brentp

Binocular Review Site

A good resource is in the link above. Has a buyers guide, reviews, comparisons, and annual award winners.

We will be talking 2 sets (his/hers - slightly different goals to expand viewing options). Both will be from Celestron's products lines. One is already purchased and is the Outland X 10x42 - surprisingly nice for a low price point. The second will possibly be the Nature DX 8x32 or the Outland X 8x25 (still considering these - want to try them first).

Cost is a consideration for us as we don't use binoculars that often. We want the best optics on a low budget (tough - because in binoculars, usually more expense models have higher quality optics). Having used Celestron telescopes for years, I know they make quality optics. They focus on it even in their lower cost lines and don't rely on the gimmicks to sell cheap binoculars.

There are a lot of good options out there, so best to research and then go try options to find what works best for you and your budget.

Good luck.

Yes for sure, lots to dream and think about. Makes for fun planning anyway, especially when we will be visiting early in the season so some of the more traditional viewing methods might not yet be viable.

Oh - looked up Dayville Rd and it looks like a very scenic drive along the sound. Independent of any wildlife, might be a good thing to do one evening just to get out and about. I can see it now, out 'cruising' the road in our large RV - locals must love this. :)

Thanks again for the all the thoughts and details, certainly helps!

What is your Russian River reference? Is there a tour operator involved? This is a large area, with any bear sightings, pure chance. I have had a few views from the road, and one time on a float. But these were during peak salmon runs. The rivers run for miles and miles- Kenai and Russian.

Russian River Falls map point on this site. Yes, it is pure chance - more likely during the Salmon run. Down side is it is a 2 mile trail/walk in and one needs to be bear aware. But, it sounds like it might be worth the hike IF the salmon are running by mid-June. Have you been to this platform?

Russian River Falls

Thank you both for being a 'sounding board'. It really is appreciated.

Yes, I missed the (now) glaring advantage of a summit flight - that any cloud ceiling needs to be above the peak for that flight. I am sure we will be satisfied with what we get, . . . and you never know, we might just be one of the lucky ones. :)

Thanks for the tip too on bear watching and not booking on a shoulder portion of the salmon runs. We'll leave that trip to a last minute decision. If the Russian River run hasn't yet begun in the days we are there (which likely would negate a need for a special bear trip), we can then call some of the air tours and find out the current success rate at Wolverine Creek before we book. By the way, has anyone done the Wolverine Creek bear watch? This is where you fly in, then get on a small flat bottom boat for the next xx hours. Sounds great, . . . until one realizes that they might need to use a bathroom and the shore is 'full' of bears. :)

The ferry Valdez/Whittier was actually one option we looked at initially. Then, I priced it out online and thought better (over $500. for an RV if I remember correctly). The drive in/out of Valdez is suppose to be outstanding, so this way we will get two passes through there - our miles are unlimited, and hopefully gas prices will remain depressed for the next two months. So, we put in the PWS cruise instead and hopefully now will be able to see Columbia Glacier before it retreats onto land. By the way, any preference on Stan Stephen or Lulu Belle?

Anyway, thanks again. I think we will go with the way we have it for Denali. Two days for Denali SP/NP if the flight takes place on time and not set up any advanced bookings. If things get compressed, then as you said there is always the next trip!

Emphatically, NO! Unless the ship's dorectpr tells you that it is necessary. But do carry a copy of your photo page in case your citizenship is questioned.

Agree 100% - leave them in your safe and take a photo copy unless required otherwise. The only city that comes to mind in our travels while in Europe was in St. Petersburg. There, you go through immigration control to get off the ship and they were required.

Would photocopies of the face page of a passport be sufficient for use if one were somehow left stranded ashore while the ship on which they were cruising embarked from the port of call? :eek:

Don't believe there is a definitive answer here for many items of consideration would need to be known (like where is the next port stop). I believe I have read the story of some folks that had this happen and they were able to get to the next port with just the paper copy. Might have been in the same country without a boarder crossing.

