gys

Words cannot do justice to what I am about to share. Seven years ago my family and I were on a Christmas Mexican Riviera cruise on the NCL Star. On the last afternoon of the cruise, something did not feel right with me. Somehow, I made it down to the medical center and within 30 minutes, I was in full cardiac arrest. I had not had any previous history of heart problems. Because my heart attack was witnessed by the doctor on duty, I was immediately shocked and my heart restarted. I was given a special drug, called TPA, that could only be administered by certain trained personnel. Thank goodness NCL carried it. At that time, the medical staff thought I could make it back to San Pedro (about 15 more hours), but I went into cardiac arrest again and had to be shocked two more times. I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right medically trained staff, and the right medications. At that point, the doctor did not think I would make it back to San Pedro, so the US Coast Guard was contacted for an emergency helicopter evacuation to San Diego. After months of cardiac rehab, I was able to escort my daughter down the aisle to be married. I've also been around for the birth of two grandsons. My heart attack was due to 80-90% of the so-called widow maker coronary artery. There is usually only a 10-30% survival rate. Thankfully, we had the deluxe NCL cruise insurance and ended up paying only $12,000 out of pocket. (There was not charge for the Coast Guard medical evacuation as I was a US citizen.) I was able to contact, by email, the doctor who saved my life shortly before he retired to let him know how grateful my family and I were for saving my life.

We booked the Denali Explorer (HB5) for next year and this is the times that Princess gave us:

Day One Bus Captain Cook Hotel,to McKinley Princess Hotel, Dep 9:00am Arr 12:30pm

Day Two McKinley Princess Hotel

Day Three Bus McKinley to Denali, Princess Hotel Dep 10:00am Arr 12:30pm

Day Four Denali Princess Hotel

Day Five Transfer Denali Princes Hotel to Rail Depot 7:45am-8:15am

Train: Denali to Whittier, Dep 8:15am, Arr 5:30pm

Greg

Thank you for all your input. Both tours include 2 nights in Denali and yes, I already plan on upgrading to the longer tour! I am concerned about the amount of travel time (bus, train etc) and feel like the Denali Explorer at least a gives a better sense of what this is like than the other tour. I wonder if Princess can give a more detailed schedule? On Off the Beaten Path...I am concerned that day 10 and 12 May be all travel...I want time to do excursions. I don't usually get a lot of sleep on vacation. I am up early and stay up late. I figure I can sleep at home!!

A few years ago, I told my wife that in order for our family of five to sail in the coveted aft balcony cabins on the Star, we had to book one balcony cabin for our three adult kids and one balcony cabin for us. I was able to keep the ruse up almost all of the way through checkin at the pier. The surprise came when the checkin agent said that he found the card keys for our kids, but couldn't find the card keys for my wife and me. He then asked us to follow him over to another counter. Well, that counter was for suite checkins and my wife was certainly surprised! ("Unfortunately," we got hooked on the suite life...)

We did the Baltic cruise on the Star last May. We had a 10:20am flight out of Copenhagen and made it without any problem by taking a cab. Granted, our cruise ended on a Saturday. We were in a suite, so we were able to utilize priority disembarkation and did not need to carry our luggage off ourselves. I don't think that you will have a problem.

In the fall I will be on a 14-day trip on the Star out and back into Copenhagen. I've never been to Copenhagen so I have no idea of the distance from the port to the airport, or the traffic on a Monday morning (October 6th). We have a flight at noon. The ship is due to dock at 7:00am. If we carry our luggage off, are we okay to make that flight?

Thanks for the help.

Just found one of the post-drydock deck plans for the Diamond Princess on the www.princess.com website:

http://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=DI

The deck 15 (Sun deck) plan has the new Japanese bath and deck 6 (Fiesta) has additional oceanview cabins.

Our family tradition is to eat at Teppanyaki on the first night. After the craziness of getting to the port, checking in, and unpacking, we can finally relax and know we're on vacation as we sit around the Teppanyaki grill. We've managed to get quite a few of our fellow cruisers to make this their tradition also, so I hope Teppanyaki won't get too crowded on the first night!