judynorth

Putterdude, I just visited the Translink website. I see that there is an all day pass for $9. Does this include just busses or does it include the Skytran and the ferries? We are staying at the Best Western Downtown on Drake (700 block). Will public transportation be convenient for us or would the trolley be better? We will be in Vancouver from early Wednesday afternoon until Friday when the cruise begins.

I am feeling rather sheepish about post #112 above. I had posted it in response to someone inquiring about the Best Western Uptown. They were a senior aged couple who were renting a car and staying in Vancouver for 3 days but their post has disappeared or it was on another thread ....sorry I guess I am loosing it!

See post #60. I think this is the post that you were responding to.

Thanks so much for the information about the transportation pass. That sounds like a good option if we decide that we will do our own thing particularly since it is good for the bus, Skytrain, and sea bus.

Thanks Dennis. I will be sure to make note of these places. There seems to be so much to see and do that it is hard to make any decisions.

Putterdude, thanks so much for your help.

Anything near the Best Western Downtown at 718 Drake St., particularly restaurants?

WOW! Three locals offering advice. You can't ask for better than that --- except perhaps four! Thanks so much to all of you for your help.

Thanks putterdude. We researched and thought we had a decent location but it is good to hear it from someone who is there.

We have reservations at the Best Western Downtown, 718 Drake St. How is this location? We will be in Vancouver from early Wednesday afternoon until the cruise on Friday. We are trying to decide whether to just do our own thing or take some kind of tour. How is public transportation in the downtown area?

Thanks so much for offering you help and advice. It is always helpful to have a local advise you when you travel.

I took this our very first morning waking up on our very first cruise ever.

 

Can you tell I'm craving another cruise???? We've been off the ship for just over 3 months and I'm back on the addicting cruisecritic again!!

 

Phenomenal picture! What a beautiful way to start the day.:)

How big was the bird before you enlarged it?

Cute!

http://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&ll=24.640776,-76.17067&spn=0.001282,0.005016&t=k&z=18&om=0

 

If you pan out into the sea, you can see a Princess ship anchored. Can't figure which exactly it is though.

 

Still can't figure out how to get it with the picture though.

Wow! That is really impressive!

Umm...that's better.

This is a test::rolleyes:

View from a floatplane going to Taku Lodge out of Juneau:

This is a picture of the Island Princess taken from the Diamond Princess in Skagway, Alaska:

Thanks so much for your help!! I'm not sure which is going to be the most fun, Alaska or reading CC, I know I am hooked to thqta already!

CC is great but Alaska is way BETTER!!!!:D

If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary you will receive balloons on your door and a cake (little individual cake) in the dining room the night of your choosing. Your TA can arrange that for you. It doesn't have to be the exact date of the event. We usually choose one of the formal nights for the celebration. On our last cruise I actually celebrated my birthday twice - once on the second formal night and once at tea on my actual birthday. It was a tea for all the CC group ladies and the organizer of the tea surprised me with the cake. It was really fun!

With the soda cards you can get as many fountain drinks as you want either at one of the bars or in the dining rooms. They serve only coke products. Last year the cost was $22 for a 7-night cruise and more for a longer cruise. They put a sticker on your cruise card and you show it when you want a soda. There is also a specialty coffee card that gives you a certain number of drinks. This is not unlimited like the soda card. There is also an ice cream card that is new this year I think. However, you can get free ice cream every afternoon in the Horizon Court and in the dining rooms during lunch and dinner.

Our upcoming cruise is one booked using a future cruise deposit that we made on our last cruise. The deposit was just $100 pp rather than $250 and we each get a $100 shipboard credit on this cruise. It is a win-win situation. You have 4 years to use the deposit and if you can't use it you can get it back. You can't lose.

BTW, if you have filled out all the forms online you don't have to do it again when you receive your documents. You might want to print out your online passenger information (immigration) forms and take them with you just in case there is some sort of mixup or question.

Have a great first cruise. You're going to Alaska? You will be hooked!

