2025: Miami to Seattle
We booked with Costco after I got a ad on my phone showing $1,500 off cruises for a New Years special through Norwegian.
The cruise was $3,999.16 after a 15% costco discount. We used one of our future cruise credits (that cost us $125) and this brought the price down to $3,749.16. We had to pay all at once since it was within 3 months. Costco gives you Digital Costco Shop cards that you use like cash at Costco. We will get a $160 and bonus $200 card after this cruise for booking with them.
This also included a $120 specialty dining add on which allows us to eat at their specialty restaurants three nights. We already get two nights at specialy restaurants included since we are at the sapphire latitude level. So, we can eat at those restaurants 5 of our 21 nights. We also get a couple bottles of wine and shore excursion discounts.
This cruise is similiar to one we took in Dec. 2022 (L.A. to Miami, on the Norwegian Bliss), but longer, backwards and it skips Acapulco Mexico and adds Puntarenas (Puerto Calderal) Costa Rica, San Francisco California, Victoria British Columbia and Seattle Washington.
Ship
Norwegian Encore is the largest Norwegian ship and as of Jan. 2025 is the 27th largest in the world, holding 4,004 passengers, 1,735 crew, it weighs 169,116 tons and was refurbished in Nov. 2024. We booked room 12647 an inside room, midship. This is a larger ship with more sea days than we have done recently, so we will see how we like the change. We usually like a little smaller ship and less sea days, but this was a good deal, so we will see. We have cruised on ships from 4,004 to 1,380 passengers, crews from 550 to 1,735.
Tips were extra ($40 per night) and excursions will be extra but we get a discount for our lattitude level. All in all though (for cruise, with tips, airfare, dining, excursions and parking) I estimate this will be about $130 per person, per night which is a good rate for all you get.
This will be our 28th cruise (8/64 days on Princess, 10/120 days on Norwegian (after this cruise), 6/44 days on Carnival, 3/26 days on Royal Caribbean and 1/9 days on Celebrity) = 263 days of fun and relaxing cruising.
Lastly, Lynn purchased Go Ready Travel Insurance from AEGIS for $396 which goes for one year starting March 30th, 2025 and covers items like: Trip Interruption, Airline Ticket Change Fee, Baggage Delay, Baggage / Personal Effects, Accidental Death, Emergency Accident and Emergency Sickness Medical Expense, Emergency Medical Evacuation, etc. Each with limits from $200 - $50,000.
Norwegian bonus offer
Inside Offer on this cruise! Book select categories and the first two guests in each cabin will receive the following two offers:
1. Free Wifi; 150 minutes of free internet per person,
2. $50 per cabin Shore Excursion Credit on each excursion booked through the cruise line.
* They talked me into buying more Future Cruise Credits (FCCs) and getting a Bank of America credit card. I bought 8 FCCs at $125 each, which are worth $250 each on future Norwegian cruises. I received a $200 credit for using the new credit card to buy the FCCs and they put a $25 credit on your onboard account, so the $2,000 worth of FCCs cost me $775. We were able to use one on a cruise we have booked next year so that saved us another $125 on that cruise. We now have 7 more FCCs to use on Norwegian in the future, they never expire and they are transferable. You can usually use two per cruise, as long as a promo is going or you have a balcony.
Drive to Miami for cruise, Airfare back from Seattle
So, a one hour drive to our parking, March 30th the cruise departs at 4 pm. We will park at the Pullman hotel, reserved a transfer to the port with 305 connection, (786-285-7591) $36 cash ($15 plus $3 tip each) and were off. Parking for 23 days was $222.45, paid 12/29/24.
Our airfare from Seattle Washington back to Miami was only $11 as Lynn used American Airline air miles, but we do have to pay $40 per checked bag. We have an excursion reserved (see April 20th info below) since we have to be off early and the flight is late (April 20th at 10:10 pm) back to Miami on April 21, 7:05 am.