That said, weighing the risks, personally, I would rather deal with that scenario with the local port agent's help than trying to convince an airline to let me on the plane to head home and trying to enter our home country without one if it were to be stolen. I think the later is a no go for sure in today's environment.

Excellent, a couple of the folks I had hoped would chimed in. Here are a few answers to the questions raised – and then probably too much more information than one can read easily. :)

OP, please clarify the question. I read this post as ' should we skip Denali NP since we'll see wildlife elsewhere' ? The Denali priority seemed to be a McKinley flightseeing trip, not getting INTO the park.

Sort of, given we want to see a lot of Alaska in the limited days, how many days (if any) should we allocate to Denali NP and still be flexible, which as you point is the nice thing of an RV trip. For us, we can boil Denali NP down to: seeing Mt. McKinley (will be taken care of by air), and wildlife viewing.

Deep hikes, camping in the park, a very long bus ride to 'possibly' see a mountain we hopefully have already seen, etc, etc. are very low on our to-do list. It might not justify multiple days and getting fixed reservations for travel in advance (this just might be another trip). As for very scenic views, we will be in much of Alaska (the Richardson Hwy to Valdez, Mat-Su valley, Parks Hwy up to Denali, Kenai Peninsula, inside passage, etc.). I am assuming of course, that those views, while different, are impressive too like Denali NP. So yes, once we see the mountain, I think it boils down to the wildlife viewing opportunities, which we possibly can achieve elsewhere. We won’t be skipping the Denali area and the Alaskan range will be ever present while we are in that area.

It also depends on which flight you booked? I have also waited out McKinley 4 days with no view one trip. We saw a two minute partial peak view last year, with 3 days in the area.

 

What campground? I've stayed at Beyers Lake.

 

I really like Fairbanks and spend a lot of time there. Most people do not. :)

TAT Air – Base Camp with landing. They basically had a program a month or so ago where the landing was a small add on for this tour. This gets to the South, East, and West faces, a flyover of the base camp, and views of the other peaks that are there. It does not do the summit however, which did sound very interesting, but was not part of their promotion. We did chuckle a bit about the landing as the videos show mostly snow. We had enough of that in NH this year. Also, a 4 day wait is a bit hairy, that would certainly throw a wrench into anybody’s plans. We understand this can happen, so is one reason we booked this fairly early in the trip to be prepared and I keep using the word flexible. :)

Denali Northview campground, part of the State Park. I don’t think Beyers Lake has a direct mountain view, although it appears that Beyers Lake has a lot more to see/do (lakes, short hikes, etc.). The other thing we considered is this is at ~Mile 163, which is closer to the NP entrance, so we were considering using this as our home base for day trips to the NP so that we can avoid a need for fixed reservations with Beyers Lake as the backup.

OK – Fairbanks is out, might be another trip for us. Agreed, probably not enough there for us to ‘cram’ in yet one more stop in our 11 nights. Had we not needed to backtrack the Glenn Hwy to get to Talkeetna for the flight, we might have taken the Fairbanks loop to Denali from Valdez.

Rough Itinerary – yes, we have one already. Don’t want to bore people too much, so this is a very high level overview.

Day 1: RV Pickup Anchorage, provisions, start drive along Glenn Hwy towards Valdez.

Day 2-4: Richardson Hwy to Valdez (lots of stops for pipeline, sights, Worthington Glacier, etc.). Once in Valdez: Columbia Glacier tour, Valdez Glacier kayak & ice hikes.

Day 5: Backtrack Richardson/Glenn Hwy from Valdez to Talkeetna. TAT air flight is 6pm that night. We have flexibility here. If things get bogged down in Valdez, we can move this flight out. If things go well, we can depart Valdez afternoon on day 4 and start the backtrack early giving more time for sights along the way.

Day 6-7: Denali area (state park and national parks). This is dependent on the flight occurring on schedule.

