lepidoptera

For Tortola I highly recommend NCL’s excursion Escape to Jost Van Dyke-a catamaran ride to different island with a lovely beach with really good beach bars. For St Thomas I generally go to Magen’s bay. A beautiful beach. It is like $5 per person for entry into the park and a shared shuttle is very cheap as well (you will ride in open air truck things there and it is less than $20 pp each way). I was on the Breakaway for 14 days right after Thanksgiving last year and had a fantastic time, I am sure you will enjoy it. I dress for dinner every night (except for a few nights when I was not feeling well and did not go) I wore dresses or a nice blouse with palazzo pants each night with flats.

I went in like the last week of September 2021. It was chilly and rainy everyday-except in Juneau where we started out the day snowing and then it turned to rain as it “warmed up” For tops I wore a Columbia rain jacket with a Columbia fleece and T shirt most often off the ship. In Glacier bay and when on my whale watching tours I wore a packable Columbia jacket with a hand knit wool sweater and a tee underneath. For bottoms I wore ripstop hiking pants to block wind and rain and if necessary I layered a pair of wool leggings underneath. On my kayaking trip in Ketchikan I dressed pretty lightly, since they had a suit to put on over everything to keep i us dry and warm. On the ship during the day I wore mostly joggers and a t-shirt with a light weight zip up sweatshirt, unless I planned on spending a good amount of time outside. I was on a pretty casual line (NCL) but did all specialty dining so I wore a tunic, sweater or dress with leggings in the evening. Only time I was cold during dinner was the day we stopped in Glacier Bay. The specialty restaurant I had that night was on the deck that had the water front and the prow of the boat which they opened up for viewing. The deck was very cold still from Glacier Bay and dinner was unpleasant. I had a baseball cap that I wore a ton as well. It helped keep the rain off my glasses. If it was chilly I just wore my hood over the hat. For shoes I had a light weigh slip loafer things that I wore around the ship, a pair of sneakers and my hiking boot for off the ship. I would really scrutinise your excursions before packing hiking boots. I did mostly boat excursions and the hiking boots were overkill, but at least I already had them. I did not bring any jeans since they take a long time to dry. By having on the ship and off the ship outfits (that always got hung up when I got back on board) I always had dry clothes for my excursion the next day. Since I layer a lot I really didn’t bring a lot of clothes (3 tees, 1 tunic, 1 sweater, 1 zip up sweatshirt, 1 fleece, 1 rain jacket, 1 pack able jacket, 3 pairs hiking pants, 2 pairs leggings, 1 jogger, 2 dress, 2 pair pj and under clothes socks). Important if you are layering try on the layers you plan on wearing before you go and make sure they fit with each other and that your range of motion is not compromised.

I saw that as well! I do like it a lot for looking into repricing cruises.

Congrats on retirement! Can’t wait to read your adventures while I wait for my June 7th cruise. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

I did one that ended in PC in 2022-we did talk to agents but the line went fast. I was on an excursion to the space center and our bus got there before they opened at 9:00. The excursions were about 3/4 of the way through the bag colors. I don’t feel like it was more involved for the passengers than a normal cruise. I was on a smaller ship RCL Jewel of the Seas, so that may affect disembarkation speed.

I love your review! The Nara deer look so cute and all the food looks so good. Sorry they had you in the wrong port and such a short time ashore-that is really crazy.

Sorry you are having to deal with this, and that you will have to jump through hoops for reimbursement. I swore after a debacle that I would never, ever sail back into NYC from the Caribbean -NCL first changed disembarkation to like 2 pm after we detoured out of the way for a medical evacuation and then we actually ended up getting delayed even more until around midnight. Luckily I had rebooked my flights until the next morning and booked a hotel (that I spent about 4 hours in 😂) after the first delay since some people including international guests had to rebook 2 times. The most frustrating was we spent several frustrating hours bobbing in the Hudson waiting for the current to be weak enough for the Breakaway to be able to turn into the dock. I was a decently experienced cruiser, but this made me realize how much can go wrong with returning to NYC and how tight it is to make it there on time. The stress is not worth it! I only do repos out of NY or Boston because of this. Now that those are getting pushed later in the year to colder weather, I think I might just start flying to Florida and cruising from there instead.

