RuthC

Of course not everyone is traveling with family, or a spouse. So those who are with those they know already may have an entirely different point of view.

Not on this cruise, but my first cruise to Alaska was 14 days. Since then I have taken many, many 7-day cruises there, three more 14-day cruises, a 21-day cruise, and am booked on a 28-day cruise there is summer. Draw your own conclusion as to whether or not I think a 14-day cruise is too much going to Alaska! What you will find on a 14-day cruise there is that you also get more out of the way ports, not just the usual ones, that are always overflowing with tourists. You get to see more of the 'real' Alaska, more the way it used to be. I have also done land tours in Alaska, and agree with Alberta Quilter that they are long days, but if you have the energy, are well worth it.

What????? No chocolates!!!!! Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. Are you sure? Why do they think I take their cruises! It's the chocolates!!!

I have seen them on the longer cruises, but don't know if they appear on shorter ones.

Happy for you that you like the Pinnacle class of HAL ships. Others of us find them too large to get around, far too large to meet the same people often, no feeling of intimacy. I much prefer the smaller R-class ships remaining in the fleet, and am glad I had the opportunity to cruise so much while smaller ships like that were readily available.

Yes. On the three ships that have a separate dining room for Club Orange, that room is merely an alternative to the main dining room.

I had what was offered as 'fresh' Arctic Char in Rudi's, on the Nieuw Statendam once. It was delicious! The ship was heading to Greenland and Iceland, via Canadian Maritimes, from Boston. I didn't see any fishing rods off the stern, but the fish sure tasted 'fresh'.

There are times that the entrances to the glacier areas are so blocked by ice that the ship can't safely enter. Also, there are days where the fog is so thick that the ship either shouldn't enter, or you can't see a thing if the ship does. There was a time, several decades ago, where the entrance to Yakutat Bay was so clogged with ice that there were whales stranded in the bay, and were in danger of dying. Fortunately, the ice dam broke in time for them to escape. My first time at College Fjord, I really couldn't see a thing, due to the fog. On one visit to Sawyer Glacier up Tracy Arm, we couldn't even get close to the glacier. Nice enough day, but so much ice that the glacier was around a corner, and there was no sighting. You can see plenty of ice and snow in Alaska, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in glacier form.

Well, it's been a nice ride. Thanks for all the posts about the many, many places you have gone to. It's got to be the trip of a lifetime.

Can you say 'tiny'?

sorry. duplicate.

As far as I know, yes. This isn't like any of the beverage packages where one person in the cabin commits everyone in the cabin to the same purchase. IIRC, I have had the pass when I have shared a cabin, but my roomie didn't. But then we weren't on the same booking number either.

Experience. HAL's IT has been awful for years.

Perhaps it was correct info at the time it was posted? You bumped up a very old thread, you know.

If your wife wants to go, she needs her own pass. No sharing of cabin keys to get a spa pass.