Cruizn Mama

Piginmud, are any cruisers on the Viking longships eating on the upstairs level which is more open air and outdoors-like?  Or is everyone ok with eating inside?  Thanks!

To those of you who it seems I may have offended, I should have worded my comments better.  I am aware that Europe has very good medicine, techniques, physicians, etc.  I was concerned more about Eastern Europe.  Having watched my husband recently be deathly ill (not just with Covid), it has made me question a lot of things regarding issues with health care.  So I was asking, but I should have asked better.  A friend of mine had a very bad medical situation with an accident on an island off Italy a few years back.  No one spoke English and the care was often not sterile where it should have been (she's a nurse practitioner).  She had a compound fracture of her ankle and many surgeries later, she still can't walk right.  With our insurance and guidance on this trip, I would hope that wouldn't be an issue.

We are slated for the June 22 sailing from Budapest to Passau, with a pre-trip extensions in Budapest and post-trip in Prague.  We have many concerns including how does it feel to be traveling during Covid times, specifically:  on the airplanes, on the boat, in the hotels and during tours?  What is the climate in each of these countries?  Are people masking, percentage wise?  Did you feel safe?  (Maybe that's a silly question.)  I would love to really hear these sorts of questions addressed.  We are 2 couples traveling and so far, we are all boosted, but 1 spouse in 1 couple had the misfortune to catch Covid at the end of December and 1 spouse in the other managed to be hospitalized with the latest variant just last month, despite having a booster dose and being very careful!  No one wants to start a trip and be quarantined in the beginning or middle of it, or worse, end up in a hospital where the caregivers are not speaking English or up to date with American medicine.  This is the 3rd try for this trip and we have these worries, but will travel ever be back to a normal state?  And to those of you who think this is a common cold, I'm sorry for your misunderstanding of what it means to be older and less immune to disease.

The coolest experience I believe I've had in my travels to date was landing on a glacier way up in the air on a small plane on skis--that was Talkeetna Taxi.  Awesome.

Blue Water--

http://www.virginislandsthisweek.com..._road_map.html

What a great map this is--thanks for sharing!

Mitsugirly--you post quite a bit and I saw this note of yours:

"We are going to be in port with 3 ships...one includes the Oasis :eek:."

I have forgotten how to find out how you know which ships are in harbor on any given day. Would you please share that information? I am cruising shortly in the Caribbean, also spending one day in St. Thomas.

Thank you!

Forgive me if this has an answer somewhere in the 14 pages prior . . . what a popular thread! (And I've been here before.)

We are renting a car from Hertz and arriving at Canada Place. I can pick up a car at 1133 West Hastings Street or get a taxi (and be reimbursed) by going to 1128 Seymour Street, which is much further away. I can see on a map that the W. Hastings St. location is much closer, but don't know how hard it is to walk. One of us in our group will get the car (either place) and take some of us and some luggage to our B & B on Bute St., near a park. Then we have to make another trip--unless there is a huge trunk in the car we rent, which we doubt. It looks close enough to do all this, and then on 7/4 do the same sort of arrangment with people and luggage to get to the airport. It also doesn't look that far away. So I have 2 questions really. 1) Is it better to get the car from W. Hastings and walk there, or go through the taxi and get it from Seymour St.? 2) How long a trip is it to the airport from Bute (Ashby B & B)?

Thanks--

Corkydog--

My bestest friend has done the Alaska ferry trips 2 times. I didn't have the time or patience to try getting those times down and took the lazy way out using a cruise, and then I broke down and planned the land portion on my own. I also couldn't have down it without the help on these boards. (It's also what I did when I planned our Hawaii trip and cruise a few years ago.) Here it is so far for our family of 4:

• 6-17 – depart IAD 6 am, arrive ANC 1:11 pm (via Chicago)
  
• ABC RV rental pick up and head north, filling up with supplies either in Anchorage or Wasilla; overnight probably in Wasilla or on way to Talkeetna
  
• 6-18 - 10 am flight from TAT (Northern Lights coupon), south face Denali with glacier landing
  
• possible Mahay's River Jet Boat in afternoon--use 2 NL coupons if so (all depends on when/if weather is good for flight, 2nd chance later in day); overnight probably in Talkeetna, or on way to Denali
  
• 6-19 - early am brings 3rd chance for flight if weather didn't allow the day prior
  
• Denali NP, entrance area activities (visitor's center, dogs?), could do that cabin dinner show (using NL coupons) or take in a ranger program at CG (preferred); overnight Savage River CG, unless Teklanika's ice melts
  
• 6-20 - 5:30 am shuttle to Wonder Lake with picnic lunch; overnight Savage River CG
  
• 6-21 - leave Denali and go south towards Seward, Kenai, while enjoying scenery and stops along the way; overnight on the way
  
