What about those cruise passengers?

[Rainy]

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3 days till the first one docks here...now where's my valium at???

I'm beyond valium now.

You can save money by booking most tours yourself. What you're saving is the cruise company's commision.

Just a few words....you'll see a lot, and I mean a lot, of jewelry stores in the ports. Shiny and slick looking ones...usually with big signs offering "deals". They are there for no other reason that to rip you off. They are the same jewelry companies that infest the Caribbean...nothing local about them...I've heard stories of people paying 3K for something and then going home and having it appraised for $300.

And...I don't know where or how this got started, probably with the aforementioned jewelry companies, but reputable businesses will not bargain with you. If you try to haggle about price and get a favourable response, that means just one thing...that the price has been inflated in the first place. You all should know that. I'm shocked to see middle class Americans trying to bargain and haggle like they were in Mexico or some such thing. You are in the USA so act like it. Some of you of course feel you may have to try to haggle, but when the clerk tells you that the price is non negotiable, don't be a bore about it. If bargain shopping is important to your vacation experience, you might have some luck on the last few cruises of the season.
The jewelry companies will haggle with you but you're gonna get ripped off anyway.
If you see some work by an artist/artisian that you admire but don't feel you can afford it, make a note of that person's name and then check to see if they have a website. You can sometimes save money that way if the artist will deal directly with you. Some of them prefer not to. But never expect Alaskan merchandise for Chinese prices.

Most of the people you will come into contact with in hotels and restaurants in port and on the land tours will not be Alaska residents, so they can't tell you much about the state. Places like Talkeetna, for instance, just don't have the labor force necessary...people come from all over the world to work there.

Uh....when you do manage to meet a resident, we do the same things in the winter that you do, which is live our lives. I personally am tired of people almost demanding to know what I possibly do in the winter....of course I don't mind in the course of a normal conversation but at least twenty times a day I get asked what I do in the winter. Well, this winter, I'm going to perfect the perfect answer to that question.

Along with the bear logo concerning things made here in AK, there is another one with a pair of hands that indicates that something is made by native Americans.

my head...it isn't even June yet. Stay out of the rip off jewelry stores and I hope it wasn't the Empress of the North that you booked.