Cruising Latitude

My understanding is only $100 pp is truly unrefundable, and the rest can be saved as cruise credit and used for another cruise.  Hopefully others will chime in to confirm.  

I am am sorry this happened.  I am in the exact same boat, and booked Empress 1/2021 for its unusual itinerary.  I will move my sailing to a different ship.  

It is most likely because of the high likelihood of missing the tender port. 

The recent 1/3/2020 Empress sailing had to cancel VG and the ship diverted to Tortola instead, and the following 1/11/2020 sailing also had to cancel VG and the ship went to St Croix instead.  Both times the captain cited high wind and sea conditions.  

Disappointing for sure but if you haven’t been, the replacement ports are very beautiful and worth a visit. 

In my case I have been to both so I will most likely move my Jan 2021 sailing to another ship.  I don’t mind little Empress but I book her to go to unusual ports.

I am thankful Royal is upfront about the change and give us plenty of time to re-evaluate vacation plans. 

Will have to see how they turn out because I am not so sure it’s the size itself that matters. 

We were on Encore for Thanksgiving week in a regular balcony (no Haven or Vibe or high status).  While I had an enjoyable time and had fun at both water slides and the race track shooting range my DH didn’t share my experience or opinion.  He has basically told me he will never go on this class of ships again.   His biggest gripe?  Lack of quality top deck space.  

On the other hand he liked Symphony of the Seas which is a bigger ship quite well and doesn’t object going on Oasis ships again. 

Anyway here is a picture I took on board about Leonardo class ships.  

17 minutes ago, katrina915 said:

They need permits to Anan and I don't think they get them until Jan/Feb so they may not be able to tell you right now if they can take you.   

 

It sounds like you saw more bears in Haines then what you will see at Anan or Traitor's. 

 

Good luck!

Yes we had great luck last time.  And this time we would love to see bears catching salmon.  Trying for that Nat Geo cover picture.  😝

On 11/30/2019 at 11:28 AM, rocklinmom said:

My son and husband want to do the Extended Glacier Trek in Juneau which says three hours of hiking on the glacier. Has anyone done this recently? Just want to make sure they wouldn't be better off with the two hour one. They did the one hour hike last time and want a bigger challenge.  Princess used NorthStar trekking last time. 

Based on my research the biggest difference between the Extended Trekking and standard Trekking was the Extended Trekking adds an Ice Wall climbing experience with no prior rock or ice climbing experience needed.  The climb will be on a 40 feet ice wall with plenty of safety harnesses and ropes.  

See if that is something they may be interested in. 

Thank you both so much!  🤗

I did inquire Anan and am still waiting for a couple of operators to get back to me.  That might sway my decision go with the 7/24/2020 sailing.  But if not I will most likely go with 8/13/2020 as you suggested. 

We had really good luck last time in Haines and saw about 2 dozen black AND brown bears (mothers, cubs, one big grizzly male) all playing together at one spot right off the highway to Yukon.  We must have taken 10,000 pictures within 1 hour.  😅    

And the best part was no one else on our ship rented a car so we were the only visitors at that spot.  Locals never stopped or slowed down.  We had the spot all to ourselves and could take as many selfies as we wanted.  😆

We had meals mostly in casual complimentary places this time.

Garden Cafe:

Pizza - thin crusted and lots of variety 

Asian noodles station - freshly cooked lunch time

Indian station - the goat dish was delicious 

Soft serve ice cream

The Local:

Reuben - and I asked for extra sauerkraut 

Fish and chips - chips were so good

I have 4 Norwegian Sun sailings and one Princess Pacific sailing on hold, all of them 11 or 12 night round trips out of Seattle or Vancouver, and all have the ports and port times we want.  

Princess Pacific 5/15/2020 

Norwegian Sun 7/2/2020, 7/24/2020, 8/13/2020, 9/4/2020

This will be our 2nd and 3rd time to Alaska and the main objective is wild life sighting especially whales (likely do it in ISP), salmon spawning and bears (will likely do Traitor’s Cove), and extended glacier trekking and ice wall climbing (will likely book through the ship in Juneau) and at a lower priority dog sledding and sea fishing.    

For the excursions we want to do, is there a sailing date that stands out?  Ship, cruise line and prices are not as important, unless one line offers a much better excursion. 

PS, we will likely do a 2 week land trip around 2023/2024 and that’s why I am focusing on SE Alaska this time around. 

2 hours ago, KAYKAY121 said:

I am looking for a response from the OP since they are currently sailing. Thanks for your insight though.

 

I am not the OP but I am currently on the ship.  

Personally I find the pool deck to be VERY busy with lots of kids and adults. I walked around a few times but always ended up leaving fairly quickly.  

The people who are on the pool deck do seem to be enjoying themselves though.  There was a Sexy Leg competition going on a short while ago and people were having fun.  Lots of laughters. 

On this ship!  We are moving!   

When we arrived at the port we were directed by deck number: odd number deck cabins go on terminal B and even deck cabins use terminal C. 

On Zuiderdam right now and the Captain just announced we will seek shelter from Dorian and skip Sydney and St Pierre and Miquelon.  If weather permits we might add a short visit to Gaspé and resume the cruise as planned from Corner Brook going forward.   

Fingers crossed!  

This was from our Symphony sailing over last Memorial Day weekend. Talk about sticker shock!  🤑

That was the lot, in order of day and then by page.  Let me know if you need anything else.  😀

Day 7: 

Day 6: 

Day 5: 

Day 4: 

Day 3:

Day 2:

All right I might as well just take pictures of everything while I am at it.  Lol

Day 1:

I have them.  Would you like the daily activities pages only or anything else?  

I don’t have a color scanner but I can take pictures with my phone and upload them here.  

On my recent 7 day cruise I had the 250min free internet perk and I upgraded to unlimited internet (surf only option, no streaming) on the morning of the second day (I was waiting in line the minute internet manager was on duty lol) and the upgrade cost less than $50.  

At least in my experience the internet was surprisingly useable, meeting my need with little issue.   

In your case I would suggest use your free 60 min on day 1 and then upgrade from your 250 min on day 2 for the prorated price of 6 days.  

Solid color T-shirt dress - 2

Short sleeve top - 2

Long sleeve top - 1

Convertible cargo pants - 1 pair

Skorts - 1 pair 

Walking shoes - 1 pair

Flip flops - 1 pair

Swimwear - 1

Coverup - 1

Underwear

That list includes embarking and disembarking wear.  

The app when used with intranet (not internet) is free.  However my suggestion is if you are not familiar with the process just go to the Internet cafe and ask them to set you up.  

I found the instruction not as useful as it could be.

Not every screen is shown, causing confusion.  Sometimes the functionality has a huge time lag, making you wonder what is going on.  One crucial screen only appears once on initial set up and if you miss touch one thing it’s gone.  The app is updated so very frequently even the on board internet manager can’t always keep up.  He made a mistake trying to set my phone up and had to reset everything himself, something a passenger would not be able to do.  

Reminds me of our ill fated Thanksgiving Jade cruise last year, also due to mechanical issues.  Hopefully NCL will do the right thing and give generous compensation.  

Edited to add:

I just read the post with the proposed compensation and I think $300pp for flight change is kind of low for those traveling from North America.  

Ours was $650pp flight and hotel and still was not enough to cover for those who came a long way.