tetleytea

Is there a good car rental agency accessible to the cruise pier? Besides the airport?

On the dating shows, I thought it was always, "you're amazing". "She's amazing". Followed next by "you're amazing...but....".

I have a clear favorite time to do Alaska, which is in mid- to late-May. However, different times have their different merits. Late June gets the really long days, July seems to get the best weather, August gets the salmon runs, September is cheap fares (similar to May's) and shopping. I like Glacier Bay. I adopted a pet otter there. He just doesn't know yet that he's adopted.

I'm in a different situation: I've been to Juneau enough times that I need help finding a new excursion. Mendenhall, whale watching, rent a car, gold mine tour, Mount Roberts, Glacier Gardens, Alaska Brewing Company, City & Alaska museums, helicopter, and of course buying your trusty cheap ulu knives and T-shirts at the touristy shops.

For information about ports not specific to any one cruise line, they have a section here dedicated to the ports: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/472-mediterranean-eastern-western/ They have a wider array of people available to help, since people visiting/have visited the same ports on other cruise lines are there. A lot of the shore excursions are basically the same (only the cruise line you would book it through is different).

These things are all true, and are why I would say to prefer Vancouver in a normal year.

Are the hosts asking if we are willing to share? It seems kind of awkward if we were the only ones saying we would share.

It sounds like the takeaway we should get is to buy 100 shares of Carnival stock. $890 investment constitutes diversification. CCL going bankrupt is not going to kill you, and in fact you might get a couple OBC's out of it.

I'm not doing the math? $61x100 = $6100. $8.74 x 100 = $874. Meaning you lost $5226 to get the OBC.

Probably. But by the time that news even became a rumor of happening, you would have lost more than $250 on your stock value.

If you're active, I'm a big fan of Miller's Landing.

Also, the driver doesn't get to just sit and take in the sights as much. Which doesn't bother me--I like the drive as part of the experience, and I like the control, especially when I've sailed Alaska more than my shipmates have. That's one reason why a party of 2 might feel differently: because you both can just sit there with cameras. The other reason, of course, is the cost: flat fee rental car, vs. per-person for guided tour. What I like is just to rent the car for 2 and see if anyone on the ship wants to go in with us. It has little to do with splitting the cost of the rental.

There's a flip side: you are only hearing from the people who are here and posting at all. Which would mean you are only hearing from the people who think the outlook is rosy. Personally, I don't think the entire cruise industry is going down, but Carnival will certainly not be the last in line to file. And if Carnival did, you could probably still cruise with them--although the experience will not be as positive, and you won't be able to get your shareholder OBC back or virtually the entire investment you paid for the shares.

I am opinionated that renting a car is better. But when your party size gets down to two, I am open that other people might not necessarily feel the same way. It's not just about being able to pace your trip: you can stop on a dime if you sight wildlife. The buses can't call an audible like that nearly as much, or as fast. Also, if you gun it up to Carcross and then tour the sights on the way back, you do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. You'll beat the crowds to the Carcross Dogs, food, and stuff. And then if you get back early, Jewell Gardens is right there.

When we rent a car, we wind up not having enough time to do everything even when there's only a few of us and it's a 10-hour port of call. I slash the Yukon Bridge now from the schedule. I'm thinking of slashing even Emerald Lake and turning around at the Carcross Desert instead.

Is the suspension bridge open again? The last time I was there, it was closed. The time before that, it wasn't worth the time and expense even though it was open.

For parties of more than 2 who have never done White Pass before, I definitively say the rental car is better than the train.

Another Holland thread is now saying that they are no longer requiring you to be tested.

Not that I ever start a bloody religious war every now and then, but I'm trying to decide between a cruise line to Alaska for 2022. I'm trying to decide between Holland, Norwegian, and RCCL; all of whom have sailings to Sitka. Norwegian lets me pick up a Club Class Suite for just a little more than the price of a balcony on Holland. We are active, working adults. We like to share a table in the MDR, but is that still simply not a thing at all on Norwegian? Can't decide. Thanks for anything you know.

I miss the Roll Call meet-n-greets. We met a solo and a couple in Alaska on the Island who went in together with us on a rental car in Skagway. It totally made sense--not because you split up the rental cost (which is nothing), but because only one person drives and the rest can look out for mountain goats.

When I first read this I was thinking this show was going to be for the couples who met and got married and are now having second thoughts.

Sounds just like these teacher discounts. They're supposed to be "attached to our loyalty number". It's not an isolated incident. Quite frankly, at this point this is just a customer-service way of getting you off the phone.

Normally I would totally say Vancouver is better, but this is a strange year. Skagway's got issues, flights are expensive, but cruises are cheap. If you live in the US, I'd do Seattle this year and sail again from Vancouver in the future.

If all the phamacies want to charge 20% of the cost of the cabin itself to administer covid testing, less people will want to even bother. What impact will that have on the stock?

I did, too. Walgreens was very stress-free, but that was also before the $129.