Saturday, August 27, 2011

ONLY 14 More Days

Time to pull the suitcases down from their storage place and think about what goes inside.  Checking the weather for our stops I am still seeing some light showers in the forecast, so if you are doing a "walk about" a nice water repellent jacket should be part of your stuff.  Also for the day we are going to Sawyer Glacier, that will be (depending on how close the ship can get to it) in the low 40 F range and if windy, a bit cooler.  Layer clothing is best. 

This is the Saturday at sea picture as the Star is following the Princess Sapphire down the Pacific Coast to Seattle. 

It is great to see some blue sky here, and if you keep your fingers crossed that is what we will have for our trip too!

Evie checked out the wine list for the ship, and may order herself a Bon Voyage gift of a bottle or two to the stateroom.  We priced it out.  Our favorite that we can buy on discount for $5, plus $15 corkage (tax) from NCL is $20, and they will put the bottle in the room for $24 so it is a real push to bother with trying to smuggle it on board.

I updated the page with who is doing what in the various ports, I hope you have checked what I have there and it is correct.  Let me know if it isn't.  Before we sail I'll send you something to print out to bring with you that will have cabin numbers, the port excursions we have all selected and the date and time of the Meet & Greet which I hope you will plan to attend.  It is a chance to talk with the people who run the ship in a small group setting plus have some nibble food and a drink or two on the house! 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

16 DAYS LEFT

A few odds and ends that we haven't covered yet.  First, the ship has a laundry and will wash and fold clothes for $25 a bag.  People that have used the service say that you should pring tape so you can stuff the bag completely and then tape it closed without fear of it spilling your stuff because it is so full.  The ship does not have do-it-yourself laundry equipment.

By now you should have printed your E-Docs.  When you fold up your luggage tag, use some clear plastic tape on that to make it sturdy, punch a hole in it and use a zip tie to attach it to your bag(s).  You need to do this for each piece of checked luggage you had on the airplane.  Probably not do it before your flight, but after you get it from the baggage claim because this is not what you would call a durable tag!  When I printed mine, the printer put it on 2 pages.  Just cut the barcode off the second page and paste it onto the first one.  All they need is the barcode and deck /room number.  These bags will go away when you board the ship and be delivered to your room later - usually before sailing.  Your carry on baggage will go with you on board.  All of it gets X-rayed before it gets on the ship.

If you are hungry when you get there, the Lido deck has food available all day long during embarkation so head up there for food / coffee.  Your room will generally not be available to you until about 2pm.  If you need to stretch your legs and need a little walking, you can drop your carry on bags off at the Spinnaker Lounge for safekeeping and explore the ship.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Alcohol - Booze - Drinkables

Had a short discussion this weekend about bringing YOUR OWN on board the ship.  From that I decided you should know the official position of NCL (one that you have already agreed to follow when you filled out your passenger information).  Here it is:

Bringing Booze Onboard

Bringing wine or Champagne onboard:Allowed, but you have to pay a corkage fee for wine that is brought onboard and served or consumed in any restaurant, public room / area or cabin. Fees are $15 fro 750 ml bottles, $20 for 1000ml and $30 for 1500ml. Boxed wine is not allowed.

Bringing liquor onboard at embarkation:   Not allowed - items are secured until debarkation day.

Purchasing liquor in port:    Retained until the end of the cruise.
:
Complimentary drinks typically are available at the Captain’s cocktail party, the Lattitudes (past passengers) cocktail party and the art auctions

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From the cruise critic board here are the experiences of some of the passengers that brought their own to the party.

1.  I had a suitcase "busted" on the Sun out of Miami.  It was held and I had to go pick it up after opening it for the crew. It had a 6 pack of bottled water. The suitcase with the two 12 packs of Yuengling sailed right into our cabin as did the suitcase with the wine. Go figure.

2.  It is a hit or miss thing with NCL. As for policy, you can not bring any liquor on board from ports or upon embarkation except wine. Yes they do check and yes, you will be called to the luggage area to identify your luggage and the alcohol if you are caught. There are many ways to smuggle it on board. I am really not sure it is worth it anymore.

3.  I was on the Dawn a few weeks ago and had a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of vodka in my suitcase. It was held, and when I went to claim it I was asked if I had anything. I said - "Yes, one bottle" and I reached in and grabbed one of them then zipped the suitcase shut and took it off the table. They said nothing nor asked to through the suitcase themselves.

