kraft111

On 2/13/2019 at 5:45 PM, rkacruiser said:

I think, if one does not dine in the MDR for the Embarkation Lunch, the NY Deli would be a very good option to avoid the crowds that likely will patronize the Lido Restaurant after boarding.    

This is exactly what we did on our cruise to Alaska a couple of years ago and plan to do again in March. We checked in early, walked the whole ship to get familiar with it, and then got pizza from the NY Deli and drinks from the adjacent bar and sat on the back deck with much of it to ourselves. For us, it's a great way to start a cruise.

If you're on one of the ships with the pizza restaurant at the back of the Lido deck, one of our favorite things to do was to order pizza, get a drink from the adjoining bar, and then take it all back to our room to watch a movie and/or watch the ocean go by. I don't think we ate in the MDR for dinner the entire time, because we'd be tired after our excursions and just want to lay in bed and eat pizza. When I say it that way it sounds incredibly lazy, but it was a real treat for us.

As others have said, you switch to a smaller boat from the water - you don't go all the way to Juneau and then backtrack. You transfer to the smaller boat and then take THAT boat into Juneau, arriving later than the cruise ship. That limits your time in Juneau pretty significantly, but you're trading the smaller boat excursion for spending time in port.

It is entirely possible that Tracy Arm will not be navigable due to ice, depending on when you go. The chances are better to get into Tracy Arm the later in the summer you go. We were not able to get into Tracy Arm but the excursion does not get cancelled. Instead you go to Endicott Arm and see Dawes Glacier. I don't have anything to compare to since I haven't seen both, but Endicott was stunning and you get VERY close to the glacier. I'm sure you would not regret it.

Our first major cruise was to Alaska in 2016. I packed a couple of pairs of Eddie Bauer pants that aren't rainproof per se, but the water beads up and rolls off of them unless it's REALLY pouring. I don't know whether I'm allowed to link to them, but I call them my "magic pants" because they're great in sun or rain and you can roll them up if the weather is nice. They've been perfect in Alaska, Ireland, and Iceland, which are all locations where it might rain all day or for five minutes. I would have been too warm in waterproof pants over other pants, so I'd recommend something water resistant as opposed to waterproof.

Some of the best advice I read before our cruise was to board the ship as early as possible and explore. We got on the ship and walked every deck immediately, finding all the bars, restaurants, and amenities. It was invaluable during the cruise because we could say "hey, I'm going to swing by the Dive In and get a burger ... meet you on the back of the Lido deck?" and we both knew where were supposed to go. After exploring, we went to the back and grabbed NY Pizza and a drink and people watched. It was incredibly relaxing to be settled in and have a feel for our surroundings before most people had even boarded.

My last tip is to consider getting the unlimited laundry service. It will allow you to pack less, and to not worry as much if you get drenched on an excursion. It's the difference between an entire outfit being out of commission for the rest of the cruise, or it coming back to you fully laundered the next day!

I can only speak to my recent experience. The price has dropped dramatically for my cruise and I could get the same class of room I have now for about half the price if I hadn't already made final payment (I leave Saturday, so final payment was long ago). In addition, I've gotten three upsell offers. I have a veranda room and my first offer was for Neptune. The second and third were for either Neptune or Signature Suite. I didn't take advantage of any of them because we like our current location, but the price dropped a little each time. So it IS possible you'll get offered multiple classes of upgrade at one time.

My philosophy on when to book anything is always dependent on how particular I am. If I really want specific dates or locations, I book as soon as I can. If I have more flexibility, I wait and continue to monitor availability and price. If the availability drops below my threshold, or the price stabilizes, I book then.

How much cash I take depends on how comfortable I am that money will be available where I'm going, and how familiar I am with the currencies I'll be using. When I did 10 days in Ireland, I took $100 US, just in case I had a need for it. Other than that, I used ATMs as needed for Euros. When I go on my upcoming 7 day cruise to Alaska, I'll probably take $300 US, just to make sure I have enough to cover tips, and because I'll be using US currency most of the time. I won't take any CAD or exchange it anywhere - I'll use an ATM and withdraw it as I need it. When I go to Iceland in September, it will be the same as Ireland. $100 US and I'll probably never use cash at all while I'm there.

The key for me is that I have a chip and pin card that has no forex or conversion fees, and an ATM card that has no service fees and refunds any charges from other ATMs. That coupled with knowing ATMs will be readily available saves me from ever paying any foreign transaction charges by changing money, and relieves me from carrying around a pile of cash. If you don't have those cards, you may want to have more cash on hand.

