no1racefan1

I spoke with an agent via Live Chat and they re-fared my booking. Its about $500 less under the Score for 24 promo. I logged on to princess.com and confirmed my OBC, shore excursions and payments are all there. There's something weird happening with showing that I owe a little bit of money on paid excursions, but the fare is also showing that same amount less than what was quoted--so I think there's something weird with the accounting there. BUT net amount I'll be paying out comes out even and I'm saving around $500! Definitely worth looking at for some of us 🙂 BTW it does say in fine print on the promo that it's for new bookings, so YMMV. Worth a try!

Princess cruisers, check your rates! As I do every day, I logged on to princess.com to check prices. The new 'Score for 24' promotion has my cruise/cabin listed at significantly less than what I booked it for. I'm currently trying to see if they will re-fare me, or if I'll have to cancel and rebook. That would be a pain, but it's looking like it would save about $500, so probably worth the hassle!

My 2024 Alaska cruise is significantly less under this promo. Currently trying to find out of they will re-fare me.

I know!! I already have a list of things I wish we could do, that we'll have to go back for someday 😆 We did the helicopter to the dog sledding camp on the glacier in Juneau back on our very first cruise in 2006, and it's one of my top 5 travel memories! If you're flightseeing out of Talkeetna, I know they offer glacier landings. I was looking into K2 Aviation when we were thinking about Talkeetna flightseeing. I've seen that they sometimes offer specials/discounts on their FB page, so make sure to follow that for tour operators you are interested in! Major Marine Tours does as well, if you use them for the Kenai Fjords. I've also heard they usually have a black friday sale. Plus, it's just fun to have all things Alaska in my social media feed, LOL.

I love, love, love that this thread has turned into a place where we can all share our planning and bounce ideas off each other! I'm kind of in a holding pattern waiting for more things to be available to book for 2024, such as tours and some lodging. Pro tip: it seems like all the places I have contacted about 2024 availability open it up in September/October (after the 2023 season ends). So if there's something you're interested in that isn't showing availability yet, don't fret! In the mean time, since I can't NOT be planning something for our trip 😅, I'm continually checkin on our flights to see if award rates have come down so I can cancel and rebook using fewer miles--and possibly be able to upgrade! I've also been checking our cruise fare on Princess in case we are able to re-fare. So far the fare has stayed the same--although they are offering $200 OBC right now for new bookings.

Excellent, thank you!

Alaska 2024 opened in February 2023, if that helps.

In true over-planner fashion, I have changed our itinerary 😅 All the feedback on TripAdvisor says to get out of Anchorage as much as possible, so I took their advice and switched up our overnight accommodations for the 2nd night. I moved up our Palmer Airbnb, and this gives us an extra night in Seward! I haven't worked out Seward accommodations. I'm interested in staying at Resurrection Lodge on the Bay, but it's not available for 2024 yet... so we'll see! (Edited to add: I looked into Bear Lake Lodging as mentioned by @SueMo and it looks awesome--but it has a 3-night minimum for our dates 😞 ) New itinerary for land portion: Monday, 5/13 6:07pm arrive Anchorage (BOOKED) 6:30pm Pick up car @ Budget (BOOKED) Stay @ Hyatt Place (BOOKED) Tuesday, 5/14 Rent bikes from Pablo’s Bike Rentals Bike Tony Knowles Trail Buy groceries Drive to Palmer Stay @ Airbnb in Palmer (BOOKED) Wednesday, 5/15 Drive to Glacier View Matanuska Glacier guided hike L-on the road Drive to Seward Stay @ Resurrection Lodge? Thursday, 5/16 Kenai Fjords boat tour L-on tour? Stay @ Resurrection Lodge? Friday, 5/17 Morning kayak tour? L-on the road Stop at Exit Glacier Drive back to Anchorage 7:30pm Drop off car @ airport (BOOKED) Laundry @ hotel? Stay @ Hyatt House (BOOKED) Saturday, 5/18 Embark Whittier 8pm 9:45am-12:05pm Alaska Railroad L-picnic w/ leftovers Portage Pass Trail hike? Board Sapphire Princess Oh, I was also able to book return flights today using United miles!! Which means all flights are booked! Total paid for flights: $127.12 I might end up paying extra down the road to upgrade seats (everything is in economy), but I'm going to wait and see how often they change our flights first...

You should be able to tell by looking at your credit card activity whether it's a pending transaction or it has hard posted to your account. I'm guessing it's still pending.

