Northern Aurora

What is "fishy?" Apparently the Edge is returning to Kona as someone is experiencing a serious medical emergency. You need to be thankful that you are not that person with the medical emergency and be more understanding of the situation.

What is your concern? While I don't know the specifics of your Alaska itinerary the glaciers you will visit are in the headwaters of very deep fjords. Actually, I am trying very hard to remember any Alaska major glacier which is not at the head waters of a very deep fjord. No extra cautions measures required.

Two parties of 4 would work well at Le Petit Chef as the "cadence" of this venue is so different than a more traditional dining experience. People are seated, the lights dim and the animated show begins. So conversation ceases as folks follow the animation. The course is served, and then the process is repeated for the next course (dimmed lights to show the animation segment followed by normal lumination as the course is served).

@cruisetonowhere10: You do not indicate where you reside, but just want to comment that Key West deserves more time than a cruise stop. We spent four days in Key West several years ago (pre-pandemic). We were cruising out of Miami so flew down a few days early, rented a vehicle and drove to Key West for four days. Many interesting things to so and see, great food, fun place. And the drive through the Keys is so interesting too -- and we even saw one of the little deer! Just an idea.

Just a few random comments from someone who lives in Alaska -- Seward is where Alaskans go for recreation. While Whittier is unique there are more attractions of interest in the Seward area for most of us. A "must do" is only a must do if you want to see it. But we thoroughly enjoy the day trips out of Seward. Major Marine is our favorite vendor, and we take the longest excursion available we can. On those longer excursions (ie, out of the bay) almost every time someone experiences motion sickness. Those prone to motion sickness need to take something before boarding the boat. And if one of your party is prone to motion sickness I wonder if all of the party has to do the exact same thing each day. Can your group split up based on individual preferences. Exit Glacier (and its visitor center) and the Seavey dog kennels are located just outside of Seward. The SeaLife Center is located in Seward. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is an almost 2 hour drive from Seward, as is Girdwood.

When in Victoria in the evenings to satisfy the PVSA requirement we generally walk down to the Bard and Banker Scottish Pub. It is located on Government Street in a historic building. Nice food and local beers in addition to wine. Check their website to determine if this might be of interest.

@chengkp75: Thank you so much for your post. So nice to have someone with your experience and knowledge post versus speculation.

I wonder what cruise line our OP is using. My experience last fall on Celebrity was that the responsibility for obtaining the Bali visa fell onto the passengers to obtain prior to reaching the port.

Again -- which airport? Haneda is about 45 minutes away. Our experience is that Narita is farther, and slower to reach; we flew out of Narita in 2018 and left from our hotel in Tokyo. We were on B2B cruises last month and disembarked on Sunday, April 21st. Our ship was the only one at the Osanbashi terminal. For us the line in the cruise terminal to get through customs and immigration was the "choke point." There were multiple lines and we were not in any hurry but it seems to me that it took about 30 minutes to reach the head of the line. We also quickly found our luggage, but some folks spent more time doing so. We are to the point in our lives both financially and due to the fact my husband has a bad knee that we aren't interested in the shuttle transfers so we took a cab to Haneda. The line for taxis was about 25 minutes long. The drive time was about 35 minutes.

We left the Millennium about 11 days ago after B2B Japan cruises. Both stopped in S. Korea. When we wereB2B (again on the Millennium) in 2018 both itineraries were severely impacted by two typhoons. The second typhoon impacted our itinerary early into the cruise. A number of passengers were upset that the S. Korea stop could not be eliminated. While I don't remember the exact verbiage, but the explanation provided was that Japan has a law somewhat similar to the PVSA so the ship had to make a stop in S. Korea; I have never spent the time investigating as to the accuracy of that statement. But apparently it is much easier to move crew members on and off the ship in S. Korea, so that is why a number of crew will be ending their contracts there and their replacements will be board in S. Korea.

When departing out of Vancouver we stay at either the Pan Pacific or the Auberge Hotel. Bellmen from the Pan Pacific pick up your tagged luggage from your hotel room and deliver to the porters. When we stay at the Auberge we walk the 1.5 blocks to Canada Place. Our experience, as recently as fall of 2023, was that when delivering the luggage we walked down the walkway into the underground parking where the porters were set up with carts. Porters were not outside of Canada Place but in the parking area under Canada Place. Good signage indicating which set of porters were collecting for which ship (frequently Canada Place has more than one cruise ship).

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.