ctousley819

Morning CC!

We have a Beach Bungalow reserved for an upcoming cruise to CocoCay, but had a question. When are the bungalows assigned? We had previously considered a cabana and I thought I remember reading somewhere that if you go to guest services when boarding the ship you can be assigned a cabana. Would the same be true for a bungalow? Or can that only be assigned on the island. We plan to be early to the ship and would love to see if we can be assigned one when we get on so we can try and get one of the front ones.

Thanks!

Good evening all! It's been a long long time since I have cruised (and to be honest I don't remember which line it was on, but it was either Royal or Carnival). I remember an all day/night pizza parlor to grab a slice at anytime. Does something like that exist on the Mariner? I see Cafe Promenade servers round the clock, but wasn't sure if it serve pizza in the later hours. Not really concerned if it was good or not (our daughter loves pizza....she thinks school pizza is good).

Thanks!

I was wondering if they would have to de-asianize her.

That's what I was wondering as well. I am looking at a July 2019 cruise on this ship and it would be a little weird to be sailing to Alaska with a Chinese theme.

Just curious is the ship will undergo any refurbishing/redecorating before transitioning over to Seattle/Alaska.

Thanks!

Morning CC!

Question for some experienced Princess cruisers. We are currently booked on a July 2018 cruise to Alaska on the Emerald Princess, inside cabin. There are three of us...my wife and myself plus our 5 y/o. Before knowing much about anything, we booked the cruise and I misunderstood the bed arraingement. We will have two twin plus two uppers. Needless to say, not ideal.

Well, as luck would have it we need to postpone our cruise until 2019, which works for me because now I can save longer/more for a larger room. However, I still seem to be running into the same issue even if I look at a Balcony room. Does Princess have any type of rooms other than the suites that offer a queen and a sofa bed? I see on the other cruise lines most of them have the ability to have sofa beds in a balcony room. I can do a suite if needed, but if I can save a little for a balcony that would be ideal. I definitely will be getting a room with a queen and a sofa bed. Won't make the current mistake again!

I would like to stay with a Princess Cruise, and the Ruby has the itinerary I would want because I would prefer Glacier Bay over Tracy Arm.

Thanks!

Chaz

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I use EZ air for the first time. How do you check that airfare goes down. Thank you for the help.

 

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I check two or three times a day to see if prices on my flights dropped. In 2 months, I have been able to save $215 on the flights which is awesome.

As far as checking, there are two ways:

1. Login to the Cruise Personalizer and then look at the travel arrangements. There you can select "add or modify flights". The next screen you select "change flights" and it will bring you to the search screen. Go ahead and search and it will bring flights back. It will NOT cancel your existing reservation unless you actually go all the way through and confirm (there is a warning pop up screen to alert you when you are going to book). If you find a lower price, you can either proceed with the booking there, or call princess. If you don't find a lower price, there is a "return to manage flights" and a "return to cruise Personalizer" link that will take you back. No harm at all.

2. Search for your cruise date under the normal cruise search, and then click the "cruise details". From there will be a link to "flight quotes". Fill out the search info and it will search. If you find a low rate this way, you will need to call princess to book it.

I want to say I remember hearing someone say that option #2 did not give you all the flights, but I don't think that is true as I haven't seen a difference (I have looked both ways)

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I've been on excursions with both providers out of Juneau. Both were really good. The Gastineau Guiding tour is really for photographers (or people who want to be with their photographer), and the Allen Marine one is more for viewing the whales (and eating their great food).

 

The boats are completely different. The Gastineau boat is much smaller, with canvas "windows" that roll up so you can shoot photos right from your seat, and you are closer to the water. The Allen Marine boat is larger, and there's room to walk around both the interior and the outside deck.

 

We picked the Gastineau excursion because we really wanted to photograph whales. We chose the Allen Marine excursion because we were cruising with friends who are not photographers.

That's great info, thanks! I can't say we are really photography people, so that is definitely something to keep in mind. We took a dolphin tour....and well we learned very quickly we are not good at snapping pictures quickly :) For us it would be more about the experience and seeing them for the most part, so again, great information for us to consider! Thanks!!!

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. You are correct, the evening tour is by Allen Marine. The whale watch tour we would do would definitely be out of Juneau, it is just a matter of is it during the day or this evening tour. I am intrigued by your comment of stability for the boats from Gastineau. I do have a slight concern with my wife and some motion sickness, so the more stable the boat the better. I will have to check and see what kind of boats Allen Marine uses for this tour to get an idea. The fact that it offers a dinner buffet is nice, but I won't be heartbroken if we take an earlier one without food :). Some more research awaits!

I just noticed you are Seattle -I've been looking for air to anchorage, which really drives up the price.

Before booking our Seattle cruise, we had looked at doing the southbound cruise but the flight costs were higher than we were comfortable with, so I can understand that. What cruise line are you on?

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First and foremost, look up the sunset time for Juneau that day. Compare it to your excursion time. We've done evening whale watches out of Victoria BC twice (one in July, one in August), and HOLY COW was the second one a bust because of sunset. I think we lost out on 30 minutes of what the excursion was supposed to be, and if you're hoping to get pictures, forget it. However, if that excursion is early enough that the whale watching portion will be done at least an hour before sunset (as the boat portion returning to harbor is ~25 minutes and the bus portion returning from Auke Bay Marina to the cruise ship docks is ~30 minutes, essentially as long as the excursion's listed end time is at or before sunset), you'll probably be OK.

Thanks for the tip. The excursion is scheduled for 5:30pm - 9:00pm. Sunset in Juneau on that day is 9:17pm. According to the itinerary, it is a 25 minute travel to and from the ship. The actual tour is 2.5 hours, so if you 25 minutes to and from harbour that would put the actual "tour" at roughly 6:30pm-8:00pm, so I think timing wise that would work out. But will definitely keep that in mind.

How was the one that was not a bust?

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We have booked ours through Princess EZAir for our July 2018 cruise back in October. The flexible fare actually was the lowest I had found. Since then, I was able to drop it another $150 total for the three of us. I had been waiting for Southwest and JetBlue to open their schedules, but so far neither can compete with our total. For three tickets we are at $1368 round trip from Richmond to Seattle. I am happy with that so far, but that doesn't stop me from checking every day :)

Good afternoon all! We (myself, wife, and 4 y/o) are going on our first cruise in July 2018 to Alaska. One of the things we have on our must do list is a whale watching excursion. I was looking at what is available through the cruise line (Princess), and in our Juneau stop is an evening whale watch. Has anyone done the evening whale watch? We would think it would be a nice one because the time of day, but was just hoping for some feedback from others.

Thanks!

Thanks CrystalSpin! That makes me feel better. Nothing like planning a nice romantic type getaway for the Mrs. and I only to open our door and see two twin beds that can't be converted! :)

Does anyone have any experience with Interior/Inside cabins on this ship? Bed types? Only for two of us.

Thanks!

Chaz