Beautiful Chamber of Commerce weather on departure. Sunny, warm, and beautiful -- with Mexican Navy Training Vessel docked behind us adding color to the waterfront.
We've noticed that NCL makes a big deal about Sail Away - Live music and dancing amidship. If you haven't tried a GoPro yet, they do great selfies aboard ship when you want to get some background scenery in.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We always bring our wine along with us on cruises. NCL has a good policy in this regard - bring as much as you want but they will enforce a $15 corkage charge for every bottle brought on board. We went down to deck 7 to "rescue" the bottles they found in our bags and added the corkage to our room charges.
After departing port, we headed out into the Pacific, sailing north past Vancouver Island towards our first port, Juneau Alaska. This is a fairly long leg - two nights and half the third day enroute.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We had good AT&T cell phone coverage while we were in Puget Sound so we could Facebook, Tweet, and check email. Later the first evening, we noticed AT&T was replaced by a Canadian service so we immediately put our phones into "Airplane Mode" so we wouldn't suffer international roaming charges for phone calls or data. We didn't get US coverage again until we were an hour or so out of Juneau. At this point, we could use our Cell and Data services again without extraneous charges.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We had a balcony room on 8 deck port side forward (548) Port side is definitely the side you want to be on for viewing glaciers in Glacier Bay.
Travel Intelligence Tip
NCL has a very poor smoking policy if you aren't a smoker. The two cabins forward of ours were smokers -- this meant that every time they lighted up, our balcony became uninhabitable and we couldn't leave our sliding door open to hear the ship moving through the water. We have heard they are changing this but we wouldn't book again nor book someone else on NCL until their smoking policy ensures that balconies are smoke-free.
Our first formal was dinner on our first full day at sea - September 1st. The theater was beautiful and the show -- Frankie Valley and 4 Seasons tribute -- was entertaining.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We were traveling with a group of 8 - with NCL's "Freestyle Dining" we tried to make dinner reservations in the main dining rooms for our group -- all they would give us were either 5:30 or 8:30pm slots when we checked in on-line. We hoped we'd have more flexibility when we got on board -- this wasn't the case. After a couple of days, we just showed up when we wanted to eat and the Maitre D' was able to accommodate us each night. We found eating later - 8:30 - the service was slow and distracted because the staff was setting up for breakfast -- ideal time to eat was around 7pm - good service and good food.
Next stop -- Juneau
Travel Intelligence Tip
We always bring our wine along with us on cruises. NCL has a good policy in this regard - bring as much as you want but they will enforce a $15 corkage charge for every bottle brought on board. We went down to deck 7 to "rescue" the bottles they found in our bags and added the corkage to our room charges.
After departing port, we headed out into the Pacific, sailing north past Vancouver Island towards our first port, Juneau Alaska. This is a fairly long leg - two nights and half the third day enroute.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We had good AT&T cell phone coverage while we were in Puget Sound so we could Facebook, Tweet, and check email. Later the first evening, we noticed AT&T was replaced by a Canadian service so we immediately put our phones into "Airplane Mode" so we wouldn't suffer international roaming charges for phone calls or data. We didn't get US coverage again until we were an hour or so out of Juneau. At this point, we could use our Cell and Data services again without extraneous charges.
Our first day at sea was a little "frisky" - winds at 20-24 knots and seas of 7-10 feet. Pearl handled everything smoothly but there was definitely some movement and a lot more patches behind the ears of people we saw out and about.
We had a balcony room on 8 deck port side forward (548) Port side is definitely the side you want to be on for viewing glaciers in Glacier Bay.
Travel Intelligence Tip
NCL has a very poor smoking policy if you aren't a smoker. The two cabins forward of ours were smokers -- this meant that every time they lighted up, our balcony became uninhabitable and we couldn't leave our sliding door open to hear the ship moving through the water. We have heard they are changing this but we wouldn't book again nor book someone else on NCL until their smoking policy ensures that balconies are smoke-free.
Our first formal was dinner on our first full day at sea - September 1st. The theater was beautiful and the show -- Frankie Valley and 4 Seasons tribute -- was entertaining.
Travel Intelligence Tip
We were traveling with a group of 8 - with NCL's "Freestyle Dining" we tried to make dinner reservations in the main dining rooms for our group -- all they would give us were either 5:30 or 8:30pm slots when we checked in on-line. We hoped we'd have more flexibility when we got on board -- this wasn't the case. After a couple of days, we just showed up when we wanted to eat and the Maitre D' was able to accommodate us each night. We found eating later - 8:30 - the service was slow and distracted because the staff was setting up for breakfast -- ideal time to eat was around 7pm - good service and good food.
Next stop -- Juneau
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