bonvoyagie

I think that the Spirit is gone from the NCL roster for good - the "charter" will become a permanent transfer of title.

Been around the outside of Vancouver Island three times now on cruise ships. All of them have had poor weather with low overcast clouds winds and seas. However the ship did not seem to roll, that said we have encountered rolling seas while coming back to Boston from Quebec and along the central American coast prior to the Panama Canal. These cruises had us trying to maintain balance in the hallways.

AK one ways between Vancouver and Seward can be made into a B2B. Also Canada and New England sailings to Quebec can be made into a B2B. I believe there are some East and West Carribean cruises that can be done B2B

OK this will be the third major renovation to the Joy. The first was to de-asian it for the western market which involved removing some cabins on the starboard side of the OL deck - adding to the OL, now they are going to put them back. Please note that the Joy has the lowest pax cap of the away+ class ships and I believe that this reno will bring it up to the rest of them but not back to the 4000 level that it had for the Asian market.

the one itinerary that goes by the coast is only for two cruises, not sure why they are so special but they are the first sailings in Oct and mid Nov.

In both Juneau and Ketchikan there are free shuttles to town. In Icy Strait Point they offer a golf cart shuttle to the main area. Skagway has a bus service that runs around town for 3.00 pp.

The Jewel and Jade are similar ships, I am sure that the Jade will indeed ply the inside passage of the Johnstone Strait and Seymore Narrows. The Spirit had to go outside of the island to make better time while trying to get to her first port.

we had the same menu in 2012 on the Pearl - tried the AK Snowplow - yummmm.

One thing that is probably essential for a great AK cruise is the inclusion of Glacier Bay. This will limit you to the cruise lines that have permission to operate there - they are Princess, HAL, and NCL at the moment and through at least 2024. Early season NCL runs the Bliss there but switches to the Encore mid season. The Jewel visits GB on the northbound voyage. We don't cruise for the entertainment or even the ship - we base our cruising on the itinerary and AK is less about sea days and more about SEE days. The inside passage is full of great scenery. I understand that both HAL and Princess bring on naturalists as part of an enrichment program to help you learn more about AK. You asked about one way vs RT Seattle. One-ways offer more port time as well as usually a second glacier viewing, plus the possibility of adding a couple of days to see Denali NP. RT out of Seattle cruise on the outside of Vancouver Island and usually waste a couple days in the process. Plus they have to make a stop in VIctoria to satisfy the PVSA. As far as customs go, taking a NB cruise out of Vancouver you will go through Canadian customs at the airport and then at the pier you will go through US Customs. After that there are no more customs checks.

Yes, Premier Alaska Travels is the company that NCL hires to do it's land tours. The day we started there was our tour plus the ones for the Encore and Bliss. We were all at the same hotel so they simply loaded our bags onto a bus and when they had 11-12 people they ran us over to the hotel and dropped us off. We had a total of 80 people doing the Authentic Alaska tour so they split us into two groups each with our own guide. The folks from the Bliss and Encore had their own guides and drivers. We were lucky as our group only had 27 people so the bus was not crowded.

We just completed a land first cruisetour and had people arriving in Fairbanks well after midnight. They were met at the airport and given a ride to the hotel, they missed the inital orientation from the guide, they also had to be up and going by 6:00AM for bag pull. They eventually caught up on their sleep. And BTW they were from NY.

Just finished a SB Authentic Alaska tour starting in Fairbanks. You will find out which of the hotels you are in in your edocs, which are not ready until 21 days from the start of the cruise. We were at the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks along with the Bliss and Encore tours. From there to Anchorage the tours were similar. Our tour was at the Grande Denali while the other two were at the Denali Bluffs. There is a PDF on the AK cruisetour portion of the NCL website, it contains all of the possible hotels based on the tour.

on my last cruise i rebooked once prior to final payment - this was a total cancel and rebook so I had to accept the new perks. Then after final payment the price dropped again by about 2000.00 per ticket, my TA called and they offered either a free upgrade on that cruise or a discount on the fare plus FCC for my next cruise. This was in Dec of 2019.

Well it looks like NCL has some interesting stuff planned for AK in 2025. The Jade replaces the Jewel on the now Whittier to Vancouver one way - and visiting Valdez on both north and south bound voyages. - the same port they have now axed for the rest of this season. The Joy replaces the Sun on 9 and 10 day sailings out of Seattle while the Encore and Bliss continue their RT out of Seattle voyages with the Encore going to Glacier Bay and the Bliss visiting Dawes Glacier. No word yet on the cruisetours as I am sure they will all need revamping with the change in port from Seward to Whittier.

The Jewel class ships have no Haven restaurant all suite guests eat breakfast in Modernaro. Which is open early on port days offering speedy service for those with early excursions. As far as eating in suite, there is a special menu hang tag that you put out the night before and the butler delivers it to your suite, we used this service on Glacier Bay day in AK and on Canal morning in Panama, at that time there was no charge for the service - but we have not crusied post COVID.

On our last 21day cruise we were told we would have 3 bags of laundry each for our platinum perk. We were told to just write platinum on the slip that lists the items in the bag. We did a bag each week. BTW we knew we would have one bag as our platinum perk so we did pack with that in mind.

Actually the state of Texas demands that all liqueur served in the state - including its waters - be sold and taxed by the state. NCL as well as other cruise lines close down all but one or two bars until they reach international waters. These bars serve the state taxed liqueur and pass the tax onto pax.

Maybe Valdez is going to be the next ISP? NCL would have a full year to develop it into a tourist spot.

And yet in 2025 they plan on taking the Jade there both north and southbound, plus they plan on starting and ending in Whittier - go figure.

I booked my own air travel and just a few weeks later they announced that my flights were changed so I had to call and re-book both my travel to Fairbanks and my return from Vancouver. I had initially planned on going from PDX to ANC then on to FAI but Alaska Airlines dropped the flight between ANC and FAI this meant that I had to fly to SEA on a flight that is two hours earlier and then from SEA to FAI with a two hour layover. The return flights from Vancouver were similar with the flight times changing to earlier.

If you are in a suite there is no issues - the concierge can easily arrange dining times for you in the specialty restaurants. We were on the Gem for 21 days in January 2020 and ate meals in both MDRs, O'Sheehans, Cagney's, and LaCuchina - all the arrangements were made at breakfast with the concierge- no issues.

It is premier Alaska tours.

We are SB on the Jewel in July this year and they recently added the small boat tour of Hubbard Glacier as well as the Dawes Glacier Explorer that leaves Juneau ahead of the ship and gets you up close to the glacier before you reboard the ship deep in the Fjord near the glacier. BTW I believe the port time in Juneau is from 7 AM to 1PM then Glacier cruising before heading to Skagway.

That is because RCL, HAL, and Princess all have their own facilities. NCL relies on a third party to do their tours. NCL was last to the land tour market.

Well I just got my e-docs and they have all of the hotel vouchers in them. I had to wait until 21 days prior to the cruise - not the tour for the e-docs to appear. I could finish the check-in process at 21 days prior to the tour start. BTW it looks like NCL uses two hotels in Fairbanks - the Bear Lodge and The Rivers Edge - it depends on which tour you are on. They also list the Pikes Waterfront and Wedgewood Resort for different tours.