no1racefan1

Is there a way to view a list of 'typical' shore excursions for each port on the Royal Caribbean website, without having a cruise booked? On Carnival and Princess, for example, you can search by each port and it will list the excursions that are typically offered. I'm having a hard time finding anything similar on the RC website. I've never sailed RC before, so maybe I don't know where to look.

I avoided Prime Day, LOL. Actually, I've been putting off making too many purchases for our trip for now. I think once it gets closer I'll have a better idea of what we actually need and avoid overspending. Fortunately, we are outdoorsy people in WY and the weather situation seems very similar to AK, so we have a solid array of shoes/clothing/accessories for this type of trip. We usually each bring one 25" suitcase and one backpack as a carryon, but I'm thinking of counting my backpack as my personal item this trip and bringing an extra 20" carryon.

Booked through Princess

I'm in a boring period of trip planning that involves...not much planning. Just checking on flights, hotels, etc. to see if point values have changed. Nothing exciting to report. So! I figured it's time to do a shore excursion update because I have seen so much discussion about how soon shore excursions sell out for Alaska and the times available. I reported on these previously, let's see if anything has changed! As a reminder, we are 10 months out from our cruise, and we are going in shoulder season (mid-May) so shore excursions may sell out faster on summer trips. Hubbard Glacier Explorer--still showing at least 20 available. From what I've gathered, excursions will only ever show up to 20 spots available, even though some of them will have way more spots than that. I've ready the Hubbard Glacier excursion takes approximately 140-150 ppl. So as of now, it's not sold out! We're not booked on this, but I have it on my wish list if I happen to find an extra $600 before it sells out.... Skagway--Chilkoot Trail Hike & Float--only 4 tickets remaining! I believe it started out with 12 spots. Still only one time available to book; I'll report back later if/when they open up other time slots. Juneau--Mendenhall Glacier Explorer--at least 20 spots available, only one time slot open Ketchikan--Lumberjack Show--at least 20 spots available, only one time slot open Ketchikan--Fishing & Wilderness Dining--11 spots available (started with 12, so DH is the only person booked so far)

Princess has no idea you only paid $45 for a $50 gift card. When presented to them, it is a $50 gift card. If you don't spend all $50, they are going to refund that back, from the sounds of it either back to the GC or by check.

Awesome!! I'm still pretty sure we'll book a Major Marine Tour as well just because of the rave reviews. I'll definitely take some motion sickness meds beforehand, just in case. I'm kind of holding off booking because I've heard they usually have a sale around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. It's really hard to wait that long, haha! If we had stuck with our original idea to stay at Harbor 360, I would totally book early like you did and take advantage of the 20% off.

I'm going to stew over it for awhile, LOL

This is really great info, thank you!

This certainly gives us something to look forward to!

I've also always been negative the handful of times I've been tested and I've most certainly been exposed on multiple occasions.

Point being, you may very well have had Covid and just not know. DH and myself have never had covid 'that we know of', but we also know there's a chance we've had it and just never had any symptoms. Doesn't really matter either way at this point.

Ice cream sundae bar Thai dishes Chia pudding (didn't they used to have this?? I never got to try it) Protein shake/smoothie/bowl stand where you choose what goes in it and they make it Chips & salsa Ridiculous fancy donuts Wild game Gluten free pizza (maybe this is already an option?) Cakes and cupcakes that taste as good as they look That being said, I've never gone hungry....

I always tell DH all we really NEED to absolutely NOT forget is ID/passport and credit cards. Everything else is figure-outable.

Our first two cruises we chose guarantee cabins and were satisfied with each of them! First cruise was an inside cabin; ended up getting a cabin mid-aft on the Lido deck so we could just walk right out the doors and be outside, which was awesome. Second cruise was a balcony guaranteed and they ended up upgrading to an aft balcony, which we absolutely loved! I would for sure go that route if I was going to save $800.

Depends on where/what, but I would say it has nothing to do with making final payment. Very popular excursions sell out quickly, so you should book them as soon as you are able.

Yes, you lose all promos/packages related to the sale you are currently booked under. You wouldn't lose OBC not related to the 3-day sale.

My deposit is still refundable.

I saved $500 on my Alaska cruise. I booked myself on princess.com and was able to re-fare through Live Chat.

This is awesome! Were you able to book over the phone?

This is great! We have very similar itineraries 🙂 In fact I had almost the exact itinerary in mind until I decided to scratch Talkeetna/Denali and get to Seward a day earlier. I think I have the same Ketchikan excursion booked for my husband. Re: the Blue Bus, I don't know if you've been following other threads but apparently there was some issue with them overbooking people/not having enough permits, so a bunch of people have been receiving cancellation notices for their 2023 cruises. Hopefully that won't be the same issue next year, but might want to keep an eye out!

I'm jealous that you're fitting in Chena Hot Springs--I really wanted to go! I couldn't pull off that many days away from our pups though 😉 DH's mom says one of her remaining bucket list items is to take a family train trip in Alaska/Denali, so we might end up going back someday. I'm keeping a wish list!

Heads up to all my early planning friends! I just spoked with Kendall, owner of Resurrection Lodge on the Bay (thanks to the person that referred this place to stay in Seward) and he was able to make a reservation for me over the phone for next year, even though he doesn't open his online booking engine until the fall. He said he is getting a LOT of calls every day for 2024 and is expecting it to be an incredibly busy year. He strongly suggested calling tour operators and asking if they are taking early bookings rather than waiting for them to open up online.

My guess is the booking price will be honored but the 'premium' benefits for plus pkg won't be. You'll just have the real Plus package.

I noticed that too. We have the standard fare so didn't apply to us, but I'm guessing it's a glitch.

Doing the happy dance!! I was able to re-fare my current booking using the princess.com Live Chat. I logged on and confirmed my shareholder OBC, excursions, and payments are all there AND we are now paying about $500 less! Only weird thing is it says I owe $89.90 on my fully paid excursions, but then it says the cart is empty. I'm thinking what happened is the 'Score for 24' promo requires a $500 deposit, and we had only paid $480 so far. So it looks like the shareholder credit was applied towards the booking (because our new fare shows $100 less than what I was quoted/what the website shows) in order to meet the deposit, so then the amount of that OBC that had been used to pay for shore excursions is now applied elsewhere, so now we need to pay for that amount. Net amount being billed is still the same, I just need to sort it out to make sure nothing gets messed up with our excursions. Either way, I am so stoked!! Edited to add: I also immediately went to AARP and bought a 10% off GC to apply to the balance, just to make sure that $500 deposit issue was taken care of and didn't come back to haunt us later.