min2758

We just got off the Breeze last week in Miami. I'm sure there's differences among ships/ports, but this is how it worked on the Breeze- alcohol pickup was from 6:30-8am on debarkation morning (or it could've been 830 but we were gone by then). Self assist passengers got off first and they began disembarking around 7:30-7:45 and they were called by deck, starting from the higher to lower. The time self assists get off depends on when they get the all clear from customs to get off the ship. We had an excursion at 8:15 and had no problem picking up our alcohol at 7am, getting it in our bag, and sitting around waiting until it was time to go. We weren't self assist, but we chose to carry our bags off rather than pick them up in the terminal. They were still calling self assist people when we were disembarking at 8:15.

 

Sidenote: Some dude was complaining at guest services rather loudly and rudely the day before about having to put his bag in the hall the night before because he couldn't get his alcohol until the morning; these people were complaining about not being able to liquids in their carryon...:rolleyes: . Although that doesn't apply to self assist, just keep in mind for anyone sticking their bag in the hall. Of course, you pick up your bags in the port, so it's really NOT a big deal. Even if you put your bag in the hall, you'd have plenty of time to rearrange before getting to the airport if it needed to be moved to a checked bag. I could only see alcohol being an issue for someone wishing to utilize luggage express, where you put it out in the hall and they handle checking it with the airline for you.

I haven't been on Princess in 10+ years, but I have been on 2 Princess cruises (I was in my 20s) and found them to be very boring. I don't think my son would have a good time on Princess, but I also think that's generalizing quite a bit and a lot depends on the destination as far as the overall age of the group. Princess had a ton of old people and I couldn't find anyone my age to socialize with back in my early 20s, being too old for a teen group and too young to enjoy shuffleboard and art auctions.

 

My family and I just got off the Breeze yesterday and had a blast. I'd consider Princess for a Mexican Riviera itinerary over Carnival though because all the Carnival ships on that route look older/party/booze cruises. I certainly don't want that for my son.

I read that there was a dedicated bike path along the coast? A hwy was converted in 2012? I've never been there so I'm not sure. Beach Bum bikes got back to me and said he could come in and test out a bike and see if it fits, but they think an electric one might be too heavy. Sounds like I might have to cross this off the list.

Does anyone know if we can rent a bike for an 8 year old? I cannot seem to find a tour that includes my son's age group or any age restriction/limits on the websites I've found. We would love to rent bikes while we're there, but there's not a lot of info online that I've been able to find.

I just booked our hotel for Jan 23. I prefer Marriott for the rewards program but I'll stay anywhere that's a good deal. Like always I found the best deal at a Marriott property; Residence Inn by the airport on 42nd Ave (part of the complex of 3 Marriott hotels with Starbucks on site). It had the biggest room- not that it matters for one night- and free breakfast. Also a shuttle from the airport. Best part - $151. You have to be a AAA member for that price but even without it, it was around $180.

 

I haven't stayed there yet and I haven't been to Miami in 15 years and even then I was a teen passing through. It seems like LOTS of places say "airport" and use that term loosely, and I don't know neighborhoods at all as far as what's sketchy and what's not. We don't have a car though so I don't need to worry about it being broken into and this hotel seems like a great choice because we won't need to leave the property until it's time to head to the ship. I'm planning on taking a taxi. All the hotels I found that offered a shuttle to the port had a scheduled departure time in the afternoon and I don't really want to waste half of my first cruise day sitting in a hotel waiting for 1pm to arrive. Also it seems that the MIA shuttle doesn't stop at 10pm like others but I guess I will find out for sure in Jan! I will update the board after our trip. Only 5 more months...

Never sailed on CCL before, but when I booked our Breeze cruise for Jan, the agent over the phone said they have banned bottled liquids, unopened cans are ok. So my DH can bring a few energy drinks, but no bottled water. He also told me the 12 pks are 2.99. Why anyone would bother to bring their own with it at that price is beyond me! Unless of course, their bottle is filled with something else... which is probably the whole reason it's been banned for the rest of us.

FCC is a great option if you are certain you want to sail NCL again, for sure. Not denying that. But like I said, the offer changed daily and to answer the OP's question, there was an offer where you got $100 on your on board account instantly. There was also an offer mid-week that was much better. To me, the last day offer (referenced above) didn't seem to be as good of a deal. I would imagine those who plan it out and budget accordingly would have bought their FCCs when it was buy $500 and get $250. Not spend $250 and get $100 instantly on the last day.

 

Always interesting to contribute an answer to a question and get some kind of defensive response. I never said it wasn't a good use of money or was ONLY for people who overspend. I shared an opinion. Just that! No need to lecture on the value of an FCC.

