donaldsc

American Queen Ocean Victory. See attached but we did it north to south. Great cruise. Great ship. DON https://www.aqvoyages.com/expedition-cruises/alaska-british-columbia/vancouver-to-sitka/?gclid=CjwKCAiA9NGfBhBvEiwAq5vSyyy5V9GiDLRWNA2KN7uR2cH1LYjg5aP6j0V2vekTixEGZOtC8CNzfhoCkj8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It really wouldn't matter where you buy them as all the King Crab Legs you buy are frozen. The crab legs you get in your local home town restaurant are exactly the same crab legs you get in AK. Better to dine on local freshly caught fish. Go into a good fish restaurant and ask what came off the boat today. See this post - https://www.royalalaskanmovers.com/the-top-16-most-popular-fish-in-alaska-to-catch-eat/ DON

Two not to be missed places: Hammer Museum. A really unique museum. https://www.hammermuseum.org/ American Bald Eagle Foundation. https://www.baldeagles.org/. Wolfie11's idea of the July 4th parade is a great one. Last summer we were in Wrangell (population 2055) on 4 July. Half of the town was in the parade and the other half was on the sidewalk watching the parade. It would have been a really bad day to rob the banks on Main St as every law enforcement vehicle on the island was in the parade. DON

You definitely need a car in Anchorage. The town has interesting stuff but most of it is near the town and not actually in the town. DON

Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea. DON

I don't think that this exists. There are ship-in-port and other similar sites on the WEB however which might help. There are also sites on the WEB that show pictures of specific cabins but I don't think that they have reviews. If you want to know about specific cabins you might post on CC but be specific and don't post a request for a laundry list of lots of cabins. DON

I just checked on Booking.com. The cost for the room w the 2 of you is $259. The problem with cruise line booked hotels is that they always quote the per person cost. IMHO all cruise line booked hotels are a rip off.. DON

One additional thing. They gave us a bottle of champagne. They gladly exchanged it for a bottle of wine of our choice as we do not like champagne. DON

11 of 18 days on the cruise are sea days. Not one that I would want to take. DON

That is a real waste of money in my opinion. DON

Nobody forces them to take a "low wage" $70k job. Nobody forces them to decide to live in a high cost of living area. Nobody has forced them to not get an education where they might earn a higher wage. It isn't my responsibility to help them when they perhaps made a bad career choice. DON

Ask yourself what is the downside if you miss the plane. DON

Extortionists!! DON

I also see a company called Northern Latitude Adventures which has been in business only since 2014 and uses very small boats and is $100 more expensive than the others. I suspect that this would be a much more uncomfortable tour. Thanks for the help. You are great. We are taking our 11+ year old grandson to Alaska w/o his parents and we want him to have a great time. We have a family tradition of taking our grandkids to AK when they turn 10 without their parents and he is the last one. The other 3 have had great times as have the grandparents. A final question. Do you know of any good 1/2 day or slightly longer halibut fishing head boat charters out of either Seward or the Soldotna I think that he would enjoy fishing but a full day charter would be too long. DON

l looked at the the route maps for the 6 hour tours for both companies. The route map for Kenai Fjords (https://www.alaskacollection.com/day-tours/kenai-fjords-tours/kenai-fjords-national-park-tour/) has dotted lines going to both Holgate and Aialik which visually suggests that they are going to both glaciers but the fact that both glaciers are labeled with the number "3" which sort of tells me that you are right about which glaciers they will visit. The route map for Major Marine (https://majormarine.com/tour/6-hour-kenai-fjords-national-park-cruise/) clearly states that it will be Holgate or Aialik as you say. I suspect that Kenai Fjords is being at best deceptive with their map to make you think that they are going to both glaciers or just outright lying. Do I have it right? I also see your point about the reserved seating and the better meal. Thanks for the info. DON

I realize that Princess is not at the Viking level but they have released some longer cruises. I just booked an 18 day cruise on the Princess Diamond, The all inclusive cost was only $4100 w only 4 sea days. We were looking at one of the Viking cruises but they were sold out. DON

You left out one parameter - eye relief. This is very important for those of us who wear glasses. With regard to your Swarovski comment and I would add Leitz to the mix - you should never try out optics that you can not afford. I would have bought the pair at the Leitz / Swarovski level but the divorce would not be worth it. DON

Don't forget that TSA rules for controlled substances apply only in the US. You will have totally different rules about meds in other countries. DON

I plan to take one of the 6 hour excursions out of Seward. Kenai Fjord and Major Marine offer what appears to be similar cruises. Any thoughts as to which is better. DON

+1 on that. The 26 Glacier excursion is almost as scenic as the Chilean Fjord trip. A hidden gem. DON

I have been to Alaska in different ways at least 10 times and I am going again this summer so I have some strong and perhaps different opinions on doing Alaska. Basically all of the large ship AK cruises visit the same ports (Juneau, Ketchikan and unfortunately also Skagway. I don't think it makes much difference which line since with an AK cruise you are there for what is outside of the ship and not what is in the ship. I am sure that I will get feedback on this statement. I don't think that Skagway is worth the stop but you are stuck with it. The only variable here is port time. Icy Strait point is a better stop than Skagway in my opinion and some cruises do stop there. The most important thing is to make sure that the ship goes to Glacier Bay which will be the highpoint of your cruise. Some cruise lines do not have permits to go into Glacier Bay so they go into Hubbard Glacier instead. While Hubbard Glacier is very large and very spectacular sometimes the ships can not get into Hubbard while you will almost always get into Glacier Bay. You don't want to end up with a cruise that doesn't get into any glacier at all which will happen if you depend upon getting into Hubbard. There are 2 ways that you can do AK 1) up and back which starts and ends in either Seattle or Vancouver or 2) One way either north or south bound. In my opinion the one way cruise is much better as it gives you more ports than the up and back cruise. The negative of the one way will be that the air costs will be higher as you will have to fly either to or from Anchorage. I realize that I have done a bit of meandering in this post but I hope that it helps. DON

The 2 lines are confusing because the names are so close. This is the one that we went on - https://www.aqvoyages.com/expedition-cruises/alaska-british-columbia/vancouver-to-sitka/?gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy58NUW9AGjQlDbfUA9ik8oC1aAz3FTXzMRA7XJlLHu4mWifx2EvuvJBoCwcYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds. This was the ship - https://www.aqvoyages.com/vessels/ocean-victory/. As I said - the voyage was wonderful and I would love to do it again. DON

I did not really mean to have an lawyer. My thought was that many of us including probably me have given advice on CC that we thought was right but was not right. Some travel document questions are simple and easy to answer. Some are not simple but we think that they are and we may end up giving bad advice. DON

We did AK on American Queen last summer. It was a wonderful cruise. Very highly recommended. DON

This is not directed just at the OP but to travelers in general. I love it when people post questions about legal documents or required travel documents. None of us on CC are immigration lawyers so any answers we give them should be taken with a grain of salt. The questioner should go onto a government site to get the answer from the source. As many in this thread have sair - just get a passport. DON