By the time you read this, we'll be ready to be landlubbers.

 

 

 

By the time you read this, we'll be back from our cruise.  We originally planned to take this cruise in June, but one thing got in the way: an offer from Princess Cruises to "Move Over" to a different Canada/New England cruise, so that they could make our cabin available for people who paid for a "Guaranteed" cabin. In exchange, we'd receive a free cruise, the money paid for this cruise returned to us as refundable onboard credits.  Within 10 minutes of receiving this offer, we accepted it and were booked on this cruise.  Little did we know that this cruise would be even more popular than the cruise we originally booked.

(New Cruise Cabin Location Above)

 

(Old Cruise Cabin Location Above) 

When we booked the new cruise, we were given a balcony cabin on the Aloha deck (12) of the ship.  this deck is just below the Lido deck (14), and I expect that the cabin will be a little noisy until late hours on the ship, due to the buffet area being above us.  I'm not sure whether it is much of an upgrade from the obstructed cabin we originally had on the Emerald deck (8), as it was near the main atrium.

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We've been on this and similar Canada/New England routes before, so choosing shore excursions wasn't as important to us as it could have been if this were our first cruise together.  We've already been to Peggy's Cove, NS, so we weren't that interested in going there again for a photographic tour.  But, we hadn't been to Lunenberg, NS yet.  So we booked this excursion.  We would have liked to get the Alexander Graham Bell excursion at another port, but this was sold out before we had a chance to book it.  So, we had a few days without scheduled excursions to explore some ports at our leisure.

This will be the 4th cruise we are taking this year.  We have one more left to go.  Strangely enough, we'll enjoy having most of autumn to enjoy on dry land.... 

 

I "won" the bid for an upgrade - just another expense among many.

When I booked my cruise/tour with  NCL, I wanted to spend as little money as I needed to spend for a "bucket list" trip.  In this case, I paid for a city view room to stay in when in town, and an inside cabin to stay in when on the ship.  Since there was an almost $2400 difference between the price of a balcony cabin and an inside cabin, I figured that the money I saved would more than pay for the shore excursions I planned to take.  So, when I received an offer to bid on a cabin upgrade, I figured that I'd bid as low as possible and hope that NCL would accept the bid.

Normally, getting an upgrade to a balcony cabin would be a bargain for $220 (total).  In my case, I knew enough to bid low, as the ship is sailing well below 100% capacity due to staffing issues.  Given the ship's layout, I figured that I would get a room near the pool or buffet - and I was right.  Since my upcoming Hawaii cruise is not one known for late night partying, I figured that having a "winning" bid and being assigned a cabin upgrade in a non-optimal area of the ship would be an acceptable trade off.  Only time will tell whether I was right or wrong on bidding for the upgrade. 

Right now, I am packing and unpacking things to find an optimal grouping of items in my carry-on and my larger suitcase.  So far, so good.  The one main compromise I've had to make is that I've put my swimsuit and swim forms in my large suitcase (which will be checked at the airport).  This means that if the bag gets lost in transit, I will not be able to go swimming until it is found.

The big issue I have is finding a day use hotel to rest at when the cruise ends, as I have a 12 hour wait from the time we leave the cruise ship to the time I need to be at the airport.  (Who wants to spend 12 hours at an airport doing nothing?)  So far, I've found several expensive options, and I figure that I'll call a few places directly to make sure I'm connecting to a real brick and mortar place.

Not to blame anyone, but it feels that every way I turn, I find that the logistics of this cruise keeps needing new cash infusions.  For the 3 days I am touring Honolulu, I will have to take care of my own meals.  And then, there will be the tips I pay on land and on the cruise.  Although I paid for a transfer from cruise ship to the airport, I will skip it to catch a cab to a day use hotel to sleep for a while.  Around 7 pm, I plan to leave the hotel, take a shuttle to the airport, and catch the "red eye" back home.  This hotel will likely cost me $200, plus the money for a cab from the pier to the hotel, and a cab to the airport.  

As I keep reminding myself, this is a bucket list trip - a very big item on that list.

 

I finally decided to take a small risk.

 

As I mentioned before, I will be taking a Hawaii cruise later this year. I have already booked my excursions, and have an idea of what my travel arrangements will be like.  (At best, they will suck big time. But the price is right.) The one thing I've been hemming and hawing about is whether I'd submit a bid to upgrade my inside cabin to a balcony cabin.

Some of you might say that taking the risk of spending $220 to upgrade my cabin is worth the money.  However, a bit of thought went into choosing the cabin location, and an upgrade is like buying a pig in a poke. One doesn't know the quality of what one is getting until the deal is complete.  I don't want to be in a position where I traded a good room for something less acceptable if I had known what I was buying. However, spending $220 to get a good cabin which I'd have spent another $1600+ more is worth the risk I would be taking.  

After more hemming and hawing, I made a decision to bid on the upgrade.  Given that the ship is still sailing at 40%-50% of capacity, there should be a decent number of balcony cabins that would otherwise go unoccupied.  So, if I snag a good cabin, it's a win-win for both the cruise line and me.  I get a better deal on a better cabin than I would have gotten when I made my reservation, and the cruise line gets extra money from me for the same level of service.  If they don't accept my bid, I will be in a good cabin.  And, if they do accept the bid, I will be in a balcony cabin enjoying a cool ocean breeze when sailing between the islands.

One thing I can say - I'll be sure to take lots of pictures....