Going on a cruise next week

We've done five river cruises. We've found the food to be much better than ocean ships trying to adequately serve thousands of people; it's just a far more civilized way to travel. What I've grown to dislike is flying to Europe and having to fork over more $ to upgrade to premium economy. I'm just too old to even think about flying overnight back in Row 43. Also, on our most recent river cruise last year, they had to cancel the final stop on the trip because there wasn't enough water in the river to get there. The next week a couple that lives down the street was cruising the Rhine and they had multiple interruptions because of the same issue -- low water levels. We have nothing scheduled for '23 but we've booked Turkey and Greece for spring '24.

 

We did an Alaska cruise (on Princess) in 2019, before the pandemic hit. Flew into Fairbanks and were booked for an Aurora Borealis viewing that night. It was at a sled dog kennel where they put up 3 yurts. Bad news -- it was cloudy and rainy. We could see nothing. Supposed to be from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., but the tour bailed around 1 a.m. when it was obvious it wasn't happening.
Next day was a Chennai River Wilderness cruise aboard a paddlewheel. It was OK seeing all of that, but a little Disney-like. Real relics of the time, real natives explaining things. Just so happened (hahaha) the wife of the guy who started the cruise tours was out in her yard to wave at the boat when it went past.
After the cruise, there was a 4-hour bus ride from Fairbanks to Denali. Next day was probably the highlight of the trip -- 8-hour bus tour into Denali National Park. Four hours up, four hours back, three stops along the way. Lots of wildlife, incredible sights -- moose, bears, elk.
Next day was a 9-hour train from Denali to Whittier, where you board the ship. Then a 7-day cruise. Stops in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. Our Juneau stop was canceled because of 50-knot winds. The captain didn't want to try to dock in that wind. The other stops were OK, shore excursions really add to your price. In Skagway we took the train up White Pass, gold country. In Ketchikan, where was a boat excursion to Misty Fiord. That was pretty cool, too. I like being on the water. We missed out on a whale watching boat excursion in Juneau. Very disappointing.
Ship pulled up close to the most prominent glaciers, they had narration. I was fascinated by glaciers. Lots of interesting information about them. They "flow" 6 to 7 inches a day. One starting 75 miles away at the top of a mountain takes 400 years to reach the bay.
We ate at the buffet most of the time, had maybe 2 sit-downs. Our last sit-down dinner was AFTER the final call for transported luggage, so we would have had put our nicer clothes into our carry-on for the trip home. We passed on that. We're not much for shipboard activities. You can watch "Love Boat" 24/7 in your room.
I liked having the balcony. One of my wishes was to sit on the balcony with a cup of coffee and watch the glaciers go by. Achieved that.