We ended up having 7 time changes because we boarded Spain was still on Summer time and disembarked on the day daylight saving time ended- six of them in a row due to our route changing due to bad weather. I was on royal with fixed dining which I did not think helped, since I couldn’t eat later. I will totally do a transatlantic again though. Jet lag shouldn’t be that bad for West Virginia to Vancouver.

Thanks everyone, especially the tip about spot saver. Unfortunately, I don’t have loyalty with the airline I’m flying. I decided to change it up and book with delta (which I’ve flow 4 times total) because the flight times were better and they had reasonable connection times. I think the plan is to do carry off and then get a ride share or taxi to the airport with either spot saver or pre-check. Might try and do carry on only and avoid the bag drops altogether. I looked and their just isn’t a lot of great options for flights to switch to unless I want to take a red eye

Since so many are mentioning the spa, I just wanted to say from reviews of the Sun I’ve read it does not have a thermal suite.So no stone loungers etc. and since it is different there were no pre-cruise purchases in the review I read. For things to do-how about taking us a long on a live 😜? I joke but I would totally read a Hawaii to Alaska cruise. Things I do: knit or other crafts, sudoku and other puzzles, trivia, reading. I’ve done a transatlantic and ended up taking more naps than one would expect, the constant time changes do get to you.

Thank you, that is reassuring! I will plan on keeping my flights then.

I just got a flight change on my post-cruise flight from Seattle, and don’t know if I should cancel and rebook. My flight was originally scheduled for 14:05 and was moved to 11:41. My ship is the NCL Sun and I would be disembarking on 6/17 which is a Monday. I am platinum and so qualify for priority disembarkation, I was not planning on doing self-assist but can do it (I’ve done it before). Just not that familiar with SEA, my only other flights there have been red eyes on a weekend.

I am on the Sun in July. I was researching it as well. I think it is a different menu. Looking at the things they said could be available none are on the tea menu. I found pics of “tea to go” which includes iced tea on their website, I’m afraid it might be something closer to that than the full tea experience.

I’m glad you made! The food from your flight looks very good. Hope you get over any jet lag quickly and found your hotel easily.

I am super excited to read this review! I booked this cruise in January of 2022 and had been day dreaming and planning. Ended up having to cancel since my niece was due during the trip (she ended up being born a week early so is already here). I was hoping someone would do a live review! So excited can’t wait to read all about it!

Wow those are really good prices. I would totally switch, but the week that we have a group of cabins on the Epic is only a 5 night on the Escape.

Thanks everyone. That was super helpful. I have bid on upgrades before but was confused on how all the new categories were handled. I will call MasterCard tonight before I book and see if I could still get an upgrade with them before I make the decision on which to book. I would be happy in an inside, but a balcony would be nice for Alaska.

Good Morning! I am a frequent NCL solo cruiser but haven’t sailed since NCL made their new solo ocean views and balconies categories. I’m looking at pulling the trigger on a cruise on the Sun in June and wasn’t sure how the bidding worked. If I book a solo inside and wanted to bid on a balcony-do they have solo ones as a seperate category that only solos can bid on? If they do- is it a 2x charge on the bid? The solo balconies are about $1600 more and since there are several left I would prefer to book an inside and bid if possible. Or does anyone now when they close do an upgrade using the NCL Mastercard-I do have enough points for a double meta upgrade?

Thank you for taking the time to write a review! Interesting reading about the changes due to the dry dock.

I love how NCL caters to solos. Even from being able to put in 1 guest when searching for cruises they make it so easy. I was looking at a sailing on another line due to NCL not working with my schedule and there was no way to search for just one guest, when I went to book there was a 300% solo supplement. I really love freestyle cruising-having a fixed dining time every night is not fun for me. I really like NCL thermal suites. Super nice place to relax and be chill.

I spent some time in Reykjavik pre-cruise in 2021. My flight from the US landed early morning so I had an afternoon free to spend in Reykjavik. I spent some time walking around in down town Reykjavik. I went to the handknitters store and bought a sweater with some assembly required (yarn). I had an afternoon trip planned with I think Mr Puffin-I ended up missing it because I had the time wrong-to go see the Puffins. I did end up making a tour after that where I was picked up at one of the tour meeting points and went to Sky Lagoon then was brought back to Reykjavik. I was planning this day with not a ton of notice-I had free airfare from NCL, booked so long ago it was not the BOGO promo- and didn’t get my air until super late. I bet planning more than 2 weeks out, you could probably find a private tour, or do a shared tour with some people on your roll call that fits your schedule. There are a ton of tour operators in Reykjavik.

