Awesome report and pix - thanks!
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Awesome report and pix - thanks!
You have the picture posting perfect. I have never been to Alaska it looks like a great state to visit.
Looks like a wonderful trip. We need a Joker's cruise.
What a fantastic TR so far, Alaska does look beautiful, thanks for sharing.
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Great TR and pictures - thanks
Great report and pictures! It brought back memories of my Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago.
Loving the trip report and pictures!!! Thanks for sharing and looking forward to the rest of your trip :)
Day 5 September 9th Skagway 7:00 - 5:00. I think we saved our favorite of the three main port stops for last. I think all 4 of us liked it the most although Ketchican, Juneau, and Skagway each have there own unique beauty to take in. Since we were doing our cruise in September the weather was a little on the cool side but it was also evidently the peak time for fall foliage in Skagway. I don't think I have ever seen as many bright yellow leaves anywhere. We rented a 4 door 4wd Jeep Wranger. The drive we were taking goes almost the same track as the train that Skagway is famous for. We had did the train on our only other visit many years ago and we liked the Jeep option much better because we were able get out and walk around and stop and start at our convenience. Since I was driving and I had an issue with the camera on my phone being full, most of the pictures here will be courtesy of Sassycat.
We decided to do a trip into the Yukon territory past Carcross and up to Emerald Lake. It was altogether a little over 5 hours roundtrip but we had plenty of time since we had a lengthy port day. We picked up our Jeep and headed out. We were warned ahead of time that there was only 1 place along the way to stop and use the restroom. What they didn't tell us was that it was $1 each to use it. Sassy has a picture of the sign when we get to her pictures. After leaving Skagway we hit a foggy stretch that seemed to last for ever but we finally got through it and made it into Yukon Territory. We returned to Skagway with plenty of time left for the girls to go shopping. I hope you enjoy our pictures and I will be back later with a recap of our comomg up day at sea and our evening at Victoria.
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Here is a picture of our Jeephttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...9d5e2bc3aa.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...456a13e90d.jpg
Some more pics
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Here is a pic of Emerald Lake
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Your pictures are just amazingly breathtaking!!!! It just solidifies my desire to want to go to Alaska. So gorgeous and I'm so glad you two were able to share this with us.
A pic of the pay toilet area
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And then the free outdoor toilet areas
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A store near our rent car place
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Hey guys, this is a great report!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Skagway is my favorite though like you say Juneau and Ketchikan are also worthwhile. I did that Skagway tour twice already but with a tour company.
I would do it again.
Thanks for the report!
We really liked Skagway. The only other time we were there, almost 20 years ago, we did the train but I think the jeep gave us more flexibility. We turned around at Emerald Lake but I guess we good of kept going further in to Yukon territory. That was where they recommended. Also went through Dyea on the way back. We saw some sea otters and tried to take pictures but I guess they did not come out.
That looks so good I wouldn't have got back on the boat. hhh
Day 6 September 10th Day at Sea. So after three consecutive days of getting to port at 7am we finally get to sleep in. Or so we thought. We were awakened and kept up for at least an hour in the middle of the night by noise and racket next to us were they were loading or unloading somebody or something from the ship. I banged on the wall and they would stop for a little bit and then it would start again. We finally got back to sleep and got some rest. We would need it as once we got up and about and met our friends for a late breakfast we made plans for some extensive drinking. Not only were we at sea, but we would not get to our next port Victoria until 5pm the following day so there was really nothing to hold us back. So that is pretty much what we did all day. And reflected on what a great time we were having and how fast it had gone by. We still found time to eat and we went to the main show that night but mainly we drank. The last picture of the towel animal on our bed was taken at 1:58AM. Thank god for iphones. Without them I would never know how long our drinkfest had lasted.
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Day 7 Sept. 11th Victoria, BC 5pm - 11:30pm. It was Friday and it was the last day of the cruise and even though it seemed we had just boarded it was almost over. We did not get up in time so instead of breakfast we met up for lunch. We had to have all of our stuff packed and ready by later on that evening so while the girls went back to the rooms to pack Patrick and I went up to Magnum's for a few more drinks. We pondered what to do while in Victoria. We all are active and like to walk so when we got to Victoria instead of taking the bus we made a walk out of it. We all really liked Victoria. It was only about 2 miles to downtown where the shopping was at so it took no time at all to get there. The cost of living must be fairly high there as all of the prices in the shops in Victoria were much higher. I think we paid almost $10 for 2 bottles of water. But we did take some pictures and walk around and went in and out of a few shops. All this walking was making us hungry so we headed back to the ship for our last night of dinner and drinks. We only stayed up until a little after midnight because we had to be up and finished with breakfast and off the ship by about 8:30AM the next morning so we could catch our ride back to the airport for our flight back home.http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...a4d7045837.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...587afdf73c.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...38e480e751.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...435982a25e.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...c84bbab850.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...4e22ef75b6.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...efbe2eafca.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...b9a9507742.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...a6d6106543.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10...29a9d4f6a7.jpg
Thank you for the report. I agree it is a nice walk from the cruise ship port into downtown Victoria. The Butchart Gardens are a highlight, just outside Victoria, but probably not
enough time for a short visit in the evening. I did two Alaska cruises twenty years ago but neither did Skagway. I expect the ports are much busier than back in the 90's!
We thought about Butchart Gardens but not enough time. Hear it is beautiful but we really enjoyed our walk into Victoria. Since it's been almost 20 years you are due a return trip to Alaska. That's how long it was for us between trips. I hope on your next one you pick one that includes Skagway as one of the stops. The only Alaskan port we have enjoyed as much was on our last Alaska cruise we stopped at Sitka and really liked that it as well.
Thank you for sharing your trip with us! The views and scenery are breathtaking!
Wow what a fabulous trip, loved all the pictures and details. I can see why you guys needed a couple weeks to chill when you got back. I know there is no way I could do all that drinking and late nights early mornings and day excursions for so many days in a row. You guys are champs!!! We have never been on a cruise and seeing Alaska looks like the perfect way to go!!!~ Thank you for sharing your trip James and Karen it was awesome to read. :)
Stay tuned Chrissy because in the next couple of days I am going to do one last installment of final thoughts on our cruise. You and Steve should do a cruise some time. One cruise we have never done is a fall foliage cruise up in your neck of the woods. That's on our list to do one of these days.
What a fantastic trip report!!!! My daughter worked in Denali for the Summer of 2013 & 2014 then last year she took a week off and her and my parents did an Alaska cruise with Princess since she worked for them she got an amazing deal on a balcony cabin for them. They absolutely loved it!!! Thanks for taking the time to do an awesome report!!!
Ang
Fantastic trip report and I know now more than ever that I eventually want to do an Alaska cruise (providing my very first cruise goes well). If not, then I'll eventually travel to Alaska somehow just to see it. It looks so spectacular.
Thanks Ang and Rob for the kind words. Ang what a great experience your daughter must have had. We have not been to Denali. May have to do inland Alaska next time. Rob I hope your first cruise is a great experience so an Alaskan cruise will be in your plans as well.
Wow yet again thanks for all the pictures and in depth details love reading about it and hope to get on an alaskan cruise one day too
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.
Thanks @seemoreroyals and @sassycat for sharing your cruise and thoughts. I'm not much of a cruiser but yours sounded like fun. I love Alaska and enjoyed seeing your pictures.
Glad you had a great cruise! Thanks for the report it was very interesting.
Glad you had a great time see you in a few weeks
@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
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?
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 for such a detailed report. I've heard the Alaskan cruise is the cruise to take, your pics make me want to go!
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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.
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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.
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 :star: