rp23g7

the pier was still being fixed, so they did a tender ride to the dock 50 feet away.  

we are doing Enchanted Princess in May 2026

Civitavecchia

Naples

Santorini

Kusadasi

Katakolon

Civitavecchia

HI, Just off the Discovery Princess, May 11 to May 18th Inside Passage cruise, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchican, Victoria, my little review.

We are from Seattle, never done Alaska before, but when we talk to people on a Carribean cruise or Mexican Riviera who have been on 50 or so cruises, everyone says Alaska was their favorite.  so it was time to try, NO AIRFARE, YIPPEEE.  Had not been on a cruise for 7 yrs due to other pursuits.

I have been a avid hiker, boy scout so i have been all over the Cascades and Olympics, my dad flew his whole life so i have flown over the mountains too, and skied my whole life so there is that.

First, we have been to most of the Florida departure ports, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Port Canaveral, been to Galvaston, LA, and San Fransisco.

Pier 91 Smith Cove was the most unorganized Embarkation ever, no one knew anything, not sure where to go, etc, oh well, not a big deal.

Discovery Princess was awsome, unfortunatly we book a inside cabin, A431, not a bad cabin, i like the reverse layout it had, the door opened into the room itself rather than the little hallway on older Princess Ships.

i also liked that they have quit pushing drinks all the time, nobody ever asked if i wanted a drink in any theater etc.

Seattle Departure, 80 degrees in Seattle, saw Killer Whales right off the stern as we were leaving, Never seen that perspective of Seattle before.

Day at sea, just regular stuff going on

Juneau, raining in the morning, 40 degrees brrrr.  neat little town, seems so isolated though, having to fly or sail somewhere just to fly or sail somewhere.  We walked around went to the Red Dog Saloon, big line, so i went around the corner and had a shot at the Quack Shack Shot Bar.

I had made a reservation with Shore Excursions.com, to go to the Mendenhall glacier, $134 for 2 people.  We took their tour bus up to the visitor center and walked around, it had stopped raining so it was pretty nice.  

Skagway.   Woke up and went outside, WOW, What a neat little place.  It was cloudy, but not raining, i looked up and there was a killer view of a snowy mountain peak showing through the opening in the clouds.  I had also made a reservation with Shore Exursions.com, for the White Pass Summit, also about $134 for 2 people.  I thought it was for the train ride, but it turned out it was the city tour/summit on the tour bus.  Which turned out ok, since i dont think the train made all the cool stops for pictures.

White Pass Summit, what a beautiful place, got some great shots.

Glacier Bay, What can i say, never seen anything like that anywhere in my life.  Speechless.  Saw Otters and Bald Eagles, but no whales or glacier calving.

Ketchikan, another neat little town, we didnt have anything planned, so we walked around, found the Elliott St steps and climbed up and got some great shots.  

Victoria, Been there a few times, but getting there at 9pm at night?  What the heck, feel sorry for people that have never been there and wanted to see more.

Disembarking, gotta say, that was the fastest i had ever gone from Deck 7 to the baggage area and into a Lyft and home on any cruise ever.  Ship to shore in 20 to 30 min.  

What do alaskan people do in the Winter?  Those cruise ships must support the October to May economy.  

next cruise, Europe in 2026, YAY

we will be in on Discovery Princess in May, going to Juneau and the Glacier, i just made reservations with Juneau Tours for a Park/Glacier tour for $168 for 2 people.

and if you are interested in Skagway i reserved a White Pass train/Skagway tour with Shore Excursions Group for $134 for 2 people, way less than the $300 the ship wanted.

cool thanks Wishing, i like that layout.  No long hallway thing to lug suitcases to the bed, thanks for the info.

Hi everyone, We are on the Discovery Princess, May 11th cruise to Alaska, YAY first time to Alaska after 15 cruises......and we live in Seattle.

We booked inside cabin A431.

