Brickwood

I finished checkin at 21 days and also saw that it said I'd get an email.  Never got an email but noticed a button at the bottom of the checkin page that said download docs.  Clicked on that and 'boom' everything was there and ready to go.

We also used Bumping tours a few years ago and it was a great tour.  You might try emailing levibaron@bumpingtours.com

We did this a couple of years ago and it was a blast!  We've been on over a dozen cruises and this tour ranks #1 for my husband (way up there for me too).  We had an automatic transmission which as mentioned above, is probably the way to go unless you already ride.  

@SeaTacMikeAm also interested to know if any covid info is shared with passengers given the recent CDC orange status.  

@Sailing12Away Oops.  I meant entertainment reservations.  I did book our two dinners for 4 but wasn't sure if entertainment worked the same way.  

Looking forward to your review!  My DH and I will be on the 9/11 sailing with another couple but not boarding together and I'm wondering if one couple can make reservations for 4 people or if each couple must do it individually.  Thanks in advance!

Edit Note- I meant to specify entertainment reservations

18 minutes ago, TerryNJon said:

Any suggestions as to a good place near the pier to have someone (not Uber) pick you up?

We've had our son pick us up at pier 66 in the past and just had him park in the garage for a short time and then communicated via phone/text.  Costs a bit, but worth it in my opinion.

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This is a brand new purpose built dock for NCL in Icy Strait. Everyone needs to catch the Transporter gondola over to the old cruise ship terminal (it’s about a 15 minute hike (kinda muddy today)) if you walk it. 
 

So, on a full ship, 4500 passengers need to get into a 8 (or less) passenger pod for a 4 minute ride to the main terminal. 

I read that the gondola would cost $15 for unlimited use per day.  Is that the case?  If so, is that the only option?  (Thanks for this thread - really enjoying it in advance of our cruise in a few weeks)

I've been getting errors all morning

56 minutes ago, wdsted said:

Our Choir of Man booking for the September 11 sailing was canceled and I can no longer see it available for booking.  That isn't encouraging.

We are also on the Sept 11 sailing.  I just checked and our Choir of Man reservation is still showing.  Did they send you an email saying it was cancelled or did it just disappear?  Weird!

I booked directly with NCL and just had my booking transferred to a "big warehouse store" (as mentioned above by BirdTravels) and got a lot of extras - about $300 worth.  I don't know why I went direct with NCL without checking around in the first place other than I got so excited that Alaska was opened up.  There are limitations to transferring such as it has to be within 30 days of the original booking and cannot yet be paid in full.  Not sure what impact price changes might have since the price on my cruise was still the same a week later. 

1 hour ago, ShakeDaddy said:

 

What no Skagway? 

 

This port has been added on the August 7 Bliss revised Itinerary.  

Don't know but not of concern here.  Was never on this itinerary and I won't miss it, nor will I miss Victoria.  Skagway is fun but if you've been there a couple of times it probably isn't high on the list.  I'm just happy to be able to dip my toes back in to travel and cruising with this.  I live in the Seattle area so  easy peasy

We are on the sept 11th sailing

Just got an email from NCL showing the itinerary change for our NCL cruise in September and I like it.  Figured something would change with Victoria being listed as the last port.  So instead of Seattle, at Sea, Ketchikan, Juneau and cruising Endicott and Dawes, Icy Strait, at Sea and Victoria then back to Seattle, we'll do Seattle, at sea, Juneau, Glacier Bay, Icy Strait, Ketchikan, at Sea, back to Seattle.  They indicated this applies only to cruises beginning 9/4 thru 9/18 and increased port time from 7 to 13 hours so each cruise may be somewhat different.  

I'm not hooked yet but looking forward to an Alaska cruise on the Pearl in September. We're giving NCL another chance after a Mexican Riviera cruise 10 years ago that was our worst cruise ever (but still had a good time:)). We've been on over a dozen cruises, pretty evenly split between RCI and Princess, with a an NCL and Carnival cruise thrown in. Have enjoyed them all, but we, like everyone, have our preferences. So please tell me what I'm going to love about my NCL Pearl Cruise to Alaska coming up in just a month! Thanks!

