The Traveling Man

1. Pier 66 on Alaskan Way is just across the street from the Seattle Marriott Waterfront. If you're arriving a day early, it's a great hotel choice. You can walk across the street at the traffic light / pedestrian crossing to get to the cruise terminal, so no need for a taxi to the terminal. If you don't get a rate which includes breakfast, then Cafe Opla next door to the Marriott is a wonderful option. Anthony's Pier 66 Restaurant, next to the cruise terminal, is a nice place for dinner, but if you really want an outstanding seafood dinner, walk one kilometer (about 0.7 mile) down Alaskan Way to Ivar's Restaurant. If you plan to spend more than just one night in Seattle before your cruise, a stop at Pike Place Market, perhaps for lunch, is always fun. It's just a couple of blocks from the Marriott, but it is up a steep hill. 2. I was going to suggest binoculars, but someone else already noted that Haven staterooms already come with them. As for clothing, bring a variety of layers, including both a warm coat and gloves as well as a light jacket or wind breaker. It should be fairly comfortable in town during the day, but it could get quite chilly in the evenings, especially on deck with a wind of 20 mph or more. 3. The entry line can get quite long at the Seattle Cruise terminal. Everyone, including Haven guests, first have to pass through the same line for a security check before you split into separate lines for first-timers, Latitudes members, Haven, etc. That line sometimes snakes around the building and down the street. One advantage of staying at the Marriott is that you can keep an eye on the line from your hotel room or from the hotel lobby and only join the line when it's a bit shorter. Boarding usually begins about 11:30 or noon, so if you arrive much before that you'll spend some time sitting in the cruise terminal lounge. Assuming you make it through the check-in process before boarding begins, you will be among the first on board, and your butler or concierge will escort you to the Haven Lounge. If you check in a bit later, you still will be escorted on board, but other non-Haven guests will be boarding at the same time as you. 4. Check with your concierge about priority seating at shows, priority embarkation / debarkation, etc. 5. We love the Bliss forward observation lounge. You can find snacks and drinks there at several times during the day. They often have entertainment there at night. 6. It's a shame that your cruise doesn't stop in Skagway. The White Pass & Yukon train ride has been a highlight of many Alaskan cruises. As others have said, the port stop at Victoria is mostly done just to comply with the PVSA (Passenger Vessel Service Act) requirements. The scheduling for Victoria is odd. You will have too little time to do much of anything and most shops and other places of interest will have closed their doors for the day before you arrive. You might as well stay on board. In Ketchikan, the lumberjack show is a real hoot. Please note, though, that for the last couple of years NCL no longer docks near downtown Ketchikan, within easy walking distance of the lumberjack show, the quaint buildings along Creek Street, or other places of interest. NCL now docks at Ward Cove, about a 15 minute drive (7+ miles) away from town. Most other cruise lines do still dock near town, so their passengers can come and go at their leisure. You will need to plan your day around the shuttle bus schedule to and from Ward Cove. We are planning an NCL Alaskan cruise for this summer. We likely will skip visiting the town of Ketchikan, but take a tour from Ward Cove north to Totem Bight Park. Have fun and bon voyage.

Yes, it truly has taken a turn. Nonetheless, we still find new and amusing ways to twist and turn this puppy, don't we? And @SeekingKillerWhales! has "bear-ly" scratched the surface.

@Chirphy6438 NCL usually reconciles its upgrade bids a day or two before the sailing date of the cruise. You will be notified by email whether your bid is successful or not. If successful, your credit card will be charged, your previous room will be made available to other passengers for booking, and you will be assigned to your upgraded room. You will not be able to select the location of your new room, and you will not be able to refuse the upgrade once it is granted. If you are not satisfied with your newly assigned room, your only option other than accepting it is to choose not to sail. If you refuse the upgrade, you will not receive a refund for your original payment nor for the upgrade amount.

Maybe it's because we have only been in the Haven on two cruises for a total of 26 days, or maybe it's because I don't mind having the same main course twice in one week if I find something I really like, but my experience has been different from yours. I have no complaints about the Haven menu offerings at the dinner hour. YMMV.

Were you on the Paris to Normandy trip or the Normandy to Paris sailing?

The menu stays the same. There are about a half dozen appetizers or salads and about the same number of main courses. We only have sailed in the Haven a couple of times out of the 40 or so cruises we have taken with NCL. One of those was a 12 day cruise, the other was 14 days. With four or five nights of dining in a specialty restaurant and occasionally having dinner in O'Sheehan's or the MDR, we never ran out of interesting menu selections to choose when dining in the Haven. You always can ask them to mix up things, such as choosing a different side dish, preparing the main course in a different style from that listed on the menu, etc. Unless you have food allergies or an aversion to certain types of meat or certain vegetables, you should be able to find plenty of variety, even on a lengthy cruise. There must be a dozen different ways to prepare eggs for breakfast, plus pancakes, oatmeal, and lots of other things to provide options there. On most cruises you will have lunch ashore, so no problems finding variety at the noon hour. In short, if you have an adventurous palate, there are plenty options.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

I'll own up to my role in that nefarious practice. Possibly one reason it took so many false turns down dead-end streets is that it seemed for a while that the OP had abandoned us, leaving us to our own devices. In my defense, though, I would point to post #109.

