psuboater

I think lots of ideas on here can be true at once. 1) It is against NCL's policy to have a minor in the room without an adult for the nightly assumption that they will eventually be sleeping together in the same room. This is to cover NCL's behind if something were to happen to the minor. Yes, as others have stated, the likelyhood of anything happens is small, but if they do find out, they do have the authority to kick you all off the ship without refund. I do think while most people have good intentions, a lot don't, and if someone were to follow her back to her cabin unbenownst to her, it would be a lot safer to (most likely in the wee hours, I would hope!) have an adult there. 2) A 15 year old can be responsible enough to stay on their own across the hall, or a 15 year old could be too immature (either deemed by their parents or the kid themselves (I saw a poster say that their daughter would feel uncomfortable). When I was 15 I took school group trips to Europe - our parents accompanied us but had separate rooms. We were allowed to pair with friends but had to check in with a curfew every night. I never dared to sneak out, or trash a hotel room, or get into trouble. Some of y'all are treating the OP like she's abanoning a newborn in their own room. If the policy did not reflect that and they did allow it, I think some 15 year olds are more than capable and comfortable for that privledge. However, two things can be true at once - the 15 year old could be capable in her own cabin, but policy wise, she should not be.

I once made this mistake and I live here 🙂 Rule of thumb - if it doesn’t ask you for your passport info when you book, you’re going to the wrong Vancouver.

Get your tickets ASAP -- this route easily sells out in the summer months. We are going to a concert in July in Vancouver and we bought our Amtrak tickets last month. You also save a great deal on Amtrak when you book early.

LOL funny you should mention that because I'm working downtown all week so my work put me up at a hotel, and my husband joined me for dinner at Butcher's Table(VERY close to La Quinta) and we were there at 8:30pm 🙂 We're not NYC, the return to office hasn't been fully formed yet, so restaurants here Monday-Wednesday will close around 9pm. Thursdays-Saturdays you'll get better hours until 11 or 12. This is also our non tourist season, so by the time the cruises start, you'll have more late night options. Momji, who has an original location in Capitol Hill, looks like they opened in South Lake Union and is open until 9. It's my favorite sushi place in the city. The Butcher's Table, as I mentioned, has great steak, and if you're adventrous, the bone marrow appetitzer is a must. We just learned last night to ask for a "luge" - where after you finish the bone marrow, you pour a bourbon down the bone as a drinking vessel, definitely a flavorful eperience. Our consulting team confirmed that if you're really looking for night life, Capitol Hill has a ton of late night options. It's a quick uber ride away. They were out until at least 1am last night. South Lake Union/Downtown is not an urban waste land. Even before the pandemic, I recommend staying away from 3rd when you can (It is a bus only street so the homeless tend to stay there), but it's not any different than any major city. Be aware of your surroundings, and have fun!

This question is asked a lot on this board. Typically, as locals, we recommend no earlier than noon. If you have a hard time getting around, don't have Precheck or CLEAR, or just not comfortable with navigating airports, I would leave a cushion until at least 1pm.

It depends on a few factors -- it looks like there are two boats disembarking that day (Bliss and Eurodam) so it will be a busy day for the airport, but not as busy as when 3 ships come in. Are you good walking off with your own luggage? Do you have any priority with your airline (ex: Delta Sky Priority has a separate line to check in/bag drop). Do you have Pre Check and/or CLEAR? (The only consistent less than 15 minute option with security in SEA has been Pre and CLEAR combined that I've experienced). Ideally, a noon or later flight is best (especially if you can do Port Valet, which takes 30+ minutes off your airport experience not having to check your bag), but given that it's a Saturday so you won't have rush hour traffic, the Huskies are playing Rutgers in New Jersey so you won't have game day traffic, if you're comfortable with navigating airports, I would make the gamble.

We've done this on the Joy as well- I've gone up and brought down a few appetizers for myself and the group playing dominoes to enjoy, but not a full 4 course meal.

Port side has buildings but you get the sunset! But as others have said, you won’t know until you get there. Both sides are beautiful in Bermuda!

Couple of questions to help you determine: 1) Do you like a party vibe with the loud music or more of a chill vibe? Vibe offers a quieter place to enjoy the sun. 2) Are you someone who loves the hot tubs? Vibe offers a way less crowded experience to enjoy the hot tubs. 3) Are you someone who loves lounging in the sun all day or does that not matter to you? If that's not a huge part of what you enjoy, I wouldn't advise it. We have the Joy booked for Bermuda and after our experience last year in the Vibe, we wouldn't book a NCL trip without it. Having a quiet place outside on the ship that we didn't have to stress over finding a (cushioned) lounger and umbrella made the week for us. We don't gamble, shop or do any of the other "for pay" things on the ship so that's what's worth it to us. If you're even debating it, I would grab it in your reservations. Vibe almost consistently sells out, and if you miss it, there's a VERY limited amount available day 1, but that sells out before most people board.

Just want to warn you, if you’re going in late-June to early August, we seem to get a 1-2 week warm streak where when we usually don’t top 77 degrees during the day and gets into the 50s at night, those heat wave days gets into the 90s and won’t cool any lower than the 70s. Our house only had one air conditioner in our bedroom but the rest of the house sits at 85 degrees. It’s miserable for sure!

We sailed on the Celebrity Summit 3 times to Bermuda and then switched over to the Norwegian Joy last year and will be sailing on the Joy again. For the price, we felt that Celebrity went down hill. The things we looked forward to - like the fresh cooked grill offerings in the buffet for dinner have gone away with the pandemic. We also felt that the activities have all but dissapeared. We're big trivia people and they used to have 2-3 offerings of trivia a night, and then it went down to 1. We're not big party people, but we felt bored on the Summit. We like the offerings what the Joy has to offer. We spring for the Vibe Beach Club ($249pp) for the week and its lovely. It's a 18+ area on the top deck with padded loungers and umbrellas with a bar. They cap the amount of people that can get passes so there's always a padded lounger waiting for you. It's heavenly. We also feel there's a better mix of demographics on the Joy - and people overall seem friendlier. We loved Celebrity, but the Celebrity of old times.

Seattle is very walkable - most things you want to see can be accessed by foot, bus, monorail or light rail. Unless you're looking to explore far out of the city, I wouldn't recommend getting a car. Traffic is bad, parking is expensive, and some hills in the city are not for the faint of heart (SF is known as hilly but no one ever mentions how hilly Seattle is in some parts!) Around Pike Place market is a great central location to see everything you need.

There is a cab line outside of the terminal - however, lines tend to get long quickly because you'll be competing with the passengers on the Eurodam. In my experience with both - FLL is way better set up for cruising than SEA is.

Typically, Victoria is the last stop for US originating Alaska cruises, and you are right, one can get to Victoria from Seattle in 3.5 hours by boat. So getting to Seattle is not the problem overnight, your ship will stay just behind the international waters so the casino can stay open until as late as it can. When we were on the Quantum, this was the same thing. We arrived to the port well before 7am. The problem was that customs was delayed in being able to clear the ship. We were scheduled for a 7am walk off, it did not start until 8:30am. Getting off the boat, between your boat and the Eurodam, there's approximately 5k passengers needing to disembark. Also, keep in mind, if you are getting an Uber or Lyft, it's about a 1/4 walk to the Uber/Lyft drop off area from where customs drops you out. Your app is also competing with everyone else trying to get a ride share as well. Seattle is also unique in its geography how it's surrounded by water- there are only two main ways down to the airport from where you are. Most likely you'll be taking I5, the other one is Highway 99, which is less of a highway at times and more of a stop light/commerical road. (For locals, yes, they could take 405 but then you're going east to go south and that's not timely from Pier 91 at all :)) If ANYTHING happens on I5- it becomes nearly impossible to get to the airport in a timely fashion. I once planned to arrive to Amtrak on a Saturday with 90 minutes before boarding to spare. I left my house not too much further than Pier 91. Without traffic, the ride should have taken 20 minutes. It took 90 minutes to get off of highway and we missed our train. This also happened another time where we left planning to get to SEA 2 hours before take off. An accident happened on I5, we detoured to 99 and we literally got to our gate 10 minutes before doors close, but not before paying out the nose for the terminal parking and thanking our lucky stars we both have TSA Pre, CLEAR and were not checking a bag. I am the type of person who looks forward to the airport and will arrive way earlier than expected and be happy about it. Out of all of the cities I've lived in, the most close calls I've had missing my flight even with planning to use all 3 hours of my lounge access has been SEA. If you have a backup plan and missing that 10am flight won't break the bank, or you'll be OK with waiting a few hours for another flight or even another day (flights fly in and out full during cruise season), then I say take the gamble. If missing this 10am flight will cause you and your family a lot of stress and ruin a week's worth of fun and relaxation, I say don't roll the dice.

Hi there, I know it must be close to Alaska cruising season when I see this question asked 3 times in a week 😄 Here's how I responded a few days ago: SEA in the summer can be a MESS. I departed to NY on a day 3 ships disembarked in June. It took 45 minutes to do bag drop with Sky Priority access. TSA Pre Only can also have its set of headaches at SEA. There are more times than not that TSA Pre is 45+ minutes. The only "10 minutes or less" guarantee is with TSA Pre Check WITH Clear. If you're arriving back on a weekday, you're going to be fighting with traffic half of your trip getting into the city if you're on Quantum, who has their Pier north of downtown. NCL, downtown at Pier 66 will also face gridlock trying to get to the highway from downtown. Return to Office is back in full force, as is all of the traffic. Also adding, that on my 2022 trip on Quantum, we ran into customs delays and didn't start disembarkation until 8:30am. There were a LOT of stressed out people who were trying to get out ASAP, fight for a cab/uber, and try to make it through. You'll see people say "oh I got a 10:30am no problem" - and those people are very lucky. SEA is known for being too small based on the passengers it intakes, and that spills over into a lot of delays. If you're tight for time, also ask your driver to drop you off at Arrivals. It's only an esclator up to the Depatures floor and you'll save 10+ minutes on your car trying to fight for Departure access.

