Seas2mountains

On Tuesday morning, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Great Outdoors as the weather was gorgeous. This was later for us than normal as we turned clocks ahead an hour that night. After breakfast, we went to the talk given by the cruise director, Jerry, about the Spirit. Jerry used slides and gave handouts on the technical specifications. Jerry spoke for about 20 minutes until the Captain, Chief Engineer and General Manager for Q&A. That lasted about another 20 minutes of questions. One guest did ask why the tug was used in Skagway as the guest asked if something on the ship was broken to require the use of the tug. The captain explained it was needed due to the strong cross winds which we blowing at about 25-27 knots. He said the Spirit needs the extra power as a safety precaution to ensure the ship didn’t get pushed into the dock by the wind. We definitely saw the tug pushing and pulling. Another guest asked about missing Hubbard Glacier due to weather. The captain explained that it can be a difficult decision to make as they also have to anticipate changing weather conditions on the return from the glacier and the tight timelines they have as other ships are scheduled along with the pilot. After the talk, we watched another really funny Battle of the Cake Masters (can’t remember the name) and then walked on the promenade level and it was a little busy with other walkers and shuffleboard players as the weather was so nice. We enjoyed a very challenging Fourth of July trivia where most of the crowd struggled to get more than 5 questions correct. After trivia, they had a very nice and well attended a Fourth of July veteran event in Spinnaker. They honored the veteran with the most years of service and the one with the least on active duty. They served a cake for all and had singers to sing the National anthem.

After the dinner on Monday night, we enjoyed all three sets played by Jonathan and Jellica with Over the Moon. After they go on vacation at the end of July, they think their next ship may be the Epic. We did find their group page on social media to follow them.

On the first half of the B2B, we let the Cruise Next representative know we were interested in the Dinner with the Officers when we scheduled the Behind the Scenes tour and wine tasting. They told us we would be contacted in a few days. We never got contacted for the dinner. We let them know at the beginning of the second half that we were interested in the dinner and also let them know we were never contacted for it on the first half. Both CN reps apologized and assured us we would be scheduled this time. I believe we got the letter for the dinner on Friday night and were asked to RSVP by Saturday morning for a dinner scheduled on Monday evening. When we were at Onda for dinner on Monday evening, the person who organizes the dinners is named Lovely and she came into Onda to let us know there was a change to our time and the officers. Her personality matches her name. It was kind of creepy that she knew how to find us until we realized they can see where we are by our card scans for food, drinks and when we are in the room. When we arrived at Guest Services at the time for the dinner, we were directed to seats to wait and offered champagne. We joined four other guests with two of the officers/managers for dinner in Windows. It was really nice to hear the experiences of the managers and the other guests who were all frequent cruisers. The only downside to the dinner was the wine wasn’t very good so myself and others didn’t drink it. We would do this again based on the nice conversations. We did ask what the funniest things the managers had heard guests ask and both said they have guests who ask which elevator will get them to the aft or forward area of the ship. 🤣 Last night when we returned to our room before dinner, there were cheese treats and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, with it being the last night, all the cheese went to waste as we were not hungry after dinner. We did have plastic bags to put it in the refrigerator but forgot about it this morning but would not have been able to take it through customs. Since we didn’t care for the wine, we left the bottle in the room.

Thank you for your kind comments and for following along. Do you have a future cruise planned? I love your live reviews.

Thank you! We did. I’m so excited for you and your Dad. I’m also looking forward to reading your review these next two weeks. I hope you and your Dad have a wonderful cruise! We really liked eating outside at the Great Outdoors the last three mornings for breakfast. It looks like you will have gorgeous weather on most days. I know you and Dad will get to eat in Cagney’s for breakfast and lunch. There is a wonderful waitress we had at Cagney’s who I believe also works there for the earlier meals for the suite guests. Her name on her name tag says Katherine but she introduces herself as Kat.

