donaldsc

I would not worry about them being bored - just tell them to look at what is outside of the ship. I have taken 4 grandkids to AK who were about the same ages as yours and none of them had the slightest interested in any of the on-ship kids activities at all. To quote my 10 year old granddaughter and we did not prompt her about this statement - "I am in Alaska. Why would I want to spend my time in a boring kid's club and eat hot dogs when I can see Alaska and eat real adult stuff". Now that is one smart kid. Just remember that AK and the Caribbean are totally different places and your interaction w the ship will also be totally different. DON

Did you go to "staff" who he said set up the table and ask them to kick him off the table. I would have. DON

You If you bring a book someone would just steal your book or move it to another table. You could bring a foldable sign that says that the table is taken so do not sit there. When (not if but when) someone ignores the sign and says that they did not see the really big red sign call someone from senior buffet staff over and have the malefactors kicked out of the buffet. DON

It appears as if you have a choice of doing a bad cruise w friends or a much better cruise w/o friends. I know what my decision would be. The fact that the Bliss may be a nicer ship is irrelevant. Any Princess ship will not be a tub and in AK what is outside of the ship is much more important than what is inside the ship. DON

You are really asking about climate and not weather. WeatherSpark is the best climate site out there in my opinion. Very detailed very local climate data. DON

When we did Mendenhall this summer our guide said that in a year or so you will not be able to see any of the glacier at all from the normal easily accessible viewing sites. DON

You also should have a Permission to Treat form. DON

Weather Spark is the best climate site out there. DON

Besides all the other issues mentioned there is another really big problem w Viator and w any other tour consolidator - they always book tours that they do not actually have guides for at the moment that you book the tour. This is probably not a problem in AK but it can be a problem in other places. What happens is that when Viator accepts your booking they then go out and try to find a guide. If they can't find one they send you send you emails saying that they are still looking and repeat this process until you get the e-mail that says "sorry that we couldn't find a guide so your booking is cancelled." This happened to me several times when I was trying to get tours for my Japan trip. Luckily I realized what was happening and went ahead and got guides on my own. I will emphasize another important thing is that you should always try to book with a guide or guide group where you can communicate directly with the guide. When you book w Viator and have questions this is what happens - you call or chat w a person at Viator who has no idea exactly what you are asking because they don't know anything about the place that you are visiting; the rep contacts the guide or guide company but since they don't know about the area where you are going they get the question to the guide wrong or confusing; the guide hopefully gets back to Viator at some indefinite time in the future; at a later time the Viator rep gets back to you or maybe he never gets back to you and the answer that you get is useless. Here is another thing that you are probably unaware of which is related to my comments in the first paragraph. Especially for Anan Viator is almost certainly selling you tours that they do not have now and may never get. The way Anan works is that sometime in February 2014 the US Forest Service will allott permits for the upcoming year. There are only 60 permits issued for each day and there 19 companies looking for permits so most of the companies will not get many spots. Island Wings which is one of the companies that does cruise company Anan tours got only 60 permits for the ENTIRE summer. We have done 4 Anan trips w Breakaway which operates out of Wringell and they got about 400 for the ENTIRE summer. I am sure that some of the companies do some trading of spots but there is no way that Viator can or should be "selling" you spots that they don't have now or even know if they will be abet to get. Why should Breakaway or Island Wings sell spots at a discount if they can use them for their own tours. If they do not sell them at a discount but at their current market value Viator is going to have to charge a very high price for Anan tours as compared to the price you could get them for w a tour company. Remember that there are only a total of 3120 Anan slots available for the entire summer spread over about 2 months and 19 permit holders. Bottom line is that I will not say that Viator is lying to you but they are leaving out a lot of the story. I do hope that you do get to visit Anan. It is a great place to visit. DON

Half the time I try to access their WEB site it is down. Only an hour. Relax. It will be back up in a couple of days - maybe. DON

https://princess.eweddingcalendar.com/calendar/weddingPackagesEdit/optId/1101/ I figure that this package is worth maybe $100. For $1600 I can take my bride to a really nice hotel somewhere pretty and take her to a really expensive dinner. Anyone who goes for this package is being taken. DON

The problem is that all these responses are from people who have cruised Azamara so they are preaching to the converted. Also most cruisers do not go onto CC to read the good thing about Azamara. If the Azamara front office is as bad as everyone says it is potential new customers will say "why bother" and book on another line so Azamara will not get the new customers they need to stay in business. It seems like we get a "wonderful" Azamara offer in our e-mail box every day so they must be having difficulties filling cabins. DON

So do not cruise. Pick 3 or 4 or 5 places that you would like to spend an extended period at and stay that each place for several days. You will have a more enjoyable time than on a cruise ship any day and you will get to know that places you stop at much better than on a 6 hour cruise stop. DON

Did you figure out how long you will actually be on land during your 7 day cruise. Did you also notice how much of your time that you are on land you will be early in the morning when nothing is open. This is a totally ridiculous cruise. DON

Even if he is totally and completely and obviously and annoyingly wrong?? DON

A suite is anything that the cruise line wants to call a suite. It is up to you to look at the cabin layout to see if you want one of their "suites". DON

To me it is very simple. If a town wants to ban or reduce the number of ships in port for whatever reasons that they feel are important to them they should have every right to do so. After all it is the place where the people live. The only proviso should be that the people who live there should be willing to accept any economic effects of the ban. We as' cruisers are guests in their town and guests can be kicked out if they are a pain. DON

Didn't that clear plastic thing have a string or something so you could put it around your neck. . What else do you need as long as you also have a pocket. DON

If I remember correctly the medallion came in some sort of a holder. Why would anyone spend extra money for a fancier holder. Seems like a waste to me. Am I missing something? DON

How often does this occur as compared to the many many people who should be taken off the road forever but aren't. BTW - if you are a paraplegic and intoxicated you still shouldn't be driving your chair. If you do something stupid while driving your chair and I hit you that can and does cause long term psychological problems to the person who hit the paraplegic. I would not want to have to carry that guilt long term even if the injury or death was not my problem. DON

There are lots and lots of cruises that have what you want. Do some research on your own and come back w some more specific questions. Right now your post is much too general. DON

Good for Canada!! The US is way too lenient in how we handle people who drive drunk. Witness the number of people who have multiple DUI convictions on their record. It would be very easy to force people who have a DUI conviction to install devices on their cars to make it much more difficult for them to drive after drinking. It would not eliminate the problem but it would significantly reduce it. DON

It isn't hard to convert velocity from one set of units to another set of units. You can do it directly in Google. DON

You have not specified what ship the Princess is and also what line MICA is and what ship it is. Knowing the itinerary and port stops and port times would also be useful. Why force us to guess on abbreviations and why ask questions with incomplete information? Regardless it sounds like the Princess is a cruisetour and the MICA is a DIY cruise. Based on this guess and this guess only I would do the MICA cruise because it is NOT a cruisetour. A more complete question would get you a much better answer. One other thing. I assume that you do know that Denali is closed at mile marker 43 so you do not get into the best parts of the park on your Denali tour. If it were me I would not even go to Denali until the riad is completed in hopefully a few years and would pick a tour that is not so restricted. DON

The Chilean fjords are beautiful. DON