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Martha Garcia

Age: 45
Occupation: physical therapist assistant
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: Sun
Sailing Date: September 7th, 2003
Itinerary: Alaska Inside Passage

As an avid traveler and cruise lover I submit my review with great disappointment. It is of my vacation to Alaska via the inside passage which I looked forward to for almost a year. I travelled with my mom Leila whom I shared an outside cabin with and my two best friends Andra and Debbie. We arrived in Seattle on September 5th in order to take in the sites there and in Vancouver B.C. since both places were highly recommended by friends.

Having been on cruises before I knew the chaos and havoc that can be apart of the embarkment process so we arrived dockside almost two hours ahead of the allowed boarding time of 2:00pm. Going through baggage pickup and check-in was pretty painless and handled very swiftly and efficiently by Norwegian's dockside staff however it is now time to board and that's where things started to go downhill. Upon boarding we were immediately accosted by the Photography dept. which is quite normal of all cruise ships, what wasn't normal was the attitude and downright rudeness of the camera staff when my mom and friends refused to have their pictures taken. I approached shooting video tape and was told that I couldn't shot the ship and was told to shut off my camera. I was in no way intruding with their silly cruise ship photos or trying to get behind their backdrop for my own family photos so I was annoyed at being spoken to rudely and hustled up the gangplank. But we boarded without too many words being exchanged.

Finding cabins 6023 and 6024 was our next dilemma and quite funny to find that the map of the ship and staff members we encountered along the route were of no help at all! Some of the funniest lines we heard on the ship over the next few days were "I've never worked on the sixth floor before"..."there are no stairs to the twelfth floor" and three days into the cruise "this is my first day on the ship". So it became apparent to us that Norwegian employees were dumb, shackled with chains that only exceeded certain boundary lines and were frequently helicopter in when afloat.

Our first day was at sea so we used this time to get acquainted with the ship and it's ammenities. Here again we encountered certain areas of the ship that wrecked of raw sewage and actually met a man from Brooklyn who had paid the extra bucks for a balcony that was unusable for two days because of the smell. He reported the smell both times with no results and on the third day the smell was gone. We came to the conclusion that dumping waste at sea was a possibility?

Our ports of call were Juneau...the largest city with too little time spent there, we had prebooked the Mendenhall Glacier tour with Tempsco Helicopters our pilot Nerry was funny, informative and got us to and from safely. My mom and I had never flown in one and were a little nervous. The views were breathe taking, we felt like we were on top of the world. When we returned we shopped and had a drink at the famous Red Dog Saloon.

Next stop Scagway...a little town with just the railroad to boast about, We booked with Norwegian only because the only available booking with White Pass Yukon Railroad itself was the 4:30pm excursion. The cruise ships buy up the earlier times when in port. The shopping here was better and cheaper but we didn't know this until we got to Ketchican. So if your smart you'll shop in Scagway because these towns sell the same thing ( alot of it is crap that's made in China, anything handcrafted is unaffordable) We enjoyed cocktails at the Red Onion and the entertainment was a lot better than that found on the ship.

Ketchikan was the nicest stop in Alaska, very quaint also not enough time in port, we took a sea plane to the Misty fjords which we prebooked with Misty Fjords Air and Outfitting our pilot David Doyon Jr. It had to be the best part of our trip and highly recommended. Nice family run operation our flight was actually postponed for one hour to ensure greater visibility and enjoyment of the flight. Due to the changes we never got to Saxman's Village which was up the road from them we were told many people miss the ship in Ketchikan and have to be sea planed out. While we waited for this tour we walked up Creek Street to the salmon ladders which was awesome. The salmon were running and it was so unbelievable how many were in the water or dead on the rocks. The smell was a little hard to take.

Sawyer glacier our next at sea day was beautiful and we were told that we had the best view of icebergs for the summer. Due to the danger we could only come as close as a mile and a half to the glacier itself (the furthest viewing for the summer). Too much time was spent in the canal at the glacier which could have been spent getting to Victoria.

Bring lots of layers of clothes, a rain slicker, gloves and a hat if you expect to be on or near the glaciers.

The weather was milder than we expected between 50 and 55 in all Alaskan ports and Victoria which I will not review because it was a ridiculous stop of 4 1/2 useless hours. By the time we got there 6;00 were allowed to debark 7:05 and get to town the shops and restaurants were closing. The Butchart Gardens were of no interest to us at $20 per person, we're New Yorkers and can go to the Botanical Gardens for free. I did however want to see the Craigdarroch Castle and was quite disappointed that it closes at 7:00 pm everyday. So Why the stop in Victoria at all? I was informed by a fellow passenger that it's a law that every cruise ship must have at least one foreign country stop when sailing in US waters.

So now back to my problems with this cruise: 1. poor port itinerary, not enough length in port for Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria, too much time in Scagway and in Glacier Bay.

2. Horrendous entertainment onboard ship (we had Jimmy J.J. Walker and Wes Epau a 70 yr old singing Hawaiian cowboy)what more can I say! 3. Poor ship appearance and smell. 4. Freestyle dining is a good idea that needs to have the kinks worked out to avoid delays at peak eating times. It is also probably the main reason why the service was poor. With the tips built in to everyday where is the incentive to serve with a smile, some charm or even common courtesy. Doesn't TIP stand for To insure performance?

I will give my recommendations for food prep, presentation and service with accolades to Lisha hostess at Seven Seas, she saved us a table every night with our favorite waiter Charlie Soriano from the Phillipines, Marta Kobszynska from Poland his assistant and Rosalia our Maitre'D whom we all tipped extra. They were pleasant, funny and made our evenings the best spent. The only other place we spent as much time was the gym, which was well equipped, clean and kept the pounds off.

We were all glad we saw Alaska, all of us know we are probably not returning but are grateful for the memories from each city. I do however see myself returning to Seattle and would love to see Victoria by day at least once in my lifetime. Norwegian Cruise lines got my money once and that was one too many for me!

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