ams cruiser

My husband and I will be boarding the Caribbean Princess in Quebec next October for a 10-day cruise, ending in NYC.  I want to book our flights soon, possibly through Princess EZAir, and am trying to figure out our pre and post-cruise plans.  

Neither of us have been to Montreal or Quebec, and are wondering what would be the minimum number of days we might want to spend in each city.  We're looking at 4 days maximum.  (If we decide to only visit Quebec, we might shorten it to 2-3 days.)  

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and know the difficulty of hosting guests who are only here for a few days, and want to see San Francisco, Monterey, and Yosemite (with a trip to Disneyland thrown in), so I know what an impossible question this is!

I've done a bit of reading through Trip Advisor, but am hoping for issues that I haven't considered.  It appears that we can book a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Montreal, so we're leaning towards spending at least one night there.

We also considering spending a couple of days post-cruise in NYC, but that's a question for another thread!

I would appreciate any and all advice!

AMS, thank you for the time you took to write such thorough reviews & post pictures so meticulously. Your reviews are so thoughtfully detailed. I am booked on the same cruise as yours- exactly one year later. I can only hope we have the same lovely weather. I need to go look up Chilkoot! As for us, we will have two sweet Cavaliers waiting for us to return home! Your baby is adorable!

I'm so glad that the review was helpful. I spent hours and hours on Cruise Critic reading reviews, threads, and asking questions to prepare for our trip, so wanted to pay it forward.

Chilkoot can get booked up early, so the sooner the better in making reservations.

We love our Blenheim, but sometimes think it might be better to have two to keep each other company so we're not the only focus of his attention!

We prepared ourselves for the worst in terms of weather, so were just pleasantly surprised when it didn't rain all week. This followed a month of almost solid rain in the port areas, so it's really the luck of the draw.

Have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks for all the info!! Great review and pics. Especially liked the Cruise Valet part. No dragging luggage off. Going on the Ruby in June. Wife and I can't wait.

The Cruise Valet was the perfect way to end our vacation. Have a wonderful cruise!

Here is a post I put out a few weeks ago. Have also added info on Travel Guard Gold. Check out the Allianz annual policies in the spreadsheet. I think the high end one is similar to what Hlitner is refering to.

 

 

 

Since I put this up a few weeks ago, another member verified the United CC info is current.

Thanks so much. This is very helpful!

Really? We live in the USA, are in our late 60s (soon 70s) and also purchase an annual trip medical policy (which covers all our trips throughout an entire year with $250,000 or medical and $500,000 of evacuation) for less than $500 a year (total cost for two). I am not aware of a different concept (not even sure what this means). Yes, some folks choose to spend lots of money for trip cancellation insurance. We choose to spend a lot less for a lot more medical coverage :). As to cancellation, it is not a big issue for us (our liability is limited to the cost of the trip which would have been spent anyway....and we get $10,000 of free trip cancellation coverage from one of our credit cards).

 

IMHO the trip policies sold by cruise lines are, for many folks, a very bad deal. Some folks are willing to pay a lot of money to cover the cost of a cruise...but settle for relatively medical insurance where their potential liability is virtually unlimited. Consider a person who books a 7 day cruise for about $3000 and spends several hundred dollars for cancellation insurance which includes $10,000 of med. If they cancel the cruise (for a covered reason) they will recover some or all of that $3000. But if they have a medical emergency and run up $50,000 of medical bills plus an additional $30,000 of emergency medical transportation...they will be out an awful lot of money.....much much more then that $3000 that they were so concerned about covering.

 

Hank

May I ask who you purchase your annual insurance policy through? We have insured our trips through a combination of Chase Sapphire, Medjet, and sometimes, private insurance companies. We're hoping to travel more once I retire next year, so an annual policy might be something to consider.

We had an incredible combination tour Yukon Rail & Bus with Chilkoot charters last summer, train up and bus back. I highly recommend going with Chilkoot (or one of the other private tour companies), as the tours are so much more personalized. We had the best tour guide I have ever had on a mini-bus with 11 passengers, vs. Princess's bus of 50. Mike picked us up at the dock, gave us a brief tour through town on the way to the train station where Chilkoot had reserved the last train car for us - fantastic for taking pictures. He picked us up at the train station in Fraser, and we were on our way to Emerald Lake before the bigger buses had finished loading up. Mike found a way to keep us ahead of the crowds, and timed our stops so we were able to photograph a number of train crossings. The time flew by as he regaled us, not only with information about the local geology and history, but also about life in Skagway.

Hi haymary.......my hubby and I are also booked for 6/30/18, this thread about Alaska has been great! hope to meet you on ship!:)

If you haven’t already done so, you might want to join the roll call for your sailing, to “meet” some of your fellow passengers.

Wonderful review and pictures , thank you! We’re taking same cruise in April, first of season.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you for stopping by! I’m sure you’ll have a great cruise!

Beautiful picture by the way.

 

Do these directions work on the Coral?

 

We are on the Emerald Deck -far forward - so this sounds like a great place for us, but I am not sure if you are referring to the Ruby .

It was impossible to take a bad picture that day! Yes, we were on the Ruby.

(It looks like Coral already answered your question about the Coral!):)

We loved the Promenade deck. Following suggestions on these boards, we went all the way forward (you go up a short flight of stairs) to a covered deck (important if it happens to be raining) that wasn't very crowded, where we could easily see both sides of the ship as it rotated. Our weather was so glorious (although it was very cold early in the morning so we were in our down jackets to start with), the Commodore actually rotated the ship twice. After lunch (great seafood buffet that day), we went back to our port balcony cabin to enjoy the views as we left Glacier Bay. We enjoyed our balcony because we were blessed with beautiful weather all week. (The main reason we pay extra for the balcony, however, is because I get seasick really easily and need to be near fresh air.) There are many places on the ship to enjoy the views without paying for a balcony.

FYI - The RT Seattle trips do NOT go to Glacier Bay --- they typically get into Tracy Arm fjord IF the ice conditions permit.

Our RT Seattle was one of several that went to Glacier Bay this past season. I don't know if that was unusual, as it was our first Alaska cruise.

Hi, Norris,

I found your review because I just booked a 2019 Quebec-New York cruise. Little did I know I was in for such a treat! Thank you so much for all of the time and effort you put into your beautiful photography and commentary. (Your name popped up when you kindly commented on my first and only review of our Alaska cruise. Writing that review gave me a tiny appreciation of what you do to create these magical reviews for your followers.) I read the entire review in one sitting, and then got myself in trouble by starting to read one of your Alaska reviews into the wee small hours. Finally had to stop myself, since I had to get up early and go to work the next day.

If I recall, you might be on another cruise now? Hope you and your lovely wife Carol are having a splendid time. I'll definitely follow your review when you post it, and hope to eventually read through all of them.

Thanks for taking us along on your travels!

(I'm sure I'll have questions for you as my Canadian cruise gets closer.)

Janet

Long time cruisers probably already know this but thought I would pass along a recent situation that happened to us. I hope it can help others.

 

We always purchase the Vacation Protection but have never needed to use it until recently. We were on the Star for a short getaway (3 day) between LA and Vancouver. The Star was heading in for dry dock in December. As you can imagine the weather was not exactly ideal and the seas were rough. So rough that the captain felt that he needed to slow down and our 7 a.m. arrival into Vancouver was now projected to be 3 p.m. and they suggested if you have a flight out of Vancouver before 7 p.m. to make other plans.

 

We were able to change our flight to the next day, book a room at the Pan Pacific and we spent a very nice afternoon and evening in Vancouver. We filed a claim and everything spent was covered and reimbursed to us, even down the the one extra day of parking at the airport..

 

The ironic thing is that as soon as we made all of our alternate arrangements the weather improved and we got into Vancouver around 11. We probably could have made our flight but all the arrangements had already been made. It certainly would have been more stressful.

 

The moral of the story is that Vacation Protection Insurance doesn't just cover you for trip cancellations due to medical issues for you or your family. You never know when you will need it.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps me to understand what trip interruption is. (And thanks to Pam for clarifying this!)

Once again, its important to compare apples to apples. We have excellent health insurance including supplemental coverage, so we are covered anywhere including the nightmare scenarios of medi vac and air ambulance. Because the prospect of these is remote it is difficult and expensive to get stand alone coverage for trip delay, interruption cancellation etc. So we self insure for that portion. Have so far spent $20,000 on cruises, so if something happens that we cannot cruise next month, we will just eat the cost.