I just received my confirmation today about a week and a half after I requested it. They gave me MSC gold for Princess platinum.

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Thanks so much for your review. My husband and I have been on a number of RCCL and Princess cruises (and a few others) and I prefer RCCL and he prefer Princess. We haven't done one of the RCCL mega ships yet but we do want to try one. Food seems to vary from ship to ship and from cruise to cruise, regardless of which line you take. I will say that we both love the RCCL ships that feature the Royal Promenade..

We're giving NCL a try again after our first (and only) NCL cruise 10 years ago. The buffet on that cruise was horrible, didn't like the configuration of the pool area, but other food, particularly the specialty restaurant we tried was very good. We've been on a dozen other cruises, mostly RCCL or Princess with one Carnival thrown in. I prefer RCCL; DH prefers Princess; neither of us cared too much for Carnival. We book based on itinerary and cost and are interested to see what NCL is like this time.

After quite a bit of research, we just recently booked our first river cruise (Danube) with AMA. As far as comparing the options, I knew I wanted to visit Nuremburg so that narrowed it down considerably. I did find it much easier to flip back and forth through the paper brochure rather than online so if you haven't already ordered one, I'd definitely recommend that. Also, look at all the ports to see if there's somewhere you don't want to miss.

After all my research, I did finally hit the "get a quote" button. They ask if you're working with a travel agent and my answer being 'no', they ended up having a travel agent contact me. My conclusion is that you can't book direct with AMA like you can with some other river cruise lines and ocean cruise lines. I did some more research online but really didn't find anyone offering different prices than what is stated on the AMA website for this particular cruise so did end up booking through the agent they'd referred me to. I was able to see cabin availability by starting a booking as you mention using one of the large online cruise agencies so was able to tell the travel agent exactly which cabin I wanted. I could have booked it through the online site as well, but decided to give the travel agent a try. Hope this helps!

Did you receive your sail and sign cards at check in or after you boarded in your room mailbox? I leave in 5 1/2 weeks and was curious if this new system was in place.

 

Candi

We received our cards at check in and had to present them again when we boarded the ship. I haven't heard about the new system you mention but would be interested to learn more.

As others have mentioned, everyone needs to get a PIN and then one person can call to link them together.

Sorry about the formatting. I should have reviewed the copy/paste from word but have now tried to edit.

Try #2 - I thought I submitted a review a week ago but since I haven't seen it, I'll try to post it here and hopefully get back to answer any questions.

My husband and I have been on a total of 13 cruises. One with Norwegian, 5 with Princess, 6 withRoyal Caribbean and most recently, our first with Carnival. We traveled to the Mexican Riviera on theMiracle with 5 other couples to celebrate my sister’s 60th birthday.We’d hesitated to try Carnival in the past due to what we perceived as a reputation as a party cruise, but that was not at all the case.

EMBARKATION

Our flight from Seattle to LAX and Lyft ride to the port got us there about 12:30. It was just under $60 for a Lyft Plus which fit four of us with all our luggage. We’d purchased FTTF so basically walked right on, but probably didn’t need it as there wasn’t a big crowd at all. However, one of the Carnival workers did say it was really crowded just before we arrived. We went right to our room though it was a bit confusing at first becausewe had to go through some closed doors with signage saying that we shouldn’t enter yet. Thanks to something I read here, I went ahead through the door and to our room which was ready for us. So far, so good.

CABIN

We had a balcony cabin on deck 6 which was pretty typical but I liked the layout better than either RCCL or Princess. Seemed to have more storage and the bathroom seemed a bit larger with plenty of shelves on either side of the sink. Rather than a solid door, the shower just had a raised lip on the floor and a shower curtain. I was initially skeptical of this, but it worked really well and the shower actually seemed roomier than other cabins we’ve had. We didn’t see our room steward until later that evening and he asked if we wanted our cabin serviced in the morning, evening, or both which was new to us. We asked for both. We also requested extra pillows, robes and ice which was kept full the entire week. We’d prepaid gratuities, but gave our steward a bit extra when we left the following Saturday.

