donaldsc

I just put them in plastic numbered envelopes and have never been stopped or had anyone look at them. I do have some diabetes related stuff and I have a letter from my endocrinologist covering that stuff. DON

Edits mine. NOT TRUE!!! The ship will wait for you a reasonable time as long as the master feels that waiting is safe. However if the delay will seriously impact the rest of the trip because of things like weather or tides the ship will leave. There was an instance some years back where a ship had to leave Port Stanley in the Falklands early and anyone who was on shore ended up left on shore. Islanders put them all up for the night and the ship came back the next day to get them. The ship does have a responsibility to get them back to the ship ASAP at no cost but sometimes ASAP can be difficult. DON

They are not major screwovers but annoying things such as not getting stuff that I should be getting or trying to get reservations for stuff or activities which I only ended up getting because the agent waved her magic wand. The 2 last minute problems were potentially more serious. 1. We were flying from Las Vegas to Atlanta to Athens. I am always conservative so I allowed three plus hours for my Atlanta connection. Because of issues in Vegas I was uncertain if I would make my Atlanta connection. This would not have ruined the cruise since I had planned for several days pre-cruise in Athens. I called my agent from the plane before takeoff and asked her if she could find alternative flights just in case. We landed with just 1/2 hours to make the connection. As we landed she called us while we were taxiing to the gate to tell us that she had found and had put a hold on a flight. Turned out that we did barely make the flight but we knew that if we didn't make it we had an alternative flights already arranged. 2. This one was on me. We got to the airport for a flight to Japan. This was last summer and there were a lot of people going to Japan and flights to Japan were almost completely booked. Turns out that my wife took an expired passport with her so we obviously were not going to get on the plane. Called out TA again. She got us flights on the same day and we got to Japan that day as expected. The connections were not good and the tickets were expensive but we got there. Again we were not going to miss the cruise since we planned for several days in Tokyo before the cruise but with her help we did not miss any of our Tokyo cruise. I guarantee that we would not have gotten that level of service if we used a big box travel agency or had booked through the cruise line. DON

Everyone in this discussion is in my opinion wrong about why you should use a good TA. 1. They are on your side when the cruise company decides to screw you over which is something that cruise companies do more often than you think. 2. Also when last minute problems occur they can get them fixed very quickly. I have 2 recent instances issues recently where problems occured on the day of departure that would have wrecked our trip.that they were prepared to fix. To me this is more important than any discounts or a few perks such as a canvas bag or binoculars. DON

Totem Bight definitely felt more real to me because of the environment. It is also much cheaper. Don't forget this place also - http://ketchikanmuseums.org/exhibits/totem-heritage-exhibits. It is a hidden gem in Ketchikan and it is right in the center of town. DON

Here is the problem w most of the cruise line supplied binocs - they are 100% total junk. I did a cruise last year in AK and the supplied binocs were $200 + name brand Nikon binocs and there were 2 in the cabin since there were 2 of us in the cabin. They were excellent. The ship even had a bunch of spotting scopes scattered around the ship which were priced on Amazon at $300. I just came off an equally expensive Viking expedition cruise and the binoculars they had were about $20 and worse than useless. If binoculars are important to you you have to bring good ones with you don't count on the ship supplied ones. DON

What port? What airport? DON

Rocks. We have a granddaughter who collects minerals and crystals. Other than that nothing for anyone else. We used to waste to much time looking for gifts. No longer. DON

My comment is that the OP requested that HAL do something that is outside of their normal policy and then the OP is complaining that HAL will not do it. Then they expect some sympathy from the rest of us. Sorry but not from me. Why would they expect to be allowed early disembarkation and did they check to see if they were going to be allowed before they booked the cruise. DON

I can see why the OP might have made the mistake that she did. If you go onto the Virgin WEB site it shows that there is a pool on one of the decks but there are no pictures or anything to show how big the pool is. DON

I may be misunderstanding your question but what is the point of looking at and taking pictures of villages as you cruise past them out at sea. What would you see? DON

The problem with Glacier versus Hubbard is that it is almost a 100% chance that you will get into Glacier. The odds of getting into Hubbard depend upon the season and your luck. This is a link to a good glacier comparison site - https://thepointsguy.com/guide/hubbard-glacier-vs-glacier-bay/ DON

While I would not personally take a cruisetour and I have taken a number of AK trips - I disagree with the OP's comments. If you read the many comments on CC about AK cruisetours many many people have taken them and most of the people seem to be satisfied by them. I suggest that the OP did not read the detailed description of what was promised and obviously expected something different from what he got. DON

Probably mostly true but not always. We did a HAL cruise a while back which stopped at several places in Greenland. I know that the fish we had that night was fresh as I was on the tender coming back to the ship w kitchen staff who were bringing the fresh fish back to the ship that we were going to have for dinner that night. Can't be more fresh than that. DON

How about a week on a sailboat - https://www.starclippers.com/us-dom/destinations/caribbean-sailing-cruises.html. We did 2 weeks on the Star Flyer, It was great. Absolutely no kids at all. https://www.starclippers.com/us-dom/our-fleet/tall-ships/star-flyer.html DON

I was one of the people who made that suggestion. As a follow up perhaps you could find the WEB sites business in Ushuaia and call them and ask them. Don't e-mail them but actually call them. Phone calls are cheap. DON

We did a Thanksgiving cruise with the family a few years back because that was when the grandkids were off school. Awful. My comment on the Thanksgiving turkey dinner that they served is that if you remember Swanson frozen TV dinners - they were better than what we got on the ship. DON

I would hope that you at least got more of that wet paint on your shoes and walked all over the ship leaving tracks as you went. DON

Better yet - never ever book Princess ever again. There are many other cruise lines out there. DON

Quark..https://www.quarkexpeditions.com/expeditions/gems-of-west-greenland-fjords-icebergs-and-culture#departures. DON

I sailed on the Ocean Adventurer a few years ago. A wonderful ship although I think that this is her last year w Quark. I will add this to the people who have spoken of the value of the years of experience and size of the expedition staff that Quark has over almost every other Antarctica outfit in the business. You also have to consider the backgrounds of the staff. On my Quark cruise one of the staff members was a Russian who served for several years as chief of Russia's Vostok Station in Antarctica - look it up in Wikipedia. The stories he told and the experiences he had were great although he was not there and would not discuss the Vostok Station murder. Of it were me I would go with Quark. There are some very good travel agencies out there that do just Antarctica cruises. I worked w one of them when I picked my South Georgia Island trip. However according to CC rules you will have to find the right one yourself as we are not allowed to recommend any travel agencies. DON

As a side note - if your TA either can't or won't find out for you I would fire that TA and never use them again. DON

According to what I read recently they are going to actually measure the size of the scooter before people are allowed to board. If it is too big they will not be allowed to board. About time. Hope that they have the guts to continue the policy and ignore the outcries of the scooter lobby. DON

Definitely NOT 3K. You can do a lot of tours or DIY tours or even extend your visit w 3K. What is wrong w standing outside and seeing stuff. DON

Until you define your parameters for "best" responses to this question are totally subjective and thus somewhat meaningless. DON