AquaMarineFerret

I have been meaning to post more photos but it's been a busy few weeks - sorry. So here is another to be going on with. I hope it conveys something of the scale of Alaska.

Hi,

Just to say that, unless they have drastically changed their set, the Russian foursome calling themselves Colibri are a covers band, not Latin. They tended to be mainly in the Observation Lounge or Atrium during our Alaskan cruise in August this year.

Bon Voyage!

AMF

Loving your photos, thank you.

Thank you for loving them! :)

The surprisingly blue ice wall of the Lamplugh Glacier.

Picking another photo at random and shrinking it down for upload, here's one from the second visit to the Hubbard Glacier we enjoyed. Now this is "Awesome!"

What a beautiful country!

Absolutely beautiful

Thank you (on behalf of the Alaskan Landscape!)

I will sort some more lovely scenery out when I get chance.

AMF

I took this one (well, I say one - more like many!) as we departed Skagway in early September - another lovely day. The coastline is beautiful and varied.

This is some distance down the coast from the port - a bit further than we reached on the Ocean Raft Adventure - previously only glimpsed in the distance or through cloud and drizzle.

We were so pleasantly surprised to arrive in Ketchikan to lovely sunny weather. I grabbed the opportunity and this shot.

Yeah, the picture has similarities with your avatar, but not quite.:)

Thanks again for your review and photos.

I have to admit it was almost surreal to so unexpectedly encounter a cousin of our little furry friends from the UK.

I wanted to rush out on deck to capture this sunset, but good manners (sort of) kept me seated at our table in the MDR - I snapped through the window instead.

An unexpected encounter during our Ocean Raft Adventure out of Skagway...

Identified later as a North American Mink rather than a Marineferret. :)

OMG! This was next to us at Vancouver!

A sloth? OK, I'll go with that, considering South America appealed to us too! :)

I need to polish my 'live event' skills - I would never make a news photographer. But here is a taste of a celebratory NCL Sun event.

Another random photo from our cruise:

Such beautiful seas and skies!

Of Tawdry Trinkets & Tanzanite: Aside from the dailies, we received a bombardment of fliers advertising further ways to spend our money. At first, I was a little baffled by the efforts to get us spending our holiday budget on jewellery and gemstones in the various ports as well as aboard. It was only after we got the lowdown in Skagway that we understood. Goodness me, those ports must be like ghost towns when the cruise lines shut up shop and move everything to warmer climes at the end of September!

T’annoy You: By the end of the cruise I was, quite frankly, sick and tired of the ship’s PA system. For very good reasons it does not disturb you in your cabin (unless, I assume, there’s an emergency) and in some ports it is not allowed to be used either. As a result, it tended to be a touch hit and miss as to whether we heard any announcements regarding where the disembarkation point was for the ports and when we were clear to disembark. Personally, I developed a profound dislike for the inevitable cheery call to play bingo, cutting through the relative peace and tranquillity of the cruise. The captain’s monologue about longitude, latitude, barometric pressure and the rest came a close second. As far as I was concerned the only good use it was put to was the glacier talks (and even then, if out on deck the strong breeze whipped too many words away before they reached my ears). On a cruise like this I expected someone among the crew to be keeping passengers aware of any wildlife viewing opportunities, but sadly not – we were on our own. On a slightly different topic, I was also surprised that relatively speaking there were few presentations on Alaska itself.

Mosquitos, black flies and such pests: Speaking of wildlife, despite the ominous thread about Alaska’s ‘state bird’, I believe I encountered but a single specimen (aside from the one I photographed). Whether it was the disagreeable critter that raised a small lump on my upper arm is debatable, but I counted myself lucky to come away with no more than a minor itch after reading the thread on the subject, especially as the insect I did see was not of inconsiderable size! Other than that, we did meet a few mildly irritating black flies in Skagway, but nothing to get too bothered about. Our small bottle of Skin So Soft went unused!

Queues to get ashore on last day: we actually thought we had been clever, choosing to do the self disembarkation thing. Waiting until the queue to leave the ship from the Atrium had died down, we breezed through the final security check and onto the gangway to Canada Place…where we came up short. A lengthy queue stretched along the land-side corridor! For whatever reason, two disembarkation points were feeding into one. The personnel in Canada Place were operating a loose system of alternate flow: first the front and then the rear. And of course, wouldn’t you know it, some passengers were either jamming things up by standing around to wait for others or otherwise deciding that queuing was simply not for them. Grrrr! But at least all we had to do after that was hand over our little customs clearance form before leaving – no passport processing queue!!

The Bill – aaaaarrrrgh! How MUCH!!??? Delivered to our room overnight, the printed document was quite lengthy. Each of our trips to the bar were itemised (for our convenience) but it took me a while to figure out that two larger numbers were the Viva Vino packages (not actually named, but identified as Seven Seas MDR). It’s a good job I stopped to think before charging off to the Customer Services to demand an explanation! And then what’s this? There’s a 3% margin included in the exchange rate! I bet that’s in fine print somewhere! How do you avoid paying that? To add a final insult there is a random $1 video arcade cost – what the…? It’s such a small amount, but how did that get on the bill? What is it for? Did either of us buy/do anything to attract such a fee? No idea! But can you imagine how that can add up per room and per sailing if each bill has such an item on it?

