General Cruise Discussion

[jase05]

I was going to repeat the advice given upthread to cruise Alaska in a smaller ship, but the die is cast. I hope you both enjoy it.

It was a definite consideration probably my preference TBH but spent a bit of time checking out everything but the tail end of the trip I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room for dates and that seemed to be the one that fitted the plans best.

 

[jase05]

Phil scores another triumph. QE is my son's and DIL's favourite ship. They are in their thirties. And she is British. He is on his way to being one.

Our memorable excursion - there were many but you can't beat a helicopter in Juneau to the dog sledding camps on the Meddenhal glacier. And whale watching cruise. Scenic cruising amongst the inlets. Otters. Bears. Sigh. Let us know ports if you want some tips.

Definitely going to go on at least one chopper ride and will do the White Pass train from Skagway. Leave from Seattle and stops are Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria

 

[zig]

There is a sea plane (float plane) excursion from Ketchikan to see the black bears which I really enjoyed.
White Pass rail trip was great as well. Also recommend the helicopter excursion in Juneau.

 

[Pushka]

Definitely going to go on at least one chopper ride and will do the White Pass train from Skagway. Leave from Seattle and stops are Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria

Sitka is a whale boat excursion and often bears just walking around. And otters.



Juneau is this:



Ketchikan is the seaplane excursion. We used Mountain wings

We rarely used the ships excursions but booked privately saving a lot of money.

 

[jase05]

We rarely used the ships excursions but booked privately saving a lot of money.

That was my next question.
A couple of the excursions were about $1000pp but the same tour operator is selling them for half that on their website directly. Will definitely do the maths

 

[Quickstatus]

QE is my son's and DIL's favourite ship

Which cabin has the best value for $

What is the catch with booking a land tour privately rather than same tour via Ship?

 

[Flashback]

Which cabin has the best value for $

What is the catch with booking a land tour privately rather than same tour via Ship?

A no wait guarantee.

 

[Quickstatus]

A no wait guarantee.

meaning?

 

[Flashback]

meaning?

With tours arranged by the cruise line, the ship will wait if you are late back. They won't for private tours.

 

[Quickstatus]

They won't for private tours.

But if the same tour company provides the same tour via the Ship, one should expect timely arrival back at ship, or is that too dangerous to assume?

 

[Flashback]

But if the same tour company provides the same tour via the Ship, one should expect timely arrival back at ship, or is that too dangerous to assume?

Assuming just makes an cough of you and me ......

If you want to be 100%, go with the cruise operator. Anything else is ...... down to luck?

 

[Quickstatus]

If you want to be 100%, go with the cruise operator. Anything else is ...... down to luck?

Maybe the tour operator supplies the Ship with its own tour guide/bus while the same tour operator supplies the private client from the Ship with a different bus.

 

[Flashback]

Maybe the tour operator supplies the Ship with its own tour guide/bus while the same tour operator supplies the private client from the Ship with a different bus.

Perhaps! Usually the operator arranged tours are 100% ship and won't have any private people onboard the tour.

 

[Pushka]

With tours arranged by the cruise line, the ship will wait if you are late back. They won't for private tours.

Sometimes they do sometimes they don’t. When on QM2 departing Adelaide we were waiting for someone for over 30 minutes. Finally a train showed up and everyone was lined up to boo hiss! Except out came someone who was walking with walking canes and clearly not walking fast. We all just collectively went ‘ah’ and went inside. He was already on the cruise but decided to pop home (in Adelaide) to water his plants.

Other times the ship has pulled out and next thing there’s a high speed launch chasing the ship. They let them in through the pilot hatch. Highly dangerous.

Watching pier runners on YouTube is fun.

We will do private excursions when the ship is on an overnight stop. No risk and cheaper. In Alaska it’s easy in every port the excursions are very close to port so very little driving (and therefore congestion ) involved.

 

[Pushka]

Which cabin has the best value for $

What is the catch with booking a land tour privately rather than same tour via Ship?

Depends on your taste. With Cunard it’s at least a balcony and that’s a must. Anything higher is the icing.

 

[RooFlyer]

That was my next question.
A couple of the excursions were about $1000pp but the same tour operator is selling them for half that on their website directly. Will definitely do the maths

On one of my trips in the USA I got friendly with USA travel agent. When she learned where I was from she asked if I could get in touch with me from time to time as she had clients visiting Tasmania on cruise ships etc.

Well, she did once and she outlined the itinerary and cost of several shore tours on the north-West Coast of Tas, asking me which would be best. The prices were truly obscene. Obviously taking advantage of supposedly well healed cruisers, where it was obvious if you simply booked the same tour while driving around Tasmania it would be half the cost.

Also remember the shore tours are provided by third parties and while the cruise may sell them to you as really really terrific, the reality might be well short. This happened to me on my recent Caribbean cruise with SilverSea. They did refund my money for one of them.

Message : look closely at the itinerary - for instance, is there a lot of time on a bus to reach a single destination then a lot of time on the bus back?

But if the same tour company provides the same tour via the Ship, one should expect timely arrival back at ship, or is that too dangerous to assume?

One privately hired car might be caught in an accident and delayed by an hour while the ship’s one returns back OK.

I think private tours are okay as long as you allow yourself a couple of hours margin AND keep a constant eye on the clock and be ready to bolt back to the ship at any time

 

[drron]

I actually gave a couple of cruise passengers a free excursion in Burnie. A couple I knew from Cruise Critic. They had cruised around Tassie before and been to Cradle Mountain. They asked what else they could do in Burnie. So I took them to Ferny Glen and they saw a couple of platypus.
So it ended up they paid for lunch.

 

[love_the_life]

Sad, but the actual ship will probably be fine, it is just the bloody minded stupidity of the management that is the main problem...

The ship is lovely - had 14 days on her up the Norwegian coast in October. Sorry you have had hassles with SS. Do you use a TA or book direct usually?

 

[RooFlyer]

Article in the Oz on-line about 'new itineraries' for 2025. May or may not be paywalled.

2025 Cruise trends: new ships, uncharted waters and record voyages

 

[tgh]

Guess a little update is required...
Boarding S.Dawn in Sin confirmed that we have been upgraded to a Silver Suite; this was excellent service recovery by SS as we had been very unhappy campers pre departure.
We have, so far, found the service standards to be high; the ship is well staffed and they are well trained, even to the lofty standards of a SiverSea regular…. To my surprise all the wines have been palatable and requests accommodated ( fish and chips for lunch in Atlantide saw rapid discovery of a cold bottle of Riesling..)
I prefer the Nova's spacious funkiness however Swmbo finds the Dawn more inclusive.
We have had quite a few sea days and only one port ( coughet), tomorrow Tricomalee and a long day trip to Sigiria
The sea cave tour ex coughet was very good and I will try to post some pics, however icloud is very slow to update from the phone atm
Happy to answer questions….