Given name Sarah, but also answers to Prof. Cruise. Retired after 10 years as a college professor to focus full-time on her primary research interest: travel. With a concentration in cruising. Home port: Seattle. Mom of a shaggy-haired dog and a shaggy-haired human. Lover of books and dessert. Fancies herself a bit of a comedian - you’ve been warned. Join me as I travel the world one cruise ship at a time!
I really tried to stay with your video as you had a lot of info but...the music...why? Viewers only want to learn about the ship. Music works when it is done post production...but in context. Your music also overwhelmed your narration. This video could have been so much enjoyable without the music. Banjo? Where did that come from?
Thanks for the constructive feedback. I'm primarily a blogger and will be the first to admit my video skills suck. lol. I'll take your feedback to heart before I publish my next one! Happy cruising!
Was there a second show on the main stage on this cruise? I did a 7 day Alaska on the Bliss, in June, and they had two shows. Jersey Boys, and Icons. I'm doing a three week cruise on the Encore this October, and they show Choir of Man, as the only stage production.
@@profcruise On a three week cruise, having just one show would be insane. I'm sure that they will have the Beatle tribute band on the main stage, for a show, or two. (They did that on my 7 day Alaska cruise)
This version of the shiptour is horrible. My eyes were hurting from the bad quality of the video. Here's a better tour of the ship, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jF3cE9kYJKI.htmlsi=iSABajjMSWpOEGtP
I loved everything about this ship.When me and my wife went on our cruise in April perfect weather.I had nothing to complain about beautiful beautiful ship
Just got back from the NCL Bliss tour of Alaska (like, today). I'd never been on a cruise before, and probably will never go on one again. The food on this cruise was MISERABLE. Like inedible. Even the buffet (not open 24hr, as it apparently is on most cruises) was unsafe. Like, even safe staples like the salad bar wasn't trustworthy as we found moldy cucumbers and spoiled dressing by the middle of the week. On the last day we ate only the single-serving boxes of cereal after strategically hoarding some during the lack couple of breakfasts. I had only read good things about the food on the Bliss in past seasons, so I don't what changed from last year? The specialty dining was super hit or miss. We went to -- * Cagney's the first night -- pretty good, but we saw our steaks sit under a heat lamp for 40 minutes before being served to us... still the best experience * Savor (same menu as Taste and Manhattan) -- AWFUL. Microwave-quality food in a faux upscale setting * Others in our group went to Teppanyaki (hibachi -- okay, not great), back to Savor (amazing randomly?), and Los Lobos (Mexican, ok) * After Savor, I stuck to the Garden Cafe (buffet) until the moldy salad experience, and eating on-shore (amazing) * People in our group raved about the Indian and Ramen (and I'd read good things about both) in the Cafe but I got done experimenting with food pretty quickly into the week Everyone in my group got sick at least once due to something they ate. EVERYTHING was an up-charge. There were no bottle filling stations anywhere on the ship, but you could buy bottled water for $4.50(!!) a bottle, or $100-something for a case of 24. We had the beverage package which applied to wine, beer, some lower-alcohol hard stuff, and soda -- not water. There were water dispensers in the buffet, but they discouraged bottle-filling. People still did it, and got inconsistently yelled at for it. We did it once by taking glasses to our table and pouring them in, but it just made our water bottle smell weird. There were unruly children EVERYWHERE. The staff made consistent mistakes. Everyone in my group who used the boat's sketchy unsecured wifi (required if you wanted to use the NCL app, even if you had service at sea) had issues with how it was billed or timed (for non-unlimited plans), and the "unlimited plan" ran out on Thursday -- our cruise ended on Saturday! So people were consistently having to go back to Guest Services for the same issues over and over and over again. From the moment we checked in and embarked, it was weird. Getting our bags delivered was a nightmare -- they were distributed throughout our floor, but none of our bags were near our room, or even near each other. Things got a little smoother when it came to arriving at and departing the shore cities, but there was a consistent vibe of never really trusting the crew. Just, like, everything was so disorganized. That said, I blame none of this on the staff. They were (mostly) delightful, and I get the impression their working conditions are suboptimal. Next, the boat. The Bliss is clearly a tropical boat repurposed (but poorly re-fitted) for arctic travel. Check the awards on Floor 15 (Observation Deck) -- they're all for trips to warm climates. The boat has one pool, which is outdoors. It was wet and cold for all but two days of our trip. So everyone was always indoors. The cruise was clearly overbooked, so everything was always mobbed when you weren't on-shore. So we ended up spending most of our time in our room to try to do the best we could to not get sick (mission failed by the end). Finally, being on-shore. Between ports, people got stir-crazy, so it would be crazy crowded when going ashore, for obvious reasons. We were lucky enough to be some of the first off the boat during most of the ports, and it was very disappointing to see how carelessly other shipmates (or from other ports/boats) treated the surroundings we were visiting. We'd get somewhere first and it'd be serene, then when we'd leave it'd be people spitting, littering, stepping on plants, stepping on small animals, etc. Every stop but one dropped us off at an NCL-owned port, where you were funneled through an NCL gift shop (money filter) before needing to take a shuttle to get into the actual town you were visiting. Most but not all of those shuttles were free. All that being said... Alaska is AMAZING! All of the stops were cool (Ketchikan kinda sucked, but we got like no time there), and some I'd actually come back to someday (Sitka ❤). Victoria also was amazing, but we got in late and everything was disorganized -- we came to find out they only stop there (for four hours) just to fulfill the requirement of visiting one Canadian city to make this an "international" cruise for tax purposes. Ultimately, the lack of consistent access to drinking water, trustworthy food, and reliable internet made this just a truly awful experience. I had no expectations having never gone on a cruise before, but I'll never cruise with NCL ever again. We got nickeled and dimed at every turn. The cruise was too long, the children were too loud, the boat was overbooked, the food was abysmal, the struggles to get water/internet are unacceptable. NEVER AGAIN AND BEWARE!
We have this booked for September! Great vid- question- is the outdoor dining area even gonna be usable or enjoyable for our September Alaska cruise??? Looks like it may be too windy or cold to enjoy a dinner out there altho looks so lovely!
My husband and I were on the same sailing. If you saw a handsome kilted fellow, (well, the only kilted fellow, since "handsome" is subjective) then that was my husband. We absolutely LOVED "Choir of Man" and would sail the ship again just to see the show. We loved it so much the first night that it ran that we booked it again halfway through the show. The staff on the Encore was amazing and so cheerful. This was our third cruise (all NCL) and we are hooked! Our only complaint was that our cabin was on the wrong side of the ship to see the northern lights. Bummer! We definitely want to sail her again.
Well Professor, we have learned much from your channel and your wise insights, so have hit your Subscribe 👍and scattered the Likes 👍and will back for more 👍👍
We are big fans of older cruise ships, and Solstice seems to offer that charm and character that we enjoy when we cruise. Its all very 'grown up' and classy. Great to see this. Well done in filming and presenting it.
Hey Sarah👋 We've just discovered your channel and started here because we know nothing about Norwegian Sun, but are curious to learn more. That's a fairly nice cabin, that we would be happy to have on a voyage. Good tour, with detailed useful information 👍