To lanyard or not to lanyard? I wear one to the office. When I saw a thread on the forum suggesting their use on the ship I made a mental note to track down a spare I had knocking round. My wife did the same. Now, the thing is: not all lanyards are created equal and neither are holes punched into your Freestyle passes by obliging staff. During the first week I had to resort to using a large safety pin to secure pass to lanyard (way uncool). During the second week my pass had two holes because the first, though positioned just right for my lanyard attachment, was in the wrong place for easy swiping at the bar – it caught on the edge of the reader! So, if your lanyard comes with a nice plastic wallet/pouch you may be better off. At least with a lanyard it was easy to locate your pass – no delving into pockets or bags or forgetting which pair of trousers or jacket you last wore and stored your pass in, necessitating assistance to get into your room or some such embarrassment. Just make sure that if you are festooned with camera and/or other straps it is not underneath them all – makes it a little tricky to present to the security machine slot without adopting a distinctly undignified posture.

In summary: Based on what we know now, would we do it over again? Well, I do not like being treated as a cash cow. I do not like being kept in the dark about things that directly affect my cruising experience. I was not keen on being bombarded with announcements and literature aimed at spending valuable time and money on irrelevancies such as bingo and baubles. I disliked cruising on a budget when around me there were folk living it up with rounds of cocktails and comparing staterooms and suites as well as the airborne excursions they had been on. My eyes watered at the cost of just six shore excursions for two of us. They watered even more when I saw the bill from NCL at the end of the cruise and on top of the daily service charge. They watered still further when I did the exercise to see roughly how much the whole package has cost us from start to finish!

And yet the answer is: “Yes – warts ‘n’ all!” Because visiting Alaska was such a new, exciting and varied experience. Because there is little to compare with standing all alone at the front rail of the observation deck as the ship glides across the sea; all you hear is the wind, the whisper of the waters and maybe the cry of a sea bird while you watch the sun go down on gorgeous, unspoiled coasts and snow-capped mountains. Because Glacier Bay and the Hubbard were beyond our expectations. Because looking a wild bear in the eye across a narrow creek is thrilling. Because seeing the Northern Lights so unexpectedly was a joyous thing. Because the floating hotel took us places without needing to worry about car hire and crazy foreign drivers. Because, apart from when on holiday in South Africa, we have seldom had such a feeling of getting away. Because we met and were well looked after by friendly, helpful, smiling people. Because NCL Freestyle is relaxed and relaxing. Because, for once, we did not have to witness the embarrassment of ‘Brits Abroad’. Because we had a small taste of the ‘high life’, liked it and can/will recommend it to all we think would afford and appreciate such an experience.

Next year it’s off to Lanzarote self-catering for Easter (points), a Shearings coach trip to NE Scotland in the summer (cash), with a week’s taster of Italy thrown in between (points). I bet you a pound to a penny that not only will that lot not come to anywhere near as much as the cruise in monetary terms, but neither will the experience.

So, yes, we have been bitten by the cruise bug and it’s probably only a matter of time before we sail again. Will it be with NCL and aboard the Sun? If the right itinerary comes along at the right time – yes! Admittedly, the Sun is not the most luxurious, facility-laden ship and it’s true she isn’t as young as she was. However, we were relaxed and comfortable. Yes, NCL as a company seem to be doing a lot to disappoint and also to squeeze money out of us at every opportunity, but are the other cruise providers any different or better? Maybe another would niggle and squeeze in equal measure but in different ways? We liked NCL Freestyle, so that’s the kind of thing we would seek in future. In the meantime both NCL and our holiday club do their best to tempt us away from the straight and narrow and I read with envy CC members panning and reporting back. The monthly holiday fund starts afresh…we’ll need it!

They did warn us about these horrors!

Will be following those 4,156 photos:)

You won't have time for cruises! :eek:

Enjoying your photos, tks

Only another 4,156 to go...

;)

Wonderful pictures! Taken by a wonderful photographer! Thank you so much for sharing.

It was like shooting fish in a barrel - don't praise the photographer too highly as it took no great skill to capture wonderfulness. :)

We loved this creation that greeted us in the cabin one evening...

it was only when I was preparing to upload it that I realised it looks as though the monkey is caught zip-lining across our cabin. :)

I never expected to find these on display in the NCL Sun buffet! I thought it a pleasant surprise to see that someone had taken time to do this for the buffet rather than one of the MDRs. I just had to grab a shot with my little compact camera in passing. I do have my doubts about one of the subjects - just look at that hair style! Could it be? Surely not?!

I really liked the contrasts of nature vs man-made structures here in this scene.

Puts our unworthy work into perspective...

Here's what grabbed our attention when we stopped for a look at the Mendenhall Glacier while returning from the Juneau whale watching... :)

This is one of the creations that greeted us when returning to our cabin at night: