travelbuds

On 4/10/2023 at 7:52 PM, ktcishot said:

Going to your muster station in the way to your cabin is such a great idea! 

How do you know where it is ahead of time? Is there somewhere I can look it up?

Isn't there a video to watch before heading to muster station?

On 1/15/2023 at 1:03 AM, jdk4asu said:

we LOVED the George Inlet Crab feast! I have been traveling for years and am always leery of these tourist tours. But believe it or not, this was great! It consists of a wonderful boat ride and a fantastic meal of all-you-can eat Dungeness crab!

 

Wondering what month you did this excursion. We will arrive in Ketchikan  on June 12th, 3 days prior to dungeness crab season. Trying to find out  from our our Princess Planner how this excursion is offered prior to the season start. I don't see anything on the Princess website, so thought CC may be faster. Thanks.

4 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Plenty of outside space.  Sitka is a great port with interested town center and a SUPERB museum.  A starboard cabin will put you a bit closer to shore on a northbound cruise.

If you love Alaska consider flying and spending a couple days in Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan.   Fly to GB from Juneau and spend a couple nights. Wonderful. 

Thank you. A few years ago we flew up to Glacier Bay and over to Juneau--five nights total. Stayed at a B & B in Gustavus (Blue Heron). Enjoyed the visit. 

Wondering if the Summit has plenty of space for outdoor viewing.The Princess and RC ships we have sailed on in Alaska have had sufficient space. We have always done the north to south itineraries, so wanted to try a south to north sail (2024). Have never made it to Sitka in the past so we are considering this itinerary. We have been to Glacier Bay on cruises in the past as well as independently, so missing GB is not a problem. Will be there again this summer. Thanks.

On 11/14/2022 at 4:30 PM, EDVM96 said:

 

On 11/14/2022 at 12:10 PM, Italy52 said:

We sailed with Princess in June and did the Hubbard Glacier & Wilderness Exploration tour that off loaded from the ship --- absolutely wonderful.  We were very fortunate and saw lots of calving.  Lots of space to move around on the tour boat and we were able to get lots of good photographs.  I have attached a couple of my favorite pictures.  We are sailing once again with Princess in July and will be taking the same excursion.  Pricing is $299.95 per person.  

 

My wife and I did this excursion from the Royal early in June this year. Have signed up for it again for next June, this time on the Sapphire. Full boat but didn't seem crowded. Had great weather.

 

 

On 6/12/2022 at 8:26 AM, floridababa said:

It seems that the cases are going up and princess once again cannot handle things. I know Island Princess having lots of cases. What about other ships?

Do they not have a plan to keep the passengers informed? Quarantined passengers are not being told anything.

Hope someone starts straightening things or they will be losing passengers in the future.

Wife and I got off the Royal on Saturday and tested positive at home two days later. Fortunately we took the Princess coach transfer to SEA (no testing needed to cross border by land travel at the time.) rather than the transfer from ship to YVR. Didn't want the 10 day Canadian quarantine if positive.

9 hours ago, Willwils said:

 I guess Travelbuds will have to be exempted due to the timing?? However, in the long run I think the additional testing is a good thing for safety. It should have been this way all along. 

Talked with Princess today. Said our voyage was exempt from new ruling. He was pretty tight lipped about it when I asked for explanation. Impression I got, maybe right or  wrong, was that June sailings would not be involved with those tests. Anyone out there that has a June sailing that is being tested prior to AK land cruise?

38 minutes ago, jvaka said:

Yes I was able to open. I was able to sign in to Princes and look at my cruise and there was nothing to acknowledge. We leave tomorrow for Fairbanks at 8am pdt. Literally have no where to go to get tested in the next 12 hours. When is your trip?

No message on my cruise personalizer and we leave for Anchorage in 2 days. Hope to get through to Princess tomorrow-hope open on holiday. The person who posted that "new protocol" is administrator for that Facebook group said she did not know the effective date. There were several members who opened their personalizer and the new protocol message popped up. 

Princess Cruises will be doing Covid testing for those on an Alaska land tour prior to embarkation . Wondering what type of test will be done--PCR? NAAT? rapid antigen self test? Not uncommon for some tests to have false negatives. I talked with Princess and the fellow said he didn't know. His response was "whatever they have on hand at the time."

Curious if passengers take a camera on the Princess Nenana River Raft Scenic Wilderness Run excursion. Company does not recommend it, but from videos I have  seen, it looks like a pretty tame run. No dry bags or day bags are allowed. I have a small Canon underwater camera that has made several trips down the Colorado River, but easy to store it when need be. Thanks.

On 5/19/2022 at 7:01 PM, Thrak said:

 

 The staff were fantastic.

Wondering if passengers were able to get off ship right after docking in port. We have a non-ship shore excursion one half hour after scheduled docking in Skagway and will be met at the dock. Has worked out in the past for us, but now may not be staffed enough to make things run smoothly. Thanks.

3 hours ago, westcoasttech said:

 

 

Quick Shuttle (bus) will work and can pick up from Canada Place and drop at downtown Seattle or Seatac - but watch out for bag charges if you have extra luggage!  One price for no luggage and higher price for 1 bag per person, not sure what happens if you have more than 1 bag! 

 

 

From the ridebooker website for the Quick Shuttle: 

• Additional Bag | $20.00 USD | Per Additional Item

  
  Per additional piece of luggage over and above the 1 regular bags + 1 carry on limit + 1 personal Item

On 5/12/2022 at 8:45 AM, TMFTL said:

 Train to Seattle and border crossings don't require negative covid test.

