donaldsc

Couple of thoughts. 1) In general private tours are smaller and usually better than ship tours 2) It is bad for business for a tour company to get you back late 3) If you are really worried some tour companies will pay to get you to the next stop if they get you back late. I suspect that this almost never happens unless there is a major road catastrophe. There are very few roads in the ports you will stop at and if this occurs the ship tours will also be delayed. 4) Ports in AK are close together. In the highly unlikely worse case scenario you could find a flight that would get you to the next port. In other words - don't worry about it. DON

You have not said how much time you have between when the airplane theoretically lands until the ship depart. That would help determine how much trouble you are in. The normal driving time from Heathrow to Southampton is 1 h 30 m assuming no accidents or construction delays and you have to be on board about an hour or so before the ship leaves. DON

We received our Ocean Victory package 3 days before the cruise departed which was a lot of help to some of the passengers who got to AK earlier to do some DIY land stuff. I had been to AK many times so it was not a problem to us. However some of the passengers had done warm weather river cruises but had never been to AK and had never been on an expedition cruise so they were very annoyed. DON

We did a white water rafting trip near Denali. It was a lot of fun. You are aware I assume that the road into Denali is closed at mile 43 so your bus tour will not take you very far in. I doubt if the major road repairs will be done by next June. DON

You worry too much. Just relax and enjoy yourself. DON

No! DON

Your seat is the side of the zodiac. There is no real seat. However, the zodiac crews are very good at getting people w limited mobility in and out of the zodiacs so if your husband is somewhat mobile with is canes he should have no problems. DON

Yes. Even if they were family members. There is nothing to prevent you from being with them. However your elite status belongs to you and not to your extended family. DON

I can't believe that they aren't on the cruise company WEB site for your specific trip. DON

I have tried to read a few of Michener's books although not Alaska. I find that most of them show a lack of cultural sensitivity. DON

I am going to be blunt here. You earned your elite status. They have not. They should not be allowed to enjoy any of the elite perks. DON

I figured from some of your comments that you had not been on an expedition trip before and I do not mean this in a negative sense. I feel that American Cruise Line was not clear enough in their advertising that this trip would be different from their paddle wheel or river boats. A large number of people who did this trip had previously done river boat trips and I know that some of them were surprised and disappointed at the differences. I would guess that American Cruise will probably lose some customers because of this failure to communicate. American Cruise had some real back office problems with this trip. However once we got on board I think that they did an excellent job. In your case getting Covid must have been a real downer. If you were #24, that means that more than 10% of the passengers either had or were exposed to Covid. BTW - my wife tested positive for Covid 2 days after we got off the ship with a very mild case so I guess that we lucked out. So far I am OK. I have done a number of small ship expedition cruises (my first cruise in AK was on a ship that held 50 passengers) and I enjoy expedition cruising. DON

A good plan but I will suggest a few modifications based on personal experience. 1) If you take the Marine Highway you will have to stay at some of the small towns for a few days as the ferries don't run every day. You might be stuck in some of the towns for a week. Definitely plan to spend several days in Prince Rupert in BC. It is a great place to visit. We enjoyed our stay there even though it poured for the 3 days we were there. 2) We drove from Las Vegas to Fairbanks and then headed north on the Dalton Highway. Don't plan to stop at Coldfoot. It is nothing but a big truck stop. You can overnight in Wiseman AK (look it up) which is a very very small town a few miles north of Coldfoot w a single B&B. Just don't make a mistake on the date which is what we did so we had to spend one night in a raised tent. If we ever have that beer I will tell you the rest of the story about Wiseman. It is too long to wrote about. 3) On the Dalton drive at least as far north as the Atigun pass (look it up). That was one of my goals on the trip. If you have ever watch the early episodes of Ice Road Truckers you will know why. 4) Coming south get off the ferry at Prince Rupert. Head east to get to the town of Hyder AK (map it out in Google maps) (look it up in Wikipedia) , My wife found the place. Hyder is the only town in southern Alaska that you can drive to. It is right across the border from Steward (not Seward) BC. It is a unique funky little town and you go there just because of where it is and what it isn't. 5) If you are into wine, come back to the US through Kelowana. I never knew that they had a wine growing area in BC and again my dear wife found the place for us. Part of our trip was not totally planned in advance. The place is beautiful and there are lots of good vineyards. Their wine is not exported to the US. We managed to find space in our car for several cases of wine. You can now see why we put 12,000 miles on the car on that trip. BTW - where is home? DON

My list will be a bit different than most of the others. Most anything by Dana Stabenow --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together Jon Mooallem 3.79 1,289 ratings252 reviews In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis--the largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. For four and a half minutes, the ground lurched and rolled. Streets cracked open and swallowed buildings whole. And once the shaking stopped, night fell and Anchorage went dark. The city was in disarray and sealed off from the outside world. Slowly, people switched on their transistor radios and heard a familiar woman's voice explaining what had just happened and what to do next. Genie Chance was a part-time radio reporter and working mother who would play an unlikely role in the wake of the disaster, helping to put her fractured community back together. Her tireless broadcasts over the next three days would transform her into a legendary figure in Alaska and bring her fame worldwide--but only briefly. That Easter weekend in Anchorage, Genie and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters--from a mountaineering psychologist to the local community theater group staging Our Town--were thrown into a jumbled world they could not recognize. Together, they would make a home in it again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name: News From Small Town Alaska by Heather Lende Alaska setting: Haines Published 2006 Heather Lende writes both a social column and obituaries for her Haines, Alaska newspaper. She’s also an NPR commentator and author of several other books about small town Alaska, so she is the right person for this book. Each chapter of If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name starts with selections from her “Duly Noted” column. It’s followed by an essay about the quirky people and places in her town. It’s all done with kindness and wholesomeness. The stories are kind of an Alaskan version of Prairie Home Companion. This book left me wanting to go to Haines, meet some of her neighbors, and be part of the community. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.

