vaddco

I’m on the Legend now. Most people I have engaged with seem to be taking it in stride.

We are booked on the 14 day Authentic Alaska cruise tour that starts with the 7 day northbound cruise on the Jewel from Vancouver to Seward. We have sailed on the Jewel before roundtrip from Seattle. It looks like we have a full day in the Homer area as part of the Cruisetour. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on things to do in Homer that they liked or any other suggestions for the cruise tour. Looks like we have 2 nights in Denali and 1 night in anchorage in addition to the 2 nights in Homer. Thanks.

You should be fine. The last 3 eruptions have had localized impacts. Because of its location they seem to be expecting a similar situation. We were there this summer during the most recent eruption. That was slightly east and north of the current situation. We saw some smoke from the eruption as we drove to the airport but it had zero effects on flights.

One of our guides said the type of eruptions they have had recently don’t tend to cause travel disruptions because they don’t cause ash plumes.

The 2010 eruption caused air travel disruptions because it erupted underneath a glacier that cause a lot of ash to be ejected. That one was called Eyjafjallajökull.

I hope this helps reassure you a bit. For others, the cruise port is well away from the affected area.

20 minutes ago, v3cruiser said:

Hello All.

 

Wondering if anyone can recommend a room for 3 adults. oceanview or balcony. Its hard to discern on deckplans. Family rooms don't seem to be larger but offer only fold down beds. Leaning towards balcony for that extra room if needed. Thanks in advance.

I would recommend the balcony for a couple reasons 1) the tiny bit of extra room 2) you have a good place to view the Na Pali coast on the last full day as you are leaving Kauai.

we have done three adults in a balcony room on three different NCL ships plus a child. It was tight but manageable assuming that everyone gets along.

I would say that the Hawaii cruise, while it was just my wife and I in the cabin, was the least amount we have ever been in a cabin on a cruise because the shore excursions tended to be all day event.

Whenever it is three adults in the cabin, one of the things that we would do is that one or two of us would get ready for dinner in the spa or fitness locker room.

The refund finally posted to my credit card account last night for a 4/5 cruise that I cancelled on 3/4. The shore excursions were canceled almost immediately after my cancellation. As I mentioned the remaining amount showed up last night in 2 chunks. One amount from the TA and the balance from Carnival. The Carnival refund was back-dated to 3/25.

I was just on the Star and used magnet hooks on the walls of our cabin.

In our case, the technical stop at Bar consisted of anchoring off-shore and occasionally turning the ship to change up the view. We weren’t close enough to get a good view of the port.

We were just on the 8/4/-8/11 sailing of the Star out of Venice and the same thing occurred with our sailing. We were delayed 2+ hours leaving Venice by the Harbor master based on our originally scheduled departure time. (6pm to 8:15pm) 

I think it is a matter of logistics in face of all of the scrutiny Venice is getting because of cruise ships. Here are some observations, I had.

1. At the time we boarded in Venice, there were 5 other cruise ships in port all scheduled to leave late afternoon.
2. They have to tow each of those ships down the Guidecca canal and around the eastern end of Venice-proper to get to the Lido shipping lane where they cross out of the lagoon into the Adriatic. The lagoon is very shallow except for the dredged out shipping lanes so there is only one path for the cruise ships to go if they are going to dock right in Venice.
3. It seemed that they are trying to space things out a bit to reduce the impact. You will see anti-cruise ship graffiti here and there in Venice. I was surprised at how close to the major Venice landmarks (e.g. St. Marks, Doge's palace) the ships get transiting in and out.
4. On the other end, there were supposed to be 4 ships in Kotor when we were supposed to be there. It seems that any change in schedules may present an issue for transiting in and out of the Gulf of Kotor.

We were disappointed in missing Kotor but made the best of it. I think we were credited back $13/person as OBC. There were a few positive things that came out of the change.

• Leaving Venice at night was stunning.
• It is a pretty exhausting itinerary with no sea days so making that first day essentially a sea day was nice.

Lastly, I will say that I really enjoyed the time we had in Venice. We arrived on the Wednesday before the cruise and stayed right in the city on the Grand Canal. We tried to get lost in the back streets during the day and only visit the major touristy sites late in the day. We did an after-hours tour of St. Marks at night that was expensive but amazing.

We cruised on POA in 2012. It is one of my favorite cruises to date. We combined it with about 6 days in Oahu at the start and loved being able to spend 2 days in Maui and Kauai. I will say that we didn’t end up doing a ton on the ship because the days were so packed. I didn’t find the food significantly different than any other NCL cruise I have been on.

Recently returned from a trip on Dawn. I purchased my excursions ahead of time online. I got the Latitude s discount at the time of purchase. Each evening after a port call, I would automatically get a $50 credit to my folio. I even got a credit for a debark excursion.

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I believe it is broken out to a men’s area with lockers, steam room, sauna and the same setup for women. There is also a co-ed area with loungers, heated ceramic loungers, a pool with jets, and a hot tub.

It’s a little muggy but not bad. I would go there to read every day that I was on the Gem.

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I stayed in 9589 on the Pearl back in 2009. It was a sideways inside near the mid stairs. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of the cabin but I recall it exactly as Paul described.

I remember that the cabin felt bigger than a normal inside because of where you enter the cabin. I concur with it being a preferable layout, in my opinion, than a normal inside.

We just sailed on the Pride on 4/9. We had gotten to the Port at 12:30 and there were still disembarking passengers catching cabs to leave. We were parked and entering the terminal building at about 12:50. FTTF allowed us to avoid waiting very long to get through Security. I think we were on the ship by 1:15. We had no wait on the gangway.

It comes into port later than most ships I have been on so they don't have a ton of turnover time. They didn't seem keen on the idea of people getting there before 12:30.

My daughter is 7 and has been on 5 cruises. (NCL, RCL, and most recently the Pride out of Baltimore)

We have always given her the option to do the kids club on Sea days and in the evening. It has been her preference to do some club time and some family time. She has enjoyed the club time and always describes it as a highlight of the trip.

She loved playing in the water at Half Moon Cay. It was a perfect day with gentle surf. She probably spent 90% of the time in the water. We did the Family Beach Escape in Freeport which she like. We did the stingray encounter in grand Turk which she also enjoyed.

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I was at HMC last week on the Carnival Pride. The clamshells were $29.99 and had space for 2 loungers inside.

I was considering a Cabana but they were sold out long before I tried to book excursions. I was pleasantly surprised to find the clamshells when we arrived.

We were on one of the first few tenders and the clamshells were filling up quickly.

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What kind of camera do you use? Your photos are very good.

A. AA. Auemgllii

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