Mrs.Gosse

When I booked our land and sea vacation package from Anchorage to Vancouver following a five-day connoisseur package I asked how long we would be on a bus. The woman said about 3 to 4 hours each time. I got on today and noticed they had added some information to each day's details. The day we leave Denali it says we are on a motor coach for eight and a half hours with A2 hour lunch break in Anchorage. Will someone please explain how that time line works? I am having a lot of trouble with the idea of being on a bus for eight and a half hours. I'm hoping that they meant 8 & a half hours including the lunch and no more than 4 hours on the first leg. Things like that. My husband will lose it on a bus for that long. Not to mention his bad knee will have a lot of trouble. I was really hoping to have some enjoyable time in Anchorage. Plus we will be meeting our daughter there who can not do the land segment. Sounds like that might not work out.

I did bring my scarf, gloves and a beanie. I wore all of them at Glacier Bay. But they were hardly anything to pack. So well worth it. I also brought two pairs of tennis shoes in case one got soaked. It never even rained the whole week we were there but better safe than sorry. I was really glad I did not invest in the waterproof tennis shoes on L.L.Bean.

Waterproof clothes are way more fashionable than a poncho and some other rain gear. Plus they can double as regular clothes when the sun is out. We went in September but the only day I needed winter clothes was when we visited Glacier Bay. I wore a long sleeve shirt, a fleece and my spring coat. My spring coat was a little on the heavy side but definitely not considered a winter coat , especially for a Northern State but not even here in Tennessee. I wore leggings under my jeans instead of bringing heavy pants. Those are also great because if your jeans get wet you're likely to still feel dry. we had such great weather I don't even know what to pack when we go back next year.

Thanks Karen.

 

I assume because we are not paying the extra then we won't get the Club Class benefits. Oh well! some you win, some you loose. I will enjoy the cruise either way.

Princess would never do something like that to you.

I just realized this morning that they might treat the club class dining like sabatini's breakfast. We are not allowed to bring other people in our party. We are bringing one of our children and my sister-in-law on our next cruise but they will be in a regular room. Either interior or balcony. Not likely a mini-suite even though it hasn't been decided yet. If they are not able to dine with us even though they are in our party we are going to completely miss out on this new perk.

We were on the coral in February. We had a ton of problems post dry dock but the thing that stood out was how good the food was. Better than our voyage on the Emerald. When i called to complain about what we went through I made sure they knew how good the food was.

The syrup coffee is fine. Hit or miss. I have a coffee card.

I'm going to be so upset if we lose Sabatini's every day for this.

It's been 16 months. I got the cards.

 

Ketchikan is my least favorite port.

Ours as welll.

I don't mind some of the cheesy tourist stuff. We did the train and really enjoyed it. Of course we had the entire day there. About 14 hours. By 1 p.m. we had done all of the shops and our Excursion. My husband got back on the ship and relax and I got off and walked about 4 miles around the town. During that time I got to really see the town itself and many of the homes and small buildings have signs that have historic markers in the Gold Rush days. That was pretty neat. I also did the little Museum. It really isn't that exciting of a town but it does have a little bit of charm. Plus the mountains on either side of the inlet are real pretty. We are probably doing the glacier helicopter thing next time. I know that's not a lot of help but it does kind of sound like you wouldn't be too interested in the port. They have quite a few excursions so I'm sure they will never stop going there just because of how many excursions they can pump out. Sounds like the Emerald Lake driving tour might be better than nothing if you aren't into the helicopter Glacier thing LOL

Love the Star... spent almost 30 day on her this past Oct./ Nov. and will be on the Star again for April/May for another 32 days....

