SDPadreFan

Different population on the brands. HAL generally has a more sedate and older crowd (that's not a negative, but a well earned choice for them). And are more likely to subscribe to traditional reading formats (hardbound and paperback books). Carnival has old people too (I'm 66), but we've found the Carnival grey hairs to be more outgoing and involved. With all the options and features available by using a Kindle, there is literally no argument that can be made for most (but not all) book categories. The exceptions would be those that contain numerous graphs or illustrations like history books, etc. But it is just so easy to carry my Kindle anywhere, vs. pack-ratting a bunch of paperbacks around. And I am never without something to read as I also have the Kindle app on my phone. I have a ton of free "history in an hour" books on my phone for emergency's. I converted my 80 year old mother-in-law to a kindle back in @ 2005 and she never looked back. Just the ability to convert the font size on the fly made her an instant fan. I just had to load the books for her, but she would read from it night and day and take it everywhere with her. I have a ton of paperbacks at our home, and pre-covid - I would take a bag of them once or twice a month to a local senior center. I need to start doing that again.

That excursion is awesome.

When we were on the Miracle in June (10 Day Alaska), I was able to go back in the app and select a day and see the menu for that day (and even going forward in the future). I was able to do screen grabs on my phone that way for every days MDR menu. Might work for you as well.

Did you try Gatsby`s Garden 3rd Deck, forward. Kind of a secret quiet area.

OK, so where is this mythical Gordo Lele's you ask. Well - here you go. If you can find Giggling Marlin - turn left and one block down is Hooliganz Corner. A little wiggle to the right and follow the street. Gordo Lele's will be a tiny place on the right. Right before the Los Milagros Hotel. https://goo.gl/maps/KVk9yfoSdU6CXK8F9 A little back story on Gordo Lele's (aka the 5th Beatle). In the early 2000's, Javier (the owner) had a place that was little more than a crack in the sidewalk down by this church. The Church (owned that tiny spot) but the pastor told him he could stay there forever. It was an extremely popular lunch spot (always a line down the sidewalk). Just his cooking area and a couple of plastic chairs on the sidewalk, and Javier loved to serenade his customers with Beatles tunes while he cooked. And he was very good (at both). Well - the old pastor retired and the new younger pastor gave Javier the boot because he wanted to open a little bookstore right there. In come the Cabo Fanatics of the TripAdvisor Cabo Forum board. They collected donations and set him up in the little shop he has today. Over the years, they've helped him do repairs to both his business and his little house. Also helped pay for some substantial medical bills. He is a well loved person. So now you know. Here is the area of the old location. https://goo.gl/maps/WAxCuFMR2cmbuTtw7

Always best to know market prices before you go. That is always definitely true with Tequila as well. Some specific tequila's in Mexico are tourist priced (higher than stateside prices) because tourist's are really the only people buying that brand in Mexico (Patron comes to mind). If you want something unique - get a bottle of Damiana Liqueur. Great as a floater in a margarita. If you are not sure you would like it. Try a Damiana Margarita at Solomon's Landing in Cabo. It's right on the marina walk so you will walk right past it. DO NOT let your female companion(s) have too many of these. It's considered a mood enhancer for females if you get my drift. One look at the bottle will explain everything. Moderation is the key here. More about vanilla pricing. When I bought my 33oz bottle of Orlando in Mazatlan in 2019, my cost was $300 pesos or about $15 ($.45 cents per ounce). The label is still on my bottle. At the same time (2019) - a 16oz bottle of Costco Vanilla was costing around $25-$30 due to the shortage of Madagascar vanilla beans. So about $1.56 per oz. at the time. The Madagascar shortage has resolved itself and Costco Vanilla currently is selling for around $15 for 16oz. That's an excellent price. That equates to a little less than $1 per oz ($.94). So compare that to the prices you find in Mexico for Orlando or other quality Mexican Vanilla's. Personally - I would give the Costco Vanilla a very slim taste edge. Just not at 2-3 times the price that I was able to get Orlando for in 2019. Don't forget the Damiana Liqueur in Cabo!