Day 8-11: Kenai Peninsula. Seward (2 days – Exit Galcier/Harding Ice Field Hike, other sights), Cooper Landing for a night. We also want to make our way over to Ninilchik/Homer for a night if possible.

The end is where we have left the most flexibility. If we get completely washed out in Valdez, we can spend a day in Whittier for a PWS glacier tour there (or out of Seward if the seas are calm). That would take the east side of the peninsula out of the picture, but it is what it is. Also, if we do not see enough bears by this time, there are multiple flights out of Soldotna to Wolverine Creek.

Speaking of bears, we are right on the edge timewise of salmon runs in the peninsula. If they start on the early side of the norm this year in mid June, we just might see this in the area. If not, the flight to Wolverine Creek just starts to ramp up at that time so could be the fall back.

So, back to the original question. We don’t want to ‘give up’ Valdez, nor do we want to ‘give up’ the time we have in the Kenai Peninsula area. That leaves Day 6-7 as the squeeze point if things need to shift and why I asked the question. In a perfect world, we will have 2 days. Or, if the logic of being able to see the wildlife elsewhere is sound, then we could use those extra 2 days to fill in some other sights.

For completeness – the cruise plans look like this:

Ketchikan: walk the city. Maybe the lumberjack show or go crabbing with the deadliest catch crew. Still working this one.

Juneau: Renting a car. Mendinhall, eagle beach, a few other stops that have been recommended to us. Firm.

Skagway: Renting a car. Driving to the Yukon. Firm. I have heard bear viewing in this area in early June is a possibility as many will be in the fields feeding on grass (something about their digestive systems after hibernation).

Glacier NP.

Thanks again!

After our early June NB cruise we are planning an 11 night RV road trip through Alaska, spending time in Valdez, Mat-Su Valley, Denali, and the Kenai Peninsula. We want to be flexible so are planning, but only pre-booking a few must do items.

For Denali area, we want to see the mountain itself and its wildlife. For the mountain, we have pre-booked a flight-seeing trip out of Talkeetna with glacial landing. This can be moved for weather reasons, so will stay in Talkeetna until the weather allows for a good flight experience as this is a high priority for us. We also have an option to spend a night in Denali State Park south of the NP in an area that allows for Denali views if she is 'out'.

That leaves going inside Denali NP only to see wildlife. In thinking this through, it is likely that at various points in the 3 weeks we are going to have in Alaska, we will be exposed to most of this wildlife at some point. The top being bears, which, we could fulfill through a bear viewing tour out of the Kenai area if we do not 'run' into enough of them elsewhere in AK. Moose are a bit of a lower priority for us given we live in New England and see moose frequently.

So, given the above, looking for folks to comment on how much (if any) time you think we should give to actually going into Denali NP? What might we miss if we skip altogether that we might not see elsewhere in Alaska? We are considering; no time, a 1 day self drive trip, to a full multi-day with bus pass to go deep. We will have a 7 day park pass already from the flight tour, so going in for a day might make the most sense.

Also, comments on going to Fairbanks would be appreciated. We are not currently planning any time there, but if we limit our time for Denali NP, we might free a day for a drive up. Thoughts & must see Fairbanks sites?

Should have added this to my post last night, but here is of my favorite tourist signs we found while traveling. :)

Luckily, I had left one credit card, some cash and my passport in the safe. I highly recommend to anyone that you do the same.

Exactly, . . .

We loved Barcelona and would go back in a heart beat. That said, we got very serious about how to protect ourselves when we were to sail out of there and wanted to spend a couple of days in advance. We have since adopted our strategy for all cities now, including larger US cities. Read up on what you can do to protect yourself, be aware of your surroundings and take the precautions you fell will work for you.

