donaldsc

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

13 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

The advent of the jet made the ocean liner (the way for passengers to cross oceans) essentially obsolete.  Why spend four or so days on a ship from the US to the UK when a plane can do it in seven or so hours?  There are those who have asked why QM2 spends a week doing what she could in five or so days:  the fact is that there is no real market for fast surface crossings.  If someone is in a hurry they fly;  if they want a sea voyage, they want time at sea - so a week makes sense - rather than trying the much more expensive (in fuel costs) top speed compromise.

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

14 minutes ago, threebluestars said:

They have been cancelling all Princess Paris excursions through August - probably because of the Olympics. The Le Havre stop is still on, but not the excursions Princess runs to Paris - you may be able to find 3rd party or do the train, but then no guarantee back to the ship.

 

 

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

15 minutes ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

Due to security, it's unlikely they'll do tours of the bridge. That said, many offer my favorite tour: the backstage tour of the theater where you'll get to meet the cast of the production show and ask them any questions (literally ANY questions fro auditions to putting on show on it's feet and seeing the final product).

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

On 6/17/2024 at 5:22 AM, Coral said:

Cruise fares are often cheaper on one way. Often the price balances out with air fare.

On 6/14/2024 at 10:27 PM, Kitty Ellas Mom said:

I'm sure this has been covered a lot, but I'm contemplating a Seattle round trip to Alaska which I didn't consider before b/c I was determined to do the Vancouver to Whittier (booked 2020, 2021...). But I want to go with a group that's going there in early July 2025, and plus Seattle is massively lower cost for airfare for us coming from the east coast, and I always wanted to see Seattle.

 

But I'm scared of the day that the ship goes from Seattle to Alaska, b/c of rough seas.  I did not get at all seasick on my one cruise so far but it was a Canada / New England from NYC to Quebec City.  I don't remember hearing anything before the cruise about rough seas on that itinerary.  One of my teenage sons gets motion sick from things like roller coasters (and even Hamilton, b/c of watching the rotating stage).  I brought all the seasickness meds, ginger candies, and sea bands on my one cruise and didn't need to use any of it, so I know what to bring.  If this son comes I may get him the prescription patch.

 

Are there other parts of the itinerary to be scared of beyond just that first and last sea day?  This is Royal Princess July 5, 2025 that includes Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican and Glacier Bay (I probalby got the order wrong...).

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

1 hour ago, NWA395 said:

We did a cancel and rebook on two cruises.  TA was able to do the rebook on a hold until we could cancel through Princess.  

 

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

On 6/11/2024 at 6:35 PM, SoloAlaska said:

Unfortunately it’s not my choice. The cruise itself isn’t more but the hotel is over 100$ more per night when booked with the TA. This is part of a big company but a local person. My uncle insists on using an agent. It’s causing me so much anxiety to not have control and to have to settle on things because of her.

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

4 hours ago, Coral said:

Yea - I know my RCCL cruise was my least favorite. They treated it like a Caribbean cruise with shopping talks and that was it. We had no cool Alaska activities, our port times were horrible, etc... Unless you are going for the ship, I would put RCCL last on my list - though who goes to Alaska for the ship?

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

3 minutes ago, Lextraste said:

It's disappointing when you receive an email promising a useful tool like that, only to find it's not clear or intuitive once you try to use it.

However considering that it is from Princess IT what else would you expect.

DON

I did not wade my way through your complicated explanations.  However any good TA would not have let all that happen.  They would take care of it quickly without making you do the work.

Yet another reason to use a good TA.

DON

If you go on a small ship cruise they often have an open bridge policy which means that you can spend as much time on the bridge as you wish.  Yet another advantage of small ship cruising.

DON

I don't care what group or interest it is - any group of 600 people on a ship will be intrusive and will end up taking ship venues.  Problem is that it is hard to keep track of them.

DON

Also w 10 people at a table they can't all talk to each other anyway w/o shouting.  Just go w 2 tables and switch people around.

DON

I believe that the ports should and hopefully will eventually do with all the cruise ports what many of the National Parks have done - ration the number of visitors.  Once that number of has been reached admit no more visitors.  The people who insist in cruising on the Genormous of the Seas type ships should just go out to sea somewhere and anchor or cruise slowly in circles so that the people who feel that they have to cruise on these ships can stay at sea and do whatever they wish.  The private islands in the Caribbean already partly serve this function fairly well.  Genormous of the Seas type ships just do not belong in places like AK at all.

DON

7 hours ago, mnocket said:

Overtourism is becoming a serious issue. Rightfully so, cruise ships have become the focus of much of the local pushback.

 

It ultimately comes down to a basic supply and demand imbalance - too many cruise passengers and too few ports of call.  The only real solution is to either decrease the number of cruise ship passengers or increase the number of ports of call. Since the former is unacceptable to passengers and cruise lines alike, I suggest that that the industry must embark on a program to develop new ports of call. The only progress to date has been the development of a few private islands in the Caribbean. That's a start, but nowhere near sufficient to address explosive overtourism.  Yes, it is expensive to develop the infrastructure to support cruise ships in new locations, but what is the alternative?  What does the future look like if this imbalance isn't addressed?

Completely disagree.  That will just ruin the more interesting smaller towns.  Just keep the numbers down.  Way down.  That is the only solution.

DON

What I think is interesting is that people visit AK on a 7 or maybe even 10 day tour.  They visit the same 3 or 4 ports.  They never get more than 20 or 40 miles from the coast and never get part the southern ports and say that they have seen Alaska.  

We did 3 1/2 months driving Alaska and got far away from the coast there was still many places in AK that we did not get to.  We did not get to the Aleutian Peninsula.  We did not get to Nome.  We did not get to some of the more isolated National Parks.  We did not get into the fly in places.  

As of June 2024, over 1.4 million people visit Alaska each year, but some estimates say the number is closer to 2 million or 2.7 million. Tourism is a major contributor to Alaska's economy, generating $3.9 billion in direct spending in 2022–2023 and a total economic impact of $5.6 billion. Visitors typically spend 8.5 nights in the state. 

No wonder the 3 or 4 ports that most visitors visit are over crowded.  

DON

This is not an answer to your shuttle question but a comment about the Alaska State Museum.  It is wonderful.  We spent almost half a day there.  

If your folk are into Alaska heritage type museums there is a hidden gem museum in Ketchikan - http://www.ketchikanmuseums.org/exhibits/totem-heritage-exhibits.  It isn't quite in the center of town so you need to use the tourist shuttle to get there which drops you off at the front door of the museum but it is worth a visit.

DON

I will bet that you can find their phone # on Google.  Try calling them.

DON