bonvoyagie

This is true, however it has been my experience that in both Canada and Alaska the tour operators who survived the pandemic have solid reputations and policies that guarantee you back to the ship or getting you the to the next port.

When we were in Skagway last year they had shuttle busses that took us from the ship to the end of the pier and back. All of the excursions met at the end of the pier. In Skagway I would book a tour with Chilkoot Tours, they provide better White Pass RR tours to Carcross and bus return than the cruise line. Glacier Bay is amazing and most of the action occurs on the left or Port side of the ship, the rangers provide a guided tour on the way in and a history lecture on the way out. With NCL docking at Ward Cove in Ketchikan, plan on needing extra time for shuttle busses to town, however they also have a good store there in addition to what you can find in town. This is also a port to learn about native culture - in addition to the lumberjack show and Creek Street. I highly suggest that you sit down as a family and review the tour choices and chose ones that interest the entire family. That said, you may also decide to split up if you can't come to an agreement.

in reading the NCL description of the tour it flat out says iced teas and savory treats that are very different from the afternoon tea offerings.

I have seen in the past where people who organize the meet and greets are given VIP status by the cruiseline. This allowed them to have similar privileges as suite guests such as lunch in Cagney's and breakfast in Modernaro.

Yes

we have been on one 21 day cruise since becoming Platinum members, on it we were each allowed one free laundry bag each week. As for the meals members get one set per cruise. The FAS meals vary with cruise length and cabin type.

I would cancel the excursion and wait to see what the weather is like. Too many times the port is foggy which really limits the view from the top. I also believe that the tickets are cheaper at the tram.

The town was afraid of breech of contract law suits so they are honoring ship reservations made prior to the ban vote.

OK I was only looking at cruise time tables website.

Well I hope you make your hotel reservations in Vancouver early, rooms around the cruise terminal book early. As for flights, I suggest that you start by looking at the web to get an idea of what is available, bear in mind the ship docks in Seward and it takes a few hours to get to Anchorage.

I see that the Star sails from Buenos Aires to Rio in late March the next cruise is late April in Europe. Anyone know what is happening in between?

Go to guest services and ask for extra room keys. These keys only open rooms and cannot be used to charge things onboard.

There are several threads about this here on cc. The most recent answer to this question is that the SN suites butler service ends at midnight. The SM suites have a 24 hr butler.

We stayed at the Denali Bluffs Lodge and the helicopter place is at the bottom of the hill next to the Lodge's driveway. We bought our tickets through the tour company although you could also buy them direct from Temsco helicopters. We paid around 500.00 each for a 20 min ride to the glacier, about 20 min on the glacier and 20 min return.

Well we are on the Jan 19 cruise next year. Hope they have things fixed by then.

Once onboard they do not care too much about where you sleep and hang out. The front desk can provide extra room keys so that you can all get into each others rooms. These are only room keys and will not be able to charge to your account(s). One other thing to note is that the ship can also make a difference as to how you can do this. For example on the Jewel class ships, the cabins that can sleep 5 or 6 people are usually suites so only those people registered in those rooms will get the suite perks. I believe that the away and away+ ships also have the same thing. The only ships that do not have havens are the Sun, Sky, Dawn, Star, and Spirit as they are the oldest ships in the fleet.

For 2025 NCL will have the Joy, Encore, Bliss and Jade in AK. The first three will be working out of Seattle, the Jade will sail between Vancouver and Whittier. As for time of year, some of it depends on what you want to see. Weather is always variable . We have sailed in AK mostly in June - both early, mid and late to early July and have had inconsistent weather all four times. The whales are there from spring to late summer so seeing them is a given. Bears too are out of hibernation and on the prowl for food mid summer the salmon runs begin. Eagles are pretty much a given all the time. Most of the excursions are up and running by mid May, some may have a limited season due to daylight reduction in the spring and fall. We did the same itinerary as the Encore on the Pearl back in 2012 also in late June - it was a wonderful trip. If you are into glaciers, then see if you can find a small boat tour of either Dawes or Sawyer Glacier out of Juneau - this will take all of your time in Juneau so you would have to forgo whales and Mendenhall glacier but we did this in 2012 and had a great time - almost better than glacier bay - we saw way more calving on Sawyer than anywhere else.

I would at least speak to an officer on the ship, they stress that they are fined if anything goes overboard to the point of losing their rights to the park.

