donaldsc

I am not down on Azamara. I just have not found any of their cruises that I was really excited about and I did find some on from other companies that I was more excited about. DON

I hope that you are aware that the Denali road is closed at mile marker 43 which means that you hardly get into the park. I have been to Denali several times so I look at the place differently but to me it is hardly worth going there now. Just remember that you do not have to actually go into the park to see the mountain. DON

I would repost on the AK board. DON

Post the itinerary please. DON

Nobody who has cruised on Azamara wants them to fail. Those of us who have cruised on Azamara did so because they had a wonder product. We cruised on them 5 or 6 times. However that was then and now is now. I have not cruised on them post covid but it sounds as if they are having problems keeping up their former high standards. Fixing the apparent current issues is their problem and the fact that they are under new management is their problem and not ours. DON

BORING! That is about the worse cruise ship itinerary anywhere anytime in history. Don

Using your logic one would assume that if you are a practicing Jew or a practicing Christian you should not visit Israel. Do I have it right. DON

Fugu. Look it up. DON

Regardless of where or when they went when I saw the word "group" I said NO WAY. Just a personal choice but you would not catch me dead on a group cruise. Just my very prejudiced opinion. DON

They are completely different. Tracy Arm is much narrower. We did not see much marine life on our way in. We got very close closer to South Sawyer glacier the 3 times we went in but you have to remember that we were on small ships. On Kenai we did the 7 1/2 cruise - see the map - https://majormarine.com/tour/7.5-hour-kenai-fjords-national-park-cruise/. You go over open water and we lucked out with sea life. On one of our trips we had a huge pod of orcas. The captain said that he had never seen so many. We got up close to 2 tidewater glaciers. On one of our trips we saw a piedmont glacier but we didn't get into it on our 2nd trip. You almost always get into them while you don't lots of time w Tracy Arm. You also get a nice lunch on the cruise. It is hard to make a decision especially as you will be going in on a cruise ship and went in on small ships with Tracy Arm but if you forced me decide I would say Kenai Fjord. DON

Do you really think that Princess cares about what you put on your survey? Princess has 15 ships. Assume an average load of 4000 passengers per ship. That is 60,000 passengers per week or 312000 passengers per year. Assume optimistically that 10% of the passengers fill out the survey which means that they will get 31,200 surveys per year. That's a lot of surveys to digest. DON

Just to add a bit more confusion to the mix. I have done the Kenai Fjord day trips out of Seward several times and the glaciers there are also very very good and you are almost certain to get into them. I agree that the only way to do Tracy Arm is on a small boat or a small ship. When we did AK on a small ship we got so close to the glacier that when it calved the boat rocked. We also got to the glaciers last summer on zodiacs. We were doing another small ship AK cruise. They got as close as they could and we went the rest of the way in on zodiac. Just to clarify my verbiage. To me a small boat is one that you take a day trip on. A small ship is a cruise ship that holds no more than 200 or so passengers. Our small ship cruises to AK were on ships that held 50 passengers and 150 passengers. My goal is some day to do AK on a 10 passenger trawler ship. One of the times we were in Tracy Arm there were people there on a small sailboat. That would also be way of doing it. DON

This is from a fellow Las Vegas resident. Our cruise ship sailed through that area when we were coming into Whittier and the scenery is spectacular. Unfortunately it is overlooked by most AK visitors as it is sort of out of the way and most people don't have the free time in Whittier to do it. We will be sailing through the area again this summer when we taker our grandson to AK w/o his parents. We do an AK trip with every grandchild when they turn 10 as a rite of passage. I have been to AK in ways and on different types of ships maybe 10 or 15 times. Love the place. DON

I do not know about a T6 with a housing. However the TG by itself which is waterproof w/o the housing will sink. I tested it w mine in the bathtub. DON

I was on one cruise where the person next door had their balcony lights on 24/7. I like to sleep w the curtains open and it was annoying. I called security who came and asked them to turn off their lights. The did apologize to me and said that they didn't know that they were on. DON

I never take original bottles and I have never had problems. I do take one precaution. I have diabetes and I take a shot once per week. I have a letter from my endocrinologist saying that I have diabetes and listing the medical stuff that I might be taking w me for the disease. DON

Just remember that some of the underwater cameras including the TG series DO NOT FLOAT. This means that if you let go of it underwater they sink. I bought a positive buoyancy strap for mine. Test whatever you buy at home in the bathtub before you leave. https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Camera-Float-Strap-Underwater/dp/B00YR8ZNDU DON

I have tried the compact binocs several times and I don't like them. Some of the more expensive compacts are not bad (good compact binocs can be expensive) but I just don't find them easy to look through and the field of vision of them tends to be smaller. Regardless of what you buy make every effort you can not to buy them over the internet. Just because they are expensive and have gotten good reviews doesn't mean that they are best for you. The last time I bought binoculars I spent a couple of hours trying them out in the store before I settled on the ones I picked. Some of them from very well known companies just did not feel good to me. Also there are lots of measurements besides power and front lens size that are important. Make sure that you know what each of them mean and what parameters are important for you. Don't be cheap about what you purchase. A good set of binoculars can last a lifetime and more so you don't want to be stuck with ones that don't work for you. Between my wife and I we own 3 sets of binoculars. The only reason that I stopped using my 35 years old ones on a regular basis is that they were not close focusing enough for the type of birding that I was doing. If you ignore that issue they work perfectly. I keep them at my 2nd summer residence and use them frequently there. I just don't travel with them. One last thing. Regardless of where you buy them but most important if you buy them over the internet make sure that they are returnable. This is especially if you buy ones that are lower in price. The brand and the specific model you purchase may we well regarded but may well end up with a set that has issues. Hope this helps. DON

If you find that you need sunrise / sunset times anywhere else in the world there are lots of sites on the WEB that will give you that info.

This may be a stupid question but if you have or got a camera with tons of megapixels couldn't you zoom in by cropping instead of always switching lenses and the missing pictures while you are changing lenses. Also you will be sharing spaces on tours w other people and where are you going to put your big camera bag and your stuff while you are changing lenses. There is another way to do good photography in AK. Take a photography tour. They are expensive but there will be on 6 - 10 photographers on the tour and the trip leader will know exactly where to go for good photos. A 2nd way and I have done both approaches is to go by yourself on a trip just to take photos. One of my trips was a 1 week guided trip to Haines just to do eagle photography. Another was a almost 2 week DIY trip to Fairbanks and points north to do aurora photography. Both trips were pricy but were also successful. My point is that if photography is so important that you are planning to take all the stuff that you are planning to take a cruise is not the way to go. DON

I do blame the cruise lines. Don't you think that the cruise lines have calendars of the major religious holidays of all the countries that they are visiting so they know where they maybe should not stop at that time. People visit Israel to see both Jewish, Christian and historic sites. If they get to Israel and everything is closed they will not be happy. If might not have been possible for the cruise line to switch ports just for the one cruise but they should have tried. I realize that this is a bad analogy but imagine if you were going on a cruise which stopped at New York City for was your first and maybe only visit to NYC and you arrived on Christmas day. What is open. Would you be happy about that? DON

We always tell people not to tip w $2 bills as they are a pain for the crew member to deal with as opposed to "real" money. As a person who has received $2 bill tips what are your thought about the matter. Would you prefer two $1 bills as opposed to one $2 bill. DON

Mentioned previously but the Hammer Museum is one that you will definitely not see in many other places. DON

I guess that the cruise line did not realize that some religious holidays are really important in Israel - even though they should have them on their calendars. You were lucky that you did not dock on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. DON