I understand completely, but it sounds like if I go early I have a better shot of getting on without as much of a nightmare. But if there's a chance it's going to be three hours no matter what time I go, I'd rather end up with a drink in my hand sooner than later afterward! :p

Thanks very much for the input. I discussed it with my husband last night and he made the point that if we push our luck by waiting too long, we won't necessarily enjoy our sightseeing in Vancouver very much because we'll be constantly checking our watch to make sure we get back in time. That will inevitably lead us to get back a little earlier than we intended, which puts us at the height of the wait time. I think we've decided to get up early and walk along the waterfront, getting coffee and looking at the Olympic Cauldron and whatnot. Then onto the ship early to begin taking advantage of our drink package. It helps that we get into Vancouver the night before and have a full day in Vancouver when we return. Never enough time, but it seems like in this case it might be better to be safe than sorry. Thanks again!

I'm embarking on June 11 on a two ship day. Embarkation time is 12pm and the ship is scheduled to depart at 5pm. I'm staying at the Pan Pacific the night before, so my preference would be to have the bellman bring over the luggage while I hang out in Vancouver and get to the ship between 2 and 3pm. From this thread it sounds like that may or may not work out well. Any idea whether some of the kinks will be worked out by then or whether I should forego sightseeing and just head straight to the boat before 12pm?

You might also consider a rental car, if any are still available. It would give you more flexibility to continue on past Mendenhall if you have time when you're done there and not limit you to the shuttle schedule or cab availability.

Thanks all, this has been very helpful.

And Peety, I'm very nice. Your parents may well want to wave at me! :D

Thanks so much Karen, that's just what I was hoping to hear.

Hi all,

I'm about three weeks from my cruise and starting to gather the paperwork I want to bring with me. One thing I noticed is that I don't really have details on my excursions. I can see that I'm booked on my itinerary and my personalized brochure (Holland America), and I have the general itinerary information such as time, length, etc, but when do I get information such as where to gather? Does that come once I'm on the ship? Is there an announcement? Sorry, this is probably obvious to most people, but I want to make sure I have all the information I need. Thanks!

I'm almost positive it's 3:30. I'm doing the same excursion and renting a car afterward, and that's the time I have the rental car booked for. I plan to call from the ship once we get close to give them a better idea of the actual time.

I'm so glad you're at a point in your life where you can be happy and celebrate again.

I don't have any specific advice since I don't leave for my cruise until June, but just some general advice - if you can splurge, do. You know better than most how short life is, so if you find something you really want to do, do it. I've found that my most special trips come from saying yes to things, not "well, I'm not sure." And the second is not to place too much importance on things being special enough or perfect. They might be or they might not be, but sometimes if the expectations are too high it can be disappointing if things don't go exactly as planned. If something falls through, or a meal wasn't as great as you hoped, use it as an excuse to try something else.

I truly hope you have a wonderful trip.

A few months ago someone posted a potential discount code for Avis: W046000. I've booked Avis cars in Skagway and Juneau for my June cruise and I'm sure I tried the code, but I don't remember at all whether it worked or not. But it's worth a shot.

It's only crazy if you aren't sure it's something your wife and her friends would actually want to do, as others have mentioned. It's not any crazier for you to pay for her and her friends than it is to pay the same amount for you and the kids to go with her. This cruise is the gift you want to give her, this is the amount you're willing to spend (regardless of who's going) - I don't see the problem.

Just be forewarned, based on my own experience, that it could cause some discomfort for the friends who will want to go but be reluctant to let you pay for it. It can put people in a weird place where they want to go ... but don't want you to pay ... but can't really afford to pay themselves ... but feel like they should ...

Be prepared to suggest some way they can contribute without paying more than they can spend. For example, if they protest, you can say something like you're happy to pay for the cruise, but your wife would love a [premium restaurant dinner] [massage] [item delivered to the room] [whatever]. It can defray some of the awkwardness.

This is how I book things for all of my travel, no matter how far into the future or how expensive:

1. Can I book now? I try it online and see if it lets me. If not, I keep trying dates close to my current date until I figure out the timeframe. Then I set a calendar reminder to book (or at least look at prices) once options become available.

2. Is there a fee if I cancel or change my plans? If not, I book, keep watching prices, and rebook as frequently as necessary to keep getting lower prices.

3. If there IS a fee, I watch prices, even before I'm able to book my actual choices. So if I'm flying in June 2017, I check prices for June 2016 to get an idea of what my expected price might be. That way I have some idea when flights become available of whether I'm in the right ballpark.

4. Once dates are available, I keep an eye on prices and wait to see if they rise or fall. If they rise, I keep waiting. If they fall after that, I usually book. And then I STOP looking at fares. It does me no good if I have a reasonable price and then find out there's a great price that's nullified by change fees. You can drive yourself crazy doing that.

