donaldsc

So far. We have been lucky. Our luck on this could change at any time. DON

Actually driving to AK is a fun trip. A few years back we drove from Las Vegas to AK; spent a couple of months driving most of the roads in AK including the haul road; took the car ferry back as far as Prince Rupert and then spent a week or so driving back to Vegas. It was a great road trip. If I remember correctly we put about 12,000 miles on the trip that summer. DON

Even if they did allow it what are you going to do w it when you are not actually lying on it? You are not allowed to leave anything that might blow away on the balcony. Are you going to take it into your cabin all blown up? Are you going to deflate it every time you are not using it? Think about it. DON

Also they will take it away from you if they find that it has a surge suppressor. Something like this will work and it is also small and cheap - https://www.amazon.com/3-Outlet-Grounding-Kasonic-Extender-Heavy-Duty/dp/B075PJYVMG/ref=sr_1_6?crid=92P2GYV9DB3L&keywords=triple+electric+plug&qid=1670992168&sprefix=triple+elect%2Caps%2C141&sr=8-6 DON

There are sites on the WEB that let you monitor the prices of some cruises that you are interested. They warn you about price changes. I have never used them so I don't know if they are any good. Also according to CC rules I don't believe that we can direct you to them. You will have to do your own research. DON

Better or cheaper are generally contradictory when you buy insurance. You need to figure out exactly what coverage you need or want and then contact InsureMyTrip or the Trip Insurance Store. Lots of people on CC use them. The problem that most of us find w cruise company insurance policies is that although they are generally cheaper the coverage is not good. Before you decide on a policy make sure that you are comparing apples w apples and not apple w potatoes. DON

While I agree that Viking provides good service - we have gotten ice delivered daily to our cabin on every cruise that we have ever taken. This is usual service. DON

I don't like sea days and after 2 or at most 3 of them I am bored stiff. My number 1 factor is picking a line and ship is the itinerary so basically I regard the ship as a big bus that will get me to the places that I want to visit. Also we almost never just cruise but we almost always tack on 3 or 4 days pre and/or post cruise as a land visit. Ideally I prefer long (20 - 40 day) land trips staying 2 - 4 or more days at every stop to cruising anyway as you never get to see anything in one of the single 8 AM to 5 PM port stops you get from a cruise ship. However my wife doesn't want to do as many land trips as I want to so I end up doing more cruising and fewer land trips than I would prefer. I can't imagine going back to the same places over and over and over again as many people do in the Caribbean. How many times can you go back to the same Caribbean island which basically has a minimal number of interesting places to visit in the first place. Another problem w the Caribbean is that basically the only thing to do there is beaches and beaches get totally boring after 1/2 hour. After all what can be interesting in lying on the sand doing nothing. That said our next cruise will be a Viking Ocean cruise in the Caribbean. Viking does some interesting itineraries and the closest place to pick up a Viking Ocean is out of Puerto Rico so we are doing the cruise. I did find it almost impossible to find any interesting either free or paid for tours to take. One last way that I am strange. I regard any ship that is larger than 1000 passengers as ridiculously large. The floating amusement park cruise ships are absurd to me. Out last 2 cruises were to AK on a ship w ~ 150 passengers and 2 weeks on a full rigged sailboat. You wouldn't get me on one of those Genormous of the Seas type ships if you paid me to take the cruise. DON

Is there any way that you can check the on time performance of the flights you are looking at. If that isn't possible perhaps you can check the overall on time performance for that line or even all lines out of your home airport. Again I am in the US so I don't really know anything about possible weather or other issues out of your home airport. I hope at least that the flights are non stop. DON

You can switch cruise lines. Royal isn't the only cruise line out there. Maybe Royal figures or maybe hopes that everyone will be so invested in their status level and they stay regardless of what the company does. DON

I am going to give you the same answer that everyone else gave you. It depends. When we did our trip we had reasonable seas going over and mostly reasonable seas coming back. Then when we got close to Cape Horn we hit a storm w more than 70 mph winds and high seas. I like high seas so I enjoyed it. Much less enjoyment for my wife and also for many of the other passengers based on the number of people in the dining room. On another trip I went to the Falklands and to South Georgia Islands. There was a really bad storm in the southern ocean but our captain managed to find a fairly calm route to the Falklands. He did say though the storm was bad enough that some of the ships in Ushuaia were not going anywhere that day or maybe even the next day. We did have a good storm on one of our days in South Georgia. You may luck out or maybe you won't. However if you can manage it will be one of the best cruises that you have ever taken. I do note that you are planning to do the cruise on a larger cruise ship and not an expedition ship. My trips were on expedition ships. Most of your responses seem to assume that you are going to be on a smaller ship with landings instead of on a large ship. I would assume that the larger ships would handle rough seas better than the smaller expedition ships. I should add that you can never totally predict sea conditions anywhere in the world. You can get storms anywhere and even though captains avoid them if possible stuff happens. Hope this helps. DON