When I was on the Jewel, the FCC offer changed daily. One of the last days had a promo like you're describing, pay $250 toward and future cruise and get $100 instantly on your account for the cruise you were on. I remember thinking, I guess this marketing pitch is for people who way overspent on this trip. Not sure about using the $250 on an already booked cruise though, my husb doesn't want to go on NCL again.

I'm trying to reach a fellow passenger who also did the Behind the Scenes Tour. You forgot your camera and we took your picture on the bridge. I've lost your email, please send me a PM if you see this!

 

Thanks!

 

***2nd try here, not sure why the first was deleted

I am looking for a fellow passenger who did the Behind the Scenes tour. You forgot your camera and we took your picture on the bridge. I am finally getting around to sorting my pictures and I can't find your email. If you happen to read this, please send me a message so I can get it to you!

This just made me realize why Frozen had those random trolls with healing powers... the things you learn from Cruise Critic. I always wondered why trolls appeared in that movie!

Obviously weather is unpredictable. Obvious statement aside, you most likely will not need the shorts but I'd bring a pair anyway. I just went on the Jewel earlier this month and the weather was gorgeous in Seattle and the pool deck was hoppin'. It was sunny in all but Skagway, where it was WINDY and COLD by the ship, not too bad in town. You will not need a parka, but I would recommend a good windbreaker and long sleeve shirt over a big jacket or even a sweatshirt and long sleeves. The pool was open most days and the hot tubs were always full. Even when we sailed by the glacier, people were in the pool, and my husband was complaining he was hot sitting out in the sun on the top deck. We moved down to the promenade (mistake if you want to hear the CD talk about the glaciers) and I was FREEZING due to wind and not being in direct sunlight. I didn't have my windbreaker style rain jacket with me for that but I wasn't giving up my spot on the deck to go get it! I got my rainjacket at Costco before leaving for $20.

 

Keep in mind you can buy windbreaker style lined jackets for $20 at most gift shops. If you don't have room in your bag or you forgot, don't stress it. But they don't have a good selection of bathing suits and shorts, so bring those just in case. If you are the type who likes hoodies/jackets as souvenirs, Ketchikan is great for shopping and then Juneau. Skagway not so much. LOTS of gift shops within walking distance in Ketchikan, Juneau is a hike to town from the AJ Dock, but if you have an excursion planned most generally give you time to gift shop. :)

This is a question that I have found hard to get a straight answer to so maybe someone can help me out?

 

How much do shore excursions like the Duck tour and various shows like the lumberjack display cost?

 

We are considering the Alaska cruises but really need to nail down just how much to budget for over and above the basic costs of airfare and accommodation. It would not be much fun having to stay on the ship or just walk around the various stops.

 

You can find things to do on the cheap that are more involved than just walking around the tourist traps - I mean, SHOPS. Alaska is a BEAUTIFUL place and hiking is free. Taking a shuttle or city bus is an option depending on the itinerary you pick and length of time in port. Excursions can get as expensive as you can imagine (like $500+ for a glacier top dog sledding), or cheap like $30 to ride on a tour bus around town. If you like more active things to do, look for hiking or consider renting a car to go a bit further than walking around those traps- I mean SHOPS!

 

My splurge for our family's upcoming cruise was the Deadliest Catch Fisherman's Tour, which I think was $169/per adult and a little less for kids. In our other two Alaska stops we are renting a car (I know where I want to go and what I want to see) and in Victoria, I'm playing it by ear. The car rental in Juneau is about $60 and in Skagway $125. We plan on visiting Mendenhall in Juneau and there's a small fee for the visitors center, and we plan on going to Eagle Beach if there's time and maybe even Glacier Gardens ($25 pp adults, kids are less). Overall for the 3 of us, that day should cost $70+gas without Glacier Gardens. Anyway, point is there are lot of things you can do for free, cheap, or go all out expensive. Bottom line- You don't have to spend a fortune to have a good time. Decide on a budget, and you can find activities to fit within in.

Thanks for posting the video. We are booked in 8122 on the Jewel and it really helps to visualize it. Thankfully we are a family of 3!

 

To all the commenters saying "do your research", the website says that the room sleeps 4. What isn't clear is that you will get the trundle/stretcher to shove in there with the "two beds that make a queen" when many of the rooms have 2 pullmans. NCL would help the passengers by making it CLEAR which rooms have 2 pullmans, not "places" as the OP showed.

I know everyone loves to hate the airline baggage fees (including myself) but it isn't JUST for extra fuel or lining the pockets of CEOs on their golf carts. Unless you've worked in an airport handling bags on a daily basis, you might not realize just how physically taxing it is moving people's bags that are 50lbs+ ALL DAY. Lots of injuries can happen, big and small, and health insurance is expensive especially now.

