travelrevealed
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this is exactly what I was hoping to learn from my post, very helpful and appreciate all of your inputs/advice
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Turtles, I thought this forum is specific to NCL and its itineraries/offerings. The other lines offer different ports and excursions and have different tolerances for port cancellations. I am not considering going on another line, only NCL, so am most interested here. I may not be the most familiar with the boards, but was struggling to find this information specific to NCL after an hour or so of looking where you keep directing me, so figured I would see if anyone was kind of enough to offer their thoughts or experiences here. I will however continue to look there, but if you are aware of particular articles, feel free to share. Hoping to save hours of research by asking the question…
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If Greenland is not so much about excursions, and is more about scenery and walking around villages, how about Norway? Similar in that regard or more traditional excursions?
Perhaps I was a bit naïve, but was picturing wildlife oriented excursions or those that take you outside the city to see something uniquely noteworthy--as typical... I find NCL difficult to navigate for shore ex info and not alot on the Boards given it is a new itinerary for them.
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I am struggling to find information on even potential excursions in Greenland vs Norway. We are considering 2 different itineraries next summer.
Greenland and Iceland on the Star round trip Reykjavík
Or
Norway, Iceland, Greenland on the Star from Tromso to Reykjavik
I am thinking the excursions could help be a decision maker… Any guidance is appreciated!
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I agree. Wish there were more small ships. Crew were great. I think with much fewer passengers they get to know you and preferred service much quicker and more thoroughly.
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View of Dover from the ship the morning of disembarkation
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Just a few of my favorites
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Spent a few days in Paris, Eurostar to London, spent a few days there and then used 12 Transfers to get us to and from Dover. Before our flight was delayed, we were to fly home at 12:55 and Princess transfers require 1:00 or later, but booking our own was simple and saved us 75% of the cost anyhow. Used private guides in both Paris/Versaille and London/Stonehenge/Windsor. Can give more details or my Tripadvisor account if anyone wants Paris/London details on that portion of our trip. Booked Club Class Mini-Suite which was impossible to find current photos of, so will attempt to post a few. First time on a ship this small. I quite liked the ability to walk anywhere on the ship within 1.5 minutes.
However, the smaller scale does significantly limit the entertainment options--which is to be expected. The stuff the do on board was bingo, knitting, wine tasting or soduko for example...; Evening entertainment had a mediocre skill level vs the bigger ships. There were no kid activities offered. The staff remember you and you quickly remember the other passengers which improves service levels.
Club class mini suite, room 8035 was quite spacious, and offered a queen bed and queen (I think) sofa bed. I wish there was an upper bunk... The deck was good size too, easily fitting a couple loungers or a table and a couple chairs twice... It was convenient only being 1 floor below the buffet and a few floors above the dining room, so we never used room service. I liked that they were willing to exchange our cc wine bottles for a few cans of Coke as we are not into wine.
Dining was fairly standard Princess food--a notch above NCL, RCC in my opinion. A couple of the days the menus did not offer much to get excited about, but all other days did. For cc instead of getting in the normal queue, you move to the left, skirting by the bar outside the dining room, and then simply walk straight in the cc dining section, no waiting in line. Each night had 2 menu items not on the menu, one prepared table side and one from the chef. Kind of a nice touch. Wish they offered those awesome chocolate desserts more than a couple nights. Also wish they added cherries jubilee back on the menu. We did thoroughly enjoy the cold fruit soups and frequent souffles. I know its occasionally debated, but I am a huge fan of cc and never plan to cruise Princess without it.
We missed Wales on the itinerary due to weather, but I did not mind missing a port given how intense the daily porting schedule was. We did a full day excursion everywhere else other than in Edinburgh. We did the military tattoo in Edinburgh and wished they offered a day tour connected to that excursion given the price was 5X the tattoo ticket value or more. Regarding the tattoo, it was pretty cool if you like bagpipes and drummers and there isn't a bad seat in the house.I think the seats near the front add value only to get you out in a timely fashion, when you are in the nose bleed section you have to wait for everyone in front of you to exit first which takes forever. Also be prepared for long line for the restrooms, but note there are bathrooms at all side entrances, not just at the main entrance where the line is the longest.
The shopping on board sucked, literally nothing local to buy. Never experienced this before. In fact they had more Australia/New Zealand goods than anything. Most of our excursions consumed the entire time at port, so we had little time to shop for souvenirs, which made me wish for on board shopping (for the first time ever).
The phone app was great and we liked being able to text each other for free, but wished the app notified you when you got a new message so you didn't have to check it all the time. We didn't need to pay for wifi given we were at or near land almost everyday, simply used the Verizon TravelPass and got cell reception on board off and on most days.
I plan to look for other small ships when planning port intensive cruises. They would not be good for many sea days unless you simply like to nap and are not taking kids like we tend to do.
Overall, this was a great cruise, seeing many areas of the world not typically traveled. Plenty of other pics of food or places if interested, simply advise. Also, advise of questions wile still mentally fresh 🙂
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if you have the same mdr table each night, do you also then have the same wait staff each night?
