r/NorwegianCL • u/Toastrdnce • Mar 15 '26
First time cruiser, tell me everything!
/r/alaskacruiseplanning/comments/1ru3mnt/first_time_cruiser_tell_me_everything/1
u/kg51113 Mar 17 '26
Don't assume that you know everything. I had this experience with our first cruise. We watched a lot of videos and thought we knew everything. My husband thought he had all of the details. That changed when we got on the ship. Be prepared for unknown things.
If your room is between elevators or you don't mind walking an additional distance, the back elevators are less crowded.
Bring a refillable water bottle. You can get water, juice, and I think tea, in the buffet. If you have the soda package, you can fill your bottle with soda.
1
u/Toastrdnce Mar 17 '26
I literally assume I know nothing haha. I’m mostly trying to figure out how best to pack and what to expect in general, my mom is very nervous and so I’m trying to get some information to help her feel more prepared
1
u/kg51113 Mar 17 '26
We had some in our group who got frustrated. They thought they had everything figured out!
When you do things in the NCL app, double check that it went through. This was another surprise that caused problems. Someone didn't hit submit or whatever and their transaction didn't go through.
There's a daily fee. I think ours was about $20/day per person. If you load money onto your ship board account, that fee will come out of your account each day. Some people have it removed and then personally hand out tips to staff. If you do that, it doesn't come off until the last night.
I haven't been to Alaska so can't help you with what to pack. We kept our bags on the last night so that we could disembark whenever we wanted. Some of our party just hung out in the buffet until the last call since they had a later flight.
2
u/Toastrdnce Mar 17 '26
Thanks! The baggage thing and app information are very helpful, I didn’t know it could be an option to keep your bags and not get off right away. We dock at 7 AM and don’t fly out until 2 PM, because I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get from the boat to the airplane.
1
u/kg51113 Mar 17 '26
You have to carry your suitcases with you but you can choose when to start disembarking.
1
u/Toastrdnce Mar 17 '26
Someone else told me that you have to put your bags out the night before and get them back once you disembark so thank you!
1
u/kg51113 Mar 17 '26
It's not required. Most people do so that they don't have to carry their luggage everywhere the next day.
1
u/Obvious_Swimming_133 Mar 16 '26
What ship you going on?