 

The companies have to pay for that high cost insurance they provide their employees with somehow. It sure isn't paying for itself. After one winter working an airport job handling bags and wheelchairs, I'm pretty darn good at telling if your bag is over 50 lbs. How? I feel a hernia about to pop.

 

Pack lightly, people!

There's always bickering on message boards from regular posters no matter what site, what the topic is, people are people. I didn't see this thread as a "complaint" about paying a gratuity, I am glad to be informed of policy changes like that. Not every thing someone says about their experience is a "complaint". That's the funny thing about reading a message board... no tone.

 

I appreciate everyone sharing all the details, good, bad, indifferent.

I'm so surprised that everybody got so excited about it. I've never even thought of bringing food to our stateroom?

 

I was explaining the idea of room service and tipping to my 7 year old, and how cool it is to have free room service (whoops!). The idea of ordering a hot dog and having it delivered to his room was amazing to him. Kids. They're easy to please. I told him you have to tip when someone delivers you food, just like you have to tip if someone else carries your bags and makes your bed. (...except at home... hmm...) He asked, what if I don't want to tip? I said, then you go get it yourself from one of the free restaurants.

 

When you have thousands of people in one confined location, they're all going to have different wants/needs. For us, convenience is the MAIN attraction to a cruise vacation. My husb & son have never cruised before and our upcoming trip is their first time. When the cruise line starts limiting the conveniences for us, it's a lot less appealing. In all reality, he's probably going to order a hot dog once for the novelty, and that's it. I don't want my room smelling like food, but I don't appreciate being told I CAN'T have food in it. I've never been told in a hotel on land that we cannot eat in the room. I don't expect a cruise to be any different.

 

I got sick on one cruise and my mom brought me crackers and bread when I was finally able to keep something down. It was all I'd eaten that day between barfings. Would have been a real slap in the face after picking up the noro to be told I have to take my noro germs to the buffet or pay $7.95 to eat that bread and crackers. We all have our reasons to want to be able to have food in our rooms.

[quote name='knight2096']That is funny coming from one of the number one offenders.[/QUOTE]

And that right there is the attitude people are referring to. I have seen a lot of snide, rude, unnecessary things on here while I try to learn everything I possibly can before our cruise and take it with a grain of salt, but why the useless dings and jabs? What was the purpose of this comment? Other than the obvious insult of course.

(1) If i do indeed owe XX more dollars for the increased service fee, will NCL cancel my cruise if I do not pay it by the next 3 days?

 

They might.

 

 

(2) Should I have to pay the extra increase since when I booked and paid in full it was one price, and now it is another?

 

You need to call. When NCL raised the DSC they gave everyone a chance to pay by a certain date to avoid the fee going up. I don't remember the details, but the grace period may have only applied to cruises within a certain time window. If that is not the case, then a call to NCL should get the matter resolved without paying the extra fees.

 

IF you are dealing with a TA, and not NCL directly then the TA may not know what they are doing. Have them get you on a 3 way call with NCL to resolve the situation.

 

The money as you say is not much, but you need to look into the issue.

 

Why would they cancel OP's cruise? They don't require it to be prepaid, even if it was not fully prepaid, why would they cancel the cruise? It's not even mandatory. I haven't paid mine and my cruise isn't cancelled.

I didn't realize there was difference in types of OBC. $200 of our OBC was from an NCL promo, $75 from a Costco promotion. I guess I will go ahead and prepay, sounds like I can't use it for the DSC anyway. Glad I asked, thank you!

 

I have a feeling no matter how much I prepare for this trip and how much I read, I will still be surprised by charges.

I received the email for the DSC increase as well and it said I needed to pay before 3/1 to be charged at the old rate, but since I didn't want to pay this months in advance, I didn't. When I called NCL the other day to confirm my $275 OBC (one place on the website says $200, another says $100 and nowhere does it show the $75 from Costco), he told me as long as I paid online before my cruise it would still be at the $12 rate, but if I waited until I boarded the ship, it would be at the current rate. I looked and sure enough, if I prepaid that now as of today, it would be at the $12 rate.

 

I know this isn't helpful to the OP but thought I'd share that with anyone else curious. I wasn't planning to pay this in advance; figured I'd use my OBC towards it. But the diff for 3 people on a 7 day cruise is almost $20, so I might pay a few days before we leave. Just means I can't apply my OBC towards it, and I don't know what else to use it on. Casino? I hate to pay an extra $20 by paying on board, but I also don't want to waste money by spending on OBC on something I otherwise wouldn't buy. I haven't cruised NCL before, and all my previous cruising was done with my grandma who handled all billing, so this is my first cruise as a paying adult. Can I cash it out at the casino?

