LuvtheBeach10

Look up the number to the vendor on your excursion receipt and call them about an hour and a half before your meeting time and they might can give you an answer. We made the mistake of waiting until our meeting time (we rushed through lunch at the Hanger to make it on time) to have no one show. It was with TEMSCO, when we called them, they told us it had been cancelled. We thought we had to show up at the meeting place to check in and be told either way but we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble by just calling ahead. The refund showed up immediately on our credit card so no worries there.

Do you see ladies wearing nice jeans to dinner in the MDR or is this strictly a guy thing?

Ok, thank you all for the advice. I may look for a TA that specializes in Carnival Cruises, the one I have now seems to only get discounts and upgrades with Holland so I think therein lies the problem. I do not think I want to go with the one that stalks my internet inquiries though so the pvp is out...

While playing around with booking our cruise to get prices I entered my VIFP number and now I am getting calls from a specific Carnival Cruise travel agent. My question is if there is any benefit going thru Carnival to book our cruise or should I stick with the travel agent we have been using for several years (even though they have been efficient, we have never received any upgrades or freebies). My mom is on oxygen with a concentrator and canisters so I need a travel agent to do the paperwork on that and arrange for a scoot around on board. Any advice, pro or con would be appreciated!

It's pretty casual on land. It's more or less what you'd wear to dinner on a smart casual night, including jeans. I'd pack minimal clothing for the land portion and send most on to the ship.

On the ship, my 18 year old is packing a suit for formal nights but on the other nights on the ship are jeans and a nice shirt ok? We could save space by not packing khaki's and yet another pair of shoes....:confused:

Ok, this is not going to be easy! We will have my mom who is on oxygen and has a hard time getting around with us but also 2 boys under the age of 10. I loved the Conquest but hated the Magic because there were so many more people on the ship and there were long lines for everything! The last time we got my mom a scoot around for onboard so I'm leaning toward the Breeze I guess if it is a lot nicer than Freedom...

We are looking at booking a cruise next summer with Jamaica being one of the ports. There will be 13 of us going, my question to anyone who has sailed on both is which one to go with? I am leaning towards the Freedom only because it does the Saturday - Saturday but we can do a Sunday debarkation if the Breeze is a better ship and if so, why?

The castle is not a castle but a large mansion....IMO its not worth going.

 

The legal drinking age is 19 in BC. However, the laws have changed in BC permitting minors to enter pubs with adults and some of the Victoria pubs have embraced this change. Here is link to the ones that have. I would suggest the Sticky Wicket and the Irish Times both of which are in the downtown area:

 

http://victoriamom.ca/article/are-children-allowed-pubs-victoria#sthash.1W0Zsye7.dpbs

Thank you for the information! I looked up both pubs, I'm leaning towards the Irish Times and trying a "flight" while there! :)

I totally disagree. I was in Victoria last month during the evening

and had a marvelous time:).....I have a friend who was working

on the ship and she had a very rare night off so we went and had

dinner at "Irish Times".....it is one of the many fun Pubs located

downtown:D

We ended up cancelling our whale watching tour in BC. This sounds like fun but will my 18 year old have any problems going into a pub with us? Also, has anyone gone to the castle or is it way too crowded with the limited amount of time we are in Victoria?

I have cruised many lines and always enjoyed meeting others through the Roll Call and then face to face at the Meet and Greet. This is my first time traveling with Holland America and there is ZERO activity on our Roll Call. We set sail on September 6. Is it too early? Is it a sign that our ship will not be very full? Or is it simply that people don't know about/care about Roll Calls as much on HAL?

 

I'm feeling a little like the uncool kid in the school cafeteria sitting all alone with my lunch tray! :(

I noticed that too! I am on Princess this time and our ship leaves July 11th and as of right now only 10 posters have joined our roll call. Carnival seems to have the more social posters but that could be the difference between a beach destination (party atmosphere) or going to a more quiet destination such as Alaska. Anyway, no worries and enjoy the anticipation of going on your cruise!

Have you checked with Orca Enterprises? We just booked with them for an evening whale watching, mainly because it would be less crowded than the morning but they had openings for the morning. We are just going to sightsee around Juneau, come back to the ship to rest, eat lunch and then whale watch from 3-6:30 p.m. OE was very nice and easy to work with so far.

Thank you for the information. I did call to check with them and they did not have anything for that morning. Oh well, we can shop around some and eat at Tracy's Crab Shack for lunch I guess. :)

Looking forward to your reports! We too are on the Crown on July 11th. To board by 11:30am, I too am curious on how early you arrived at the pier? Safe travels and have a wonderful trip!

You made the mistake of booking through a booking agent and not direct. Your assumptions are not accurate on the time issue. IF you had just booked with a whale watch vendor or a glacier dog sled tour operator- you could have EASILY had a cobooking done. This may not happen with a booking agent. But, you need to go through them NOW. IF they won't, or don't find anything- realize they are only going to book based on commissions- So I would suggest you inquire- DIRECT, if there are any openings available for cobooking, with all three helicopter vendors.

 

Determine if any fees are involved with any cancelation. Small price to pay- to fix what you have.

I checked before cancelling my reservation. They are booked for that day so I'll keep what I have and am now informed for the next time! When we very first started planning this cruise, I had only ever booked through the cruise line and I have used this travel agency for some things in the Caribbean that looked fun that weren't necessary choices available thru the cruise line. (They have a guarantee to get you to the next port at their expense if we should miss the ship!) I have never booked directly through a vendor but this is definitely something I'll consider in the future!

