donaldsc

Inquiring or just nosy minds have to ask - why did you book such a late cruise? Can you change it? DON

The problem w inside observation areas is that they are inside. That means that you will be looking at scenery through glass that is probably dirty. Also the glass may be slightly or very tinted which creates problems with taking photographs. In addition you have difficulty moving around to get the best viewing area. You really need to plan to be outside. DON

I would assume that they have at least overflown the road past Pretty Rocks to get some idea of the condition of the road. Of course once they get the bridge completed so that they can get construction equipment past the closure I am certain there will be more maintenance issues to be dealt with. I certainly would not expect the road to be open immediately after the bridge is completed. I wonder if the cruise companies are telling their passengers that their visit to Denali right now will be severely impaired. Would you book a CruiseTour that says that they will get to visit Denali when in reality you don't get very far into the park. We all know that many of the visitors to AK are totally unaware of the issues impacting their tour. DON

https://alaskapublic.org/2023/01/13/construction-to-start-on-bridge-to-be-suspended-over-landslide-site-in-denali-national-park/. To be started in May. Planned completion date in time for the 2025 season if you really believe that it will not be delayed. I wonder what the condition of the rest of the road is? DON

You can not assume that you will have the same cabin personnel on both parts of your B2B. Tip at the end of each leg. DON

We are flying from Las Vegas to San Juan to pick up a Viking cruise in about 2 weeks. When we booked our Delta flights several months ago our options to get to the ship were Vegas-JFK- San Juan or Vegas-Atlanta-San Juan. Our options for our return home were San Juan-Minneapolis-Vegas or San Juan-Atlanta-Vegas. The layover times for going through JFK going and through Minneapolis coming home were very tight and both JFK and Minneapolis were susceptible to snowy weather issues. However the better flights through Atlanta were about $250 more expensive each so we decided to take our chances on the bad flights. Yesterday my wife suggested that we check w Delta to see if they would give us the the better Atlanta connections at the same price as our bad booked connections. To my great surprise they did so and we now have plenty of time to make our connection to San Juan (2 1/2 hours versus 1 hour) and it doesn't snow very often in Atlanta and there was no up charge to change the flights. The moral of the story is to always recheck your airline flights and if you don't like the connections you selected several months ago they might change them now. DON

What I just do not get is why so many people get overstressed if they do not get a good shopping experience on a cruise. Is shopping the only reason that they go on the ship. Seems to me that the experience of visiting interesting places should trump the need to shop any day. Although I personally am not interested in doing many of the on ship experiences even though should be more important than what merchandise the stores on board the ship carry. Now I realize that that if you have a lot of OBC your have to get rid of it somehow. I have bought 3 or 4 fairly expensive for me watches on board and my wife has also bought one or two. But if not for unused OBC the amount of money I would spend at any of the on board stores would be zero. Even wandering around shops on land is to me a waste of time. I do try to buy some local art or craft items on cruises but I never ever set foot in the large tourist oriented shop. Different strokes etc. I guess. The ships would not waste on large amounts of on board space if they did not generate a lot a revenue. DON

How expensive would a car rental be. With a car you can stop wherever you want to. Just remember that you all need passports to go into Canada. DON

Yes but the OBC has been paid for regardless of whether you use it or not. The OP did not present alternative uses of the OBC. Perhaps they didn't have anything else that they wanted on board. They just talked about the excessive prices for the stuff which was still free. I have bought 3 watches on board that were expensive to burn OBC since neither my wife or I were interested in anything else on board. DON

While the on board price for the watch and necklace might have been over priced as compared to alternative on land prices I regard anything bought on board w OBC as free so they really were not over priced. DON

If you want rain protection and body protection you might consider this sword umbrella https://www.trueswords.com/Black-Umbrella-Sword-17221 DON

I don't have a mobility problem but if I did and the money was not as issue my attitude would be that it would be better to rent the scooter and not use it much or at all instead of not renting it and wishing that you did. DON

Heidi who knows whereof he speaks said to call the cruise company and not your TA. When you call them make sure to have them send you an e-mail confirming what they say. DON

Your best bet would be to use the tour details from the broker site to try to figure out who is actually doing the tour. Then book directly with the tour company. They then don't have to split their fee with the broker site and also if there is an issue you will be dealing directly w the tour company. Broker site can be useful if they are good but they can also be horrible. DON

We have been using Allianz for years and the one time that we made a claim they treated us well. One eventual problem that you will have w Allianz is that when you reach the magic age of I believe 81 the cost of the annual plan increases significantly. On my last purchase I had to buy it earlier than I really wanted because I would have turned 81 before my cruise. DON

What I would do w your France, Barcelona and Greek Islands itinerary would be to do your Barcelona touring and fly from Barcelona to Athens. A trip to France, Barcelona and Greece would be a really cool trip. DON

What difference does it really make if you have to pay 11 months before your cruise or 3 months before. The cost is the same. Paying early gets it over with, Before anyone responds w the "Viking has use of your money" comment, it the cruise costs $10,000 which is high and you could have made 5% on your money which is high, your loss from the early payment is only $250. Big deal.

I agree w you with regard to the hotel director or captain although the captains on Azamara have been more friendly and available than other captains or at least they have been in the past. The cruise director can be more important as they should be out and about and be interacting with the passengers. I would not pick a cruise on the basis of the cruise director however. DON

I may be missing something but if you want a Greek Islands cruise why would you pick a cruise that departs from Barcelona. Wouldn't it make more sense to find on that departs from Athens? DON

You are sort of stuck on this cruise. After this cruise are you going to ever cruise on Princess again or will you return in spite of the way you were treated. I would be in the "never again" camp. DON

We are not allowed to recommend specific TAs on CC. However there are travel agents out there that do only Antarctica cruises. Do a Google search to find them. Tell them exactly what you want and I will bet that they will find one that fits your needs at a lower price. This worked wonderfully for me. DON

It seems to me that you have some responsibility in this transaction. You should have noted the payment due date on your calendar and paid it in time. I use Google calendar to keep track of stuff that has to be done at a specific date and Google calendar has the option to send me an e-mail or text message as many days as I wish of the date. I am sure that Apple has the same feature. As far as I am concerned a final due date is a final due date and the cruise should be cancelled with relevant penalties if payment is not made in time. Why call it a "final due date" if it is really a "sort of final due date" and if you miss it it is OK w us. DON

Check out Weather Spark. DON

Many of us on a cruise are of the age that we just do not look good in a swim suit. Include me and my wife in that group. You can't help how you look in a swim suit when you are at the pool but please spare us when you are in the buffet. DON

Are you saying that you want to avoid a ship that has a planetarium or you want to avoid having to book the planetarium visit. It isn't clear from your post which one. If the former how would the presence of a planetarium on the ship impact your cruise? I would guess that if you have ever been to a real planetarium any planetarium on a ship would be a pale imitation of the real thing. DON