For financial protection, we took multiple CCs, ATM cards with us. However, only one ever left with us when we were out and about and we only carried a small amount of cash. Other CC/ATM cards, along with our actual passports were back in the hotel (or Ship) safe (we only take photo copies of our passports unless a certain need requires a real one). When we had to transport all belongings from one area to the another (eg: Airport to hotel, hotel to ship, etc.), one of us carried one set, the other carried a separate non duplicate set of cards. This way, in the unfortunate event something does happen, we likely will not be stranded with all CCs shut off. Also, we have all the international card contact phone numbers with us. I carried all this on our netbook computer (with an encrypted hard drive), as well as had paper back up. No purse ever for my wife, she used the backpack as a purse to carry personal items. My travel 'wallet' is a very small money clip with a slot for a card or two - always in my front pocket and my hand was in the pocket when we were in crowds. A separate wallet stays in the safe with all my other junk.

Because we also wanted to take our camera and have space for other items while out and about, we bought a very special 'safe backpack'. While this would not prevent a mugging/physical assault and the stealing of the entire backpack, it does have cables in the straps to avoid cutting, and the zippers 'lock' to avoid entry by cleaver hands from behind. The cables in the straps can also allow it to be 'locked' around a fixed object while sitting (like a heavy table leg).

I know it sounds bad, but again, we developed a healthy paranoia about this and it has almost become second nature to both of us now and doesn't affect us from having fun.

Speaking of bad cities, while in St. Petersburg Russia, we actually could see all this taking place. Our tour guides were very aware and point out on numerous occasions when it was occurring.

Interesting comments. For us, it all comes down to the right combination of itinerary, ship, weather and crew for a particular sailing. Some things in our control, some not. Interestingly, our absolute best cruise and one of the bottom cruise experiences were on the same line, so there are other factors involved. I am also wondering if some people get accustomed to the nuances of a particular line and then miss that when they try others, perceiving that as a negative versus a simple difference.

If we had to pick a cruise just to cruise (which we rarely do), we would likely go with Celebrity on one of her new ships, mainly because we feel the MDR food is a bit better than the others and the shows are OK. For the record, we are far from the walker/scooter stage of our life yet, so this might be a bit odd of a choice. :)

Next would be RCCL or HAL, . . . and then possibly Princess (have not yet sailed). One thing we like about RCCL is the entertainment, both the main theater shows and the shows done in the center of the ship from time to time. On HAL, it is the size of the rooms and we feel the MDR food is slightly better than RCCL. Pretty positive we would never even consider NCL or CCL.

That said, our best cruise ever was on RCCL's Brilliance of the Seas doing an Italian Med out of Barcelona to Venice and back. It was the best combination of itinerary, ship, weather & crew we have ever had. The Captain was very active that cruise (he was a corporate captain out for a cruise to maintain his license and skills). He was young and energetic, had is family on board, and it was the first time I actually met a Captain just out and about on numerous occasions. Entertainers from his homeland (Argentina) were on board that were just awesome. Not sure if that was a coincidence or planned for his cruise. Anyway, everything just clicked.

Anyway, here's to hoping all stars are aligned on the Zaandam the first week of June. :D

I'm not an expert, so a slightly simple answer would be;

Ice fields are the accumulation of snow within a contained area that is compressed into ice over a very long time. They may spawn glaciers that are the runs or movement of the ice out of the ice field which moves because of its own weigh. The terminus of a glacier typically is either in a lake, ocean, or if smaller, a stream/river.

Google 'Harding Ice field' and you will get a wealth of info on this. There are ~40 glaciers in the Kenai area that are spawned from this ice field in the Kenai range.

The 3 ports I'm interested in are Helsinki, Stockholm and Talinn. The last one is easy. The others not so much as it depends on where the cruise ship docks.

As others have indicated, you will get much better information on the Ports of Call thread. There are locals in each of those cities that gladly provide very detailed information for their cities.

That said, here is some information from our experience:

Talinn: if you simply wish to go to the old town, you can walk. If you wish to go elsewhere, the ships usually dock right in town so I am sure once get get access to the public transit routes, you will be able to get anywhere that the transport goes and can simply walk to a local stop near the ship.

