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On my last eastern Caribbean cruise there was a massive delay departing Tortola. I’d gone an excursion organised by another cruiser who then went wandering off at our last tour stop so we only just made it back to port for 1.20pm and the all aboard time was 1.30pm. One of the NCL excursions had some complications so there were lots of people late getting back to the pier, the queue for the gangway was half the length of the ship. I later heard the complications and delay were due to a guest having a bad fall on an excursion. That guest then died onboard in her sleep on the final night despite having been cleared by the medical personnel on the island.

On one of my cruises there were 2 deaths on the final night, one of whom had hit her head on an excursion. That same cruise there were also 2 people taken off in cuffs so disembarkation was quite delayed.

This is why you should travel with a passport! If you wind up with a medical condition that can’t be handled onboard you’ll be offloaded to the nearest port if they have the necessary facilities. The coastguard airlift will only happen if US is the closest hospital and the medical issue is urgent enough.

I’ve seen it for a some of the excursion providers I’ve been looking up, one example is the whale and glacier photo safari provider in Juneau says to book via the cruiseline on their website. Of course I’ve the added complication of sailing in October and most excursion companies only list up to September so right now it looks like it’s through the cruiseline or wander around without a guide.

Wow… that Sitka runway sounds like a couple in Ireland, the Inishmor island runway can only take teeny tiny planes where one of the passengers is effectively sitting where a copilot should be. The one in Sligo ends in the sea and the odd plane has wound up there if the wind gusts from the wrong direction but it can handle slightly larger planes.

Does anyone know if it’s offered for folks flying internationally? I’m not sure yet if I’ll fly home the day the cruise ends or not.

Is this when I should mention that the studio lounge has a coffee machine that most of the coffee addicts seem to find more than satisfactory. I’m not a coffee drinker so on a couple of cruises I was the solo who figured out how to get it to produce plain hot water for tea. Back in 2017 the beverage package European customers got from NCL included fancy coffees with meals. I used to order them for table mates at dinner.

Use of the studio lounge for the daily meet-ups has always varied, even before covid. Way back any solo on the ship could have their keycard enabled to access the studio lounge but that stopped around the mid 2010s I think. On the cruises I’ve done it’s been 50:50 as to using the the lounge v’s a bar for the evening gatherings. On one of my cruises I noticed one of the doors into the studio area rarely closed properly so anyone at all could get into the lounge, but that was on Epic which needs quite a bit of general maintenance.

Ignore the grinches .. it looks like Bliss has the same selection of shops as Getaway/Breakaway/Escape and epic. there’ll be a shop with jewellery from Effy and other painfully expensive brands, and there’ll be more budget friendly items in one of the other shops. Also there’s always the places in port too where you might find something a bit more unique. I got a Buckley bracelet with a turtle charm on my last sailing on Epic, and I try to pick up local specific Alex and Ani bracelets if I come across them. But I tend not to spend major money on jewellery and don’t have a husband to buys it for me either.

More likely it’s too soon to book but I’d recommend giving them a call to verify. NCLs website is not reliable.

On the cruises I’ve done so far the ship has sync’d to local port time but apparently it’s up to the captain. The freestyle daily will specify it each day and there should be a card left in your stateroom the night before any time changes.

For me it depends on the itinerary and the excursions I’m doing . On a western med itinerary a lot of the excursions I picked involved a lot of walking so being able to go to the hot pool and use the jets as a massage action was great, I’ve not really been a convert to the heated loungers as they just aren’t hot enough for me. my next cruise has a lot of time at sea so the thermal spa pass will be a purchase for that one as a place to get away for a while and as it’s an Alaskan cruise in October I’m not going to be getting in the water any other way.

Definitely a good idea to have the basics as I find the folks in France are more willing to admit to understanding English if you make an effort to speak French to them. If you stick to excursions rather than wandering on your own the guides will all speak English anyway, but that may not be the case if you DIY. I’ve been to France lots for a variety of reasons and a lot of areas and it is very much a basic rule to at least try to speak some french. I’m lucky enough to speak a decent amount and understand more, so much so that I’ll speak it to french customers in my shop in Ireland. I don’t have as much experience of Spain as I do for France but the locals always appreciate even a minimal effort at speaking their language. I understand a reasonable amount of Spanish but can’t say much more than thanks or order a beer in speaking it.

I’d go along with this, I used to travel a lot more than I do these days. In particular for European rugby matches, the supporters of the club I support used to have an effective race against the airlines and hotels to get bookings made before the fixture details became public, we were lucky enough to have a connection inside the main tv broadcaster. The moment major sporting, music or conferences events are scheduled then hotel rates shoot up. Seattle has an effective captive market for Alaska cruisers every weekend so I’m not surprised rates at hotels in proximity to the piers are high. I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted the Black Friday rate for the Belltown Inn and the good reviews. Any of the hotels I’d seen with economical rates previously had very patchy reviews or were miles away from the main attractions and the piers. Even Air BnB rates seems to have risen steeply from when I first looked at them (they weren’t available to book that far out at the time).

