donaldsc

I have just learned something. I did one cruise with a grandkid on Princess where she slept in the pull down bed and it came down from the ceiling. It did not interfere during the day. I don't remember which Princess ship it was. DON

This is going to sound like a really stupid post but here goes. We will be taking several tours in Athens and we have been told that we can take an Uber to the tour meeting place. I have looked on the WEB and it appears that Uber in Athens is a mixed bag. My specific question question is on the Uber app itself. I assume that it comes up in Greek which is to be expected as we are in Greece. Is there an option to have it come up in English so that I can read it? DON

https://www.amazon.com/Ghirardelli-Assorted-Chocolate-Squares-4-85oz/dp/B007AJG21U/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=ghirardelli+chocolate&qid=1661443078&sr=8-11. $11.00 at Amazon and it is good chocolate. Take one out of the bag each day and put it on your pillow. In the past the stuff that Princess put on your pillow was not very good chocolate. DON

Why should an elite status passenger be treated any better than a passenger who does not have status - especially if you have both cabin level. Better perks - yes. Better treatment - no way! DON

Post the itinerary. Seems to me that almost any 10 night itinerary in AK would be better than almost any 8 night itinerary. After all in AK what is important is what is outside of the ship and the places and times of the port stops and what is on the ship is irrelevant. DON

If it is a pull down bunk it stays in the ceiling if it isn't being used. What difference would it make since you will never see it. DON

It is also possible that it is very well purified and they then add back some electrolytes to make it taste better. Not in the same area but sort of related. I use distilled water to make espresso in my espresso machine but I have a brew mix of electrolyte water that I add to the DW. Distilled water is bad for the espresso machine and it also does not make good espresso. DON

It is the same reason that some people always drink bottled water at home. They are convinced that the tap water is not drinkable and bottle water is better. Now I will agree that in some places the tap water does not taste good but in most places it is tonally drinkable. DON

I did not know that this group existed. Many many thanks. DON

This is probably a wasted post but here goes. We are booked on a B2B Greek Island Star Flyer cruise. Our dates are 1 October and 8 October. We will be staying pre-cruise (at the Athens Marriott and post-cruise at the Electra Hotel as that is where Clipper Lines placed us. This gives us several days for touring in Athens - 30 Sept and 1 October out of the Marriott; 8 October on our changeover date out of Piraeus and 15 and 16 October out of the Electra Hotel. I am going to be setting up several private tours on those days. If anyone is interested in joining us leave me your e-mail address and we can chat directly instead of doing it on CC. I also have 1 tour available to Ephesus out of Kusadasi on 10 October. I have also posted this message on the relevant roll calls as not surprisingly because of the small ship size the CC interest in these cruises has been almost non existent. DON

All of this info is easily available on the internet. Go into Google maps and then click on the restaurants near your hotel. Google is your friend. DON

When I am blocked by multiple people in a hall way I get behind them and say in a loud annoying voice "excuse me - I want to get by you". They sometimes actually move. I have one great idea to handle the GREAT CELL PHONE CONTROVERSY . In addition to having designated smoking areas on the ship we should also have designated cell phone areas. We then install cell phone jammers in the rest of the ship. Before anyone jumps on me - I am not being serious about this idea. Or am I? DON

I will admit that I did exaggerate just a bit. OK - maybe more than a bit. However part of it was true. I do not like any bus tours because I want to be in control of where we go, when we stop to look at stuff and when we don't stop. Taking photos through the window of a bus always results in bad photos and the interesting stuff always seems to be on the other side of the bus. It also seems that every bus tour or bus trip I have ever taken has one couple on it who come back late.. Also I prefer to stay in B&Bs instead of large lodges. I have taken 2 guided tours in my travels One was the tour in Cuba and the story I told of having to sneak out to have a dinner w just my wife was true. The other was a Greek tour where the guide that we had for the entire week was so bad and so boring (he sounded like the stereotype pedantic university lecturer) that the tour company gave us a $1000 each refund on our tour cost. The only tour train trip I have taken anywhere was the train from Anchorage to Denali. The scenery was certainly very pretty except that the train would not stop when I wanted to look at something for a longer time. The mother bear and her cubs was really neat but it impossible to get photographs of them as we wizzed by them at 30 MPH. I should finally add that I do love AK and have been there maybe 10 or 15 times. We take our grandkids on a trip to AK w/o their parents when they turn 10. We have toured by ships ranging in size from Princess sized to ships that hold just 50 passengers. We just came back from a cruise on a ship that held 180 passengers. We have done a 2 1/2 month driving trip from Las Vegas to AK and back. We had booked a trip on a Hurtigrutin ship that was going to take us all the way to Nome which was an unfortunate victim of Covid. We have cruised if you want to call it that on Alaska Marine Highway ferries which were wonderful. I have done 3 photo trips to AK including one in Fairbanks in February to do aurora photography. The aurora were great and the photos were wonderful but I have never been so cold in my life. Think nighttime lows of -30. I guess the term "different strokes etc" applies. DON

