OrcaGirl

Alas, no Six merch on board. That’s a shame too, as the Fox would have DEFINITELY have bought some. (We’re considering heading back down to Seattle in a couple of weeks to see the touring production.)

I always found it just a touch too warm inside the ship (except one section of the Garden Cafe seating area where the AC was *blasting*). But also I tend to run warm all the time anyway. I usually walked around the ship in a tank top, but the Fox and the Cub usually had a light hoodie.

Many of the Princess ships and the Celebrity ships have nice indoor pools that I've made good use of in the past. I think some of the Royal ships and Holland America ships do as well, but I've never sailed on those lines.

Okay, here’s the final wrap-up summary… It was a great trip, and we really lucked out on weather. Travelling with a child was much less stressful than travelling with my mom (but don’t tell her that!) We were in cabin 10898, a BB balcony just past the aft elevators. It was a standard balcony cabin, and was perfectly fine for our needs, although we all found the beds to be not super comfortable. My personal three best things: 1. The Endicott Arm / Dawes Glacier excursion — totally worth the expense 2. The Bliss Thermal Spa — so glad they had that half-week pass available, even if we didn’t spend quite as much time in it as we would have liked 3. The Indian food in the buffet, especially the eggplant and mushroom pakora My ‘three things I’d change if given a magic wand that worked only on cruise ships’: 1. The wifi was soooooo slow at times and dropped randomly 2. More hot tubs!!! 3. Longer hours for the Thermal Spa The Fox’s top three things: 1. Endicott Arm / Dawes Glacier excursion 2. The thermal spa 3. Splash Academy Her three areas for improvement, in no particular order: 1. Cheap toilet paper 🧻 2. Long waits / slow service at sit-down restaurants 3. Not having an indoor pool (other than in the thermal spa) The Cub’s top three things: 1. Splash Academy, particularly the video game tournaments 🎮 2. Eating at the buffet, especially getting to mix different kinds of juices in the morning and the strawberry-kiwi and mango water in the afternoons/evenings 3. Not having to make his bed each day The Cub’s least favourite things: 1. Splash Academy when they didn’t have the games room open due to staffing shortages 2. Packed elevators 3. Missing his dad So that’s that… questions?

We needed to fill out a paper Canadian customs form twice on the cruise ship (once for Victoria, even though we had no intention of getting off the ship, then again when they couldn't find our submitted forms), and then another when we crossed the border to return home via bus. The bus driver handed them out as we boarded, and we had to hand them in at Peace Arch. One thing to note for people considering bus versus train to travel between Seattle and Vancouver: when taking the train, border control officers board the train and collect the customs forms. Easy-peasy. When taking the bus, you have to wait behind all the other buses until you reach the designated bus building, disembark the bus with all your belongings, grab your luggage out of the hold, enter the building and complete the customs and immigration procedures there, then head outside and wait for the bus to pull up again once everyone on your bus is done. We had four buses ahead of us and one person on our bus with a complicated immigration status, and it put us about 45 minutes behind schedule. Annoying enough that -- while on the bus -- the Fox changed an upcoming trip to/from Seattle from bus to train, even though the departure times are much less convenient.

Good morning from Seattle! Showered then Starbucked. (My Starbucks card wasn’t working — maybe no one’s was? — so had to put the order on the cruise card. But my Stars!!) Back to the room to throw my PJs and toiletries into my backpack and get ready to say goodbye to our cabin. 👋 Headed down to Taste (or was it Savor? 🤷‍♀️) for a leisurely breakfast. They were only on pink by the time we were done breakfast, so we proceeded to the Atrium to chill until our colour (red) was called. Around 9:32am we got called…. around about the time I double-checked our bus time and realized I should have picked an earlier departure time. Oops. It took ~20 minutes to wind our way through the Manhattan Room to tap out, walk by the Customs and Immigration dudes (but we weren’t flagged down to stop), and exit the ship. The luggage was well-organized and easy to find. We exited the terminal in search of a cab, but none of the drivers were interested in taking us the short distance to King Street Station or our insistence on using the meter. (No, I will not pay $25 flat fee unless that’s the posted fare by zone. Sorry not sorry.) So a $12USD + tip Lyft ride later, by a Venezuelan driver who spent the entire drive convincing us to visit Los Roques (which, yes, looks amazing), we arrived at King Street Station and immediately boarded our bus. And that pretty much wraps up our trip. I’ll write up a final summary (including insights from the Fox and Cub) on the bus home and post it later this afternoon. After a nap. Random observations: The disembarkation video song sounds soooo much like it could be the theme song for a second-tier Disney animated movie of the early 2000s, like a direct-to-video sequel about a family of loveable anthropomorphized possums where the children got separated by a storm and faced various solo adventures then reunited with their parents right before the end. Really wish the Canadian government had kept the ArriveCAN app going for customs purposes. Who carries a pen anymore?!?!

I’ll respectfully disagree on the waterproof footwear being a necessity — last cruise (early May, very rainy) I wore non-waterproofed trail runners as my ‘outdoors’ shoes and thought even that was overkill. So for this one I wore my regular sneakers. It all depends on which excursions you’re planning.

We each wore a pair of sneakers and packed a pair of flip-flops or sandals. Did not feel any need for boots at all. Sorry, didn’t hear anything one way or anything about straightening irons. I’ve brought them on previous cruises when my hair was longer, but can’t speak to current protocols.

Completely unsubstantiated cruise gossip: the word going around is that someone was having a mental health crisis and climbing onto a railing, threatening to jump. Someone else threw a life preserver overboard just in case? And then someone else saw the life preserver in the water and called in the man overboard? And it took the crew a while to realize that he hadn’t actually jumped yet, but he was talked down safely. Again, this is just the scuttlebutt.

We spaaaaaaahed, spotting the Royal Princess stalking us and a few whale spouts. Eventually it was time to pick up the Cub from his final Splash Academy Session, and to pack. I had a little bit of casino free play left on my card, and the Fox had six bucks and change of casino vouchers. But alas, the casino closed at 3pm. I knew it would close once we arrived in Victoria, but I didn’t think it would be that early. D’oh. (We were able to cash out the Fox’s six bucks.) We headed up the buffet for ‘Oriental’ night, which… it’s 2023, couldn’t it be Asian night? But it was delicious. After dinner we hustled to Sugarcane only to find them already closed, 20 min before the stated 7pm closing hours. Apparently the pilot just boarded and that’s the trigger to close all but one bar per deck. Blame Canada? So we went to down to the Atrium for a Mai Tai, Aperol Spritz, and a Shirley Temple while watching bandaoke. Since there was no Splash Academy tonight and we didn’t have any interest in touring Victoria (what with living a short ferry ride away and having visited many, many times), I stayed with the Cub as he went to bed and sent the Fox off to get her money’s worth in the thermal spa. Because I’m an awesome friend… and want to be invited on more cruises… and possibly a trip to Super Nintendo World… Except… the spa was %#*£ing closed!!! I’ve never known the thermal spa to close that early on the final night… dang it all to heck. 🤬 So yeah. I should have checked the closing time of the casino AND the spa… Thoroughly disappointed, we instead set out our luggage and retired to our respective beds to read (the Fox and Cub) and write I’m-not-mad-just-disappointed missives on the interwebs (me). (If Starbucks isn’t open in the morning, though, we riot.) Random observations: The floor right next to an elevator door doesn’t seem like a great spot for a gaggle of teenagers to sprawl on the floor, but what do I know? The app continues to say we arrive in Seattle at 12pm (eg noon). I’m 99.9999999% certain it is wrong… Wish the app had the MDR menus, so I didn’t have to pop downstairs to see what’s for lunch or dinner, before we decide on buffet or not. I wasn’t emotionally ready for a ~6-year-old girl to slay the Highway to Hell chorus at bandaoke, but daaaaaaaaamn.

Morse… we were kicking ourselves over that one…

I haven’t heard the capacity announced, but several cabin categories were sold out a few weeks ahead of the cruise. My best guess is that if we’re not at full capacity, we’re dang close.

We booked our Six and Jersey Boy reservations online about a week before the cruise; at that point the early performance on the first night of both shows was ‘sold out’ but the other performances had availability. And then as mentioned we ended up walking in to Six just six minutes before the show started on the first night for the 7pm show.

Day 7 (Victoria) dailies Day 7 Victoria .pdf

Good morning from off the coast of Vancouver Island, again, some more. We changed our clocks back last night and ‘slept in’ until 8am. Grabbed some Starbucks and slowly became human again in the cabin until our grumbly tummies called out for breakfast. We headed to the Local and got seated right away. And then waited. And waited. No waiter came by and we couldn’t flag one down. Eventually we called it since we had 10:30am reservations for the speedway and didn’t trust our ability to order, receive and scarf down our breakfast in 30 minutes. So we bailed and headed to the buffet which was unsurprisingly packed. We ended up eating in the outdoor section under the heat lamps. After breakfast we hustled over to the Speedway to get the Fox and Cub checked in. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. The lesson being that a 10:30am reservation doesn’t mean you’ll be in the cars at 10:30am. Anyway, after some delays, the Fox and Cub got their turn. Zoom zoom. Then we headed to the theatre for some bingo and the free cruise raffle. Alas, though the Fox got down to two numbers left on the final coverall bingo, we didn’t win anything. We headed to the MDR for lunch; like the Local, service was noticeably slower than earlier in the cruise. After lunch, the Fox and Cub went to Splash while I headed down to guest services to wait in a loooooong line to figure out why we had a voicemail about not filling out our Canadian Customs forms, when in fact we had. So we ended up filling them out again. 🙄 Oh well, a couple hours in the spa will make me feel better. Random observations: The NCL app was wonky all morning. Kept prompting me and the Fox to login but then clicking the login button doesn’t do anything. It eventually got itself sorted by the afternoon. My arms got covered in soot while leaning on the railings at the speedway’s viewing platform. If your bucket list items for an Alaskan cruise is to see a polar bear… you need to do more research my dude. I entered the virtual queue for guest services about 10 minutes before I got in the physical line; when I talked to the crew member working the line and asked how the virtual queue worked (since there’s no obvious place to go), she just shook her head sheepishly and said “it doesn’t”… like come on, don’t have the functionality available on the app if it doesn’t work AT ALL. Way to needlessly frustrate people who — if they need something from Guest Services — are likely already primed for frustration.

Honestly, I’m staring to fade and lose the plot a bit. 🤣 After re-boarding, I had breakfast (still no hash browns) then rejoined the Fox and Cub in the Atrium just in time for a Word Scramble activity. Which we won, so yay? Not only was it not raining but the SUN ACTUALLY CAME OUT so we moseyed up to the pool deck so the Cub could play in the Aqua Park and I could have a mango meltdown. I headed to the thermal spa for a bit which was PACKED. I think I grabbed the last free chaise chair, and enjoyed the amenities for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner, we went to Food Republic as our only specialty dining of the cruise. No dining package so we ordered a la carte, sharing the California roll, an Alaska summer roll and the pork belly gyoza. Apres dinner, I went to Guest Services to pick up our disembarkation luggage tags while the Fox took the Cub to Splash. We had reservations for Jersey Boys tonight, but that was before we had thermal spa passes. So yeah, back to the thermal spa we happily went. Random observations: I’m not a prude, but come on, an old dude wearing tighty-whiteys (sp?) in lieu of swim trunks in the thermal spa is not appropriate.

The new Ward Cove buses were double-decker city transit buses, with enclosed upper levels. NCL will sell thermal spa day passes when capacity allows. For this cruise, when we popped in on Wednesday, we had the option of paying $79+tax for one day or $179+tax for the remainder of the cruise (so, Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday and Friday). At that point, the spa staff said day passes for Thursday (Ketchikan) may or may not be available and to check back in the morning if that’s what we wanted, but that there definitely wouldn’t be any day passes for Friday (Victoria) since they treat it like a sea day. Only you can decide if it’s worth it for you.

Yes, that was the Pacific Coastal repositioning cruise last year. I had a great time, but didn’t do a live from thread since I was technically working remotely while cruising and didn’t know how much time I’d have… (But having Teams meetings with a mojito in hand at Sugarcane was really cool and made my colleagues jealous…) 😎 This is my third sailing on the Bliss, sixth Norwegian cruise, and probably 20th cruise overall, and to be honest I’ve never given a thought to who the GM is on any cruise. Usually any bad vibes on board I attribute to my fellow passengers rather than senior onboard staff. 🤣

Day 6 (Ketchikan) dailies Day 6 Ketchikan.pdf

There were several individual pages of the song list floating around but only two came my way. One thing I really liked on Princess was they had the karaoke list available via QR code so you could browse it at your convenience.

Good morning from — gasp — not rainy Ketchikan. We docked in Ward Cove around 6:30am, and I made the bold decision to skip Starbucks and breakfast and head ashore first thing. The Fox and Cub stayed aboard for a nice sleep-in day. This was my second time docking at Ward Cove but first time actually getting off the ship. (Last time, it was rainy and miserable so we stayed on board and spent the entire day in the thermal spa.) It’s actually not bad as far as built-for-cruiseships ports go. Yeah, it’s got exit through the gift shop vibes but what modern port building doesn’t? And this one has retro chainsaws. Browsed for a couple of minutes and then walked right on to a waiting shuttle bus to head downtown. Got dropped off at berth 4, and wandered down the boardwalk to the Ketchikan sign (which I missed getting a photo of on my bus tour last month.) Meandered back, sadly skipping Jellyfish Donuts ‘cause the line was waaaay too long. Popped in to the Tongass Trading Outlet to pick up a three-T-shirt bundle that my mom regretted not buying last month on our Princess cruise. Then boarding the same double decker bus back to Ward Cove. A deer darted in front of the bus at one point, but fortunately our bus and a pickup truck both avoided it. Did a bit more shopping — being that annoying person paying for their purchase entirely using leftover $1 bills. Random observations: Another six-ship day in Ketchikan. I rode in a shiny new double decker bus; the driver mentioned that they just got three of them, with a couple more arriving later in the season. That should help with the lines vs the school buses. But wow, the driver… when transporting a bunch of tour bus passengers in Alaska, maybe don’t talk extensively about how many float plane crashes happen and how many people get killed by bears. Just, no. I admit that I’ve never paid attention to the toilet paper quality on board ships, until this cruise. It’s what I would expect to get at a BC Parks campground outhouse. I get that Norwegian is exploring cost-cutting measures, but this is not the way.

