Alaska Southbound on the NCL Sun - August 2017 Trip Report!

[tatibus0913]

I am loving your review so far and you are not even on the ship yet!!! This is getting me excited for my second Alaska adventure!

 

 

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Thanks!! I'd love to go back to Alaska again, I hope you have a wonderful time :D

[tatibus0913]

Loving your review. Thank you for sharing your memories and vacation.

 

Thanks for reading along!

[tatibus0913]

Fantastic second instalment - what glorious sunshine you're having too!

Interesting to read you seem to get from your Anchorage hotel to downtown fairly easily- is it walkable or were you taking a bus? I'm trying to figure out Anchorage hotels which won't break our budget but also won't be too far away from everything with no car.

Looking forward to the next instalment- again, thanks so much for taking the time to write it 😊

 

We had gorgeous weather for most of the trip. It was a bit rainy in Seward, and then rained fairly heavily in Ketchikan but otherwise it was sunny!

 

And it was easy to get to downtown! It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the Comfort Inn to the downtown area. The walk do downtown is uphill, but it wasn't too bad. We really liked the Comfort Inn. It fit our budget, and it was clean. The room was a good size too. It was basic but we barely spent anytime there. There is a Sheraton and a Hilton in downtown but those were much more expensive.

[tatibus0913]

Nice start to your review. Nice photos too. Looking forward to more.

 

Thank you!

[Laszlo]

Waiting for more!!!

[tatibus0913]

Monday, August 7th: Travel to Seward & Embarkation

This was the day we were finally going to get on the ship! We dropped off the rental car back at Avis first thing in the morning, and headed to Snow City Cafe for breakfast. We had made reservations for 9:00am, but we were early so we walked over to Resolution park.

 

 

 

 

We went back to Snow City Cafe, and waited for a few minutes. We heard them telling others that it was a 45 minute wait for breakfast! We were seated right at 9:00am, which was when our reservation was. I started with a Snickers mocha, which was mocha with caramel and hazelnut flavoring. It was amazing! We both decided to get the deadliest catch, which was 1 crab cake eggs benedict, and 1 smoked salmon eggs benedict. We also got a side of reindeer sausage to try.

 

 

 

 

Our meals were great, and so was the service!

[tatibus0913]

After breakfast, we headed back to our hotel to finish up packing. We booked a half day sightseeing transfer with Anchorage Tours and Transfers. We chose this option because it made a couple of photo stops and included an hour at the Wildlife Conservation Center.

 

We were waiting outside our hotel to be picked up, and a van pulled up. It was a little strange that there was no logo, but when we talked to the driver, we found out that the usual mini-bus was out of commission so we would be in this rental van. He had two other groups to pick up, but there was some confusion as to where to pick up one of the groups so we spent a fair amount of time driving around looking for them. Eventually, they were found, the last group was picked up. Once everyone was in, the driver told us all how he wasn’t supposed to be working that day, which was bad for him but good for us. In total, it was a 4 hour tour and he talked through all 4 hours, telling us personal stories from his truck driving days and getting into state politics. It was all a little strange, honestly, and I hate to say negative things since this wasn’t a normal day for the company.

However, despite the commentary from the driver, the drive on Seward highway and the stops we made were beautiful.

The first stop was at beluga point. It was a great photo stop and very pretty.

 

 

 

The next stop we made was not on the itinerary, but it was at the Turnagain Gallery. The owner there creates wood carvings.

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Then we made it to the Wildlife Conservation Center, which I was really excited about. The center is very large and spread out, so we drove around and made stops at each animal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

A few more animal pictures

 

 

 

 

The area surrounding the Conservation Center is also beautiful.

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We spent about an hour at the center, and our next stop was at Summit Lake. Again, another pretty photo spot.

 

 

 

Finally, we made into Seward around 5:00pm. I think I would still recommend Anchorage Tours and Transfers, despite the driver, since it did get us where we needed to be. My hope is that they were just having an off day, since they have really good reviews on TripAdvisor.

We got out of the van, and checked in our luggage. Then we walked over to the building to check-in.

 

There was a lady in the front who asked to see our cruise docs. She said that since we had cruised with Norwegian before, to go through the Latitudes line. We did, and basically walked right up to the counter. We had our pictures taken, gave our credit card information and then went through security. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.

We walked outside, and there was the Sun!