We disembarked this morning at 8:30am and carried all luggage with us as was recommended with the strike but we almost always carry all of our bags off the ship. This process was so easy and we were through Canadian customs in a few minutes and in a cab on the way to the airport. Disembarkation started at 7:30am which was earlier than expected. While we know the train to the airport is easy to take and we have done this on past trips, we wanted to be pampered and not hassle with carrying all bags too far. With the current exchange rate, it really wasn’t too bad for the cost. We kept our flight as scheduled before 1pm and did not change the time as NCL recommended due to possible disembarkation delays due to the strike. It took an hour to check bags, get through Global Entry and US customs. After waiting in the Global Entry line for security, we realized the line and wait was much longer than if we had gone in the regular line. I’ll update on our last day and the Dinner with the Officers on Monday night.

Sunny and warm at sea day warm enough for people to be in the pool and using most lounge chairs + slow Wifi 🐢 + last day + having lots of fun = delayed update until we disembark tomorrow 😎

Yes. On the Spirit now. Here is a photo.

The new-to-me drink for today is an unknown drink called the “‘my name” special made by Kenny at Spice H2O. It had a nice hint of peach to it and wasn’t too sweet. I have no idea what is in it but was assured there was no pineapple involved. I did like it.

The new-to-me drink/shot from yesterday was the Duck Fart in Henry’s pub. The bottom layer is Kahlua, the middle layer is Bailey’s and the top layer is whiskey. It was pretty good.

Sunset photos from last night.

Day 6/13 daily

Day 6/13 daily in PDF NCL Spirit Day 13 (6).pdf

Hello from a sunny and warm Ketchikan! It’s a gorgeous day here with blue skies and is in the upper 60’s. We had a nice walk around Ketchikan today and have been here on past cruises. There weren’t many salmon running in the creek but we did see a few and it was entertaining to see a seal swim behind them. It’s a bonus to get time at the hot tub and by the pool on such a great weather day as the Spirit H2O area is definitely a nice place to hang out when the weather is perfect like today. We are enjoying seeing some eagles fly around.

Yes, I think they are just being cautious about potential delays.

We had dinner at Onda tonight and ordered appetizers, entrees and desserts we ordered on our last visit. It was wonderful again. We are enjoying being in Spinnaker with no rain and almost no clouds. It has been great to watch whales and marine mammals from Spinnaker.

Thank you for the explanation! It is appreciated.

Welcome to Juneau from our view on the Spirit! The weather report predicts sunshine in a few hours. I hope you have a wonderful cruise and great weather! If you have tickets for the Tram, they had a sign out this morning to say it might be running at 2pm but we haven’t seen any go up the mountain yet.

The Sun

Here comes the Sun! The NCL version and hopefully the one to bring blue skies, too.

When we looked at the daily for today and read the announcement about tender operations, we were initially disappointed as we really liked how close we were docked last Saturday. After taking the tender today, we can report that it was really easy as it is a short tender on calm seas. We did not have to wait in any lines coming or going and enjoyed conversations with other passengers. This was actually much better than docking at the location that is a 1/2 mile walk to downtown. We walked around downtown and then walked up the hill to attend a church service with many other cruise passengers which was really nice. When they asked visitors to raise their hands, more than half the people raised their hands. We also did this last Sunday in Skagway and really enjoyed it as both churches were so welcoming of visitors. This week, we also had tickets for the Tram as it is at no cost to us with FAS+ but when we went to use it, we saw the sign that said it might open at 2pm. It’s now after 2pm and we don’t see it running at all. After a tasty lunch at Garden Cafe, we have been enjoying time in the hot tub at Spice H2O while we watch the Radiance of the Seas and the Sun sail into port. One of the photos is of a lawn in Juneau we passed with lots of flowers. I’ll add another photo of the Sun as it comes into port.

Daily day 5/12

Day 5/12 daily PDF NCL Spirit day 12 (5).pdf

We may be delayed disembarking on Wednesday due to a strike in Vancouver.

When we left Vancouver, I remember seeing at least one tug boat. Tonight when leaving Skagway, a tug boat pulled when leaving the dock and then pushed when turning. We didn’t see any tugs helping Carnival Miracle do back out of port. Maybe due to the wind or others reasons?