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Is anything more luxurious than taking a cruise holiday? Traveling to exotic locations on a luxury ship, catching sunrays, and breathing the salty breezes can renew and replenish anyone, no matter how shopworn from the cares of work. However, a cruise holiday requires planning in order to be the best it can be. Check out these tips to have a cruise experience you will remember.
So where do you start when planning a cruise holiday? First, what is your budget like? Do you need to hold down expenses? Then here are a few tips for economizing on your cruise holiday.
When scheduling your cruise holiday, you should be aware that there are off season and on season dates, and that you want to schedule your trip in the off season to get the best deal. What you may not know, however, is that cruise lines actually change prices a number of times throughout the year. Ask and find out when their absolute lowest season prices are. In addition, keep your plans somewhat flexible so that you can change ships at the last minute. Sometimes a ship is not filled to capacity, so the cruise line will sell the last few tickets at a real bargain. It is always to their advantage to sail filled to capacity because people on holiday spend money on souvenirs, drinks, etc. Use this knowledge to get a really great deal.
Where you cruise to on your holiday can make a big difference in your cost as well. If you pick a popular spot, you can travel cheaper than if you choose a less popular spot. Another consideration is whether you really care about those ports of call. If you just want to stay on the ocean liner and enjoy the luxuries, book a cruise that doesn’t stop anywhere. These “cruises to nowhere” are just as luxurious as the others but cost less.
To be safe on a cruise holiday, don’t take a lot of expensive equipment or jewelry with you. Make sure your passport, health insurance, and other papers are up to date. Be sure to ask about laws you may inadvertently be breaking when you get off the shore you are accustomed to. Laws in ports and even in the water can vary, and you sure don’t want a big hassle with a foreign law enforcement agency.
To travel lighter, find out about equipment that will be available on the ship. For instance, if the cruise line provides irons or hair dryers, you won’t need to pack yours. Also pack your own sample size shampoo, toothpaste, and other toiletries because these items will cost more in the gift shop. You should have access to laundry facilities on your cruise holiday, so you don’t have to take a huge amount of clothing. Pick a wrinkle proof lightweight outfit for every two or three days and pick separates in colors that coordinate so you can get different looks. Be sure to pack a formal and or semi-formal outfit if you will be taking part in these sort of activities on your cruise holiday.
My First Ever Cruise!
Thursday 19th June
Left home and had a relatively painless (painless is a relative term) 2 and half hour drive to London Heathrow. As I had checked in online it was easy to check the bags in and pass through security. The flight was fine and we arived in Seattle some 9 or so hours later. The wait for immigration was a pain but there were two guys there who did everything they could to get everyone through as quickly as they could. We collected the bags and then promptly lost them after the train journey from the sattelit terminal – eventually we found someone from an airline who directed us to a carousel where we found them again.
We walked to the parking garage and found the taxi rank. After about 5 minutes we were in a taxi heading for our hotel. The driver was competewnt and very pleasant and we soon arrived at the Crowne Plaza Downtown where our bags were whisked from the car onto a trolley and directed to the check-in desk. I booked on the internet several weeks earlier and we had our key cards and ready to go within 2 minutes. Fastest hotel check-in ever! The young fellow with the bags was waiting at the lifts and took us to our room and settled us in nicely. We had a suite with a nice seperate lounge. Coffee pot on and then we decided on bed as neither of us were hungry just very tired – coming from the UK we were still in a time zone 8 hours ahead.
Friday 20th June
After a good sleep we were both up about 6 AM. As my feet had swollen on the flight I had developed a blister on my heel making my shoes uncomfortable – I never wore them again all trip – so I went down to the shop in reception and a very nice lady there showed me the band-aids.
Suitably fixed up and in sports shoes we headed to Pikes Place for breakfast at Lowell’s. This place is amazing. I saw it recommended on the board and knew to go stright upstairs to the seated area with menus. Tony had Eggs Benedict and I had the Farmers Breakfast. Both were excellent, highly recommended.
We strolled around the market for a while and then down to the waterfront. It was shaping up to be a beautiful sunny day in Seattle. We walked for a bit and took some pictures then grabbed the Red bus tour. We went all the way round the loop to start with to get a feel for things then decided to get off at Pioneer Place where we did the underground tour. This was an interesting tour and we enjoyed it. We grabbed a drink in their restaurant and went outside to wait for the next bus to take us to the Space Needle.
