going on a cruise. thoughts?

[Robert*PPS]

My wife and I did the two-week cruise to Alaska last May on Princess. It was a blast! We sailed out of San Francisco, up the west coast, Alaska , Canada and back. I can't wait to go on another one. The seas got real rough for a couple of days, but we took Dramamine and were totally fine. Other people with the patches didn't seem to fare as well.

[TomsTXCHL]

That sounds great Robert; I'd forgotten that I want to do an Alaska cruise some day, and to do it out of San Francisco would be icing on the cake. A couple days there fore-or-aft would be fun.

I suppose there are preferred times-of-year to go up there and if you can opine please do so.

[jimlongley]

This year we are doing a two week Alaska cruise, which my wife made the reservations for, and unknown to her what she did was book two back to back one week cruises. I tease her about that too.

Jim, We are also doing a 7 night Alaskan cruise this year in late June from Seattle (on HAL) June 28-Jul 5, if your travel coinsides with ours, let us know

I've been on Carnival twice and Disney once and this summer Holland America for the first time, have never got sick on the trips and didn't hear about anyone on board getting sick either. Like others have said, be careful when/if you get off the ship at port and keep your SA up. We also plan our excersions well in advance and try to book direct with the local provider instead of buying from the cruise line if possible. You can get more personal guides for snorkling / scuba than with the large group from the ship and usually for the same or less money. Just be careful about the time so you get back to the ship. They won't wait unless you are on their excursion.

One think I would recommend is travel insurance. We buy travel insurance, but not from the cruise line, to cover any medical emergency and related travel expenses and also if something happened before the trip and you have to cancel. It can be very expensive if you are out of the country or a long way from home if someone gets sick, injured or worse. We have a friend who had to use it when her husband drowned in Hawaii, we never leave home without it now, well worth the minimal cost for peace of mind.

We are out of Vancouver, we will have to compare ports of call and see if we will be in one at the same time. That would be really going the long way around for a face to face meet.

My wife and I did the two-week cruise to Alaska last May on Princess. It was a blast! We sailed out of San Francisco, up the west coast, Alaska , Canada and back. I can't wait to go on another one. The seas got real rough for a couple of days, but we took Dramamine and were totally fine. Other people with the patches didn't seem to fare as well.

Neither my wife or I has ever needed Dramamine, or any of the others, even in the stormy weather we experienced during our Christmas cruise. All those years of sea duty in the Navy and I never needed any there either.

[Oldgringo]

What would be really cool is to cruise up to Alaska, get off the ship and rent a RV and tool around for a couple weeks or so and then board another ship, with different ports of call, for the return to Victoria, BC.

That'd cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k but what the hey, you only go around once. Your LGS could send your .45 cal. eargesplitten loudenboomer to a LGS at point of debarkations and back in the states.

Other than our cat, Miss BOO and about $9k, what's holding us back? We're gittin' more elderly by the day!

[Robert*PPS]

That sounds great Robert; I'd forgotten that I want to do an Alaska cruise some day, and to do it out of San Francisco would be icing on the cake. A couple days there fore-or-aft would be fun.

I suppose there are preferred times-of-year to go up there and if you can opine please do so.

We went the last week of May. The weather was nice, in the 40-50 degree range. That time of year is still considered the off-season though. The only drawback we had on the timing of our trip was that we signed up for a king salmon fishing excursion out of Ketchikan. We spent just about our entire port time on a little boat just outside the harbor, not catching a thing, and hearing stories of what we would be catching if we had come a couple of weeks later. We just treated it like a little nature cruise and watched for bald eagles!

I believe the busy season for the Alaskan cruises are summer, of course. May was too cold to enjoy the pools and all that type of stuff on the outside of the ship, so if that's your thing, I would definitely wait a little longer. Our ship had a very nice outdoor theatre that played movies all night. It was a little to cold for us....so we hung out in the casino

[WildBill]

Neither my wife or I has ever needed Dramamine, or any of the others, even in the stormy weather we experienced during our Christmas cruise.

Before our cruise, I got a prescription for some scopolamine patches from my doctor. Even though we didn't need them we wore them for the first couple of days, just in case.
This medicine is the same as the eye puts into the eyes to dilate them for an eye exam.
As a result we had to wear sun glasses for those two days.

[jocat54]

We have been on 9 or 10 cruises and would absolutely do more of them. Even a couple out of Italy.

The very best was the inside passage cruise to Alaska. I think that wife is agreement on that

[Syntyr]

The cruise lines used to offer clay shooting. Now that I would do. Breakfast target shooting, lunch, target shooting, dinner, target shooting. I could get used to it. However, I think they have all phased that out in favor of driving bio degradable golf balls into the water. I would sooner attempt self surgery so I guess no cruise for me,

[1s1k52]

Thanks for all the replies. I let my wife read most of these. She had a lot of these ideas already done. Looking into passports. an added 300 dollar expense we didn't include is never fun. However, I did point out that if we plan to venture out on more cruises they will be taken care of. The Carnival cruise is the Triumph and judging on the location everyone recommended we have a pretty great one. Smack dab in the middle almost at the very top. We have watched a view reviews and you tube videos etc. We are so far disappointed with the amount of pool selection and the possibilities of storms. I really don't want to be trapped inside or spend my entire time inside doing things for that matter. I like being outside lounging or in the pool. We are using this as our "entry" cruise so I am trying not to set my expectations very high. Especially considering what I am reading other cruises offer. Thanks again for replies.

[Oldgringo]

Thanks for all the replies. I let my wife read most of these. She had a lot of these ideas already done. Looking into passports. an added 300 dollar expense we didn't include is never fun. However, I did point out that if we plan to venture out on more cruises they will be taken care of. The Carnival cruise is the Triumph and judging on the location everyone recommended we have a pretty great one. Smack dab in the middle almost at the very top. We have watched a view reviews and you tube videos etc. We are so far disappointed with the amount of pool selection and the possibilities of storms. I really don't want to be trapped inside or spend my entire time inside doing things for that matter. I like being outside lounging or in the pool. We are using this as our "entry" cruise so I am trying not to set my expectations very high. Especially considering what I am reading other cruises offer. Thanks again for replies.

Passport cards are about $30 each and you get 'em at the same place you get Passports. We got ours online. Check 'em out.

[1s1k52]

yeah i was looking at that after the last post. Is there a downside from one to the other? For those who have been on multiple cruises are the pools always so small? or just carnival?

[philip964]

My wife and I did the two-week cruise to Alaska last May on Princess. It was a blast! We sailed out of San Francisco, up the west coast, Alaska , Canada and back. I can't wait to go on another one. The seas got real rough for a couple of days, but we took Dramamine and were totally fine. Other people with the patches didn't seem to fare as well.

Sailing under the Golden Gate bridge, to me was, a great experience. A lot of great history has done that. Plus stopping at Vancouver as a port of call is a real plus.

[Redneck_Buddha]

Alcohol is super expensive on cruise lines, although some offer a "drinking pass".

[1s1k52]

Alcohol is super expensive on cruise lines, although some offer a "drinking pass".

rummer runner flask

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[Paul's Shield]

I have been on 7 or 8 cruises, can quite recall, but I have never felt unsafe. We always have a ton of fun and are relaxed when doing it.