SHIP

I’d read that the ship décor was over the top and I agree –but I really loved it! The ceilings on this ship seemed really low compared to others we’ve sailed but we got used toit. As others have said, she is showing her age, but then so am I. J I wish I knew how many people were onboard because other than the buffet and Serenity pool area at certain times,the ship never seemed crowded at all. Incredibly, we didn’t have any problem with people saving deck chairs and even scored a cabana at the Serenity and sun deck a couple of times. We enjoyed the Serenity area but the waterlooked pretty murky there.

ENTERTAINMENT

I thought entertainment was a bit lacking compared to RCCLvespecially. No live bands at the pools –only DJ music. We went to one of the production type shows early in the cruise and it was pretty awful. The singing was off key and the dancing wasn’t very good. They did have a guitarist and another duo that switched off between various venues throughout tthe week and they were at times not bad. I’d really wanted to check out the piano bar but we never did get to that. We did enjoy several different comedians who did both PG and R rated shows. The entertainment was very family oriented with more kids involved invarious activities like the Hasbro Game Show.

FOOD

To us the food, especially the dining room experience,seemed a step down from Princess and RCCL. The dining staff was pleasant but they seemed extremely rushed. Maybe they have more people to serve than other lines. I did like that they staged the food behind a long counter rather than at stations in the middle of the dining room. The buffet was pretty typical. I loved the thin crust pizzaand I thought the hamburgers from the grill were quite good. My husband is gluten free due to celiac disease and it was nice that they had options for that though the buffet staff attimes seemed to have a hard time identifying which items he could eat. We ate at the steakhouse the first night for my sister's birthday. The food was good and the service outstanding. Since it was the first night, I asked about free or discounted wine and they gave us 3 bottles of wine for the 12 of us which I thought was perfectly fine.

PORTS

Surprise! Carnival emailed 3 or 4 days before our cruise us to let us know that they’d changed the order of the ports! They said it was to provide a better shore experience. Ihad booked a private sailboat excursion in Cabo for the 12 of us so called immediately and they were able to accommodate. This was the highlight of our port activities. We’ve been to Mexico several times previously so didn’t book any excursions in the other two ports. In Mazatlan, we walked the blue line to thehistoric area. We were appreciative of the English speaking guides and security along the way. We went to see the cliff divers and then hired a pulmonia for a 1 hour drive and he dropped us off at the ship. In PVR, we walked along the Malecon and on to Los Muertos then took a taxi back. It was extremely hot and humid. I wouldn’t normally go to Mexico this time of year but it was my sister’s birthday.

DISEMBARKATION

FTTF really paid off here. This was the fastest, easiest disembarkation of any cruise we’d been on. They informed us that if we were taking our own luggage off, we should meet in the Bachus dining room at 8:15. We decided to go down early and wait there to try to avoid the usual elevator congestion and as soon as we arrived, about 7:45, they said to go ahead and leave. We were probably some of the first 50 peopleoff the ship. Called a Lyft and he wasthere in 2 minutes!

While we definitely enjoyed this cruise and would encourage others to try it, especially families, we'll probably choose other lines for future cruises...but you never know!

DO IT! We love the Caribbean too but our Med cruise out of Barcelona is our favorite out of a dozen to date! Definitely spend at least a couple nights in Barcelona.

The Med hands down for us but as others have said, they are about as far apart as possible. The Med was our favorite cruise out of the dozen we've taken. We're from Washington state so Alaska, while beautiful and a much grander scale, isn't a whole lot different from where we live. Being from Washington, we're usually looking for sun, so again, depends on what you're looking for. Also consider whether you think you'll be able to both somewhere along the way. Do pay attention to the time of year for both - the Med can be really hot and crowded at the very time you'd want to go to Alaska (where weather can be iffy even in the summer). Good luck!