donaldsc

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

Rent a car and drive. If you go by train you are stuck on the train and can't stop and look at stuff when you want to. There are neat places to stop along Turnagain Arm and you can visit the Wildlife Center. Check out this site - https://www.alaska.org/guide/seward-highway. If you take the train you are stuck looking at the scenery as it whizzes by unless you happen to look away when you pass a great view or a neat animal. True that the one way car rental from Anchorage to Seward is expensive but it is one of the great drives in AK. DON

That question is so broad that it is not answerable. Also the answers we might give you may be totally not what you want. Do some research on your own and then come back w more specific questions and you will get lots of help on CC. DON

If you have the need to show off - how about this. I just recently came off a wonderful Star Clipper cruise in the Greek Islands. For those of you who don't know about Star Clipper, they have three full rigged sailboats. The Star Flyer is a 4 masted barkentine w 36,000 sq ft of sail. The next time that someone starts telling me about their wonderful last ship, I will wear my Star Flyer t-shirt and proclaim that "What you were on isn't a real ship since it doesn't have sails. This is a real ship!!!" BTW - sailing an entire day on a ships heeling at 14 degrees is a real blast. Climbing a mast with the ship heeling at 14 degrees which I did not do but some of the passengers did must be an even bigger blast. Not serious but I should do it. LOL!! DON

Does anyone really are what name is on the bag? DON

Do you have any hard evidence that this is true. You could check by doing one cruise where you tip and another cruise where you do not and keeping track of your pours and delivery times. Perhaps you are deluding yourself. DON

We just got off a cruise on the Star Clipper ship the Star Flyer. We did much of the first week under 40 to 45 knot winds and we heeled at as much as 15 degrees and sailed most of the day at 10 to 12 degrees heel! It was great although interesting. See attached photo - the camera is level and the tilt is the heel. One passenger asked the captain to compare Star Clipper ships with Windstar ships and not surprisingly his comments were that Star Clipper ships were real sailboat and Windstar weren't. Any thoughts from the Windstar folk. DON

There is another thing to consider when doing last minute bookings - finding an airline flight. We are doing a Puerto Rico cruise in January 2023. You would think that it would be easy to flight good flights and reasonable prices but it isn't. Ignoring the ridiculous airline fares, I spent hours trying to figure out the best connections. I should add that I am a bit of a worrier about connections and I find that allowing a 1h 10m connection in JFK to Puerto Rico or a really short connection to Athens to be unacceptable. DON

I found several hits by typing "alaska cruise travel agents" into Google. I have no idea if any of them are any good. DON

The way that we handled that on our Kusadasi visit is that we booked a private tour through ToursbyLocals. That gave us 3 advantages - 1) We visited the places that we wanted to visit and not the ones that paid off the cruise lines 2) We did not stop at any shopping places except for a place that sold local artist handicrafts 3) My wife walks slowly. We walked at our pace and stopped when my wife needed a break. DON

San Juan Puerto Rico. Actually being on board but out of the cabin during disembarkment would be more important but I sort of guessed that the zero count issue would be a problem. Bummer. DON

We have just completed out 1st Viking River cruise which we loved. One thing that was nice was the casual embarkment and disembarkment policy. On the river cruise we could board almost any time we wanted although we obviously could not get into our cabin. At the end of the cruise we were booked on a 12:15 train train trip from Avignon to Paris. Viking told us that as long as we were out of the cabin by 8:00 we could relax on the ship in the lounge and even have lunch on board before we left. We are taking our first Ocean cruise in January. We would like to board as soon as possible rather than sit in our hotel room all morning. More important we are taking a 4:10 flight home at the end of the cruise. I know that we have to be out of our cabin early but can we relax on the ship until noonish and maybe even have lunch on board instead of having to sit in the airport for hours. What is the Viking Ocean policy versus the Viking River policy? DON

Just my opinion but you have to have a real problem if you can't unpack and then pack your suitcases. DON

You can look them up on Google maps. Also do a Google search on them. DON

I am guessing that the reasons there are no lectures are 1) The cruise lines don't make any money from lectures. 2) Most mass market cruisers are not interested in attending them because they feel that they are not fun as compared to the other on board recreational activities such as drinking and playing trivia. DON

Have you checked on private tours or group tours that are not done by the ship? You don't have to book ship sponsored tours. DON

Here is an interesting thought. You obviously need to have insurance for medical evacuation. However what if you or someone in your party dies. If you don't have repatriation insurance and you or your loved one decides not to pay for reparation of the body. The cruise company certainly does not want to have to handle the dead body. You figure that since the deceased will be repatriated just to be stuck in a hole in the ground it is a waste of money to bring the body back. So what happens next? Can the cruise company force you to take the body? DON

I do this on any cruise that I am on if I want to use a chair and the stuff has been on the chair to long. An alternative is to take the stuff and move it to another location on the ship. Before anyone accuses me a stealing someone's stuff - I am not stealing it. I am relocating it. DON

When I did my trip they weighed my bags before we boarded the plane. Don't know what they would do if you were over weight. DON

As you know we can not recommend TAs on CC. However I will say that I found a very good Antarctica TA on the WEB. Do some research. They are there. DON