Cruise March 30 - April 20, 2025
Catagena, Colombia
April 2nd,
We booked Amazing Cartagena: Bay and Wall City excursion with Norwegian ($74.80 total after discounts). They took us by bus to explore and also a boat ride in the bay. When we got back from the excursion we went through the area with shops and wildlife near the ship. I did get a cold for about four days the start of this cruise, Lynn was good the whole trip.
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Panama Canal
April 3rd Through the canal (Le Bistro 6 pm reservation). Second time throught the canal and still interesting and exciting to see how it works. As before they let us out on the bow for good views. It rained a little on this transit.
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Panama City, Panama
April 4th Panama City (Cagney's Steakhouse 6 pm reservation), no preplan. When we got off we negotiated a $5 each cab ride with four other people to get dropped in old Panama City. He dropped us off in a little scetchy area since we did not specify and after exploring a little ended up in the town square where we had been before and a nicer area.
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Puntarenas (Puerto Caldera), Costa Rica
April 6th, excursions did not sound good so, no preplan, we got off and found a guide but he needed two more couples to leave, so Lynn helped him recruit a couple more couples. I believe it was around $30 per person. He took us to see monkeys, crocodiles, birds and shops. It was a good tour.
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Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
April 8th, been to Antigua before, thought about volcano adventure but not sure of fitness level needed, excursions did not sound good so, no preplan, winged it. We stayed in port area where they had a lot of shops to look at. Lynn made a few purchases and I got a margareta. It was a very hot day.
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Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
April 11th, last time took a taxi then uber to The Malecon boardwalk, excursions did not sound good so, no preplan. We ended up renting a taxi for the afternoon ($100) to take us to the Jardin Botanical Gardens with a couple stops along the route. It was along the shore about 40 minutes away, so a somewhat scenic drive.
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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
April 12th (Cagney's Steakhouse 6 pm reservation), We planned to walk to town and we did. This was our only tender stop but when we were ready they had a quick line for the platinum or higher latitude guest.
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Los Angeles, California
April 14th, A lovely visit with Lynn's first cousins in San Pedro! Walked from the port of L.A., past the U.S.S Iowa and down 5th street to a lovely restaurant called Think Cafe, where we met cousins for lunch. Haven't seen each other, one in over nineteen years and the other about 7.
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San Francisco, California
April 16th, awesome day hanging out with family in San Fracisco. We mainly hanged out in the Ferry terminal building an clock tower area. We visited, checked out shops and had lunch most of the afternoon.
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April 17th, We started with our normal breakfast, Lynn had her tofu scramble, then took our first uber to the Golden Gate Park. After a good walk in the park, we went in the Japanese Tea Gardens and then the San Francisco Botanical Gardens before taking a uber back to Pier 39, which was close to the ship. It was a full day with a lot of walking and nature. (Le Bistro 5:30 pm reservation).
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Victoria, Canada
April 19th, We got in late afternoon and had booked an excursion Victoria Highlights for $108.80 for both of us, a 2.5 hour tour to Ogden Point, views of the Strait of Juan de Luca and the Olympic Mountain range. Continuing through Beacon Hill {ark, with peacocks and tallest freestanding totem pole. Then old town and Chinatown and Victorias's Inner Harbor. The tour was just Ok in my opinion as you are viewing most by a moving bus. The naration was good however. We were dropped off for one hour downtown to look around, which was the best part and we stopped for wraps for dinner. We could have used more time here but back on the bus to get back and it was windy and cold at the dock shops.
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Seattle, Washington
April 20th, Lynn booked us a rental car for the day at Budget for $72.69 and $200 deposit, not a far walk but up the hill, as we leave the ship early and our flight home is late (10:10pm), arriving in Miami early (7:05am) the 21st. We were close to the Space needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass, so we got a combo ticket for them for $66 each (senior rates). After we stopped for a Thai lunch, toured Pike Place Market, and the Sculpure park before returning our car.
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