MudbugsTherapist

Exactly. This is the new way... Cruise lines will not just have their own private islands... they will have their own ports and port buildings. And as long as NCL has 3-5 regular ships during the Alaska season, they will be full. People with kids, older millennials, and even some younger Gen Xers are willing to give up the convenience of randomly walking through a city for souvenirs and junk. They want ships with things to do and excursions that are worth the money. Princess and HAL will always have their demographic, especially for Alaska. But NCL, Royal, and Carnival will build docks that don't have to follow a city council decision on pax limits. And all they have to do for local support is to promise JOBS.

NCL Jewel: On my way up, I have 7am - 4pm. On my way down, I will have 1pm - 8 pm. What are you doing in port that you need more than 7-9 hours? Or are you just assuming that the 6-hour early port times from the Bliss apply to all NCL ships because those people have complained the most? A return-to-ship time of 1pm makes people believe that they are in port for fewer hours than other ships. But that ship arrives at 6am, instead of 10am. I can't help people who can't do basic math, or think that ships should only port after brunch. There are MANY ships who port early and leave early, especially on higher-end ships and smaller ports, but the masses don't know that if they only cruise the same cruiselines (Princess and HAL) and the same 10 ports.

There is a website for you to get a military id card as a surviving spouse, if you don't already have one. Sometimes it helps for when the travel discounts want you to enroll in "ID Me" to provide proof. https://www.militaryonesource.mil/military-basics/new-to-the-military/military-id-and-cac-cards-for-military-community/

The same thing was said when they added the 2nd port in Cozumel. Now, nobody even notices. The NCL Hawaiian ships don't port in any downtowns or beaches, except for the tender into Kona. The complainers are the people who want to get off the ship and be surrounded by crap to purchase, like in the Caribbean. Hawaii and Alaska aren't like that - they are excursion-heavy cruises. Even if the Bliss has 3000 on excursions and 1000 complainers on a shuttle bus to downtown, it is still counted as a win for NCL. The complainers come on CC because "someone moved their cheese." Change is hard for people that are set in their ways about what a cruise port should look like. Ketchikan is LOVING the fact that the bulk of NCL pax are leaving from Ward Cove for excursions, hiking, etc., because the city still benefits from those excursion dollars and jobs created in Ward Cove.

Bar Harbor is only 3200 people, with almost 80% depending on hospitality/tourism for their income. They are now getting rocked with 20% increases on property taxes to fund local infrastructure and programs. Juneau is 32,000 people, with 1100+ millionaires and an average household income of 90k. If Juneau limits ships to 5 per day, or maybe 15000 pax per day, it won't change a thing for them. They already have the infrastructure to support that with three docks. The 6k ships can build a dock in Auke Bay or Thane, put a little shopping area like NCL's place in Ketchikan, and shuttle excursions straight from that point. I think the major cruise lines will start doing this instead of battling with local city councils about pax limits. It costs the cruise lines more in fees and legal than if they just buy a plot and develop it. https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/04/04/hancock/hancock-police-courts/bar-harbor-resident-sues-town-cruise-ship-visits-n6hjn1me0n/

I also recommend breaking up the flights. Long Beach airport flies to Honolulu direct, and you can avoid the LAX nightmare. It is a fantastic little airport. Parking/Drop off to the TSA is about 40 feet, and there are only 10-12 gates. Sometimes you only have a couple of Hawaii flights each day to choose from, but it is nice to break up the flight to Hawaii. Stay in Long Beach, see the Queen Mary, etc., and then fly out to HNL the next morning. 🙂

From what I have read in local Juneau sites, there was a handshake agreement with CLIA to not have more than 5 ships in port. This has gone well until the ships became Monster of the Seas and 6000 pax. Now, when they squeeze in a 6th or sometimes 7th ship (which was just looked over in the past) it is crowded like a 90s rave through the streets in port. So the immediate ask from Juneau is to formally limit the port to 5 ships ASAP. Then, there are smaller groups that are arguing back and forth locally in Juneau on whether there should be a pax limit in addition to the 5-ship limit. But many businesses seeing what has happened in Bar Harbor don't want to put a pax limit on Juneau for fear that some cruise lines will skip the port completely, especially when other ports are now being developed in a private, Coco Cay/Half Moon Cay/Castaway Cay/Great Stirrup Cay sort of fashion. NCL figured it out in Ketchikan... Other cruise lines will do the same and avoid the issues in Juneau.

My preference is NCL, but my parents' preference is Carnival. When I make them go on an NCL ship, my dad gets the military discount. He went to the veterans meet-up, and he LOVED it. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, since he was in the army in the late 60s/early 70s and he rarely talks about it. But after hanging out with a few older veterans on the Bliss in 2022, he always attends these events now. It motivated him to go to the VA by his house and get a Veterans ID Card.