Frankly, you chose a time, that doesn't make the best use of your entire port time. IF you want to whale watch, I suggest you start over, and cobook a whale watch and glacier dog sledding. There are 2 other companies to consider with dog sled camps set up.

 

you can easily do both tours. it is essential you cobook these, have you asked TEMSCO?

I booked through my travel agency's excursion site but I checked and TEMSO is the vendor. We booked last October and were not given a choice of times, we were assigned this time I assumed because the later in the afternoon maybe the fog lifts and less flights are cancelled? I looked again and there was not an option for the helicopter/dog sledding/whale watching...

So, I can contact the excursion site again to see if the whale watching can be added or do I bypass them and call TEMSCO directly?

Thank you for the heads up, I assumed I was now on my own to try to fill in the space.

Thank you for the information! On the tram to Mt. Roberts, is there hiking once you get there or do you just ride up for the view and then right back? I guess I am wondering how much time to allow for doing this on our own.

:confused: In Juneau we are booked for the Medenhall Helicopter/Dog Sledding tour but we do not have to meet for that until 4:30pm. The ship arrives that morning at 11, is there time to do anything else during the day or is there enough to keep us busy just walking around the port? I checked out Harv and Marv to see if we could fit in whale watching that morning but there's are all afternoon tours around the same time we are doing the other excursion.

I got a package of plastic sleeves from Walmart (some office supply stores sell them too). I use one for my lanyard and the rest we use to hold the Princess luggage tags. We fold the printed out forms and insert into the sleeve and attach to the luggage' date=' camera bag, etc. with a cable tie.[/quote']

 

Thank you for the information! I think this is what I will do. When we go on excursions, I carry my cruise card with my DL and credit card so the plastic sleeve is what I need.

First time Princess Cruise coming up, does the ship gift shop sell Lanyards with the plastic holder attached? I thought it would be neat to have a one from Princess as a souvenir but if they don't sell them, I'll break down and buy a plain one before we go.

Hello, I just returned from this sailing. This was our first cruise so I have nothing else to compare it to, but it was AMAZING. Weather was perfect, Crown was beautiful, food was good, shows were entertaining, people were friendly, etc. I could go on and on.

 

I have attached copies of all the patters (hopefully I did it right).

 

Embarkation was very easy. Our documents stated boarding would be between 1:00 and 3:00. We arrived around 10:15 expecting to kill a few hours. We noticed about 5 people in line so we got in it. They took our luggage and opened the door. We had filled out our health questionnaire, checked in, and were sitting in the waiting area by 10:30. They started boarding the ship at 11:00. We were in our room by 11:15. The best advice I received from Cruise Critic was to go to the dining room for lunch. They were right. Our documentation said the buffet was open for lunch, but we looked at our patter and headed to the empty dining room (there were only about 20 people eating the whole time we were there).

 

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Thank you so much for posting the Patters! We are sailing this same itinerary on July 11th and have never been to Alaska. I love being able to read through these before we leave to give us an idea of the ship activities we often miss because we are so excited to be on the ship (or tired the next morning), we don't take the time to review the Patters at the start of each day like we should. :)

Thank you all for the information! Adding to my list of to do's for both ports! I love collecting Christmas ornaments, I bet both Christmas stores will be really neat!

:confused: Does anyone recall a Christmas store at one of the ports in Alaska? A coworker thought she had heard of one but she didn't end up getting off the ship at whichever port this was and now can't remember where it might have been at. Her stops were Juneau, Sitka, Ketchican and Victoria BC...

The Red Onion is in Skagway and is a very good place to eat. Every time we are in Skagway we make it a point to go there for a least a drink. It was once a bordello during the gold rush era. It is quite quaint and there is a museum upstairs that has "cribs". Another great place for food is at the end of town on the right side of main street. I don't remember the name but the fish and chips are rememberable!!

That sounds like fun to see! After the long train/motor coach ride we hopefully will have time to catch a drink and look around before we board the ship. Thanks again for the info!

Thank you for posting! We are going on our first Alaska cruise in July and reading your commentary and seeing pictures really puts in perspective the things I need to pack. The wine and cheese tasting looks like fun, I hope they have something like that on our cruise with Princess! I am anxiously waiting the rest of your blog! Happy Cruising!

We did the tour in Victoria on Orca Enterprises booked through Princess last July (26th, I believe). The ship got in around 7pm, and we were underway around 7:30 I think. We got back to the dock around 10:00pm. We had good light to start, but it DEFINITELY got dark by the time we headed back to the ship. I'm a serious-hobbyist photographer, and really had to push the limits of our gear to get anything semi-worthwhile as the light went away. I was probably pushing ISO 3200 on an f/4 lens to get a shutter speed of 1/640th by the end of the night, and that shot needed some major noise reduction to make it semi-salvageable. Some of my final shots as we got back to the ships were at ISO 3200 on an f/2.8 lens at 1/160th, so three stops darker if you're a photo geek.

 

It was a good tour, but the boat holds 50 people tightly and rocks a lot, given the two deck nature. At least one person got sick on the return to port. I'd do it again in June, but would question doing it in August or later.

Thank you for the info! I think we'll give it a try and just know in advance that we may not be able to get a lot of pictures. I just invested in a cannon rebel T5 and I have absolutely no idea how to use any feature other than the green button for point and shoot! I wish there was a seminar or something you could go to on one of the first sea days for an Alaskan cruise, I would love to know more about how to take great photos!

I went ahead and booked the float plane over Misty Fjords with the crab feast at the George Inlet Lodge....it just sounds like a lot of fun! If anyone has done this, I would appreciate any feedback you have. There were only 6 slots left and we took up 3 of them so it must be a popular tour.