Silverback969

Thanks for your help, folks. I appreciate the information.

Lots of good info here, Ladies and Gents. I appreciate all your responses. Fair winds and following seas.

I've done an initial Google search, couldn't find a lot. For the last several years, when we were cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale, we've been able to Sleep/Park/Cruise. Very convenient--you spend a night at the hotel, for a nominal cost you park there for the duration of your cruise, take hotel shuttle to and from port. We're taking an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle, 14 or 15 days. We're looking for a hotel in/around Seattle that has this service. Anybody know of such a hotel/motel? Thanks in advance for any info.

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This guy's idea of "fun" varies significantly from mine....

I haven't seen this addressed or discussed, but I'll bet I'm probably not the only one who has ever entertained the question. This will be our first time in Alaska--last 2 weeks of August--and we're already putting together, at least in our heads, what we think we might need. One of the things that we want to do is go walk on a glacier. I'm pretty well convinced that sneakers and jeans will probably NOT be adequate or sufficient for that excursion, and possibly some others, also. Does the ship, or the excursion concessionaire commonly supply any kind of cold weather wear? Parkas, gloves, or boots for glacier walking? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for adding your perspective. It makes sense that this would be happening, and I'll embrace the "Carnival refugees, as long as they don't hi-jack the elevators and run sprints up and down the hallways. 😁 I guess the only point I really want to make is that HAL, in their attempt to hi-jack the Carnival--or whichever--clientele, they're alienating an existing demographic who still bring money with us when we cruise.

My wife and I were on Koningsdam in December 2018; library was, essentially, non-existent. You could probably have stolen the entire inventory of the library in the space of one carry-on--according to Ashford, this would probably not have been missed. We were on the first cruise out of dry-dock, and there were all manner of issues. The in-room electronics were nice, but that's an update that I would have traded for the conventional library. I've bought and read e-books, but I genuinely prefer the aesthetics of a physical book. My wife is something of a troglodyte when it comes to this kind of consumer electronics, and I'm not sure if she'll ever read an e-book. The previous comments about EVERYTHING being turned into a profit center are absolutely on-target. We're pretty much hard-core HAL cruisers who will probably have to be driven out of the fleet. Current "leadership" is doing a pretty good job of alienating a core group of clientele with upgrades that are targeted at hi-jacking Carnival's cruiser demographics.

Re: Weatherunderground.com . They also provide sunrise/sunset times for that local location.

Scott, there's a web site called Weatherunderground.com . Just like weather.com, and several other websites, you can get full meteorological information for your local area. However, if you dig just a little, there are links to historical information--"extreme" highs and lows, and also average highs and lows, amount of precipitation. I used that site to help plan for a 56-day Mediterranean cruise, late spring. I also got good information in helping me plan for a year-long deployment in Iraq--had no idea what I might expect in terms of high- and low- temperatures, and amount of rainfall. Who would have guessed that Iraq--or, at least that area that I called "home"--would have a rainy season? But, in direct response to your question, I'd suspect that you'd have fairly warm days and evenings. Good luck, and enjoy your cruise. 👍

Aww, shucks, Ma'am....

I hope dress attire on gala nights doesn't go away. I'm no longer a "younger" cruiser--neither in age, nor in number of cruises, and I have fond memories of full dress-up evenings--especially on the ships of a couple of smaller cruise lines that are now out of business. We had, not only formal nights, but also theme nights--for example, " '50's night (poodle skirts and saddle shoes, and jeans with white socks and penny loafers, even stick-on tattoos. I've Just ordered a new tuxedo suit, and I have enough different cummerbund-and-bowtie combinations--some of them VERY colorful--that I have a different "look" for every gala/formal night. And I--being the walking anachronism that I am--I also got a new pair of patent dress shoes. I never feel out of place or uncomfortable in full dress. And, it might be just my imagination, but I'm pretty sure that I see some of the younger women--accompanied by their man wearing khakis, loafers, and polo shirts--glance my way and smile, maybe wishing their guy had dressed up just a little bit more. If my lovely wife is going to take the little additional effort to look more sensational than usual, I think it's only fair that I put a little more into what I'm putting on.

Re: Prinsendam's stability in seas. Last year we did the Grand Mediterranean, which involved crossing the Atlantic in both directions. There were days where we had fairly heavy seas and "brisk" breezes. P'dam plowed through the seas very nicely. Occasionally, there would be some buffeting if the seas were running from the sides, but nothing that was really bothersome. I have a slight tendency toward queasiness in heavy seas, but--if I remember correctly--I took motion pills only once in 8 weeks.

If you have grown children, young nieces/nephews/grandchildren, how can you not? They're good souvenirs--especially if you bought them in port, with local motifs--and, even with exorbitant postage, they're still excellent souvenirs. We also send post cards to ourselves, with just a line or two about the port, what we did, weather--whatever might remind us of the good times we had, and where we had 'em.

Understand that you're dealing with bureaucracies and infrastructures that, in many instances, don't function nearly as well as our own U.S. Postal Service, no matter how much we make fun and generally "dis" it. Occasionally, we fail to receive one of our souvenir cards, but most often, they'll arrive, even two or three months after they were mailed. No matter how bad we talk about it, our own U.S. Postal Service provides timely delivery of just about anything you can stick a stamp on.