Thanks for the info. While there were quite a few folks from England on that cruise on the Star, I suppose that most of the complaints about running out of beer came from the large number of Irish and Scottish passengers. As @Sailing12Away noted, an internet search for "Arthur's Day" will reveal the story of this celebration.

I wholeheartedly agree. We sailed on the Joie de Vivre along the Seine on a cruise chartered by the World War II Museum. The Museum is located in New Orleans, but their travel department books tours all over Europe to visit important battle sites. They usually charter Uniworld ships when river travel is involved, or Seabourn for ocean travel. The service is impeccable and the overall experience is outstanding.

I think the limit when you book online is a reservation for eight. You may be able to arrange for more than that if you call the NCL reservations number. Most ships have a few larger tables, some for 12 or more, or the staff can move tables together for large groups, certainly enough for the group size for @sbnuggie.

Try to fit in as many of the shows that interest you, especially any production shows on the main stage, during the first leg of your B2B. Some of the lounge acts may swap out for other performers during the second cruise, and sometimes an entertainer may perform a completely different set at a second show. You also may find an act that you enjoy so much on the first cruise that you want to see it again on the second cruise. Don't hold back or FOMO may strike.

We haven't paid for laundry on NCL for several years now, so my recollection may be a bit fuzzy. Back when we did have to pay, though, I seem to remember asking our stateroom attendant on the second day of a cruise when the "all in one bag" deal would be available. He said not to worry about it, but that we could submit one full bag any day during the cruise and still receive the fixed price. It was $19.95 back then. The price has gone up two or three times since that time, of course, and I'm not sure that NCL is as lax with the rules today as they once were, but that's my two cents worth on the subject.

That's true, but that really isn't the subject area of this discussion. Rather than an "oops, I missed my ship" issue, the main thrust of this discussion has been the possibility of planning in advance to depart a cruise prior to its final destination. If you simply fail to return to the pier by the "all on board" time, most of your belongings will still be in your stateroom, although the ship's crew will attempt to retrieve your passport and turn it over to the harbor master. If you plan to disembark early, though, the assumption is that you will pack your bags and take all your belongings with you, an entirely different kettle of fish.

I thought it was supposed to be a word picture. Who knew?

Glad to hear that it all worked out for you. She was very helpful to us two years ago under similar circumstances.

You can turn in laundry as soon as you're on the ship, although they may not get to it at once, so it might take a day longer than usual to get it back to you. If you submit it on day two, you should get it back by day three. Hope that helps you with your planning.

The top thread in this forum has thousands of posts on the subject of earning and redeeming points with the NCL Master Card. The long and the short of it is this, your rate of return is many times greater if instead of cashing in 10,000 points for $100 OBC, you hold on until you have 30,000 points and then use them to upgrade from an Inside to an Ocean View or an Ocean View to a Balcony. Depending on the price differential between the cabin categories on your cruise, your ROI can be 30% or more. That sure beats the 3% return on your money when you get OBC.

I think we may have sufficiently flogged this deceased equine.

And there were tons of Irish folks on our cruise, literally tons of them.

I'm not defending either NCL or the disappointed passengers, but just saying that NCL might have done a better job of studying the demographics of the passengers on that particular cruise and provisioning appropriately. After all, they do stock up extra hot dogs and soda on cruises that have lots of kids on board. They probably have the statistics down to a fine science about how much Bratwurst to stock when there's a travel group from Chicago, etc., etc. It would be like sailing in late November with a predominately American crowd and not stocking extra turkeys. Yes, the "Guinness Day" celebration probably was made up by the folks at the brewery in order to sell more beer, but apparently it is a semi-official holiday well known and widely celebrated in the UK. NCL knew in advance that the cruise included an inordinately large percentage of folks from the UK, so it truly is unfortunate that the ship was not provisioned with an extra lading of Guinness beer. Watching those folks go bonkers over NCL's running out of their favorite beer, however, was a sight to behold.

I had a great cruise. As I said, I rarely drink Guinness, so its absence didn't impact me. Actually, the entertainment level of the cruise was quite enhanced by observing the antics of the hundreds of other passengers who were so distraught about missing out on their Guinness.

I rarely drink Guinness myself, only a couple of times when we were in Ireland. As they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." My point was that almost 1000 persons on a 2000 passenger ship were ardent consumers of a particular brand of spirits. Not only did the ship run out of their beverage of choice, they did so a day or two prior to the annual day set aside to celebrate the creation of their brew. Now, if you've ever had a Guinness, you know that Coors Light doesn't even come close to taking its place. Maybe a California Cabernet will do in a pinch when what you really wanted was an Argentinian Malbec, but those folks were royally P.O.ed about not having a Guinness beer on Guinness Day!

We have done that as well. Once or twice we even ended up taking the bottle with us when we disembarked, and enjoyed the wine later during our travels or once we returned home.

For every cruise of sufficient duration. As I recall, the break point is five days or longer.