Shami

Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses.

I am trying to decide on a Great Lakes cruise and am looking at Viking Expedition ships. This would be our first Viking cruise, have mostly cruised Celebrity. From my research, I read that you need to make reservations in the Restaurant and Manfredi's and that in the lower cabin categories you wait longer for your opportunity, and then only get one reservation in each restaurant. My husband does not like to eat at the buffet because he has some cognitive difficulty and much prefers sit down table service. Some posters seem to say that they eat in the Restaurant every night, and just show up "when it opens." Are you talking about the sit down (table service) restaurants or the World Cafe (buffet)? Thank you for your sharing your experiences.

Hi Gary, We were in Vancouver for two nights before our Alaska cruise a few years ago. My husband left his backpack on a public bus. When we contacted the transit office they told us that the buses change routes throughout the day and any items found left behind were turned into the office around 4AM. We called the next day and they had the backpack. When we picked it up, everything was still inside! We were so impressed. Maybe there is a chance to contact the cab company and pay to have your backpack mailed back to you if they have it.

We just got off Emerald Princess March 3rd and they had both Deal or No Deal and Bingo.

We were in cabin 1674 on the Equinox this past Spring. The balcony was larger than some of the other aft balconies. Here is a link to a thread that helped me pick the cabin.

Thank you very much for your replies/insight.

We will be cruising out of San Pedro in Feb. We have never been to the LA area before and want to see the sights pre-cruise. My first thought, after some research, was to stay at the Doubletree in San Pedro. But when I started looking into booking sightseeing tours, I realized that I was traveling away from the "sights." Now decided to stay at the "H" Hotel near LAX. Now I am trying to decide whether to come in two or three days early. My plan now is to arrive LAX, stay at "H" hotel (using their airport shuttle to get there). Booked a full day Iconic sights tour, with pick up from the hotel, for the next day. Take a cab/Uber to the San Pedro port the next day to board the cruiseship. Are there any other tours I should do? I didn't see anything that was worthwhile to come in an extra day earlier. Wanted to know what people that know the area think. Thank you.

We were on the Equinox last month and were in the shop selling Louis Vuitton bags. There were Louis Vuitton references all around the shop. I happened to look at one particular bag and spoke with the salesperson on two separate occasions. The third time, my husband was there and also spoke with the salesperson. After about a 10 minute conversation, the salesperson mentioned that this bag over here was only used twice. This prompted my husband to ask if the bags were pre-owned. We had assumed that all of the bags were new. The salesperson said yes, all of the Louis Vuitton bags are pre-owned. There was a sign on one of the displays that said "What Goes Around Comes Around." It looked like just a sign that mentioned a truism and nothing else. It turns out that is the name of the company selling the handbags and they sell "Vintage" items (pre-owned). I am just wondering if my husband and I are the only ones that did not realize that the merchandise in this store was not new, or do others not realize this. Just wondering. When we spoke with the Hotel Director to voice our concern that it should be clear to potential buyers, he confirmed that they also sell some pre-owned Rolexes in the watch store - although not all are pre-owned like the Louis Vuitton bags. Just want to say that the pricing was quite high and so that was not a tip-off that the bags were pre-owned. Sorry that the post is so long - just felt I needed to put this out there.