I posted about this above, but our Chase Sapphire card covers trip delay, cancellation (for medical reasons without pre-existing conditions), interruption, etc. There is as $95/year service charge, but a pretty generous point award system, especially when you purchase travel through them. ( And no, I don't work for Chase!)

The cost of insurance would balance out the hotel and airfare change for many. If you cruise / travel several times a year you would come out ahead NOT taking insurance and paying for a hotel. Why do people feel the need to preach about Insurance all the time. If you want it take it but why try to push it? Must be some work in the insurance industry?

I actually appreciate hearing about the experiences of others, because it helps me make my own, informed decisions. :)

This subject has been weighing on my mind the past week as I have been debating whether or not to stick with a Travelsafe insurance plan I purchased the day I booked a Canadian/East Coast 2019 cruise. (I have 14 days to cancel the policy.) I'm a great believer in trip insurance, and we almost always buy our insurance through tripinsurancestore.com. Steve and his crew are fantastic and will always have our business, since the one time we did make a claim and had trouble collecting, Steve cut through all of the red tape. (It was an unusual situation in that my husband booked a Kyoto Garden trip/tour through a small travel company in the UK and had to cancel the day before departure due to a medical emergency. We knew we weren't entitled to any kind of refund, but just needed documentation from the travel company that they had kept our money. Unfortunately, the company stopped answering our emails when we asked for further documentation of their cancellation policy and the money we had paid them. Understandably, the insurance company wanted more documentation, which we were unable to provide, other than our email exchanges booking the trip, cancelled checks, website information, and their written promises that they would send needed documentation "soon".) After weeks of daily calls (after long holds) to the insurance company and not getting anywhere, I remembered we had purchased the insurance through a broker. One call to Steve and problem solved. He contacted the company on our behalf, and we had our payment.

The reason I have been wavering on buying an extra policy on our Canada/East Coast cruise, is that I finally did a detailed research on the insurance we have through our Chase Sapphire Card. There is a lot of fine print to read, but after doing so and multiple phone calls to their very helpful insurance agents, I did a side-by-side comparison with the TravelSafe policy and discovered that everything was comparable (both policies cover cancellations for medical reasons for travelers as well as immediate family at home) except Chase Sapphire insurance does not cover: 1) pre-existing conditions and 2) medical expenses or evacuation

So I spent a lot more time poring through the "Evidence of Coverage" and making multiple phone calls to our health insurance company, and learned that they will cover all medical bills without a deductible on our particular plan (possibly a $15 co-pay for an office visit) and any emergency evacuation by land, sea, or air. For the record, we have Anthem Blue Cross Select HMO.

With that information I have decided to cancel the TravelSafe and go with our existing coverage. I reasoned that 1) We do not have any pre-existing conditions (Chase has a look back period of 60 days from date of first deposit) and 2) We're not doing a trans-Atlantic cruise or going anywhere remote.

The one thing that is not covered would be any kind of transportation back home from a hospital stay, but we can always purchase a Med-jet policy just for the 2 week period, or purchase an annual policy for the two of us through tripinsurancestore.com and AARP for less than the cost of the Travelsafe policy for two weeks.

I would never travel without insurance, but, for me anyway, it was worthwhile looking at the coverage I already have.

That being said, I always err on the side of caution. For my husband's upcoming Japan trip (with a different travel company), although it was probably unnecessary (and before I did all of my credit card research), we bought the extra insurance for peace of mind.

Sorry for the long-winded response!

This will be our first Alaskan cruise and would much appreciate hearing about people's favourite tour excursions in Skagway and names of the tour operators.

 

Open to most suggestions with the exception of any extreme tours eg rock climbing etc.

 

I have read about the White Pass railroad so that is one option but it would be interesting to hear about other experiences. Helicopter & dog sled glacier tour is a possible and looks good if anyone has done that. Thank you.

We went on our first Alaska cruise on the Ruby Princess last summer and went on some wonderful excursions. All but one were booked privately. We absolutely loved the Chilkoot Charters Yukon Rail & Bus tour. Our tour guide Mike, one of the best we have ever experienced, picked us up at the dock and gave us a 10-minute tour through town on the way to the train station. Chilkoot had reserved the last car, which was perfect for taking pictures. Mike picked us up in Fraser, B.C. at the train station and whisked us off to Emerald Lake. The best part (besides Mike) was that there were just 11 of us on a small bus, which made the logistics of hopping out at scenic spots very easy.

https://chilkootcharters.com

For us, taking the train up, and a fascinating mini-bus tour down (including lunch at Caribou Crossing) made for a perfect day.

