donaldsc

I would hope that he is being facetious with his response. Sometimes you can not tell. DON

Are you prepared to create and maintain such a list. If not it would be a tremendously difficult list to create and it would be out of date 2 minutes after you posted it. DON

I am one of those who always says that you do not need a passport unless you find yourself in a situation where you do need one. However if you assume that you are not going to do any international cruising in the near future and you can also accept the almost infinitesimal risk that you have a major health issue during your one day stop in Canada - I would say that in this case a passport is an unnecessary expense. DON

Re lasers - this list of forbidden items is from Carnival and I assume that the same rule applies to all cruise lines "Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB), communication scanners, wideband receivers, satellite phones, transformers, lasers and laser pointers. " DON

We found ours through a friend who lives for cruising. It has been a good fit and we have used first her father and now her for years. Word-of-mouth from a person who has a big time cruiser is a great way to go if you know someone like that, DON

Definitely yes. DON

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W2393ZN?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details. They also make other models. Very handy. DON

The last couple of times I cruised you could got to a machine and push the print button and your account would print out. No wait at guest services. DON

There is a big difference between wearing a full dress uniform and a tux. If you wear your uniform most people will respect your service in the military. If you wear a tux many people will feel that your are a bit old fashioned and look out of place. DON

You could almost as easily do it with the old card system. Just go to guest services every day or so and ask for a printout of your account. Yet another useless "advantage" of the medallion. DON

The port guides on Medallion and also on any paper copies that you may get from Princess are less than useless. Don't bother. With regard to 659SCF's post about only using the Medallion only to open your door, I would bet that you can go to guest services and demand a cruise card. DON

There was a post on YouTube recently about a tour that someone took to Paris from I forget which port. Five or maybe 6 hours on the bus; 2 or 3 hours in Paris which consisted of driving around Paris w/o getting off the bus which also meant that if you were on the wrong side of the bus you did not see what the guide was talking about, lunch at an obviously tourist restaurant; a short visit to the Eifel Tower; followed by a long bus trip back to the ship. You figure out if this made any sense. What the cuisse companies do by docking at ports that are hours from the city listed in the cruise description is called lying and taking advantage of people unlike you who have not figured out the lie. DON

Yours is sort of a complicated request especially as you are a single. . I would suggest that you find a good TSS and work with them. Unfortunately your request is unusual that it might be hard to find one who has dealt w your issues,.. Because of CC rules we can not recommend T followed by As. I had not read your comment about the flying problem. Would combining cruises to get to a broad location followed by an extended land trip and then cruising to the next location work. DON

Why do you need a tour to go to Mendenhall. Just take a city bus. Really easy solution. DON

My wife asked for several at guest services and got them w/o any issue. We were on the Grand Princess. What ship were you on> DON.

Neither one - they are both bad. On Celebrity the only glacier that you get is Hubbard and that early in the season you may not get in. You only get 2 ports but you do get 2 glaciers. Of the 2 Princess is less bad than Celebrity. A lot would depend upon the port times which you have not posted. DON

It is actually less than $45. 9 months is 3/4 of a year so your 5% per year comes out to 3.76%. Also your final payment is due before you sail so that knocks off some more money and gets you down to maybe $25. Finally if the OP was sailing on Viking they would really complain. Viking gets full payment due 1 full year before sailing. Not a deposit but full payment. Viking does tend to sail full so the people who sail Viking including me don't seem to care. In the end you pays me now or you pays me later. DON

You are asking a whole lot. w/o giving us much background information at all. Also to be frank most of us are willing to try to answer specific questions but your question is so all encompassing that most us us will not bother to answer it. Come back with some more specific questions and you will get more useful responses. The answers to some of your issues are out there but you will have to do your own research to find. I would also suggest finding a good cruise oriented TA. As you know we can not recommend TAs on CC. DON

LOL!! What I can't figure out is how the luggage companies have convinced so many people that 4 wheels are better than 2. I can't see any advantage to 4. DON

Many of us including me are diabetic. You can go very wrong with chocolate covered strawberries. DON

You got it!! The diameter of the wheels on my 2-wheel bag are at least 2 or 3 times the ones on my 4 wheel bag. Wheel size matters. DON

Makes no difference - just a different inappropriate question. To restate my statement - if I asked you as a total stranger whom I just met what percentage of your income was from salary, what percentage was from overtime pay and what percentage was from investments what would you think. I can't figure out why some cruisers feel that it is OK for them to ask cruise staff questions about their personal lives., Is it really any of our business? DON

Definitely "yes"!!! DON

Both of them have way too much "drive past", "drive through", "view the exterior of", "stroll through" and stuff like that as well as "see the interior of your bus" for me. This is not to count where you see the entire interior of a major museum in probably less than 1 hour. There was a recent video on YouTube where the blogger took a bus trip of Paris from his cruise port - 5 hours to Paris, drive past lots of sites without stopping and which he didn't see half of because he was on the wrong side of the bus, lunch at a genuine French restaurant where the entire group sat at long tables, a short time out of the bus at the Eifel Tower and concluding with a 5 hour bus trip back to the ship. This tour sounds to me like the YouTube video tour and is not for me. If you have to see Rome and you only have 1 day then pick 1 or 2 places you really want to visit and forget the rest. DON

Do you really think that it is any of your business how much he gets, Did your steward ask you how much money you make? DON