donaldsc

23 hours ago, Coral said:

Ward Cove does waste time and many itineraries are very limited there.

 

I don't think anyone really understands glaciers until you are there. I recommend 2 days of it because if you only have 1 and miss it, you miss it! I know so many people who go only 1x and they miss it or they don't even get close. And that was their only trip to Alaska. The mountains are gorgeous there also. Scenery is so different from where you live. Plus on glacier days you can see beautiful scenery, wildlife, etc.... I find it sad that people just go out at the face of a glacier and they miss so much of that day. I love May (sunny, dry, snow still on the mountains) - maybe it will work for 2025 for you.

 

 

Glacier Bay is pretty much a sure thing.  Hubbard Glacier is less certain depending upon the ice.  Prince William Sound is pretty much a sure thing unless it is foggy which it was the last time we were there.  Tracy Arm is more uncertain - lot of ships do not get close.  See https://www.alaska.org/advice/best-glaciers-on-an-alaska-cruise.  

DON

1 hour ago, SoloAlaska said:

So are drones yet they are allowed on and kept with security.

Have you carefully read your cruise contract and all the FAQs to see if they address the issue of bear spray.

DON

I am not going to try to convince anyone to go anywhere.  All I can tell you that I have been to AK maybe 10 or 15 times including an almost 3 month driving trip covering 12,000 miles to and from Las Vegas and driving nearly every drivable road in AK.  I take my grandkids on a coming-of-age to AK cruise without their parents and we and the grandkids have loved the trips.  My best cruises in AK were on ships that held 50 - 100 people and not several thousand people.  I even went to Fairbanks in February to do aurora photography - talk about cold!!   I have been to different islands in the Caribbean maybe 3 or 4 times and that is enough for me.  My opinion of Caribbean cruises is that they are all sort of boring but obviously many people feel differently about the Caribbean. 

Different strokes for different folks.  It is your decision to make.  I will be happy to answer any specific questions you have about AK however,  

DON

My replies for AK are very simple -

1.  IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT IS ON THE SHIP SINCE YOU ARE THERE TO SEE WHAT IS OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP!!!

2. ANY SMALL SHIP WILL ALWAYS BE BETTER THAN ANY BIG SHIP!!!!!

DON

On 1/12/2024 at 7:27 AM, DCThunder said:

3/4ths of the "art" I see in the Princess Art Galleries is hideous.  And the other 1/4th is Thomas Kinkade.

Are you suggesting that Kinkade's works are not hideous or maybe that they are worse than hideous.  For me it is the latter.

DON

I have a semi stupid question re transatlantic crossings.  I would love to do one but my wife will not.  Do they have a deals for single cabins.  One other question. I am in good health but in my low 80s so stuff can happen at that age.  I worry about needing medical attention in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with only a physician's assistant or a nurse on board.  

DON

5 hours ago, Ellen495 said:

Thank you for your information. We are also considering Quark because the ship is smaller and it's actually less expensive. They will let me son share a room with another solo traveler dropping the cost.

I did a shared room on the Quark Ocean Adventurer.  That is the ship I was describing in my post.  I booked a shared room figuring that I wouldn't have a problem sharing with a stranger and the saving was significant.

DON

26 minutes ago, WingerSupreme said:

I've done it, but here's my follow up question.

If they come back and say 'Sorry, this is the best I can offer,' am I a jerk if I end up taking the other offer instead?

 

Not sure if it matters, but I looked at a couple of other quotes they sent for different cruises, and they're not even as good as the standard deal I can see on CruisePlum. They're also a solo TA (they are their own agency, from what I can see) and they're fairly new (only started within the last 6 months), so now I'm worried they may not be able to do much at all for us. They've been very helpful, but I also need someone who can get things done.

Just a quick note.  You are not allowed to mention specific TA names on CC.

DON

On 11/3/2023 at 6:54 AM, PerfectlyPerth said:

If you are sea dogs and have never been seasick before - a different body of water is not going to change that fact. 
 

Seasickness is in a persons equilibrium & inner ear. Once a seasick person - always a seasick person - as my uncle was told when he joined the navy. 
 

I've been in rough seas all over the world in vessels small and large - never been an issue for me. 
Yet I've seen people turn green on massive ships with full stabilisers on a sea as flat as a mirror. 
 

So I'm more inclined to say you will be fine and just enjoy it!!

Personally - if I was doing the Drake in a big cruise ship (I've only done it in icebreakers and ice strengthened expedition ships) I would want a cabin at the front looking out over the bow so I can take good "bow splashy" photos !! 🌊🌊🌊🌊

Totally agree with you.  Also some people love rough seas.  One my first Antarctica trip we had a force 11 gale off Cape Horn.  It was a hoot watching them get the pilot on board..  On my most recent trip we had a day of 68 mph winds.  

