Ch-ch-ch-changes

While I certainly understand things are likely to change when it comes to cruise arrangements, still it has been frustrating at times. We lost one port in Alaska, which was replaced with a port I did not find that interesting the first time we visited. We’ve lost a total of 3 ports on the repo trip, had one stop change days, added a stop, and added an overnight in Panama City.

On the flip side, the turnout for these cruises is going to be great! We have more than 60 people signed up for the combined Cruise Critic and Facebook Meet and Mingle events on the Alaska trip and more than 160 signed up on the repositioning trip! The repo group is getting so large we may have to move it to a larger venue. And we’re getting things setup like a crochet group, a shot glass exchange and pub crawl, slot pulls, and other activities. I’m really pleased to see both the CC and Facebook groups being so active!

So what has changed?

Alaska

• Port in Skagway dropped due to circumstances beyond NCL’s control — the continuing rock slides at the only dock in Skagway where the large ships can dock.
• Port Stop at Icy Strait Point added to replace Skagway. I’d have preferred Sitka, which was the replacement stop for a couple sailings, but for whatever reason we got ISP instead.
• Port Stop in Victoria shortened by one hour. This doesn’t affect us, as we weren’t getting off anyway.

Repo

• Port Stop in San Diego canceled without replacement or explanation.
• Port Stop in Los Angeles shortened by 3 hours.
• Tender stop in Cabo San Lucas moved a day earlier.
• Tender Stop in Mazatlan added on what was Cabo day.
• Port Stop in Nicaragua canceled, presumably for safety reasons.
• Port Stop in Costa Rica canceled without explanation
• Port Stop in Panama City lengthened by 24 hours, giving an overnight stay.

I’m happy to be cruising again, and we’ve been waiting two years to do this, so I’m not letting any of this get me down and have found ways to make each of the changes worthwhile and the overall trip more enjoyable. I’m sure there are reasons for each of the changes — this being a repo trip it would not surprise me that some scheduled maintenance will be taken care of which might slow the ship and make the proper port times unachievable. After all, this is the largest ship in the NCL fleet, and in some ports it has to be timed exactly to get in and out while the water is deep enough. Slowing enough to arrive at low tide instead of high tide could mean a stop has to be skipped. I’m just guessing here…but maybe that’s my point. NCL hasn’t explained any of the changes except with boilerplate “things change” language. I wish they’d be a bit more transparent — and maybe we will find out more once we’re onboard.

Excursion Changes

We needed to make these changes almost entirely due to NCL’s changes, but I was able to do some better planning in a couple cases.

• Drop Liarsville Salmon Bake in Skagway
• Add Alaska’s Wildest Kitchen at Icy Strait Point.
• Shorten a visit with my best friend in Los Angeles.
• Drop USS Midway tour in San Diego, along with a planned lunch in one of the harbor-adjacent ethnic neighborhoods.
• Reschedule Cabo San Lucas massages plus plan our on-shore meal and shopping stops for a convenient walking excursion.
• Add a day of rest in Mazatlan by planning to use a day pass at a hotel with a number of pools and other activities, only $27 a person, meals and drinks included.
• Drop excursions in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
• Add a hotel stay in Panama City along with doing a privately-booked, small tour version of one of the ship tours, but we’ll only be a group of 10…and the tour operator will drop us at hour hotel, saving taxi fare!

I juggled around some of our specialty dining nights and in the process got us a bit better balance between tastes. All in all, I feel like the trip will still be fantastic!

So here’s how the whole thing lines up now…

So we came up with a way to identify our luggage at a glance!

Yeah, that’s not at all related to what I’ve been talking about. But I came up with a kind of cute way to make sure our luggage stands out among the several thousand suitcases, etc….