donaldsc

This post is directed to CCers who have done previous Star Clipper cruises. We are doing a B2B Star Flyer cruise in the Greek Islands but these questions are more general than specific to the Greek Islands. I will preface these questions with the comment that we almost never take cruise company tours. We usually do DIY tours that we have set up on the CC Roll Calls for our cruise or join cruise groups that other people have set up. Sometimes we will find a small group cruise on the WEB. We are doing the Northern Cyclades and the Southern Cyclades from 1 October to 15 October. I have not been very successful with Roll Call tours for these cruises. I realize that with a small ship such as the Star Flyer the likelihood that people who will be on the cruise with us are not likely to also be on CC. That said - the CC Roll Calls for these cruises has been totally dead. 1) I have looked at the tours listed for our cruises and they do not look exciting to me. It seems as if there are too many people on the tours. I am used to small group tours with maybe 8 or 10 people max. What do those of you who have done the Star Clipper tours think of them? Do you end up sharing a bus with 30 or 40 of your new best friends? Do they get slowed down by people who are barely mobile? Do you end up spending time in shops? If these is a meal do they take you to a tourist restaurant or to some sort of a local place? Did you feel rushed at times? In other words what did you think of the Star Clipper tours. 2) I am trying to set up private tours by groups such as ToursbyLocals. The problem is that the ToursbyLocals tour leaders as well as other tour leaders want to know when the ship will dock. We will be on a sailboat and the people at Star Clipper have made it clear that docking times can not be guaranteed. I understand that. The people at Clipper Cruises have told me that the arrival time is dependent upon the wind, the weather, the tides and the captain. However are the actual docking times usually fairly close to the times on the itinerary? If they say that the dock is supposed to be in at 12:00, can I assume that most of the time it will be in between 11:00 and 13:00 or am I being optimistic. 3) Subject to all the parameters that I mentioned in 2), how often to they completely miss ports? 4) For some ports I might be willing to do a ToursbyLocals type tour if it was just the 2 of us although this will drive up the cost. If I went on the ship with 2 people on a 4 or 6 person maximum private tour what are my odds of filling it once I am on the ship. If I somehow made my tour availability known after we boarded am I going to get in trouble with the hotel department on the ship because I am trying to sell private tour spots on board. I know that people on other ships have gotten into trouble and the practice is usually frowned upon. Has anyone tried it on a Clipper Cruise ship? 5) For those of you who have done the Greek Islands on Clipper Cruises - what are the chances of just getting off the ship and finding a decent guise on the dock. I am especially worried about Santorini where there are 7 ships in port on the day that we will be there. It could be a total zoo, 6) Does anyone have any tour operator recommendations for the ports on the Northern Cyclades and also the Southern Cyclades cruises. Also any suggestions for our days in Athens. I am especially looking for wine tasting tours if possible. Sorry to be long winded. Thanks for any information. DON

I totally agree w what you are saying - I think. Depends upon whether the rollaboard and the briefcase are occupying the same space or next to each other. A person is entitled to only 1 item in the overhead. However my point is if my one item is a smallish backpack I don't see why I should have to fill the limited space in front of me with the backpack thereby reducing the space for my feet. Large or small - the backpack goes into the overhead. After all it is easier and less destructive to the contents for you to check the rollaboard suitcase than to have my backpack with my photo equipment and electronics crushed in the cargo hold. Bottom line is that I paid the same amount for my body and my backpack as the businessman paid for the his body and is larger suitcase. DON

Hope that you are still out there. All of the outlets can take 110 and 220 style plugs but the power is 220. All of my electronics worked on 220 but I have no idea about CPAP. If you are starting at Vancouver I am sure that there will be a store that has a converter. Enjoy your trip. DON

Totally agree. I paid for that overhead space and the space on the floor for my feet just as you did. If I get on the plane ahead of you that is your problem and not mine. If there is no space for your bag you can gate check it which is usually free anyway. DON

I am in the process of trying to set up private tours for these cruises including stays in Athens before, between and after the cruises. Check out my posts on the Roll Call boards for details. DON

While a shortage of spoons was inexcusable, it the real problem was stirring the coffee you could have done it with a fork or knife. Not very couth but it would get the stirring done. DON

There are lots of other small ships that to AK. They don't have the market to themselves. The problem w the cruises that they did to AK is the the ports the visited were totally unimaginative. Small ships can get into AK ports that bigger ones can not but Azamara just visited the same old ports. DON

Do you think it is just possible that they do this because cruise companies just occasionally lie to their customers? DON

Check out this site - https://weatherspark.com/ DON

Depending upon what the locals do on their holidays the fact that you are there on a national holiday might be a plus and not a negative. We just came back from an AK cruise where we stopped at Wrangell on 4 July. Some of the planned excursions were cancelled and we had to tender in instead of docking because the town was using the dock for the festivities. However the 4 July festivities were wonderful. Half of the island population was in the parade and the other half was watching the parade. Every emergency service vehicle on the island was in the parade was in the parade - it would have been a great time to rob one of the local backs. Everyone on the floats was throwing candy to people and the kids were running into the street to grab candy. It was wonderful!!! DON

I know that we are not supposed to criticize style but I will for the sake of any future posts from the OP. Using paragraphs would have made the OP's post much easier to read. The information he has in the post is useful but many people would look at the one long post and say "why bother". DON

There is a big difference betw Skagway and Hoonah and/or Sitka. The latter 2 towns are real towns. They existed before the cruise ships started coming and they will be around if the ship stop coming. They might have some economic difficulties but they would survive. Skagway basically exists because the ships come. If they stopped coming Skagway would dry up and blow away as it has no other reason to exist. Don't get me wrong. Skagway has some nice scenery and some interesting places to visit although not when 10,000 cruisers hit the town. To me Skagway is a once-and-done place although it does have the advantage that you can drive to Skagway. I just came back from an AK trip where we spent 3 days pre-cruise in Sitka because we had to be there to meet our ship and we all know what is going on now with the airlines. I have been to Sitka before. The place is a real town with real people who are not totally cruise ship dependent. It is a great place to visit. I would prefer Sitka to Skagway any day. DON