Agree with pp. It really depends what we are doing. I'm not necessarily going to wear my hydration pack around town shopping or sightseeing, but I'll wear it if we're going hiking or somewhere that it will be hard to acquire water. Sometimes, if I need to carry other items like a jacket, sunscreen, etc I'll wear my hydration pack but not fill the bladder, and still just use a water bottle. I take it as my backpack/carry on.

There really is no way for anybody here to know whether tipping is common or not. I only know what I personally do with my money and I assume most people are the same. I've never gone on a cruise and felt like any of the staff was expecting a tip.

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to be out on deck!

We are planning on train to Whittier just so we can get that 'train' experience. Also, I've read that you can check your luggage directly to the ship from Alaskan Railroad (I think I've read you can do this even if not booking the transfer through the cruise line).

It sounds great! I am planning to book with Major Marine tours for our Seward cruise. They have several different options that explore Kenai Fjords. I'm leaning towards Orca Quest because it's only available during the short season we will be there, and it's 4 hours which means more in line with our budget ;-). But yes, I have heard the 6 and 8 hour tours are pretty magical! Also, I think I've researched just about every option available for lodging in Seward. I'm leaning towards booking at Harbor 360 hotel because it's owned by Major Marine, so you get a discount by booking the hotel and cruise together. I haven't 100% decided yet, but this could be an option for you!

Say what???

I've read that the arrival in Vancouver is very scenic. We'll be on Sapphire Princess southbound so should be sailing the 'inside' inside route. How early would I need to get up on disembarkation day in order to enjoy the scenery/sail in?

I bought our soft-side luggage for about $50 each at Walmart about 10 years ago. It's iFly brand. It's got plenty of scuffs but nothing broken and still works just as if it was brand new. We only fly about once per year so maybe it wouldn't hold up to more frequent use. I think they are 25" (we used to have bigger and DH revolted and said he was done lifting bigger suitcases into the car). I've used a hard-sided case before and I hated the clamshell style.

See, and this sounds perfectly divine to me! I've never noticed any vloggers. Tons and tons of people take food photos and put them in their reviews. I've really never noticed that either. In fact, I've rarely noticed what people are wearing/doing/eating in the dining rooms, outside of my own travel party. I'm much more interested in visiting with my spouse and enjoying our meal.

For our trip to Alaska I think we will each bring 1 checked bag and 1 backpack (day hike), and share 1 small rolling bag as a carry on. Normally we wouldn't bring the carry on, but I think we'll need to extra space for camera, etc. I believe this is exactly what you are suggesting to bring and you should be fine, but check with your airline. Yeah, I agree with everything @cmmaxwell03 said. I am NOT a frequent flier--II fly maybe once a year. AND I try to carry on as little as humanly possible because I don't like to haul carry on bags around... but anyways, I have traveled with a regular-sized laptop backpack as my personal item and a small rolling bag as my carry on (one time when I HAD to travel carry on only due to switching airlines).

Here's how our itinerary is shaping up! I'm always open to suggestions 🙂 Monday, 5/13 Morning--Fly to Denver B--Denver airport L--airport? in flight? 12:10pm depart Denver (BOOKED) 6:07pm arrive Anchorage (BOOKED) Pick up rental car (BOOKED) D-Moose Tooth Pizza? Stay @ Hyatt Place (BOOKED) Tuesday, 5/14 B-FREE @ hotel (BOOKED) Buy groceries Rent bikes from Pablo’s Bike Rentals Bike Tony Knowles Trail L-Hot dog food truck D- Dessert-Wild Scoops Stay @ Hyatt Place (BOOKED) Wednesday, 5/15 B-Free @ hotel (BOOKED) Drive to Glacier View Matanuska Glacier guided hike L-The Butte Burger Place? Bodenberg Butte hike? D-Make at Airbnb Airbnb in Palmer (BOOKED) Thursday, 5/16 B-Make at Airbnb Drive to Seward Scenic stops along the way L-picnic? Visit Exit Glacier D-Woody’s Thai Kitchen or The Cookery Airbnb in Seward Friday, 5/17 B-Make at Airbnb L-Leftovers? 12-4 pm Orca quest tour in Seward Drive back to Anchorage Buy wine & soda for cruise? 7:30pm Drop off car @ airport (BOOKED) D-49th State Brewing? Wild Scoops ice cream Stay @ Hotel Captain Cook? Saturday, 5/18 Embark Whittier 8pm B-@ hotel 9:45am-12:05pm Alaska Railroad L-leftovers? or in Whittier? Portage Pass Trail hike? 5:20pm dinner in MDR Sunday, 5/19 Hubbard Glacier 3pm-8pm Laundry day 6:40pm dinner in MDR Monday, 5/20 Glacier Bay 9:15am-7:30pm 5:20pm dinner in MDR Tuesday, 5/21 Skagway 7am-8:30pm 7:30am-11:45am Chilkoot Hike & Float (BOOKED) Lunch back on board (unless it's a tender) Walk or shuttle to Gold Rush Cemetery Hike to Lower Reid Falls? Shopping in Skagway 6:40pm dinner in MDR Wednesday, 5/22 Juneau 6:30am-4pm 7am-10:30am Mendenhall Explorer (BOOKED) Lunch—Alaska Fish & Chips Co. Mt. Roberts Tramway? 5:20pm dinner in MDR Thursday, 5/23 Ketchikan 10am-6pm Breakfast in MDR 10:30am-11:45am me lumberjack show (BOOKED) 10:30am-3:30pm DH fishing excursion (BOOKED) Walking tour/shopping 6:40pm dinner in MDR Friday, 5/24 Sea Day Laundry day 5:20pm dinner in MDR Saturday, 5/25 Disembark Vancouver 7:30am Breakfast on board Taxi to airport L-airport D-airport Fly home