A431 is right next to the elevator it turns out, wondering if anyone has stayed in any of the cabins A-D or so on the ship.  Is is noisy?  It looks like the elevator is on the backside of the cabin, rather than a hallway between, at least from the deckplans.

Anyone have comments and maybe pictures?  not a big deal just wondering.

After 10 + yrs of cruising, and living in Seattle my whole life, and paying for Florida rental cars and hotels, we are finally taking a Alaska cruise, YAY no airfare or hotels.

Anyone got tips and favorite Alaska things to do? its the Tracy Arm Fjord cruise if that makes a difference.

Climb Diamond Head, the view friggen rocks, Pearl Harbor, i second the North Shore, we were there in August, so it was flat, but i met Jerry Lopez and Laird Hamilton, just sitting there talking about surfing.

Sept 15th 2019 for us WOO HOO

So after a horrible Mexican Riviera cruise on the Pearl a while ago, vowing never to try Norwegian again, we are giving them a second chance.

Booked Norwegian Bliss for Alaska out of Seattle, Sept 2019. YAY, hopefully Pearl was just a fluke.

we had a "obstructed" balcony a few yrs ago on Regal, I believe it was E deck, the deck above the life boats. There wasn't really an obstruction, except looking down, the life boats were right below, and there were lifeboat davit cables running across above, only a pain if you were trying to take a picture, you would have a cable in the picture

I wonder how many people were fooled after watching the show, booked and saw the actual cabins, I googled the Pacific Princess and they actually have a lot of neat pictures, deck plans etc. I guess it got really neglected near the end before they sold it for scrap.

cool thanks

We were on the Oct 29th sailing, our Lobster was on the second formal night, second to the last day, leaving Cozumel.

YAY, we were there, impressive, how did you manage to get all those open space pictures with out anyone in the pictures

Website states Royal gets it in January 2018

We were on the same cruise, WOO HOO, Halloween party was fun, ship was awesome, this was our third RCI cruise, but I think we are going back to Princess, they just seem to have more going on during sea days, movies in the lounges and theater, stuff going on in the lounges etc. Not that we wouldn't do RCI again.

Carl our steward was awesome, the waiters were great, and we met some neat new friends, and Drew the Cruise director was awesome, he arranged a fun get together for car people in the Hoof and Claw for us. YAY. I like the little sitting areas Liberty has on each elevator/stair foyer, don't remember Freedom having that.

The water slides liked fun, but due to last yrs issues we decided not to do anything until the last cruise day so we wouldn't get hurt, and then we forgot to do it, oh well.

Our driver in Roatan was awesome, there were a lot of people this time at Monkey Business so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with the monkeys. Made friends with a sloth though, that's slow motion in real time.

Had fun in Cozumel, no body there had ever seen or know where to find Raicilla tequila, so I guess the guys in Puerto Vallarta don't even export to other Mexican states.

Not sure I want to cruise out of Galveston again, the whole port seems like a after thought, I guess they are making it bigger and more modern, Galveston seems like a neat place though,

Don't ever, ever. ever, ever fly Spirit Airlines, I have been flying as a kid, and as an adult since 1968, to Texas and other places, I have never been on a airline as bad as that, not only nickel and diming you for everything, they canceled our LAX to Seattle leg of our return flight, wouldn't reimburse us, yet, had to book a new flight, so we had a 9 hr camp out at LAX and a 8 hr camp out at PDX, what fun.

Hooray, just booked Royal Princess for Nov 9 2018, Lido Deck L103, does anyone have pictures of this balcony

Looks like something might be brewin g in the western carribean. Was watching the weather channel earlier. 40% chance it becomes a hurricane. Not good I'm booked on the harmony for dec for the western carribean.

 

Mark badger

Mines next week too, to Roatan and Cozumel, what are you worried about?;)

Why not just stay at a hotel with an airport shuttle and skip the rental car and save the money.

nothing in my price range that I wanted to pay, my work happened to have a discount with the Park Inn and Budget

here are two stories that happened to us......

Last yrs cruise....... long.....

