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Thread: Seemoreroyals and Sassycat's Alaskan Cruise

  1. #71
    Glad you had a great cruise! Thanks for the report it was very interesting.

  2. #72
    Glad you had a great time see you in a few weeks

  3. #73
    Senior Member twinslotaddicts's Avatar
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    @seemoreroyals will you please share what the charge was per person for the unlimited drink package? Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip and sorry the food wasn't better.

    Ang

  4. #74
    Quote Originally Posted by seemoreroyals View Post
    Debarkation and Final Thoughts on Alaskan Cruise

    So by 9am on Sat. Sept 12th we were off the boat and claiming our luggage. It was all there . I have to admit both embarkation and debarkation (getting on and off the boat to those of you that don't cruise) were fast and efficient. Put in a call to Sweaty Eddie and true to his word he was there to whisk us to the airport within about 5 minutes. I asked him when he needed my credit card to take care of the transportation charges and he said not to worry he had did that last week. He had told me last week not to worry about it because we would take care of it when we got back and to enjoy our cruise. I asked him if he had a receipt for us and he said he would make sure we got one emailed to us. So my wife, sassycat, gets on her iphone and checks transactions on our credit card and finds out that he has charged our card $144 instead of the $120 we had agreed to. Upon finding this out I confronted him about this and he said that was because he went ahead and added our gratuity to him for us so we would not have to worry about it later. $24 is not that big of a deal and if he had better personal hygiene and wasn't such a cad we would have tipped him more than that anyway. And BTW we still have not received an email receipt from him and we still keep an eye on our credit card account because I just don't trust the little stinker.

    Final Thoughts On Food: rating C

    The food was just okay. The only meal that exceeded our expectations was one night they had mexican food night on the buffet it was really good. Other than that the buffet for us the couple of other times we went there was just okay. And it was very crowded with screaming toddlers and senior citizens on scooters seemingly coming at us from all directions. O'Sheehans which is their 24 hour diner was a disappointment. Other than the drinks we had there, food quality and selection was not good IMO. Both of the main dining rooms the food was a little better than average but the speed and quality of service was a little worse than what we expected. NCL no longer offers lobster on their cruises and one night they had a dish that was supposed to have lobster in it but if there was any lobster in it we never saw or tasted any. None of the food was as good as what we can get at the casino steakhouse, or at Outback or Cheddar's or even at a Denny's restaurant at home. Most of the desserts we tried looked good but tasted like they were missing something.

    Final Thoughts on Entertainment: B+

    Both the entertainment in the bars and in the nightly shows was about what we expected but not quite as good as we had on our last cruise this past Dec on the NCL Dawn. In the bars they had a guitar player and a piano player and a couple of other acts that were enjoyable but the guitar player, Randon, was not quite as good as he was billed to be according to all of the reviews we read on Cruise Critic. On our last cruise the guitar player played more 70's music including some Pink Floyd which was right in my wheel house. They did have some theme nights like one night they played Elton John, Neil Diamond and a few others.

    As far as the nightly shows go they had a real funny comedian, David Naster, on there who we enjoyed immensely. On our last cruise they did not have a comic. All they had was what they called 2nd City. All they did was skits and IMO they were not very funny. The other shows, one night they had a hypnotist, we went even though I guess some people can be hypnotized, and it was not very good. The had a couple of shows that were of the song and dance type and a show with a magician and another one where they had acrobats. The only memorable show for us though was the comedian. At the end of the show he was hawking an item called the Naster Blaster. I wish I had bought a couple on the cruise but I was pleasantly surprised when I googled the Naster Blaster when we got back and found out I can buy them online with free shipping.

    Final Thoughts on Ports: A

    We enjoyed all of the ports. I would have given the ports an A+ but we did not like the fact that three mornings in a row the ship got into port at 7am. That was a little early for us and way too early for our friends we were cruising with. In order of how much we liked them I would say Skagway the most, Juneau second most, Ketchican third most, and for us Victoria was just kind of an afterthought. They all had their own personality and even though it was a bit cool we dodged a bullet as far as weather was concerned. A couple of showers in Ketchican was all we had to contend with. And the shopping was great everywhere except for Victoria. That was another advantage of going to Alaska in September because all of the major shops were having end of season sales. By the time we got to Victoria we knew our cruise was almost over and we had to pack and we were collectively exhausted from everything we had done the previous several days so we did not like Victoria as much as the other ports of call we visited.