It was here that I think we made a mistake. We wanted to do the Duck Tour and the Space Needle. The queue for the Duck was long so we went into the Space Needle first. The views were amazing and after photographs we headed to the Duck. We got our tickets and then had to wait for nearly an hour. We should have got the Duck tickets and then gone to the Space Needle to use the time effectively. The Duck tour was hilarious, the driver was crazy he was shooting buses and pedestrians with a water pistol at one point and chatting to folks walking along the pavement when we were in slow traffic. This is a Seattle must!
The buses had stopped running as we were so late so we took the monorail to Westlake and walked back to the hotel. It was a very hot, sunny day in Seattle and we were shattered from our experiences. We got a room service snack and hit the bed early again – still trying to adjust by 8 hours!
Saturday 21st June
Up early again and walked to Lowells for another of their wonderful breakfasts followed by a walk down to the waterfront for a look at Norwegian Star. I couldn’t get over the size. It was crazy down there with people disembarking. The red bus came by and we ran to jump on. Fortunately the guide recognised us from the day before and waited for us to stagger breathlessly onboard. We got off at a stop about 5 minutes walk from our hotel and went and got ready to cruise!
The bell boy got us a cab and we were on our way to Pier 66 at 11.00AM. When we got out of the cab a gentleman told us to go straight into the baggage hall as we were already tagged up. Soon waving goodbye to the bags we went to the other hall where things progressed very speedily. I would say that we were onboard within 20 minutes of leaving the taxi outside. Very impressive. I expected bigger lines but they never seemed to come.
We walked around the ship for a while exploring then went right up top to the Bier Garten where we got drinks. It was another hot day in Seattle. We skipped lunch as our breakfast was still filling us up. Did I say how fantastic Lowell’s is? About 20 minutes after the announcement that rooms were ready we went to find ours.
We had a balcony cabin, forward Deck 9 port side. The cabin was bigger than I thought it might be and was well set out with lots of staorage. One bag arrived and was unpacked followed about 30 minutes later by the other bag. No sooner we unpacked that and were settling in it was time for the lifeboat drill. We went to the Stardust theatre which was quite closeby and it was all over fairly soon. Time for the sailaway.
Went to the pool deck and enjoyed a drink or two and a snack watching Seattle recede. Some nice scenery went by and after a while we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.
On our way around earlier I had booked Cagney’s for Sunday night but tonight we ate in the Versailles restaurant. It seemed quite busy even at 8PM but we were rapidly seated at a table for 2 with menu’s in hand. We took our time choosing and enjoyed what we had. Our server was friendly especially when I asked her where she was from and it was Bali. We holidayed there last year so we had quite a chat about the island. She brought another server to meet us as he was also from Bali and from the place where we had stayed.
After the meal we were feeling tired – it was 9.30 – we decided to retire for the night.
Sunday 22nd June
We got up fairly early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Market Cafe buffet. I found everything I needed pretty easily and as it was still early was not too crowded. The bacon was very crispy and looked like what we call in the UK streaky so I gave that a miss and had Ham instead. The buffet had servers rather than help yourself as virus precautuions appeared to be in full force.
Since it was a sea day we wandered around getting to know the ship layout and generally enjoyed ourselves. We ate lunch again at the buffet and found it far more crowded. Again I found things I liked easily. However, the servers all seemed a bit, well , off. I think that this may have been because they were having to serve and were not too happy about it. This continued until Thursday when things went self serve. Table clearing was a bit slow but not a big issue to me but from the way some reacted in my hearing it obviously was to some. I am certain this was caused by moving staff to service and those that were clearing were doing their best to climb a mountain.
I just chilled during the afternoon with a book and Tony went to a beer tasting at the pub which he seemed to enjoy. We had booked Cagney’s for that night as it was Tony’s birthday. First we went to the Star Bar where I enjoyed a strange blue martini. Can’t remember what it was called. We arrived at Cagney’s and were seated at a table. We had a problem here. There was a very strong vibration which was causing cutlery to rattle. My husband said he thought he was being shaken up so we asked to be moved to another table. This one was not quite as bad but my husband still was not happy so we asked to be moved again. The head waiter made it clear that he did not like this. I don’t see why it was a big deal. We booked for 8PM. The restaurant was half full when we got there but tables were emptying rapidly. It was a quiet night for them as it was Lobster night in the main dining rooms. By the time we were served our starter at about 8.30 there were only 2 other tables occupied. We were moved to the other side of the restaurant and everything was fine. Tony has Prime Rib and I had fillet mignon. Overall the food was quite good, not sure it was worth the $20 but taking into the account the staff attitude we did not really enjoy the evening at all.
Neither of us wanted to do anything else so we went back to the cabin, had a coffee on the balcony and went to bed as it was an early start next day.