YES! This. The spa pass is just my "excursion" on each cruise, because I don't go on any ship excursions. So I use my excursion money for my daily trip to the spa. I plan my mornings to start in the spa, and my evenings to end in the spa. I never use the tiny cabin bathroom to get ready for the day, or to get ready for bed. You know how the balcony people will say that they can't go back to an interior cabin? I can't go back to just having a cruise without a spa pass.

Kaj works for Viking now.

Nope, I worked on POA. We were fully staffed, and there were about 20 bartenders at any given time. About 30 bar servers. We got paid minimum wage, plus overtime. That is why the cruise costs so much more... it is the only USA flagged ship, and it must have 75 percent American crew. So Norwegian can't dip into its pool of extremely underpaid Filipino workers to staff the ship. And without NCL raising the wages, they aren't competitive with bars and restaurants who are paying their GOOD bartenders on land anywhere between $15-20 per hour, plus tips. The training and background checks to work on this ship takes a LONG time, and it is very intense. Once workers are onboard, they are given one day to acclimate to living onboard. ONE DAY. After that, any mistakes are grounds for termination, and some departments are sadly lacking in management experience.

I used to work on a Norwegian ship, and I have also worked in a port. Understand that the people from the previous cruise sometimes do not get off of the ship until 10 AM. Every single person has to be off of the ship, what we called "Zero Count," which happens before 11 if everything runs smoothly. After that, there are crew members that are disembarking for vacation, other ships, medical reasons, or whatever. They are processed through the terminal, customs, etc. After that, any guests that are "back-to-back" are allowed to scan off/scan back on. At this point, especially on shorter cruises, wedding parties are escorted on by the ship's wedding planner. Even if they aren't going on the cruise, all guests must have identification and a boarding pass to attend the wedding on the ship. Once the wedding parties are onboard, the ship will let the port know that general boarding can begin. At this point, housekeepers onboard have gotten all of the trash and dirty sheets/towels out of the cabins, bathroom cleaning is in full force. Is your cabin ready? Absolutely not. Would it be ready in a fully-booked hotel? No way. So why do you think that cabins can be completely cleaned, sanitized, and reset in an hour or two? Ridiculous. It was always so frustrating to be delivering bottles of water, wine, liquor, etc., on a rolling cart, and guests would walk past the closed doors that say YOUR ROOMS ARE NOT READY YET. I would have to wait until the guests are told the exact same thing that was on the signs they walked past by a cabin steward in a hurry, who doesn't have time to stop and tell guests what is already printed on the signs. On a good day, we would finish our deliveries by 2 or 3 PM. As a port worker, it was unbelievable that guests would try to arrive at the port before 10 AM, when every single taxi, Uber, and Lyft are clogging up the pick up/drop off lane. At this time, 18-wheelers are lined up and waiting to deliver all of the supplies to the ship, as well as take off all of the trash from the ship. We also have a herd of vans and buses that are shuttling people to the airports, hotels, and off-site parking garages. So when we would have John and Jane Smith and their 3 kids arrive for a cruise that isn't even going to begin boarding for at least 2 more hours, we all just sighed. People aren't allowed in the port building that early, so it is possible you will be in hot sun, wind, rain, or whatever. There's no food or drink allowed in the port, and you can't bring liquids through security. So every week..."Where can we get some water?" Well, at the hotel that you didn't have to leave before 11 AM. Also, any restaurant that you passed on the way here when the entire flow of traffic was against you. Once you are in the port building, you will sit and wait. There's no possible way for you to board early. Period. Customs has the final word on that, not the port staff, and not the cruise line. I personally hated "Faster to the Fun," because the people who bought it would ask over and over, "When do you think we will board?" Also, once the Diamonds and Platinums boarded, everyone else was onboard within MINUTES. We don't stop and take photos anymore... it is only a scan and you keep on walking. So if we started boarding at noon, everyone waiting in the terminal was on board by 12:20, even if they didn't pay for FTTF or have Diamond/Platinum status. The smartest people? The guests who came to the port AFTER a late brunch or leisurely lunch. There won't be any contraflow traffic, delivery trucks, or buses blocking your way. You're still early enough for porters to manage your luggage, port staff will be back from lunch breaks by 1:30 pm, and there won't be any lines at security, guest services, or embarkation photos. Once you board, you aren't sitting with your bags in the buffet for hours until rooms are ready, and you won't be dumping your things in a cabin that hasn't been cleaned, annoying your already stressed cabin steward. TL:DR - The sweet spot for embarkation, from a ship and a port standpoint, is 1:00-3:00 PM.