I've spent this morning making some exciting trip updates! First of all, since our itinerary changed to spend two nights in Anchorage rather than trying to get to Denali, I needed to figure out a hotel for the 2nd night. I made sure the Hyatt Place still had availability. Then, I cancelled the reservation I had for the first night so I could make a new reservation for two nights. I was short a few thousand points for two nights, but I was able to purchase points to make up the difference. Pro tip: when trying to use points/miles, make sure to check how much it would cost to buy more points. In this case, it was cheaper to buy the points than it would have been to book a hotel room! With points in hand, I rebooked the Hyatt Place for two nights. Total cost for 2 nights: $192.00 (what I spent on points). AND...while messing around on the Alaska Airlines page, I realized our flight was available to book from Denver to Anchorage! I jumped on that and booked us the flight we wanted for 40K miles each. I wish it was first class but alas, not in our miles or real budget. Seats weren't available to choose yet so I'll log back on later to select those. Total cost: $11.20! I have some Alaska miles left over and I'm hoping to use those to book our final night in Anchorage before we board the ship. I still need to see if I can gather a few more points first. Now we just need to book our United flights to get us TO Denver, and to get us home from Vancouver. Those aren't available to book quite yet. I told DH this trip is really happening now that we have flights!!

Budget update! As I mentioned in my last post, I still have a little bit of time to wait until all of our flight dates are available to book. Here's where our budget is sitting right now (left hand side is estimate, right hand side is actually spent so far). My ultimate goal is to spend under $7k. Still have a ways to go to save on costs! $600.00 Plane tickets Plane tickets $338.87 Rental car $338.87 Rental car $80.00 Gas in rental car Gas in rental car $1,859.2 Cruise fare+protection $359.20 Cruise fare+protection $80.45 Lodging in Palmer 5/15 $80.45 Lodging in Palmer $300.00 Lodging in Anchorage 5/13-14 Lodging in Anchorage $300.00 Lodging in Anchorage 5/17 Lodging in Anchorage $270.00 Lodging in Seward5/16 Lodging in Seward $300.00 Matanuska Glacierhike Matanuska Glacier hike $100.00 Wifi on board Wifi on board $224.00 Onboard gratuities Onboard gratuities $708.55 Shore excursions $708.55 Shore excursions $100.00 Anchorage bike rentals Anchorage bike rentals $300.00 Orca quest tour Orca quest tour $400.00 Massages/spa Massages/spa $650.00 Dog sitting Dog sitting $120.00 Guide tips Guide tips $60.00 Extra ship tips Extra ship tips $650.00 Meals/groceries Meals/groceries $200.00 Train to Whittier Train to Whittier $80.00 Taxi/Ubers Taxi/Ubers $150.00 Miscellaneous Miscellaneous $100.00 Mt Roberts Tram? Mt Roberts Tram? $25.00 Fishing license Fishing license $30.00 Laundry Laundry $45.00 Bear spray Bear spray $500.00 Shopping Shopping $8,571.79 $1,487.07

I've been itching to give an update!! I'm currently waiting for airline schedules to open up for booking. I think I have about a week to go before I can book tickets! I went ahead and booked the lumberjack show in Ketchikan for myself while DH goes fishing. I had some shareholder OBC to use so it was free.

Nice, thank you both for replying!

Is this typically on every sailing?