I just responded on another thread, but SEA in the summer can be a MESS. I departed to NY on a day 3 ships disembarked in June. It took 45 minutes to do bag drop with Sky Priority access. TSA Pre Only can also have its set of headaches at SEA. There are more times than not that TSA Pre is 45+ minutes. The only "10 minutes or less" guarantee is with TSA Pre Check WITH Clear. Factor that you're coming in on a Monday, you're going to be fighting with traffic half of your trip getting into the city if you're on Quantum, who has their Pier north of downtown. NCL, downtown at Pier 66 will also face gridlock trying to get to the highway from downtown. Return to Office is back in full force, as is all of the traffic. Also adding, that on my 2022 trip on Quantum, we ran into customs delays and didn't start disembarkation until 8:30am. There were a LOT of stressed out people who were trying to get out ASAP, fight for a cab/uber, and try to make it through. You'll see people say "oh I got a 10:30am no problem" - and those people are very lucky. SEA is known for being too small based on the passengers it intakes, and that spills over into a lot of delays. If you're tight for time, also ask your driver to drop you off at Arrivals. It's only an esclator up to the Depatures floor and you'll save 10+ minutes on your car trying to fight for Departure access.

Also adding to this - on a disembarkation day where there were 3 ships in port, it took me 45 minutes with Delta Sky Priority to do the self-tagged bag drop (I live here and was actually going on my own cruise to Bermuda 🙂 ) . TSA Pre lines can get as high a 1 hour waits here. TSA Pre/CLEAR is the only consistent "fast pass" past security. I took the Quantum in 2022, and we had customs issues with disembarkation. Because we lived here, we weren't in a rush, but disembarkation didn't start until 8:30am, which resulted in a lot of melt downs trying to disembark the ship. As someone who grew up and visits the East Coast frequently, I feel your pain with either really early or really late flights out of SEA. But it's not worth it to ruin a vacation being super stressed that you'll make your flight the day you leave.

The Centurion will allow you longer than 3 hours if you have arrived to LAX on the first leg and your connecting leg is at the same airport.

This was on the Joy, and this past June, so YMMV, but they did hold back a LIMITED amount of Vibe passes on board. By luck, our shuttle driver picked us up an hour early so we were at the cruise terminal and checked in when we got cleared for boarding. I went straight to Teppenaki and got one of the 2 last Vibe passes they had on board. We boarded at 11:15, Vibe was sold out before noon.

The one city you shouldn't get offended if someone tells you to eat a bag of Dick's 😄

We're on the trip right after you!

We were just on the Joy in June to Bermuda and thought that the Vibe was worth every penny, especially for embarkation day- it was wonderful to have a quiet place to sit with a drink as chaos outside ensued with everyone waiting for their rooms to open. The Joy's Vibe is expanding in February during her dry dock - laser tag is being removed to expand the Vibe area. We have our passes for June 2024 back to Bermuda.

(Raises hand) 🙂 I'm her daughter and I can attest our mother daughter cruise is always a highlight of my year, I'm 38 and we started this tradition when I was 21.

Trivia Addict's daughter here -- after having a great experience with the Vibe that past February (but not used as well as we hoped, it snowed on our trip from LA to Enesanda!), I checked every day online for Vibe passes from February to June (and I do mean every day!) - no luck. Hearing that "once sold out online, they're gone" I shifted my mindset to not having the Vibe to Bermuda (still going to Bermuda, who could complain?) We didn't plan on getting to the port so early in June, but our car pick up was over an hour earlier than scheduled. We had a Club Suite so while not first to board, we were one of the first. We sat down at Mixx and I told my mom I was going to just check Teppenaki *just* to make sure. I was shocked to see Vibe passes still available and I got into line. I was told they hold 10-20% back for onboard passes. We were one of the last people to get passes, I think they cut off the line 3 people after me. It was not yet noon, we boarded around 11:15 So if you don't have passes, getting to be one of the first on board, and do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not go to guest services as stated (I heard someone behind me say "well if they told me to come HERE first I would have gotten one!"), and may the odds be in your favor. The Joy will expand her Vibe footprint during her dry dock in February, taking over the laser tag space and making it two levels, so there will be more chances for all next season 🙂

Something to think about (and your son to think about)- there are many, many posts here from people when their checkin luggage was pulled to the "naughty room" for power strips, small appliances, alcohol in listerine bottles, etc. This brings me peace of mind that every piece of cargo going on the ship with us has been screened throughly. In the same vein of worrying - when ships stop at ports that have travel warnings from the US - having a good, safe experience is how these companies profit. They are not going to travel to any port that they feel will put a large amount of people in danger. Back in 2012, we stopped in St. Croix- it was the first time major cruise lines stopped there after years, because the ships pulled St. Croix from their itinearies because it wasn't safe for their customers to travel at the time. All travel assumes risk, but cruise ships will go above and beyond for safety as any incident (especially after COVID and their tremendous loss) of bad publicity that scares away customers is bad business. That being said, we will be on the Joy in June for our 5th time to Bermuda and our 3rd time on the Joy. It is our absolute favorite itineary - Bermuda is friendly, safe and clean. We hope to see you there!