 

[tatibus0913]

The first thing we did was go to our room so that we could drop off our backpacks and see what it looked like. We were in an inside room on the 9th floor. The room was a lot bigger than I would’ve expected. I didn’t get it in the picture, but there is also a small couch across from the desk area. One thing to note, the hair dryer is attached to the wall over the toilet, and was terrible. It almost looked like a vacuum attachment connected to the hose. I used it once but wished I brought my own hair dryer. We also found our room steward to ask him to have the beds pushed together, which they did later that night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we were Latitudes members, we also had a welcome letter and a bottle of sparkling wine. One thing about the wine, when we opened it later in the week, the cork flew out of my hand and wine sprayed out, so be careful!! It also wasn’t that good so we didn’t drink much of it.

 

[tatibus0913]

Here are the freestyle dailies for Day 1

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We left our room to explore, and ended up at the bar in the pool area (not sure how that happened haha). We had celebratory mojitos!

This is the drink menu from the pool area

 

 

 

 

 

A picture of Seward from the ship!

 

[tatibus0913]

We decided to have dinner at the buffet, and they were serving prime rib. It was actually really good, as was everything else had. While we were eating dinner, there was an otter hanging outside in the water! There’s a crepe station in the buffet area so of course I had to have one of those.

 

We wandered around the ship a little to try get acquainted with the layout. The Sun is older but in great condition. We did the muster drill, and decided to go check out the sports bar.

 

For some reason, we decided to have a second dinner (it might have been the mojitos talking lol). The sports bar has a small menu that was the same throughout the week. I ordered a chicken sandwich and Justine had some wings.

 

After that, we took some pictures as we were sailing away. It was a little rainy and foggy out.

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We made our way up to the Observation Lounge, which was really cool. It is at the front of ship and had large windows all around.

We ordered some Alaskan beers, and hung out for a bit before calling it a night!

 

Here is the bar menu

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Here is the rest of the bar menu

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Tuesday, August 8th: Day at Sea & Hubbard Glacier

 

Here are the dailies for the day at sea and Hubbard glacier viewing! It looks like I missed the last page, sorry about that!

 

 

 

 

We slept in a little bit, and then went to the buffet for breakfast. It was really busy, but we managed to find a seat. Breakfast was good, and we grabbed mimosas to bring back to our room while we got ready for the Cruise Critic meet and greet!

 

 

We headed over to Las Ramblas for the meet and greet. A lot of the officers were there, and they introduced themselves and answered questions. There were also some refreshments. We had a nice time at the meet and greet!

 

After the meet and greet, we grabbed some mudslides (gotta love the UBP!) and just hung out for a bit.

 

[tatibus0913]

Then we went and had lunch. We decided to go to the main dining room to check it out. There’s a really neat sculpture outside of the dining room.

Here is the lunch menu.

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

I decided to have tomato soup, and a tuna salad sandwich. Justine had Shrimp and Penne Pesto. We weren’t going to get dessert, but then saw the peanut butter cup cheesecake, so we had to try that. Everything was great!

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

After lunch, we walked around a bit to enjoy the scenery and to figure out where we wanted to be for glacier viewing. We started out at the back of the ship for a while, and took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

We then wandered down to deck six, and there were very few people there. We grabbed some lounge chairs and just enjoyed the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

More photos from our approach to Hubbard Glacier.

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Finally, we were at the face of the glacier. It was a gorgeous day, and we were pretty close. The ship turned so that one side was fully facing the glacier. There was some calving - it was amazing to see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

There was a ship photographer wandering around deck 6, and took this picture at some point during the afternoon.

 

 

Once the ship started turning around so that the other side could see, we decided to go inside. We sat at the Champagne bar, which has large windows. We were able to still see the glacier from the bar as the ship turned.

 

I ordered a peach nectar martini, which became my favorite drink of the trip!

 

[tatibus0913]

Here is the Champagne Bar menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

After the glacier viewing, we headed back to our room to get ready for the evening. Before the cruise, we had purchased the Specialty Dining package for three nights. Even though NCL has freestyle cruising, we did make reservations through their website in advance for the dining rooms and specialty restaurants.

 

This night Norwegian’s Night Out, which is the formal night, and we had dinner reservations at Cagney’s. NCL is pretty casual and you’re not required to dress up, but we had decided to dress up anyways.

 

We stopped and took pictures in the Atrium, which we don’t usually do. But it was fun, and we ended up buying one of the photos later in the the cruise!

 

 

We made our way to Cagney’s for dinner.

 

 

Justine started her meal with a wedge salad, and I ordered shrimp cocktail.

 

 

 

For our meals, Justine ordered the filet mignon with garlic butter, and I ordered lamb chops. We decided to share the sides, and picked the fries, mashed potatoes and broccoli.