tetleytea

Galveston might have a better harbor. New Orleans is the Mississippi River delta, which gets all the silt from basically the entire Midwest. Plus Galveston's track record weathering hurricanes post-1900 has been better. The port is intracoastal waterway, so it's not directly exposed to the open ocean.

Earlier I was told you play just for comps. Now I'm told you play for the entertainment and you turn down the comps. And how many people do you know who would play slots for hours on end with funny money? If it's that entertaining in itself, let's just put M&M's in the slots. You get free food on the cruise anyway.

That is not math at all. YOU might be playing for the comps, but before I would wager anything substantial...okay...first, there needs to be no smoke in the casino. That is a non-starter. But also, I need to see a means by which you will lose less than the comps are worth. Also I need to pay myself for my vacation time I spent playing Clearly, the house thinks they will make money by offering these comps in the first place. How can I make the house wrong? You can turn a blind eye to that if you want, but I will not.

This sure complicates the math. I would also budget in the At-Sea time playing in the casino, unless that is something you enjoy a lot.

I agree with not slashing the 26-glacier cruise, not just because it is very good, but because in Whittier it is pretty much the only thing in town. If you have redundant glacier-viewing opportunities, slash the others and keep 26-glaciers. Also, try and book a small boat if you can. The literal "26 Glacier Cruise" company has big boats, and the experience is much better on a small one. The highlight of both trips I took were the dall's porpoise chasing the ship. I got nice closeup photos of what you would get if you cross-bred an orca with a dolphin. I sailed both Glacier Bay and Hubbard on the same ships that I took the PWS cruise--you can't exactly just "slash" those, since they are on the big ship's itinerary. But still, I am not disappointed that I booked the PWS cruise as well. I'm just glad I didn't book any extra-special excursion for Hubbard/Glacier Bay off the big ship, too. Now that would have been redundant.

The "unlimited rides" I didn't think was of much value. There wasn't that much up top, unless you were ziplining/skyrider (same thing there). Neither of us had any desire to do it again after we did it once. We wouldn't have paid $50 to do it once, either.

I have never had to change cabins on a B2B. Get off the ship, yes (a moot point, since it was another port-of-call to us). Change cabins, no.

Don't go telling Canadian civilians where they can and cannot sail in their own waters, and then turn around and buzz other people's boats in international waters.

My thing with zip line is, we can do zip line not too far from home. No need to spend cruise port time doing it. Some people say the scenery you are in makes a difference, but I don't think it's a big one--when I'm zip lining, I'm in survival mode. The last thing I am thinking is, "Oh, look at that pretty tree over there."

I saw the exact opposite happen in Canada, and it definitely rubbed me the wrong way, to put it lightly. U.S. naval ships would drop anchor in Victoria, and every time anyone got anywhere even sort of near a ship, the ship's loud PA system would blare off and say, "there is a no-sail zone around this ship. Leave now." These are Canadian civilians, in Canadian waters, being blocked off by U.S. vessels. You could hear the PA system loud and clear even on shore, which disturbed the peace in town. If that had happened to me, I would have paid a personal visit to my MP in no time, and written a letter to the editor on CBC. So I'm more than a little turned off when I hear that the same navy is buzzing by other nations' civilian vessels (who are not russia or china), probably not in U.S. waters a lot of the time.

In Galveston itself, I have to go with Moody Gardens--especially if you're there in early January and their Festival of Lights is still open. And the oil rig museum (which literally fits inside an offshore oil rig). If you look off the Galveston beach on the seawall, you can see operational offshore oil rigs in the distance. The Strand, which is their touristy area for the cruise ships, has a nice pirate museum and something about the 1900 hurricane. Jean Lefitte was a famous French pirate who helped found Galveston. There's also a Harry Potter phone booth near the pirate museum, if anyone in your party is a HP fan. NASA is probably one of the top 5 tourist sites in Texas, and it's on your way between the airport and the port. It's just not in Galveston proper.

The one time I had family airlifted to the hospital, she did not survive.

I just call it people (like me) who are willing to embarrass the fool out of themselves just to get on TV. For marrieds, it's called the Newlywed Game. For singles, it's called The Bachelor. Really, though, I like to volunteer at the karaoke bars and the game shows because I don't like to spectate.

In people's defense, my wife did think this kid in the Haven was snooty about being in the Haven and we weren't. I didn't see it, personally. But she perceived that, too. I just chalk it up to conspicuous consumption. A classic marketing ploy that's been around for a long time, in lots of different product lines.

It's the "controversial" thread.

If you appear on Newlywed Game, for example, you will appear on stateroom TV.

I've noticed different behavior patterns in myself depending on the cabin type, ranging from inside cabin up to full suite. In the full suite I just liked hanging around in the suite a lot more (and inviting my new friends up). Whereas with the inside, I tend to have a much higher profile on the ship, never there in the cabin except to sleep, participating in game shows and appearing on stateroom TV. Then if I have a balcony, lots more lounging around on my own balcony, vs. lounging in the pool areas (or participating in the pool parties). I think it really depends on the itinerary. I think I'm preferring inside for Caribbean, balcony for Alaska, suite for Transatlantic.

It's good to hear that Cagney's has waterfront on other ships (it had none on ours), but my favorite aspect of the specialty restaurants is clear: it's the waterfront.

Agreed. We had a regular on the Alaska forum (won't say who, but her initials were BQ) who sailed Alaska many, many times. Even she didn't know absolutely everything (usually it was the locals who knew something she didn't). But she was certainly far more likely to know something you didn't than the other way around. I appreciate her coming around to share her experience with those of us who had less experience. It's certainly going to take a lot more than Silver tier on Norwegian before you can legitimately start comparing different Norwegian ships with each other, or spot trends on all the ships.

My wife is determined to do a Viking cruise. But I'm not a big fan of it until we exhaust all the mainstream ports on the mainstream cruise lines. Meanwhile she's obsessed with Switzerland, while I'm obsessed with Finland.

I'm confused by this. If they've got a high Latitudes level, isn't it likely that they really do know better?

Interesting--I've been eyeballing that exact tradeoff in my spending decisions. Do I choose the Haven, or Viking River Cruise? I honestly don't know. While I have not always regarded NCL as a tip-top-of-the-line cruise line, I have, however, been impressed with their Owners Suites if I am sailing with a big party. If I sail with Viking, what am I getting for that premium fare? Really?

When I was at the Adventure Center, ziplines were all sold out. Suggest getting your tickets ahead of time, if that's what you want to do. Fortunately for me, it wasn't.

Ditto what others said about Seattle sailing. They check ArriveCan before first embarking on the ship in Seattle, but then in Victoria they didn't check it, didn't check your customs form, nothing. Which is good, since the time in Victoria was so short.

FWIW, I saw the Crown and the Majestic Princess both on my recent sailing, and I didn't particularly notice any difference between the two. Also, our itinerary changed, too (and not for the better), though not by much, and we weren't Princess. You guys are lucky, getting a couple more hours in Victoria than we did. You actually get to visit Butchart.