The Traveling Man

On an Eastbound TA you will have six or seven 23 hour days. Westbound will result in six or seven 25 hour days. I never have been able to sleep on an overnight flight, so I'm always groggy and jet-lagged when we fly to Europe. By taking a cruise, you can adjust your internal clock a little at a time. Sure, you give up an hour each day for a week, but at least you don't lose a full night of sleep all at once. We haven't tried a Westbound TA cruise yet. They usually occur in the late Autumn, so the timing just has never worked well for us. I'm sure the extra hour per day would be quite relaxing.

If you're interested in exploring the interior of Alaska in addition to sailing the panhandle, Seward makes a great jumping off place. I would recommend the train from Seward to Anchorage. I think the view from the train is more scenic than from the highway. Visiting Denali is a highlight of an Alaska adventure.

The Vancouver Sky Train provides convenient service from the airport to the Waterfront station, just a couple of blocks from the cruise terminal at Canada Place. The ride usually takes just under a half hour. A light rail line runs from the SeaTac airport to downtown Seattle. The trip takes about 45 minutes, but the closest station to the cruise pier is about ten blocks. A taxi or Uber from the airport to the pier takes about a half hour.

We usually make our travel plans several months in advance. We may not purchase tickets or book our cruise reservations until closer to the proposed travel dates, but at least we generally have an idea of when we will need a valid passport several months before we actually do need it. As a result, we sometimes don't renew our passports until just before they are due to expire. At other times, we renew them even though they may have six, eight, or even ten months until they expire. It all depends on when and where we plan to travel. I even let mine expire once when we had no foreign travel plans at all. That was a mistake because it costs less to renew a passport than to start from scratch. It also can take longer for the passport office to process your request if it's for a new passport than it takes to process a renewal.

It was widely reported that the US passport office experienced significant delays in processing passport applications last year. Recent reports indicate that in most cases those delays have been greatly reduced during 2024. In an emergency you still can pay for expedited service, but even with standard service you can expect to receive your passport within a few weeks after mailing the application, assuming your application is in order. It always is a good idea, though, to apply early. You always should renew your passport prior to its expiration date to avoid delays.

When NCL advertises something as "FREE" it usually isn't truly free. With most of the "Free at Sea" perks you still are required to pay a mandatory gratuity based upon the equivalent value of the perk as if you had purchased that perk at full price. Federal regulations, the Passenger Vessel Service Act (PVSA), require that ships holding foreign registry cannot transport passengers from one US port to another on a cruise unless the ship also visits a foreign port at some time during that cruise. As a result, Alaska cruises sailing round trip from Seattle must make a stop at a Canadian port, usually Victoria on Vancouver Island. Typically this stop is pro forma, usually just a few hours on the last evening of the cruise. Many passengers don't even bother to get off the ship in Victoria since there really isn't enough time to see or do anything meaningful. The stop is made just to comply with the PVSA. Cruises departing from Vancouver, however, already have touched land in a foreign country, so there is no need for any additional brief stop in Canada to satisfy the PVSA. Most NCL cruises to Alaska from Vancouver, though, are one way trips to Seward, Alaska. Once in Seward, the ship begins a separate return trip to Vancouver, alternating directions each week. You can book back-to-back cruises (B2B) if you have two weeks to travel and prefer to sail from Vancouver, or you can exit the ship in Seward and travel by car, bus, or train to visit the interior of Alaska. That way you can see Anchorage, Denali National Park, Fairbanks, etc. You can do this on your own or book an overland tour extension through NCL. Cruise ships usually visit Alaska only from April or May through September. At the beginning and ending of the summer season the ships will sail a repositioning cruise, either along the Pacific coast or across the Pacific to or from Hawai'i, Japan, or China. You may want to consider taking either the first or last Alaska cruise of the season so you can sail B2B on a repositioning cruise to or from Los Angeles, Tokyo, or Honolulu.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. So glad to hear that you are happy with the outcome of your efforts to snag an upgraded stateroom. After your cruise, please come back on CC and let us know how things went for you. There have been some reports that the aft staterooms on Breakaway class and BA+ class ships have experienced some vibration issues, particularly when the ship was sailing at higher than normal speeds. Let's hope you don't run into that, but please let us know after you've been on board.

I was actually quite surprised and a bit apprehensive my first time as a M&G host. We were traveling in a standard Balcony stateroom and had joined the check-in line for Latitudes members in the terminal. We weren't in the Haven, were not top tier Latitudes members, weren't part of Casinos at Sea or any other specialty designation that might result in perks. Just plain ol' folks waiting to check in. We finally got to the counter, showed our IDs, had our photos taken, and then...RED FLAGS!!! "Just one moment," the check-in clerk said. "Let me call my supervisor." After a few minutes of several folks staring at computer screens, but before receiving our key cards, we were told "Follow me." They took us through the terminal, down a hallway, past several small rooms, until finally, voila, they led us into the sanctum sanctorum where the Haven guests were gathered. "Oh, no," I protested. "We're just regular Balcony passengers." Then the Concierge greeted us, explained that the GM always invited CC M&G hosts to enjoy Haven benefits, regardless of what room category they have booked. So, for the entirety of that cruise we enjoyed breakfast and lunch with the Haven guests in Moderno or Cagney's, afternoon snacks provided by a butler, priority seating in the Haven section of the theater, and priority tendering and debarkation. We have experienced a similar reception on several other occasions when hosting the M&G, but not every time. Not all GMs do that, apparently, but we thought it was a very generous offer and were happy to accept. YMMV.

