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.Originally Posted by Mauretania
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.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.
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.
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