MobiusHky

Layers are the right choice. Best part is that you can remove layers if you get too hot. It's been a cooler summer this year for a lot of places in Alaska. We barely even hit 75 and that was only for a day or two. The inside passage is sticking to script and is wet and cool. Roughly 50-60 and raining. So that waterproof shell is probably going to be used.

Doing your own trip or with a cruise? Cause it's very different. I personally think it's worth the trip to see Denali even with the road closure. But only if you are free of the constraints of the tour group. You don't need to spend all day there so without the rigid tour, you can drive in and then drive somewhere else. Combine a stop in Talkeetna and make it a day trip. The drive is semi-boring a lot, but it has some highlights. For 2-3 days? I'd personally steer you toward heading out to the Kenai Peninsula and hitting Soldotna and Homer. You can spend 2-3 days on Kenai alone pretty easy. Unless you plan to fly to places.

Kotzebue's pretty easy. Utqiagvik is the one that trips people up. Used to be Barrow, but they changed the name back to the Inuit name. Think UUT-kee-ah-vik.

You say that like you're the only one here from Alaska... LOL! Just messing. Totally agree with you on the plan your own trip being better than the cruise options. If that's a possibility. My thought was that the OP was looking for cruise only and that was the best shot for seeing the sights. Of course, it's not our money we're playing with either. Can you imagine an L48'r in Kotzebue? LOL, that would be a sight to see. Might as well send them to Diomede or Adak. LOL!!!

I don't think there's any real benefit to starting south and cruising up versus starting with the tour and cruising south. Both work. Maybe, if anything, you are more gradually exposed to Alaska if you cruise north first? Maybe? But I'd think a better judge would be to find out what your flights would cost to fly home from Anchorage vs from Seattle and take the cheaper route. Might help to know that almost every flight (not every, but almost) flies through Seattle to get to the lower 48. We gave my parents a Princess cruise/tour for their 50th a few years ago. The only reason we selected the cruise north option was because when they ended in Anchorage we picked them up and they spent a month with us before going home. If you goal is to see as much of Alaska as you can pack into one trip, the 6 or 7 night is probably the widest range of sights. You don't get to Fairbanks, but Denali, Cooper Landing, Seward, and Anchorage is a decent cross section of the populated areas of the state. The sad fact is, Alaska is HUGE. People often don't realize how big this place really is. Cooper landing to Denali Park is 330 miles. That's essentially the distance from Chicago to St. Louis. And that's only about 1/3 the length of the state from Homer to Deadhorse. Glacier Bay is over 400 miles south of Anchorage and that's as the raven flies. Ketchikan is nearly 800 miles south of Anchorage as the raven flies. And Deadhorse is 630 miles north of Anchorage in a straight line. It's not really possible to see everything in a single trip. This map might put things into perspective. The inside passage is the equivalent of traveling around Georgia and Alabama and never even getting to Tennessee. So pick your highlights on this trip. What do you really want to see? The more time you spend, the more you'll get to see, but the more money you'll spend. The nice part of the guided tour is that you'll have someone along with you who knows the state and can give you interesting details. If this is a once in a lifetime trip, never to be repeated... See a glacier. Ride the train. See Denali. Try to see a river. Cooper Landing fits that bill. Ideally you'd want to see a fishing village, but the best shot there would be Homer and none of the cruises got o Homer. So Seward would have to do. And if possible, see some wildlife. Denali is probably you best bet for wildlife. Best time for bears is gonna be around the salmon runs. That's usually late June and early August, but that changes so much it's impossible to set your trip by the salmon.

Despite being a Celebrity forum, I gotta be honest, I think you're best possible experience is going to be on Princess if you REALLY want to see Alaska. Let me try to explain. With regards to the round trip cruises, these are "Canadian" Alaska cruises. They stay in the inside passage and you'll see a lot of really neat things in places like Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka, Juneau or maybe even Haines. But ALL of those stops are in the Canadian attached areas of Alaska. You don't actually get to real actual Alaska. And like someone else said, you don't even get to Glacier Bay. Which is still south of the main body of the state. If you just want tourist trap places that are almost more Canadian than Alaskan, that's fine. If you really want to SEE Alaska, all dependent on what you are willing to pay, you are much better off doing a Princess Cruise/Tour on a one-way from Seattle or Vancouver to Anchorage. Princess owns several lodges around Denali Park so they have a deal where you cruise to Whittier, then a train ride to Denali, spend a couple nights near the park and then take a motor coach to Anchorage. It's probably the best all around Alaska trip if you don't want to just fly up and try it yourself. Or even more, go all the way to Fairbanks and see honest interior Alaska. But no offense to my friends who live in Fairbanks, no one wants to go there.... 😆 July/August is kind of a wash depending on how late in August. By the end of August we're starting to hit the rainy season. Odds are it'll be more overcast and more rain. The days will be shorter and feel a little closer to what you might be used to. In July, it should be warmer in the mid 70s normally with some peaks to 80. This year, it's hit 70 one day all year and today might be the second. We've been hovering around high 50s to low 60s this summer. The inside passage tends to be more rain that up in real Alaska. I only pipe in because a lot of people from outside don't realize how different the inside passage is from the rest of Alaska. Technically you've seen Alaska, but you haven't really experienced Alaska if you stick to the inside passage.

Have you checked out the deck plans site: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/deckbydeck.php?ship=Celebrity-Solstice&deck=11 They typically have decent info on the rooms and some photos.

My point is to simply remind people that their expectation of privacy ends when they leave their cabin. I'm not an influencer. Trust me, nobody wants to see me on youtwitface. There is a pretty bold line of demarcation between filming people as part of a documentary or story not related to them specifically and filming people with the intent to earn money off their likeness. For instance, filming people on the ship as you walk around is ok for your YT channel (unless the cruise line says no). Filming people and then using that footage in a commercial to promote the cruise line is not ok without consent. There are tons of cruise videos, walking videos on streets, etc from all around the world. In those videos, people are not required to provide consent. But if you make a commercial that promotes your restaurant in Italy for instance, you need their consent or you blur their faces. BTW, I'm super left brained so even though I'm saying this is the legal aspect, personally I can't stand influencers and what they do. I know it's the "new entertainment", but frankly I see them as money _____s just looking to be rich/famous without having to work. But then, I feel the same way about celebrity tours of vacation destinations. Like when celebrity chefs tour Italy for their show. It's just paying for their vacation. So is it morally ok to film people, no. But legally it is.

That's not correct. In order for that to be the case, the cruise line must have in place a policy that specifically states that video is not allowed without the express written consent of the cruise line. Without that policy put into place, you don't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy". The only places that you would have that expectation would be in your private room (stateroom) or in restrooms or lockers. Again, if the cruise line published a "no photography or filming" policy than you would be right. But a cruise line is still "public" in that you are not in your private property. You're welcome to do the research on your own, but this is a pretty decent interview conducted with a lawyer who says basically the same thing. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18015374/whyd-you-push-that-button-record-stranger-public This is a common misunderstanding of the law. You can be filmed anywhere that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Even on cruise ships. This is the life blood of paparazzi. As long as you're in public, you're fair game.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about that. If you're in the public, you can legally be recorded without your consent. Celebrity would have to create a "no filming" policy to prevent you from ever being recorded.

What makes you think it's not already? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/politics/artificial-intelligence-2024-campaigns.html

Believe it or not, there's a YouTube video on this exact cabin. search "Celebrity Eclipse Cabin Tour 1636 (Aqua Class)" in YT and you'll see it.

LOL, that was me. 🙂

Katakolon, Santorini (tender), Kusadasi, Mykonos (tender), Souda, Pireas, Zakynthos (tender), Ravenna. I might enjoy the ship pulling into places like Santorini and Mykonos, but probably more interested in Katakolon, Kusadasi, or Pireas to watch the docking. I'm a left brained engineer and my wife thinks I'm nuts. But that's the kind of stuff I enjoy.

Awesome! Thank you for the info! That was really helpful!

OK, that's what I was thinking it would be. We have one that is only an hour and a half before the tour starts. That was the one we really wanted to take some time in the port, but it doesn't sound possible. So with that in mind... If you want to watch the docking process, is it likely to be occurring for say an hour before the "dock" time? If I find a place to watch an 8am dock at 7am say? ETA: On the flip side, is the departure time listed after the all-aboard time then? Like the ship is leaving at 7pm so be on the ship an hour before (or whatever)?

