Also Mostly Live from the NA 4th Sailing

[madera1]

Thank you for this detailed information. Bon Voyage!

[Caribbean Chris]

Thank you so much for sharing those Navigator screenshots! I love that you can review all the Lido Market choices.

 

I tend to walk in the crowded Lido and go straight into “buffet choice overload” mode. I either walk to the shortest line and get the first thing I see, or just go to the same old salad station daily. Now I can pick out something I’d love to try ahead of time and go find it.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!!

 

 

[Cruizer Diana]

 

 

Two questions about the "drop off" at the port:

 

I just asked Boytjie this question because he is arriving by Lyft. But, since you are local, can you answer the question from your observation?

 

If you used Uber or Lyft, were you dropped off at the baggage drop or a bit of a walk away? 

If you were dropped off by a private car, how far were you dropped off from the baggage drop-off?

 

The reason I ask is that the last time we sailed from this dock (Aug 2919), the Lyft ride dropped us a bit of a walk to the luggage drop area. The driver was not allowed to take the taxi lane.

 

Thank you!

Diana

Edited August 14, 2021 by Cruizer Diana

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, CruiseMGM said:

 

Thank you SO much, this is really helpful. I wasn't sure if I was having troubles with the Navigator or if it was just that we don't sail until next Saturday! Very happy to hear yours started working day-of, and also happy to hear about being able to book the Pinnacle lunch, may be a nice choice for Glacier Bay. Once you're onboard (bon voyage!!!), would you let us know if you find out anything about ordering on the app from Dive Inn or NY Pizza? And IF you happen to schedule any spa treatments, could you let us know, do the spa attendants stay masked during the treatments?

Thank you again, and happy sailing!

 

FYI the Pinnacle lunch is only served at sea so it will not be available at Glacier Bay . If you would like to see photos of a previous lunch look here :

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by scubacruiserx2

[Florida_gal_50]

Thank you for all the details.  Love ❤️ it.  Have a wonderful cruise.  Looking forward to more.

[zgscl]

2 hours ago, CruiseMGM said:

 

Thank you SO much, this is really helpful. I wasn't sure if I was having troubles with the Navigator or if it was just that we don't sail until next Saturday! Very happy to hear yours started working day-of, and also happy to hear about being able to book the Pinnacle lunch, may be a nice choice for Glacier Bay. Once you're onboard (bon voyage!!!), would you let us know if you find out anything about ordering on the app from Dive Inn or NY Pizza? And IF you happen to schedule any spa treatments, could you let us know, do the spa attendants stay masked during the treatments?

Thank you again, and happy sailing!

I was worried about Navigator app also. It all works as expected once you get onboard (and a lot the morning of from home) 

 

I used the app to order from Dive in and totally forgot to take screen shots. Darn I guess I will need to go again for some more of the cheese fries 🙂. It was very easy to use and it tells you when your order is ready. Simone is standing there and hands you your food. 
 

I don’t think we will Be visiting the spa but I will try to find out! 

[zgscl]

40 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

FYI the Pinnacle lunch is only served at sea so it will not be available at Glacier Bay . If you would like to see photos of a previous lunch look here :

 

 

 

Pinnacle lunch is available from 12-1 on the day we visit Glacier bay and we have a reservation for 12:45. Also available on the other two sea days but no other port days. 

[zgscl]

2 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

Thank you so much for sharing those Navigator screenshots! I love that you can review all the Lido Market choices.

 

I tend to walk in the crowded Lido and go straight into “buffet choice overload” mode. I either walk to the shortest line and get the first thing I see, or just go to the same old salad station daily. Now I can pick out something I’d love to try ahead of time and go find it.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!!

 

 

Love having the menus at your finger tips! 

[zgscl]

1 hour ago, Cruizer Diana said:

 

 

Two questions about the "drop off" at the port:

 

I just asked Boytjie this question because he is arriving by Lyft. But, since you are local, can you answer the question from your observation?

 

If you used Uber or Lyft, were you dropped off at the baggage drop or a bit of a walk away? 

If you were dropped off by a private car, how far were you dropped off from the baggage drop-off?

 

The reason I ask is that the last time we sailed from this dock (Aug 2919), the Lyft ride dropped us a bit of a walk to the luggage drop area. The driver was not allowed to take the taxi lane.

 

Thank you!

Diana

I will post detailed info about boarding in a bit but to answer your question it made no difference as far as I could tell. All cars went to the right and busses went left. Long area for drop off but no organized zone for cabs or Uber/Lyft it was all one area. 