Monday 23rs June
We had two tours booked in Ketchikan. The first was the Duck tour and later a floatplane trip. I was so excited when I saw the floatplanes taking off right alongside the ship from out balcony. As it was a wet morning I was worried it might be cancelled because of low clouds or something.
We went to the buffet for breakfast and it was crazy in there. Everyone wanted to eat so they could get off the ship to explore. We had some time before the first tour so we went for a walk around the town. We went in a shop near the dock and were amazed by the selection and prices. I love t shirts and they had many plus lots of other stuff. We walked to a couple of other stores and bought 2 new jackets and a t shirt at one of them for $55. Now we are from the UK and I can categorically state that each of those jackets would cost over $60 here and a t shirt usually runs at around $15 so we were very pleased. We then went back to the first store and got 3 more t shirts and a pullover type thing again for $55. It was nearly time for our tour so we took our stuff back to the ship and joined the tour. The weather still hadn’t improved and it was raining steadily all the time. The duck tour was OK. The commentary was not too good but we did see an Eagle during the sea portion. I wouldn’t rush to do this one again but maybe I was comparing it to the brilliant duck tour in Seattle?
We were bussed to the floatplane dock and split into groups. We had some people with us from the HAL ship. When we got to the plane there was no-one to help us on and the gangway was lethally slippy. One of the HAL people was terrified but I allowed her to hang on to me and we both made it on board. The misty fjords flight was the highlight of the cruise for me and Tony. I cannot describe how good it was. It is expensive but worth every single penny, it would have been better in nicer weather but the weather was better up there than in Ketchikan. We landed at a lake and there was a bear! The pilot got us quite close and the bear was not at all bothered by the plane and just carried on doing his thing. Now I have seen a bear at the zoo in Dudley so I was awestruck by this. This was a real bear! The flight back was just as awesome and we had a good view of the ships as we made our landing approach at Ketchikan. This time there was a rubber mat and a guy to help everyone off the plane. The HAL lady thanked me profusely for getting her on board as she was amazed by the whole trip and would have missed it but for me. I thought that was a bit over the top as I am sure someone would have helped her surely.I would definately recommend this trip to anyone. We are hoping to do it again next time we visit Alaska.
All in all I think we got Ketchikan wrong. Next time I will book either an early or a late floatplane and spend the rest of the time walking around the town and shopping. It is the best port for shopping I think.
We ate luch at the buffet – OK and Dinner at Versailles - OK
Tuesday 24 th June
Today we docked at Juneau. After yesterday in the buffet for breakfast we decided to order room service. We were called a few minutes before it arrived and ate in our room looking out across a small inlet at a big green hill with a waterfall. The weather was better than Ketchikan but was threatening rain. We disembarked for our glacier and whale watching tour. This tour was also excellent. I maybe would have liked a little more time at the glacier as by the time we got to the exhibition centre after seeing the glacier there was not really enough time to enjoy the exhibits, films etc.
The whale boat was good and I went outside as soon as it was allowed to take pictures. Hot drinks were served (free) and snacks and stuff were available (charge) they also served everyone a free salmon snack which was nice. We saw loads of humpback whales. I lost count of them there were so many. A very good tour I felt and Tony liked it a lot too. The downside was that we never got to see anything of Juneau except from the bus as it drove along. Next time we will make sure to see some of the port although we do not regret doing the tour at all.
Lunch at the buffet again then we went up to the Bier Gaten to see the Tracy Arm. Once again the ship diverted to Endicott because of ice. I was expecting this to happen based on what I had read over here so I was not at all disppointed. The Endicott Arm was brilliant but at one point the wind and rain got a bit much so we retreated to our cabin. I set my vidoe camera on a tripod and recorded a whole 90 minutes of the journey. I think it needs aditing a touch, especially the coughing of our neighbour who could have won a medal if they had coughing at the olympics!
We had a very late dinner at the buffet. The food was again OK but nothing special.
Wednesday 25th June
Skagway today and we again had room service breakfast. Up on the dock it was freezing as there was a vicious wind about. We joined our Ultimate Yukon experience tour. The driver/guide was a lovely fellow. He drove us around Skagway for a few minutes because he knew that this was all we would see of the town and talked about the building we were passing very slowly so we could see them. We made lots of stops for pictures and 3 stops for bears including one who was nonchalontly crossing the highway! Lunch was at Caribou Crossing. The food was fine but I thought the place was very contrived. We saw some dogs but they were not at all like the Huskies I have seen in the UK, they looked like a cross breed and had very short hair. British Huskies have very thick hair and a tail that curls over onto their back.We bought ice cream and I rescued a mans spectacles from the wishing well, dried them and gave him them back all before his wife got out of the ice cream parlour and found out what he did. He was very happy and she was oblivious to what had gone on. I was none the worse for my expoerience in the well so as we say in the UK a good result.
