travelbuds

Scheduled to arrive by 7AM on a Friday. May just wait till we get there. Do you remember if the ticket machines are inside or outside of the ticket office? Thanks.

The website says ticket office doesn't open till 8:30AM. Are the ticket machines in the ticket office or can one access them separate from office? If so, maybe better to wait until we get there to check out the weather before buying tickets.

Thank you. Did you have a long wait in the ticket line? Did you do a roundtrip ride, or walk back down to town? Thought about buying tickets ahead of time. Website says ticket office doesn't open till 8:30AM. Our ship docks by 7AM and leaves early afternoon so we want an early start for the day.

Were you able to pay with credit card or did you have to use local currency? Thanks.

Sounds like the only places where cash tips may be expected would be in London (hotel porter) and Southampton (hotel and cruise terminal porters). Will use credit card for train/coach/taxi and taxi tip. Did I miss anyone else? Contacting credit card issuer is on my to-do list. Thanks.

My wife and I have never been to Europe. Can we do our cruise (Southampton, Bruges, Norway) using only our credit cards, or do we need to convert US dollars into pounds, euros and kroners before we leave home? Buses, trains, tipping for excursions, restaurants, porters, taxi? Thanks.

My wife and I have never been to Europe. Can we do this cruise (Southampton, Bruges and Norway) using only our credit cards, or do we need to convert US dollars into pounds, euros and kroners before we leave home? Buses, trains, tipping for excursions, restaurants, porters, taxi? Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. We usually make our non-ship excursion reservations with the locals before we leave home, especially for Alaska cruises as certain ones fill up fast. Have never been to Europe before. Looking forward to it.

Curious if you made excursion reservations prior to leaving home or if you made them after arriving at the port.

My wife and I have decided to go on the American Song from Clarkson to Portland and picked a port side cabin. Flying into Lewiston a day early to do the Hells Canyon package. It is a Lewis and Clark themed cruise. Looking forward to this as it will be our first river cruise of any kind.

This will be our first cruise to Norway. Wondering if there are vendors lined up at Norwegian ports like they are in Alaska such as in Juneau. We rarely did excursions sponsored through ship. We usually have made independent reservations before leaving home.

Curious what private transfer service you used. Thank you.

My wife and just did the same-July '24.

Nice review. Thank you. Wondering if passengers have time to do more than one excursion in a day when not cruising. The ACL website doesn't give times in port or times of excursions. Did passengers do independent, non-ship excursions? Thank you.

I read the book, The Perfect Storm, by James Carrier. Captain Guyan was the captain of the Fantome at the time. He was the captain of our Yankee Clipper (Grenada) sail three years prior to the tragedy. We partied with the Mandalay when we tied up on Palm Island. Guyan's brother, Paul, was second mate on Fantome (Captain Pete) when we were on it in Mexico the year before disaster. We have a ship painting by Captain Max of the Polynesia on our first Windjammer. Other trip was on Flying Cloud with Captain Adrian in British Virgin Islands. Some of our best vacations! Too bad owner's kids couldn't keep business afloat. Now just to pick a boat for the Columbia!

Thank you for your comments. Regarding cabin location for this river trip, do you know if the scenery is nicer on the south side or north side of the river? I see that you have been on WBC cruises in the past. We enjoyed the 5 that we were on. We were on the Fantome two times, the last time the year before she went down.

Have been considering Lewiston airport rather than Spokane-----2-3 miles vs 2 hours drive-----if I could get good times.

Thank you all for your comments. We have never been on a river trip before. Deciding between paddlewheeler and riverboat that ACL offers. Any words of wisdom one way or the other? Thanks.

My wife and I are interested in a Columbia/Snake river trip. Looking for pros and cons cruising eastbound vs westbound. Flying in from Phoenix. Thank you.

We paid $299pp for the Hubbard boat tour this summer on Sapphire Princess. Signed up for next summer on Celebrity Summit for $276pp (Celebrity had a Labor Day sale).

2023 https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1250 2024 https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1551

We have used them the past 2 summers. Promptly picked us up.

Try the website. We did this the past two summers. Quick response for us. Also picked us up on time.

We enjoyed the chowder there.

Depending on how much time you have, you can do both, whales and Mendenhall. The past two summers we had to be onboard by 3:30pm for a 4pm departure. We did whale watching with Harv and Marv and got back to Auke Bay by 11:45am. We had made arrangements with Evergreen Taxi to pick us up at noon at the Auke Bay harbor (Statter Harbor) for the 10 minute drive over to Mendenhall. The other 4 on the boat were taken back to the ship. That saved us 40-50 minutes by not going back to the ship. We had time to go to Photo Point and hike to Nugget Falls. Didn't go inside visitor center as we had done that on other trips. Got the Blue Bus to go back to the ship. Blue Bus tickets from VC had to be purchased (half price of RT fare) directly from company (Tammy) via phone. Not sure how that schedule works now because of permit shortage. Could also make arrangement with taxi. Left the VC at 2pm and still had time to shop for fudge near dock. Guess it just depends on what you feel comfortable with.