donaldsc

This going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are doing a port intensive Spain and Portugal cruise and we plan to do a fair number of longer excursions. I also want to be able to enjoy the on board meals which are supposed to be excellent. Breakfast and dinner is not a problem. However if I schedule too many long excursions I will end up missing lots of lunches. I checked a number of WEB sites and it appears that they do lunch until about 13:30. Does that sound about right. Is there anything else that I should know about the food. DON

Also anyone who has ever done any kayaking knows that you do not dress for the air temperature but for the temperature of the water that you might fall into. The problem is that many people who have never kayaked before and have no idea what they are doing decide to do a kayaking tour on a cruise because the tour companies make it sound it sound easy and fun. It is easy and fun until something happens. DON

If you're being sarcastic - please note that I did answer your question. DON

Do you mean this - https://alaskawildlife.org/. If so it is well worth visiting. DON

You are sort of wrong. As you said Norway has a lot of fjords and larger ships can get into many of them although new environmental regulations may change that soon. AK has a lot of very pretty fjords but the large ships just can not get into many of them. I have done several AK cruises on small <500 passenger ships and they can get into these smaller fjords. Yet one more advantage of small ship cruising. DON

I am a luddite. When I go to a restaurant either on land or at sea they better be able to give me a paper menu. This has never happened to me yet but if I was on land and a restaurant said that they did not have a paper menu I would get up and leave. DON

But does glacier ice taste any different from ice made from clean purified water. Not really. DON

Tell you why I use a good TA. I am sitting on the runway in Las Vegas waiting to take off but with a long delay because of a ground hold. The delay is making it likely that I will miss my connection in Atlanta to Greece. I call my TA from the plane and tell her my problem. She says not to worry and that she will handle it. She already as an alternative flight figured out and the ticket held by the time I step off the plane in Atlanta and she calls me as soon as the plane lands in Atlanta to tell me that things are under control. Turns out that we did barely make the initial connection but we also had a backup plan just in case. Tell me that your cruise company personal cruise consultant will provide that level of service. DON

Try typing "seabisco" into Google. DON

Drinks w ice in them. DON

Nobody has actually answered your "How do I Find a TA" question. The basic answer is by word-of-mouth from friends who travel a lot or whom you meet on the ship. You ay go through several bad ones before you find a good one. When you find a good one stick w them and do not use them to do TA shopping. We found ours from a friend who does a lot of traveling and who recommended the one that they use. We stuck w him for years until he died. His daughter took over the business and we continue to use her. She has saved our trips several times. Could I maybe get a better cruise price or more perks - maybe. Has she ever given us bad crtuise suggestions - no because she knows us, Could I get the service that she gives us - I seriously doubt it. DON

I assume that you have spoken to your physician about this subject. DON

I think that it is interesting that a person can be banned from all airplane travel for no apparent reason or for a reason that does not have to be disclosed to the banee. Yet appears that there is no universal banning procedure for cruise ships. DON

We are doing a cruise on the World Voyager . I have a medication that I need to keep refrigerated. We are going to be in a veranda stateroom . Does anyone know if our room will have a refrigerator. If not I am going to have to leave the med at the doctor's office. DON

When we renewed our Global Entry we did not have to go to an office to interview. It was done over the computer. DON

To extend your comments - look at the SS United States. She was built very successfully for speed. She was fast. Very fast. She was put into service in 1952 and taken out of service in 1969 because of the advent of jets. DON

Didn't Princess know about the olympics before they offered and booked the tour. It isn't as if the dates of the olympics was a secret. Typical cruise line idiocy. DON

It isn't just security. I have done many cruises on small ships (<200 people) which have an open bridge policy. You get a really interesting perspective when you spend a lot of your day on the bridge. Granted that there are only 200 instead of 3000 passengers in potential danger of someone wants to make trouble but if the issue were just security we wouldn't be allowed on the bridge at all. DON

You could take the bus from SeaTac to Canada place. Bus fare is only about $40. We have done that several times. Check it out on Rome2Rio. DON

How about you get back at them by refusing to cash the check. That will teach them. DON

Yet another advantage of using a TA, DON

I would bet that your TA could do it. She always has been able to do it for me. DON

Remember that old Apple commercial where the the lady throws a sledge hammer through a blah blah blah screen to destroy it. Would they let me take a sledge hammer on board? DON

Simple solutions - either do not cruise w your uncle or go with him but book the cruise on your own and let him do whatever he wants to do. DON

If you read the CC posts on AK - lots of people select their AK cruise ship based on what is inside the ship or which line they have status on. Go figure. DON