DON

I am going to come onto this from a different direction especially as you are trying to keep your costs down or else spend the same amount pf money and get a longer trip and maybe even a trip that does Antarctica and either the Falklands or South Georgia.  You have to ask yourself which is more important - what is inside the ship such as luxury stuff or what is outside of the ship such as sea birds, penguins, seal and stuff like that.  If you can live with smaller but comfortable cabins, good but not fancy food and a lack of fancy ship amenities you can save money or have more of a trip.  That was the route I took the 2 times I went to Antarctica.

If you want the 2nd option you will not get a lot of information on CC as it appears that most of the people who post on CC for Antarctica want to go the luxury route.  You will also not get a lot of good information by looking at the WEB sites from the different cruise companies since all of them a puff sites.

What you need to find a travel agent company that specializes solely in Antarctica trips.  Not one that does both polar regions or one that does Antarctica and a bunch of other places.  You need one that does just and only the southern Polar regions.  They exist.  That is where I booked my trips but unfortunately according to CC rules I can't tell who they are.  Talk to them on the phone (not internet but phone) about what you want and what your budget is.  They will come up with some good options.  They also know what bargains there are out there.  

The ships I ended taking held about 90 people so the 100 people on the continent regulation did not impact us.  They had small but functional cabins.  After all what do you really need in a cabin but beds, a desk and a bathroom.  The dining room was not fancy but the food was good.  There was a large lounge where we had our meetings and also where we relaxed.  After all what more do you need in Antarctica.  The expedition staff was wonderful.  We even had the person who was station chief at the Russian Antarctica station Vostok Station (look it up - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_Station) earlier in his career.  He had some interesting stories to tell.

Hope this helps.

DON

2 hours ago, Mud_Shark said:

On a recent cruise, on the library table, there was a half completed jigsaw puzzle with a hand written sign on it that read "Do Not Touch".  It was there for at least 3 days before someone crossed out the word "Not".

 

Except for the fact that it would ruin the puzzle for others a good response to this problem would be to take 8 or 10 pieces out of the puzzle box and hide them somewhere.

DON

Not surprising that the cruise lines will not give you the information even if they have it.  They want to sell you ship tours which I assume are very profitable.  Even if they did try to give you that information it probably be inaccurate and/or out of date.  Use the internet for that information.

DON

Does buying 2 expensive fountain pens in Japan count?

DON

This is sort of relevant.  We recently had a F1 car race here in Las Vegas and they expected a lot of visitors from overseas who typically either do not tip or tip at a low level.  Many of the local venues apparently raised their prices partly to gouge the tourists but also to make up for the expected low tipping which would affect servers and and other customer support wages.

Bottom line is that whether you like it or not you should tip at around the level expected by the local custom or just stay away.

DON

You get into port at 7:00 PM and the ship departs at 11:00.  That means that you are probably off the ship at 7:30 and you have to be back on board at 10:30 which gives you a whole 3 hours on shore.  I can hardly make any comment w/o being cited by the moderator about why the cruise company would schedule such a visit except to be able to say that you will visit Haines.  IMHO it is hardly worth getting off the ship but  you might as well walk around the historic district and visit anything that might be able be open at that hour.  

This is from the Haines visitpr site - chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/hainesak/History_hound_web_site_1b928816-a1cb-4fda-aa15-008ef1ab6074.pdf.  

It is a shame since Haines is a neat little place that has not been spoiled by over tourism.  It is worth visiting.

DON

On 11/30/2023 at 12:07 PM, kayehall said:

Sharper Image has binoculars with a camera attached.  Does anyone have any opinion on these for taking pictures in Alaska?

I don't know about that particular piece of equipment but I would be very suspect of anything sold by Sharper Image.  Most of those combination binoc / camera combinations combine a really crappy camera stuck on a really lousy set of binoculars .

DON

7 hours ago, Aquahound said:

It's a good thing that you found out both itineraries have Glacier Bay, because I would have totally disagreed with the others.  IMO, one-way cruises are far better than RT Seattle cruises and I do not think GB on the RT cruise would have been better than the one-way.  I'm assuming the one-way itinerary is out of Vancouver, which means sailing the Canadian Inside Passage, and not having the obligatory stop in Victoria.  

 

Icy Strait Point is one of my favorite AK stops because it has not yet been ruined by the building of a Diamonds International, Cariloha, and other tacky cruise garbage stores.    

Another port that is fairly unruined is Sitka plus several of the smaller ports.  However Sitka is beginning to be hit by Monstrosities of the Seas ships so if you can visit it now and not a few years from now.

