donaldsc

Has anyone used any of these apps.  Any thoughts?

DON

AK is really booked up this summer.  At this time I would grab whatever you can get.

DON

On 2/4/2024 at 1:59 PM, Aquahound said:

Need to?  Of course not.  Essiesmom nailed it.  If you want to gift, give extra cash.  Don't try to be cute by giving $2 bills, rubber ducks, fruit cakes, or whatever other crazy ideas people come up with.  

If you feel that you must bring food which is a very bad idea just remember that people from different nationalities eat different things.  Many of them will just will not eat the great cheese curds that you brought from Wisconsin.  Also many lines do not allow crew to accept anything that is not sealed in their original packaging for obvious reasons.  How do they know if you have added some original ingredients to your wonderful brownies.

DON

You need to look at climate sites and not weather sites.  There is a difference.  I use a site called weatherspark  as my go to climate site.

DON

One final thing - do not make the mistake of trying binocs that you can not afford or that your spouse will not let you buy.  I made the mistake of trying out a set of ~$2000 Swarovski binocs.  They were almost worth the money.  However the divorce would have been th e problem - LOL!!!.

DON

10 hours ago, Aquahound said:

I'm wondering if RCI is just using Haines as a technical excursion stop to pick up folks like what the poster above said.  Sorta like how ships used to stop in Playa Del Carmen for excursions that started in Cozumel.  

It is more likely that the cruise lines do it so that they can include in their advertising that the cruise includes a port in Haines.  They assume probably correctly that most of their customers will not notice the ridiculous port time that they have on Haines.  On the positive side for the people of Haines they are probably better off not having thousands of people descending on their small town for hours.

I have been there not off a cruise ship for 4 or 5 days on photo trips and my wife and I stayed there several days on our 3 month AK drive.  We enjoyed our stay.  Haines is a neat small town that does not need cruise ship tourists to survive.  They have lived w/o them for years. 

Read this really neat book about living in Haines - https://www.amazon.com/Lived-Here-Know-Your-Name/dp/1565123166.  It is a great read.

DON

I continue to do exactly what I have always done on cruises which is "none of any of the above".  As a result of doing absolutely nothing I have never gotten sick on any cruise I have ever taken.  I assume that this may be because my constant exposure to stuff has caused me to develop immunities to stuff.  All of you who are really careful about stuff will probably get sick the first time something breaks through your exposure barriers.  At least that is what I think.

DON

32 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

Yes, it's your tour but the question was *why* is the cabin # necessary. You answered that you asked for it but not why. So why do you ask for it? Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂 

If I need to get in contact with them by phone I use the cabin #.  Nobody in any of my many tours has ever objected to giving me this information or any other reasonable information.

DON

On 1/31/2024 at 8:00 PM, ldubs said:

 

 

Kind of scratching my head why a roll coordinator would need our cabin number on a spreadsheet.  I wouldn't give it either. 

I have set up lots of private tours.  In my last Japan cruise I set up 10 of them.  Once I determine that you are really interested and not just tour shopping I always ask for your e-mail and cabin #.  If you don't want to give it to me you don't get to join my tour group.  Bottom line - my tour so my rules.  I have never had any problem filling my tours and to my knowledge nobody in any of my groups has ever been robbed.

DON

Your question is the equivalent of asking which tastes better beef or chicken and is totally unanswerable.  However if you insist on an answer I would give anything AK a 9.5 and any cruise along the American / Canadian east coast a maximum of 2.

DON

Just now, jtwind said:

Any idea how I can find out?  I'm on a Princess cruise out of Galveston.  Maybe I'll hop on the Princess forum.

Contact your TA or the cruise line.

DON

We are going an aurora cruise in Norway this winter.  Does anyone think that we should strap on crampons with us?

DON

Contact your TA or Viking directly.  They should know.

DON

There are lots of sites on the WEB that will give you an idea of the weather you might get at those ports.  However just remember that weather and climate are 2 different things.  The weatherspark site is what I consider the best climate site out there.

DON

Type "cruise ship cabin sizes" into Google.

DON

43 minutes ago, Stevepcb64 said:

I think we are on the same tour as you are. Check your current itinerary, ours just started showing the hotel this week. We are at the Westmark downtown. We are going to go ahead and rent a car to get the most out of the short time we have there. Plan is quick lunch at Cookie Jar, if we have time. Gold Dredge 8 (includes pipeline), then North Pole, Pioneer Village and downtown waterfront area if we have time. Dinner at maybe Pump House. Return Car, sleep, whew I'm tired already....lol.

This review of North Pole AK describes my feelings about the place better than I can.  The TripAdvisor reviewer gave it 2 of 5 stars.  I would give it 1 of 5 and only because you can't give it zero stars.

"I read reviews on Trip Advisor prior to heading over to North Pole from Fairbanks. The reviews seemed promising, and our waiter at breakfast talked it up. We we were really disappointed. The store has a good amount of Christmas ornaments, and they have free pictures with Santa. I was able to see the entire store in about 10 minutes, and I didn't find anything unique worth buying. There are also reindeer at the other end of the parking lot, which you can pay to go into the enclosure and feed. Not sure how much that costs, as I didn't not go for the experience. Overall, a disappointment. I have seen better Christmas shops pop up in the malls around the holidays."

DON

On 5/26/2023 at 6:29 AM, navybankerteacher said:

It makes one wonder - what is so hard about about going in the right direction?

Maybe they were British.  As an aside I would not step aside for the 5 abreast group.  I also do not step aside for large groups in corridors.

As aside the thing that I do or maybe I should day "do not do" that everyone seems to do is play the stupid on board games such as Trivia or "find the ducks".  I don't do them on land so why should I do them on a ship.

