tetleytea

I think that's it: people are terrified. I see that in people not wanting to book rental cars at port stops and go DIY, too. I will give this much: there is an element of stress to going DIY, that gets lifted when you are tour guided. When you are in a tour group, you just go with it. Do we have enough time left? Not your problem. The thing is, that whole time you were stressing, you were also learning. Learning where things are, learning how things tick in that place. If I'm abroad where the language is different and things are a bit TOO different (particularly, the traffic. ohmigosh the traffic...), i realize I need a tour group, since there is simply too much to take in at once. But Alaska simply does not fit that category: there is usually only one road to take, wherever you go. Anchorage to Seward or Denali? One road. Skagway to Carcross? One road. Juneau or Ketchikan car rental? One road. Within Anchorage: okay, not so much. You have to navigate there. But you also get cell phone reception there.

This is an amazingly good thread for binocular advice. Whenever I help people plan their Alaska trips, I always say, if there is one thing you actually remember from all this, it's this: remember to pack binoculars. Where we were not so successful was in getting the cell phone camera magnifying lenses. I wish we could make that work out.

I wait to book last minute, too, and if prices go up then I'm okay with just not going.

Thank you for educating us inexperienced people that gambling is a game of chance. I had no idea.

Not just the train, but the rental cars. Which judging by the size of the rental car agencies in Skagway, people just aren't renting cars. And that's my #1 tour in Skagway: renting the car, bringing your passports, and going to Carcross. Murray's Guide. It's true that the fog can really destroy the train trip (because it's not just White Pass you need to see, but the mountain goats), but one key difference is that the rental car tends to be an all-day trip. The train is what, 3 hours? I've had pretty good luck with the fog lifting on the return trip if it's an all-day trip. I don't see the Sitka Raptor Center, the Orthodox church, the Fortress of the Bear, and the totem poles in the park beating out a successful first trip to Carcross. Although seeing all the salmon leaping out of the water in Sitka was pretty cool.

i have only DIY'ed and have never cruisetoured. I figured I was just the DIY type. You just don't really learn the area when a tour guide is leading you around. My strategy is to sail up into Whittier, back from Seward (or vice-versa), take non-back-to-back sailings with probably two different cruise lines. The days get much longer north of Anchorage, so what I do is stagger a hard day next to an easy day. In other words I might schedule 15 hours' worth of stuff one day, but if I do that then I'm not going to schedule 15 hours' worth the following day. It may sound like a stamina-fest on your vacation, but we're trying to have the most fun in our limited vacation time, too.

Note that by Skagway I don't mean literally Skagway. I mean going up past the White Pass and into the Yukon--an excursion one would normally do when first visiting Skagway (or at least, the White Pass part). If we were to compare literally the two towns, sure, Sitka is better. But I'm comparing the port visits; not the towns. And assuming the railroad dock and the WP railroad stuff is all worked out.

If this is your only trip to Alaska, then pick Skagway over Sitka. If you take many trips to Alaska, then it's Sitka over Skagway. Sailing on a newer cruise ship matters. And Hubbard glacier is better than Dawes. I'd go with Discovery Princess.

I don't think I'm tied to any line--even a luxury line, if it's an inside. However, I think Carnival is the one line my DW doesn't want. This idea of a floor-to-ceiling webcam is fascinating. Or insides that are not 100% insides (like the Oasis that the article mentions).

I just read CC's article on inside cabins: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2419&et_cid=3593426&et_rid=16812602&et_referrer=SiteAd2009&address=IXdnMzByxUElSyQ%2bKvZHUkPc2quU8EiQ So...quirky inside cabins? Count us in! Where are they? Non-solo traveller.

It's a great idea. I don't think the train drops you off on the other side of the checkpoint? I think you would have to clear going both ways anyway.

There's the DIY Rome excursion where you go to the Colosseum after hours and be your own gladiator. Finally face your father-in-law head-to-head.

Now for the million-dollar question we need to know: what if you have the soda package and try to smuggle on board Pepsi?

Canada has all kinds of things that actually make sense. Their $1 and $2 bills are actually coins. And their bills, you cannot tear up because they're made of plastic. But their postal service and cable/internet are simply awful.

Non-hangover pills? Is this Milk Thistle? I take that, and I don't drink. People are known to take a bomb of about 5 of those, and anecdotally avoid the hangover. It works by helping your liver. Hijack underway, we are holding you all hostage for ransom. We want free Havens.

Except the mob. I would hope....

I should say the wait staff will be lax inasmuch as they can get away with it, and shorts for men is not always something they can get away with. Anything grey-area will usually go in your favor. Over on the Princess board, it seems the men have not been allowed to wear shorts into the MDR on most days, while the women can. Weird. Some people have taken issue with that (including me).

That could be your action item for your next transatlantic cruise. Stateroom TV.

Wishing you the best.

Maybe if the rock talks back to you, then it is not a rock. Why did you leave out the theoretical/projected loss on your $1.2 million bankroll? 80% slots payout. You put $1.2 million in those slots. You do understand that I know why your actual loss (-$52k) does not match that, right?

No, your computation pretty much exactly matches the computation I did using jezebel's data. Your $1.2 million bankroll is a useful data point, though.

I thought everybody wanted to put this to rest? Do we, or don't we?

The only reason I would ever pack a suit on a cruise near the tropics is because the DW gets a kick out of date nights when we dress up all fancy. I've got a pair of black jeans, and black sneakers with black soles that I pack for this purpose. Another observation I had is that most of the time on the mainstream cruise lines, the restaurant hosts tend to err on the side of lax. They know it's your vacation, and they know you pay gratuities.

I'd like kids on board if there weren't these unspoken socioeconomic barriers between the kids and the older adults. I barely ever talk to them. The kids will talk to each other even if they're strangers, and the adults will talk to each other even if they're strangers. But how do you get the two to relate with each other? At least on a surface level? I guess maybe the adults are more interested than the kids are. The cruise directors would have the power to do something about that in the Atrium events (e.g. "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" the gameshow).

This reminds me of a behavior from a timeshare company I dealt with. They said I had 2 weeks to pull out of a contract...but then gave me the runaround and would never give me the means to notify them I wanted to pull out. And if I tried to call or talk to the right people, they would only try and talk me out of it--but they would never be "notified". I wasn't putting up with that nonsense. In the end, I found a "Contact Us" link on their website, told them in writing I was pulling out, and if they had any questions THEY could call this phone number I was given. Then I went to the Mastercard and disputed the charge. There's no law or contract provision which says I have to notify only certain people within the company whom they want. They agreed not to contest the dispute.