Helsinki: Depends where you dock, but there are bus stops very close. I forget which dock we were at, but we were less than a few hundred yards from a bus stop. This got us to all the other transit types very quickly (trolley). Helsinki is very easy to navigate on public transport and they sell a 24hr pass that you can buy direct from the driver of the first bus.

Stockholm: The wild card. We were at a dock very far from the center of town and I do not recall seeing any public transport near by, but do remember seeing taxis. That said, I also think that dock is an 'overflow' and many of the docks are closer to the city and should be close to public transport.

In summary, in addition to getting the route information, you need to find the dock information for your particular ship/date to get the full picture.

Enjoy the trip - it is a blast!

but when I looked into this 3 years ago, I ended up going with an international SIM from http://www.ekit.com. Had both a US and a UK number, and for some reason inbound calls were less than outbound calls - so I always had our party call us back when we wanted a longer conversation. Phone worked in every country on our itinerary (including Croatia). I do recall that at that time, some of the European prepaid SIMS would not work or had very high call rates in some of the other countries. I had the SIM in hand and tested before we left.

For what it is worth, I also used the same SIM a year later when we were in the Baltics (Estonia, Russia, etc.), again, phone worked in every country. I didn't look into any alternative SIMs at that time for I still had a balance on this SIM from the prior year.

Again, things might (likely) have changed, but that is the best source I found for our countries 3 years ago.

Enjoy

Can't answer on Alaska specifically, but, . . .

The few times we have had a balcony, we still found ourselves up on the decks a lot of the time. In the Baltics specifically, this was pretty much during every port transition including the very long and beautiful sail through the Stockholm archipelago.

If it were me, I would say go for it. We booked an outside for our upcoming Alaska trip due to the very deep discount. Didn't even consider a Balcony at ~4x the cost, at that price, we wouldn't be going. :)

Go and enjoy

Our honeymoon cruise on Royal Caribbean's Song of America, June 1988 - Western Caribbean. Our waiter's name was Sydney from Jamaica. :)

Hooked, kind of. Every 3 years or so since, we return to the seas.

For what it is worth, the Song of America then became the MS Sunbird (Sun Cruises), . . . then MS Thomson Destiny (Thomson Cruises), . . . MS Louis Olympia (Louis Cruise Line), . . . and today is the MS Celestyal Olympia (Celestyal Cruises) - Whew, what a history.

Funny story - ~15 years after this cruise, we were sitting by the bridge/harbor gate in Curacao having a cold beverage and I was looking at the 'Sunbird' cruise ship parked in the harbor. She looked very familiar, and then I finally realized what she was and told my wife - I believe that is the old Song of America, the one we sailed on for our Honeymoon. Sure enough, when I got back I looked it up and so it was.

I suppose the fixed seatings coincide better with the showtimes, but other than that, what do you find better about sitting with the same people at the same time every evening?

Nothing. :)

Seriously, I see no benefit to it. With flex dining, we can get the same servers if we want (actually, we usually do), the same table if we like it, and we can schedule our dinner around our schedule. For instance, our last 2 European cruises had late port departure times. We love to watch the sail-aways and have extra time on shore if desired. Same will be true for our upcoming Alaska cruise. Having flexible dining allows us to get what we want out of our vacation.

As for eating with the same people every night, . . . the last two times we had fixed seating took care of that desire for us. Both times, we were at a table for 6 with 2 other couples that were traveling together. While not terrible, it did feel a bit like we we were intruding on their dinner party. However, on one of those cruises, the two couples spent every night complaining about this and about that, nothing positive and certainly not our cup of tea. We could have moved, but we are ones not to complain and stuck with it. Of course, those 2 couples were absent the last night of the cruise (back in the days where you hand delivered your gratuity to the servers). Our server that night had a rough night, as one of his other tables was completely missing too. It was not a fun experience.

