donaldsc

We did the Fox Island overnight. You obviously can't do it on a cruise but it was nice especially in the evening when we sort of had the island to ourselves. I recommend it if you have the time. DON

Type "Bridge cruises 2024" into Google. DON

I get it that you want to see the western states AND also Alaska. The problem w the tour that you are looking at is that it packs both locations into one tour in just 18 days. This is absurd and I am sure that you realize that. My suggestion would be to go to a good TA and try to find 2 separate tours - one that covers the western US and a good completely separate AK cruise tour. I have no idea what your budget or available time is but this would give you maybe not the best trip but a much much better trip than the one that you are looking at. DON

We are going on a Med epicurean cruise. How casual is the dressing at dinner. Would golf shirts be OK? I do not plan to bring a tie. DON

If those were my only cruise choices I would do a land tour. Any post such as this should have a "none of the above" option. DON

This one has no surge protection. I carry the data sheet w me when we travel. DON https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09W2393ZN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 【Cruise Accessories Must Haves】: This cruise power strip comes with No surge protection, makes it absolutely a must have Home and cruise essential. small extension cord comes with 4 outlets 3 USB ports, small size and 4ft short extension cord which makes it easy to storage. Easy to carry and suitable for traveler cruise ships, hotels, airports. 【Reliable Safety Travel Accessories】: The small power strip is FCC & RoHS approved and made of fire-resistant pc shell, making it fireproof up to 1382 F. Portable power strip for travel with 4 anti-slip rubbers bottom, the 4 FT short extension cord can be stable on your nightstand without slipping off. The small power strip works great on your nightstand , home, office, and college dorm room.

Here are my thoughts about ADA compliance issues and I know that I will get some backlash from the ADA crowd. You just can't make the entire world ADA complaint. It is not fair to the 99% of us who do not need ADA compliance for an entity to take away an activity or event just so the 1% (I am obviously making up numbers) can do the event or activity. The people who need ADA compliance should just accept that there are just some things that they will not be able to do. We have done the backstage tour a while back and it was very interesting. It should be brought back and maybe they should also do a good virtual reality version of the tour for the few people who can't do it. I remember a long while ago when the reopened the historical ship USS Constellation which is an 1854 sloop of war. The ADA created major problems because they were not able to make an 1855 sloop of war fully ADA compliant. Fire away on me. DON

This is obviously too late for the OP but I am going to throw this out as a totally crazy but wonderful option - a cruise on one of Star Clipper's full rigged sailboats. - https://www.starclippers.com/en/star-clippers-videos.html. We did almost 3 weeks on their Star Flyer cruising the Greek Islands and it was one of the most wonderful cruises that we had ever done. You usually spend the morning cruising under sail w/o any power. You get to your destination around noonish and spend the afternoon and evening on one of the islands. You don't leave the island until 10 or 11 PM so you stay on the island for a while after the Genormous of the Seas crazies are back on their ship. We loved our cruise. DON

I have one of these. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09W2393ZN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 The only problem is that it does not have any USB c sockets. This version does have one USB A and one USB c. It also delivers 45 W for fast charging. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09Y1RDY2X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 DON

Love your attitude toward safety rules. DON

Before we can reasonably answer your question you need to ask yourself a basic question - is the prime purpose of the trip to take wonderful photographs including a 16 x 20 that you will hang on the wall or are you there to see and experience AK and get good photos so you relive your trip. If the former you will take a large photo backpack and every accessory you have just in case you need it. You will also end up carry a very heavy photo bag. If the latter and I am in this group you will take as little as you can get away with. In my case my entire photo kit weighs ~ 3 pounds and fits in a small bag. DON

Packing cubes will not solve your weight problem. In fact they will make it worse because you can compress more of your stuff into a small volume. You then end up with empty space in your suitcase which lets you carry even more stuff. Cubes let you carry the same amount of stuff in a smaller suitcase. They let you keep your stuff more organized. They don't help you reduce the weight of your suitcase. DON

As long as you get to the meeting place 5 or 10 minutes early you will be OK. Then you may end up waiting 10 minutes for someone who is late. Just be aware that if you arrive close to the tour start time you may get a really lousy seat on the bus. DON

