dfilpus

Check out Douglas Island. Interesting views of Mendenhall and Juneau. Not many tourists get over there.

HAL has a pair of meal packages for your tour. You can buy a full package or a breakfast only package. These packages are for eating in the HAL hotel. The hotels in Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks all are near other restaurants, which give you a variety of cuisines and may be less expensive than the package meals.

If the mountain is not shrouded with clouds, you can see the mountain along the road well before Mile 43. We had excellent views of the mountain from the train from Anchorage to Denali. We were lucky that the mountain was out both days.

According to the ARN website, you should not arrive earlier than three hours before your flight.. You may be turned away from the terminal, due to crowding.

We saw flocks of eagles in several areas: Eagle Beach north of Juneau and along Turnagain Sound between Seward and Anchorage. We saw individual eagles everywhere.

Some White Pass/Yukon train/bus excursions include lunch in Carcross, Yukon. We did bus up, lunch in Carcross, train down.

On the booking web page, it says: Fine Print: * Pricing is for tickets purchased in advance of travel. Please book at least 24 hours in advance of travel to receive the price above.

The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center was n Ketchikan https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tongass/recarea/?recid=78948 is good for kids to get away from the bustle.

Agreed. NCL doesn’t care, but the ports may.

The railroad does sell excursion tickets at the railway office. Excursions leave about every hour. They do discount for advanced reservations. If you there on a heavy cruise ship day, individual times within your time in port may sell out. Lots of info, including the excursion schedule at https://wpyr.com/

I have found a YouTube video of the Dawn in Riga in September 2022. It docked in town. The Nieuw Statendam is only five meters (295 vs 290) longer than the Dawn, so it MAY dock in town. Cross your fingers.

There are two locations where cruise ships dock in Riga. The main port in on the river is in town walking distance to old town. However, only cruises ships up to a certain size can dock there. Larger cruise ships, such as the mega ships that have come up in this forum, have to dock in the iindustrial port, which is farther from town and requires shuttle buses to town. The Nieuw Statendam is not a mega ship, but it is a large ship. If the NS can port In town, you should have no problem. If not, there may be issues similar to those the mega ships had. I have the same question about the NCL Dawn, which is just a little smaller than the NS. I have not been able to find a definite answer for the Dawn.

We take unopened smacks on board to take with us on port days where we are touring on on own

When we were in Juneau in May pre-pandemic, there were multiple gift shops open n the evening along the strip by the main cruise dock.

The NPS page for this hasn’t been updated for 2023 yet. https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/kidsyouth/jrac.htm

Since the M4 was extended to the Orientkaj Metro station, there is now a free shuttle that runs between the Orientkaj station and the Oceankaj cruise terminals before 1 pm on cruise ship days. No need to get off the metro at Nordhavn.

Those are the ship positions at the docks in Skagway. There are three docks: Broadway - BRD Ore - Two smaller ships - ORF (forward) Railroad - Two larger ships - RRF (forward) RRA (aft)

I’ been using my AARP USB charger at home for some weeks. It seems to work. I would take a backup charger just in case.

As I read your plan, you may not be allowing enough buffer in your driving, especially on days you have an activity in the morning followed by a long drive, such as Denali to Glacer View and Manatuska Glacier to Seward.

You need to factor into plans extra time to drive anywhere in Alaska. The highways are two lanes and often under construction due to winter damage. You will be sharing the roads with buses and RVs.

We saw marmots on the causeway out to the Shrine of Ste. Therese. Marmots normally live up in the mountains, but for some reason, a small population has moved down to sea level. There was a display on the research into this phenomenon at the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Around the Visitor Center, there are largely level sidewalks with a few steps on the way out to Photo Point. The Visitor Center is elevated from the main walking paths. There is an elevator up to the Visitor Center. It will be slow going, but doable for someone with mobility issues.

What I would look at first is the time that you are in port. Alaska is all about the ports. The longer you are in port, the more options you have for excursions.

Glacier Bay May 2019

The Avis office on Mill Street is reopening for the 2023 season. No cab is needed.