paluni

But we did visit the town of North Pole, which has good restaurants.

We did a round-trip drive to the North Pole with a guide. If I had known you could fly one way, that would definitely be better. It is a long drive. But it was interesting.

I really enjoyed seeing the Alaska pipeline, a short ways out of town. After seeing it, I could never object to an oil pipeline. Seems much better than a train. It was on stilts and so unobtrusive.

We also ate at a fabulous Chinese restaurant at North Pole. Guy Fieri had it on his TV show. I forget the name of it and I assume it is still there. Gigantic portions, don't order too many dishes!

I thought it had very good food. It was expensive, but very nice. And right on the water so beautiful views if it is still light out.

Originally Posted by Telynau

Hi "Cruising". Plumbers Crack! Oh how unladylike of me to laugh . Some of the "floor shows" are so unintentional and so hilarious just the same. I'm wicked enough to imagine a booming voice store wide: "Attention Shoppers! Avert eyes in aisle 123. Avert eyes in aisle 123. Thank you."

Ha ha - this reminded me of a story from my daughter who worked at Trader Joe's. The staff has to bend over a lot and be aware of this. The phrase was "crack kills". The in-house joke.

My wife and I are renewing our vows on the Norwegian Getaway in February. I will take credit for the idea. This will be our seventh cruise. We've managed to find a cruise where we will be and to renew on our actual 15th anniversary.

 

We (well, I) have been dealing with the group events desk for the Getaway, rather than the external company. I found the information on the website, and that lead me to the group desk. It's been a while since I started the process, but I think the group desk does renewals and the external company does weddings.

 

We have the deluxe package so the Captain will do the ceremony. (That was a requirement for my wife.) The group desk sent me sample vows, which we will probably modify a bit. They weren't bad, actually.

 

Our wedding was on a 60-foot schooner off Key West. So, since we're a little bit larger, we found a bigger ship for the renewal.

 

My sister-in-law and her husband (who attended the wedding) will be with us. Also, a small party, but not just us.

 

How do those who have the Captain do the ceremony plan to tip him? Do you?

 

Kevin

We had our 30th anniversary vow renewal on the Island Princess. The captain officiated. My husband didn't tell me the cost, but I know everything was expensive, and it seems unthinkable to tip the captain. It's not that kind of thing. I would think a captain might even be insulted to be tipped. He's not like a bartender or a waiter, and hopefully it's a nice thing for him. I can understand your being concerned, but I think it would be very unusual in such an event to try and tip.

I hope this is ok under the guidelines, I am not trying to drum up business for a company, but we had a very good experience with TravelEx insurance. My husband booked a side trip to Machu Picchu, very expensive, on a South America cruise which started in February. Then he got sick the day before, and he was quarantined in his cabin for the day. Expensive loss for the non-refundable ticket, though Princess did take off some of the charge. He filed his claim in early April for the reimbursement. Three weeks later, a check for the large amount arrived! We were both pleasantly surprised. We thought we would probably have to fight it, because the image of insurance companies is "covers everything except what actually happens." So, this insurance did "what it says on the tin," as the British say. I think they deserve a shout-out. A happy experience for us.

A turquoise simple top? I love that color. Navy and white are both sea colors, so maybe that works? Maybe not? I don't know. Then have a necklace with a large white hanging item - something to pull in the white again? Or something with white in it, maybe a little chunky, for a necklace. Like a string of sort of white chunky things. Gold earrings? With that outfit, white strappy or sandaly shoes?

She must bring her own hair color from home then, and do it herself. Maybe you could help. It is not hard. It appears to be the only alternative. Practice at home one time.

We are looking at booking a Caribbean cruise soon and one of our first ports of call is Princess Cays.

 

We have never been to Princess Cays before and I was wondering what is their to do there?, any tips/advise?? (I guess as its Princess own islands their wont be any private tours?)

 

Can you snorkel there?

 

Any tips/advise/ideas are very welcome :)

To elaborate further, there is no tours there that I know of. You can just walk the beach and see the sights. Now I do remember, there is a little bridge to go to the beach on the right, and there were hordes of fish at the bridge! How did I forget that. I think they might get fed there. So maybe if you snorkel somewhere, you will see fish around, or maybe they are all congregating at the bridge! Have fun. It was a nice beach day and it did feel safe.

I assume you can snorkel there, but I don't know if there is much to see. The beach I swam at was sandy with some rocks, it was shallow and clear and you could see some, but I didn't see fish swimming around. Maybe another area of the long beach is better for snorkeling. I hardly ever snorkel so I don't know, but yeah, bring your snorkel. I enjoyed Princess Cays, except for loud music at times.

I came off the pier, and there was loud music, in the food pavilion directly ahead and a live band further down to the left. I was disappointed to not have peace and quiet. We went to the beach on the right, as you get off the pier. After walking most of the beach later, I think the beach on the right was the better beach. I think if we had gone further down it would have been quieter. They seemed to turn down the music some. The food was excellent to me - like picnic food in the food pavilion, and picnic tables to sit at. There are some stores to see. We rented a clamshell in advance. A little hard to track down the beach boy. Find the rental shack and then find the beach boy, but we did it. We liked the clamshell. Way far down on the left, is the private bungalows and the private sanctuary that we couldn't go in. That area was quiet! So if you like quiet you have to pay for it. I really like quiet, or music that isn't real, real loud, so that is something that I am always sensitive to. This was in January and the water wasn't real warm, but it was ok and I enjoyed swimming. There are shady areas if you want shade.