After the Fox had to leave to pick up the Cub from Splash, I lingered in the spa for a bit, then eventually dried off and joined them in the Observation Lounge for a light snack and a heavy-pour drink. We lounged around until it was time for dinner. Once the Cub headed off to Splash, we settled down in the Atrium for a speed trivia completion followed by bandaoke (karaoke with live backing band) with Siglo. We stuck around for three songs before deciding to bail for the thermal spa. It was deadsville in the spa which is just how I like it. I stuck around until well after the Fox and Cub retired to bed. At one point, the Norwegian Jewel was following us, just peeking out of a low fog bank. Very eerie. After that it was straight to bed. Random observations: I absolutely love Siglo but one downside of having an all-dude band play for bandaoke is there were almost no songs by women on the list of available songs. [insert scene from Pitch Perfect about women not being able to hit the low notes here…] Someone was asking on another thread about the access procedures on the thermal spas. It’s changed since last time I was onboard; it’s now a generic orange wristband and a dishonest person could absolutely cheat the system.

After some downtime in the room, I was hungry but the Fox and Cub were mostly tired so I headed up to the buffet solo for lunch. The mushroom pakora was particularly tasty, as was the key lime cream cake. And the views from the buffet were pretty darn good too. Once we met up again, we explored a bit more of the upper decks, found the schedule for the double-karts on the Bliss Speedway, and booked the very last available spot on the last cruise day. The Cub was excited to compete in a Super Smash Brothers tournament so off to Splash Academy he went. I suggested that I give the Fox a quick tour of the thermal spa… you know, for next cruise… and wouldn’t you know it, the spa had a half-week special. $179USD for the remainder of the cruise. After some intense deliberation, we each slammed down our cruise cards and signed up. 🤣 And so the next two hours were spent spaaaaaaahing. Excellent decision. Also excellent views for sailaway from Icy Strait Point. Random observations: I love the NCL thermal spas, and think they’re waaaaay better than Princess (small) or Celebrity (no pool or hot tub so what’s the point?!?!) That said, the thermal spa on the Bliss is showing its age and could use some TLC. Nothing that will prevent me from enjoying every second though. Note that the speedway has very limited hours for the double karts, so if your kid is interested, sign up ASAP.

Day 5 (Icy Strait Point) dailies Day 5 ISP.pdf

Good morning from Icy Strait Point. Grey and drizzly this morning — guess we used up all our nice weather for this trip in Sitka and Juneau… and that’s just fine with us. We had a leisurely breakfast while the first wave headed off the ship, before we braved the lines ourselves. We didn’t have any activities booked, but last time I was here in ISP we went straight onto the whale watching boat, and it was so cold and rainy that we returned directly to the cruise ship without exploring the port area. So today, we’re just planning to walk around and see what’s what. We took the free green gondola, and spotted a deer underneath us. We played on the beach a bit, wandered around the shops and waterfront area, watched some zipliners zip by, etc. The grey eventually lifted and we doffed our jackets. We stopped by the Crab House just before it opened (not listed on the door or Google Maps or the ISP website, but food starts being served at 10am) and decided, hey, we’re on vacation, let’s order cocktails. The Whale Surf was very yummy. And if you’re drinking at 10am, it would be uncouth not ordering some food too, right? The reindeer chili was very good, couldn’t really taste the Blitzen. (The Cub was *horrified* that we were eating Santa’s buddies and would not partake.) The Cub was interested in doing the ropes course based on how cool it looks from the gondola, but alas it wasn’t open. Is it even complete? We headed back to the ship (spotting another, but different, deer on the way) and were back on board shortly after 11am. Random observations: Still no hash browns in the buffet at breakfast. (Breakfast potatoes ≠ hash browns.) The Norwegian Jewel is docked at the Adventure Landing dock today. I’ve ordered the exact same thing at Starbucks every morning this trip, and the price has been slightly different each day. Taxes? Exchange rate? Mid-cruise inflation? ☕️