We were on the Grand for the Sept 25 Mexican Riviera 10 day cruise.

We did not have trip insurance on this cruise, Ah we don't need it for this cruise...........Ooops.

We have Passports and Passport Cards, but our Passports had expired a month before and we didn't notice until a week before, OOOPS,

We were in Puerto Vallarta on the 29th of September, on our own. We have branched out and have discovered all sorts of cool places on our own, There is a awesome little Cantina in the middle of the jungle outside of Puerta Vallarta by the way.

My wife was shopping for t shirts in the city when she stumbled on a step, tried catching herself and dislocated her shoulder. This was about 3 or so, plenty of time to meet the 8:00 departure time.

We discussed what to do with our cab driver, we decided to go back to the ship first. Medical was awesome, but the x ray machine was not working.

So they took us to Amerimed, a few blocks from the ship.

Amerimed took our health insurance but the translations etc, took so long that we were not able to get the procedure done in time since she would need to be sedated and watched for a hr.

So about 730 Fidel the port rep called me,said he would need to have me come back disembark and we would need to stay the night in Mexico.

Princess again ROCKS, and so does Amerimed, the hospital driver took me back, Princess had packed my room and the Hospital guy took me back to the hospital, they had preformed the relocation and Carly was ok.

Fidel the port rep booked us a room in the Holiday In Express next door, and we discussed what to do, either take a bus to Manzinillo the next day or go home. But the Dr. did not speak English, and the nurse that did, didn't translate what the dr said correctly, so we decided to go home.

We decided to go home, so I booked a flight for Saturday.

Princess customer care also called me directly from California to ask if everything was ok and if they could do anything, even though they had no responsibility for anything really.

So, remember I said we had Passport Cards? Well I just happened to remember that they were only good for land/sea travel and not flying. OH OH. This was about 5 on Saturday.

I called the Customs office and united and they said there would be no issue, umm ok. I called Fidel the port rep and he said there would probably be no issue, but call him again when at the airport if there were problems.

Soooo. we got to the airport Saturday, up to the counter, Need passports, don't have passports, cant travel, and its not "HAHA, we may not let you go home" or "HAHA you cant leave" Its looking you dead in the eye and saying" YOU CANT TRAVEL WITHOUT A PASSPORT, YOUR NOT GOING ANYWHERE"!!!! OH, OH, got in touch with head customs and immigrations guy at airport, 45 minute wait, big hand slap, got everything taken care of.

I had called Fidel again during this, and he said the answer is always No, at the counter but customs usually takes care of it, but to call again if they wouldn't do it and he would come to the airport. It is pretty scary though facing the possibility of being stuck in a different country.

Soooo......we got on the plane to San Francisco, made it to San Francisco, and the fun was just beginning.

3rd degree from US Customs after standing in line and WINNER we get to go to secondary customs, the land of strip searches and the Spanish Inquisition, I bet a lot of sweating goes on in that room, waiting for your fate. I overheard a Asian lady getting a "second chance" and getting her fine waived for something.

Actually they guy was nice and just needed to verify our addresses and stuff. only took about 15 min.

Made it home Saturday night and booked our 2017 Caribbean cruise and our 2018 Panama Canal cruise with trip insurance and renewed Passports. YIPPPEEEEE

Very first Cruise........

Oct 2005, we had booked our first cruise together. 2005 is when Katrina, Rita and Wilma happened.

we had booked our cruise around Jan, and first Katrina happened, then I think Wilma a few months later, it was late Sept and we were glad that nothing else was going on, then Wilma formed, DANG.....

We watched and it stayed around Grand Cayman for a bit, then it headed to Cozumel. It was time to go to Florida, it was Thursday Night. On the news and stuff for yrs when there was a hurricane in Florida, the news in Seattle made it sound like Florida is deserted, no one is there, everyone left, we got there Thursday afternoon and it seemed like a regular day to me.

Friday was a nice day, nobody looked like they cared, except when you go to the store and all the water etc is gone, I asked someone about it, and he said they wait till a few hrs before it hits to decide it they want to leave......okay.