We have carried Allianz annual policies for years. The 2 times we had to use the policies they handled the claim well. We just renewed ours - $1610 for 2 people for the best policy that they had and we are in our 80's. DON

Could you reverse your bed position to your feet are at the head of the bed and your head is at the foot of the bed? DON

My attitude is that you are looking at an Antarctica cruise from a 100% wrong perspective. Unlike warm weather cruises a trip to Antarctica is 100% what is happening outside of the ship and 0% what is inside of the ship. As long as the expedition staff are good you get the same outside experience on a $2000 per day luxury trip as on less expensive cruise. Same landings; same zodiac tours; same penguin experience. The differences are that the ship is less luxurious and you will not get to go on a submarine or ride in a helicopter. Now here is where the luxury cruise fall far short - cruise length. I assume that you do not have an unlimited budget. If you take the less expensive cruise you can use you money to buy a longer cruise. Spend less and get more days in Antarctica. Seems like a win win to me unless luxury cruising, a fancy cabin and unlimited free drinks is more important than a longer cruise with more landings. We have done 2 Antarctica cruises on very good but less expensive trips. Smaller but comfortable cabin which did not have a large picture window but we were only a few steps to the outside deck. Food was not gourmet but it was good and every meal had choices including meat, fish and vegetarian. The expedition staff was superb which is the most important thing. The landings and the zodiac cruises were well organized. There are TAs out there that specialize only in polar region cruises and even some that do only Antarctica cruises. Unfortunately I am not allowed to recommend one on CC. Just use the internet. Hope that this helps. DON

Have you contacted the people who issued the tickets? DON

I live in Vegas. Considering how much casinos over price stuff consider yourself lucky. You got a bargain. DON

Totally agree w that statement. I just would never do it on a cruise tour or a tour consolidator group tour. My private tours varied in size from 2 people to 8 people. DON

If they did change their policy they are doing their best to try to hide it. This is probably so people will not cancel their cruises on Princess. I would if I was planning a Princess cruise. DON

You get a much better range of views on a balcony. If necessary you can go outside and see and/or take pictures of stuff that is in front of you or in back of you. Not possible w a window. Also you probably can't take pictures through the window if the window is closed because the window is probably dirty and the autofocus on your camera may end up focusing on the dirt on the window and not on the scene outside of the window. I would always take the balcony over the window. My thought on the different costs may be that the cruise lines may have figured that if they can convince people that the window is better even if it isn't they can get more money for them. Cruise lines are very good at figuring ways of extracting money from people. DON

Did you report it. I would have, DON

Interesting point. Many Japanese towns also have castles. Completely different from European castles but also different from each other and interesting. How about in Alaska - ABG. Another bloody glacier. We have all seen glacier posts on CC where the OP said that they wondered why the cruise was taking them to more than 1 glacier. DON

Suckered? Did anyone put a gun to your head? There is a simple thing to do when someone tries to pressure you to buy something - "no" and walk out. I also find it fascinating that given that most towns have many jewelry shops that a person could go into but never do - people and not just the OP seem to have a need to go into jewelry shops on cruises and make large purchases. This would make an interesting topic for a research project and a PhD thesis. The only ways I would buy anything expensive on a cruise would be a) if I could stand in the shop and go onto the internet and price compare or else b) if I had nonrefundable OBC that had to be spent so regardless of the price or maybe I should say the overprice it was free to me. I have 2 watches that I bought that way and they are also watches that I wear every day. DON

You may have overpaid. However the price for the bracelet was clearly marked and if you did not do proper diligence that is your problem. I would never buy a piece of expensive jewelry on a cruise ship. We have a friend who buys jewelry on cruises and on trips. His comment would be that if you do not know jewelry know about your jeweler. They do not owe you anything. Let me ask you something. Suppose you want to buy a new computer and you really do not know anything about computers. You go into a store and find a computer you like although you really do not know that much about computers. A day or so later you go into another store and see the same computer at a significantly lower price. Would you expect store 1 to refund the difference between their price and the store 2 price. I doubt it. The statement that the customer is always right is not correct. Sometimes they are wrong. DON