Cobber76

7 hours ago, waltd said:

If I could get a window suite on the Grand I would take her even though the ship is older.   I also loved the Sapphire when she was in Los Angeles.    Majestic would be my least favorite.   It would also depend on what the itinerary  was.  If you could find an itinerary that visited more than one glacier  I would choose that.  Last time we went to Alaska we could not get to the one glacier due to fog.   

We might actually be doing a back-to-back cruise, so we'd get a couple trips at Glacier Bay--plus a trip to Hubbard Glacier.  Thanks for the input!  

20 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

Have done a B2B and loved it!  Going to the same ports never seem repetitive to me because it seems like there is always something new to try!  Also, it’s nice to be able to go back to something in case the weather was bad.   
 

To mixup a visit to Skagway, maybe take the fast ferry to Haines and explore that area?  Depending on the time of year, you might be able to see bears.  We like to rent a car in Juneau and independently tour.  We can then tailor our day depending on our mood, weather and ambition (are we really up for a 5 mile hike?).  Also, check out the glacier trek in Juneau with Above and Beyond Alaska (ABAK)—one of our favorite excursions!

 

One thing we’re planning for next year is to do a B2B but on different cruise lines.  Princess northbound, DIY tour for 15 days and the NCL southbound.  Different port stops, times and experiences.

 

Have tried to do the Tracy Arm excursion but our port times have never worked out!

Great ideas!  Thank you so much for the information.  I've never considered Haines before!  And WOW your back-to-back cruise with different cruise lines and with a 15-day tour on your own in between sounds beyond amazing!

11 hours ago, Italy52 said:

We have done multiple back-to-back cruises to Alaska and have loved every one of our trips.  We will be doing it again in 2022.  We like visiting some of the ports twice as it gives us an opportunity to take two whale watching tours in Juneau with our favorite vendor. 

 

We have done the Tracy Arm excursion with Adventure Bound but you have to make sure your port times align with AB's tour schedule.  We were able to do it when we were on the Celebrity Millennium B2B but not sure if that can be done with Princess.

Thanks for the information on Tracy Arm.  I've seen some amazing photos from Tracy Arm, but it's never been an excursion that has been offered on our last two Alaskan cruises.  Perhaps that's because we were northbound?  I can't wait for the schedules to be released in a couple of weeks so I can check on arrival and departure times into ports so I can begin planning.   Thanks again!

13 hours ago, memoak said:

You know you don’t have to get off the ship at every port 

Absolutely!  We're not against staying on the ship in port, but we likely would at the very least walk through the town for several hours--or perhaps take a hike.  Even though we're in our 60s, we are quite active and would love to explore something we haven't already seen or done.

We have cruised Alaska northbound twice and are making plans to possibly book a 14-day cruise in 2022 (Vancouver to Whittier and then Whittier to Vancouver).  I’m excited to finally have the opportunity to see Hubbard Glacier—and to see Glacier Bay twice during the trip.  But do you find that going to the same ports gets repetitive at all?  Or are there some unusual excursions you’d recommend?  We will do a whale watch in Juneau for sure. And in Skagway, we’ve done White Pass Railroad twice, we might like to try something else.  

Has anyone done the Tracy Arm excursion out of Juneau?

We’re planning on sailing to Alaska in 2022 and are trying to decide between the Grand, Sapphire or Majestic.  We have previously only been on the Coral Princess, which we loved.   I’m looking for any positives or negatives of each ship.  Thanks for any input!

On 2/13/2020 at 7:59 PM, cuisson said:

Two grandparents taking two grandchildren on their first Alaskan cruise on the Coral in May.  We are in room C230 [me]. We are wondering how the bed configuration will be set up for the 4 of us. The grandkids are 15 yr old girl and 13 yr old boy so cannot share a bed obviously. we know there is a sleeper couch. Is a cot set up for the other child? any info/pics would be appreciated...thank you. 

We were in a mini suite on the Coral in July 2017 with our two grown children.  Here is a photo with the extra beds.  There is one single sofa bed, as well as one ceiling drop-down bed.  Neither of the extra beds were plush, by any means—but we made it work.  We found there was plenty of storage, even for four adults.  

I was just on the RCI website, and saw dozens of sailings between May 2021 and September 2021.

On 1/23/2020 at 1:13 PM, Cruise Suzy said:

 

 I would guess the 2022 Alaskan schedules would be available late September or early October 2020. Doesn't take but a few seconds to select Alaska as a destination and then check dates on Princess.com

 

You're right, using the 2020 and 2021 schedules will give you a good idea on how much you'll need to budget for 2022. Plus. if you check about once a month, you can tell if there might be a window when fares are less expensive but stateroom choices aren't limited.

 

Researching now what you will do then can be fun  - or not. Good in that it will build anticipation, bad in that you can't go now!

Princess Cruises’ 2021 Alaska schedule first came out the week of 12/15/19, I believe. Many other cruise lines that sail to Alaska published their schedules several weeks before Princess did.  

