David_S29

6 minutes ago, Taters said:

 

Honestly, Kushiro doesn't have much to offer cruisers. 

 

I live in a town of 7000 in the middle of the boreal forest, so I'm sure that Kushiro will seem like chaotic fun after that, or at least offer more than a stroll to the local Co-op and Canadian Tire (today's big outing). 

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences! 

At the recommendation of a kind poster on the HAL sub-forum, I thought I'd ask here: does anyone have any suggestions for sights to see for a day trip to Kushiro in mid-October? I'd much rather walk around and see what I can instead of being stuck on a tour bus all day.

The Noordam is scheduled to stop in Kushiro on October 11 en route to its destination (for us) in Yokohama. I really don't want to take a tour, and would instead rather spend the day walking around and touring the port (and what we can of the city). Does anyone have any favourite spots or sights they can recommend?

On 7/31/2023 at 7:22 PM, Haljo1935 said:

Like a lot of places, we're just hot, dry, and miserable. I am interested, though, in how things are for our neighbors to the north  - I've heard there's now some flooding in places after the fires...? Are the fires all out?

Hope everyone is safe and conditions continue to improve. 

The fires won't be diminished -- not extinguished -- until the snow falls later this month and in November. Forest fires can, and do, survive for months or years below ground in root systems, coal seams, or beat bogs, and then can flare up again when and if good conditions arise...and that's not even counting new sources of ignition. 

This past week is the first time since early May that there hasn't been a thick yellowish gray pall over us. Two weeks ago the air quality was so bad that visibility was nil and it was difficulty to take a deep breath indoors without gagging. 

56 degrees north in northwestern Alberta.

I was seriously considering this for 2025; it would be much cheaper to visit the west African ports on this cruise than it would be to fly to them and to stay in hotels -- not to mention much safer (aside from the risk of pirates). 

33 minutes ago, Magiclady1 said:

There will be no Grand Africa any time soon after 2023. 

Any idea why? The itinerary on the "half" voyge, up the coast of West Africa, looked amazing.

454. Do I win the booby prize?