We have done that also. You can ask the hostess to have someone meet you at that door on 14 to let you in. It works out best if someone in your party is able to negotiate the stairs, while those less ambulatory wait on 14 in the starboard hallway for an escort directly into La Cucina.

Some folks look at the glass and say "The glass is half full." Others look at it and say "The glass is half empty." I look at it and say "I wonder why they didn't just use a smaller glass?" As @cruiseny4life said, if your expectations are reasonable and and they are reasonably well met, your glass is always full.

No, but if you are booked on a B2B and your Latitudes status changes as a result of the first cruise, you do get the perks of the higher status at the start of the second cruise.

Larger discounts on shore excursions and WiFi. Dinner with officers. Priority seating in restaurants and entertainment venues.

Taarun is an amazing individual. We sailed with him on the Breakaway in February 2016. He was a junior officer then. We only spoke to him briefly at the Captain's cocktail reception. The next time we saw him was June 2019 on the Joy in Alaska. By that time he had been promoted to Cruise Next Manager. On embarkation day we were in line to register for some Latitudes benefits like the behind the scenes tour. He spotted us in line, stepped out from behind the counter and called us by name! Three and a half years after our one brief conversation with him. Rodger is a very gracious host. A half dozen or so of us had dinner with him one evening. The next day he gave a private tour of the bridge to those who had dined with him. It was an unexpected treat and a very rewarding experience.

Each NCL ship features a French themed restaurant. Most are called Le Bistro. On the Pride of America it's known as Jefferson's Bistro, but it features the same menu.

If you go back far enough, they used to serve actual hors d'oeurves. Some were mighty tasty. They also used to give out door prizes. Some were pretty valuable, like free laundry. On a couple of our cruises they had a drawing for a free upgrade to a suite. Those were the days.

Thank you. You're too kind by a mile. Yes, we always try to enjoy our life. My wife is a "glass half full" kind of person. My take on life may be a bit more skewed. I see a glass half full and can't help but thinking that someone really should have used a smaller glass. Bazinga! Anyway, sure, we're always happy to receive the extras, but on the few occasions when we haven't received any, we've just smiled and carried on. No harm, no foul. On our most recent three cruises with NCL, we have been the senior Latitudes members on board. The GMs, CN Managers, and GS Managers each bent over backwards to be generous to us. Sure, it stokes our egos, but the bottom line is that we really enjoyed becoming friends with GM Vitor, GM Cary, CN Manager Celeste, and others.

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Please...not another chair hog thread.

There have been a number of comments across several CC threads addressing this issue. It boils down to this, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Fifty percent off the "regular" price for both passengers in a cabin amounts to the same price as "second passenger sails free" when the first passenger pays "full" fare. NCL, other cruise lines, and even your local grocery store may use any number of ways to entice customers to purchase from them instead of from a competitor. You always should compare the bottom line, after all discounts, fees, and promotions are figured into the price. Usually when NCL offers some "new" promotional price, the actual cost is exactly the same as it was as the day prior to the "sale."

My wife and I usually prefer to dine together when we are on a cruise, without other guests at our table. It gives us a chance to relax, enjoy our meal together, talk about our experiences after a day of exploring a port (or having a relaxing day on board), and discussing our plans for the coming day. On the one or two days per cruise when we dine with officers, we know that we have to be on our toes, alert, observant, and ready with insightful conversation. Kind of a downside, but far outweighed by the upside of getting to know some folks whose lives are vastly different from ours. Once a week is about as often as we can get geared up for that, though. The other nights, we just like to be left alone to enjoy dinner together. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. YMMV.

We always make a point of interacting with the ship's officers, especially the senior officers such as the GM, F&B Director, CN Director, and GS Director. It's always good to have an inside track to the folks who actually can solve a problem if one pops up. More importantly, at least for us, we really enjoy getting to know people from other countries and other walks of life, hearing their stories, learning their points of view and how the customs and traditions where they grew up impacted their life and their world view. If showing an interest in one or more of them results in getting a few extras like hors d'oeuvres, an extra night in a specialty restaurant, dinner with the GM or Captain, or a couple of free bottles of wine, then those are just bonuses. The real benefit, though, is expanding our world view by getting to know others whose lives are vastly different from our own. I have been the host for a CC Meet & Greet about a half dozen times. That usually results in some extras coming our way. I always try to introduce myself to the senior hotel officers on every cruise. My wife and I have had dinner with officers 20 times on 18 different cruises. Sometimes there would only be one officer with a half dozen guests, while other times we would have a table for four - my wife, myself, and two senior officers, usually in Le Bistro or Cagney's. That sometimes would be in addition to the usual dinner with a junior officer in the MDR, sometimes instead of it. Even though we rarely book a Suite or the Haven, we frequently have been put on the list to join the "suite people" for breakfast and lunch in Moderno or Cagney's. Being nice to others, treating them with respect, and showing an interest in them as individuals really does pay dividends.

Sorry for the typo - obviously should have been "Matter Of Opinion."

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. As for me, not so much. As Bob Denver used to say frequently when he played Maynard G. Krebs on the Dobie Gillis TV show, "Moo." (Mater Of Opinion)

Thank you for posting this article.

We rarely travel in the Haven. Perhaps because we are Diamond Latitudes members, though, we frequently receive cheese, fruit, hors d'oeuvres, and snack trays even without ordering them.