So I guess that I just lucked out. Sorry that it did not work out for the rest of you. I tried. DON

I logged onto My Viking 10 seconds after my reservation period opened and the site said that "dining reservations are not available at this time". I kept on checking over several days and kept on seeing the same thing. I then called Viking customer service to complain and they told me that although no on line spots were available they could give me my 2 reservations over the phone. Problem solved. Good customer service. Hope this helps others who are having the same problem that I had. DON

I logged onto My Viking 10 seconds after my reservation period opened and the site said that "dining reservations are not available at this time". I kept on checking over several days and kept on seeing the same thing. I then called Viking customer service to complain and they told me that although no on line spots were available they could give me my 2 reservations over the phone. Problem solved. Good customer service. Hope this helps others who are having the same problem that I had. DON

That was good service. However better service would have been to put the few remaining bottles aside w your name on them so you could have them for the rest of the cruise. If you had not finished them off before the end of the cruise they could always put them back into stock. DON

Is the early flight a must? Are there no other flights that leave at a better time so you don't have to rush off the ship? It would make the last day of your cruise much less stressful if you took a later flight. Just a suggestion. DON

This is the path of the eclipse through the United States. If you really really want to see it you can research to find a location where your odds of clear skies are the best and drive there. DON

If someone is ahead of you in the race to the sanctuary are you allowed to trip them to make them fall down thereby getting ahead of them. How about pushing them down the stairs. You guys have no idea how ridiculous your race to the sanctuary sounds to those of us who have no interest in this feature. The descriptions of which stairs you have to take is the craziest of all the posts.

You have more faith in people than I have. Lots of people including this bunch do things or arrange things that they know are wrong figuring that if they are caught they will claim that they wronged and everyone is against them. They knew exactly what they were doing here. DON

I guess that the answer should be to talk to your insurance agent before you purchase possibly unnecessary insurance and be sure to ask very specific questions and not the general "will I be covered?" question. DON

I typed "does Medicare cover you if you are out of the us" and got this information really quickly. Google is your friend. "Medicare Coverage Outside the United States Medicare coverage outside the United States is limited. In most situations, Medicare won’t pay for health care or supplies you get outside the U.S. The term “outside the U.S.” means anywhere other than the 50 states of the U.S., the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. This fact sheet explains some of the exceptions that would allow you to get coverage outside the U.S. under Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) and/or Part B (Medical Insurance). When does Medicare cover health care services in a foreign hospital? There are 3 situations when Medicare may pay for certain types of health care services you get in a foreign hospital (a hospital outside the U.S.): 1. You’re in the U.S. when you have a medical emergency, and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your illness or injury. 2. You’re traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your illness or injury. Medicare determines what qualifies as “without unreasonable delay” on a case-by-case basis. 3. You live in the U.S. and the foreign hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition, regardless of whether it’s an emergency. Remember, in these situations, Medicare will pay only for the Medicare covered services you get in a foreign hospital. "

We have always carried an annual policy w Allianz. When I had to cancel a trip at the last moment because of a cancer diagnose they treated me very well. We have started traveling again after Covid and we just reupped on Allianz. The only problems with an annual policy are that you need to pay more than the initial quote for higher cancellation coverage and the cost increases as you get older. On my most recent reup I bought it earlier than I really needed it because I turned 81 on August and if I had waited until when a time closer to my departure the cost would have higher. DON

I guess that my follow up question is "why would anyone post some of those pictures"? DON

Viator is not a tour company. They are a tour consolidator that resells tours. They don't do any tours on their own. If they are reselling a good tour to you will have a good experience. If they are reselling a bad tour to you you will have a bad experience. What I usually do it w Viator is to see what is available at a location and use the tour description to figure out who is actually doing the tour. I then book directly w the tour company. May take a bit of work to find the tour company but you can usually do it. Turns out that CruiserBruce beat me to my response. Great minds think alike. DON

I don't see why. DON