We will take flex dining anytime.

This is good to know.

I recently put a cruise on hold to get a cabin (the only one left in our category) and the next day called our PCC to book the cruise and take the deposit. No issues, and she got us an OBC in addition to the deeply discounted rate for repeat cruiser (which was not showing up on 3rd party sites - only with HAL).

Worked out well for this trip. I would have just assumed they were kind of like specialized HAL CSRs and we would be connected no matter how this was booked direct through HAL, but now knowing what others are experiencing after payments, I will try to ensure the PCC is in the loop for any future booking up front.

Thank you all. Very good information.

Yes, we are looking forward to this trip very much, southeast AK by cruise, then the towns/cities mentioned above at our leisure in an RV.

The only thing we have firm right now, beside the cruise, RV & flights, is a flight seeing trip out of Talkeetna to see Denali from the air (with glacial landing). That trip can also be rescheduled to a later date (including for weather if Denali isn't 'out'), so it should work out well.

The other things, we have soft plans and will simply book when we get there to allow us to be flexible. Also built in a few spare days, to allow for adjustments. One nice thing about being there the first half of June is it shouldn't be too busy yet. As Mapleleaves said, this is one of the nice thing of touring with an RV. BTW - our 'plans' are very similar to how you described your trips.

you might want to ask this question on tripdvisor .... that forum is more geared towards land travel, especially independent travel.

 

I don't know who you're renting from, but I've rented from Great Alaska Holidays twice. Liability was included in the rental charge. I paid extra for the CDW. Don't remember what it was, maybe $12 a day ??? with a $250 deductible.

On my first trip I clipped a utility post in our campsite so I was glad for the insurance. The 2nd trip was accident free but 'I still bought the CDW.

Thanks for the quick response and sharing your experiences in doing this and with GAH, this is the company we are using. Just curious did you have any issues with them when the pole got too close? :(

Thought I'd ask this here in case any other cruisers have experience in this. We are renting an RV in Anchorage after our Northbound cruise. Will spend 11 nights in Valdez, Telkeetna/Denali, and the Kenai area.

In digging through all the fine print, I realize that renting an RV is not like renting a car. The RV company basically adds us to their insurance policy for the rental, and it has a $2500. deductible for both collision and comprehensive (this is good, more than what a car rental place would offer). However, the deductible is quite high, so I looked into how the 'gap' might be covered.

- My current car policy does not extend to a rental RV, only rental cars.

- Credit Cards do not cover RV rentals, only rental cars.

- Non of the travel insurance options offer coverage for RV Rentals, only rental cars.

- The RV Rental place offers a CDW, but at $35./day to reduce collision deductible to $250. (and zeros comp).

- There is no third party RV Rental policies for the gap available that I can find.

FWIW - some big insurance companies will extend an auto policy to a rented RV provided you get a binder from them. Some do this for free, others at a cost. Mine does neither.

So, $385. to buy the rental companies CDW (for 11 days), and still face a $250. deductible. That is $635. out of pocket for the first event, where the cap would have been $2500. without buying it.

Has anybody else gone through this and found a simple way just to cover the $2500 deductible? Interestingly, it use to be $1000. a few years ago, but I heard they were not selling the CDW with that so they raised it. :(

Right now, I think my only options are to:

- Self-Insure the deductible and hope for the best.

- Pay the CDW, and still have to pony up a deductible if an event(s) occurs.

- Switch home auto policy to one of the folks that will extend to a rental RV (might be more trouble than it is worth).

Updating my comments above, . . . I found this website on which ships are scheduled to be at which berths.

I think I will check again in the spring, for I noticed some inconsistencies on ship arrival times with a port calendar I found elsewhere. :)

Alaska Cruise Port Info

These are the codes for the 4 Juneau docks relative to the map. Other codes for cruise ships are likely anchor & tender, a list is available on the same website.

