I'll be turning the whole phone off so it won't be updating all day. As far as I can tell from reading cruise site information, I could turn the phone on Airplane mode and turn on the wifi mode when on the ship (with their minutes). It suggests if I take a while to "ponder" a text, that the wi fi and roaming should be turned off so the phone doesn't start updating again. I asked for the phone # from skype a couple days ago so I'm not clear on how much data time it uses or what other charges are incurred. Talking on the phone sounds better than texting if the data charges aren't too high. Need to investigate that. Facebook would be a good way to see updates on the teenagers.

They weren't "limping" - they were being towed. And then a tow line broke, so they couldn't pull hard with the remaining (one?) so were moving at a very slow rate. When they evacuate a ship, they do it into some other floating object, almost always a small craft, such as a life boat. I doubt that they would evacuate such a cruise ship into life boats unless the main ship were either sinking or at risk of doing so ... and such would not include overflowing toilets. I don't know how easy, or not dangerous, it would be to move another large vessel alongside, then tie them together and move the 4,000 people from one to the other, even if the sea were calm. Perhaps it could not even be done at all. Even to move 4,000 people from one ship to another a few hundred feet away would be a huge, and somewhat, risky, enterprise ... and the helicopters would need to travel to land, or have another ship with fuel aboard to sit nearby, in order to refuel. Even though sometimes I need to flush my john up to three times in order to get the job done ... ... I prefer that to the conditions dealt with by the people on that ship ... 'cause my john hasn't overflowed yet. (And it'd be much easier to deal with, even were it to do so). ole joyful

We did a land and cruise trip on Princess Sapphire. We did the whole trip through them but honestly, we could have easily did the land part ourselves. The did a good job, though. We did the land part first and I liked doing that way. They had us flying into Anchorage late one day and leaving the next morning on the land tour. We flew in a day early so we had an extra day and a half there. We took a train to Denali, that was fun. There are a couple of tours on Denali State Park, one goes much further into the park then the other. The one we took started early in the morning and lasted about 12 hours. It was great. Try to get a seat on the left side of the bus, it has better views. We saw lots of animals. We also got lucky and Denali was completely out, it's so often covered with clouds. On the boat we had a mini suite. Our kids (ages 21 and 16) shared an inside cabin down the hall. Having the suite was helpful with 4 people. I suggest at least getting a balcony but you will have a good time even if you get an inside room. We really loved Glacier Bay, the boat spent all day there. Not all boats go there, I recommend it. In Skagway we rented a car (reserve in advance) and drove ourselves into the Yukon. It was so much cheaper then having someone else drive you and the road was fine. I recommend doing this, with your own car you can stop and go as you please. Take plenty of warm clothes but also take some lighter clothes. We had a couple of days in the 70's on land but a couple of days on the boat were cold. I was fine with a winter coat, hat, and gloves. I also like the anytime dining option that Princess has. We could eat anytime we liked. We could make reservations or just walk in. We never had a long wait if we didn't have a reservation.

More and more families travel for the entirety of the Thanksgiving period since adding three more days off gives nine in total. If you want to avoid kids, go when you can be sure school is in session. I've taken about 10 cruises, the first time about 30 years ago and most recent one was two years ago. The quality and enjoyment of the experience has declined substantially for us over this period as the ships have gotten larger, the fares have gotten lower, and the operators need to pinch pennies and cut corners to an extent not necessary years ago. 30 years ago, it was an elegant and memorable experience in all respects. Today, on a large ship, it's like being one cow in a cattle car. Food, service, courtesy, amenities, seem to aim low, for a standard of mediocrity. It depends what you like, try it and see. Port calls are so brief that you can hardly say you have "visited" those towns and areas. Sea days may or may not fill the bill for you. Our last two cruises were on two different but substantially more expensive up-market cruise lines with rather smaller ships. Our future cruises will be limited to those.