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loving your posts of menus, food pics, and daily activity sheets! THANKS
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yep, per cabin; was California Robert Mondavi wine
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I am just surprised your not getting much action here......maybe since the other forum is all cruise lines you might not get much either....
What was the nationally mix on your cruise? I know the 2 roll calls I am on for September on Sea are very, very...slow.
they mentioned there were 1,500 americans; the rest in my perceived order were largely Japanese, Chinese, European (seemed like a lot from Germany), and actually Australia/New Zealand; hodge podge after that.
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Definately...
Just a thought.....If you post this info on the Ports of Call...sub forum Aus & NZ...it will probably be seen by more people on the roll calls who never come to the main board. Also it would "stay alive" much longer.
Another question..... did u do any gambling in the Casino?
Interesting about the boards, I would have guessed the opposite. Wonder if there is a way to post and repost elsewhere?
Didn't do any gambling. Tables were only open select times and were hardly had people at them, and the slots were more Asian themed then my typical ones. Also seemed the casino was not open alot; like even if at sea, we were sometimes to close to land yet for it to be open.
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Glad someone got some use out of it!I've do have a few questions...how did it work with your onboard acct in AUD. I am assuming u are not from Australia. Correct, I am from MN. They charge you in AUD, and I let my credit card company convert it to USD. They do charge you an additional % on the ship for using credit card... Make sure to use one of your credit cards that doesn't also charge a foreign transaction fee. When shore excursions were booked in advance, we paid in USD, and when the ports were cancelled due to weather, they refunded equivalent AUD.Did u pre-pay tips? No, I didn't want the crew to assume it was a gimme... I actually tipped in cash from money I got from the onboard ATM ($6.50 transaction fee)
If you pre-booked excursions in AUD.....did the money paid, show as a credit on your account? Sort of. My account showed that they billed me onboard for the excursion and then took twice as much away, so essentially...
Were you charged the 1.1% for using you credit card? Suppose to have been, but we actually had a refundable balance in the end, so wasn't.
All drink prices do include grat, correct? The menu price does not include grat, but they will charge it in addition to each transaction.
BTW...looks like the menus are similar and drink choices as well...like how they throw in the descriptions the words Sydney or Australian burger..... Not a ton of variety, but much more to our liking than past NCL cruise food, excluding specialty dining.
We will be on the Sea in September..maybe things will be different on her..... but great to see what you have shared.
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We are sailing on the March 10 and March 22 cruises on the Diamond Princess. Our Booking Summary shows 6:00 PM Dining Confirmed. Other options were 5:30 PM and 8:15 PM. Yet, your patters show Traditional at 5:30 PM and 7:45 PM. Did you have the same issue?
We were Club Class dining so could walk in whenever, but we always went as soon as they opened. I can confirm they started seating for everyone at 5:30 each night--was a long line outside of Club Class at that time.... Not sure about the later seating time.
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It looks like you are booked on the Diamond Princess. The International DR all the way aft on Fiesta deck 6 will probably be the DR open for lunch, but check the Patter in your cabin when you get on board.
If you are on the Diamond, there is no Alfredo’s or International Cafe. If you don’t make it to the DR before it closes you can still go to Prego Pizzeria or the Trident Grill which are take away locations by the Neptune Pool on Lido deck 14.
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Thank you! Perfect info. and perfect timing. Had a quiet lunch in International DR.
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I should add that if you have any questions about this itinerary, ship, rooms, laundry, wifi, electrical adapters, or anything... let me know. While its fresh in my mind, I would be happy to answer!
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A few of the dessert menus:
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MDR Dinner menus:
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A few of the lunch menus. I never ate lunch on the ship during port days...
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I will note that I was Club Class, only took 1 pic of a breakfast menu (too tired in the morning), the right side changed daily.
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Taking me longer than I thought it would to figure out how to resize all the files, too bad cc does not do it automatically like most sites... Think the solution I found works without the quality being too bad. Here are some shots of the Drink/bar menu:
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Was on the Diamond Princess 11/18/17 sailing and as I was not able to find any Patters for this cruise, I made it my goal to scan them for anyone else interested. Unfortunately we missed 2 ports due to weather--Akaroa requires a tender which could not happen, and Melbourne has too narrow of a channel to which requires calm seas to get in and out apparently... I might also include many of the lunch and dinner menus and a couple breakfast and dessert menus. Can also include some food or galley pics if anyone wants to see them.
Day-4-Sea-(instead-of-Akaroa).pdf
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Is horizon court the only place a non suite guest can eat on embarkation day? On NCL I know the main dining room is often open too even though not advertised...
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Best ports bears and whales
in Alaska
Posted
We will be sailing on NCL in early/mid June 2024, we know we want to see bears (in the wild, not the Fortress of the Bears) and whales. We still need to select excursions in Sitka, Icy Straight (Hoonah), and Ketchikan. It seems that bear and whale watching is best around Icy Straight, but I am not finding excursions that do both, so am leaning towards focused excursions on bear watching in Icy Straight and then the whale watching in Sitka. Thoughts?