[Cruizer Diana]

8 minutes ago, zgscl said:

I will post detailed info about boarding in a bit but to answer your question it made no difference as far as I could tell. All cars went to the right and busses went left. Long area for drop off but no organized zone for cabs or Uber/Lyft it was all one area. 

Thank you!

Enjoy your cruise!!

[canadianbear]

Have a great sailaway! 

[TrulyLoveCruising]

6 hours ago, CruiseMGM said:

 

Thank you SO much, this is really helpful. I wasn't sure if I was having troubles with the Navigator or if it was just that we don't sail until next Saturday! Very happy to hear yours started working day-of, and also happy to hear about being able to book the Pinnacle lunch, may be a nice choice for Glacier Bay. Once you're onboard (bon voyage!!!), would you let us know if you find out anything about ordering on the app from Dive Inn or NY Pizza? And IF you happen to schedule any spa treatments, could you let us know, do the spa attendants stay masked during the treatments?

Thank you again, and happy sailing!

Every staff member wears a mask during treatments. I had three treatments in the spa this past week. 

[ksmaxey]

12 hours ago, Cruizer Diana said:

 

 

Two questions about the "drop off" at the port:

 

I just asked Boytjie this question because he is arriving by Lyft. But, since you are local, can you answer the question from your observation?

 

If you used Uber or Lyft, were you dropped off at the baggage drop or a bit of a walk away? 

If you were dropped off by a private car, how far were you dropped off from the baggage drop-off?

 

The reason I ask is that the last time we sailed from this dock (Aug 2919), the Lyft ride dropped us a bit of a walk to the luggage drop area. The driver was not allowed to take the taxi lane.

 

Thank you!

Diana

We were on the first cruise on July 23rd and had an Uber.  We were directed to the Taxi line and were as close as anything else and a porter was there immediately.

[scubacruiserx2]

15 hours ago, zgscl said:

Pinnacle lunch is available from 12-1 on the day we visit Glacier bay and we have a reservation for 12:45. Also available on the other two sea days but no other port days. 

 

Very nice. We have always enjoyed lunch in the Pinnacle and hope you do too.

[zgscl]

Greetings from the Nieuw Amsterdam! Internet has been very spotty onboard but is a little better this morning.. Seemed OK in the Neptune lounge but we were also still in Seattle when I tried there. Our cabin 8162 has a router in the room over the bed and we still have a hard time connecting in the room. On our balcony had absolutely no signal. It does seem better this morning and we purchased the premium internet package. 

 

Arrival & Embarkation 
This was absolutely the fastest and easiest embarkation I have ever done (combined with the short 15 minute drive across town to get to the pier we are now totally spoiled). 

 

When coming into the pier there are essentially two options, all cars, taxis, etc. go to the right and busses go to the left in a separate area. There were signs overhead that everyone seemed to ignore and all cars let anyone out anywhere. The earlier you can pull over the shorter the walk to the terminal is. Porters were available and came out to take whatever luggage you had tagged and wanted help with. 

 

There is an area to the left that has disabled parking and signs for wheelchairs. This is not the area where the wheelchairs actually come. You need to stay to the right (there was a sign with area 1 but it looks like those can be changed so not sure if that will stay consistent) and there is a desk that had someone overseeing the bus arrivals. We told them we needed a wheelchair and he went off to find someone. They had only 6 people for wheelchairs shoreside and this person will take you all the way through check in before you transfer to the ship staff so be prepared to wait a little bit. 

 

When you walk into the terminal you go through the health screening. This sounds a lot more intense than it actually was. Three lines – one line for wheelchairs/disabled folks, one line for Neptune/Pinnacle suite/4 star & 5 star mariners. This had almost no one in it. One line for everyone else with a lot of people all standing close together (but all masked). Hard to say how many were in the line, it zigzagged back and forth several times and could have easily had 100+ people in it. 

 

Once you get to the front of the line there is a person who scans your boarding pass and asks you if you had any symptoms in the last 72 hours. They look at your vaccine card and negative COVID test within the last 72 hours. After that you get your stuff back (keep boarding pass and passport handy, but you will not need the other paperwork again). 

 

Up the escalators or elevator to security. Typical airport/cruise ship security check. Bags onto the conveyor belt and walk through the metal detectors. The health screening really staggers the flow of people so no more than 1-2 people waiting in any line.  If you had your phone and what not packed away by now it makes getting through very fast. If you have your phone and a bunch of metal and would like to demonstrate to the world that you don’t go through security much and need to block a whole lane while repacking your bags that is an option too and we saw couple couples struggling to get themselves organized. 