1 hour ago, dwc13 said:

I started off with Freestyle, then WordStar before migrating over to WordPerfect. WP5.1 for DOS was one of the greatest programs ever written for the PC. Right up there with SimCity. The printer support and formatting capabilities WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS had in the pre-Windows era was mind-boggling. Even today there are legions of users who continue to use WP5.1 for DOS on Windows 10. 

 

https://mendelson.org/wpdos/ 

 

Here's the capacity rust drive you should get for your new build:

https://slickdeals.net/f/17217304-22tb-western-digital-ultrastar-dc-hc570-3-5-7-2k-rpm-sata-6-0-gb-s-internal-hard-drive-370-free-shipping?src=category_page

 

Do you have a large format Epson / Canon / HP printer for printing out your digital images?

A comment with regard to DOS.  There are things that you can do with file handling that are still much easier with DOS than you can do w Windows.  The selective DIR command and the selective COPY commands were wonderful.

DON

17 hours ago, rucingok said:

 

Heidi 13 I would love to read your comprehensive post, unfortunately I cannot find it!  Can you please post a link or point me to it's title,...  Thanks

For future reference and to make using CC more useful to you if you are looking for posts from a specific person you can just click on their handle and all the rest of their posts will be listed.

DON

You have not posted the rest of the itineraries so this info might impact my answer.    However based on just the choice of glacier stops Glacier Bay is a sure thing.  Hubbard is a maybe.  Take the Take the Glacier Bay cruise.

DON

Different sides sounds like an intriguing solution to me.

DON

In my wandering around the internet I came across a intriguing baggage service for people who don't want to deal w their bags.  It is called My Baggage - https://www.mybaggage.com/quote?quote=US%2CGB.  I have never used them so I do not know if they are reliable but their prices are low.  For example I can send a 66# suitcase from the US to the UK with pickup at my home for only $160.  This is for 4 - 5 day service.  Again and I repeat I have not used them so this is not a recommendation.  Use them at your own risk.  They do appear to have some good reviews however.

DON

Unless there is a real difference in cost I always pick  my own flights and for me decent connections and flights are always more important than saving a few bucks.  I will admit that you do have to spend a bit of time to find the best options and sometimes the connections that the the airlines try to initially route you by are not the best ones for me.  My go to site for flight research is Google aIr.  I do not book them on Google Air but I do my research there.

DON

On 1/1/2024 at 11:18 PM, dwc13 said:

 

It's been almost a year since your post. How is the AM5 platform working out for you? Did you upgrade any components? How about a new 4K monitor? 

 

I decided not to build an AM5-based desktop this round. Instead, I opted for an HP EliteBook 845 G10 laptop powered by a Ryzen 7 7840U mobile CPU and Radeon 780M GPU. At just over 3lbs it's light enough for travel, which was a major consideration (and why I decided against a gaming laptop). The EliteBook 845 G10 also has USB-C PD and an HDMI port, so connecting it to a hotel / cruise ship TV is a possibility. I haven't installed Cities Skylines 2 yet, as I'm waiting for a few more patches from Colossal Order before taking the plunge. It will be interesting to see if integrated graphics can run the game at acceptable detail / frame rates.  

 

You sound as if you know what you are talking about.  I may need to replace my heavy 17" gaming laptop soon.  What do you think about buying one of those higher end micro computers.  You can stuff a lot of stuff into them including multiple hard drives into them and they are really small.  I could even buy a large external SSD for it if I need a lot of drive space.

The reason that I need portability is that I have 2 homes and I am tired of hauling stuff back and forth.  I have screens and keyboards at both places so all I would have to haul is the micro computer.  

If I was totally crazy I could buy a small keyboard and a portable screen so I could take my full home computer any place I go.  The cost for all of this might be around $1500.

I should add that I do not run any programs that involve high level graphics.  Does any of this make any sense.

DON

When we did our 3 month AK driving trip we used the Marine Highway extensively.  It is really the best way to see AK.  First of all you get to share time with real Alaskans.  Secondly you get to stop at small towns that the people who go by the big ships don't stop at.  Thirdly you get to stay in some really neat places. Finally and most important to you sometimes because of ferry schedules you are forced to stay at a place for a couple of days until the next ferry comes.  This means that you get to see the town after the hoards of thousands of cruise trippers are gone.

Funny story here.  We were in I think Juneau on a Sunday and the town was overrun with people.  We figured that we would relax until the ships left and we would enjoy our shopping on a relaxed manner.  What we didn't know is that because it was a Sunday the 2nd the ships left all the shops closed and the shop owners went home.  Who knew.  However because we had our car our attitude was who cares as there was always Monday.

DON