strickerj

Good to know. We did a Seattle RT (including Glacier Bay) at the end of May, and I thought it was a great time (the greenery at low elevation with the snow still on the mountains), but I was thinking about going back and doing a one-way southbound in September in a few years to see the interior and Hubbard Glacier.

Our local urgent care charged $150 per test for the 3 of us, and we weren't told until after receiving them... This is basically a government-endorsed racket.

One other thing - the linked Motley Fool article mentions that the fed hiking interest rates by 0.75% would increase the cruise industry's debt by $550M. Does that mean the loans are variable interest, or is it a hypothetical lifecycle cost where future refinancing is taken into account?

I can understand that; I just wonder if overdoing it would cause hesitation to buy among potential investors, that is, dilute the stock more than the amount of stock issued. I wouldn't buy any of this round of stock if I thought they were going to do it again every quarter.

The CDC is the one compiling the data though (such as it is), so you'd think they'd be in the best position to determine an appropriate course of action. I never claimed letting more people on cruises with COVID would reduce cases; my point was that COVID is and seemingly always will be with us, it isn't nearly the threat now that it was in the beginning, and society isn't collapsing as a result of everything other than cruising being unrestricted. There are lots of things we could do to keep from ever getting sick or injured, but we don't because they're impractical relative to the risk being mitigated. I believe the time has come where COVID testing everyone boarding a ship falls into that category.

Thanks for sharing; this kind of backs up my initial reaction - I'm not an accountant or lawyer, but I don't understand how a publicly traded company can just issue more stock out of thin air. The market dictates the value of the company (market cap). In this case, that was about $11B at $11.09 per share. Company announces $1B stock issuance, and the existing stock drops to $9.95 per share (roughly $1B total), bringing the total market cap to... still $11B, but effectively the company has just stolen $1B in equity from its shareholders. It's like printing money, except by a corporation rather than the government. I'd be rightfully miffed if I were still a shareholder.

This is a good idea. As long as the cruise lines follow the same schedule, and untested ships aren't in the same ports at the same time as tested ones, this is about as close to a scientifically rigorous experiment as you could do.

My wife, her mother, and I cruised Eurodam roundtrip from Seattle on May 21-28, and we think it was worth it. We didn't have much choice since it had been canceled twice (2020 and 2021), and HAL wouldn't extend the FCC past 2022 that we foolishly accepted in lieu of a refund. Weather and scenery were great. Our flight there was on time. A couple shore excursions were canceled, but we were able to find alternatives, and the ones I was most looking forward to went as planned. Of course, this was before the summer travel meltdowns, return of mask mandates, etc. I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much now with the current state of travel. FWIW, we never masked or distanced (nor did about 90% of the passengers), and none of us got COVID (though my wife and I have both had it already, so we weren't too worried about that).

Holland America was like this too. The "Have It All" promo with the drink package, specialty dining, and WiFi was actually free, gratuities already included. And we proactively got a $20pp port fee refund because the dock in Sitka was unavailable, so we had to tender to shore instead. I didn't even know we were entitled to that; someone on this forum told me what it was for. So, to be clear, with NCL's Free at Sea promo, do you only pay gratuities on the specialty dining when you book the specialty restaurant, or do you pay it even if you don't use it? I'm looking at an itinerary that has the promo but it's so short and port-intensive that we'd probably stick to the MDR or buffet.

I always print essential documents in advance just in case there's an issue with the phone, but for ones that you can't (e.g. shore excursion tickets only accessible through the app), I grab screenshots on my phone in advance just in case the app doesn't load when I need them.

I'd have wanted to take the bus/train combo to Carcross, but since that isn't an option this year, maybe you'll have time to take the WPYRR roundtrip to the border and rent a car afterwards to drive to the Yukon, depending on your port times? (On the itinerary I was considering, Skagway was a pretty long stop, something like 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM.)

I got seasick on our first sea day on Eurodam (ocean side of Vancouver Island) but was perfectly fine on the whale watching boat out of ISP. Of course, there's no guarantee as to the weather, but the water around there tends to be pretty smooth.

This would suggest the roundtrips from Vancouver are included, whereas everything else I've seen just said the one-ways between Vancouver and Whittier (in either direction)?

We were on it the week before (5/21) and it seemed fairly empty, but we weren't really sure what to expect.

I'm not sure it's Canada since the Seattle roundtrips stop in Victoria to satisfy PVSA. Also, there are roundtrips out of Vancouver that also aren't included in this policy if I'm reading it correctly. Absolutely agreed on your last point; I think people are frustrated by the arbitrary and inconsistent nature of the restrictions, and often getting shouted down for bringing that up

We did this on Eurodam a few weeks ago. Just the outermost panel opened, as shown in the picture a few posts above. I agree it made a big difference for us!

If I'm reading this correctly, you booked United flights through the Chase travel portal, used your Chase points to pay for them, and upon cancelling, got a credit for the cash price of the tickets (that is, not a refund of your points)? If so, then Chase's travel agent has control of the credit, so I'd go with what that says. It's possible that what United says would be the case had you booked through them directly.

Regarding Hubbard, would I be correct in assuming that later in the season (e.g. August or September) would offer a better chance at getting close to the glacier? (We just got back from an Alaska cruise that didn't include Hubbard, and I'm already starting to plan a return trip.)

I got the impression OP meant either Alaska this July or somewhere different Jan-Mar, since her credits expire before next year's Alaska season starts. If so, Caribbean or Hawaii would be about all there is. If you aren't locked into Princess, have you considered Norwegian's Pride of America? It's the only U.S.-registered cruise ship, and therefore the only one that does 7-day Hawaii itineraries (i.e., without the transit from the mainland).

That's still way more gear than I carry. I bought a big camera backpack to give myself room to expand, and instead I get stuck carrying around my wife's stuff.

Just realized I didn't answer the last part - I really enjoyed HAL. Food was good, the wraparound promenade and the artwork in the common areas were nice touches, and I enjoyed the sedate atmosphere. The BBC presentation on the Main Stage and Billboard Onboard were fun. BB King lounge and the casino were too small and crowded, so we didn't stay long there. Crew was friendly and generally attentive, though you could tell most weren't experienced. Tendering to shore in Sitka took an hour and a half, which delayed the start of our shore excursion. (Hence my comment "for the most part, everything was on schedule" - this was the one exception.)

I thought it was great. We decided on this itinerary to avoid the restrictions on flying into Canada. (We changed our booking in February since we didn't know they'd be relaxed.) The seas were rough the first full day (outside Vancouver Island) and the second to last day (between Queen Charlotte islands and Vancouver Island). For the most part, everything was on schedule (unlike Crown Princess, which departed half an hour before us). Regarding the camera, we did have a decent pair of binoculars (Nikon 10x42 ProStaff 3S) to scope points of interest far away, then we zoomed in as much as possible with the camera and can enlarge and crop them on the PC later if desired. I didn't really miss having a longer telephoto. (My wife does, but too far and the motion of the ship causes blur, so it's a tradeoff.)

I haven't thought of this thread in a while... We finally got to go on our Alaska cruise a couple weeks ago (Eurodam roundtrip from Seattle). Due to time and financial constraints, I ended up not renting the 100-400 mm lens as I originally planned, but my 24-105 was good enough most of the time.

I was on the Eurodam a couple weeks ago, and when our port time was changed (in advance) from a 6:00 PM arrival to 8:00 PM, our booked Butchart Gardens tour was canceled.

Yeah but the revised guidelines linked in the press release didn't mention additional requirements for cruise ships either. This is where those details should have been.