So Saturday was a pretty ugly day, cloudy, drizzly, looked like a storm coming, we went to Miami, South Beach to Fox Café and happened to meet Ludicris, the rapper.

We got back to Ft Lauderdale and the hotel says Princess had called and to call the rep when we get back.

Call them and they said due to the storm, that Caribbean Princess will probably get in early, off load and embark people early to miss the storm and to get to the port as early as you can in the morning, OK.

Sooooooo. we get up and get to the port at about 4am, Caribbean Princess had just arrived it turns out, and nobody was there, not even the dock workers, some employees came around 5 and asked what we were doing there, told them Princess called and said to be there early, because the ship was going to leave early.

They knew nothing about it

The ship disembarked around 10, and we finally got onboard about 11, needless to say we were first in line. We left about 5, partly cloudy sky, 85 degrees, wouldn't have known there was a huge storm a few hundred miles away. Saw the aftermath when we got back though.

Flying to Houston, renting car driving to hotel, driving back to airport next morning, return car, meet RCI shuttle to port, and have return to airport after cruise, $50 per person

we are flying to Houston, renting a car, staying the Park Inn, a few miles away, then driving back to the airport and meeting RCI Shuttle at 10 and going to the port, about $50 per person, round trip so we have a ride after the cruise too.

My husband, myself, and our 3yo son will be stopping in Roatan in about 3 weeks. I contacted VB back in June but never confirmed my reservation as I wanted to keep looking around at excursions. Well time got away from me and now im in a rush trying to figure out what we want to do.

We want to do a beach/relax day and have been thinking about VB, Little French Key (although Ive been reading more about the inhumane activity with the animals and steering away from them now), or an AI resort.

 

If we just do a beach day at West Bay with a stop at Monkey Business do they only offer private tours? I don't mind going with a group but I wasn't sure if that was offered. And if they do only offer private tours is it worth spending the money for a private tour if were just going to be going to the beach all day - with a stop at Monkey Business on the way back to the ship?

Don't get me wrong we would love to do more around the island but having a 3yo kinda limits you.

 

Also the different beaches at West Bay can anyone share insight on those? Would prefer something a little more private and not crazy busy. Would also prefer non venders, if possible. Just want to be able to relax, play in the water, maybe paddle board or play on one of those ocean obstacle courses. A resort pool would be nice to have too but not a must. Also would like to have a place near by to get food, especially for the little guy.

 

Gran Roatan Resort

Mayan Princess Resort

Infinity Bay

Foster Resort

Bananarama Resort

The Beach Club ,

Las Palmas[/quote

 

This next cruise will be our third time to Roatan and Victor Boden. We have always taken the private tour, Monkey Business and the Iguana preserve. I have never noticed inhumane treatment there. It is way worth the money, you can spend as much time there as you want.

 

They will take you where you want to go on the private tour, and take you somewhere to eat.

 

We have been to Haddies Place, twice, its a private little house where the lady makes homemade food, awesome stuff.

 

Your three yr old will love Monkey Business, they have monkeys, Toucans, McCaws, Blue Crown Conures, we are not beach people so I cant really speak to the good beaches to go to.

our experience......., we usually cruise in late October, early November. usually not a whole lot of kids, cause I hate taking someone else's vacation with screaming kids or babys. no offense. Usually Princess or RCI, 2 Carnival, and one NCL.

Carnival cruise near Halloween, out of Miami lots of kids and older people, probably because less expensive

Allure Cruise out of Ft Lauderdale, middle age people, probably because it was a more expensive cruise

Freedom cruise out of Port Canaveral, lots of 30 somethings

NCL lots of middle age people

Regal Princess, lots of older people for some reason

Sapphire Princess Mexican Riv almost all 30 somethings

Caribbean Princess and other Western cruises, 30 and 40 soemthings, on first cruises

Smuggle mug or Shampbooze 2, just saying, not that I would know anything about them