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The Inside Passage itinerary for the ms Noordam is Glacier Bay, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan (only till 1 pm) and evening at Victoria. After perusing the excursions online, husband Mike and I have drawn up some preferences. We've signed up for the Juneau Photo Safari By Land & Sea (limited to 14 participants) for the two of us and the Ketchikan Rain Forest Canopy/Zipline Expedition for him. I'm likely to do the Ketchikan Totem Bight and Lumberjack Show. Additionally, we're considering . . . Sitka: Captain's Choice Wildlife Quest & Beach Trek; Historic Russian America, Raptor Ctr & Russian Dancers; Sitka Highlights & Russian Dancers Victoria: Enchanting Butchart Gardens (evening); Victoria by Horse-Drawn Trolley Has anyone any knowledge of the excursions on this Holland America itinerary? I noticed the "Thermal Suite" on the Noordam. Has anyone tried this . . . what is it, how much does it cost? TIA

Excitement twice over 1. Cruise just scheduled yesterday for our first Alaska cruise This will be our fourth cruise. Our previous ones have been with Carnival--Caribbean, 2000; Mexican Riviera, 2002 and Panama Canal, 2004. 2. Introducing my dad and stepmom to cruising, also! I'm working on info for them and would love info from fellow cruisers that have sailed the Noordam Alaska Seattle roundtrip itinerary. TIA.

SUCCESS!!! Mike and I flew to Houston Saturday, stayed two nights there and flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Monday, boarding the Paradise Sunday. You can probably imagine the relief and triumph we felt! The Paradise left port at 10:30 p.m. from Miami. Since then we've had three wonderful dinners and two lunches of dining in the Elation Dining Room. Of course, we have amazing service because the ship is only partially full. :grin: Crewzer, did you make it on? Regards to all. See you on the flip side of the Canal in a few days (Sep 20). P.S. Five days on board, one port dropped, four ports to go with more days at sea!

Your well-wishes brighten my midnight stroll through the CruiseCrazies neighborhood. Hopefully we get all the way to the ship . . . and, ultimately, the Panama Canal and L.A.! :smiley: Best wishes to crewzer and newlywed spouse for the same cruise!

Instead of flying tomorrow (oops, today--12:09 a.m. just now!) to Houston then Ft. Lauderdale, we're flying to H and staying the night and booked to fly to Ft. Lauderdale Sunday, arriving (we hope) in the evening then stay in a hotel & board the Paradise Monday. Good luck to us both, Crewzer! The travel club we made our arrangements through gave us a follow-up phone call this evening. As I figured, they say that Carnival HAS to get the Paradise to her "appointment" on time to get through the Panal Canal and to the West Coast. I'm not sure what that means for how much leeway the Paradise has to stick around the Port of Miami Monday evening. As you know from carnival.com, the Aruba port of call was cancelled. Of course, the Paradise already has bookings for Baja Mexico starting the end of September.

Here is a pair of cruisers slated to leave Sunday from Miami on Carnival's Paradise Panama Canal sailing. My husb-y and I are occasionally watching the Weather Channel on tv and National Weather Service on Internet (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/). He tends toward the guessing game of "what if" whereas I'm not too preoccupied with the whole thing. Our flight out of Salt Lake City goes to Houston then Fort Lauderdale, so we may actually get stranded in Houston for a while if the timing of Frances is wrong for us! I have no doubt that both the airline's and cruise line's first concerns will be safety . . . then the closest fit for achieving the original itinerary. We're going with a large group (200+ people in different flights) through a travel agency with agency escorts. I'll leave the worrying to them. :grin:

If nothing else, tame tho' it is, you could join the crowd by sitting at the edge and dangling legs into the spa.

How about decks of playing cards--not breakable, easy shape to store and on-board diversion? I don't know if you'd find them in every place, however; I've only started this recently on land and air trips.