Kitty Ellas Mom

I don't have first hand experience with this but I've read several articles saying that if you buy a plane ticket in your maiden name and then change that is not allowed.  She should definitely check with the cruise line before booking.  It sounds to me like this could get difficult.  I hope it works out.

I still haven't been on my Alaska cruise I've been researching for 3 yrs but a large part of what drew me to the location is that the ports look easy to navigate, and safe, which to me as a solo cruiser and first timer was important. If you're looking at Skagway, Ketchikan, Juneau they all seem easy to get to, pretty close to the ship. Although with a rock slide in Skagway recently they had to do some tendering and other workarounds, and I don't know the plans long term for that. I chose Princess and that was partly for Glacier Bay and partly because Princess just seems to suit my personality. 

Oops, you are right that I meant embarkation. The cruise begins in NY and ends in Quebec. 

I will be taking the Amtrak train so might have to travel to Brooklyn from there.....

I'm on the Caribbean Princess Canada /New England departing Sept 19, 2023 and the disembarkation is listed as "New York (Manhattan or Brooklyn)."  So, when can I find out if it is Manhattan or Brooklyn?  How does this work?   I want to be sure that the hotel I book for the night before is relatively near to the cruise port.   I'm sure this is a basic thing that cruisers know but it's my first cruise so I don't know.  Thanks for any info.  My plan is to take the Amtrak train into NYC the day before disembarkation.  It's a little early to book the hotel I have in mind and the Amtrak so I haven't made those plans yet but probably will in about a month, when that date comes available.

Thank you all for your responses.  I would never intend to be impolite, which is why I asked the question.  I just imagined myself sitting, alone at my table since I'm solo, for an hour or more if the server never came back.  I realize that probably won't happen.  I still have yet to be on my first cruise b/c I was. booked summer 2020, 21, and 22, and almost got to go but then something happened in my family.  So now I am booked summer 23.  Definitely hoping to get out there and get some real cruise experience after reading about it (and wayyyyyy overthinking everything!) since I discovered cruising in 2019.

This may sound like a really dumb question, but my first cruise will be on Princess and I've heard so many bad things about the main dining room.  If I get my food in the MDR and it's really terrible is it ok to just leave and go to one of the locations with burgers, pizza, or international cafe etc?  Is it required to explain to the server why I'm leaving or can I just leave?  I've read so much about servers being unavailable that I wonder if I'd be sitting there a very long time looking at food I don't want.  I will be solo so will have complete flexibility with my dining.  I don't want to be rude but I also wouldn't want to waste my time.  Thank you for any advice.  I will be on either Majestic or Caribbean Princess.

The timetable I looked at was for this Sept b/c 2023 Sept isn't available yet.  Still, I felt like it was probably representative.

It appears that the tide would still be fairly high when the tour would be there.  They say there is "partial access."  I will admit that this makes the tour seem less interesting.  I had wanted to see the full rocks.

Thank you for your response.  I do not need a wheelchair or cane etc.  I can take stairs.  But I do have a back issue that makes it hard to walk for hours and hours.  I tend to think that I could do this activity.  That is a good point about the bus ride being scenic.

I bought many clothes, mostly light layers of jackets, for Alaska and then couldn't go last June b/c of a family emergency.  So, it sounds like I'm probably set for this new cruise.  They were from Eddie Bauer too.  🙂

I'm on a mid Sept 2023 Canada / New England cruise on Caribbean Princess.  One of the excursions I'm interested in is to the Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy, but I have a big hesitation b/c it is listed as "strenuous" activity.  I haven't been on a cruise yet but have figured I could do anything labeled "easy" or "moderate" activity--I'm in decent shape but am in that "knees / back aren't what they used to be" stage.  Can anyone who has been there explain why it would be "strenuous" to simply walk down to the rocks and walk around?  I get the impression it's very steep and the ground is unpredictable since it's ocean floor.  It says there are about 300 yards you have to walk over pebbles and wet beach.  It does say in the fine print that they can't guarantee to be there at low tide, so it's sort of unknown what you get, or are these tides really predictable?  It leaves at 8 am and takes 2 hrs so we'd be at the site from about 10 am to 12:30 pm.   I'm really fascinated with the rock formations but there are a lot of other things to do in our one stop at Saint John that might be easier.  Also, part of the problem is it's a 2 hr bus ride there, which sounds like no fun.  On the way back they break that up with a short stop at a beach, then it's a 1.5 hr drive back to the ship.  Just so far as I've seen from the other excursions nothing is as fascinating to me as these rock formations.

