donaldsc

Just my opinion and I am into photography but it seems to me that you are a bit over doing things. My idea of traveling in scenic areas is to see things and experience the areas and not to see everything from behind the camera viewfinder. DON

I am looking at a B2B on the CroisiEurope La Belle des Oceans ship. It would combine their 8 day Magnificant Murdejar Art from the Andalusian Flatlands to Morocco's Imperial Cities cruise with their 8 day Cruise through the Canary Island Archipelago, eternal Springtime cruise for a total of 16 days. I don't know anything at all about CroisiEurope except that most of their cruises are river boat cruises and these are not riverboats nor is this a riverboat cruise. I can't find out anything at all about these specific cruises except that it is difficult to find any cruise that focuses on these areas. The ships aree about 150 passengers which is a good size. The price at about $500 per day is not bad. One potential problem is that the company and the cruise sounds very French and we all know what the French people can be like. Some people who have done river boat cruises with this company have said that almost everyone on the ship was French. Has anyone out there done any trips with this company and especially trips on their non-riverboat ships. DON

Suppose it is true that you will not get a refund if no whales are seen. This leaves you w 2 choices. 1) Cancel. Then you will have a 100% certainty that you will NOT see whales. 2) Take the tour. You will probably see whales but even if you don't you will have had an enjoyable scenic cruise in the harbor and you might see other stuff. The right choice seems obvious to me. DON

Las Vegas Hard Water Rating. According to Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD)1, Las Vegas has a hardness rating of 278 parts per million or 16 grains per gallon. This level of hardness is considered to be “extremely hard.” In fact, Las Vegas has some of the hardest water in the country! DON

I agree. The showers on Azamara ships are very small. DON

All of the Viking ocean ships are essentially identical so it doesn't matter which one you cruise on. Makes it easier as you can just pick your itinerary. DON

Why don't you verify just to be sure by contacting the tour operator directly. DON

See if you can figure out who is actually doing the tour from the Celebrity tour description and contact them directly., DON

I arbitrarily picked one of the ships in the Princess fleet and had no problem finding out who he is on the internet. DON

Viking Ocean should also be on your list. DON

NYC water is very good. Southern Florida water tastes of sulphur. DON

As much as I dislike the whole medallion system we have had several pre-medallion instances where we were charged for items and services that were in correct. Getting the errors was always a pain. DON

We have taken all of our grandkids on an AK trip as a coming of age trip when they turned 10 w/o their parents. All of the trips were a joy to grandparents and grandkids. Pictures like this are one of the reasons we do it. We want them to have the opportunity to see stuff like this before they disappear. DON

Has anyone done a real test of this by bringing some home tap water to see if they can tell the difference. I would also suspect that some home tap waters might be really awful so the ship water might be better than the home water. DON

Thanks to everyone for the info. It is all very useful. DON