5. If I NEED a specific flight (not just day, actual flight), or excursion, or hotel, I'll book without watching prices quite as closely. I don't want to lose an excursion that's going to sell out immediately because I haven't decided the rest of my itinerary yet.

6. After I've booked the stuff I NEED, I don't book anything else with a change fee until I've roughed out the schedule for the whole trip. That gives me flexibility to move pieces around as necessary.

Maybe you've figured this out already, but I really like to plan. :)

Another option might be to do a tour in the morning and rent the car in the afternoon. We're doing the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari in the morning and then renting a car and doing as bonvoyagie suggested - driving to Emerald Lake and then meandering back. I feel more comfortable with that from a time perspective, since we'll always be getting closer to the ship instead of further away from it as we make our stops.

One thing to consider, that I hadn't thought of until BudgetQueen mentioned it in response to one of my questions, is that if you do the drive in the afternoon, there aren't going to be many cars coming or going if you run into car trouble. We're willing to chance it, but you might not be depending on your comfort level.

I haven't been on my cruise yet, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but what we're doing is the Tracy Arm excursion and then renting a car when we get to Juneau. We're planning on visiting Glacier Gardens and Mendenhall and maybe more if we have time (we probably won't). We could take the shuttle, but we'll probably be there after the shuttle stops running and I didn't want to have to depend on a cab being available. We'll see about the Tram either before getting the car or after, depending on the weather. We probably don't NEED a car, but I felt like it gave us the best flexibility for seeing multiple things and spending the time we wanted at them.

We made our decision almost exactly how bonvoyagie outlined.

First: time of year. We were planning our trip to coincide with another friend's cruise, so we picked an itinerary that ended with us all being in Vancouver for the weekend.

Second: time you can take. We were initially going to do one-way, but we only had a week and I couldn't stand the thought of not adding a land piece to the one-way tour, so we decided on round trip. We chose Vancouver due to needing to be in Vancouver at the end.

Third: What is the single thing we most wanted to see? For me, I had my heart set on Glacier Bay, so that eliminated all itineraries that didn't go there.

Fourth: Now I was looking at a small pool of options, so what were the ports and time in ports? What else did I really want to do?

We chose this Holland America itinerary. If the link doesn't work, it's June 11 RT out of Vancouver. We're already booked on the Tracy Arm small ship excursion, so we're getting Glacier Bay and the closer Tracy Arm viewing, which were my two highest priorities.

I was overwhelmed when I started looking, but I found that if you step through it with one decision at a time, the field narrows itself enough that the decision becomes relatively easy. As BQ says, no matter what you choose, there's no way to do everything so you have to compromise. If you decide on your highest priorities, just tell yourself you can always do the rest on your next trip. :) Good luck!

Thank you all for the input. Putterdude, you sound like a man after my own heart! I had no idea the ship could leave earlier than the itinerary - thank you for that information.

We will be in Vancouver the day/night before the cruise (time depends on flight prices) and will have a full day after embarkation and part of the next day (again depending on flight times) so the day of the cruise is not our only opportunity to explore. But I'm a firm believer in seeing everything I can, so we'll probably do either Stanley Park or Cap the morning of the cruise. It sounds like the consensus is sometime between 1 and 2 will work and not find me left sobbing at the pier as my ship sails away without me! :)

I will, and I definitely won't push it to the last minute. I just want to have a general idea of what time is safe to return, while still allowing us time to explore. If it's 1pm, then 1pm it is. Thanks!

Hey, you don't know. I'm not suddenly posting a million questions about my cruise that you can go look at or anything. That would be crazy because it's not even happening for 8 months! :p

I do know we'll be going through customs on the way in. I just did some sleuthing and it looks like the Coral Princess is also leaving from Vancouver, at 4:30pm that day. If that's correct, better two ships than four, but not as good as just one.

This is a ridiculous question, and I'm sure I know the answer already, but if I can't ask you guys who can I ask? There's no boarding the ship and then leaving it and returning, correct? I mean, I know we CAN, but it puts us back in the same line, right? There's no hand stamp to get you back in through an express lane? ;)

Thanks Keith. My husband won't feel comfortable with 2:30, I'm sure, and we'll likely be lined up earlier than that. I'm hoping to find the sweet spot of coming after the majority of the crowds but still having enough time to board the ship. But of course if that sweet spot could be so easily predicted, it wouldn't be so sweet anymore! I'm sure it's happened to people, but I can't imagine being the person who's still in line at the cut off time and just standing there watching your ship. I've missed planes like that, and ferries, but never something like a cruise that you can't just reschedule if you have to. Better safe than sorry ... but not any safer than I have to be! :)