donaldsc

All of the ships and lines that you have mentioned are way too big for AK. There are lines that do AK on ships w <1000 passengers and you can even find cruises on ships that have only a few hundred passengers. On our last AK cruise we were on a ship that held 180 passengers and we have even done an AK cruise on a 50 passenger ship. As one of the other people who replied on this thread sort of alluded to - you have to decide whether you are going to AK for the Alaska experience or for the on board experience. The big ships will take you to a port that lives and dies for tourism and you will join with the other 10,000 or 15,000 passengers from a Genormous of the Seas ship who over run the town. If you do AK on a small ship where you may be the only ship in town you will have a completely different experience. Check out small ship AK cruises before you make a decision. DON

I do not cruise Princess but let me make sure that I have this correctly. They charge you to enter some sort of contest where you can win prizes of undefined value or maybe nothing at all. Do I have it write as it isn't clear from reading the contest rules. Does anyone win anything of value. DON

WeatherSpark is my go to climate (not weather but climate) site. DON

I do not know how thing s work in the UK but are you working w Princess directly or do you have a TA. A good TA might be able to access stuff that you can not do directly. DON

You can almost always assume that any art that you purchase will cost you more to frame unless the art is already framed. One way to reduce your costs a bit and more important to have your framed pictures look their best is to cut your own mats with a mat cutter. This one is only $140 at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Logan-350-1-Compact-Elite-Cutter/dp/B004J1EULG/ref=sr_1_2?gclid=CjwKCAiAhqCdBhB0EiwAH8M_Gub1Dcv__4T-2Ds5-_MP383-243X1RX-ixEdSfax6G5KZgjysJEX5RoCf6cQAvD_BwE&hvadid=174230162631&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9028730&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1945004475725555341&hvtargid=kwd-89456681&hydadcr=28960_9847236&keywords=mat+board+cutter&qid=1672005531&refinements=p_72%3A2638180011%2Cp_36%3A2638329011&rnid=2638325011&s=arts-crafts&sr=1-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0 You can get a frame of the proper size at your local Michaels and then cut a mat to the proper size w the mat cutter. The mat cutter lets you cut a hole in the mat that is just the proper size for the picture instead of being stuck with one of the precut mats that are available at Michaels. Another advantage is that instead of buying one of the expensive precut mats you can buy a large sheet of matting and use it for several pictures. One more advantage is that if you have the framing store do the work when they cut your mat they keep the inside of the mat. I have always assumed that they keep these remnants and use them for other pictures. With my mat cutter I get to keep the inside of then mat and can use it for a smaller picture. I have covered the cost of my mat cutter many times over. Hope that this idea helps. It works for me. DON

I always try to buy a piece of art on every cruise to a new place but my problem is that I am running out of wall space to hang the stuff. However I do not buy any of the cr** that they sell on the ship. I try to find something done locally so it reminds me of where I was and also supports a local artist. The artwork may not be high class artworks but it is a reminder of the places that I have visited. Some of the stuff that I have bought may have cost me only $10 to $20 and some may be as much as a few hundred dollars but it is meaningful to me. DON

Wasn't Princess fined for illegial dumping into Glacier Bay - https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2013/01/articles/cruise-pollution/princess-cruises-fined-for-dumping-66000-gallons-of-chlorinated-water-into-glacier-bay-in-alaska/. Then fined $40,000,00 for a 2nd illigial dumping. "Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. (Princess) has agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges stemming from its deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up. Princess will pay a $40 million penalty– the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution – and plead guilty to charges related to illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship. " And then a 3d time "Today, Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. (Princess) and its parent, Carnival Cruise Lines & plc (together “Carnival”) were ordered to pay a $20 million criminal penalty and will be subject to enhanced supervision after admitting to violations of probation attributable to senior Carnival management in a case in which Princess had already paid $40 million." And yet another time "Princess Cruise Lines Pleads Guilty to Second Probation Violation Stemming from Historic 2017 Criminal Conviction" In another post Princess was tied for being the worse cruise line in terms of pollution violations Does anyone see a pattern here? DON

Why does accepting a cash tip make a person a prostitute? If you feel that way you are tagging a vast number of Americans as prostitutes as tens of millions of Americans depend upon teps to make a living. I do agree w you that treating them with respect is just as important as providing them with proper remuneration. DON