I think I've been pretty clear I've never been on a cruise in my life. I understand that there are bound to be flexibilities with the times that Celebrity lists as time at port. For sake of discussion, if the itinerary says that we will be in port from 8am to 7pm, is that when you can leave the ship? Or is that when the ship "touches down" so to speak if I can use airline analogies. I ask because some of our days when we plan to do an excursion, the time listed for the excursion is later than the "in port" time and we were wondering if we would have time to leave and come back. So for instance, if we're docked (no tender) and our excursion is saying it will leave at 10am, but the boat is saying it will be docked at 8am, can we go explore the port for an hour and come back?

Talkeetna isn't an incorporated town. So it's a ceremonial position. So they picked a cat.

They elected a new one. I don't know his name now.

Talkeetna is interior. It's not a cruise port and isn't on the cruise itinerary unless you do a cruise/tour to Seward and then up to Denali. FYI. It's fun little tourist stop if you get the chance. The "mayor" is a cat.

Yeah, Alaska isn't the frozen iceberg people tend to think. Don't get me wrong, it gets down right cold in the winter, but that's really mid-October through mid-May. June, July, and August are seasonably warm and I'd say you are more likely to have 60 degrees than you will 30. Yes, I'm a bit acclimated. LOL. Walking around Talkeetna with my family a couple years ago I came across a guy who was bundled up with a long sleeve shirt, fleece jacket, parka, snow hat, gloves, and a scarf. He said "You must be from around here." I asked him why he said that. He said "You're the only ones walking around in T-shirts!" I laughed! It was 40 degrees out. Felt warm to me?

With all of that on, I'd be sweating. LOL. I live north of Anchorage. I literally wear a Columbia Ascender softshell as my everyday winter coat. I might throw on the heavy jacket if I'm clearing the driveway in January. But seriously, you're going in August. It's gonna be much warmer than winter in Seattle. The low temps are only if you have a stormy day or overnight lows. On the days when you're doing excursions you probably won't need more than a long sleeve with a zip up over it. And then you'll probably be carrying the zip up all day long rather than wearing it. Locations that are closer to the ocean (like all of the cruise destinations) are very mild compared to the interior. Treat your cruise attire the same as you would for fall near Seattle. It'll be warmer than that, but having a little extra isn't a bad idea. BTW, if you're doing the Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan round trip thing you haven't really made it to Alaska yet. LOL Inside joke.

For non-static vessels (vehicles and boats), it's a matter of scale. PV does not scale well as the size/demand of the vessel grows. It's not linear. Small vessel PV may be reasonable, large vessel rapidly becomes infeasible. The Silent Yachts do have gas generators like an RV. You don't have to use them, but you might when you use a higher demand. I wasn't looking for the largest PV site in the world. I was looking for something closer to 80MW. I'm aware they have made larger. The Bhadla site has a footprint of ~14,000 acres or 609,840,000 square feet. By comparison, Diablo Canyon Nuclear occupies ~750 acres or 32,670,00 square feet with roughly the same output capacity. A ratio of 271,644 sqft (~6.25 acres) per MW for solar compared to 14,850 sqft (~0.35 acres) per MW for nuclear or more than 18 times the footprint. Coal plants have an energy density of about double nuclear, give or take. My point was that PV is an extremely low density per square foot energy. The lowest in fact. Meaning that any increase in demand carries a stiff real estate penalty that becomes impossible to overcome very quickly.

Obviously there isn't a need to fully power any electrical system with the complete demand of the entire system. However, when designing said system the generation capability of that system must account for the possibility. That said, I recently watched a documentary on an MSC cruise ship where they stated that the diesel engine/generators were capable of outputting 80megawatts at peak load. I couldn't find a PV installation that matched that, but the Bohoff Solar Park in Africa is 60megawatts of output. That facility encompass a total footprint of 16,793,858 square feet. If a cruise ship is roughly 100ft wide, it would have to be nearly 168,000 feet long. OR if you use the same proportions as a modern cruise ship roughly... It would need to carry a hat on it that was 7,875 ft by 1,004 ft above the ship. Effectively the cover would need to be more than a mile long.

Thanks!