donaldsc

The whole point is that you use the 3d party sites to find your hotel. Then you go directly on the hotel web site to make your reservation. DON

Bottom line is that it is their ship, their cruise line and their rules. Whether the rules make any sense to you or anyone else is irrelevant. DON

Since your king crabs are all frozen, it really does not matter where you buy them. You can get them in a crab place anywhere in AK or in the lower 48 and assuming that they are prepared properly you will get the same stuff. Why not order something that is freshly caught and in season and that probably came off the boat yesterday or today. When you think about it the AK king crab schtick is a bit of a scam. I do have do admit that the scenery in AK outside of your restaurant is better than the scenery outside of your restaurant in Chicago. DON

stating: How about you send them a check in the mail to cover your cruise balance and make the check out in the amount of $0.01. That might confuse them a bit. DON

You get a lot more mechanical action in the old locks as compared to the new ones. You also get to appreciate how well 120 year purely mechanical technology still works. Who want to bet with me that 120 years from now the new locks will still be working. As I said in my response - I do think that the new locks will be totally boring. DON

Most of us are old or older. Most of us look pretty bad naked. They really want to see me naked I don't really care as long as they do not post the videos. DON

Even if the food is the same, the food in the MDR is cooked to order and is fresh. The buffet food has been on the steam table for nobody knows how long. DON

As sort of an aside are you doing the old locks or the new ones. I have done the old locks several times and have seen videos of the new ones. In my opinion doing an old locks transit is much more interesting and certainly much more historical. From seeing new lock transit they seem totally boring. DON

I pick my cruises based on itinerary and port times and not on status. I have never been able to figure out why people let their status on a cruise line have so much influence on who they cruise with. To answer the OP and not Sirclean, Hurtigruten has a cruise that might fit their needs although not 28 days - https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/expeditions/cruises/inside-passage-bears-and-aleutian-islands-northbound/ . I was booked on that cruise and then Covid hit. Goes to lots of really interesting posts and stops. DON

I do not know for sure but a good TA might have tools that you don't have. I know that my TA always seems to be able to quickly tell me what is available when I ask. TAs are useful for much more than getting a few perks here and there. DON

The railroad station is on Google maps. You have to know what ship you are on and where you are going to dock to answer your question. DON

When we were in Longyearbyen we took a tour. The guide told us that when we were outside of the village the group had to stick together because he was the one with the gun. Check out the blogs from this lady - https://www.youtube.com/@CeciliaBlomdahl. She lives in Svalbard and her blogs about what it is like to live there are interesting. DON

Could be worse. You could be on this cruise - https://pipersdojo.lpages.co/dojo-university-bagpipe-cruise/. Make February 6th the beginning of a life-long memory by attending the world's only Bagpipe-School-Vacation Combo. Again I like a good bagpipe but a ship load of them. DON

Not according to the itinerary posted by the OP who did not post the name of their ship. Are you sure that ALL of the Princess ships that are doing AK do Glacier Bay for EVERY cruise. DON

Imagine a cruise w people playing accordions all over the place. One or 2 accordions at times would be OK but hundreds of them!!! DON

Cunard goes to Glacier Bay and Hubbard. Princess doesn't go to Glacier Bay. This means that w Princess you get a maybe glacier. With Cunard you get a for certain glacier and a maybe glacier. You have to ask? DON

What are the itineraries? DON

Something seems a bit fishy here. I am sure that something happened and the OP may be not surprisingly over reacting but I can't imagine that the security people on the ship would ignore a crime of that magnitude. DON

Many thanks to all of you. This will be my 1st visit to Japan. We will not be changing cabins. So since I will already been in country (my preceding port is Nagasaki and my following port is Shimizu) and we dock at 06:30 I should have no problems meeting my guide if I decide to use one around 8:00 to 8:30. DON

We have done lots of cruising including long cruises but as difficult as it may be to believe our 19 day Princess Japan cruise will be our true B2B cruise. Our changeover port will be Yokohama and we want to get off the ship and do a tour in Yokohama. How do they handle the changeover. Do they have us get off the ship and let us reboard immediately or do they just put us in the showroom until they zero out the ship. My basic question is that if the earliest disembarkation time is 06:30 how early can we arrange for the tour guide to meet us. DON

We have done lots of cruising including long cruises but as difficult as it may be to believe our 19 day Princess Japan cruise will be our true B2B cruise. Our changeover port will be Yokohama and we want to get off the ship and do a tour in Yokohama. How do they handle the changeover. Do they have us get off the ship and let us reboard immediately or do they just put us in the showroom until they zero out the ship. My basic question is that if the earlies disembarkation time is 06:30 how early can we arrange for the tour guide to meet us. DON

Why not? DON

We are doing a B2B in Japan with a changeover in Yokohama. Rather than waste the day sitting on the ship in Yokohama I would like book a private tour for that day. I have done lots of cruises but not a Princess B2B. I assume that the procedure is that they check you out and then immediately check you back in. The ship docks in theory at 6:30 AM. My question is about how early can I expect to get off the ship and meet my tour guide. I do realize of course it it partly depends upon the vagaries of the Japanese customs people. DON

We did a halibut charter out of Homer. It was great fun. We caught halibut and had it shipped home. It was delicious but also the most expensive fish we have ever eaten. DON

Ignoring the fact of the interior cabin the Crown is better. Better port times. One more port. To be frank I am totally unexcited about either cruise based on the itineraries but the Crown is less bad. DON