donaldsc

This is a review from ThePointsGuy of her recent cruise on the Ocean Victory. She liked the cruise enough that after her 3 day TA cruise, she paid to do the full cruise from Vancouver to Sitka. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/ocean-victory-alaska-cruise/ DON

Did you go to Red Rock or Valley of Fire or Lake Mead and Hoover Dam? Did you go to Death Valley. Did you go any of the very interesting museums in Las Vegas? Did you go to the Pinball Hall of Fame. My point is that w a bit of research there are lots of interesting things in and near Vegas that don't involve ever entering a casino. DON

Yes. DON

This is a review from ThePointsGuy of her recent cruise on the Ocean Victory. She liked the cruise enough that after her 3 day TA cruise, she paid to do the full cruise from Vancouver to Sitka. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/ocean-victory-alaska-cruise/ DON

There are a fair number of binocular posts on the Photography board. DON

I would hope that this is what the OP meant as it is highly unlikely that someone would be allowed to board if they test positive. Remember that they do they muster before the ship leaves so that if anyone tests positive they will be put off the ship. If anyone is in quarantine and a real emergency that requires a real muster occurs, a spread of Covid will be the least of their problems. DON

If you do AK on a small expedition type ship you will almost certainly get close. One time that we did that when the glacier calved our boat rocked. There was another smallish sailboat that was even closer than we were. I will bet that they had a glorious time. DON

We are planning to do an AK cruise on a small ship out of Sitka. If we get in late it would be very difficult to catch up and there are very few flights into Sitka so we will get into Sitka 1 day early. Now they are talking about the Alaska Airline pilots going on strike so I have already figured out a plan B, Another point. How many airline flights have been cancelled recently for any number of reasons. DON

This is the quote from the article mentioned - "Because emergency preparedness becomes more difficult the farther north cruise ships sail, the commission’s report recommended several more restrictions, including a capacity limit of no more than 750 on cruise ships sailing in Svalbard waters." There are lots of ships that have a capacity of <750 people that are probably still visiting Svalbard. It just that none of them are Princess ship. If you really want to visit Svalbard, there are many alternatives. DON

I also did S. Georgia!!!!! I think that we were there for 6 or 7 days if I remember correctly. You can't beat 500,000 nesting pairs of penguins on one beach. DON

I love the Falklands. I did it on a ship the size of the Fram and we stopped at 4 of the outer islands in the Falklands. They were actually more interesting than Port Stanley and we saw lots and lots and lots of wildlife. DON

There are several good climate sites on the WEB where you can check to see what the weather will be at that time. Sine I would be interested in seeing AK and not doing shopping, the fact that the ports will be less overrun with tourists might be a plus for me. DON

I got my port times for these cruises and will post them on the cruise roll calls. DON

Also worked for me. Thanks for the suggestion. BTW - where did you cruise to. What ship were you on. How was it. These will be my 1st Clipper cruises. DON

Many thanks. Sounds as if you have done Star Clipper cruises before. These will be my first. I just love sailboats. Anyway - I did contact Clipper Cruises and got their planned port visit times although they emphasized that it depends upon the wind, weather and the captain. I figured that and there is also the chance that we might not even get into the planned ports. The port times for Kusadisi arrival at 11:30 and departure at 23:00 so this will give me plenty of time to do a longer than 3h 45m tour assuming that I can find one that leaves at the right time. I will just have to make sure that the tour operator knows that I am coming into port on a sailboat and my arrival times will be a bit flexible. Does any of this make sense? Thanks for the info. DON

In my opinion stuff like turn down service and thrice daily towels is an over rated and totally unnecessary luxury that I can easily live without. DON

If you decide to cruise at any time when kids are not in school or on a school holiday, you will have "hoards" [sic] of kids and families. That is the nature of cruising. They have as much right to be in public spaces as you do. That is one reason that I travel on lines and ships and also on longer cruises which tend to have fewer kids. DON

I am going to be on a cruise that stops in Kusadasi Turkey. That seems to be the closest that I stop to Ephesus. Google Maps says that it takes slightly more than 1 hour to drive from Kusadasi to Ephesus. Star Clipper has a tour that visits Ephesus with a total tour length of 3 h 45 m. This makes no sense to me if Ephesus is the major site that everyone says it is. Am I missing something since I would guess that you can not really see Ephesus in only 1 hour or so. Should I book a private tour or maybe hire a taxi to see Ephesus. Also I just posted roll calls for the Oct 1 2022 and the Oct 8 2022 Cyclades cruises on CC. Any thoughts. DON

deleted. Posted as a new topic. DON

Lots of airlines are cancelling or rescheduling flights now because of "operational" issues. VERY BAD idea. Also just remember that if the ship departs at 4:00 PM, you have to be on board 90 minutes before departure at 2:30 PM. DON

Haines is a tiny town and I doubt that any of the touristy places will be open. You could walk around town. Maybe to the Fort William H. Seward National Historic Site - https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-william-h-seward.htm. There is also a distillery that is open until 8 PM - Port Chilkoot Distillery - I have been to and through Haines maybe 3 times but never on the ridiculous time frame that you will be there. DON

Sounds like a cruise to run away from as fast as you can. If you really think that you love Jimmy Buffet enough to go on one of his cruises, book one on a better ship and put all of his CDs on your music player and you can listen to him as much as you want. I counted that he has released 56 albums. At $20 per album, that is only $1120. Buy them all and play them on a better cruise. DON

I should have added that the cabin next to us was vacant so they allowed us to shower in the cabin next door. When our cabin could not be fixed with 24 hours they moved us. DON

We had a hot water problem on a cruise a while back. I can't remember the line. They moved us to another cabin that was an upgrade. If the best that Princess could do was a measly $200, I would make my annoyances known and promptly cancel all currently booked cruises and never sail w them again. A big $200 OBC which you have to spend on board so you are giving them back the $200 is totally inadequate. DON

On a cruise like that where you totally miss the cruise if you get there late, I would definitely arrive 1 or maybe 2 days early. After all, there is also lots to see in Santiago. DON