Kenn and I have long had a cruise to Alaska on our bucket list. Cruise-savvy friends pointed out that, if we haven’t been on a cruise before, we’d probably want to start with something shorter to make sure we actually enjoy cruising before signing up for something lasting seven to ten days. Good point! Kenn has never been on a cruise and I’ve only been on one – when I was twelve. We looked into cruises and discussed several options. At Christmas, we pulled the trigger and booked a four day cruise. We departed Tampa, Florida onboard the Norwegian Star on March 12th and made stops in Key West and Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas before returning to Tampa on March 16th. I’ll write separate posts for our shore excursions.
We learned a few things along the way:
While neither of us had problems with seasickness, I was prepared with Dramamine, acupressure wrist bands, and inhalers just in case. (My daughter-in-law and a couple of the grandkids suffer from carsickness, so I have passed everything on to them.) However, I have now been warned that the Pacific tends to be rougher than the Atlantic, so we shouldn’t skimp on preparations whenever we go to Alaska.😬 Long-lasting patches have been recommended so I’ll add them to our anti-seasickness kit next time around.
We have also agreed that paying for a stateroom with a balcony was worth the extra cost. I don’t think either one of us would have done well without having a view.
Paying for valet parking at Port Tampa Bay was the way to go. We dropped off our car and the parking crew handled getting our luggage to the ship. When we returned, our car was brought to us. Easy-peasy.
“Checking” our luggage the last night of the cruise worked like a charm. It allowed us to disembark without wrestling our luggage through all of the various checkpoints. Our luggage was waiting for us in the baggage claim area, which was the next to the last stop. Also, Kenn’s bright orange suitcase and my bright blue one were easy to find amongst the sea of black and maroon luggage.
While we had no major problems with Norwegian Cruise Lines, our next cruise will probably be on a different line so we can see how things vary.
Have you been on a cruise (or cruises)? What cruise line did you use? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?
Linda Lou's Life 
We love cruising. Dan and I have been on 7 together, and I have been on one more. We don’t drink or gamble. We have a great time. Our last one was to Alaska. The roughest seas were to Hawaii. Alaska was fabulous! We’ve been on three different cruise lines. All were good.
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Good to know!
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I’ve never been on a cruise, but when I lived in the PNW, an Alaskan cruise was always on my bucket list. It’s much less likely to happen now, but you never know!
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We’ll probably take an Alaskan cruise from Seattle so we can see some of the PNW.
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We’ve also wanted to do an Alaskan cruise! I’ve been on one cruise and many boats and never get sick, but no idea how Andy would do. We look forward to hearing more about your adventures!
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It looks like you and Kenn had a nice room/view. A cruise to Alaska on a small ship that is able to get into smaller ports of call has always been on my bucket list. I heard or read that Norwegian Cruise Lines was one of the best cruise lines, so no wonder you enjoyed your trip. I was on three cruises – the first in 1972 on an Italian ship (Flavia, Costa Cruise Lines) with my parents for three or four days to the Bahama Islands. Then in 1981 I was on a two-week Greece land tour/cruise combo where we had a 7-day Greek Islands, Egypt and Turkey cruise on a Greek ship (Stella Solaris, Sun Line) and finally in 1982 I was on a two-week Panama Canal cruise, with an Italian ship (S.S. Fairsea with Sitmas line) with stops in South America and San Blas Islands and several stops like Aruba, Bermuda, Curacao, St. Thomas, St. Johns in the USVI. I’m betting all the ships, if not the cruise lines are not around now or acquired by other companies.
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That two-week cruise sounds amazing!
Cruise ships have changed a lot since the cruise I was on as a kid. The ship we were on was on of the smallest in the Norwegian fleet and it was huge compared to that earlier ship.
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Yes, it was very nice, some interesting ports of call on the Panama Canal Cruise and we had great weather too. I went on the Greek land tour/cruise the last two weeks of September and the Panama Canal cruise the last two weeks of October, which were recommended as the best times to book by the travel agent.
I can’t believe the size of the cruise ships these days. Our Bahamas cruise out of Miami in 1972 was a very small ship – Italian officers/crew and I was 16 years old and the waiters would flirt and bring extra desserts to the table, lots of fun, when you are a teenager. If you go to Alaska, as I mentioned, I have heard to get a smaller ship that can dock at more ports of call … it is supposed to be a better experience for the port visits.
I like those Viking long ship cruises … I saw them advertised on PBS while I was watching the series “All Creatures Great and Small” the last six years. A fellow blogger has been on a few of them and they are all in Europe, so when you’re ready for some international cruising …. 🙂
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Yes, I find the Viking long ship cruises intriguing. I’ll keep the smaller ship in mind when we start looking at Alaska cruises.
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2 cruises to Mexico about 20 years ago: 1 to celebrate my Ph.D. graduation and 1 for a honeymoon do-over bc the first one was a bit of a disaster! 😂
1 cruise to AK for a family reunion about 25 years ago.
I think we sailed with Royal Caribbean to AK and Princess to Mexico.
It’s been a minute… but I enjoyed all 3 cruises. We got balcony view rooms on each. I enjoyed the food! It’s fun to not have to prep/cook/clean for a few days. I enjoyed the evening entertainment. I also enjoyed our shore excursions. Not having to really plan or coordinate all that; just show up at the right time! And I love the ocean and any boat I’ve ever been on! 🌊 I’m happy sitting on deck watching for dolphins. Seeing the icebergs from the deck on the AK cruise was pretty awesome too.
You two look like you had fun! 🤩
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All of those cruises sound nice. I’m looking forward to an Alaska cruise. We have friends who moved to Alaska a couple of years ago, so we may take a one-way cruise so we can spend a few days with them.
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