Needz2Cruise

Thanks for the definitive answer! Was hoping they might get some Freestyle in there while drydocked, but no such luck.

For anyone that has been on Radiance since it's recent drydock. Did they install Coca-Cola Freestyle machines, or is Radiance still without? Thanks!

Good to know! I'll probably shoot for returning the car early afternoon and go from there. Thanks!

Thanks for all that info! I've already seen that website, looked at the excursions and the videos, etc. Much more informative than anything I've seen so far. Are you saying that you meet the land tour at the hotel, and not at the airport? I was under the impression that there was at least a transfer provided from the airport to the tour hotel. No big deal if not; I can always return the car to the airport and uber/lyft from there to the hotel.

I'll be picking it up 8:30 on Saturday night and will return it sometime on Monday, whenever we need to meet someone at the airport for the land tour pickup.I'll definitely stay within the 24 hour window you mention...thanks!

Some tours start (or end) in Fairbanks, ours starts in Anchorage. I'm planning on returning the car to the airport. I'm just trying to get an idea for when to setup the return time. Maybe I'll make it late afternoon and return early if necessary...we did go with Air2Sea as the fares, for us anyway, were much less than going thru the airlines. We're also doing an overnight in Vancouver post cruise as that's a fun city to explore.

For those of you that have done the RC land tour starting in Anchorage: we're flying in a couple days early and renting a car. Presumably we're to meet our tour guide or RC rep at ANC airport for the first night of the tour. Since I haven't seen any info from RCCL yet, about what time of day should I plan on returning the rental car to ANC, since we won't be coming in on a flight that day? Thanks!

Yeah, I've been hoping for that as well. Had some indication they might have released that the week of Feb. 12 and then last week when LAX cruises were released, but nothing yet. Keeping fingers crossed...

We're doing Radiance in Alaska in May. I was going to ask if they had added Coke Freestyle machines yet, but from everything I've seen so far, it sounds like it does not. I've signed us up for the soda package, but might cancel it as my wife likes some flavors in the machine that they certainly won't have cans for at the bar. Might revisit this topic after the drydock in March so see if they get installed.

Well, thanks for that, and there was a lot released this week, but not eastbound Panama Canal. I see Los Angeles is on the list for deployment next week (Feb 19 week), so maybe it'll be then, since some of the Panama Canal cruises have started or ended from there. Any other guesses?

Good to know! Thanks for the info. I thought it might be earlier than that, but we'll see.

Good to know! I'll be sure to keep looking, especially that week.

Does anyone have any insight on when (or if) RCCL west to east Panama Canal cruises for the fall of 2025 will be released? It looks like Radiance, Anthem, Quantum and Serenade will be in Alaska for the summer of 2025, so I would think some of them would be candidates. I know the canal has been expanded, but I'm guessing the larger ships might not be able to go thru the canal (?) Thanks for any insight!

On my previous RCCL cruises, I've been able to get a Soda + VOOM package at a discounted rate. We're going on Symphony in Europe in September and get Emails from RC just about every day. They've been discounting the Deluxe Beverage + VOOM, but I haven't seen the Soda + VOOM this time. Is that something I might see closer to the cruise, or maybe not at all since its Europe or have they dropped that promotion on all cruises?

No substitute. There was an overnight in Hilo.

Not at the port, but there is a free shuttle from Budget/Avis that will take you to the ITO airport (10 minutes or so) and bring you back when you return the car. Alamo used to have a shuttle, but does not at this time

I wound up using my Royal Caribbean holders (the long narrow) and just printed the NCL tags I think at 75% size and they worked fine...

Was on Pride of America 10/1 - 10/8. I can't compare with other cruises since this was my first NCL, but ship was clearly not at capacity. One of the two main dining rooms was closed and some of the specialty dining rooms closed. Whether this was due to staffing issues, reduced capacity or some combination, I wouldn't know...

I'm attaching scans of the Freestyle Daily from Pride of America from October 1 to October 8. This cruise was a little different than most in that there was no stop in Kona due to the Ironman Triathlon weekend. If you look carefully, you may also notice some typos in the daily schedules...for example "all aboard" times listed when staying in port overnight. 2022-10-01_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 1.pdf 2022-10-02_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 2.pdf 2022-10-03_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 3.pdf 2022-10-04_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 4.pdf 2022-10-05_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 5.pdf 2022-10-06_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 6.pdf 2022-10-07_NCL Freestyle Daily_Day 7.pdf

I'm not sure what they're up to. I was able to make Skyline reservations for each night of our 10/1/2022 cruise ahead of time, but they wiped them all out. I heard others had the same experience. However, I *think* some were able to make reservations onboard. Liberty dining room was closed the entire cruise and Skyline clearly wasn't full, I'm sure due to staffing issues/reduced capacity. Not having gone on NCL before, I'd say that "Freestyle" dining was a mess. We generally went down to dinner at Skyline about 6:30 and always had a 30-45 minute wait.

Just off Pride a little over a week ago. Honestly, one of the things that I would have changed if doing this cruise again is that I wouldn't bother with the internet package. Since this is a port intensive cruise with port overnights and a good portion of the cruising done at night, I found that I didn't use the Wi-Fi package much. And, I found that my 5G data plan with my provider was quite a bit faster than NCL's Wi-Fi, at least on my phone. If, as OP said, you're doing some heavy duty internet while away, you might need one of their packages, but on this particular cruise, I felt it unnecessary...