Would adding an annual MedJet policy make sense? DON

With regard to the wrong side of the road issue although I might say that you are on the wrong side (LOL!!) we did a 2 month driving trip in Australia and have driven on several trips in the UK w/o problems. The things to remember are 1) Be very careful when pulling out of parking lots 2) Be very careful when entering roundabouts although the US has much fewer roundabouts than the UK 3) When the non-driving person in the car starts screaming you are probably doing something really wrong or dangerous. Regarding setting on setting up the trip get out a bunch of good guide books, the Milepost Book which is the bible for driving in AK, a good map and a lot of patience. You will spend hours on the internet planning the trip. With regard to costs - we did it maybe 10 years ago so costs are certainly higher now than we spent and we never bothered to figure out how much we were going to spend. The trip certainly was not cheap but we figured out what we wanted to do and didn't worry about costs. We did drive about 12,000 miles on the trip. It was a really wonderful trip. Get back to me w more questions if you get serious. DON

I know that this has been covered before but I am still confused. I am trying to compare the Allianz All Trips Premier policy with any of the several quotes I have gotten for single trip policies. At the moment we have 2 trips booked for next year - one for a total cost for the 2 of us of ~$ 20,000 and a 2nd for a total costs of ~ $8000. In the past we have had an Alianz policy and when I had to cancel a trip because of medical reasons they treated me well. I am not looking to getting 100% of my money back if I have a problem as I can self insure for the small stuff. I just need insurance to cover the big stuff. I also understand the difference between single trip and multi-trip coverage. Single single trip coverage will repay me for all my covered losses for just one trip and I have to write a policy for each trip that I take. Multi-trip insurance only covers up to the amount for the entire year and if I have a total coverage of say $15000 and I have a loss of say $10000 for my first trip of the year I have only $5000 for the rest of the year. I can live with this as my odds of having 2 catastrophes in a year. Also if I did exhaust the $10,000 on my first trip of the year and had to cancel a later trip which would not be full covered I could afford it and it would not have a significant impact on my life style. That said, I can get a yearly policy from Allianz for the 2 of us for $1500 with the following per person coverages Trip cancellation- $15,000 Trip interruption - $15,000 Emergency medical - $50,000 Emergency transportation - $500,000 Also a bunch of other stuff that is not important. The quotes I have been getting for single trip policies for my first $20,000 trip with about the same coverage range from $2000 to $3400. Given my comments in paragraph 2, I must be missing something. What is it? Thanks DON

I would not worry about most seals but leopard seals might be a problem - check out this post. https://www.science.org/content/article/antarctic-researcher-killed DON

The problem was apparently inoperative automatic doors. Mickey mouse??? Tell that to the people who died on the Titanic. DON

I would not cruise on a line that does not require pre-testing. It isn't foolproof but it helps to require it. It isn't hard to do a pre-test. DON

Best idea yet. We spent almost 3 months driving AK. However we drove from Las Vegas to AK on the Alcan Highway which was cool. Then on the way home we put the car on one of the Alaska Marine Highway ferries from I believe Haines to Prince Rupert and drove home via BC. We also used the marine highway ships to get to towns that were not accessible by road. One of my best trips ever. Even more amazing was that after spending more than 3 months in a Honda Accord w my wife we were still talking to each other. The sad thing about all of the people who only do AK cruises is that many of them think that they have really seen AK. You sound like my kind of people. Shame that we can't get together to share a few beers and a lot of travel stories. Did you drive the haul road? BTW - we just got back from a small ship (190 passengers) cruise in southern AK. Have you ever been to a town such as Kake? We also got to experience a July 4 celebration in Wrangell which was lot of fun. DON

I would disagree w this statement. A lousy tour is still a lousy tour even if it is free. It is also a waste of my limited time in port. One time on an Azamara cruise we won a free tour in an on-ship raffle. We had planned to do some specific things in the city but my wife convinced me to do do the free tour. It was one of the worse waste of time awful tours I have ever taken in my life. If you have OBC that you have to use buy something on the ship that you wouldn't buy because it is free or use if for on-board stuff. Even worse - do you what you really want to do at a stop instead of doing something that you don't want to do because it is free. DON

You need to post this message on the specific cruise roll call. DON

I didn't mean to question you about the number of expedition cruises you had done. If I did it was by mistake. The question was directed at someone else. Sorry. DON

Good post. Another thing and that is if I understand the concept of "duty free" correctly. When they say that the item is duty free, that only applies to duties that might be levied in the country where you purchase the item. You may still have to pay duties to the country from which you disembark the ship. For example when we returned from a driving trip in Canada we bought several cases of wine at a duty free shop in Canada because we likes the wine. We still had to pay a minimal duty on the wine when we returned to the US. One way that you might save significant amounts by purchasing stuff overseas is a saving on sales tax. The sales tax where I live is 8.5%. If I buy a $1000 watch at my local jewelry store I will have to pay $85 sales tax. If I buy it on the ship even at the same price I don't pay sales tax. Yes. I know that I am supposed to declare the item to my state taxing authority but who does? Bottom line on anything you purchase aboard. Buy it because you like it and not because you save some money on it. DON