 

You can't go wrong with her... :)

We chose the star. :)

Oh I also go pretty easy on breakfast because there's not really something for breakfast that I haven't had the option to eat every day of my life compared to the amazing stuff you can get for lunch or dinner. I usually have to save my calories for the specialty pizzas at lunch! I think my husband eats pizza 3 times a day when we Cruise LOL

I'm also calorie counter and the yogurt parfait will definitely push you over LOL Although it is a lot healthier than high cholesterol foods. If there is a low fat yogurt option and you get less than half a cup and lots of fresh berries that would be okay. The HC is definitely your best bet for calorie counting. English muffins well technically have a tiny bit less calories than toast. But a Dry Cereal with a load of berries is probably your best bet. Oatmeal is not a low calorie option. The amount of oatmeal people serve themselves out of a buffet is usually about 4 times what you get in the little microwave packets. You are looking about 800 calories or oatmeal if you loaded up and it was a good-sized bowl. The little one at McDonald's is almost 400. It's true with the Dry Cereal too , a serving of Dry Cereal is typically 130 calories but it's usually about the size that fits in the single-serve boxes. If you load your bowl up with berries it will fill you up for less calories. If you feel like you need more protein I usually get a English muffin and split a sausage link. That's usually about 230 calories.

Your cruise card will not come to you until you check in for the cruise portion of your trip. Land expenses are cash or credit card, paid as you go.

 

Again, many of your expenses are covered in the rate you are paying for the "connoiseur" package.

I was just wondering if the charged it all to our room/cruise. Not the actual physical card. Alcoholic beverages are obviously not included. Those are the kind of thing i am referring too.

My 7 and 8 day connoisseur tours included most ,but not all, meals. I would think the 5 day would include some also??? Can you get into Princess.com and view this?

Yes it includes many. I was wondering about the meals it does not include or meals we choose to eat outside the resort

The college in our town started a spring breaks on the 4th

If you book an early duck tour you should have a good portion of the day left. We booked a very early one and we were back before lunch. Not sure what time the walking tours are. After the tour we walked on our own. The duck tour goes all over the town, and overlap some areas a few times. I'm sure that doing both will be fun but honestly you're going to hear a lot of the same stuff and see a lot of the same things several times. After the duck tour we decided to walk on our own and look at a few areas we wanted to see a little longer. And then we went to lunch. And our cruise left at 11:45. We only had a half day there.

Hi friends, our plan is 5 day connoisseur package in September 2017 followed by the Star Princess southbound. Have a few questions but I can't seem to get answered by Princess. The person that was supposed to be helping me directly called me after 3 days and we set the time for her to call me back in the evening after I gave her the questions. I was in my car and unable to talk at the time. 14 days later I am still waiting for her call back. I even talked to Princess on another issue about 5 days ago and she said she would look into why I had not received a call back. Still waiting.

anywho...., when you start in Anchorage is the hotel included? Or do you get your own hotel room on your own?

I've also people talking about going to restaurants at these locations. Like while in Denali. Is the princess lodge close enough to parts of a town because in the pictures it looks very secluded.

Are there laundry facilities at the lodges?

How do you pay for things I might purchase on my own, like drinks and coffee? Does it charge to your account at the end of the cruise or do you pay in cash? Or does it just go to the end of the land portion and then charge your credit card? For some reason I imagine the whole land portion to be exactly the same as a cruise with things like that.

I hope you reported the mattress. This is so unfair to the next 1000's of guests. Shame.

Glad to know they don't seem to be being disrespectful. I thought it was pretty clear though that you should be wearing a cover up in some of the public areas on Princess. We were on the Emerald at the end of March last year and that is definitely the end of Spring Break season but there were quite long lines even then for drinks. So I can only imagine!

There are several doors like that on several decks, Baja,Caribe,Dolphin, and Emerald........

I was just confirming I just saw this door last month.

Back on topic, I suspect that they will of course still recieve the gratuities it's just that you purchased this special instead of a special that was say $75 less but you paid gratuities. I think it all comes out in the wash.

There was definitely a door like that , aft, on dolphin. I aqw saw it when i did laundry and thought i must had seen it 10 times from the other side.

Ok. Never said i was trying to take the Emerald OR the Golden to Alaska next. I obviously don't get to choose the ships that go. I was saying what ships I've been on so someone could compare them for me. If someone told me the star is like the Dawn princess that would mean nothing to me. I've never been on her.

Isn't the Golden based year-round in Australia?

I cruised on her in Alaska in a 14.