donaldsc

To me there is no contest doing the car option. Say you are on the train and a bear and her cubs or a moose and her babies are by the side of the track. You won't get a picture of it or even see it if you are looking down because trains do not stop. Say that you are going past a wonderful vista and you would like the to have the time to admire it for a few minutes. The train does not stop. Say you want to make a slight modification of your route because something off the route looks interesting - the train does not stop. Should I continue. I like to be in control of my travel destiny. I have done 3 train trips in my life. One was in AK and I hated it. One was the Ghan in Australia. I was willing to do the 1883 mile drive because it seemed like a neat thing to do but my wife vetoed it. In hindsight I guess that she was right and it was a cool train trip. I could have tried to convince her to do the 983 mile drive from Alice Springs to Adelaide but I didn't. She might have agreed to that. We did do a recent train trip in Europe from Paris to Lyon for a cruise but that was only because the airline cancelled by Athens to Lyon flight and it was too late to make driving arrangements. The best I can say about that train trip was it was fast and boring. I have not been on a train trip yet. Basically if I can't drive it I am not interested in it. I guess that the "Different strokes etc" applies. DON

About time. The real id law was passed in 2005 and supposed to take effect in I believe 2011. Talk about kicking the can down the road. DON

There is always Uber. I just checked. UberX: $188-250 (~1 min away) UberXL: $325-433 (~3 min away) I don't know what the train fare is but the Uber fare is not a bad deal. Also you get to do the trip on your schedule. DON

I am totally hard nosed with regard to deadlines except possibly when there are significant transportation problems regarding significant numbers of people. In my opinion if the embarkation instructions say that you MUST be on board 1 hour before departure time and you get there 59 minutes before or you are running down the pier at that time you should not be allowed to board. There are way too many instances where ships are held for late passengers. This just encourages the late people to assume that they can get away w it. We had a friend who we joked would be late for her own funeral. The and her husband were doing a trip to Hawaii and she did her usual last minute arrival at the airport. The plane had not departed yet but the 10 minute period before departure time had been reached. She was not allowed to board. This meant that they missed their connection for their Hawaii flight. She never pulled that stunt again. DON

I would check w your TA. If you don't have one this is one more reason to book w a good TA. DON

Maybe 40 or 50 years ago. I seriously doubt that this is true now. Basically the importance of cities in the US has moved westerly in recent decades. DON

I figure that whatever occurs will work for us and there is nothing I can do to affect the outcome.. I will report back in January to tell you all what happened. No big deal either way. DON

I totally agree with what all of you are saying. However if you read my post #13 this is different from what Viking seems to say in their response what the question I clearly asked. I guess that we will see in January. DON

I realize that many New Yorkers have never learned to drive but most of the rest of us in the country are "licensed and capable". I also do not see the relevance of the quote from the White Widow story to the discussion. DON

I see your point but I would guess that the NPS is monitoring the status of the road past Pretty Rocks. After all, they can probably get around the problem area and could monitor it by helicopter. DON

Their town - their rules. They have decided that the amount of money brought in by the people from the large ships are not worth the hassle they cause the time who come into Bar Harbor by land and who spend real money in town. Good for them for that decision. I have been in Bar Harbor when it was overrun by cruise ship passengers. DON

Great!! Hope that this policy spreads as we usually cruise on small cruise ships. DON

You also have to consider how many passengers are on your 1st flight and how far back in the plane you will be. It can take long time to get all the passengers off a plane. We were recently on a trip where we had an unplanned very short international transfer time. The plane was a stretched single aisle plane with about 280 passengers. Luckily we were at the front of the plane so we made our connection but can you imagine how long it took to get the last few rows of passengers off the plane. One other thing. What is your plan B if you miss the plane especially on how missing the ship might impact your chances of catching up w the ship. DON

The stuff I have highlighted in red is exactly why I don't cruise on larger ships. I don't need to be on a floating theme park. Also the smaller ships can get into smaller more interesting ports. Our last 2 cruises were on ships that held 150 and 130 passengers. They were wonderful. DON

Hostile ports in Canada?????? They must think that you are really dumb. What are you going to be attacked by - angry indigenous peoples? DPM

I asked Viking directly what their disembarkment policy in San Juan was and this was their reply - "Thank you for your recent online inquiry. Normally, disembarkation is between 9:00-9:30AM unless of late flights/transfers. You are able to stay on the ship and use all of the public areas until the time of your departure to the airport, or you can go into the port and we will look after your luggage. Please note, for US ports, guests cannot leave the ship until the port authorities have cleared the ship. " Seems like a wonderful policy if true. Has anyone stayed on board after vacating their room until maybe 1:00 or 2:00 PM. DON

Better than that was the person who could not name a country with a name that started with the letter "U". DON

We were placed at the Athens Marriott by another cruise line. Nice hotel but the location is totally absolutely horrible. It is a 10 E cab ride from any of the tourist sites. It isn't near anything and the choice of restaurants within walking distance is abysmal. The area around the hotel is dead at night. Try to get it changed if possible. One suggestion with regard to getting around Athens. They do have Uber in Athens and it works very well. DON

We are looking for a hotel for an overnight stay in San Juan. We arrive around 2:00 PM and board the next day so we will not be doing any sightseeing. All we need is a place to sleep that is either near the airport or near the cruise port with a place to eat near by. Hotel prices in San Juan seem absurd for an overnight stay. Any suggestions? DON

I will bet that they even sell clothes for him. DON

Who or what is Stanley? DON

Check out ToursbyLocals private tours in Israel. They will be pricier than your other options unless you can find someone to share w you. However you will own the tour so your will not be in a group and they will set up the tour to do what you want to do and not what the cruise company makes the most money on. We have never been disappointed by any ToursbyLocals tours that we have taken. DON

If you can find a good TA you are always better off going w a TA than w Princess. The problem is finding a good one. The reason is not the perks that you may get but the service you will get when (not if but when) stuff happens. A recent example. We just came back from a trip that involved flying from Las Vegas to Athens through Atlanta. We had 3+ hours layover time in Atlanta which which should have been plenty except that there was a 2 hour weather hold in Vegas which could have presented a problem in Atlanta. While we were sitting on the runway in Vegas I texted our TA to tell her potential problem. Her response was "I'll get on it and check in w me when you get off the plane in Atlanta. " When we got to Atlanta there was a message from her telling us that she had an alternative route and had even put a hold on it if we needed it. As it turned out we did make our Atlanta to Athens flight but if we hadn't we would still have gotten to Athens in time. Now tell me. If we had booked through Princess and had the same problem would we have gotten the same service? I doubt it. That is why you need a good TA. Not a Big Box TA but a real one who cares about you as a person. DON

Do you tip extra at the end of the cruise to make up for the $10 auto gratuity or are you just being frugal? DON