gmazz

We are thinking of just taking a flight from Vancouver to Portland and rent a car from there. Looks to be a few hundred dollars but we will be there much quicker!

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Sorry I have been MIA. Worked so much up to the holidays that I didn't get back onto this board until now.

Thanks for everyone's input. I know that we are looking at a fairly long trip but was just trying to see if this would be doable or not.

My husband was out in Portland a while back for a work summit and they took a trip up to Timberline Lodge and he has talked about taking me there for years. Thought maybe we could swing it seeing how we will be in the area for our Alaska cruise.

erinlaw here are some more shots of the room. The murphy bed is behind the table. If they have to open it they will leave it down all week. Sorry I don't have any shots of the bathroom. There is lots of storage and outlets to plug into.

Enjoy that suite and the huge deck!

Not sure if this will work or not but here is one of the pictures of the suite 13518 erinlaw.

Has anyone driven from Vancouver down to Portland area or even into Washington state? Wondering how difficult the boarder crossing would be.

Thinking of spending a night at Timberline Lodge after the cruise and flying out of Portland the next day.

I put a call into my TA today only to be playing phone tag but I went onto their site to check to see what cabins were still available in my category only to find the cruise is up $700 from yesterday! I will keep my good price and be thrilled to have the UBP. :(

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mitsugirly we were on deck 14 and were able to get the dockside wifi out on our deck. Well my girls were the ones using it in the cabin next to us. We were on the side facing the dock so that probably makes a difference.

Really enjoying your review and the beach pictures. I have a few more beaches I would like to see now. I will have to try your beach touring strategy next time we go to Bermuda, hopefully in 2017.

Loved your balcony surprise!

We surprised our girls with an upgrade from a balcony to a minisuite compliments if NCL. We were originally booked on the BA cruise for the July 4th week and about a month or so before the cruise they offered the upgrade if you would switch to the week before which turned out to be a better week for my husband to be away from work and my younger daughter was done with school the Monday before so it was a no brainer for us. We told the girls that NCL was looking for people to go the week earlier to fill the boat and that hubby really needed to change the date. Loved getting to surprise them when we got to the rooms and they had the bon voyage decorations from us and I did the chocolate covered strawberries for hubbie. They were awesome!

Really enjoying your review!!!

celebritycritic here is the link to the virtual tour for room 13518. Just scroll down to Penthouse with large balcony SF.

http://www.iceportal.com/brochures/ice/Brochure.aspx?did=3719&brochureid=6053&type=vr&design=3

Help please -

 

I am having a lot of difficulty picking the right suite for a family of 4 - no less due to the lack of information on the website....

 

If all else being equal - including cost, would you pick suite SF 13018 or SG (can pick from 11006, 11008, 11018, 11020, 11506, 11518, 12010, 12012, 12508)?

 

 

We were in a SF suite back in March of 2014 and it was perfect for the 4 of us. We were in 13518. King size bed, pull out full size sofa bed and a murphy bed which was a bit wider than a twin but not a double. The deck was huge, we had tons of storage. There are only 2 of these penthouse suites on the POA and if you can swing it I highly recommend it.

We used Johnny Cab for both our airport pickup to HHV and to the pier. I think it was about $40 each time. We grabbed a cab at the hotel to go to Diamondhead and found one waiting in the lot for the trip back. We walked to the diner across the street from the HHV both mornings for breakfast and walked to Dukes for dinner a night. It was about a ten minute walk, not to bad. We didn't rent a car at all, did tours on the cruise and took cabs or walked in Waikiki. Hubby didn't want to drive so I didn't torture him!

Highly recommend Mary Lou's tours in Hilo if they are available, we saw a lot during the tour and it is small groups. Also Captain Zodiac in Kona for snorkeling was great.

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We just bought 4 CruiseNext Rewards while on the Jewel for $1000 and received $500 OBC. They never even discussed CruiseNext Ultimate.

The same thing happened to us on the Breakaway in June. Waited in line a good 10 minutes to talk to a PCC and they never told us about the CruiseNext Ultimate. We bought two and one is for my daughter and her boyfriend for Christmas, add the UBP to that would have made it so much better. Now they have it advertised so much more in the dailies but I don't think that is right for it not to be brought up when you are face to face with a PCC buying them. I called when I got home and found out about it and was told pretty much to bad you had to do it on board.

My daughters shared the login this past June. They were able to access it from their mini suite balcony on the 14th floor to face time their boyfriends. They had no problems with it once we downloaded it to their devices but mainly used it out on their balcony. Definitely worth the $15!

Great List! Does anyone know what is in a Rum Cake? Someone mentioned this drink somewhere on the forum but I haven't seen details on it.

I had one on our June BA cruise and it was amazing!