I know I can look this up, but what are real experiences of what to wear on a Canada / New England cruise from mid Sept to end Sept?  I'm going from NYC to Quebec on Princess.  I expect cold and windy from what I've read so far.  I am asking b/c I think that a ship experience might be different than an on land experience, and what I look up generic weather it wouldn't be a ship perspective.  Thanks!

When I booked a Princess NYC to Quebec Canada / New England for mid Sept 2023 I didn't think at all about hurricanes.  But, I was just watching a cruise video about a couple on a current similar cruise who had a very bad night due to a recent hurricane.  What are the odds of one for this time of year and this itinerary?  I'm already planning to have insurance and will watch the weather so there's not much else to do, I'm just curious.  I know Aug - Sept is peak hurricane season but just didn't think about it being that far north, even though I've heard of hurricanes there before, just not as often as FL etc.

Maybe yours calls on Bar Harbor and mine calls on Portland because you're going the opposite direction than I am. I noticed this same thing about some of the Alaska Princess itineraries. One port was different depending on which direction you are going. I had to choose Vancouver to Whittier if I wanted Skagway as a stop because the opposite direction replaced Skagway with Icy Straight Point.

I'm a bit embarrassed to point out that my stop on Caribbean Princess in Sept 2023 is not to Bar Harbor, but to Portland, MD.  I don't know if it was always this way or if it were changed.  I may have thought Bar Harbor b/c others were talking about it in threads here.  I just wanted to correct this in case others were wondering how a Caribbean Princess itinerary would include BH when it is Portland, if Portland is typical.

I'm following b/c I was about to ask the same question.  I really want to go to Skagway and specifically chose my itinerary for 2023 to be one that includes it (after many attempts to cruise since 2020 on this same itinerary).

I've seen some recent cruise videos on you tube saying that Bar Harbor is interested in curbing the amount of cruise passengers in the port.  I see that there is a thread from a few weeks ago about that but it got very confusing. I'm booked on a Canada / New England cruise starting mid Sept 2023 on Caribbean Princess.  In short, should I expect that I might not be allowed off the ship when it docks at this port?  Or, might the ship just not stop there after all?  

Following.  I hope you have a great trip!

Thank you all so much!  To answer questions:  My DH is fine with whichever cruise I choose, and our kids are mostly teens and will be able to help him out a lot at that point.  The oldest might even be driving then.  I'm just unsure how we will all feel about me being gone so long in Sept b/c some things might change in our lives by that point;  it's a very unsettled time for us.  This is why I did the $1 deposit sale for the Canada cruise and made sure I had a fully refundable deposit for the Alaska one--it could all get canceled. 

I've never been to Alaska or Vancouver and was very much looking forward to that exploring of a completely new place.  I've been to Boston and Maine before but would enjoy seeing things again by myself, and older.  I've never been to any of the Canadian ports on the Canada / New England cruise. 

I too saw that the Canada / New England is very port intensive and have thought I might skip a port or two to make more sea days for myself b/c I'd want to have ship time.  I want ,as a solo, to be able to explore all the areas of the ship and see what I like and don't like. 

I got very interested in cruising in mid 2019 and originally booked my Alaska group cruise in Oct 2019, which was then rescheduled from June 2020 to 21 and 22.  The group sailed without me when I had to cancel a week before the trip, so I rebooked 2023 b/c  I was by then very attached to this itinerary, I even had purchased all the light layers of jackets etc specifically for Alaska.  If I don't do Alaska in 2023 I'll do it later unless I just hate cruising, in which case I'd probably still fly there and tour around on land, b/c I'm very interested in going there.  Majestic Princess is going to Glacier Bay and that's part of why I rebooked her again.  

In general I am more interested in a newer, bigger ship but found the Caribbean Princess to be an acceptable alternative when I first started looking at her online.  I've never been on any ship bigger than the standard tourist ship in a city that takes you down the river and back, so any big cruise ship will be an amazing experience for me.