My thoughts on what you are planning to do is that if you follow your plan the cruise is not going to be much fun. Why bother. DON

The question you should really be asking is whether they supply binoculars and more important are they any good. I always bring my own. I have been on cruises where they did supply binoculars and I almost always find that they were absolutely awful and had the optical quality of the bottom of a coke bottle. They were no-name $20 Walmart specials. A bad pair of binoculars is worse than no binoculars at all. Unless they can tell you exactly what brand and model binoculars they have and of course the won't even know to tell you, bring your own. Also if there are 2 of you - you need 2 pair. I just came back from an AK cruises and they supplied binoculars for every passenger and they were pretty decent Nikon binoculars that sold on Amazon for about $200. I was really surprised. We still used the ones we brought because mine were much better but I would have been happy with the supplied ones. One other thing. If there is any sporting foods store near you try to buy them there. You shouldn't buy binoculars that you haven't tried yet. This is especially true for low end binoculars where the QC is really marginal. Hope this helps. DON

I have been to both places and I would disagree. Skagway is a one street town filled with touristy stores that is totally overrun with tourists. The only positive thing about Skagway is either the railroad or the drive into the Yukon and I believe that right now you can't drive into the Yukon. Sitka is a hidden gem. I just returned from a cruise that started in Sitka and we spent 3 days pre-cruise in Sitka. It has great scenery. It has some great places to visit. Real people live there. Most important it doesn't get overrun w tourists although this may change w Skagway being shut down. DON

I have been to AK many times and I have never taken a cruise line tour. I look at the itineraries of the land tours and I feel sorry for the people who take them. After all they do speak English in AK. That said it basically depends upon how much hand holding you need and how much effort you are willing to do to set up your trip. A perceived advantage of the cruise tour is that Princess knows best (they really know what is best for their bottom line) and all I want to appear at the place and time that Princess wants me to be. Or else you can do a DIY w/o any planning and go into the figure-it-out-as-you-do-it mode. That said Princess does lots of cruisetours so some people must like them. In my opinion if my only choices were to do a escorted tour or staying home I would pick staying home. Another thing about doing a cruisetour is that you are stuck on a bus with 40 of your new best friends for the entire length of the tour which to me is a fate worse than death - both the fact that you are stuck on a bus and are in a group of 40 people. I hate bus tours. I did a Road Scholar trip to Cuba once since an escorted trip was my only option at the time. Eating dinner with the same group every night was excruciating. The first time I wanted to go out to dinner alone with my wife a couple of the group heard us talking about it and unwantedly invited themselves to go with us. In the end we had to sneak out when we wanted dinner alone. I guess you now know what I think. DON

We don't know your life style, how often you change your clothes (there are some people on CC who change clothes every day), your tolerance for basically clean but once or twice worn clothes and how big a suitcase you want to take so we really can't answer your question. Also does the ship have a self service laundry and will you use it. Basically both options work, You have to decide for yourself. DON

Has anyone done a tour with this company on Hydra? Looks interesting. DON

I know that I am going to be flamed for this but here goes. How well behaved and how fussy is your 8 month old. Babies sometimes act up because that is what babies sometimes do. I have been on trips or in places where a baby was constantly crying regardless of what the parents tried to do. The rest of the people on an excursion would not appreciate that. DON

Just as a matter of interest - how much did you spend for them and what were the specs for the binoculars. DON

Have you ever been on a Clipper cruise before. We are doing our 1st Star Flyer cruise but in the Greek Islands. If you have done a Clipper Cruise before, do you have any thoughts you can pass on about the ship. DON

What nobody has specifically suggested is that each one of you should have their own binoculars so you don't have to share. Also don't buy really cheap ones and try them before you buy them. There are lots of good WEB binocular sites and I have recommended several of them on the Photography board on CC. DON

I believe that this is the article that Shipgeek is referring to - https://www.post-gazette.com/life/travel/2022/08/19/steamboat-american-queen-voyages-ohio-river-pittsburgh/stories/202208080088 DON

Adding to your question - would the person w the electronic device problem have a problem if I read my book on my Kindle instead of from an actual book? LOL!! DON