and reminded us to meet her outside Moderno for priority disembarkation.

After breakfast, we wandered down to the stores where I wanted to stock up on Kleenex and cold medicine. Yes, i was officially admitting now. Unfortunately, there was NO KLEENEX for sale in either store. The cold med choices were Robitussin and Nyquil. Since I very much wanted to be awake, I went for the Robitussin.

I didn't want to overdo it activity wise, so we went upstairs to the Spinnaker-are you sensing a pattern yet?-and relaxed on one on the wavy loungers at the front. The hotel Q&A started shortly after we arrived, and we listened in the background while reading/whale searching.

I saw quite a few more mountains in the distance, but still no whales. What was up with these creatures???

We pretty much remained here until lunch hours at Moderno, where we planned to eat right before disembarking.

Upstairs, sitting by the window we could see our approach into Juneau. It was quite a different looking port than any of the Caribbean, but very pretty-you could see the town divided on either side of the bay that we were sailing into.

It was mid 50's, drizzling a bit but not bad. The tropical pool decor definitely looked off with the snow capped peaks.

I had the French dip sandwich again-it's amazing! My mom had a burger.

Of course, I had to keep getting up to run outside and get photos.

Dovie managed to talk us into a beverage and dessert before we left. Hey, feed a cold, right?

For those of you cringing that I would dare go outside with such symptoms, just know that I was wearing a sweater and my Northface jacket-and it really wasn't COLD cold, just cooler than the 90 degree inferno that I had been living in the past few weeks.

We finished our lunch just in time to meet Yahira at the entrance, and she escorted us along with a few others down the stairs, past the line waiting, and out the gangway. It was unbelievable!

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