We  decided to take covid testing out of the picture so we booked a shuttle from ship to SEA. SEA was the start of our second leg home anyway, and we were able to keep our original flight and seats leaving SEA.  Will see a little bit of the country that we haven't seen before, will avoid any potential pit falls with testing and still get home at the original time. Canceling the Princess transfer from ship to YVR covered almost half of the shuttle cost.

35 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

Formal nights were a real mixed bag! I did not see one single man wearing a tux. A few were wearing suits. Most were wearing nicer pants and a button up shirt with and without ties. Some wore khakis, button up shirt and blazers. There were a few who were super underdressed - literally t-shirt and jeans. My DH brought khakis, button up and blue blazer and looked pretty well dressed compared to most. My son and daughter’s fiancé wore dark pants and suit jackets but took the jackets off when the saw how casual most were. You could definitely get by with a pair of slacks and button up shirt and not feel underdressed at all. Alaska seems more casual on dress code. 

Thank you for your response. I guess I can leave the tux and suit at home. Have always taken a tux as it is the only time I really get dressed up. The tie can stay also. Now it is between taking a sport jacket or a sweatshirt. Thanks again.

On 4/25/2022 at 4:19 PM, MudderBear said:

Has anyone done this?  I believe it is about $339 per person which covers 4 breakfasts, 1 lunch and three dinners.  I will be at the Princess Wilderness Lodge for 3 nights (DB4).  Your thoughts?

We have signed up for it. Kind of pricy, but we liked the convenience. Will see how it goes. We're on the DB4 tour also.

4 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

The food was pretty good for the most part - there were a couple of meals that might have been less then stellar, but overall our experience was good.

Thank you for your trip review. Will be on the Royal in 2-3 weeks. Trying to cut down on the amount of luggage I am taking. Curious to know what most guys were wearing on formal nights. Thank you.

We have an early morning whale watching trip with Harv and Marv. When we get off the boat at Auke Bay, we'll take a taxi to Mendenhall Glacier. Save 1 hour by not going back to the ship with the other whale watchers. Leave Mendenhall by 2 or so there and take the bus back to the ship, and stop by the fudge shop before getting back on ship by 3:30pm. At least that's the plan. We'll see how long it takes to get the taxi.

On 5/10/2022 at 10:20 AM, stjlo said:

Can someone please tell me if the blue bus to Mendenhall has a one-way fare available or do you have to do the round trip? 

 I talked to someone at the "Blue Bus " office. She told me that if you want a one way ticket back to the cruise  dock to call her directly and she'll get you a ticket for half price. Said  the bus drivers are no longer able to collect money on the bus.  907-500-5186

21 hours ago, disneyochem said:

I've just rescheduled post cruise transportation to ground.  Rebooked original flight (Vancouver to SFO) to depart from SeaTac and, bought tickets for the Quick Shuttle (curbside Canada Place pickup to SeaTac) rather than trying to take the test once we get to Vancouver.

 

Makes a long travel day but based on a dozen Alaskan cruises, I do not want to be relying on the ship's WiFi to take a proctored test!

 

We booked with Quick Shuttle also to get us to SEA. Fortunately SEA was part of our original itinerary so we were able to cancel our Delta flight from YVR  to SEA and kept the rest of our trip intact.

When using the CBP MPC app, what did you use as mode and port of entry? I only saw airplane and cruise ship. No mention of shuttle/land entry. Thanks.

1 hour ago, mrsskyhook said:

Well folks, it's our last night on this cruise, so this live report is going to wind down soon. 

 

I was very much looking forward to sharing our experience, my husband's quirky humour and some good info with you all. 

Thank you for your live commentary. Enjoyed it. Being from Vancouver Island, do you know where good Wi-Fi can be had around the Ogden Point ship dock in Victoria (day before disembarkation in Vancouver)? We have to have Covid test done before we can fly back to USA,  and from what I have been reading on cruisecritic,  the ship's Wi-Fi is not real dependable. Wouldn't want it to go down before test completed and results returned. Thank you.

4 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

Did you file in advance of your cruise?

Yes

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

It looks like the language that says they would cover the costs of tests for those flying on the day of disembarkation has disappeared. Do you know if they are no longer going to cover (as previously stated on the web-site that they would) or if this is just an omission?

I got on Princess website and filed for a reimbursement for the COVID test needed to fly back into USA. Written response from Princess said it would take 4-6 weeks to process it.

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Following is from a Princess webinar yesterday:

 

 

Does this mean  reimbursement only if positive while you are still a passenger on disembarkation day, because once you step off the ship you are  no longer a passenger. Why do test at airport because you, no longer a passenger, would be on your own if you tested positive? The above excerpt says test while onboard, but its first recommendation is to be tested at the airport. To me, it looks like they want you off the ship so if you test positive, you are no longer Princess' problem. We tried to make appointment at airport as Plan B (in case ship's Wi-Fi was down) but no times were  available to give us enough time to get through security and customs to make our flight.

On 5/8/2022 at 8:49 AM, lks said:

 

 

Last night for dinner I had the pork shoulder. The right shoulder as the pig was left handed. It was very good.

 

 

 

Wondering if the Symphony is open for dining. Had it scheduled on my Medallion app but now has disappeared. The other dining reservations are still present for Allegro and Concerto. Will be on Royal in 3 weeks. Thanks.

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

...Get a copy or two of the paper Patter from your cabin steward or the Pass service desk it'll make your life much easier. 

Better yet, bring a highlighter to mark up your patter,............

Thank you. That is what we have done in the past without the Medallion.