Coming off a ship, I'm guessing at least $40 each way. Could be as high as $60. Hope you are planning on staying on the ship overnight. Cabo is a finicky port because of the anchorage's location. It might be fine to run tenders one day and not the next. Leaving you with a very expensive trip (flight) back to the ships homeport or the next cruise port. Not worth the risk in my opinion. Cabo's a great place - been going there 19 years straight, and this will be our 20th year in late October. We are timeshare owners at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. We watch the cruise ships sail from our balcony by most mornings in Oct/Nov. This picture is of my wife (right) and our best friend (left) back in 2007.

And of course the safe bet as others mentioned is the Costco vanilla. A few years ago the price in Costco skyrocketed because of crop failures in Madagascar. The price in Costco almost tripled. But things have recovered and Costco's price is now pretty good (actually great). I got that bottle pictured above a few years ago while on vacation in Mazatlan. Think I paid $15 for that giant bottle back then.

You really need to know exactly what you are buying. There is ALOT of cheap fake stuff out there including in places like PV, Mazatlan, and Cabo. I would try to get it in Mazatlan because that is the most Mexican of the 3 ports. Cabo and PV are just tourist meccas. The Orlando brand has always been considered good. Do your research and make a 3x5 card with requirements and take that with you when shopping.

The Hilton in Cabo is out on the tourist corridor between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. That would be one expensive taxi there and back.

For the best weather, I would say late June to late July. We just did the 20 June sailing on Carnival Miracle out of San Francisco and our in-port and Tracy Arm days were just perfect. Cruising days less so with wind, overcast, and cooler weather. We packed stuff to layer against the elements. Jeans, t-shirt and light jacket was really all we needed in port. But you have to be prepared because YMMV.

Cruising Alaska in September is always dicey. Same for late April and early May. Great pricing - but weather "predictions" can literally change overnight up in Alaska. You may end up with little to no port stops, or port stops with miserable weather. On our June 20 sailing, we had pretty crummy sailing weather including the inside passage (overcast, windy, cool/cold). But our port visits and Tracy Arm days were simply spectacular. My sister cruised RCCL 2nd week of July (prime time for Alaska) and their port visits were all overcast, cool and some drizzle. Go figure. That first landslide in Skagway happened right before we got there (like 2 days before). Tendering was a mess (but lemonade from lemons). Missed our train excursion but just had to wait @ 90 minutes for the next one. Found some seats and chatted with others (no biggie). Then the later train (we got on) had issues and they had to send for another engine. We had to back up to a spur line so other trains could get past us. We had passed that little red caboose 4 times when we finally got back to town. But it was an adventure and we made great friends on the train while sitting and waiting for the back up engine. Really - the worst experience was the HUGE line for the tenders getting back on the ship. But lemonade from lemons, I told my wife to go find a seat (she did) and I stayed in line and called her phone when it was time for her to rejoin me. Missed dinner completely but the Miracle kept the Deli & Pizza stations open and fully manned until everyone got back onboard and got a little food in their gut. So all in all - a great cruise for us and I have some great stories to share. Would I do the 10 day out of San Francisco again. In a heartbeat. But we want to do more of the inside passage and there is a HAL ship that leaves from Vancouver and does the Inside Passage all the way up to Ketchikan. Most leave Vancouver or Seattle and immediately turn left and head out to open water and around Vancouver Island only actually doing Inside Passage when they get close to their first port call. And we'd like to cruise Glacier Bay and Carnival currently does not offer that option.

Agree that it would be difficult for Navigator and Panorama, but Sapphire Princess only carries about 3200 (a little less than Radiance). Don't think Catalina has it's own tender service but don't know for sure.

You have company. Navigator of the Seas and Sapphire Princess are in your area doing donuts with you. Kinda surprised none of them went to Catalina Island to give the passengers something.