    Final Thoughts on Drinks and Drink Service Aboard Ship: A-

    As part of our package we had what the call the unlimited drink package (UDP). All you can drink booze at any of the bars anywhere on the ship including restaurants. the drinks themselves were very good. The beer was cold and they had a decent variety. Sassycat, who is mainly a wine drinker was satisfied with the selection of wines on board. One of my favorite drinks I had was called a BBC ( bailey, banana liquor, and coconut ). They were very tasty and after having too many on the first day of our cruise we refrained from having any more the rest of the trip except as a last drink of the night before going to bed drink each night. We tried a little of everything and were impressed with the variety of different types of booze all the bars had. As many people on board that were getting the UBP, it is amazing they served as well as they did and that they did not run out of alcohol. They could of used an extra bartender or cocktail waitress or two but overall the drinks and the drink service were very good.

    Final Thoughts on NCL and their Crew: B

    NCL is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Like all of the major corporate cruise lines, as well as providing a memorable cruise so that their clientele will continue to sail with them, they are guilty of cutting corners in ways where they think they can get away with it. Most notable was food. The advent of pay extra for specialty dining is another way that they are trying to add extra revenue to the bottom line. When we first cruised over 20 years ago the food was better and if you wanted lobster all of the cruiselines had lobster night. You did not have to pay an extra $30 if you wanted lobster. The employees for the most part were friendly and hard working. The cruise industry has given many of these people a great way to see the rest of the world and a way to broaden their horizons and I was happy to contribute to that.

    That's it for our cruise trip report. I will finish it off in a couple of days with one final collection of pictures we took. I wish we had taken more pictures but we spent most of our time living in the moment. I hope everyone enjoyed it and is planning their own cruises. Overall we both like shorter 2-4 day casino vacationing but every now and then a cruise makes a good change of pace.
    As far as I'm aware their Away and Away+ ships still do lobster... From what I read though they only do Lobster as an up charge menu item. So glad you guys had a great cruise. It's a bummer the food sucked and since I'm basically going on my cruise to eat and drink I hope our food is good. With the Ultimate Beverage Package(UBP)you still had to pay a port tax right when drinking in Port? From what I've read(and I just want to know the final answer) when ordering drinks in NY/Fl/etc they charge like $1 or $2 for the city tax or something. So really the drinks aren't completely free in Port. Right?

  5. #75
    Quote Originally Posted by twinslotaddicts View Post
    @seemoreroyals will you please share what the charge was per person for the unlimited drink package? Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip and sorry the food wasn't better.

    Ang
    When we booked our cruise the free drink package was one of the perks we got for booking when we did. Anything booked with NCL after June 1st of this year I think you can still get the UBP but they no longer pay the tips as part of it. My understanding is that now every time you buy a drink they charge an 18% gratuity to your sail and sign card.

    @SoCalRob in regards to your question about paying a tax for a drink while in port, the only port we had to pay a tax way while we were in Seattle. I noticed that on our bill their were several small charges around $1 each charged to us on the 1st day of our cruise. We did not have any of these charges while in any of the Alaska ports or when we visited Victoria. So if you have to pay a city tax in Seattle you will probably have to pay a city tax in New York as well I am guessing.

  6. #76
    Quote Originally Posted by seemoreroyals View Post
    When we booked our cruise the free drink package was one of the perks we got for booking when we did. Anything booked with NCL after June 1st of this year I think you can still get the UBP but they no longer pay the tips as part of it. My understanding is that now every time you buy a drink they charge an 18% gratuity to your sail and sign card.

    @SoCalRob in regards to your question about paying a tax for a drink while in port, the only port we had to pay a tax way while we were in Seattle. I noticed that on our bill their were several small charges around $1 each charged to us on the 1st day of our cruise. We did not have any of these charges while in any of the Alaska ports or when we visited Victoria. So if you have to pay a city tax in Seattle you will probably have to pay a city tax in New York as well I am guessing.
    Thanks James! That's what I thought. I hope they don't do it in Florida too. My bf can drink! Though he's paying for all the misc charges at the end so that'll be on him. *shrugs*.

  7. #77
    Thanks for such a detailed report. I've heard the Alaskan cruise is the cruise to take, your pics make me want to go!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. #78
    Now that our Alaskan Cruise is over a month behind us all we have left to remember it by are some NCL Freestyle Dailies, UBP receipts, and of course an assortment of pictures.




    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  9. #79
    Senior Member zeus's Avatar
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    What an incredible trip you guys had. It took a while to take it all in that I had to go back and read it again because my free time has been limited the last couple of weeks. Thanks for all of the details and fabulous pics! Looking forward to your next one.

  10. #80
    Really great pictures Karen and James! Looks and sounds like you had a fun time! We will go to Alaska some day hopefully on a cruise also. Thanks for the report

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