donaldsc

Depends upon where you are cruising to. If a passport is required and you do not get it in time what will you? DON

IMHO all of them are oversized monstrosities, Wouldn't cruise on any of them regardless of the ports.. DON

I actually do that. Before anyone accuses me of stealing stuff moving stuff isd not stealing. It is relocating. DON

If you are recommending a sailboat although Windstar isn't really a sailboat I will add Star Clippers to the list. A unique experience. Kids & Teens. Children are welcome onboard Star Clippers cruises. While there is no structure programme providing supervision and care for young children, they are invited to participate in shipboard activities suited to their ability. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

I hope that you are aware that tour companies have sold tours to Mendenhall when they did not have permits for their tours. They have ended up having to refund monies collect for many of the Mendenhall tours. I would verify that the Mendenhall glacier tour that you booked is still on. Assuming that it is a cruise line tour I still would not believe them if the say "yes it is" so you should have a plan B just in case. DON

That is the way my TA handles it. Any good TA should do it that way. However in the end you as the traveler is the one responsible. I assume that you made it clear to the TA that they were fired for all future cruises. That said a good TA is worth their weight is gold. Ours certainly is. DON

They did it on my recent Grand Princess AK cruise. The tower is much smaller than it used to be and is also in my opinion a much overrated event. DON

We ended up in the Science Museum which he enjoyed greatly. DON

Do you move it yourself or have the attendants move it. Many times I do it myself and then play dumb in the unlikely event that someone comes and tries to reclaim the loungers that they claimed early in the morning. Often what I do it stack a whole bunch of stuff from many chairs on just one chair.

I have not cruised on either line but my brother has done several Lindblad cruises and he has liked all of them. In fact he is doing another one this summer. I should add that he has never done one to Antarctica. I should add that although we are not allowed to recommend any TAs there were several out there that specialize in just Antarctica cruises. You will have to do your own research to find them. When I did my South Georgia cruise I used one of them and they were very useful. I do want to make a response to DanJimmy's comment about Ponant and this is totally a personal opinion. I can't understand why people spend a very large amount of money to take luxury cruises to Antarctica. We have done 2 cruises to the Antarctic regions. One was many years ago on one of the Hurtigruten ships and a more recent one to South Georgia and the Falklands. The recent one was on a comfortable ship with good food, a small cabin with some but not a lot of amenities and a fantastic expedition team. After all you are taking the cruise for what is outside of the ship and not for what is on the ship. Get me to Antarctica and show me a great time. Who needs high class meals, fancy on board stuff and a large luxurious cab. Just my opinion. DON

Princess uses Gastineau Guide as one of their operators for their whale tours. We have done 3 tours w them and all were excellent. In fact the guide we had this summer w them was one of the best guides we have ever had on any tour anywhere. The tours we took uses one of their small boats which I thought was better than a large one since everyone could get outside to see the whales. DON

Anywhere in the world??? A bit more guidance might be useful in order to get a useful answer. DON

Not a problem for us. DON

Type "Princess Premium Desserts" in to Google. There are hits there w pictures. DON

There are lines that include gratuities in their fare so you do not have to pay them yourself. DON

Better than the odds of seeing Mt. Denali. Thanks. DON

We are visiting Japan in November and have booked a ship tour which should give us the opportunity to see Mt Fuji. I have a weather question about this. What are my chances of actually seeing the mountain or is it likely to be covered by clouds. I know that for example most people who go to Denali don't actually get to see the mountain. Is it different for Mt Fiji. I have seen many volcanos in my travel and it not kill me not to se Mt. Fuju DON

There already was a tip built into your purchase. There was a 3d option - no tip besides the built in one. What does the number of empty tables have to do w the tip size? Does one tip more at a restaurant if the restaurant is almost empty? DON

I do not object to the amounts. I also can live w how it is distributed to the crew members on my ship. I did not realize that it was apparently distributed fleetwise. This is my issue. DON

Funny muscato story. We have a friend who lives to take cruises. Really long cruises!! Between long cruises she takes short ones. She loves muscato. On one cruise they did not have any muscato and she commented on that to the maitre d. They sent someone on shore at the next port to buy her some muscato. The line also always makes sure that there is muscato on board w her name on it on every cruise that she takes. DON

Another $2 bill person. Re the tips. I hate to star another tip thread. But if If I understand the quote correctly - 1) The tips are distributed to "onboard revenue areas" whatever that is. 2) The tips are pooled fleetwise and not just to the crew members on the ship that I am sailing on. Do I have it right? I have always been totally opposed to cancelling tips and paying tips directly to the crew members. If my point 2) is correct I may rethink that. DON

Totally depends upon the line although most of them are worthless. You need to go on the WEB sites for each line and check. DON

You need to include at least 1 major Glacier visit on any cruise to AK. Besides the fact that Glacier Bay is glorious another advantage of Glacier Bay is that you almost always get in. Hubbard Glacier is also glorious but the problem w Hubbard is that many times you will not get into Hubbard because of ice conditions so if you pick your cruise based on getting into Hubbard you may be disappointed. I will also point out that as you sail into Whittier on Princess there is some excellent glacier viewing on Prince William Sound. You can also book a small boat glacier cruise out of Whittier on Prince William Sound that gets you better viewing of the Glaciers there. DON

I can't figure why the 1 night in Denali option is any good. This means that you get to Denali around noonish on day one, sleep there and leave around noonish on day 2. In my book Denali derves more than a 24 hour stay even with the current road closure. This was not a good itinerary. Any trip that visits Denali should have 2 nights in Denali and not 1. I am sure that someone else will make more comments on this itinerary but a 3 night AK land tour with 2 nights in Fairbanks and 1 night Denali and then on to your cruise meant that you spent as much time on buses than you spent seeing things. Using Google maps which understates travel time in AK and also ignores stops for meals, breaks, etc you spent about 9 or 10 hours of the 3 day land tour on buses. I make these comments not to denigrate joydisney's cruise but to give cruisematt4 some things to think about before they make a decision about what land tour to book. DON

This is a general and not a specific comment. In any country if you stay at a hotel with an affiliation with an American chain it is usually going to cost more. They figure that many Americans will book there because they are afraid to book at a hotel with a name they have never heard of. Have you tried checking on smaller hotels that cater to Europeans. DON