I have considered doing Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean.  I have a dear friend who has traveled exclusively on RC and warm weather places and she's been my main source of cruise info other than the net.  I may eventually do a cruise with her, but she's a mom like me with very little time to go cruise and most of her cruises are with a family member.  I found Princess to be a line that I'd like to do solo but probably not take my kids on yet;  if I love cruising I was thinking of taking the family on a RC cruise.  I want Princess stuff like specific spa relaxation areas and Movies Under the Stars for my solo trip.  

When I lost my June 2022 Alaska group cruise due to a family emergency I immediately rebooked 2 cruises for 2023.  One is the same ship and itinerary I originally was on, Majestic to Alaska doing Vancouver to Whittier 7 day for early August 2023, but completely solo instead of with the large group I was supposed to originally be with.  I also booked the next group cruise with that group that I could manage, which was Sept 2023 Caribbean Princess Canada / New England going from NYC to Quebec, and a 10 day.  I will only do one, and it will be my first cruise.  I'm finding that I am not leaning more towards one than the other;  I have until about. May to decide. This will be a gift to myself for dealing with many very difficult family situations of the past few years, and I haven't been able to travel solo for many years.

I'm finding myself feeling lonely thinking about doing Alaska completely alone, but it's that or take my family of 5, which I'm not willing to pay for Alaska without having checked out what cruising is like first.  The original idea I had was to go on this group cruise b/c I could be solo, which is a way of traveling I love, but I wouldn't be 100% alone b/c there would be group activities I could join.  But the Caribbean Princess cruise is so long, at 10 days, that if I find cruising not to my liking it would be a long time to be on a ship. (If I do the Alaska I will arrive several days early so it will be the same length / cost as the longer cruise.)  Other considerations:  very expensive and long flights from the US east coast to Alaska, but if I go to the NYC departure all I have to do is take the train a few hours.  I really like the idea of not having to deal with airplanes before the cruise;  I would have to fly home from Quebec but the cost is far less than getting home from Anchorage.

Honestly I've wondered if I should scrap all of these plans and do something like a few days in the Caribbean to be my first cruise instead--something very traditional cruising.  But I'm constrained by the school year which is about to start for my 3 kids, DH just had surgery, and spring break is already spoken for.  So....next summer is probably the earliest I can go anywhere, and I don't want to do a warm weather cruise in the summer b/c I don't do heat well. That's another thing:  the Sept cruise is during school, which is probably doable, but might be difficult for DH.  That might be the deciding factor eventually.  I'd appreciate thoughts from cruisers who've been on these ships / itineraries.  Right now they still seem equal to me in many ways.  Thanks!

Thanks everyone.  Based on these answers I'm feeling pretty confident about flying into Vancouver.  Since I've never been there, there's no reason to see Seattle first, since I'd not get to spend much time in Seattle anyway.

Thanks martincath!  I remember that you gave me a plan when I was expecting to be departing from the Vancouver airport in mid June.  That was a much more scary prospect than coming into it. 

I am wedded to United airlines b/c of the credit I have from canceling my Alaska cruise last minute this year.  

I tried to post this earlier in Alaska forum but it doesn't seem to have posted.  I have rebooked (for the 4th time....) my Vancouver to Whittier Alaska cruise (last time it was going the opposite direction but I chose to start in Vancouver b/c only those are showing as having Skagway on the itinerary for Majestic Princess 2023).  So, I can either arrive at the Vancouver airport from the US east coast, or go to Seattle and then take a bus or train in.  The only reason I'd consider going through Seattle is b/c I've heard so much about how the Vancouver airport is terrible, with several hours long waits for anything.  Do I need to fear this as someone coming in and staying the night?  I plan to allow 2 full days to explore Vancouver before embarkation, and to allow a large buffer in case of flight delays.  I'd love to see Seattle but probably would be very anxious about getting to my final pre cruise destination.  thanks for any advice;  this isn't until early August 2023 so I have plenty of time to figure things out.  I don't plan on booking flights yet b/c I'm deciding between this or a Canada / New England with a group on Caribbean Princess in mid Sept 23.  I'm more likely to go on the Alaska one however b/c I have kids and a long cruise in Sept will interfere with school.