rj59

I went for a free one as an Elite, and was fortunate to get at a table full of friendly people, whereas other tables around me were quiet. It was mostly 5 sips of wine and some cheese with dining room staff blathering about wine, most of it obvious, and most of it difficult to understand through thick Indonesian, Serbian, and Filipino accents. To me it's not a good idea now, since you're seated close to a large group of strangers for extended period of time without any ability to distance. As with many of the other protocols, safety and distancing and masking aren't practiced when there's an opportunity to raise money from passengers, the goal being to hook you on wine, to make you feel sophisticated so you'll order wine at meals. To me it felt like a timeshare presentation for wine.

Your best bet would be to search for non-ship excursions, looking for reviews and booking online if possible. Juneau has a line-up of kiosks with tour operators advertising different whale watching/Mendenhall Glacier and other tours. Instead of the dull White Pass railway in Skagway, I book an electric bike in town and ride outside town to a lake that ship tours go to. In Sitka I walk from downtown on a scenic walk to the park full of totem poles. Realize there will be unprecedented demand for tours and limited tour companies and employees, since many left during shutdown, so I'd save bucket list tours until things eventually normalize with the economy and Covid. Whatever you do, avoid non-ship plane tours in Ketchikan, which killed several passengers on the Royal Princess when I was there several years ago, and more passengers last summer on a HAL cruise. And pack your patience and understanding for all the difficulties Alaskans have suffered and face now trying to cope with a sudden deluge of cruisers (you can also count on Victoria being crazy, with wall-to-wall people at Butchart Gardens and other cruise hotspots). And realize it's not easy for feasible for a concierge to bargain with tour operators while they're at sea, especially with the operators dealing with 20 other ships visiting ports each week and multiple ones in ports every day.

It's the Spirit, which I'll be on in 3 weeks to Alaska, drawn by a $90 solo fare for a local. Lessons to learn: --Bring home tests. A ship isn't going to have enough to go around, particularly on a long cruise. --If you're concerned about being infected, don't go on a long cruise when a very transmissible Omicron variant is increasing. Anyone who goes on a Panama Canal, Hawaii, or TA cruise now should not be surprised at outbreaks. If you do cruise, buy insurance. --Until there is no Covid, if you want to avoid infection risk, change your on-ship behavior--avoid bars, casinos, crowded shows, and peak dining times. Wear a KN95 mask properly if you're at all concerned or at risk, or if you get infected. --Don't go whining here or to the media if you get infected and have to quarantine, or if you get infected and don't get quarantined. Carnival is a company that lost billions during over a year of shutdown and then reduced capacity, so they're trying to become profitable again and allow people to live with Covid as endemic, including not mandating masks. Your safety is up to you now, so everyone needs to do their own risk/benefit/cost assessment and act accordingly, just as they have to do now on planes or in public. The medical center is there for severe illness now.