tetleytea

Virgin went and branded their own cruise ship, too, but I don't plan on practicing the brand name.

Here's what I did in Carson City: the hotel gave me $5 in nickels, to go and play their nickel slots. So i played the nickel Draw Poker machines instead--at least with poker you can control your destiny somewhat. Soon I turned that $5 into $20. It was clear the machines were paying out more than 100%. So I should go and play their 25-cent Draw Poker now, right? After all, I can make 5 times as much. NO!! That's exactly how they make their money back. They let you win small at first to suck you in. Instead, I went to the hotel gift shop and bought some stuff with nickels. Sent gifts to all my Christian friends and told them I bought it with gambling winnings.

What I was going to do was, if I spotted a bus, I was going to take advantage of it and go to Fortress of the Bear. In the end, though, we ended up running out of time; in spite of having a long port stop. The Raptor Center, the Historical Park south of there, watching the salmon, and the city museum near there pretty much took all of our time. We walked every step of the way, except for the shuttle into/out of town; we logged something like 20,000 steps that day. While we didn't see any bears, we sure as heck did run across some very fresh bear skat on the hiking trail in the historical park. Guess who had a panicking wife.

I was happy with the free Alaska state capitol tours, which are right next door to the city museum. House of Wickersham is a cheap option near there, too, although the walk there is not easy. We made a whole port stop out of just those 3 things, and spent a whopping $12.

I didn't see a city bus the whole day I was there, and I was there on a Monday.

If you are really interested in 24/7 food options the Local blows out any other cruise line IMO I have to favor International Cafe on Princess for that one.

It happened. I think it's only for Owner's Suite guests and maybe one category down (Penthouse?). While I can appreciate being escorted directly to your cabin, walking right through security and stuff, and immediately getting to set down your carry-ons...and maybe a quick guided tour of your suite...I thought the crew member holding up a big "Haven" sign was a bit silly.

The Local is certainly included, but the food is the cheaper stuff, unless you like chicken wings. I don't remember there being any 24/7 food options. Not even the Observation Lounge did that. Maybe the Local was 24-hour, but I think they were just really-long-hours. The 24/7 option I used was the mini-fridge in my cabin. Yes, we got no Starbucks or water bottles (or water boxes) with the Free At Sea regular. However, Irish Coffee did fall under Free At Sea.

I know the most important perk I want is that NCL crew walking with me at embarkation holding that big sign above everybody that says, "Haven". And everybody looks at me and goes, "Ooooh. Aaaaaah."

When I was in Gothenburg Sweden, I got viciously attacked by an aggressive signpost while I was checking my cell phone for directions. I had to wear that gash on my face to the main dining room that night. But, as I always say, you should see what I did to the other guy.

You were travelling on business when you tripped. Right? Right?

If you're a comp lawyer, a good winning strategy might be to find the most unsafe behaviors you can think of that could likely get the dealer hurt. And give them your card. 🙂

I would require more convincing, myself. The math says the odds of rolling a 7 are 1 in 6 and the odds of boxcars are 1 in 36. The second time you roll the dice, your odds of rolling a 7 are 1 in 6 and boxcars are still 1 in 36. The previous roll of the dice has no bearing on that. If there truly is such a thing as "hot" dice, then some sort of scam must be going on. If this is some sort of cat-and-mouse game between the house and the gamblers each trying to con each other, that would explain it.

Card-counting is playing to the math? The casinos countered that by using infinite shoes?

"it reminds me a lot of the haven discussion here. those that don't gamble insist that somebody must be losing THOUSANDS of dollars in order to get a "free" cruise, but that's not the way it works." I am interested how that is not how it works, too? The slots pay, what? 40 cents on the dollar? The principle of gambling is that somehow you are going to beat those odds, yet the principle of customer loyalty works diametrically opposed to that: it pays per play, which means the statistical law of averages kicks in. So yes: you stick $10k in the slots, you get $4k back, which means you paid $6k for your loyalty. And the law of averages says your standard deviation won't be too far off from that.

That's it. I'm juxtaposing two different lines of thought. One thought says, "He's the cruise director. He's supposed to make us feel good and have a good time, and he must not be doing a very good job as cruise director." When in fact I am thinking, "I wouldn't have it any other way. I am not on his ship; he is not my cruise director. What kind of person is he now?"

I'd like to see them install a roller skate path between the tables in American. Free drinks, roller skating on top deck of a moving ship. I see no liability issues at all with that, but I think that would be a lot of fun.

I have to go with Ocean Blue. In spite of being a seafood restaurant, they seemed to have the best vegetarian options. They had very good outdoor dining, which is my #1 criterion. The MDR's didn't have outdoor dining like the Haven does, so if it's good weather and there is good scenery outside, then that is what the specialty dining is all about. In Alaska, we bundled up and booked Ocean Blue during a glacier scenic sailing, which gave us exclusive access to that part of the ship. No standing behind other people's shoulders on the Sky Deck or the Observation Lounge--we just sat at dinner and watched the scenery go by, with binoculars around our necks. Spotted some whales every now and then, and a bear. From our table. La Cucina was also good for outdoor seating, but their vegetarian options were primarily high-carb. I see lots of votes for Cagneys and Le Bistro, but generally I don't see that they have outdoor seating.

Not at this time. This is CruiseCRITIC.

I absolutely like the Prince William Sound cruise out of Whittier--the highlights being the big rookery close to dock and the Dall's Porpoise that were chasing our ship. But if you've sailed neither to Whittier nor Seward, I have to prefer Seward over Whittier. PWS cruise beats Kenai Fjords cruise (the Seward closest equivalent) by a little bit, but Seward has so much more to do than Whittier does, and you get to drive/train the Turnagin Arm up to Anchorage. A lot times the better excursion is, "the one you haven't done already."

We had a club balcony suite on Observation Deck, with the water slide literally partially obstructing our view. The noise came more from being on Observation Deck than it did the water slide. The obstructed view didn't bother me in the least--I was out on the balcony to look out into the waves; not up into the sky.

My suspicion is that the new ships like the Prima will be the best fit, at least on-board.

I'm starting to think that the way to go on Norwegian is to get an interior and then upgrade-bid on everything.

We used the official CDC at-home tests and telehealthed it, and that whole process was painless and accepted by Norwegian. In fact, I would suggest NOT using the cruise lines' "official" tests, because if you ever test positive, often those results get reported directly to the cruise line. You want yourself to be in charge of how to handle a positive test result, and not the cruise line.

Is there a proximity advantage to getting a Spa balcony, as opposed to just Spa access?