4.  We chose to smuggle alcohol. This was in our checked luggage. We brought on the cruise ship package of filled rum runners and a box of wine. We had 5 checked bags between our two rooms so each suitcase had some contraband in it. Nothing was found. Thank goodness because the wine was so horrible that if I had to go to the naughty room of shame for that crap I would have had to throw myself overboard.

5.  No cruise line has the policy of bringing your own liquor on board and if you are caught they all will confiscate it.  As was suggested order a bar set-up and you will be happy.  The bar set-up # is 1-866-625-1159.  Or you can fax them your order with your reservation and confirmation #'s. The fax # is 305-436-4147. How cool is that!?!? The delivered bottles are of course more pricey than what you buy at home.

6.  We were on the Star. We had a medium bottle of Vodka and 2 big litres of TGIF Mudslides which are premixed drinks. The bag with the vodka made it to the room. But the two bags witht he mudslides were held up by the ship. We had a notice to go to library between 5 and 7 to open our bags. Each person was taken in and asked to pick out their bag or bags. My wife and I got the two bags and a young fellow with rubber gloves on asked us to open the first bag. I told him we had a bottle of mudslides and would pay the corking fee. I took the bottle out and gave it to him. He asked what it was and I told him it was a mixed drink with very little alcohol in it. He took the bottle over to an older fellow who studied the label and came back to us with it. He handed it to me and said it was ok. I said there was another bottle in the other bag and he waved at us and said it was ok to go.

You pay a corkage fee anytime the cruise line finds you carrying on (or in checked luggage) any bottle of wine.  Corkage is just a term for a tax on your beverage so that it is no longer cheaper to bring your own with you.

"Hard" liquor is simply confiscated.  If it is an unsealed bottle of hard liquor it is poured out.
Yes you can prepare a drink for yourself in the room or buy one at the bar and bring it with you to the dining room. They have no way of knowing nor do they care.  Rum runners worked well for many cruisers because they are essentially a clear plastic bladder.  Google Rum Runner container.  They X-ray ALL baggage and they look for bottle shapes.

Your cabin will have a bottle of white wine in it, compliments of  Donna @ ABC's of Travel PLUS each cabin will have a $50 On Board Credit (OBC) for you to spend as you wish. 

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

23 DAYS TO GO !!!

Dean has a place on his desk where he is starting to get all his paperwork together in one place, so on D day (departure day) he can put it all into his carry on and head to the Amtrack Station.  Great idea ! 

Try on those clothes you are wanting to take along... will they fit?  Do they match the galoshas'?  Have you been looking at the bridge cam?  Scroll down the page about 5 inches and you will see the link.  I did  and here is the shot for Wednesday the 17th at 6:20 pm PDST.  As you can clearly see the STAR is headed pretty close to the edge of the earth !!!
I booked my reservation for the parking lot in Seattle today.  If you are driving up, you can pull up in front of the Pier 66 structure and you will see places to park while unloading your passengers and luggage.  If you are using the parking building across the highway, they will have both a shuttle as well as helpers to take you and your luggage to the Pier also.  A tip for them is in order - figure $1 a bag.

If you want to make sure your luggage tag for NCL stays with or on your bag, cover both sides with clear plastic packaging tape, punch a hole and affix it to your luggage with a plastic zip strip.  Zip strips work well on the airlines to "lock" your baggage.  If you get your stuff back with the zip strips cut off you will know TSA opened your bags.

Keep checking back here - I will update until about the 17th or so.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Meet & Greet + Upgrades

It's Official :   Our Meet & Greet will be Sunday September 11 @ 11:30 am in the Le Bistro Restaurant. Each of you are invited to have some finger food, glass of wine and meet the ship's staff. There will be about 40 attending and you can compare notes and ideas about the ports and maybe buddy up on an excursion if you choose.

You can see a bit of the restaurant from the "LETS EAT" page, but this will give you a chance to see the whole space and decide if you want to do a dinner there.

Speaking of dinner - - - when you board, you may find some of the staff Welcome Team just inside the ship with 2 for one offers for the specialty restaurants.  These are often a very good deal and you might want to think about if you would take advantage of this kind of an offer if you are extended the opportunity.

Also speaking of Opportunities:   It is not un-common for the cruise line to phone you a few days before the cruise and ask you if you would like to upgrade your cabin.  Usually this offer is for a single step up at a much reduced price.  It does not happen on every cruise and may not on this one.  However, if you were to get such a call, you generally have to have decided to take it or not within a hour or less.  So it is worthwhile to think / discuss if you were to receive an upgrade call - would you spend another $500-600 for a better cabin...?   I have been seeing on the Cruise Critic Boards NCL offering upgrades with an increasing frequency being reported by members - more so than in the past.  So maybe you will have a better than 50 - 50 chance of receiving a call. 