• 6-22 - Russian River area for salmon fishing OR Alaskan Heritage Kenai Fjords NP tour—water tour depending on the weather (9 1/2 hrs.--use 2 NL coupons) - dinner is our own fresh salmon that night; overnight at CG in the area
  
• 6-23 - opposite of 6-22; overnight in area, on route to Anchorage or in Anchorage
  
• 6-24 - Anchorage--possibly Sealife Center, meet up with DD's BF (now we are a group of 5 for the remainder of our trip); overnight in private CG with showers and/or hook ups
  
• 6-25 - leave RV in lot, get picked up there by Alaska Transportation shuttle @ 7 am
  
• PWS Wilderness Tour including Esther Passage with Alaskan Heritage (use 2 NL coupons)
  
• board Carnival Spirit ~ 5:30 pm
  
• 6-26 - cruise College Fjords; meet up with fellow CC members after muster drill and probably have lunch together; watch glaciers from deck
  
• 6-27 - Sitka - Avis rental car (great discount from Costco) and would like to see Russian dancers, but haven't made any real plans
  
• 6-28 - Juneau - Orca Enterprises whale watch with Captain Larry @ 9 am with DH, DS & several other CC members; DD & BF helicopter to top of Mendenhall Glacier and dog sledding
  
• Rent a Wreck rental car to tour area, including Mendenhall Glacier Visitor area at the end of the road
  
• Tram if weather is good
  
• 6-29 - Skagway - Avis rental car and plan to go to Carcross, Yukon and Emerald Lake with many stops and picnic lunch
  
• if time permits, will also tour town
  
• 6-30 - Ketchikan- Budget rental car and plan to see totems
  
• 7-01 - Inside passage--be on deck
  
• 7-02 - Vancouver - Hertz rental car - Butchart Gardens, gaslight, Grouse Mtn., bridge, etc.; overnight at Ashby House B & B (rated fairly high on Trip Advisor)
  
• 7-03 - Vancouver - whatever we didn't see on 7-02; overnight same
  
• 7-04 - YVR 12:26 pm - IAD 8:29 pm (no stops)
  
• watch repeat of fireworks from "A Capitol 4th", fireworks from the Washington Monument and concert from the steps of The Capitol, on our local PBS station; sleep in my own bed
  
• 7-05 - laundry and download pix
  
• 7-06 - ditto and maybe write a review on cruise critic; de-compress
  
• 7-07 - return to work, everyday life and share pix

Thanks for the port schedule link. Actually, we are arriving on July 2nd on Carnival Spirit, so I think the C code is for Canda Place, not Ballantyne. When I originally made my car rental reservation, I did not know which pier it was. I just looked back at my reservation, because it was for Ballantyne. I believe that the arrangements are different. From Ballantyne, we were going to take a taxi and be reimbursed for up to $15. I will need to change the pick up so that we will receive our car from the correct location. The actual spot is closed tomorrow (and the national location had no clue, obviously), so I will call during business hours next week and fix that.

Again, thanks!

There's off street parking, so I hope that will help. We will be sure to keep things out of temptation's view. Thanks for that reminder. Once we had a window broken on a trip when our car was packed and we were at a stop to view a tourist attraction--in St. Louis. Nothing much was taken, but it was a hassle and a mess (beads of glass everywhere), plus it held up our trip for at least a half a day to get the window fixed.

Thanks Putterdude,

It sounds like we'll be fine there. Do you know what the address is for the port Carnival comes into? I'm trying to figure out where to have a rental car from that I can also return to the airport.

Hi--

We are spending 2 nights in Vancouver--July 2nd-4th. I was also looking through hotels and locations. It seemed that I would have to pay lots to park if we were downtown. Or we'd have to add on the cost of breakfast. Or the rooms were small. And so on. I went through so many cruise critic threads and trip advisor commentaries that I was seeing blurry!

I finally decided that for the money, I should look at bed and breakfasts, and that too, proved to give lots of up and down (all over the place commentaries). So I decided to look at the ratings in terms of the higher the overall rating, the more satisfaction in general.

I have decided on a B & B, with free parking, breakfast, (not all have that!) and 3 separate rooms for our group of 5. However, I have 1 more day to settle on it and would appreciate any advice on neighborhood, experience with being there, and so on. It's Ashby House on Bute St., which is West Vancouver. It is also walking distance to many downtown places, or at least it looks like it. One thing I can't get a sense of from reviews is the size of the rooms.

Many thanks!

I heard from a tour operator that the summit flights are longer and the distance up can be troubling if you have ear pressure problems because the planes aren't pressurized. Please comment. Hubby will take medication, but I don't want the experience to be bad.

Also, isn't Talkeetna a good place to fly from because you can get to Denali cheaper?

Also, if you book with Talkeetna Air Taxi, Talkeetna Aero runs only the summit flight? (That's the only substitution?)