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In June, we are going on a cruise tour of Alaska. It starts in Vancouver and the ship stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and near Anchorage. We than take a land tour north through Denali National Park.
I'm been very critical of Carnival and other cruise lines. IMO, American law gives huge unjustified benefits to the cruise lines and it ought to stopped. Since I believe that why would I go on this cruise than?
This is why:
1. Seeing Alaska any other way, would cost me much more money than I'm paying for this.
2. Lack of alternatives to do what we want to do.
3. We are going with another cruise line besides Carnival.
I can't take the train to Alaska because one doesn't run from the lower 48 states to Alaska. Driving is not an option because the Al Can Highway doesn't take us to any of the places we want to go. I guess it would eventually take us to Anchorage, but that would take forever. Also, the travel time would be enormous.
If I had other better choices, we'd take them. I'm not a fan of cruising. Its just a means to get there.
could you explain what you mean about American law gives huge benefits to the cruise lines? It seems to me, what you are saying makes lttle sence.
I won't ever cruise because it's just a floating casino to suck more money out of passengers who get bored of scenery or stay up late at night.
If you want a really good, entertaining "cruise" try one of the river boat cruises, mostly from Cincinnati down to New Orleans. They used to book theater groups to perform plays on the boat. I got an explanation about them from a former employee at the landing in Cincy who told me Gregory Peck and his wife were in the luxury suite of the Mississippi Queen.
The neat thing about some of them is that you can take a positioning cruise--usually from New Orleans back to Cincy (for a cheaper price) and sometimes they will take other rivers for some of the journey and you might only be twenty or thirty yards from shore. People will sometimes gather to see those on the boat. It's cheaper because foreigners come to the U.S. to FINISH their trip in New Orleans, so demand is not as great to get back to Cincy.
Much more fun than even the Mississippi.
By the way, as a kid I twice was on passenger liners--once to England and once to Japan, and that one got caught in a bad storm one afternoon. Talk about people being sick!! The next morning I went to the highest deck we were allowed on, near the smokestacks, and ran my finger around the inside railing to come up with a lot of caked salt. It had to be 120-150 feet above the water.
Flying to Alaska and renting someplace for a week would be much more fun for me than stopping at a couple of places without enough time to meet people and learn about a place. It sounds like driving through Yellowstone and never getting out to hike and explore. For me it would be a waste of money.
But cruise lines sure seem to convince a lot of people that their travel is the only way to "see" an area.
I won't ever cruise because it's just a floating casino to suck more money out of passengers who get bored of scenery or stay up late at night.
If you want a really good, entertaining "cruise" try one of the river boat cruises, mostly from Cincinnati down to New Orleans. They used to book theater groups to perform plays on the boat. I got an explanation about them from a former employee at the landing in Cincy who told me Gregory Peck and his wife were in the luxury suite of the Mississippi Queen.
The neat thing about some of them is that you can take a positioning cruise--usually from New Orleans back to Cincy (for a cheaper price) and sometimes they will take other rivers for some of the journey and you might only be twenty or thirty yards from shore. People will sometimes gather to see those on the boat. It's cheaper because foreigners come to the U.S. to FINISH their trip in New Orleans, so demand is not as great to get back to Cincy.
Much more fun than even the Mississippi.
By the way, as a kid I twice was on passenger liners--once to England and once to Japan, and that one got caught in a bad storm one afternoon. Talk about people being sick!! The next morning I went to the highest deck we were allowed on, near the smokestacks, and ran my finger around the inside railing to come up with a lot of caked salt. It had to be 120-150 feet above the water.
Flying to Alaska and renting someplace for a week would be much more fun for me than stopping at a couple of places without enough time to meet people and learn about a place. It sounds like driving through Yellowstone and never getting out to hike and explore. For me it would be a waste of money.
But cruise lines sure seem to convince a lot of people that their travel is the only way to "see" an area.
What you are saying is a matter of opinion. Absolutely they are not floating casinos, while in port the casinos are closed, when doing Hawaii the casinos are closed, no one makes a person spend time and money in the casino. We used to pop into the casino every night, at least for a few minutes: now, we probably spend a total of maybe, 2 or 3 hours during the entire cruise in the casino, if that much. When we did our 12 day cruise from Canada to Ft Lauderdale I doubt we were in the casino an hour.
You say, for entertainment do a river cruise: I would do a river cruise for a lot of reasons, they are excellent, but not for entertainment and the Mississippi River cruises are off the wall expensive without much to offer. The River cruises in Europe are fantastic for those who can afford them.
It sounds to me like you have really never cruised, you are basing your opinion on a couple of cruises used as a transportation method only and not in recent years.
Well, there are laws strictly regulating the construction and maintenance of airplanes. Cruise lines circumvent most of this by registering in a country with very lax regulation.
Cruise lines do not publish or compete on the basis of how their ships are constructed and how good the maintenance schedules are, do they? So, what basis do YOU have to determine which is the best for you? How do you research these things, or do they not matter at all to you?
There are cruises all day everyday, all the time and only a handful of incidents. I don't see the point in really worrying about it. I don't think the average person would put that much research in to any vehicle they're going to spend time in.
There are cruises all day everyday, all the time and only a handful of incidents. I don't see the point in really worrying about it. I don't think the average person would put that much research in to any vehicle they're going to spend time in.
True, most people perhaps don't give a hoot, but I'll bet that more are, from all the bad press the Carnival Corp cruise lines have given them. I'll bet some are thinking twice about the safety onboard one of these things, and why the lines do not think that might be a selling point.
Some of us do care about transportation. I check the safety and repair records of cars that I am thinking to purchase. You can bet, from all the accidents, that I am not going to take a discount bus from Chinatown to the casinos, ever.
We are not only going to cruise again - we will cruise again on Carnival.
even though I am not a Carnival fan, good for you. Sh@@ happens, maybe their ships should be maintained a little better: I bet what has happened will hit them in the pocketbook and they will wise up...but when people let something like these incidents stop them from cruising they are not cruise people to begin with. Like you, I have no intentions of not cruising unless the fairs get so high, it is out of our budget.
What you are saying is a matter of opinion. Absolutely they are not floating casinos, while in port the casinos are closed, when doing Hawaii the casinos are closed, no one makes a person spend time and money in the casino. We used to pop into the casino every night, at least for a few minutes: now, we probably spend a total of maybe, 2 or 3 hours during the entire cruise in the casino, if that much. When we did our 12 day cruise from Canada to Ft Lauderdale I doubt we were in the casino an hour.
You say, for entertainment do a river cruise: I would do a river cruise for a lot of reasons, they are excellent, but not for entertainment and the Mississippi River cruises are off the wall expensive without much to offer. The River cruises in Europe are fantastic for those who can afford them.
It sounds to me like you have really never cruised, you are basing your opinion on a couple of cruises used as a transportation method only and not in recent years.
True, I have been on many cruises and never set foot in any casino on board. Why gamble at sea when there are so many other place on land to do so...at least by where I live. I enjoy the entertainment and all that they have to do on the ship. An hour doesn't go by that there isn't something fun to do. We just pick up the daily schedule and decide what we will do that day, if it's an "at sea day"
I spent two weeks on a cruise ship last summer and never once stepped foot into the casino. I was never bored, actually I had to slow myself down.
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Not going to cruise
