donaldsc

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

We are driving in and will be staying in Surry the night before the cruise. After the cruise we will be driving back to the states and not staying in Vancouver. DON

These are my thoughts although I will admit that I am commenting on the basis of ignorance. I have done the drive from Anchorage to Seward several times and have never done the train. I have also done the train from Anchorage to Denali and disliked it intensely. I have done the trains in Skagway several times but only because we were taking the grandkids to AK. The kids enjoyed the Skagway train. To me they were merely blah. On the other hand I have just done the train ride from Bergen Norway to Oslo in the winter which is properly advertised as one of the great train rides in the world and the ride is truly great. My problem w train rides is that when I travel I like to be in control of what is happening which does not happen on the AK train rides. I like to take photographs - not snapshots but photographs. This is not possible on a train which goes past the photo op at 30 mph and does not stop. If I come to a place where there is wildlife I want to be able to stop and look at it with my binoculars or spotting scope or get out the camera AND the tripod and then compose a decent photograph. I have no problem driving and looking at stuff and my wife is happy to tell me that there is a good photo op ahead. She is also happy to drive while I am looking. I do not want to be in the position of not looking outside of the window just as we pass something really great or not being able to get a photo because the damn trees on the side of the track show up in every picture I take. Sightseeing from a train may work for some people. They just don't work for me. DON