Since I'm prone to seasickness, I tend to avoid boat vacations. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to see Alaska. My friend and I were booked on the repo cruise from L.A. and it was 3+ full days on rough ocean waters until the first port of call. I'm glad I brought along some Bonine so I was only feeling ill for part of the day. The rear of the ship seemed to rock the worst where people ...
This cruise features Ports-of-call with spectacular scenery and tacky (but popular) tourist shops, mostly jewelry. The time in each port was short and NCL offered many excursion options. Nonetheless, many of the same tours were readily available on the pier at lower prices if you're prepared to take the (minimal) risk of unavailability or tardy return.
We only spent, inexplicably, 6 hours in ...
We arrived in Seattle the day before our cruise, May 28th. I had gotten a room at the Sheraton Seattle downtown through Priceline for $80. We arrived in Seattle about 10:30am. I had done some research, and since we had plenty of time, we took the short walk to the Light Rail, and rode it to the Westlake Station for what should have been $5. When we got to the Light Rail station at the airport, we ...
This was our second cruise aboard the Star and our fifth with NCL. Our previous cruise on the Star was on the Mexican Riviera. We are empty nesters so its easy to get away any time of the year, as long as we can find cat-sitters. We chose to do Alaska in May because the weather in Alaska can be as cold and rainy in July as it is in May, but in May there are fewer ships in port than later in the ...
I just returned from a cruise aboard the Norwegian Star departing from Seattle Washington to Alaska. I went with my mother and brother. This was a bucket list trip for mom to do with her two adult children. Neither my mother or brother had ever sailed. This was my 4th cruise, and my first with NCL. Embarkation was very smooth. We boarded the ship around 1230, was eating lunch at the Market Cafe by ...
We live 50 miles from Seattle. We were dropped off at the dock around 1pm. We were traveling with my Husband's Dad, Step-Mother and Step-Brother. This was our first trip to Alaska.
We did a Meet and Greet with Cruise Critic members. We met a lot of the staff at the Meet and Greet.
Since we we in a suite we went to the VIP line and were immediately treated to the Suite life. Now we are ...
Background Information This was the first cruise for my wife and me (28 yrs and 29 yrs old, respectively), so I don't have much to which I can compare it except for my experiences at hotels in various countries. Nevertheless, here's my take on our cruise to Alaska Aug 22-29.
We were on a tight-ish budget, but because this was our first cruise we didn't know if one of us would end up not ...
This is our fourth cruise, but first on NCL.
Embarkation was extremely smooth, well organized, and painless. Arrived about 11:30 am and we were on the ship at Noon for lunch. Greeted with champagne and very friendly crew.
SHIP: The ship was designed very well; easy to get around and navigate all major areas. The ship was rennovated in 2004 and is extremely clean and good looking. ...
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE: the ship itself was wonderful. It was very clean, the cabin (mini-suite) was a nice size, and the exercize room and spa more than met my expectations. The food was surprisingly very good. I say surprisingly because I've traveled other cruise lines before and the food was pretty bad. We always ate at one of the "free" restaurants and were more than satisfied. Also, the ...
We flew into Seattle the day before and stayed at the Homewood Suites by Pikes Market. It was not what I had hoped for. There was no assistance w/ luggage, the pool or hot tub were not working, and only one elevator working for the entire hotel. They did have a nice free breakfast and the room was clean. We have been to Seattle before, our daugher went to college there, so we had already done ...