Before I get started with our first day, I do want to add a few things.
About 2 weeks before our cruise I was in contact with someone from Concierge. They asked our likes and wants and anything we may need.
Our anniversary is mid July, so I had added this was an anniversary trip. I also requested foam pillows, an egg crate topper for Claire’s bed, and hot cocoa packets for our room. Also extra towels and a few other odds in and ends and she said she had it all noted and attached to our reservation. Great. One less thing we would have to ask about.
Also about a week or so before our cruise NCL announced that as of Aug. 1st the gratuities/service charges were going up. Now Skip and I were already covered in the promo, but Claire wasn’t. I decided to prepay hers. The savings wasn’t huge, but hey, every penny counts and we were already spending the most we ever had on a vacation. (the flights were killers and I still cringe at the price we ended up paying, but it could have been more, I guess. That’s one of the downsides of not booking WAY out ahead of time)
Skip did not know what kind of room we had, except that it was a balcony. I was a bit nervous on what he would think when a butler would show up daily. I just knew he would cringe about it. I was a bit nervous too really. We just are not the type to need extra pampering. I figured we would play it by ear and if we felt uncomfortable we would let him/her know that we didn’t need any extra services.
And then I wasn’t sure about how to tip the butler. I read up on it on Cruise Critic and there were a lot of heated debates on how much to tip. I came up with a price that sounded acceptable to me and stashed that money in an envelope. I figured if the service was exceptional we could add more and if it was less, then we could take away.
Another service for suite guests is Concierge. Now I knew Florentina was the concierge person on the Jewel. I still wasn’t sure exactly how much we would ever actually need or use her. I had prebooked everything, so again I figured we would play it by ear. This is another person to tip, so I added what I thought was appropriate to my special tip envelope and again if we needed to add or subtract to it we could.
I also made up another envelope for extra tips like porters, bus drivers, excursions, etc. I put 5’s and 10’s in that envelope to make it easier to have easy access to money when needed.
For those that don’t know, Skip is a dairy farmer. He and his brother actually retired early spring. I knew they would go nuts with just general farming, but they were also going into the beef cattle business. They are so used to being active and working so much, that it was a culture shock for them to have so little to do now and sure enough within a month they decided to go back into the dairy business. However they were going back in in a different way. They ordered a robot milker so they no longer had to be there to milk the cows twice a day every day. The cows will be able to just go up to this milker and get milked when needed. All summer long the robot has been in the processed of being installed and the milking parlor is going through a transformation to accommodate this machine. A lot was going to happen while we were gone and Skip’s brother Dave tends to panic when Skip isn’t around. Luckily with all this extra relaxation they have had over the summer, he was not too nervous and things were going pretty smoothly.
A few nights before we left, a bunch of “the guys” came out to the barn and were having a few beers and chit chatting…..or really shooting the bull is probably a better term for their chit chat.
I walked out to nosey in on the latest farm gossip. Of course the conversation turned to our upcoming trip. All the guys were jealous and Skip was really eating it up.
He then asked if I ever booked any excursions. Yes I did! (no thanks to you and your input).
I told him what they were and he was very excited I booked the Deadliest Catch one. I knew this was going to be a big thing for him and I also knew this was one thing that was making him want to go to Alaska. He beamed a big smile when I told him about it and all the guys once again were jealous and excited. Skip did not seem too excited about the other excursions, but I knew he would be happy with them once we got there. He was just unfamiliar with them and he is one who likes to be familiar with everything. (He is NOT good with change in most cases…to a point it can drive me batty).
I was so glad I had booked these excursions though as they promised to be pretty exciting and I could tell he would be disappointed if I hadn’t prebooked.
Now…I promise on to day one next!