A - AJD (AJ Dock)

B - FKL (Franklin Street)

D - CT (Cruise Terminal)

E - AS (Alaska Steamship)

You can rent from Avis right online at the GOLDBELT. Which is the ONLY location that is walkable from the cruise docks.

Juneau Car Rental is also on the pier and is where we reserved our car for our stop first week of June. JCR rents older vehicles, but they tend to be at a lower cost than the others. These are the only two I could find that had a offices near the docks. The others required some form of transport.

A bit more information. As mentioned, Avis is in town at the Goldbelt Hotel. This is closest to Cruise terminal E, between the #13 and 'T' on the map below. JCR is on the complete other end near Dock A (the AJ Dock) on the map. There are 4 docks for cruise ships, and Dock A is the furthest out from town and is somewhat separated (walking wise) from B, D, & E. So, depending whom you rent from and where your ship ties up, you could be either really close or really far away (1 mile or more). If a bit of a walk matters to you, you need to do your homework before you leave. :)

Juneau Map

Continuing the story, we are scheduled to be the last of 4 ships to arrive on our day. I was guessing that we might tie up the furthest away from town and called JCR to make a reservation. I spoke to a very nice lady whom volunteered a lot of information on this. Without asking, she mentioned that typically the first ships in will tie up closest to town and the last ships in will be furthest way. She looked up our ship/date and was pretty confident that we would be tied up either at the A dock or the B dock and provided a map where to find them. She also said that by the end of April they should have a schedule of which ships will be at which dock for our June trip and we could call back to get that information if we wanted to know. She was very nice and helpful.

Just wanted to pass this on, :)

Well, you got me to go look it up and is referred to as "The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-261), also known as the Jones Act". :) Of course, it has been amended since then and may also be referred to as different names now as well, however, "Jones Act" sill prevails as the common reference name.

Updating my own Post. Apparently the Passenger Vessel Services Act is an 1886 predecessor to the Jones Act that deals with passengers and is still in effect. Apparently, many resources today simply refer to both as the Jones Act. My apologies. :)

You're referring to the Passenger Vessel Services Act. It is not the Jones Act.

Well, you got me to go look it up and is referred to as "The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-261), also known as the Jones Act". :) Of course, it has been amended since then and may also be referred to as different names now as well, however, "Jones Act" sill prevails as the common reference name.

Doesn't really matter, but is why Canada is always part of an Alaska itinerary.

In looking it up, I read that Sen. McCain recently submitted legislation that would basically annul the law, though, it appears to lack support.

The Seattle cruises also stop in Victoria, which is a lovely city. But they're only in port there 6 p.m.-Midnight.

Yea, this is because of an old US law (Jones Act?) preventing US port to US port shipping by foreign flagged vessels. The cruise needs to meet the requirement without impacting the intended itinerary too much.

For those that are curious, as I understand the requirement for cruise lines (it applies to cargo too, although slightly differently), if the ship is not US Flagged (and built, owned, and staffed by US Citizens) then it must visit at least 1 foreign port during its journey. Hawaii cruises deal with this as well. Trips to/from Hawaii and the mainland, and some Hawaii round trips have to make a foreign port call to meet the requirement. I remember when we wanted to cruise Hawaii round trip, most of the lines would sail a day for a late night stop a long way away on a not well known island, and then return the next day - thought it very odd until I understood why.

NCL's Pride of America is an exception in Hawaii, as it is a US Flagged ship (only one left I think). This allows her to do a round trip Hawaii cruise without a foreign port call. It actually was started to be built in Mississippi by American Classic Voyages (aka: American Hawaii Cruises - the one we took many years ago) prior to their bankruptcy and the subsequent failure of the heavily subsidized 'Project America' for new US built cruise ships.

Oh well. This probably didn't add much to the thread, but explains why Alaska voyages either originate/terminate in Vancouver, or, makes a stop in Canada along the way if they originate/terminate in a US west coast port.