You have 6 kids. Three at each table. DON

What is the point of a table for 12. The people at one end will not be able to talk to the people at the other end so you might as well be at separate tables. The person who suggested 2 tables seating 6 each with people switching from night to night had the best idea. DON

You need to define your selection parameters. I would not pick any of the lines mentioned in this thread but I suspect that most of you would not pick any of the ones that I would like. DON

Since we do not know anything about you or how old you are or how mobile you are or your budget or your interests etc. - any advice that we can give your would be worthless. Come back with specific questions and tell us something about yourselves and the answers might be useful. DON

I have not been on an Azamara ship for a few years but when I did cruise on them you could expect to see me in the library frequently. Most of the time I was not the only one there. it wasn't crowded but it wasn't empty. DON

Glad to hear this. I stand corrected. DON

I could not find it but I do remember a long discussion on CC on this topic. Hopefully you may be right on this change in policy. DON

Come to Las Vegas. This is the most expensive suite in Vegas although anyone who stays in that room is a big roller and is comped "The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas is taking the concept of luxe travel to a whole different level. Its new Damien-Hirst-designed Empathy Suite costs $100,000 a night. The room is the most expensive in America, beating out one at The Mark hotel, which previously held the accolade at $75,000 a night" DON

My specific answer to your question is that things sort of slow down in Sept. You have shorter days. Shops start shutting down towards the end of Sept. It gets rainier. It gets cooler. Check out this climate site for Juneau - https://weatherspark.com/y/145123/Average-Weather-at-Juneau-International-Airport-Alaska-United-States-Year-Round. Personally I would not do a cruise very far into September. I am going to throw out 5 completely way out suggestions assuming that you can get out of your cruise obligations. My suggestions are based on trips that I have done that will give you more photo opportunities and nature opportunities than you would ever get on HAL or any other big cruise ship. These would be trips of a lifetime in a way that a cruise on HAL could never be. 1) Take a small ship cruise to AK instead of doing AK on a big cruise ship. I have done 2 AK cruises on ships that held less than 200 people. In fact I just got off this cruise - https://www.aqvoyages.com/expedition-cruises/alaska-british-columbia/sitka-to-vancouver/?v=ov&d=2022-08-08. The ship is small but great. They support photographers. They even have enough good quality binoculars and spotting scopes on board for everyone. You get lots of rides on zodiacs that get you really close to glaciers. They are also sort of flexible in that if they are here and there is something really interesting over there they will go to where the action is. You also get to cruise on the inside passage back to Vancouver. None of the big ships fully do the inside passage. There are other small ships that do AK but this is one of the longer ones. 2) Forget cruising and spend a week taking pictures of Bald Eagles in Haines AK. I went with these guys - https://www.shetzers.com/bald-eagle-photography-workshop-and-tour/. There are other people who run similar trips. The river at Haines is the last free flowing stream with salmon before every river freezes up and every eagle within 100 miles know it. Imagine a tree w 30 eagles on it. Imagine an ice floe with 2 or 4 eagles fighting over a salmon. 3) Forget cruising and go to Fairbanks in February. You get 2 things. First of all if you luck out or plan properly you get the chance to see aurora. You may have seen pictures of aurora but they pale in comparison to the real thing. If you go in February you also get to see the World Ice Art C championships https://www.icealaska.org/. You can not imagine what sort of fantastic sculptures they can do with ice. The negative of this option is you will be cold. Really cold. Really really cold. Cold that has never been experienced In Tennessee ever. I spend almost 2 weeks on that trip and spent 4 or 5 days shoot aurora pictures. 4) Forget AK and head south. Head really south and do Antarctica. Even better find a cruise that combines Antarctica and South Georgia Island. You will see lots of penguins and other wildlife in Antarctica. On South Georgia you will be on beaches with 300,000 next pairs of penguins AND elephant seals AND fur seals. You will be able to be within 2 or 3 feet of the penguins. You will have baby elephant seals come right up to you. 5) Do a cruise to the Galapagos Island. There are lots of good Galapagos cruises. Nature and snorkeling opportunities galore as the animals have no fear of people. I have been to AK many times and I love AK. I just don't like AK on big ships so the only time I do AK on big ships is when we take our grandkids on their coming-of-age AK trip w/o their parents. I have one more grandkid who gets that trip and then no more big ship cruises in AK. My point on this long post is that there are much better ways of doing AK that don't involve big cruise ships and there are also ways of doing AK without do it by ship at all. Think outside the box. If you want to chat off line just tell me. DON

I will repeat what I say whenever anyone asks a question such as yours. None of us are lawyers. Even if we were lawyers, I would guess that none of us are immigration lawyers. Even fewer of us are Canadian immigration lawyers. If we give you bad advice based on what we think is true, you both could end up on the dock instead of on the ship. I wouldn't even totally trust what the cruise line tells you as they can not be knowledgeable about all the immigration issues at all the ports that they visit. Therefore, you need to contact all the relevant agencies - Canadian, American and the agencies of the countries that you will be visiting to find out where you stand. DON

But would Glacier Bay be considered a "port"? I doubt it. I would guess that it would be considered "scenic cruising" and no policy is going to cover missed scenic cruising. DON

4. and most important to us - if there are problems they are on your side and a good TA will fight for you. Someone who works for the cruise line basically doesn't care about you. DON

Have you called them? DON