donaldsc

Viking Ocean should also be on your list. DON

NYC water is very good. Southern Florida water tastes of sulphur. DON

As much as I dislike the whole medallion system we have had several pre-medallion instances where we were charged for items and services that were in correct. Getting the errors was always a pain. DON

We have taken all of our grandkids on an AK trip as a coming of age trip when they turned 10 w/o their parents. All of the trips were a joy to grandparents and grandkids. Pictures like this are one of the reasons we do it. We want them to have the opportunity to see stuff like this before they disappear. DON

Has anyone done a real test of this by bringing some home tap water to see if they can tell the difference. I would also suspect that some home tap waters might be really awful so the ship water might be better than the home water. DON

Thanks to everyone for the info. It is all very useful. DON

We are driving in and will be staying in Surry the night before the cruise. After the cruise we will be driving back to the states and not staying in Vancouver. DON

These are my thoughts although I will admit that I am commenting on the basis of ignorance. I have done the drive from Anchorage to Seward several times and have never done the train. I have also done the train from Anchorage to Denali and disliked it intensely. I have done the trains in Skagway several times but only because we were taking the grandkids to AK. The kids enjoyed the Skagway train. To me they were merely blah. On the other hand I have just done the train ride from Bergen Norway to Oslo in the winter which is properly advertised as one of the great train rides in the world and the ride is truly great. My problem w train rides is that when I travel I like to be in control of what is happening which does not happen on the AK train rides. I like to take photographs - not snapshots but photographs. This is not possible on a train which goes past the photo op at 30 mph and does not stop. If I come to a place where there is wildlife I want to be able to stop and look at it with my binoculars or spotting scope or get out the camera AND the tripod and then compose a decent photograph. I have no problem driving and looking at stuff and my wife is happy to tell me that there is a good photo op ahead. She is also happy to drive while I am looking. I do not want to be in the position of not looking outside of the window just as we pass something really great or not being able to get a photo because the damn trees on the side of the track show up in every picture I take. Sightseeing from a train may work for some people. They just don't work for me. DON

We are going to be driving to Vancouver from the states to meet our AK cruise. I want to buy some wine before the cruise. I also want to buy some more Canadian (Ontonagon) wine after the cruise to bring back home w me. Any suggestions for a good wine store will be appreciated. We will have a car. DON

Ditto on the TG series cameras. Quick note on them - THEY DO NOT FLOAT so be sure to get an additional camera strap so they will float. DON

We are going to be driving to Vancouver from the states to meet our AK cruise. I want to buy some wine before the cruise. I also want to buy some more Canadian (Ontonagon) wine after the cruise to bring back home w me. Any suggestions for a good wine store will be appreciated. We will have a car. DON

Many of them come from non-drinking cultures or do not drink alcoholic drinks. What are they going to do with the stuff - trade it for something they want in the crew tip gift exchange. DON

Nobody cares what color the medallion is unless you care as long as the computer knows the color. DON

Wings is a very reliable vendor. Have you called them and asked then your question. DON

You did not mention that you can only go 43 miles into Denali because of the road closure. IMHO it is hardly worth doing Denali at all at this time. My opinion about Talkeeetna is even worse than yours. On our 2 1/2 month AK driving trip where we had all the time in the world we drove off Parks Highway to Talkeetna which was only 14 miles.. We stayed there maybe 1 or 2 hours and then left. The visit and the 14 mile drive was not worth the effort. DON

I just put them in plastic numbered envelopes and have never been stopped or had anyone look at them. I do have some diabetes related stuff and I have a letter from my endocrinologist covering that stuff. DON

Edits mine. NOT TRUE!!! The ship will wait for you a reasonable time as long as the master feels that waiting is safe. However if the delay will seriously impact the rest of the trip because of things like weather or tides the ship will leave. There was an instance some years back where a ship had to leave Port Stanley in the Falklands early and anyone who was on shore ended up left on shore. Islanders put them all up for the night and the ship came back the next day to get them. The ship does have a responsibility to get them back to the ship ASAP at no cost but sometimes ASAP can be difficult. DON

They are not major screwovers but annoying things such as not getting stuff that I should be getting or trying to get reservations for stuff or activities which I only ended up getting because the agent waved her magic wand. The 2 last minute problems were potentially more serious. 1. We were flying from Las Vegas to Atlanta to Athens. I am always conservative so I allowed three plus hours for my Atlanta connection. Because of issues in Vegas I was uncertain if I would make my Atlanta connection. This would not have ruined the cruise since I had planned for several days pre-cruise in Athens. I called my agent from the plane before takeoff and asked her if she could find alternative flights just in case. We landed with just 1/2 hours to make the connection. As we landed she called us while we were taxiing to the gate to tell us that she had found and had put a hold on a flight. Turned out that we did barely make the flight but we knew that if we didn't make it we had an alternative flights already arranged. 2. This one was on me. We got to the airport for a flight to Japan. This was last summer and there were a lot of people going to Japan and flights to Japan were almost completely booked. Turns out that my wife took an expired passport with her so we obviously were not going to get on the plane. Called out TA again. She got us flights on the same day and we got to Japan that day as expected. The connections were not good and the tickets were expensive but we got there. Again we were not going to miss the cruise since we planned for several days in Tokyo before the cruise but with her help we did not miss any of our Tokyo cruise. I guarantee that we would not have gotten that level of service if we used a big box travel agency or had booked through the cruise line. DON

Everyone in this discussion is in my opinion wrong about why you should use a good TA. 1. They are on your side when the cruise company decides to screw you over which is something that cruise companies do more often than you think. 2. Also when last minute problems occur they can get them fixed very quickly. I have 2 recent instances issues recently where problems occured on the day of departure that would have wrecked our trip.that they were prepared to fix. To me this is more important than any discounts or a few perks such as a canvas bag or binoculars. DON

Totem Bight definitely felt more real to me because of the environment. It is also much cheaper. Don't forget this place also - http://ketchikanmuseums.org/exhibits/totem-heritage-exhibits. It is a hidden gem in Ketchikan and it is right in the center of town. DON

Here is the problem w most of the cruise line supplied binocs - they are 100% total junk. I did a cruise last year in AK and the supplied binocs were $200 + name brand Nikon binocs and there were 2 in the cabin since there were 2 of us in the cabin. They were excellent. The ship even had a bunch of spotting scopes scattered around the ship which were priced on Amazon at $300. I just came off an equally expensive Viking expedition cruise and the binoculars they had were about $20 and worse than useless. If binoculars are important to you you have to bring good ones with you don't count on the ship supplied ones. DON

What port? What airport? DON

Rocks. We have a granddaughter who collects minerals and crystals. Other than that nothing for anyone else. We used to waste to much time looking for gifts. No longer. DON

My comment is that the OP requested that HAL do something that is outside of their normal policy and then the OP is complaining that HAL will not do it. Then they expect some sympathy from the rest of us. Sorry but not from me. Why would they expect to be allowed early disembarkation and did they check to see if they were going to be allowed before they booked the cruise. DON

I can see why the OP might have made the mistake that she did. If you go onto the Virgin WEB site it shows that there is a pool on one of the decks but there are no pictures or anything to show how big the pool is. DON