ericosmith

I think most of us are accustomed to the Caribbean where the vast bulk of the tour business is from cruise ships. In Iceland and most other countries the bulk of the tour business comes from land based tourists. This I think lends itself more to the 24 hour cancelation policy.

That's a misleading statement. It means to check back 60 days ahead to make sure the schedule hasn't changed. You can still book at 90. I have no idea why they don't indicate that on the website.

it's 90 days

I'm confused by this. According to Google the Lagoon is over 9 hours round trip without stops. It must be an awfully long tour.

At 90 days prior to your port arrival go to vy.no and see what's available there. They had tickets available for my booking when Norway's Best was sold out except for that 8:25. You'll likely have to buy two one way tickets.

If Norway's Best is sold out try VY.no for a one way ticket in each direction.

Or perhaps it's Europe vs. the US handlers.

1. If your travel companion has little to no idea of how to navigate wifi it can automate the process since the device can see the travel router as the home wifi and connect automatically. 2. It can eliminate the need to deal with captive portals on every individual device in places where those are used. 3. It provides an added layer of security particularly in environments like hotels and Airbnb.

A couple of phones, a couple of tablets, a couple of Kindles, a laptop it all adds up. Actually the beauty of a travel router is that it can be set up with the same SSID and password as a home network. That way those who are technology challenged are just automatically online without doing anything on the device.

You must have one of those iPhone thingies. I've never had any problem using an Android phone as a hot spot when connected to wifi. Just did it on a Delta flight this afternoon.

Is it possible to use a travel router in the cabin to allow more than two devices at a time? Or for that matter to just simplify the wifi connection process.

The Empress originally came from Alaska. It will be interesting to see if it goes back there.

Go Green! I've done this on AQV and also just one my own. I doubt that you will find any independent excursions other than at the ends of the trip. Most everything in between is right along the river. I would suggest spending some time either along the Pacific cost or in the mountains from Portland. I'm sure there would be a couple of private trips but a rental car is probably the best option.

While the Duchess is the only one of the boats I haven't been on it never really appealed to me. It's been described as a floating convention hotel by some. Before the Countess it was the more inclusive of it vs. the Queen on the Mississippi and commanded a higher price. Once drinks became included on all the boats I think it lost it's appeal vs. the Queen and the Countess.

Some more info. https://maritime-executive.com/article/american-queen-paddlewheelers-sold-to-american-cruise-lines Looks like they didn't think the Duchess was worth much more than scrap. It also appears that they must have purchased all of our past customer information.

And on occasion they push more than one chair.

Of course if you're just interested in the former Great Lakes vessels you don't even need to worry about the auction. Both of them are on sale right now with the price reduced to a paltry $14,995,000. https://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for-sale/type-power/class-power-cruise-ship/

I did see something about the auction being postponed by the debtor. I don't believe any new date has been set.

I don't know if I'd call 3" more leg room and a free drink a premium experience.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/03/american-queen-cruise-ship-fleet-heading-to-auction/

Just make sure that you're going to get charged the meter rate before you get in.

Forgive my naivete but much of this discussion seems to indicate there were design issues that contributed to this situation. That begs the question of whether these issues can be corrected and if so, have they been.

I find this rather interesting as most new ships seem to be moving away from "traditional bows" to more vertical designs.

I was talking about MVJ but it's back today so it must have been a temporary something or other...

Is something in my browser blocking it or is it no longer available? I found it useful for quick questions.