Monday, August 8, 2011

33 More Days !!

Have you been checking the bridge camera on the Star?   I have almost once a day or so, and I have seen lots of clouds and sometimes rain on the bridge window that the camera points through.  Our weather in Portland has been on the weird side this summer also, so maybe the West Coast is just going to have a lot of clouds and rain. 

Today when I checked I saw this:
This is 7:04 pm on Monday sailing up the Inland Passage, and look - not a cloud in the sky !!!

I am hoping this is a omen for our voyage that the weather is going to be improving as we go into late summer !

Also, I wanted to note today that one of the tours that I was discussing further down on this page,  - a small boat that goes up to Sawyer Glacier for a close up experience, is not going to be offered the rest of the season.  NCL has already taken it off the listings for Juneau.  I spoke with them yesterday and they said because the glaciers are calving (the face falls off the glacier) more frequently, the small boat cannot handle the increasing amount of ice in the bay so they are not going to make any more trips this year. 

PLEASE CHECK THE "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO" page and see if I have your excursions listed correctly.  I am aware some of you have changed your plans... am I still showing your old plans?  Have you given me any excursions that I don't have listed?

Saturday, August 6, 2011

From Sue

My husband and I did the Inside passage 31 yrs ago on Princess Lines.  Will be interesting to see the changes that have occurred since 1979 during the port visits.

Back then the narrow gauge went from Skagway to Whitehorse. We were stuck on the train for 4 hours due to a rock slide and missed the moose stew lunch midway up. By the time we arrived in Skagway we had also missed the "Frantic Follies" performance. We did catch their show 2 yrs ago on a road trip to Fairbanks - Fantastic!   The initials of the White Pass & Yukon Railway - WP&YK - are referred to as  "Wait Patiently & You'll Ride" . How true!

In regard to Skagway, we had also read the book "Klondike" before the trip.  The characters during the Gold Rush , like Soapy Smith, seemed to come alive.   Would recommend reading the book

Friday, August 5, 2011

Your Cabin & Smoking on the Star

I have been checking the cruise boards almost everyday for info coming back from Alaska cruisers.  One topic has caught my attention and I want to mention it now, because on embarkation day, things are going pretty fast and you might need to know this ahead of time.

I think for most of you, Donna at ABC's ordered NON smoking staterooms.  You will see that on your paperwork from NCL.  However, that being said, NCL seems to have a policy of allowing smoking in the staterooms of cigarettes - but not pipes or cigars.  I think this is a nod to the European clientele which still smokes - more so than in the US.

So there is a chance you might open the door to your stateroom and smell left over smoke, which I personally find very offensive.  The good news from this is you should immediately go to the Purser's Desk in the Atrium (you will find this in the center of the ship) and ask for a deep cleaning of your room.  This takes awhile and may include removal and replacement of your draperies / window coverings.  You may have to ask for a change of bedding as well as new pillows if the smell is strong.

The point I want to make clear is that you DO NOT have to condemn yourself to 7 days of smelling smoke in your room.  Oh - the cleaning is of course free to you, and has to meet your nose test and approval.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

37 Days and Counting

Had a email question about how FreeStyle Dining works - so if one person has a question that usually means someone else is wondering also.

Essentially FreeStyle is like being at home and deciding to go out for dinner (or lunch or breakfast).  You decide where you want to go and then go whenever you decide.  Now on a ship with 2000 passengers, if everyone decides to eat dinner at say at 5:15 pm it is the same as arriving at your hometown restaurant without a reservation.  There will be a line.  You could try the other main dining room (there are 2 of them) or you could wait in line.  Or, you could reserve a table for X people at X time, and come back at that time.

If you were at home, you might call your friends and say "lets meet at the Aqua Restaurant at 6:30 pm."  When you meet your party at the entrance to the restaurant, they will seat you as a group.  To make sure they will have a table ready, call the dining room (phone list in your room) and make a reservation.

 If you don't call your freinds you will be seated at whatever table becomes available, and you will have new faces at your table to meet and greet. 

Evie and I have done both and sometimes the new faces become new friends.  Other times the new faces don't "click" and are quickly forgotten at the stage show after dinner!