Walkers are more like Pringles than Irish style crisps, Tayto are a bit thinner cut and a bit more oily. there’s Tayto’s both in Northern Ireland and in the republic, once upon a time they were the same company but no longer. I’ve had the northern version and they’re very very similar to the republic version. Tayto Cheese and Onion are my favourites (red and blue packet in the south, yellow pack in the north). If you’re a fan of crinkle cut then Hunky Dory’s are good too, they actually own Tayto these days. There was near riot in Thomond Park at the first rugby game after its’ revamp because some dope had stocked Walkers instead of Tayto’s. An American comedian called Josh Pray (YouTube link included) was introduced to Taytos and the Tayto sandwich concept and fell in love. Mark Hamill of Star Wars developed a taste for Tayto BBQ flavour when he was filming the latest trilogy in Kerry. btw default Taytos = cheese and onion, if speaking about a different flavour this will be specified.

I’ll join the crisps club, specifically Irish crisps, the Tayto brand was the first in world to do flavoured crisps (potato chips for the heathens) and they’re still the best, so good you can use them as a sandwich filling. Also Irish/uk version of Cadbury chocolate bars, hersheys has too much artificial sweeteners or something, it’s just not the same and cadburys from other countries has some weird additives to stop it melting. I resort to buying a big bag of Cheetos, red or rainbow vines and galaxy chocolate from a local store when I get stateside to bring onboard for snacking. I do have a corn intolerance so that severely limits the amount of those I can consume per day. I’m one of those oddballs that actually loses weight on a cruise ‘cos I can’t indulge in my normal snacks.

There were rumours that Priscilla would be replaced when Epic was due to go for refurbishment in 2020 but covid put paid to that plan. Getting the bus off the ship would apparently be a major project. I suspect someone realised they could just cut it up if they didn’t want to re-use it for a different ship. It does however seem a bit odd that 6 would be on multiple ships, it’s not like the dance show that’s on getaway and breakaway as that evolves with different casts bringing different dance styles and choreography.

Pre covid there was a plan for NCL to redevelop another pier entirely for San Juan embarkations but they’ve wound up sticking with the Pan American pier.

I’m honestly not surprised about a lack of refunds, many cruises would have been booked months ago, before all the oil price increases. NCL are actually entitled to add a fuel surcharge above the original cruise price and they haven’t done this, they’re probably using any port fees excesses to defray the increased fuel costs. However, if they skip a European port and don’t provide any compensation for it you could probably haul them over the coals with EU regulations, the airlines in Europe all got smacked for not refunding airport charges to customers who missed flights regardless of cause. The airlines are now supposed to provide such refunds but they make it as difficult as possible by requiring calls to a premium rate phone number where the time you spend on hold will probably cost more than the refund would be worth, but they are obeying the letter of the law.

The pricing varies by cruise, if there’s higher demand for studios they will be more expensive, generally the inside prices you’ll see before drilling in are the sail away prices without Free at Sea. Access to the studio lounge if staying in a cabin other than a studio is hit and miss, it seems to depend on the policy of individual managers or coordinators on the ships. Sometimes the coordinator will wedge open the door into the studio lounge for the daily meet-ups, others will set a meet up location at one of the bars because they’re not allowed to give access to the lounge. Generally the very first meet-up on embarkation day will be set for a bar accessible to everyone and then migrate to the studio lounge to collect the solos hanging out there. there aren’t studios on all the ships and the ships without studios do still have a solos meet-ups in one of the regular public venues.

Before the free WiFi minutes were included in FaS you could prepay and avoid a connection fee that you had to pay if buying it on the ship. When I booked my next cruise the FaS included 250mins so the upgrade to unlimited is a fair bit cheaper than is the case with the current FaS. Personally I’ll pre-purchase the upgrade just in case the on-board system decides to charge the upgrade price as if I only have the 150/120mins. Also looking at recent dailies that have been posted none seem to show the option to upgrade to unlimited after day 1.

Being in Ireland I always have at least one pair of waterproof boots or sneakers, I have hiking boots and high waterproof warm boots that I use very rarely. My day to day boots are from timberland, a lot of the boots in their range are waterproof and I usually top that up with a waterproofing spray. At the moment my waterproof runners are Asics but in the freezing temperatures we have in Ireland this week they are definitely not warm enough without heavy socks. We recently started stocking Etnies at work and they have a few winterised high top sneakers in their range which I will be picking from for myself.

ah but was there driving rain? That is what gets through weather seals every time, it the joint between the body and lens that’s the infiltration point.

Maybe NCL should consider ditching some of the cheapo brands if the concern is about consolidating the range offered. The reality is probably due to the terms offered from the various alcohol parent companies and distributors like Diageo. Btw $26 for a bottle of baileys is about normal in Ireland as our government introduced minimum unit pricing on alcohol.

It would probably be a good idea to check the cruiseline forums to see what the reports are from folks that have been on ships that went to glacier bay in the past. I have a cruise booked on Norwegian Bliss for October next year that includes a day in Glacier Bay. However, some of the late season trip reports have said Bliss didn’t get particularly close to the glaciers so if getting close to the glaciers is a priority you may want a cruise line using a smaller ship on such an itinerary, or be careful with your sale dates.