Having done 4 AK cruises now I have seen three glaciers - Dawes, Sawyer, and Glacier Bay - Hubbard was both foggy and iced in so we really did not "see" it. The SB Jewel offers visits to Icy Strait Point as well as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan - The NB Jewel subs Glacier Bay for ISP and offers longer stays in the other ports. Of the RT Seattle cruises I would go with the Encore simply because of Glacier Bay for two reasons - first GB is awesome with several different styles of glaciers plus a park ranger who explains it all, and secondly it is rarely iced out - unlike either Dawes or Sawyer Glaciers. However if you do decide on the Bliss then try to book the small boat excursion into the glaciers, you will see either glacier up close and perhaps witness calving. As for travel, we live in Portland OR so getting to either Seattle or Vancouver BC was not a big deal and with proper planning you can easily fly into Seattle and take a bus or train to Vancouver BC. If you do the NB Jewel flying home from Anchorage is not that big of a deal as most airlines use it as a re fueliing stop on their polar routes to Europe so there are lots of flights to choose from that end up in major hubs such as Chicago and Denver as well as Seattle. We flew to Fairbanks from PDX with a stop in Seattle when we did our SB cruisetour last summer.

We did a 14 day cruisetour in June 2023. The tours include transportation and lodging and some tours. Ours started in Fairbanks and ended in Homer. We spent two days in Denali and had the Tundfa Wilderness tour. The hotel we were at offered free transportation between their two hotels, the park,and the local shopping area called Glitter Gulch, we were up on a hill that overlooked the park as well as the Princess Lodge. We were able to take an optional tour while in Denali and that was a helicopter ride with a glacier landing, it was offered through the tour company. Food is about the only thing that is not included and it is very expensive with most breakfast buffets running close to 50.00 per person. At some stops our tour guide has us stop at shopping centers so we could purchase snack foods as well as items for breakfasts and lunch as most of the hotels had some sort of kitchen area - for example we stopped at a Fred Meyer in Fairbanks before driving to Denali, and in Homer we were across the street from a Safeway. In Fairbanks we only had a dinner and found a great Italian place within walking distance of the hotel, and in Anchorage we got breakfast in the hotel before heading out, our tour included a train ride that featured lunch - for a cost. Now that I have been there and done that through a tour company, I would approach this trip differently if I did it again. For starters I would use the train for transportation and probably use the same hotel but spend more days in the park so I could do more stuff. However for a great introduction to Alaska, I found the cruisetour to be a good value.

Book it but make sure that you can change it without a fee. The captain on our cruise allowed people to use the ship to shore phones for free to make changes.

All of my cruises to date have always been from US ports and from what I have read here is that the Star when in northern europe is better than when she is in South America, so maybe the food issues are more about what they can provision there. As for entertainment most of the cruises we have been on have had multi-cultural passengers with no change in the shows- perhaps the excuse given for the lack of comics was just that - an excuse. I plan on being on the Star in a year going to Antartica.

Let me add some real world example as to why you should book a PM flight. We were on the Jewel this summer and between Ketchikan and Vancouver we had a medical emergency that required the ship to go back to Prince Rupert to drop the passengers. This put us close to 8 hours behind schedule. We also missed our window through the Seymore Narrows. Even though the captain had the ship running at top speed - 24 to 25 KN we ended up in Vancouver 5hrs late. There are lots of cabs at the port and the airport is about 30 min away. If you are returning to the US you need to allow time for check-in and going through customs. They recommend allowing 3hrs for this process. We stayed a few days extra in Vancouver so we were able to use an early flight - even so the US Customs opens at 5:00AM and the line is usually long. To add insult to injury, I was flagged with the SSSS on my boarding pass so I was subjected to an extra search - a hint here is if you can't log in and get your boarding pass through the web or ap you are probably going to be searched. Lucky for us my wife was not flagged and she had the carry on - all I had was my backpack with just some coats and camera but it still added to our time.

Also, don't expect to have your requests filled on sail day as the butler staff is very busy. Now something like an extension cord for a necessary CPAP machine may be a high enough priority to warrant same day service.

Kim, I have been following you and your family for several years now. I consider myself a destination cruiser and while I cruise every two or three years I always go for the destination, not the ship or cruise. So far we have visited Alaska 4 times - the last was in 23 when we did a land- sea adventure - so worth it. We have also done a 24 day Canada and New England, and a 21 day Panama Canal plus a Hawaiian cruise on the POA. We have a cruise booked for 2025 going to South America and the Antarctic 14 days on the Star. DW is still on the fence about traveling so far but we have till fall to make final payment :). We also have other destinations on our bucket list like Norway, Greenland, Iceland and Australia/ New Zealand. I know that you love the Carribean and there is nothing wrong with that, but I do think it is time to spread your wings to Alaska or even Canada and New England.