There is a risk to doing anything except maybe spending your entire life in bed - and then you will die in bed. If you leave your home you might get hit by a bus. I would assume that the people who visited White Island had to sign some sort of release and even if they did not they should have known that there was a risk in visiting a live volcano. Many years ago I did a Grand Canyon raft trip and this was before cell phone or emergency locator beacons. The only way that the guides had to communicate w the outside world was with a small radio that would hopefully communicate with an airplane that might be overhead. The release we signed started with "You are not going on a trip to Disneyland. You could die on this trip" and continued with the other things that might happen to us. We obviously did not die but we were clearly aware that if an accident occurred it might be a while before any help could get to us. In life stuff happens and sometimes really bad stuff happens. DON

I always have my Kindle w me on a cruise so I can always kill 30 to 45 minutes reading. I am not willing to spend all that money just to get a seat at a show. Just my opinion. DON

I looked at the pictures of some of the extra cost desserts. I would not want them if they were free. In fact I might not even want them if they paid me $11 per day. Those desserts look like something you might have at a birthday party for a 5 year old. Now if they had a choice of good pies I might feel differently. DON

Is there a good reason that you have to take the 9:00 flight. I would disembark as late as possible and relax getting to the airport. Bring a book w you and read it while waiting for the plane. Your plan will only maximize your stress level at the end of the cruise. DON

I would never tip anyone w food or any other specific item. Cash is king. You can buy anything w cash. Perhaps you meant to say "cash and treats" and not "cash or treats" DON

I would love to know exactly what brand and model the "deluxe" telescope is. Also the brand and model of binoculars. We recently did a small ship AK cruise where they supplied binoculars for each person and there were also telescopes scattered around the ship. The binocs were Nikons and priced on Amazon at ~$250. The scopes were zoom 20-60 models priced at over $300. I will bet that the ones on Princess are Amazon $29.95 specials. DON

My 1st thought was that you had to be joking about an $11 per day premium dessert package but you aren't. Wonder how many of them they sell? DON

We did an AK cruise in August once where we saw aurora sort of - they were so faint that they were hardly worth going out of our cabin to see them. Just a faint green glow. I also was in Fairbanks and points north one year for about a week in February or March - can't remember which month. Really intense aurora every night. If you really want to see aurora you have to plan a specific trip around them which will be very much worth it. DON

Not sure if you can get boiling water but how about bring beans, a grinder and an Aeropress - https://aeropress.com/products/aeropress-coffee-maker. DON

Which they can do only if there is space on flights. You know all the problems airlines are having right now. Also if you have booked EzAir economy class and economy class is full you can hardly expect them to buy a business class seat for you. I agree that the ad should not be an absolute "we will" but somewhere in the fine print there has to be verbiage that reads "if at all possible". DON

I had to look it up "The Dunning-Kruger effect effect occurs when a person’s lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area cause them to overestimate their own competence. By contrast, this effect also causes those who excel in a given area to think the task is simple for everyone, and underestimate their relative abilities as well." Where does that put me on the Dunning-Kruger spectrum? DON

I would like to try a canal barge cruise some time. My wife is fighting me on this because of the cost. Not that the Viking cruise was cheap. DON

What also hasn't been considered is that if you do get them on the ship and use them on board you might get in real trouble with the ship security people. DON

My over hyped bucket list item was my Rhone (not Rhine but Rhone) River Viking River Cruise which we did last summer. It was not that we did not enjoy the cruise. It was not that the service was bad. It was not that the food was poor although I did not think that the food was great as expected and I was not happy w the menu choices on some nights were not great. The problem is that Viking River cruises were so over hyped and everyone who had taken them said that they will be the best cruise we have ever taken. No cruise could live up to that expectation and this cruise was less than we expected. DON

This also happened on our Viking river cruise excursions. They were well organized. DON

There was another picture on the same post of a person sleeping in a hammock that he tied between 2 chairs. The hammock was certainly a lot easier to pack. DON

I will add to this post that to be completely safe you should have 2 forms. One will be a permission to travel. The second will be a permission to treat. They may not be absolutely necessary but it can't hurt to have them. DON