donaldsc

We are leaving soon on a Viking Search for Northern Lights cruise. Supposedly they supply binoculars. On most of the cruises I have gone on where they supply binocs they are just cheap crap and not worth having. Does anyone know the exact make, model and specifications supplied by Viking on their aurora cruises. DON

Have you ever noticed that these financial "errors" are always in the cruise line's favor. When was the last time they forgot to charge you for something? If they were true "errors" half should be in their favor and half in yours. Do I detect a sneaky way for them to get money out of you assuming that most people would not notice the "mistake" or would not bother to complain about a small "error". DON

We are off to Norway in a week. Wish me luck. I have done aurora in March on a almost 2 week DIY trip. Spent 3 or 4 days in China. We had clear skies every night. DON

If I get up early to get a good spot while you slept in or had a good breakfast I do not give it up for anyone even if you ask. The early bird gets the worm. DON

Let's assume that the lines do their best and try to keep an up-to-date files of all possible combinations and permutations of the visa requirements. Lets ignore the calculation of how many possibilities that might be. Let's also assume that they will occasionally make a mistake or overlook some strange issue that might occur. When that happens the person who is not allowed to board will scream and yell that they were denied boarding by the cruise line and post their trouble to every cruise related WEB site. They might even try to sue the cruise line. That is probably the reason that they will not do what you wish. Think about it. DON

I am sure that you know that there no "Princess Tours" anywhere but only tours that are hired by Princess. Therefore usually any tour that Princess sell you can be bought directly from the tour company often at a lower price. In a direct answer to your question we have taken the same Princess whale watching tour twice on AK cruises. The one we took involved a Glacier walk and a boat tour on a boat that held only about 12 people. The guides both times we did the tour were excellent and the most recent guide was one of the best guides we have ever had on any tour anywhere. I think that this was the company but I am not sure - Gastineau Guiding Company DON

Tell me about it. We did a 2 1/2 month driving trip in AK a few years back and we still missed stuff I would have wanted to see. I laugh when someone says that they want to see as much of AK as they can on a 1 week trip. DON

Simple solution - ask them or ask your TA. DON

Almost never. DON

Liarville is totally a tourist trap and totally fake and is designed for kids. My grandkids did enjoy it when we took them there. Without them I would not walk across the street to get there even if they paid me to do it. DON

The whole medallion and medallion does a bunch of things that you might or might not want to do. The medallion app is awful. However there is nothing wrong with using the medallion just to open your cabin door and do anything else the old fashioned way if you wish. DON

I remember when I was in high school many many years ago I had a teacher who when I disagreed w him about something (can't remember what) he sent me to the cloak room and made me stand there for the period. Your professor sounds like that teacher. With regard to his 60 years of teaching that does not prove that he was a good teacher. Remember that once you get tenure at a university there is almost no way that they can get rid of you. At least that was the way it used to be. Maybe not so much now. DON

I find it interesting but not surprising that Princess offers cruise tours early in the season that include Denali when park activities are basically not open at that time. I assume that they did not tell you of this when you booked or if they did it was in the cruisetour fine print. DON

There are lots of good private tours in every city on your cruise and almost all of them will pick you up at your ship. I just did a Japan cruise and I did 12 private tours I think. I did no ship tours at all. Use the internet for your research - the internet will be your friend. All of my private tours were better than the ship tours w small groups of 8 people maximum and were significantly less expensive. BTW - I see that you are from Australia. Most of the people on my tours were from Australia. DON

We did one of the Kenai Fjord cruises out of Seward on our last trip. We really lucked out and saw a pod of whales doing bubble feeding for maybe 40 or more minutes. They were still going at it when the ship had to leave to get back to Seward. I guess we were just lucky. Also several cruises ago we were also out of Seward and encountered what the captain said were the largest group of orcas he had ever seen. And then sometimes you are monumentally unlucky. We have the Anan bear excursion out of Wrangell 4 times so when our recent small ship cruise offered us yet another Anan opportunity at a cost of ~ $500 we declined. The people who did decide to do it ended up seeing only 4 or 5 bears including the 2 that were on the trail heading into Anan. Apparently they did not know how bad their luck was and most of them 2 were happy with their meagre number of bears. I guess that's why they call them wildlife. DON

There is a handicapped traveler board on CC. You might try reposting your message there. DON

There are a whole bunch of binocular comparison sites on the WEB. Do a bit of WEB sleuthing and check them out. All I can say is that both brands are well respected. The only way that you can find out which you like is to go to some place that has both of them and see how they feel to me. Buying them on line does not let you make that comparison. The last time I bought new binocs I spend a couple of hours at the place I ended up buying them checking out different options. DON

Baking sheets???? DON

To add to Wolfie's comment - the cruise line will usually put on their itinerary without saying the real schedule. You have to read cruise ship itineraries very carefully on any cruise that you might book. DON

Has anyone used any of these apps. Any thoughts? DON

AK is really booked up this summer. At this time I would grab whatever you can get. DON

If you feel that you must bring food which is a very bad idea just remember that people from different nationalities eat different things. Many of them will just will not eat the great cheese curds that you brought from Wisconsin. Also many lines do not allow crew to accept anything that is not sealed in their original packaging for obvious reasons. How do they know if you have added some original ingredients to your wonderful brownies. DON

You need to look at climate sites and not weather sites. There is a difference. I use a site called weatherspark as my go to climate site. DON

One final thing - do not make the mistake of trying binocs that you can not afford or that your spouse will not let you buy. I made the mistake of trying out a set of ~$2000 Swarovski binocs. They were almost worth the money. However the divorce would have been th e problem - LOL!!!. DON

It is more likely that the cruise lines do it so that they can include in their advertising that the cruise includes a port in Haines. They assume probably correctly that most of their customers will not notice the ridiculous port time that they have on Haines. On the positive side for the people of Haines they are probably better off not having thousands of people descending on their small town for hours. I have been there not off a cruise ship for 4 or 5 days on photo trips and my wife and I stayed there several days on our 3 month AK drive. We enjoyed our stay. Haines is a neat small town that does not need cruise ship tourists to survive. They have lived w/o them for years. Read this really neat book about living in Haines - https://www.amazon.com/Lived-Here-Know-Your-Name/dp/1565123166. It is a great read. DON