Been driving between all my life. Don't recall any tolls! Not an issue to me. 101 has so much to stop at and see, plus you're sometimes on the coast, which is very pretty. Traffic is generally not bad (although Santa Barbara often slow). Take 280 out of San Francisco, which blends in to 101 in San Jose. 280 is very scenic. Or you could take Highway 1 out of San Francisco, the coast road, and cut over to 101 around San Juan Bautista. 5 is straight, not scenic. Maybe now there are some sad closing farmlands because of the drought. 5 does have a giant cattle feedlot, and some people don't like the smell, about halfway down. It's Harris Ranch and they have a restaurant with nice sort of gourmet food. But 101 goes back in places to the times of the padres and there is a lot to see and some historic things.

Whoops! Well, just reverse what I said above. It still applies, my opinion of the drive.

Been driving between all my life. Don't recall any tolls! Not an issue to me. 101 has so much to stop at and see, plus you're sometimes on the coast, which is very pretty. Traffic is generally not bad (although Santa Barbara often slow). Take 280 out of San Francisco, which blends in to 101 in San Jose. 280 is very scenic. Or you could take Highway 1 out of San Francisco, the coast road, and cut over to 101 around San Juan Bautista. 5 is straight, not scenic. Maybe now there are some sad closing farmlands because of the drought. 5 does have a giant cattle feedlot, and some people don't like the smell, about halfway down. It's Harris Ranch and they have a restaurant with nice sort of gourmet food. But 101 goes back in places to the times of the padres and there is a lot to see and some historic things.

Free room service was a joy of cruising. It was one of the unique delights of cruising. Pretty soon you'll think you're in a land hotel, except when you look out the window and see the ocean.

I did the Sea Princess from San Francisco to Sydney, 29 days, stopping at many islands. We liked the sea days and the islands, although I thought American Samoa wasn't real great. I never had the feeling the ship overwhelmed any island. It all seemed fine with about 2000 passengers. I also sailed the Ocean Princess in the Med, and that did seem to be a smaller ship but I enjoyed it. But when we took the Ocean, they only had traditional dining, and we prefer anytime dining. That was a drawback for my husband. I don't know if they still only have traditional dining. Moorea and Bora Bora were very nice. On Moorea on the beach someone had their bag stolen, but later it was found. Luckily they had nothing of value in it for the thief. Also on Moorea someone put money in their shoe when they snorkeled and it was stolen. This was a tour on a boat. You have to be careful of theft in those places.

My husband just came off a cruise by himself. He said he noticed there were more people holding hands on formal nights, being more romantic. It made him feel bad I wasn't there. So I will say no, 60's. That atmosphere brings out something special, for a lot of people. This was a Princess cruise, by the way. Men always approach looking like James Bond in a tux.

Kyoto was good, but a little disappointing to me. I guess I expected a little more. Nara Deer Park was fantastic - and way more than tame deer. A complex with a huge long line of stone lanterns and then temples. The Todaiji temple, world's largest wooden building, is nearby. When I first saw it from a viewing distance, it brought tears to my eyes, it was so impressive. Those are well worth seeing, in my opinion.

For me, that is something to consider. You lose time if you go east, i.e., Sydney to Honolulu - always getting less sleep! If you go east to west, i.e., Honolulu to Sydney, you get more sleeping time. This made a big difference to me when we sailed Beijing to Anchorage - in the northern latitudes. Because the longitudes narrow at the poles, we were losing sleeping hours like mad and constantly changing the clocks. It was kind of exhausting for me so I really care about going east to west now.

I can't recall much, but I don't remember any problems getting a taxi. I think I recall the airport was a little confusing, but I don't recall any problems with a taxi. Sorry, don't remember prices. I remember the airport as not being real big.

You might get lucky! Actual summer tends to be the worst with cold fog; the shoulder seasons can be very nice. I've mentioned before on the boards, it's really fun to see "Beach Blanket Babylon," a fun review that has run for many years. Lots of laughing.

Of the about six Princess ships I've been on, I thought the Island Princess was in best shape, in November 2013. It just looked better maintained than the others, in really nice shape. But the others were acceptable. Worst was Sea Princess, about five years ago, with a big black spot the size of a salad plate on the balcony blue plastic rug, in a mini-suite! That surprised me. But generally that ship was in very nice shape too. On the ships, if one place wasn't in great shape, lots of other places were in perfect shape. In general the overall picture is they're in good shape, and all the bathrooms especially are well maintained. You could say the bathrooms is the most important place. No black mold on grout or caulking. The bathrooms looked professional.

This was a while ago, but in Lahaina on Maui we enjoyed the Sugar Cane Train, an old plantation train ride through some nice scenery. It wasn't real long, but I really enjoyed it. It's not far from the main part of Lahaina.

As far as luaus in Oahu, I've done the Paradise Cove luau two or four times, and enjoyed it. But next time I want to try Germaine's luau, which has very good reviews. I read a review from someone who did it and just loved it.

Lahaina is a fun town to walk around. Lots of good places to eat. Have a shaved ice for sure.

It's really fun when you pass for a local in a foreign country. I was taken for German in London, British in London, and as Finnish in Finland - over and over again on a 10-day visit! I loved it. I think one of the keys is footwear. Screaming white jogging shoes tend to only be worn by Americans. I do wear jogging shoes too, but black blends in. So you can still be comfortable but if you don't wear the shoes in white you can blend.

This was a a Panama Canal cruise. We had a mini-suite, could look straight down at the canal. The ship was great, food so good, passengers very nice, lots of amenities, and peaceful. I really liked that ship.

There was loud, real loud, and not so loud noise everywhere on the Regal. No quiet places, including the Retreat pool. The pool was nice but played recorded music. The walking track had banging booming music and I like to be out in the peaceful quiet ocean. Some people don't mind. The food is excellent on the ship, balcony cramped. Apparently Regal is improved in various ways on the Royal. My husband and I would never go on the Royal, and we're doubtful about going on the Regal again.