Thanks for the quick response! I will watch the cruise personalizer. We live in Longview Texas and will fly out of Dallas. We leave Seattle at 3 stop in Denver at 6, leave at 7 and get to Dallas at 10. Where do yall live? Thanks for attaching your pictures! It has been such fun looking at all the pictures and reading the reviews! We are so exicted, we have no idea what to expect. It looks like it is SO pretty up there. We are celebrating our 40th anniversary, I have even gotten 2 new black dresses for the formal nights. The rest of the time I plan to be warm and comfy. Please let me know if you have anymore tips, thanks!!

We celebrated our 40th anniversary last year in Alaska (actually our anniv. is July 31 but we celebrated on the May cruise). I will say that the pictures pale in comparison to actually being there. They can not begin to show the vastness or the beauty of the place. Biggest tip - don't overpack. I know you think that you will need everything that you plan to pack but on the first trip I came back with probably 30% unused. On the second trip I packed less and only came back with about 20% unused. Just be sure that you bring clothes to layer and have a good breathable rain jacket (something like Gore-tex). Don't pack heavy boots unless you plan to do some serious hiking but do bring comfortable walking shoes and wear them on the plane. There is a good chance that you will be doing some waiting in line to board the ship. The same will be true when you disembark. Oh, how I envy you. I am ready to go back again.

I don't know how I missed the fact that you are from Texas. I misread the airport code and thought you were flying out of Dulles. :o BTW, this southern girl loves to hear ya'll. We live in Newport News VA by way of Atlanta and Jacksonville FL.

We have booked a GTY room on the Dawn (9/9/06). Right now if I look at my reservations all it has is Category E. The TA said that was E (Emerald) deck. Is that right? How will I know if they have upgraded us? Will they fill in the Stateroom? Right now it is blank. Also, the TA said we would have a picture window but someone said EE (which I don't think we have) is only a small porthole. I have also heard you have to be careful that they don't tell you it is an upgrade and it really isn't???? How do we know for sure what we have? As if you couldn't tell, first time to sail. We had Princess book the flight thinking it was insurance against missing the ship. We are flying out of DFW and got a direct flight (American) to SEATAC, which is good. We land at 11:30, does that give us plenty of time to board? We were able to add our FF # to American website to get the miles. But the return trip is with United with a stop in Denver getting back to DFW at 10:00 at night. Next time I will book myself and come a day early, we are learning...........I have heard we came out pretty good for them to book. What time does the ship get back in to Seattle? I assumed that is why they booked our flight late (3:00 pm). Thanks for any help, we are really excited!!!!

On the Dawn all the E catagory cabins are on the Emerald deck. From the picture, they all appear to have windows rather than portholes. When you have been assigned a cabin it will appear on the cruise personalizer online. They you can check the deckplan to see what catagory you have been assigned. We have a GTY on our next cruise (9/18/06) and haven't received our cabin assignment yet. On our first cruise we had a GTY and received our # long before the cruise.

Your flights are really pretty good even if you had booked them on your own. Getting to Seattle at 11:30 AM gives you plenty of time to get to the ship. Are you using the Princess transfers? The return flight isn't bad either particularly considering that Seattle is 3 hours behind Eastern time. As a matter of fact, I don't see how you can make it from west coast to east coast in such a short amount of time. You are very lucky. Since your flight leaves at 3 PM you will probably leave the ship fairly late and can have a nice leisurely morning before you disembark.

Have a great cruise. You are going to LOVE Alaska!

I have heard of people being upgraded from an inside to an outside. One couple on our last cruise was upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite. We were upgraded from a BD to a BA in a great location on our first cruise. However, I think that most people get just what they paid for. Of course, you don't often here from them on these boards, just those who were upgraded.:rolleyes:

Rob,

This is Singinman on my wife's computer.

I just checked the Princess book. You will be in Skagway the day before we get there.

You are taking the same cruise we took last year. We had a blast even though we missed two ports. If you have a balcony room, you will have the best seat in the house for Tracy Arm, especially if it is covered. It was raining steadily our day in the Arm so we retreated from the upper deck to our cabin and realized that the balcony was the perfect place from which to watch. You see one side in and the other out. And in May you see all the water falls.

We bought some beautiful ornaments in Skagway. I don't remember the shop but it was on the main street. They were made in Alaska and enamel on metal. There was a good variety of them. We bought bears, orcas, wolves, and moose. They looked great on everyone's Christmas trees.