The town nearby was nice but there were too many buses there all together so very congested. On our way back to Fraser we stopped at the Yukon sign for pictures all taken by the driver/guide. It was very crowded there in the morning so we had missed it out as the driver knew we would be the only ones there in the afternoon. We continued to the railway.
As there were only about 28 of us on this tour the carriage was very uncrowded. I saw somew carriges that were full to the brim and I doubt that was as comfortable. I went outside to take pictures for most of the trip. I really enjoyed this train ride. It was very scenic and always something different to see.We got back 15 minutes before the ship was due to leave so no time for the town.
We were unsure what to do for dinner and as we passed Ginza we asked if they had a table. They did and we enjoyed a lovely meal, the best so far by a long way. Our table overlooked the bar below and there was a lovely singer, Jana Seale, to entertain us. She is very good indeed. Service here was the best we encountered on the ship. We ordered quite a few dishes and the maitre ‘d came over and asked us if we were sharing. We explained that when we eat asian style food we normally order like this and then put bits of this and that on our plates. She was very happy with this arrangement and went off to the kitchen to advise them. She came back and we had a nice chat about our travels in Asia over the years. There was a large group sitting near us and they were Indian. It appeared that many of them were vegetarian and the chef came and talked to them about what dishes he could prepare for them since most of the menu involved meat or fish. A nice touch I thought.
Thursday 26th June
Today we visited Prince Rupert in Canada. The arrival was mid afternoon after a buffet snack for lunch. It was very difficult to get off the ship but we eventually made it and were a little late for our tour but they had waited. The interior of the Whales and Lighthouses tour boat was very cramped with everyone in there. The weather was not good either and the boat was pitching and rolling a lot. After about 20 minutes we were allowed out onto the deck and that was a relief. It was also a mistake. The boat was violently pitching and I did not feel safe, waves were crashing onto the deck and we all got thoroughly soaked until the guide fetched us all back in. I was terrified to move from where I was sitting and holding on tightly but made it back into the cabin feeling very miserable indeed.
We went past a lighthouse and then the sea was calmer so we went back out from the overcrowded cabin to the deck. There were some killer whales but we didn’t really get much of a view of them and after a while I went back inside. The skipper decided to miss out the other lighthouses as they were where the sea would be very rough and we all agreed that we were happy to miss this out. Instead he brought us back to the dock via the outside of the cannery where there were dozens of Bald Eagles to see and take pictures of. I liked that much more!
On reflection we chose the wrong tour. Maybe one of the others would have been better or maybe we should have just wandered around the town. As I was still feeling miserable I went back to the ship to get showered, warm and changed. Wasn’t hungry so we ate at the buffett which again was OK
Friday 27th June
Today was spent at sea. Non of the activities really appealed to me so I spent a lot of time editing my pictures on my laptop in the cabin or reading. We used the balcony a little and also went out onto the decks but it wasn’t a great day weather wise with a lot of wind and rain. During the evening we saw an incredible sight. The most brighly coloured rainbow I have ever seen coming right down to the water about 50 yards off our balcony. It was beautiful.
We decided to eat at Ginza again and were warmly welcomed back, given the same table and entertained by Jana Seale below us. She is excellent. The food was excellent. A lovely evening again. Eventually we left and went back to our cabin to pack.
Saturday 28th June
We chose the final colour for leaving the ship since we were in no rush, just a hire car to collect at 11AM prior to going to visit a friend in Enumclaw, Washington. We were hassled by the steward at 9AM to leave so that they could start preparing the cabin. We left about 9.30 and waited in the carousel longe. We walked easily off the ship and the queue for people with foriegn passports had no one in it so we went through quickly having had a nice chat with the official about our trip and where we were heading next.
Baggage was easy to find and we were soon in the shuttle bus to collect the car.
My overall impressions are extermely favourable. I loved the cabin, found it to be of ample size for two but wouldn’t be sure of more. I think it was well worth having the balcony to be able to go outside and sit with a coffee and enjoy the scenery. I thought the ship was very nice and easy to get around once we had our bearings. Almost everyone of the staff we met were charming and helpful. The food was in my opinion very good and sometimes even better. I was never hungry and usually spoilt for choice. The only restaurant we couldn’t get into was Endless Summer but that didn’t matter to us at all.
We are going to return next year and sail on Norwegian Pearl and use our experiences as fist timers this time around to get even more from our cruise.