SoCal has rain coming on Friday. Ensenada currently has a 79% chance of rain on Friday. RCCL's Navigator of the Seas left San Pedro (LA) on Wednesday (on a 5 day) and it looks like she's just hanging out off San Diego doing donuts in the ocean waiting for the storm to pass. Her only choice will be to visit exotic Ensenada on Saturday and then return home. Great website for tracking storms in Baja and further south. http://www.eebmike.com/

Not a surprise that the small boat is sold out. Also be aware that both weather conditions (mainly fog) as well as the amount of icebergs can effect cruising the fjord. They can even change to Endicott Arm instead. Hope you have a great time.

They will miss a port call. Don't think they will return early however. They could do a quick stop in Ensenada early on Friday (or maybe even Catalina Island) or they will just do donuts in the water up near Long Beach until Saturday morning. Cruising the Mexican Riviera in Sept/Oct is always dicey because the storms/hurricanes that form near Acapulco tend to hug the coastline more and eventually curve eastward. Sometimes hitting PV or Mazatlan. And rarely even Cabo (like Hurricane Odile did in 2014). Most times, they will hit a lightly populated area between PV and Mazatlan or else somewhere in the middle of the Baja Peninsula. Cheap time to cruise but it's generally very hot and very humid in those 3 ports during Sep/Oct. Weather patterns change in early November and it becomes simply delightful. Should mention that hurricanes/storms do also form off Acapulco in July/Aug but for the most part they tend to head north and west towards Hawaii. Those have less of an impact on cruising to Baja.

Don't miss out on the Alligator Beignets in the MDR when they have them. It will be listed under the "Rare Finds" right below the Appetizers. Pretty tasty.

Final pic. I call this my cruise ship iceberg.

And I got a couple of harbor seals to smile for the camera.

The best one. Later on - my wife actually got to witness an iceberg invert (flip over). That's even more rare but I completely missed that.

First calving event I grabbed on my camera. We actually were lucky enough to see 4 of them. Missed the first one though. Not fast enough with my camera.

We did that cruise back on Jun 20. Had a fantastic trip and really perfect weather. We were lucky to have one of the bowling alley balconies which is perfect for an Alaskan Cruise. Shame you won't get to do any excursions, but understandable. We did the Rainforest Trails & Whale Watch one in Juneau. For Skagway, we just took the train. Icy Strait Point we did the cooking demonstration and it was very enjoyable. For the finale, we did the small boat excursion off the ship while cruising Tracy Arm. There is NO BETTER WAY to get close and really enjoy the majesty of the Sawyer Glacier. I'll post a few pics of that one. Besides a pretty good shot of the glacier calving, it was also pupping season for the harbor seals and got some great shots of them as well.

Are you saying a visit to Stockholm (the city) is not a highlight, only cruising past hundreds of tiny islands. Granted, I'm sure it's a beautiful journey, but it's not on my cruise itinerary so I'm not going to worry about it. Nor would I choose a specific cruise itinerary just because it sails that specific route past all those little islands. I choose Cruise Line, cruise ship, and then itinerary in that order. When you consider that in almost all cases, you will spend over 75% of your time on your cruise ship - it matters. About me: I spent over 24 years in the U.S. Navy. I've completed almost a full circumnavigation of the globe with a repositioning cruise on the USS Kitty Hawk, starting in San Diego, CA and ending in Philadelphia, PA. I've been as far north as Anchorage, AK and as far south as Hobart, Tasmania. I have one common longitude line left to cross at sea and that is 90 Degrees West and I will do that when we complete a Panama Canal Cruise probably in 2024/2025. There are just a few latitude lines that I probably will never cross. During my time in the U.S. Navy - I've cruised past many, many small islands. Areas like the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea, the Philippine Islands, the Singapore Strait, in and around the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia. I'm sure you are rightly proud of the archipelago surrounding Stockholm and no doubt, it is a truly a beautiful area, but it is only one small slice of this big blue ball we all call home. We are really looking forward to seeing some of the great cities of the Baltic region, enjoying some local food and meeting some of the wonderful people in that region.

Not a biggie for us. Just a little more trip planning. We've done Livorno (Pisa/Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome), Pireas (Athens), Kusadasi (Selcuk/Ephesus), and Villefranche-sur-Mer (Monaco, Nice, Cannes).