donaldsc

The "something extraordinary" is probably something extraordinary for the profit of the cruise line where they give you less and then charge you more for it and finally tell you that whatever we told you were going to get you really aren't going to get. DON

Type "seatac to canada place bus" into Google. DON

Weatherspark is a climate site and is one of the best ones out there for any trip anywhere. It should be on any traveler's computer. As you said - it is not a weather site. We just completed an AK cruise. Based on weatherspark we should have cool weather and some rain every day of the cruise. In reality we had 11 days of sunny weather and only a bit of a drizzle on one of the days. When we returned we checked the weather forecast of the next week and it was rain every day. We won and the people on the next one didn't. DON

There actually is a cruise line that does not Nickle and dime you at all. In fact you can ride it as much as you want for free. It is called the Staten Island Ferry. You also get great views if NYC and of lots and lots of interesting boats. DON

As mentioned earlier on this thread, the porters have no involvement in actually getting your luggage on the ship. DON

Lots of higher end cruises are all inclusive. Just do a search on the WEB sites of higher end cruises. However you need to balance the higher cost per day against what you get. Personally I like the high end ambiance and the fact that I don't have to pay for everything as opposed to the cheaper cattle car type cruises. Just do a bit of research on the WEB. DON

Thanks a lot for the response. Sounds like you have done one or both of the cruises. Do you have any thought or tips to pass on to me. This will be my first cruise on a sailboat unless you count the Maine windjammer cruise that we did many year ago. We are really excited to do it although my wife is convinced that she will get seasick because of the rough seas or having to hold on when the ship heels over. We owned a sailboat when we lived near the Chesapeake Bay and she always worried that the boat was going to capsize when we heeled. With regard to your suggestions - our guide has already included the Terrace House exhibit as part of the tour and I will remind her that it is easier to walk downhill than uphill. A couple of questions if you don't mind. 1. How strict are they about bringing wine on board? I was hoping to drink some Greek wine and I like stuff like retsina which I am sure they will not have. Do they inspect your bags very closely when you return to the ship from a port. 2) I was looking at the stuff to do and other information on line on our stops at Bodrum and Dalyan River. Seems like there isn't much to do at those ports and the places where we dock don't seem very exciting. What did you do at those ports. 3) Most of the tours offered by Clipper seem a bit short to me. Did you take many tours and how were they. Again thanks a lot and I may come back w a few more questions. I am by nature a bit of an over planner and it has been hard to do it on this cruise. DON

This is one reason to bring your own wine on board and pay the corkage fee instead of buying the wine on board. Lets say that you are drinking a wine that will cost you $30 in your local wine store. That wine will cost you at least twice as much on the ship so lets assume the ship price for the $30 bottle of wine is is $70. Now if you bring it on board the total cost of the bottle will be $30 plus $15 corkage plus $3 sales tax for a total of $48. If you buy it on the ship that same wine will be $70 plus ~ $13 gratuity for a total of $83. You come out $35 ahead by bringing your own wine on board. This also ignores the fact that you have the wine that you want instead of whatever wine that they happen to have. The only negative is that you can not bring the bottle into the dining room with you. You can however pour the wine in your stateroom and bring the filled glass into the dining room. Think about it. DON

Try typing "April 8, 2024 eclipse cruise" into Google. I am sure that there will be more cruises announced in the future. DON

That is totally different from tipping a porter $10 to carry your bags 5 feet because you are afraid he is going to throw your bags into the water. The first is providing a real service. The second is called extortion. DON

My only comment on this response is to suggest that you look at other posts on CC. How many have a title that is relevant to the contents of the post and how many of them have the OPs user name. DON

Almost all of them do. DON

What has not been mentioned is that there is kosher and there is kosher and there is kosher. There are also at least1000 or more kosher certifying agencies out there all of which compete for business (you pay the agency to certify your product) and all of which have different nuances of kosherness. A product that may be approved may not be approved by another agency. How strictly you observe the rules for kosherness will determine which agency you will trust. In some instances your rabbi will tell you what agency (note the use of the singular and the plural noun) he trusts. This basically means that I doubt that any cruise line is going to enter the minefield of saying that they have a kosher cruise. If being really kosher on a cruise is important to you then the solution is to take group cruise which brings their own rabbi and their own mashgiach (look this up on Wikipedia) and you have to know who these people are before you book the cruise. As with most ultra-observant people in any religion - it is complicated. DON

I am sure that there are lots of them. I just did one where I got on my ship in Sitka AK and got off in Vancouver. DON

They picked a job that paid a good hourly rate in exchange for doing hard work. There are jobs out there that may pay less but are easier on their bodies. There are also skilled labor jobs that pay more but require more skills. They made that career choice. It isn't my problem if they don't like the negatives of the job. BTW - I am waiting for someone to say "but they only work a few hours per week". Again - not my problem. DON

Try typing "cruise lines authorized for glacier bay" into Google and scrolling down a bit to the NPS site. DON

Try typing "ships in port" into Google. Lots of hits. DON

Here we go again. I think that $5 was more than enough. After all - all they are doing is picking up your luggage and carrying it 5 feet to a cart. Figure that they can do it once every 5 minutes. That is 12 pickup per hour so they are making $60 per hour for really easy manual labor. Most of the work getting your luggage to your cabin is done by other people who are not making $60 per hours. Are most of us making $60 per hour. I don't feel sorry for them. DON

I know that you are supposed to put tour sharing offers on roll calls but nobody seems to read Clipper Cruises roll calls so I am posting here. All of my posts on the roll calls have been totally dead. We are taking the 1 0ctober and 8 October Star Flyer Greek cruises. I have booked and in the process of booking 2 private tours which will be better and only marginally more expensive than tours listed on the Star Clipper WEB site. The tours are on Rhodes in the first cruise and to Ephesus out of Kusadasi on the 2nd cruise. The tours will be small group tours limited to a maximum group size of 6 people. If you think that you might be interested get back to me and we can correspond.. I am also trying to set up a walking tour on Hydra. DON

Please provide a link to that other thread. All cruise ships have tenders. Tenders = lifeboats. Lifeboats = tenders. DON

You could pick a line that ONLY has small or medium sized ships and don't even look at other lines. There are a bunch of them out there. DON

I suggest that you post on the Roll Call for your cruise. DON

I would disagree w that. There are lots of posts on CC where people say that they have done 50 Caribbean cruises and they are thinking of doing something else but where should they go. I am also sure that we all know people who do a Caribbean cruise every winter on the same cruise line and sometimes on the same ship and in the same cabin DON

Before they were spun off, we did a cruise to Norway and Spitsbergen on Azamara. It was excellent. You might at that to your list. DON