DON

Think about this.  Almost every cruise to AK stops at Juneau and Ketchikan.  Frequent AK visitors have been to the big 3 AK ports more times than they can count.  Kudos to Regent for trying something different.

DON

3 hours ago, hrt4girls said:

Thanks for all your suggestions.  We haven't been assigned a hotel yet.  I think we have decided to use the bus and the university shuttle to explore the museum, the animal research center and perhaps figure out how to get a look at the pipeline.  We will only have the rest of the arrival day for exploring, so there isn't enough time to get the use out of a rental car.

I would disagree w you on your bus versus car logic.  How much would a car rental cost?  How long are you going to wait for buses and how much faster would it be to get from one place to another by car versus bus.  How much time will you waste walking from the nearest bus stop to where you want to be.  Do you want your short visit in Fairbanks to be limited by where you can get to by bus.  When are you going to get back to Fairbanks - probably never.  

Just think about it before you make a decision.  You can go onto Google Maps and work out you bus route options.  You can always reserve a car and cancel it later.  I am sure that Northern Aurora can provide her thoughts on this subject.

DON

9 hours ago, katmu said:

Hello- I am in my early 50s and will be cruising solo.  I’m looking at Eastern and Southern Caribbean cruises in either late November or early December.  Both of these lines would be new to me, although I am booked on a HAL cruise for next May with my family.  I was looking at these 2 cruises for different reasons.

The Royal cruise is a hosted singles cruise.  I’m not particularly interested in dating but a cruise where I know there will be well-attended events for solos does appeal to me.  I’m not as excited about the big ship, potential for lots of kids on board, and it’s obviously 7 days vs. 11 days.  Price wise, the base fare of the 7 day on Symphony of the Seas is cheaper but once I add gratuities, internet, and the non-alcoholic drinks package, it really only saves about $200.  HAL includes a full drinks package, 1 specialty dining, 2 shore excursions and $300 OBC though as well.  The HAL itinerary appeals to me more, but I know HAL has cut back on some of their music onboard recently so that is a bit of a concern.  I’ve been reading the Midwest thread on the HAL board that’s showing the daily events on the Eurodam currently, and I think there are enough events that interest me to keep me busy.  I do want time to relax on the sea days as well.

I’m hoping to hear from people who have sailed on either of these ships on adults only cruises, or people who can give me experience with both lines.   I have been to Miami and Fort Lauderdale for previous cruises, but all of the ports on both of these cruises would be new to me.

 

Symphony of the Seas

 Day Port 

 Day 1 Miami, FL 4:00pm

 Day 2 CocoCay, Bahamas 7:00am 5:00pm  A beach. Who cares.  A wasted day.

 Day 3 At Sea 

 Day 4 San Juan, Puerto Rico 10:30am 6:00pm  Puerto Rico is hardly exciting.

 Day 5 St. Maarten 8:00am 6:00pm  Nov 28, 2022 — Maarten is recovering at record speed, welcoming six ships and 15,000 passengers in one day.

 Day 6At Sea 

 Day 7At Sea 

 Day 8 Miami, FL 6:00am

 

 

 

 

All 3 ports for Symphony are worse, worser and worserest!!

DON

If you are into cars Fairbanks has one of the best car museum anywhere - https://www.fountainheadmuseum.com/.  One of the neat things that they do is to combine great cars with period appropriate fashions.  I hit the museum every time I am in Fairbanks.

DON

I assume that you are going on an aurora cruise. I am doing the same cruise.  I hope that you can set things up so they will notify you to wake up and go outside in the middle of the night if there are aurora out this.  This means that you should leave your warm clothing easily accessible so you can get dressed quickly to get outside.  At least that is my plan.

DON

We are doing a aurora cruise in a few weeks.  We have several days that they call "scenic cruising" as we go up and then down the Norwegian coast.  I have done this in the summer and will now be doing it during the winter.  My point is that there is a difference between scenic cruising at sea and sea days.  Scenic cruising is OK.  To me sea days on any line without any scenic aspects or other redeeming features are a total bore.

DON

28 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It apparently depends on one's particular home country/culture,  For example, most Americans are used to handling questions about work, but we have found that many Europeans are uncomfortable discussing that topic with strangers.  After 50+ years of extensive travel we have learned not to bring-up work-related questions until we get to know the person.  When we started cruising on the small ship luxury lines (where most passengers obviously have some money/success) we often found that we spent many hours chatting with others before anyone brought up work.

 

On Princess we once made friends with another couple and hung out with them for several evenings before we ever talked about work.  It turned out that our new friend was a retired Police Officer who told us he had learned to not talk about it since it made some folks uncomfortable.  On another cruise we met an active FBI Special Agent who told us that many folks were scared-off when they found out his profession :).  

 

By the way, I once had some fun on Seabourn when another asked what kind of work I did and I responded, "garbage man."  He turned out to be a Hollywood Producer and we became quite friendly on the long cruise.   On one cruise, shortly after we retired, an obviously intoxicated passenger asked DW what "she did."  Without missing a beat she responded "I play."  That answer got a lot of laughs from others :).

 

Hank

My wife worked in the nuclear field and she had a significant security clearance level.  Basically she was not allowed to discuss exactly what she was doing at any time with anyone including me.  Her answer to what her job was would be either made up or "I am not allowed to tell you" depending upon her mood at the time.  In my case I was the laboratory manager at the Las Vegas wastewater treatment plant.  I was tempted to respond w "I work with s**t" when asked.  

DON

What intrigues me is that I do not suffer when I am off the ship on a port day.  It just happens after we get home.  Go figure.

DON