donaldsc

Is anyone on this thread ever cruise on Princess anywhere ever again? If so why. I just don't understand why people get royally sc**** by a cruise line and then come back and cruise on the line again. Princess isn't the only line out there and the loyalty benefits whatever they are just can't be worth having another lousy time. DON

3 1/2 whole hours in Icy Point. Why bother!!!! DON

There are land trips that can get you close to or even on glacier but most of them are DIY trips. You just have to do a bit of work to set them up. If you want to see a glacier w/o any effort on your part a cruise is your only option. Also you have to accept that on any cruise the cruise line has the right to make any changes to the itinerary and essentially anything else that they feel are necessary without any expectation of compensation to you. That is just the way it is. I obviously don't have any numbers but almost all of the cruises are completed w/o problems. If you can't accept that just don't cruise. DON

Sailing on the "biggest ship in the world" would be a major negative for me. I wouldn't be on that ship if the cruise was free. However I should point out that I regard any ship larger than 1000 passengers as oversized. However there must be some attraction to the ship as they apparently fill it up. DON

I must be missing something. On the 1st cruise you have a total of 2 port stops and 12 hours off the ship on a 7 day cruise. Also why only 6 instead of 7 days. On the 2nd cruise you have 2 port stops and longer port stops. As I mentioned elsewhere based on just the port stops and the lengths of the stop I would Koningsdam as the least bad of 2 really bad cruises. Bottom line is that the itineraries of both of them are horrible. You would have to be really desperate to take either of the cruises. There has to be something better that you can do w your short vacation time. DON

We didn't look for one in Prince Rupert as it was raining and also because we had seen and even walked on glaciers further north. I would guess not however. DON

You could rent a car and drive to the viewing sites. There are links on the WEB to site suggestions. DON

What does this have to do w the Viking Sky incident. I would bet that the Sky is a much bigger and much higher than the ferry. DON

This is an old post but I will respond anyway. 1) People want to ride their bikes on land off the ship. 2) Princess does not allow folding bikes to be brought on board. 3) There are lines that do allow folding bikes on board. 4) The bikers still cruise on Princess. What am I missing here? DON

I may be wrong on this and it would depend upon which branch of Judaism you belong to but I don't think that a Rabbi is necessary for any service in the Jewish liturgy. The literal meaning of the word "Rabbi" is learned person. DON

None of us are lawyers. It would be awful if we gave you a good faith wrong answer and she is not allowed to leave the ship at a port or even worse not allowed to board. There are instances where people have being denied boarding because of issues such as this. I would suggest that you do your country-by-country research. DON

You also have to consider your alternative options as to how you can get into your destination airport and how you can connect w your cruise if you miss it. We recently did a cruise out of Sitka. There are not a lot of flights into Sitka and there was no way we could easily connect the cruise after it left Sitka. We had 1 free night in Sitka before the cruise and we booked a flight that got us into Sitka 3 days before the cruise. In fact we did not have any flight problems and Sitka is a town where you can easily spend several days so it was a win-win situation for us. DON

I find the choice of Jewish holidays that they celebrate interesting and shows that Azamara does not have a great knowledge of Judaism. The holiday of Passover is a major holiday at the same level as the Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas. Hanukkah in a religious sense is just a festival and does not have major religious significance. This from Wikipedia - "Originally instituted as a feast "in the manner of Sukkot (Booths)", it does not come with the corresponding obligations, and is therefore a relatively minor holiday in strictly religious terms. Nevertheless, Hanukkah has attained major cultural significance in North America and elsewhere, especially among secular Jews, due to often occurring around the same time as Christmas during the holiday season" DON

https://www.baldeagles.org/ Also read Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics by Heather Lende Heather Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take an active role in politics during the past few years. Though her entire campaign for assembly member in Haines, Alaska, cost less than $1,000, she won! And tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines isn’t the sleepy town it appears to be. Yes, the assembly must stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street, but there is also a bitter debate about the fishing boat harbor and a vicious recall campaign that targets three assembly members, including Lende. In Of Bears and Ballots we witness the nitty-gritty of passing legislation, the lofty ideals of our republic, and the way our national politics play out in one small town. With her entertaining cast of offbeat but relatable characters, the writer whom the Los Angeles Times calls “part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott” brings us an inspirational tale about what living in a community really means, and what we owe one another. DON

If you feel that you must leave Heathrow and I still think that it is a mistake, try typing "things to see near heathrow airport" into Google. DON

I will make it even more difficult. This is the cruise ship schedule for Prince Rupert for the entire month of August 5 August, 2022. Ruby Princess. 08:0016:00 9 August, 2022. Seabourn Odyssey. 08:0023:00 15 August, 2022. Ruby Princess. 08:0016:00 17 August, 2022. Star Breeze. 06:0013:00 23 August, 2022. Seabourn Odyssey. 08:0023:00 25 August, 2022. Ruby Princess. 08:0016:00 This is the port schedule for Juneau for just August 1. One day. 7 ships in one day. Note the crazy short port times for the ships. Do you think that Juneau might be a bit over crowded w visitors.? 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Norwegian Spirit. 07:0015:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Norwegian Bliss. 07:0013:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Majestic Princess. 08:0021:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Star Breeze. 10:0021:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Ovation Of The Seas. 13:0021:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. ms Westerdam. 13:0021:00 2 August, 2022. Tuesday. Norwegian Encore. 15:0023:00 DON