Beginning in mid-October, I’d suggest monitoring the Princess section of Cruise Critic for release dates for Alaska 2022. Maybe Princess will publish it earlier than they did this past year!

Here’s what our mini-suite beds looked like on the Coral Princess for the 3rd & 4th passenger.  This was on the Caribe deck.  The main bed is not shown in this photo.

On 12/20/2019 at 11:14 AM, ShorethingBob said:

We have gotten a Mini Suite on Caribe Deck Forward for the Coral Princess in Alaska.  Does anybody know if these balconies are covered? 

 

We LOVE the forward mini suites on the Caribe deck on the Coral!  We have been there on two recent Alaska cruises—and we have another one scheduled there in 2021.  If you don’t already know, the forward viewing deck on the Caribe deck is SO close by.  It is amazing and is only lightly utilized.  It by far is our favorite place to whale watch and to watch as we came into port.  It’s generally open during the day—although it can roped off at night or during windy time periods.  

There is also a forward viewing deck on the Baja deck, although I think it may be slightly smaller.  There isn’t any formal seating on either of these forward viewing decks, but they are great nonetheless!! 

Martincath, thank you for this great information . . . And thanks to all who replied to my question!!

We have been on two Alaska cruises—both of which were at the end of July.  Watching for sea life is a real passion for us—especially humpback whales and orcas.  We have been fortunate to have seen numerous whales from our ship on both cruises, plus we’ve taken whale-watching excursions in Juneau.

We are now planning our 2021 Alaska cruise and would like to try a different month—so either May or June.  I’m looking for advice as to whether you’ve seen humpbacks and/or orcas in either of these two months.  We realize that seeing wildlife of any type can be hit or miss, but if one month is more likely than another, it may swing our decision.  

We have an Alaskan cruise planned for later this summer and had planned on buying the All Inclusive Photo package on board so we could use our OBC.  Just last week, we noticed that the All Inclusive option was no longer listed as an option on our cruise personalizer.  It was replaced with the 10-photo package option only.

But then when I looked at the personalizer again last night, the All Inclusive Photo package was back!  But the price had increased:  $249 purchased in advance or $299 on board.  Sigh!!

We have been in Caribe 226 mini-suite on the Coral Princess, which is the sister ship to the Island Princess.  Loved it so much that we booked in Caribe 210 on the Coral for our upcoming Alaska cruise this summer.  We loved being so close to the forward viewing deck.  It was awesome!

Nattie, so you got to choose 10 of the printed photos to take with you as part of your package.  On the digital copies, were only the 10 photos included—or did all the remaining photos also appear digitally?

On 11/26/2018 at 4:00 PM, Cobber76 said:

My husband and I booked a 2019 Alaskan cruise a few months ago and have been hoping at some point to find a promotional Princess credit through Delta's Am Ex card--but it seems like they're rare.  So we were thrilled to read about this on Cruise Critic!

We technically have one Delta AM EX account---but each of us has our own Am Ex credit card number (different five-digit suffixes).  I logged into both of our Delta Am Ex sites, and I found the offer for World's Leading Cruise Lines ONLY on mine.  So I accepted the offer, and it was added to my card profile.

 

Then I logged into the Princess website and purchased some of the items in my cart (soda packages, bottled water, photo package) and added in enough OBC to go over the $500 mark . . . enough for the credit to be activated.  Or so I thought.  Turns out that on the Princess website, I had to enter the exact name and address of the main AM EX account holder--which is my husband.  And wouldn't you know it . . . because he didn't have the Princess benefit specifically listed on his benefits page, my $500 purchase did not trigger the $100 credit.  ARGH!!!!  

 

So then I tried a different approach.  I sent an email this morning to my AAA travel agent.  She applied a $500 Am Ex payment to my existing Alaska reservation . . . and BAM!  Within an hour, I'd received the email from American Express that if my purchase meets the offer terms (which it should), I had successfully redeemed the offer.  I'm not sure how long it will take for it to appear on my online AM EX statement, but I'll keep looking for it over the next few days and will update this post at that time.

 

It's unfortunate that I had to put forth a little more cash towards my Alaska cruise balance right before Christmas . . . but I'm so excited to receive the $100 credit!  

11/29/18 UPDATE:  $100 credit on Delta Am arrived with 48 hours of my $500 charge.  Sweet!!

My husband and I booked a 2019 Alaskan cruise a few months ago and have been hoping at some point to find a promotional Princess credit through Delta's Am Ex card--but it seems like they're rare.  So we were thrilled to read about this on Cruise Critic!

We technically have one Delta AM EX account---but each of us has our own Am Ex credit card number (different five-digit suffixes).  I logged into both of our Delta Am Ex sites, and I found the offer for World's Leading Cruise Lines ONLY on mine.  So I accepted the offer, and it was added to my card profile.

Then I logged into the Princess website and purchased some of the items in my cart (soda packages, bottled water, photo package) and added in enough OBC to go over the $500 mark . . . enough for the credit to be activated.  Or so I thought.  Turns out that on the Princess website, I had to enter the exact name and address of the main AM EX account holder--which is my husband.  And wouldn't you know it . . . because he didn't have the Princess benefit specifically listed on his benefits page, my $500 purchase did not trigger the $100 credit.  ARGH!!!!  

