Italy52

I found a few pictures of our tour to share:

@Crew News. Agree with your comments. For our first excursion, we used a tripod. For our second excursion, we had no access to a tripod. @Kay.redmann. Unless things have changed, there will probably be people with iPhones on the tour. We don't use our phones for taking pictures so I am not familiar with the features or what the output would look like. That being said, I think Crew News summed it up best.

@travelin.sisters, thanks a million for posting the pictures of the hand-held shower head, I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Ok. What happened to us both times is that a guide met us at a designated meeting point (shown on our excursion ticket). The group got into a van and were driven to two specific locations (guides choice of photographic locations). The guide asked the group about our photography experience and what we were using to take pictures so he/she could help us take better pictures -- some people were using cell phones, some I Pads and some DSLR cameras -- all types of camera options. Once we arrived at our first location the photographer gave us ideas on how to use our camera equipment to get the best possible shot. He/she would walk around and check in with us to see if anyone needed help. Some did and some didn't. The two photographers took us to different locations: our first trip we went to Lower Reid Falls and a river where we could capture the falls cascading and the river where an eagle had been spotted. For our second location we went to an area where we could capture reflections of mountains in the water and then we went to a place where we were high enough so we could get a view of the White Pass train passing by and we could take a picture of that. I think the excursion was more of an intro to scenic photography and if you need help in how to achieve this then you might enjoy it.

I have not been to the excursion. However, if you are interested and it is a Princess excursion, then click on the write up about the excursion and see if it has any reviews. I have often times done that to get the perspective of someone who has actually taken the tour and found it helpful.

Yes, we have taken this tour twice over the past 5 years. Is it worth doing? Depends on what you are looking to get out of the tour. If you can provide me with an answer then I can tailor my response to your specific question.

What types of excursions are you interested in? For us, we like a lot of the excursions that are on boats like whale watching and glacier viewing. Since August can be a rainy month, we always pack our light weight water-proof jacket and rain/wind pants that roll up into a ball and can be easily stowed in a back pack.We also layer our clothing (a couple of 32 degree vests and base layers -- all pretty light weight and packable.) Agree with Ferry_Watcher that now is a great time to look for sales. Just got a few items from 32 degrees the other day.

Can't log in at all. Called Carnival earlier today and was informed that they are having problems with the website and are trying to fix it. Think I will just check back tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your help. Seems that Carnival excursions start appearing just like the other cruise lines so I will just keep checking back.

@PrincessArlena'sDadThanks for the information, I appreciate it.

We are new to Carnival and have booked our first cruise to Alaska with the line. Can anyone tell me when we might be able to see excursion options for the trip: 6 months out, 3 months out, etc.???

@CRUZBUDS, thank you for getting back to me. Unfortunately, since our cruise is not until April of 2024, there are no excursions showing for our cruise as of today's checking. It is promising to know that Tracy Arm could possibly be an option for us. Are you showing any whale watching tours for Juneau? I tried to find your itinerary on line to see if we would have any ports in common so I could ask specific questions and I could not locate your cruise. Are you sailing 2023 or 2024? Are you sailing out of SF or Long Beach? Thanks again for answering my questions, I truly do appreciate it.

Very kind of you to check this out for us, thank you very much.

Interesting. We had requested an Elite swap out on the Discovery a couple of weeks ago and our room steward said it was room service's responsibility. We called them two days in a row with a promise it would be done. Never happened so our room steward marched down and got it done for us (he was so sweet to do this, we never ask this of him, he just did it for us). I checked with the C&A representative and she told me it was NOT the responsibility of the room steward but that room service should be doing it. I wish Princess would give us some consistency so we are not getting mixed messages. ***Thank you for kindness in posting your journey with pictures, I appreciate it. We are on the Crown to Alaska in July and your pictures are giving us a glimpse of what lies ahead for us. One question for you: With regard to the lack of the hand-held shower head even after you ordered one ahead, did they ever come by and rectify the situation? I had my TA order one and it is clearly showing on my Travel Summary that one has been requested --- now wondering if we will have an issue when we board.

We did Glacier Gardens in the May time frame many years ago. Unfortunately, for us, the tour was a bust as there were a lot of plants on the side of the paths that were not planted as was obvious by all the trays of plants lying along the paths. You might want to give the vendor a call and see if they will be ready during your visit.

The OBC is not something you can use on the cruise. Rather, it was in the form of a gift card that we could use to redeem merchandise at their store. Last year we took quite a few cruises and the sum total of the cards allowed me to purchase a nice desktop computer.

We book our cruises through "C" and were told that they do not participate in Royal Up. I am with you, prefer "C's" perks

@CRUZBUDSWe will be taking the Carnival Spirit to Alaska for their 14-day itinerary in April of 2024. We have never cruised with Carnival but the unique itinerary peaked our interest. Have sailed to Alaska many times before and we are always looking for a new mix of ports so we decided to book it. Do you have excursions showing for your Carnival Miracle cruise (I am assuming you are going during 2023?). Just curious if anything was available to book during an April time frame.

Interesting comments, thanks for your input. Forgot to mention, I was not a fan of the pain with the needles. Some didn't hurt but others were painful especially the ones between my fingers.

Thanks for the post. We went to an arthritis seminar by the Dr. that performed the acupuncture. During the seminar she mentioned we all got a free 15-minute consultation and asked for our cabin numbers. DH suggested I go because I had some cracking in my neck so I did if he promised to go to the appt for an issue with his hand. We both went to the first appt. and the doctor performed the acupuncture service then she mentioned that she would need to see both of us 2 more times for a total of 3 visits --- yes, not cheap. I agreed to the second appt because I thought it might be working. However, when she wanted to set up a 3rd appt. I told her I really don't think I was seeing the results that she had lead me to believe. She then said that everyone is different. Well, I am home from our 5-day cruise and I can honestly say, I don't think it was worth the 2 visits --- hence, reason for my post as I was wondering if anyone had gotten any benefit from the service or was it just a "come on."

Has anyone done the acupuncture service in the spa? Would like to hear your comments about it if you did.

Just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I sent in my proof of ownership of 100 shares of CCL stock on Sunday and the OBC showed up in my account today for my two upcoming cruises -- nice!

We were on this same cruise. We did notice lots of kids but we expected that for the time frame we chose to sail. Great cruise with no real complaints.