donaldsc

I continue to do exactly what I have always done on cruises which is "none of any of the above". As a result of doing absolutely nothing I have never gotten sick on any cruise I have ever taken. I assume that this may be because my constant exposure to stuff has caused me to develop immunities to stuff. All of you who are really careful about stuff will probably get sick the first time something breaks through your exposure barriers. At least that is what I think. DON

If I need to get in contact with them by phone I use the cabin #. Nobody in any of my many tours has ever objected to giving me this information or any other reasonable information. DON

I have set up lots of private tours. In my last Japan cruise I set up 10 of them. Once I determine that you are really interested and not just tour shopping I always ask for your e-mail and cabin #. If you don't want to give it to me you don't get to join my tour group. Bottom line - my tour so my rules. I have never had any problem filling my tours and to my knowledge nobody in any of my groups has ever been robbed. DON

Your question is the equivalent of asking which tastes better beef or chicken and is totally unanswerable. However if you insist on an answer I would give anything AK a 9.5 and any cruise along the American / Canadian east coast a maximum of 2. DON

Contact your TA or the cruise line. DON

We are going an aurora cruise in Norway this winter. Does anyone think that we should strap on crampons with us? DON

Contact your TA or Viking directly. They should know. DON

There are lots of sites on the WEB that will give you an idea of the weather you might get at those ports. However just remember that weather and climate are 2 different things. The weatherspark site is what I consider the best climate site out there. DON

Type "cruise ship cabin sizes" into Google. DON

This review of North Pole AK describes my feelings about the place better than I can. The TripAdvisor reviewer gave it 2 of 5 stars. I would give it 1 of 5 and only because you can't give it zero stars. "I read reviews on Trip Advisor prior to heading over to North Pole from Fairbanks. The reviews seemed promising, and our waiter at breakfast talked it up. We we were really disappointed. The store has a good amount of Christmas ornaments, and they have free pictures with Santa. I was able to see the entire store in about 10 minutes, and I didn't find anything unique worth buying. There are also reindeer at the other end of the parking lot, which you can pay to go into the enclosure and feed. Not sure how much that costs, as I didn't not go for the experience. Overall, a disappointment. I have seen better Christmas shops pop up in the malls around the holidays." DON

Maybe they were British. As an aside I would not step aside for the 5 abreast group. I also do not step aside for large groups in corridors. As aside the thing that I do or maybe I should day "do not do" that everyone seems to do is play the stupid on board games such as Trivia or "find the ducks". I don't do them on land so why should I do them on a ship. DON

Think about this. Almost every cruise to AK stops at Juneau and Ketchikan. Frequent AK visitors have been to the big 3 AK ports more times than they can count. Kudos to Regent for trying something different. DON

I would disagree w you on your bus versus car logic. How much would a car rental cost? How long are you going to wait for buses and how much faster would it be to get from one place to another by car versus bus. How much time will you waste walking from the nearest bus stop to where you want to be. Do you want your short visit in Fairbanks to be limited by where you can get to by bus. When are you going to get back to Fairbanks - probably never. Just think about it before you make a decision. You can go onto Google Maps and work out you bus route options. You can always reserve a car and cancel it later. I am sure that Northern Aurora can provide her thoughts on this subject. DON

All 3 ports for Symphony are worse, worser and worserest!! DON

If you are into cars Fairbanks has one of the best car museum anywhere - https://www.fountainheadmuseum.com/. One of the neat things that they do is to combine great cars with period appropriate fashions. I hit the museum every time I am in Fairbanks. DON

I assume that you are going on an aurora cruise. I am doing the same cruise. I hope that you can set things up so they will notify you to wake up and go outside in the middle of the night if there are aurora out this. This means that you should leave your warm clothing easily accessible so you can get dressed quickly to get outside. At least that is my plan. DON

We are doing a aurora cruise in a few weeks. We have several days that they call "scenic cruising" as we go up and then down the Norwegian coast. I have done this in the summer and will now be doing it during the winter. My point is that there is a difference between scenic cruising at sea and sea days. Scenic cruising is OK. To me sea days on any line without any scenic aspects or other redeeming features are a total bore. DON

My wife worked in the nuclear field and she had a significant security clearance level. Basically she was not allowed to discuss exactly what she was doing at any time with anyone including me. Her answer to what her job was would be either made up or "I am not allowed to tell you" depending upon her mood at the time. In my case I was the laboratory manager at the Las Vegas wastewater treatment plant. I was tempted to respond w "I work with s**t" when asked. DON

What intrigues me is that I do not suffer when I am off the ship on a port day. It just happens after we get home. Go figure. DON

That happened to us once coming into either Seattle or San Francisco of all places. I forget which one. They stopped the first dinner service in the middle of dinner and cancelled the 2nd service. They told everyone to stay in their rooms. Around 10 PM they came around w sandwiches. DON

Any real tea (not herbal which is what my wife drinks) that comes in bags will not be good tea. If you are fussy about your tea you have to bring your own. The other problem which has not been discussed is the fact that the tea will probably be prepared w 212 degree (boiling water) is is correct for black teas but not for other types. Different teas require different temperature waters. Now don't get me started about the swill that cruise lines claim is coffee. DON

You did not say how old you and your husband is but you can make dreams come true if you work at it. After we retired my wife and I drove from Las Vegas to AK on the Alcan Highway; spent 2 1/2 months driving almost every driveable road in AK and then took the Marine Highway back to Vegas. I think that we put about 12,000 miles on the car. It was one of the best vacations of our life. Even more amazing at the end of 2 1/2 months in a Honda Accord and living out of suitcases we were still talking to each other. Don't kill his dreams. DON

Anyone who is uncertain about a tour should make note of the portion of the part of this post highlighted by me in red. DON

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24796-mal-de-debarquement-syndrome-mdds https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/mal-de-debarquement/#disease-overview-main https://www.webmd.com/brain/mal-de-debarquement-syndrome https://vestibular.org/article/diagnosis-treatment/types-of-vestibular-disorders/mal-de-debarquement/ DON

Please take this reply in the spirit that it was offered and we all know that the moderators work very hard and receive no thanks for the work that they do - this change looks like an "improvement" to something that already works well and is designed by the Princess Cruise IT group. LOL!!! DON