 

After this is the check in area. A bunch of machines that I presume are the facial recognition. If you are using a wheelchair you will go to a separate area with two people doing your check in so we did not get to experience this. 

 

The check in folks put in the cabin number but only I came up. He had to search for my mom by name and then she came up in the same cabin – very odd. The only thing I can think of is that she was added to the booking at a later date so maybe something didn’t quite sync. Who knows, technology is weird. For check in you need your passport. At health screen they told us to put it away so we had it buried back in our carry on and had to dig it out again. Not a big deal but would behoove you to keep them easily accessible until this point. After check in you do not need it again to board. Interesting note, although we took our photo in the navigator app the picture that came up was one they took from a previous cruise.

 

For wheelchair folks you will transfer here to the chairs pushed by the ship’s staff. You will then walk outside along the ship and get your embarkation photos taken. We ignored the staff frantically trying to take our picture which we will 100% not buy anyway and proceeded to the gangway. Once onboard deck 2 midship they had 3 lines with security staff to scan you onto the ship using your boarding pass. 

 

The whole process took us about 30-45 minutes but much of that was waiting for the wheelchair. If you have priority boarding there was never more than 2-3 groups in the line so you would basically go straight through and I would estimate 15-20 minutes. Can’t say how long the general boarding line took, hopefully others can provide their feedback. 

 

Warning to folks using mobility assistance. The ship staff will only take you as far as the elevator lobby after getting scanned onboard. They will not take you to the lido, or to your room. You will be unceremoniously dumped at the elevator by a very apologetic crew member. Fortunately my mom can walk and just has trouble with long distances and standing so it was not a big deal for her to walk up to the lido and get a close table while I took our stuff to the room and got our rented wheelchair. If you have more limited mobility this may be a problem for you as rented devices are in your stateroom. My recommendation would be considering to rent one on shore if you have someone who can help push (or get a self powered one or are able to provide your own power). Bottom line is you will go no farther than the midship elevator on deck 2 with any assistance.

 

As has been noted by others your room keys are in a sealed envelope outside your room. There is a note on the back that you should contact guest services if the envelope appears opened or tampered with in any way. Our luggage made it to our room before we did (I went directly there after embarkation) and all 5 suitcases were sitting out in the hallway waiting for me. 

 

Lunch was in full swing in the Lido. We made it on the ship about 1:30 or 1:45. Plenty of seating available. We did not notice if the MDR was open but I assume it was earlier. 

New and improved muster drill
It is highly recommend and encouraged that you go to your muster station immediately after embarkation to help spread the flow of people out and they say the ship cannot depart until everyone has been scanned in at their station. They have stations grouped together with signs (and crew members) pointing to your area. There is a crew member scanning your room key (or I presume boarding pass would work too) and recording your attendance, and then another crew member gives you a very basic briefing (as in this is your muster station if you hear the emergency 7 short blasts and 1 long blast you should go and get your lifejacket and come here immediately). They will direct you to watch the safety video in your room. 

In your cabin the TV will not work until you watch the mandatory safety video. You have the option of several languages and once you make the selection the video plays. The captain made an announcement discussing safety procedures around 3:30 and then the tour and travel director said if you hadn’t gone you must go IMMEDIATELY to your muster station as the ship cannot depart. I never heard the public shaming announcement  (e.g. Will John Smith and Jennifer Jones please report to your muster station/customs inspection/etc immediately). So I guess everyone made it there. Not sure if they will do a make up drill for late boarders or folks who missed it. 

 

I really like the new muster drill. So much better than standing outside with the huge group of people. Is it as effective as the old one? I can’t tell you and I hope people paid attention as it is important information to know, but from a passenger perspective it is a much more pleasant experience. 

Lido lunch was great. Salad bar was excellent and we really liked the seared tuna. Homestead had prime rib and salmon both of which were excellent. Beecher’s mac & cheese is common onboard – served in the lido today, on the lunch menu in the MDR and even in the Pinnacle Grill (though they have added lobster and there is a supplement for it). 

 

 

One elevator still told us it was Friday...does that mean they will give us an extra day on our cruise?

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by zgscl

[zgscl]

We were expecting between 1,700 and 1,800 onboard based on previous reports. We were advised due to the new masking/testing requirements there are only 1,300 onboard as many folks couldn’t get a test or were unwilling to meet the new mandates. Yikes that is a lot of cancellations. Great for us as the ship feels much less crowded than normal, but I don’t know how sustainable that will be long term. 