I have been on both the Nenana river rafting and Husky Homestead. Hard to choose, really! I believe the company I went on the rafting trip with was Nenana Rafting Adventures. I honestly don't remember the company's name but I DO remember how AMAZING it was! That being said, we did the paddle raft, not the oar raft where the guide paddles and you sit there huddled up freezing, watching the paddle rafters go by screaming and hollering, smacking their paddles having a blast (like my group). I felt sorry for the old folks who booked their trip with Princess because they looked so cold and unhappy. But, paddle rafting is not for everyone. It was work, the river was very high, and we almost flipped a few times but thankfully didn't. Something to keep in mind if you are looking at paddle rafting- how will your almost 12 yr old handle the paddle raft flipping over and dumping everyone into the water if that happens and you have to scramble to get back in? If you are willing to risk possibly not making it on time, and you think your daughter can handle high adrenaline activities, go for it. Again though, I'm talking paddle rafting. The big guide propelled oar raft is pretty tame. You'll bounce along the river safely but not nearly as exciting.

 

Husky Homestead: Loved the experience, very Alaskan. But... Jeff King can be a bit yappy. Talks about himself a lot too but you are at his home, learning about his dogs, who else is he going to talk about? I still loved it though even though I felt he could have talked just a tad bit less. I learned a lot on that excursion, things I didn't know about the Iditarod and the dogs and what the journey is really like, and I lived in Alaska at the time.

 

Both are great options. Even though the rafting was one of the best experiences of my life, river rafting can be done anywhere. Visiting a musher's home and learning about the dogs, not so much. There's other opportunities though to see sled dogs in different cities.

 

As for the drive... you won't need to stop for scenery too much. Other than taking the obligatory photo of Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn sign, it's not the most beautiful stretch of your trip. Unless you see an animal, just keep going. The scenery will continue to amaze each day you're there.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that for a good few weeks during the summer I worked on the train, there was a rockslide in a tunnel that took time to clear and we had to bus it from Healy (where most of the staff in the Denali area live) to Fairbanks. We never encountered significant delays due to road construction.

Like another poster said, mosquitos are much worse in the interior. Important if you're doing a cruise tour, but not dire if you forget it for cruise only. I've sent my son with an insect repellent to camp that's a lotion instead of an aerosol. It works. Eating onions helps too, although your spouse/travel partner may not appreciate it!

Based on my own three cruises to Alaska and time spent working on the train one summer, I want to point something out that many passengers don't consider. Especially if doing a land tour at the end!

 

When planning and booking your tours, consider what info you'll be hearing and learning about on your tours. It can get a tad repetitive, depending on what you choose. For example, if riding in a bus learning about the area is your thing, keep in mind how many TIMES you are going to ride in a bus and hear similar info. Also if you're taking bus transfers, your bus guide (who may work for hourly plus tips) may also regale you with Alaska facts, tidbits, and stories. I say this because many passengers doing the land tour at the tail end of their trip had heard the state bird (and subsequent mosquito joke) 10 times already and didn't find it funny or entertaining. They could recite the state bird, year Alaska became a state, state flower, who made the Alaska flag, etc. I actually had a few passengers ask me to STOP talking because they were tired of hearing Alaska facts... (but I also had one ask when the scenery was going to start, all week she'd only seen trees and mountains!) :eek: Although I always got a kick out of people asking me "so you really get PAID to live here??" ....always fun to clear up the PFD confusion! If repetition bothers you, it might be best to plan a variety of activities or explore on your own. Same goes for shopping- if you're the type to enjoy shopping in every port, awesome. If you don't want to spend time looking at each port's gift shop but you're worried you'll miss something cool, don't. They all have pretty much the same stuff anyway. I also read in another post that whale watching might be boring for kids... definitely gonna ditto that. Sometimes I wonder what people's expectations are when they booked their trips, but unless you KNOW your child is into scenery and watching the ocean with binoculars, might be best to splurge on something else. I did a downhill bike tour with my mom in one of the ports once and for the life of me I can't remember where (but I'm 90% sure it was Skagway) and it was a blast. It was one of the most memorable things about my cruise with mom and grandma. Couldn't tell you what the food was like on the cruise that trip though. :)

 

So that's my two cents! While planning activities for my upcoming trip (first cruise for my DH and DS, 4th for me) I realized the ONLY guided tour I planned was the Deadliest Catch tour in Ketchikan. My DH used to travel all over the state for work, so he's seen parts of Alaska many people never will but none of it as a tourist. Part of me thinks I should have at least ONE opportunity to cram in a guided, informative type experience for them, but I'm sure they won't mind missing out. After all, we did live there for a few years. My husband already knows the state bird is the mosquito.

It will be the same route. There's only one set of tracks going north and south, so you'll see the same thing. Just in a less fancy coach. :) Having worked on the train, my advice would be pass. If you're doing the Mckinley Explorer, the Hurricane Train will be a repeat of the same sights and info.