Yesterday I woke up feeling sick. On one of my excursions earlier in the week I was sat next to some one whose husband was ill. Later in the cruise I saw her again and she wasn’t feeling well. I think I caught a head cold from her. I really did nothing yesterday except pack and sleep. I decided not to go to my reservations at Le Bistro, just not to get others sick. Kinda weird last NCL cruise I had a reservation in Le Bistro the day I was diagnosed with Covid, they called me in isolation to see where I was 😆. I am thinking that Le Bistro might be a jinx. Good thing is I am feeling almost 100% better today. One thing I thought was weird is no info about departures were left in the cabin/by the cabin door. It didn’t really matter for me because I was doing self-assist. Not sure if I wanted priority disembarkation I would have to go to guest services? I feel like they have dropped off the tags in my room before. Today doing self-assist was pretty painless. Once I caught an elevator down to deck 7 I kept walking and didn’t wait in line at all. Immigration was doing the facial recognition, and it was really quick. They called self-assist slightly after 07:00 and I was at MSY through security at 08:10. And that was with a delay getting on elevators and the most clueless person I have ever seen going through security in front of me at the airport. Got held up over the multiple cans of coke she was trying to take through security 🤣 arguing with the TSA 🤣 I am afraid to look at the weather in Rochester 🫣

Today was Cozumel and it was a late port comparatively, we were scheduled to be released at 10. I slept as late as possible then went up stairs for a small breakfast. This is the only port I scheduled a non-NCL activity-Paradise Beach Club. It was a little weird to just be able to get off the ship whenever and not have a meeting point. There was a bit of a hold up at the bag check getting into the port. People were being very rude and complaining about why we needed bags checked. Ummm maybe it’s all the people I see at the buffet every morning taking apples and pears and cereal🙄🙄🙄 It was weird both in Cozumel and in the beach club with only one ship in port today. It was kinda weird at the beach they were playing like electronic dance remix’s the whole time I was there but there weren’t a lot of people and everyone was just chill. The food and drinks were good. Besides 2 daiquiris I stuck to non-alcoholic drinks. I had a delicious smoothie that tasted just like a banana split. I finished my book I had brought. A little after 4 the sky started getting dark like it was going to rain, I decided to head back to the ship. Took a small nap before we sailed away. I had my balcony curtains open, and we sailed away slightly late. Not sure why? Maybe a ferry ran late with the shore excursions. From what I have heard a lot of people were taking long shore excursions to the mainland. I was still pretty full from the food and drinks. Didn’t feel like a full dinner so I went up to the buffet for a crepe. It was a theme night of Asian food. They even had sushi at the back of the buffet.

I was a bit of a slug yesterday. When I got back on the ship I ate lunch in the buffet. It was kind of annoying that the bar was closed in the buffet. I’ve made a habit of getting a ginger ale for lunch, I do miss tho freestyle machines that were on royal cruise last year. Then I spent the whole afternoon in the spa 😊😊😊😊 Went back to my room from the spa to get appropriate clothes for dinner. Has a lovely dinner-I really liked the beef stroganoff, for dessert I asked for lemon and raspberry sorbet and it was very good. I was pretty tired at this point so I went to bed.

My shore excursion today was a mangrove kayak. Lots of waiting around. Wait for the tender, board tender wait for it to fill. Wait for the large group going to the distillery to clear before the company loaded us. Then after we kayaked it was supposed to be like a half an hour wait for the van to take us back, but there was an accident. We ended up waiting about an hour, in the rain. I thought the tour guides just did an okay job in this excursion. They really didn’t keep us together so kayaks were all over the place. The mangroves were cool, and the jelly fish were neat. We spent maybe 45 minutes actually on the water. No pictures on the water because I have a firm rule about only things allowed on a kayak are things you would be okay losing. That is why it took me a few days to be willing to take my nephew kayaking on our family vacation😜 The area where they took us was cool and had a lot of nice looking shops and cool looking bars and restaurants, but nothing was open.