If you are interested, I did a pretty extensive trip review on our trip starting with our pre-Seattle stay, and including detailed information and pictures about our excursions in Juneau (Coastal helicopter sled dog ride with extra landing), Skagway (Chilkoot tour), and Ketchikan (Misty Fyords float plan trip with Island Wings), as well as the Ultimate Ship's Tour. (There also random information about trying to plan excursions, despite my susceptibility to motion sickness and fear of heights!) Just scroll down the review to find the pictures/information on our wonderful day in Skagway.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2533305

Here are a few pictures from our Chilkoot train/bus tour.

The front of our train as viewed from the last car

Emerald Lake - our first stop after getting off the train

One of two bear sightings we had on our mini-bus tour!

Oops! I just noticed that you said you had already chosen your excursions! We did the helicopter dog sledding in Juneau, and it was the highlight (among many) of our week.

I loved seeing your pic of your sweet pup and how he made it a happy occasion to come home. We have a blenheim cavalier as well, and although we love to travel, there is nothing like the greeting you get from your dog when you get back!

 

Just booked a 13 day Alaska cruisetour for June 2019, and though it's a long way off, I know it'll give me plenty of time to read all the great suggestions on these boards!

 

Thanks for a great review!

Aren't Cavaliers the best?! We love our Winston to the moon and back (he's become the child in our empty nest), but it really is like having a toddler at home sometimes. Making sure he has a place to stay is our first step in planning our trips.

The Alaska cruise tour sounds wonderful! We would love to go back to Alaska and do a cruise tour next time.

Planning the trip and learning more about Alaska was half the fun!

We are on the Emerald and dock at 6 a.m. . Should we book the 7:30 or 8:30 tour. A little concern on getting off the ship in the morning. It looks like we have a few hrs in town when we get back ! Bob

With Chilkoot, the 7:30 was train first/bus for the return trip. I believe that the 8:30 was the reverse with the train for the return trip. We were very happy taking the train first, as it made our min-bus tour so leisurely, since we weren't on a schedule to catch the train. Mike was an absolute master tour guide, timing our stops so that we could we take pictures of the trains crossing near our stops.

I found the bus tour to be most enjoyable. We made a point of hopping off at every stop, and Mike was a great at taking perfect photos. (He knew exactly where to have you stand to get the most of the background vistas.) I'm afraid that if we had taken the train back after lunch, I might have dozed off a little!

We had no problem getting off of the ship on time (it's not like you're waiting to board a tender), and a Chilkoot representative was right there to meet us.

Taking the earlier tour gives you a little more time to walk around town afterwards. Chilkoot guides give you the option of dropping you off in town, or taking you back to the ship. We chose to get off in town, and it was an easy walk back to the ship.

Just got done reading your review of your trip. We pick-up a lot of helpful hints and will now do a lot of research. Thanks for taking to time and I know it will help make are trip in Aug better ! Bob & Donna

I’m glad it was helpful! Alaska is so incredibly beautiful, and there are many wonderful excursions. Be sure to check out the Alaska boards, if you haven’t already done so.

I saw in posts the booths of tours on the dock so I figured that . In Juneau that must be the Mendenhall Glacier , We are leaning on the train and either the whale watching or glacier ! The pricing makes the so. carib. look like chop liver ! Thanks Bob

We had a wonderful train trip through Chilkoot Charters in Skagway. We did the Yukon Rail and Bus tour, where they pick you up at the dock, drop you off at the train station, and then pick you up in Fraser. On our trip Chilkoot had reserved the last car for us, which was great for the people standing outside taking pictures on the back platform. The train ride was beautiful, but we really enjoyed the bus tour back into the Yukon and then back to Skagway. If you are on the train round-trip, you pretty much see the same sights both ways. Not only was it less expensive than the Princess version, we were on a mini-bus with only 11 people with one of the best tour guides we have ever experienced.