The lido market was in full swing when we got onboard. I didn’t notice if the MDR was open, I think we were a bit late for it anyway. Setup remains basically unchanged from my memory pre-pandemic except of course there is absolutely nothing that is self served. Everything is plated and handed to you by a crew member. Lido servers came around to take beverage orders. 
My mom and I went to the salad bar – highly recommend the seared tuna it was excellent. She took both of our places and I waited in line at Homestead to get prime rib, salmon, mac & cheese and meatballs for both of us. All was very good. The crew is all smiling and very happy to be back. Everyone we spoke with told us how thrilled they were to be working again. One of the Lido servers saw my mom walking with two plates and came and carried them over to our table which I thought was very nice. They also asked about beverages and brought us iced tea. 

At the desert station we were told no bread pudding at lunch today (a real tragedy) as they had to wait for croutons. We mentioned it to the waiter in our section who smiled and came back with two servings from somewhere. It is not as good as it was last time, but it did satisfy our cravings. I also wanted to try the mobile order and had a Dive In burger and fries. Quite good and the mobile order is super easy. I totally forgot to take screenshots so I will post more about that later. Super easy and user friendly to order. The app tells you when your order is ready and you can go pick it up. There were two servers handing orders out and getting condiments and what not. 
Enjoyed a great sail away from our gigantic balcony. I had thought we would be on the wrong side of the ship to view Seattle departure but frankly the aft is the best view onboard for this. The aft wrap balcony gives you almost 270 degrees of sight lines and we had the city in our rear view for quite a while. Tried playing Rummikub on the aft balcony and gave up after a few minutes. Way too windy and the slotted table makes it difficult. 
 

[zgscl]

Cabin 8162 is great. The layout is slightly different and the couch is smaller than the side view Neptunes. That said the balcony is amazing and totally worth it. When outside you can hear music from above but we did not hear anything when inside the cabin with the door closed. Once the ship picks up speed there is defiantly more rocking and vibrating with the engines/propellers below you. We both sleep deeply so this was not a bother for us and I would not hesitate to book again to have this fantastic balcony, however light sleepers and folks bothered by noise or motion would do much better in the middle and a deck lower. Since we are at the back you really can feel the ups and downs a lot more. 

 

All of my preordered items (flowers as a welcome aboard surprise for mom as well as distilled water for my CPAP) were in the room waiting. Welcome aboard champaign and several bottles of still water were also there for us compliments of the captain. 

 

On every cruise and on every cruise line we have been on the bed is arranged as a king no matter what we said when booking. One of our cabin stewards came by and introduced himself. We asked him to separate when they do turndown which he said was no problem and I also asked for 2 When & Where's every day. When we got back we had 2 - mom & I both like to have a copy when walking around. This is by far the easiest way to obtain a second copy of the program if you want one. 

 

Neptune suites seem to automatically get both morning and turndown service. There is a feature in the Navigator app for amenity/room delivery requests but it has said closed since we got onboard. 

 

[canadianbear]

Thanks for all your details and photos!  Lovely suite.  We had an aft once but hubby gets sick so have to book mid ship.  I personally loved the aft.
 

 Such a wonderful cruise for you and your mom.  Enjoy! 

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Photos great and thanks for details on checkin procedures.

[rajkr74]

Outstanding "Live" report on your cruise on the NA from Seattle!!!  Great pictures and detailed commentary. You must type 70 words per minute to provide all the information on your posts, great job.

[cruisewiththekids]

Could you possibly find out if the new Covid protocol requires every passenger to be Covid tested on day 5 or 6 of the cruise?    That's how I'm reading the new protocol, but I want to be sure it's not just for those needing a test for international flights or back-to-back cruisers.   But the wording says "all passengers."    Enjoying your report.   Thank you.

[Cruizer Diana]

zgscl: Thank you for all of the detailed info--EXCELLENT JOB!

 

You and Maxey answered my question about drop-off. Apparently, the port is now OK with Uber & Lyft drop offs. Now I don't have to slep my bags to the baggage area like I did in 2019!

 

Keep up the good work!!

Diana

 

[Sir PMP]

500 pax canceled because of refusing to do another test, right on, when vaccinated no more test needed..

[Boytjie]

54 minutes ago, cruisewiththekids said:

Could you possibly find out if the new Covid protocol requires every passenger to be Covid tested on day 5 or 6 of the cruise?    That's how I'm reading the new protocol, but I want to be sure it's not just for those needing a test for international flights or back-to-back cruisers.   But the wording says "all passengers."    Enjoying your report.   Thank you.

I have not heard anything about being tested onboard. 

[Boytjie]

@zgsclExcellent detailed boarding information! Thank you.