Going on a longer cruise and have a few questions

[UpTheBanner]

We are booked on the 31 day Panama Canal & Alaska April 2015 Pearl cruise and it is a combined itinerary sailed as one. Do we have to disembark the ship in Los Angeles and Vancouver and embark again? We are hoping to do excursions in both of the cities and not carry around luggage. Will the tours even operate? Also, do we have to do the Muster Drill three times? Thanks in advance

[Demonyte]

You don't need to literally disembark and embark again as you do not need to move your luggage (or even pack your bags since you have booked as a combined itinenary and have the same cabin all the way).

 

You might need to exit the ship to the terminal for a while IF you are staying onboard on the turnaround day - you are also free to leave the ship whenever you like after the disembarkation has started and do whatever and then come back with enough time before ship's departure.

 

Usually there are no regular tours on those days, only sightseeing etc tours that drop passengers and their luggage directly to the airport afterwards, so you'd probably be better off finding excursions on your own.

 

Nobody here can give you definitive answer about the muster drills, we have never had to attend to more than one but once we had to register at our muster station but were free to leave immediately after that. Some here have reported that they have had to attend second muster drill on B2B, so it depends completely on the ship and crew.

[isdoo]

If it is a combined itinerary, then you may not even have to leave the ship and it would be treated as a port day, despite the fact that people may be leaving or joining the ship.

 

So tours may well happen - you can see tours via MyNCL.

 

if you have just one booking number, then it should be one cruise.

 

if you have multiple booking numbers, then it will be a b2b or even a b2b2b (back to back) and therefore you would need to check out and in for the next cruise.

 

NCL sell 3 day cruises, that are part of 7 day cruises, and overlap several cruises, where people board and leave the ship halfway through other cruises, so not everyone will be subject to a muster drill on your ship.

[garycarla]

Anytime you have U.S. Customs/Immigration involved makes things different than in other countries. You will have to go through that, but can leave your bags and stuff onboard. The ship will often group the folks that are staying for the next cruise and make it easier for you.

 

You have some great days ahead of you.

[DDMau]

Sounds like a great cruise, enjoy it.

[HokiePoq]

Anytime you have U.S. Customs/Immigration involved makes things different than in other countries. You will have to go through that, but can leave your bags and stuff onboard. The ship will often group the folks that are staying for the next cruise and make it easier for you.

 

You have some great days ahead of you.

 

This is the accurate information for LA. Our on back to back the people who were staying on met in the Atrium and went through customs with a sticker that said "In Transit". Had we wanted to go off earlier to sightsee in the area, we could have.

I do not know about Vancouver.

Enjoy your cruise!

[IndyColts84]

On our 21 day Bermuda/Boston To Tampa Repo last year, we were given info in our stateroom two days prior to the end of the Bermuda portion of the cruise on how the disembark/embark day for the Boston to Tampa Repo would go. In Boston we didn't have to disembark at all and were instead given stickers indicating we were "in transit." We lounged around a VERY empty ship and it was wonderful. It was also pretty cool to see the going ons that take place usually when the ship is empty.

 

As for muster, we were required to do the drill on both legs of our cruise. However, our names were not on the muster drill "roll call" sheets and therefore the next day we did receive a nice note saying that we had missed our muster and would need to attend later that day. A quick 2 minute conversation with guest services cleared that up.

 

In any case, I imagine you will be required to attend all muster drills for your sailing. Enjoy that 31 day cruise, it will be amazing I'm sure!

[UpTheBanner]

Many thanks for your replies.

 

I'm hoping we don't have to follow these guidelines in LA and Vancouver.

 

''Disembarkation usually begins 2 hours after docking.

Due to security reasons, all guests must be on board 2 hours before sailing.''

 

If we have to follow this then we will have hardly any time to explore the port cities?

Edited March 8, 2014 by UpTheBanner

[isdoo]

Many thanks for your replies.

 

I'm hoping we don't have to follow these guidelines in LA and Vancouver.

 

''Disembarkation usually begins 2 hours after docking.

Due to security reasons, all guests must be on board 2 hours before sailing.''

 

If we have to follow this then we will have hardly any time to explore the port cities?

 

Only applies to embarkation - at the first port.