If you are interested in other excursions we did - helicopter with dog sledding in Juneau, Misty Fyord flight seeing in Ketchikan, you might want to take a look at the review I did of our Ruby Princess RT out of Seattle trip last summer. (Just scroll down to find the excursions.) All but one of our excursions was booked privately, after getting great advice on these boards. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2533305

This was our first time to Seattle, and we can’t wait to go back. Hyatt Place worked out really well for us with the free shuttle, and Uber and Lyft took care of the rest. It was nice to have the included breakfasts, and the Space Museum and Chiluly are within easy walking distance. I’m sure you and your son will have a great time!

Chihuly Garden and Glass , not Chiluly. (Too late to edit my spelling mistake.)

AMS

I agree with everyone else that your reviews were very helpful and fun to read. My husband and I are like you in our 60's I'm retired he is not, never been to Alaska but have been on cruises. We also are staying 3 nights in Seattle, and even one more night at the end of the cruise. We are going on the Emerald July 1, 2018 and we talked about the ship tour and now after reading your reviews it sounds fun not to mention all the stuff you get :) love the pictures. We are from Minnesota so we know cold and snow and ice.....but Alaska...just not the same!! Always wanted to go to Alaska, heard so many great things and because I do like to dapple in photography. This was so informative really helps a lot for the excursions (which is why I started reading this) and discovered much more ! You had the best weather hope we picked a good week to go.

After Minnesota winters, Alaska's weather will be a piece of cake! Rain was forecast for the entire week we were there, but it was beautiful and sunny. We expected and prepared for the worst weather, but hoped for the best, and we really lucked out. Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful, and if you are into photography, you will be able to take some incredible pictures. (There are some really helpful threads on photography in Alaska on these boards if you do a search, about equipment, lenses, etc. They were interesting to read, even though my husband and I are in the point-and-shoot camp.) Although we didn't go whale watching, we heard that the whales were out in force the day we were in Juneau. We saw some incredible pictures taken by our fellow cruisers of bubble feeding, breaching. (Some people did book a helicopter excursion and whale-watching in the same day, but we don't like to rush around when we're on vacation.)

Seattle was a great place to start our trip. I'm sure you'll have a fabulous cruise!

I'm so glad the review was helpful. It was my first review (and our first cruise after 12 years!), but I did so much research in planning the trip and got so much help on these boards, I wanted to pay it forward.

I can't thank you enough for mentioning there's a restroom in each train car! And yes, I need the big bus instead of a small van. Now I can totally relax and look forward to my Skagway excursion through Princess with the train, bus, lunch and panning for gold. You made my day! Any recommendations as to which side of train to sit on for the view? Thank you so much, my friend.

Restrooms are one of the first things I look into when planning an excursion! Keep in mind that they close the restrooms on the train about 20 minutes before you get to the station in Fraser, and the lines at the station can be long, so plan accordingly!

To get the best views you want to sit on the left side of the train going up. We only took the train one way, but I heard that on a round trip excursion when the train cars are full, they have people change sides going back down, so that everyone gets a chance to sit on the view side.

Some people stand outside the train car to take pictures, and people were very nice about sharing the small space. (I went out for a short time, but my fear of heights kept me inside when we were going over some of the steeper areas.)

I’m so glad that this review was helpful! It was longer than I intended, but I wanted to try to put in information about all the questions I had in planning our trip.

Alaska is beautiful, and I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time!

Glad you guys enjoyed your cruise. My son and I are going to Alaska on the Emerald Princess in June 2018. We two are staying at the Hyatt Place Hotel. Hotels in Seattle are very pricey, so it is good to hear that you liked it. I chose it for the location. I want to be able to walk everywhere. I have not arranged my travel from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to Pier 91. It sounds like your picks worked out, so I will check into them. Thank you so much for sharing your cruise and stay in Seattle with us. Really enjoyed the pictures.

I love Seattle. I have been there many times. My son has never been there and he is excited about touring it. Our flight from Atlanta lands at SEA TAC at noon on Friday. Our cruise departs on Sunday afternoon. We won't have as much time as you had there, but we will see as much as we can.

This was our first time to Seattle, and we can’t wait to go back. Hyatt Place worked out really well for us with the free shuttle, and Uber and Lyft took care of the rest. It was nice to have the included breakfasts, and the Space Museum and Chiluly are within easy walking distance. I’m sure you and your son will have a great time!