Simple choice - Prince Rupert. Juneau is overrun with ridiculously large cruise ships. Way too many people (imagine what is like when 15,000 people invade a town w a total population of 30,000) and lots of Caribbean type jewelry shops. Mendenhall Glacier is overrated because it has retreated so much that it is disappointing. There are lots of better glaciers in AK counting the ones that you can actually walk on or just get close to by ship. Prince Rupert is a real town with some great scenery and a couple of really great museums. I have been to Juneau several times and I would be happy to never go there again. We spent 3 days in Prince Rupert on a trip and totally enjoyed ourselves. We would go back. Do some more research on Prince Rupert before you decide against it. I have never been able to figure out why more ships don't make their required Canadian stop in Prince Rupert. DON

I am going to suggest a slightly different approach of picking cruises that works for us. Don't fixate on destination or type of ship but go by your own gut feelings. Wander around the internet checking on cruises that look like they might be interesting and just book one. Don't spend hours trying to over analyze your choice. Regardless of whether you pick the "best" cruise you will have fun on whatever one you pick and you can then pick your next one based on your experience with your first one. Take us for example. We have done maybe 20 cruises over the years to lots of interesting places on lots of interesting and different types of ships. Our 1st cruise was on a 150 year old Maine windjammer. This is a sailboat that sails off Maine US and is powered solely by wind as it has no engine. The ship held 22 passengers and our cabin (if you want to call it that) was so small that when one of us wanted to get dressed the other of us had to sit on the bead as the 2 of us did not have enough room to stand in the cabin. We picked it on a whim because it looked like fun and because I like sailing. We didn't have any real idea of exactly what we were getting into. It was great. The 2nd cruise was completely different. We did Alaska but not on a cruise ship but on a small ship that held just 50 passengers. I wanted to do one on a 12 passenger trawler but my wife wanted something a bit bigger so we compromised on the "larger" 50 passenger ship. Again a great cruise and it got me hooked on AK. 3d cruise. Completely different. I am retired but my wife is still working. I am wandering around the internet and I find a really great deal on a cruise to Antarctica on the Hurtigrutin ship the Nordkapp. A really really really great deal!! I call my wife and tell her that I am booking a cruise to Antarctica today and are you coming. She says that she doesn't have enough vacation. I tell her that you can take a few days leave w/o pay. I also tell her that I am going - the question whether she is staying home or coming w me. Six months or so later we step off a zodiac onto the Antarctica continent. Again a cruise picked on a whim w/o any real searching or planning. Do you see a pattern here. Pick something that looks good as soon as you see it and just do it. Almost all of our best cruises have been impulse cruises. Post Covid we have 3 completely different cruises booked. We just completed a 13 day AK cruise on a 290 passenger expedition ship. This fall we are doing 2 weeks on a full rigged sailboat in the Greek Islands followed by a week on a Viking canal boat in Southern France. Early next year we are doing a Viking Ocean cruise in the Caribbean. Again the pattern here is that there is no pattern. Just my opinion but I really feel sorry for the many people on CC who always cruise on the same cruise line and often on the same ship and to the same places. It may work for them but it wouldn't work for us. This got much longer than I planned but it is our way of picking cruises. DON

If you want to see bears in a wild environment going to Anan or Brooks Falls (https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls?gclid=Cj0KCQjwz96WBhC8ARIsAATR252NSnUeMB8nLFEqeC3JTB0aJLrm6I07L05UPot706nveb_2Y0wEyFwaAm-4EALw_wcB) would be better. The brown and black bear enclosures at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage (https://www.alaskawildlife.org/animals/) have a more natural feel than Fortress. You also get to see many other Alaskan species at this place. DON

You might check out the "Come to Australia" song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5_RuzHlPo8 DON

My suggestion would be to put a few good books on your Kindle and relax and read them. If you don't have the status to get into one of the airline lounges, paying for that might be a good idea unless they are also now really overcrowded. DON

We booked through a TA who forwarded them to us as soon as she got them. We did one of their AK cruises and the packet included a list of stuff that you should bring. Ignoring the fact that some of the items on the list were more relevant to an early spring or late fall cruise than a mid July cruise, getting the list 3 days before departure did not give you much time to go out and buy stuff if you needed anything. DON

This information would also be useful in a negative sense for those of us who prefer to avoid cigarettes odors as much as possible. DON

If you feel that you need some inconspicuous camera support where a tripod or even a monopod is not allowed - try a chain pod. You will be surprised how much they help. An you can drip it in your pocked when you aren't using it. DON

In order for it to be done by June 2023, they would have to be working inside the park in the winter. Is that even possible? When would construction shut down for the winter and when could they start again when it warms up? DON