woodz

Interesting since new mattresses were mentioned upthread and NCL's website says it's scheduled for refurbishment Summer 2016.

Mine loved it!

We booked a gty balcony for our Sun Alaskan cruise after making sure there were no obstructed views. We are thrilled with out B2 Family balcony and saved over $600. Just do your research.

Thank you for posting this info. It's been years since we have been to Sitka.

No customs and the port is close to the airport. No problem.

What pier did you go out of. We are on the Sun May 8th out of drydock in San Francisco.

Yikes, we are booked on the Sun, May 8th to Alaska. Fingers crossed.

We're from AZ and lived in MD, rain is fantastic!

Being a Kindergarten Aide we had to walk up to the Kindergarten Cop school last time we were there. We have loved it in the past and just want to see more.

I'm old enough to remember that my mom never had to get out of the car for gas. My son lived in OR and got yelled at a couple of times too. Costco is anyways a favorite stop for me, my dh, not so much.

Thank you for the responses. We have been to Astoria twice and wanted to see some of the beautiful coastline. We will be on the Sun on May 10th. It is a fairly short port time so we will probably drive the coast and then need to find some yummy marionberry jam before we get back on the ship. I'll call Enterprise and let them pick us up.

Has anyone rented a car and driven to Canon Beach & Tillamook? How long did the drive take? Is Enterprise Car Rentals close to the port?

Icy Point should have their dock done this summer so no tendering.

Binoculars

What would happen if they just rolled off with their luggage in Victoria? Just curious because people who become ill or have an emergency leave mid cruise.

We have cruised with our kids for years and I would recommend the rt out of Seattle on the Explorer. My teens like Alaska but were antsy on sea days.

We just booked the May 8th cruise, so we will be the first pax after refurbishment. I will try to post when we return home what changes were made.

Catalina, sea day, Ensenada, home. He goes way west on the sea day, we had cool weather and big swells that day.

Brunch was on the sea day. Lots of variety, regular breakfast fare plus huevos rancheros, steak & eggs, salmon & more.

We were in the Spirit dining room, sorry for the mix up. The 3rd night was the beef tenderloin aka chateaubriand and it was perfect. The first night I had the short ribs cooked in red wine, delicious. 2nd night lobster, 3rd night was the tenderloin and the last night I had red fish. I thought the appetizers were good. I always try something I can't make at home - frog legs, escargot, alligator fritters, duck etc.

The 4th night menu was my least favorite. Lobster was the 2nd night. I didn't notice when chefs table was. We had late dinner in the Pride dining room. We were at table 189, in the very back and had an amazing waiter and staff. We have been to Catalina and Ensenada a few times so we mostly got out of the tourist areas and walked. My husband lived in Mexico for a few years so he wanted to spend a bit of time speaking with the locals to brush up on his vocabulary and seeing the architecture. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny in port and hazy and very cool on the sea day so make sure you bring a warm jacket.

Had a great time on our 4 night cruise. New menu was delicious, the staff, with the exception of one purser were friendly, attentive and eager to please. My dh is a loyal RCCL cruiser and driving home today said he was impressed by his 2nd Carnival cruise. Only real complaint was with the clueless parents that let their very young kids run up and down the halls yelling and screaming, yelling down the hall to each other and then giving the kids horns, whistles and kazoo's to play all hours of the day and night.

We went, just happy to get away and came home with a positive experience and happy memories.

Any new tips in the last 6 months? I am looking to book the O or the Vision and can't decide. We loved the Statendam and we have already been on 7 RCCL, so all tips would be great.

The quality of food on RCCL has gone down in the past few years (post 9-11) IMHO. We have sailed the Radiance 3 times and this last May was a let-down. The lunch buffet was so bland (a baked potatoe bar every day, meatloaf and kitchen sink casserole) We did really enjoy the sushi each evening in the Windjammer and went in before our 8:30 dinner for a little snack. We had always loved the desserts on the Radiance but they had changed head chefs and found them lacking. The food on the Navigator last year was good and we saw that the chef was from our first Radiance cruise. I wasn't overly impressed with Princess (the cooked fresh pizzas were great) but I did find NCL pre 9/11 food fresh and tasty and beautiful to the eye. We also thought that HAL had good food. Food is so subjective, so to each his own.