Pyrat XO Reserve dark rum, Godiva dark liquor, Chambord, fresh cream

Thanks for sharing! Really enjoyed looking around at that little slice of heaven again. :D

Thank you for sharing your amazing trip. Loved following along on your journey. Great pictures and videos to. Sorry your cruise has come to an end, getting back to reality is the pits! ;)

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Hearing that they are including the insides in the ultimate cruise next makes me even more upset that I missed out on this on my cruise in June. Apparently this program was fairly new and not mentioned on cc yet. I had no idea it existed. I had not seen the flyer left in my cabin, I had not paid to much attention seeing how we were always in the go.

Anyway the last day if our cruise I went down to the desk and waited ten minutes for the PCC to finish with the couple before us. I bought two FCC's and not one word was mentioned to me about the ultimate. I would have booked the two dummy dates to be able to get the drink package added for free! We are not planning on going until May/June of 2017 so it is not available to book yet. I cannot believe that they have these extra PCC onboard and they are not trained to do their job right! I could see if I just dropped my paperwork in the slot and didn't talk to anyone, but I did and I even asked about buying the second FCC for my daughter for Christmas and was told I could call and transfer it when they were ready to book. Why not tell me about the ultimate cruise next?

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We could hear the party from our balcony the bar is that close. To bad it happened, bad way to end a great cruise!

We went on the Rising Sun in June and we loved it! Me (46) my husband (48) and my girls (21 & 16) enjoyed the ride on the catamaran and we thought the guys were a lot of fun. They did trivia on the way there about the Bermuda Triangle and gave away rum swizzles to those who answered certain questions right (which I did!) They had floating devices, both noodles and boards and they had paddle boards and kayaks to use.

I would not hesitate to go with them again next time.

I have not been with Restless Native so I cannot compare the 2 but we had a lot of laughs and fun on Rising Sun.

Our first trip to Bermuda was on the Horizon. I remember going through that tight "squeeze" going into St. George's. It was nice having a stop there and Hamilton.

And the trip back was a rough one, we were really rocking and rolling. Made walking around seem like we were on a fun house at sea! :eek:

All these changes are really disheartening. We had such a great cruise in BA in June that I bought two FCC's one for me and hubby and one for a Christmas present for my daughter and her boyfriend who are planning like us to go to Bermuda in 2017.

But the icing on the cake is my younger daughter going May 1, 2016 on the BA with her boyfriends family. They have been exclusive to Royal Caribbean and are trying NCL for the first time to be able to get more time in Bermuda and a longer cruise. They booked before we cruised and since then they have lost 2 hours in Bermuda, had an increase in DSC and are now loosing fireworks. I know it is not the end of the world but it does leave a bad taste in your mouth BEFORE you even step onboard.

Any more changes and I might just jump ship to Celebrity and sell my FCC's. :(

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I wish we had as good of a cruise consultant on our Breakaway cruise look last month. I missed seeing the flyer in our room for the ultimate offer and just grabbed 2 cruise next rewards at the desk. Nothing was mentioned to us about booking with guaranteed perks so we missed out. I would have done it for my reward and the one I got for my daughter and her boyfriend as a surprise for Christmas. Very disappointed that after waiting in line to do it in person not a word was said about it. I came back to seeing it discussed on CC.

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My girls used the one at the dockyard a few weeks ago. We were in a mini-suite on the 14th floor and our balcony faced the dock and they were able to sit out there nice and comfy in their chairs face timing there boyfriends back home. You get a login so you can use it on multiple devices just one at a time, worked out great for them.

I just used this last week on the Breakaway and I have a droid and the i-concierge icon came up just in the same place as your regular incoming text message icon would. My phone didn't make my normal chime but it did that bubble popping sound so if you were somewhere quiet you could hear it. It may have just been my phone's setup but I never bothered to try to make it louder just kept checking the phone when we were somewhere loud.

I think it worked very well and loved the other features to that were free like checking your onboard account and what was going on all over the boat for activities. Also booked a show through the app.

We spent a lot of time at Shakers. We did the Martini Flight (I believe that is what it is called), it is 6 samples of martinis that were pretty good. This is not part of the UBP but well worth the $15. They had some nightly entertainment that was good there to. Also liked the sitting areas around the bar, nice comfy seating. I agree they are some of the nicest bartenders on the ship. We also liked the bartenders at H20, they were a hoot at the Glow Party that we were lucky enough to sit at the bar for.

Also did the Ice Bar and that was neat to try, the drinks were good but strong!

We did grab a drink a few times and make our way outside to the waterfront. One side was busier than the other, I believe it was the side where Tradewinds entrance was and were able to grab a nice seat to look out onto the water. Watched a nice thunderstorm off to the side as we sailed our last night into Bermuda.