Sand and Seas

It was Covid, Flu and bad cold The flu has made me feel worse than Covid did. I wouldn't get on a plane and travel that far feeling that sick and I'm sure the others on the plane or ship would be glad if I stayed home.

Duplicate. sorry

Yes....rather re-book the trip. That's why you get insurance. If I have Covid, odds are DH will get it too. You think we should board when we know we have covid???

I wouldn't want to cruise with Covid or the Flu or a bad cold. I'll continue to take a home test before getting on that plane. However, that doesn't mean we can fly to a cruise-port 3 or 4 days early to relax pre-cruise. As my mom would have said....'This is clear as mud....' The CDC doesn't want to regulate but wants to give tons of 'guidance'. I love to plan cruises, but all of this pre-planning is causing too many sleepless nights😟

Sorry you missed your helicopter tour, but glad you are having a good day anyway. We will be on the Bliss in the Haven so we are really enjoying following along with your cruise. Thanks for sharing with us😊

Have you found information about private transfers yet? We have been in contact with Galveston Saltwater Moms. They have a FB page. Haven't used them yet, but I'm extremely impressed with their responses to my questions. We will be booking with them for transportation from IAH to Galveston prior to our Prima cruise. I had seen earlier threads on this board that recommended them.

Please let us know if/when they update the EU Site.

Interesting news today! Will it change NCL? There is still ArriveCan and Bermuda and who knows where else, but perhaps we are learning to live with it.

Thanks for posting- I went to the link and found it very interesting! Now to see if it changes anything.....

RATS! That Coke machine at the old terminal was our last chance for a Diet Coke😒 Kind of glad our next three cruises are from Seattle, Galveston & New Orleans. Maybe they will figure out some improvements are still needed at their shiny new Miami terminal

Downgraded from the old terminal for those of us who are Plat Plus/Sapphire/Diamond? They used to have the 'old' Haven furniture in a roped off area for those of us in highest Latitude tiers. It was closest to the boarding area and we could almost hear when we were allowed priority boarding.

Has anyone used OnPoint proctored testing with your own home test? Would you recommend them? Their website shows a very reasonable $15 proctoring cost and says they are available 24/7 for appointments. We already have a good supply of home test kits (thanks to our insurance) so it seems wasteful to order the full kits from Emed.

In Vegas a couple of years ago, we saw a guy win $100,000 on 100 play VP. He had to wait to be paid until someone came from Nevada (?) gaming control to audit the machine. It took over an hour or more. I would guess NCL CAS has some sort of similar audit process they do for pays above a certain amount before putting the machine back in play.

Thanks for the great advice! Its very helpful to plan knowing Haven embarkation usually begins around 11am. This is our 39th NCL cruise but our FIRST to Alaska (and just second in Haven). Seeing those pictures you had posted of what the street in front of the terminal looks like during debarkation/embarkation helped us pick the Marriott Waterfront for our pre-cruise stay. We will sit comfortably at the Marriott until 10:30am or so😊

I hope it's OK with the original poster for me to add another question about boarding at Pier 66 here. (Have searched but only found info from pre-pandemic.) We will be staying at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront the night before our Bliss cruise so we will be across the street from the pier. From research on the West coast departures board it sounds like a good way to start our cruise with the least hassle. Since we will be in the Haven (rare for us!) this trip looking for advice from others on what time to start our embarkation process. We really don't want to join a long line, or sit in the terminal for too long, but of course want to board the ship as soon as possible to start enjoying our cruise😊 Any advice for us?

So excited to see this! We were hoping to confirm the balcony could hold loungers. We were assigned cabin 8746 as our 'one-time Diamond upgrade' for our Joy cruise next April. It shows as category MC on our confirmation, but I could see it was probably a 'secret' large balcony. (Similar ones on Encore & Bliss were confirmed by cruiser videos.) Thanks for confirming 😊

The Amenities list specifies a special room service menu for Haven. Does someone have a photo of it? (Or did I miss it much earlier on this thread?)

All the Diet Coke lovers are getting interested now😋

The Joy is a sister ship to Encore, Bliss and Escape, but the cabin numbering differs. If you check the deck plans for deck 8 on those ships you will see that cabins 8138/8738 are in the same position as your cabin on the Joy. There are videos on youtube for some of the other ships showing the larger balcony with the slant.

You should be able to purchase the airport transfer on board. The Alaska Bliss Dailies for 6/25 cruise were just posted. They mention you can go to guest services by Thursday and arrange the airport transfer. I would suggest you also check to see if your airline participates in PortValet. You can sign up for that at guest services early in the cruise. Have a great cruise😊

Thanks for posting! Very helpful for us😊

Thanks - I checked out the link in your signature. It has been a decade or more since we were on the Spirit. Love the update and your beautiful pictures . It reminded us how much we loved the Great Outdoors and Biergarten😎

It is confusing. Have we seen a US requirement for testing?

Yes, I would agree. Should be able to purchase the airport transfer onboard. I can't imagine that they ever say the airport transfer is 'sold-out'🤔

Thanks for your responses. It seems like the trip from airport to Galveston is the most complicated part of trip🤔