Northern Aurora

We are in the Retreat for both of those cruises. We booked within 48 hours of when the itineraries were released for booking. No savings for us. Both cruises are priced higher that our original price.

To go to Talkeetna you will need to take the Princess shuttle. Through the years there have been some posts that the shuttle to Talkeetna is free if folks are on a Princess cruise tour. I have no idea. Talkeetna is this "funky" little community. I liked it much better years ago as it now has a somewhat tourist trap feel to it. This is the community from which many of the Denali mountain climbers are flown to the mountain to begin their ascent. There are some restaurants, pubs and so forth. Some folks find it enchanting, other not so much. Just goggle the name for more information.

Cruise Critic, under "Cruise Discussion Topic" has a forum devoted to Cruise/Travel Insurance. Consider reading through the threads.

Through the years we have stayed at the Princess McKinley View Lodge a number of times. We stay there when we are returning home to Fairbanks, Alaska from either Seward or Homer. We don't like to spend a very long day driving, and the McKinley View is a convenient stop. It is located up a rather steep hill off of the George Parks Highway. While there is Alaska state park land in close proximity the McKinley View Lodge is positioned so that folks can't easily walk to any attraction. Many people see it as essentially a "holding pen" for those on cruise tours, hence the poor reviews. The guest rooms are in various lodge buildings across the property. Rooms are rather basic with no air conditioning. There is a restaurant and more casual dining facility on the property. From reading reviews throughout the years some folks find it a convenient location to do laundry (there is a guest laundry). There are some walking paths along the property, but I would not characterize them as "hiking trails." Expect a shuttle to run from the McKinley View to the community of Talkeetna. Depending on road construction expect to be on the shuttle ride to last from 45 minutes to an hour. In Talkeetna you might consider booking a jet boat trip with Mahay's Jet Boats; very reputable company which has been in business a very long time.

Since Panama Canal full transits are one of our favorite itineraries I've thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Each time we have completed a full transit we receive one of those certificates as mentioned in post #376. We receive them also when we cross the Equator and when we transited the Suez Canal last November. Wonder how many people save them -- they go immediately into the waste paper basket in our cabin. We will be B2B on the Eclipse in August departing from Cape Liberty to Reykjavik and staying on for the second leg returning to Boston. I wonder if Kelly will be on that cruise. If so my husband will be sure to attend his presentations.

We returned ten days ago from B2B Millennium cruises in Japan and we also did not see any sort of laundry bag special (such as the "stuff a bag challenge") on those cruises either.

I also am not going to speculate as to what happened, but will certainly be following this story. Several interesting reports in Hawaii print media.

I'll start a list of restaurants within walking distance and others will chime in with additional ideas. I wonder if your friend was talking about the Snow City Cafe which is very popular with locals but is only open for breakfast and brunch. Other ideas include Fletchers (located on the ground level of the Captain Cook), Glacier Brewhouse, Simon & Seaforts, Humpy's (a reference to a humpback salmon), and Marx Bros. All of these restaurants have websites which list their menus.

Did you book a refundable deposit rate or a non-refundable deposit? If you are allowed to transfer the cruise payment don't be surprised to be charged $100 per person as a change fee. And hopefully you have cruise insurance, so check the terms and details of the insurance policy. Best of wishes to you.

Given the description as described by our OP I would tend to go with an accessible Sky Suite. While we loved the bathroom in our Sunset Sky Suite on the Edge last fall there is a square tub/shower combination which is a serious issue for anyone with mobility issues. A suite would also provide access to the Retreat Concierges, which can be a great help. Dedicated butlers are scheduled to return, but even when we were on the Edge for 40 nights last fall (Sunset Sky Suite) and then on the Millennium (Aqua Sky Suite) for 28 nights this spring we always had ice delivered twice a day. And expect the ship to sail full.

If no one in your party of ten has mobility issues and you don't pack too much luggage walking from the Alaska Railroad Seward train station to the Seward cruise terminal is walkable. Did you book directly with the Alaska Railroad? If so your train will end at the ARR Seward rail station. If you booked this transfer directly with Celebrity (hence it is Celebrity chartered train service) the train takes a very small rail line spur and ends at the Seward cruise terminal.

There are numerous nice places to dine near the Captain Cook. You have many options. But if you haven't used Uber or Lyft you could just ask the hotel to call a taxi. Easy peasy.

Anchorage certainly has taxi companies (why would Anchorage not have taxis?). For a number of years Uber/Lyft was not legal in Alaska due to our wage and hour laws. Under former governor Bill Walker legislation was introduced and ride share services are now legal. And of course, Anchorage has their municipal bus service.

Consider the Museum of Northern British Columbia. Well curated, and, at least where we were docked, is easily walkable from the ship.

We have now done B2B Japan cruises in the fall (2018) and in April (we boarded on March 28th this year). My husband and I discussed your question last night, and we don't have a preference. Last month we did luck out with cherry blossoms, and the fact that we were B2B helped the cherry blossom viewing as we saw more on the first leg which focused more on southern Japan. On the second leg (starting April 9) some of the blossoms at the northern ports were just starting to bud. The cruise before ours in March 2024 lost a port due to high winds (which prevented them from docking). While we hit all of our ports we did have absolutely miserable weather on the March 28th cruise at Shimizu. We actually stayed on the ship since we were there in 2018 and were going to repeat that port on the second leg. Winds were so bad that a Retreat bartender told us that an aft mooring line snapped. While that was never confirmed by the captain we certainly did have a tug pushing us against the pier for over an hour and the gangway was closed for about 50 minutes. In the fall of 2018 we dealt with two typhoons which impacted our itinerary. My attitude always is that I am just going where the ship goes but this caused a significant amount of consternation among some of the passengers. We did spend five full days in Tokyo after leaving the ship in 2018 and we had absolutely spectacular weather.