So then I tried a different approach.  I sent an email this morning to my AAA travel agent.  She applied a $500 Am Ex payment to my existing Alaska reservation . . . and BAM!  Within an hour, I'd received the email from American Express that if my purchase meets the offer terms (which it should), I had successfully redeemed the offer.  I'm not sure how long it will take for it to appear on my online AM EX statement, but I'll keep looking for it over the next few days and will update this post at that time.

It's unfortunate that I had to put forth a little more cash towards my Alaska cruise balance right before Christmas . . . but I'm so excited to receive the $100 credit!  

We were on the Coral Princess northbound last July, followed by a four-day land tour. We absolutely loved the itinerary! As several have already mentioned, the scenery just gets more spectacular the further north you go. And with Denali as the climax, it’s hard to find fault with that!

You can’t go wrong with either itinerary, though—so schedule according to what works best for your flight schedule. The northbound cruises are a little LESS expensive than southbound, so you may want to check into that aspect, as well.

On our Alaskan cruise & land tour last summer, the best thing I packed was my silk long underwear (top & bottoms). They are super thin and can be layered under almost anything. They don’t add bulk—they just add a bit of extra warmth.

They take very little space in a suitcase, are machine washable and they dry easily. Winter Silks and Thermasilks are a couple of the brands I’m familiar with.

So instead of going out and buying bulky extra clothing, consider adding the silk undies under the clothes you’re already thinking of bringing.

On my Alaskan cruise on Princess last July, I wore dressy black crops and paired it with a dressy top, sparkly necklace and a pair of dressy heeled sandals on both formal nights. My daughter wore black leggings with a dressy top and colorful scarf—and that was perfectly OK, too. That being said, the formal nights on our cruise actually turned out to be a bit dressier than I had expected. There were definitely women who wore glitzy cocktail dresses, but they were in the minority overall. But none of us in our group ever felt out of place.

Redwing55,

We placed our deposit on the Coral Princess in July 2016, for an Alaskan sailing in July 2017. We purchased the $99 photo package in January 2017, after receiving an email from Princess about the offer.

It was a great value, and I’m hoping Princess offers something similar for our 2019 Alaskan cruise!!

The night before you disembark in Whittier, you will need to have your large suitcase packed, as it will get picked up by your room steward that night. The only bag you are allowed to take with you the next morning will be a small travel bag, containing your essentials for the day. No rolling bags are allowed on the train, as your bag must be able to fit under your seat.

You will be told the time you need to leave the ship. The Princess train pulls up directly across from the ship. You essentially walk off the ship and load right into the train. The rail car and seat number has been pre-assigned for each passenger. In our group of four, we were all seated together, facing each other, with a table in between us. Two people faced forward and two people faced backward. There is a tour guide in each car. The dining room and restrooms are on the lower level. You can use cash or credit cards in the dining room.

When wildlife was spotted, the train generally slowed down so people could snap photos. They encouraged travelers to yell out when we saw wildlife. On our train trip, we spotted moose, bald eagles and bears. Passengers in our car were very willing to slide over or temporarily vacate their seats so others could take photos.

If you happen to have a clear day, pay attention to the northwest. Views of the Denali range can be spotted several times on the trip—especially near Talkeetna.

Your main suitcase will meet up with you at your first hotel. When we arrived at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge for our first night, our suitcases were already in our assigned room. The Princess train takes longer than the trucks that hold the luggage, as they take the highway.

Princess does a great job of making the transition between cruise ship and land tour as seamless as possible. We were very impressed!

Starfox, I was wondering the same thing! We were on the Coral to Alaska last July and are planning another northbound trip in 2019. We’re going back and forth between the Coral and the Royal for this next trip.

The Royal looks huge and the passenger load is almost double (2,000 v. 3,600). I would imagine that excursions could fill up faster on the Royal—but I suppose it depends on how many other ships are in port on each day.

My initial research on Royal’s amenities seem impressive, but we’re leaning towards the Coral. I love the great public viewing areas on the Coral and the relative ease of navigating the ship. Balcony size is important to us on an Alaska cruise—and it looks like Royal’s cabin balconies are far shallower than those on the Coral (generally). (Thanks, YouTube!)

One of our favorite spots on the Coral was the forward viewing area on the Caribe deck. Our cabin was only ten cabins from the front of the ship, so it was easy to access this deck. Approaching Glacier Bay, we often were the only ones on the entire front deck.

For 2019, the Coral’s departures are on Wednesday—but both Golden’s and Royal’s are both on Saturdays. We prefer mid-week flights, so that is ideal for us.

If you’re researched any more about this, please share! Thanks!

How many Alaska cruises have you taken?

We are considering taking our second Alaskan cruise within a two-year period. Is this too soon?!? Is there anything you regretted doing or NOT doing during your Alaska trip?