Details of the tour part of a Princess Alaska cruisetour

[jcarlisle]

Two questions that I don't seem to have found covered anywhere:

 

What is the typical "dress" for dinners in the restaurants on the Cruisetour? Are nice jeans good?

 

Second, is there a suggested or recommended gratuity for the escort / guide on the land portion of an escorted land tour?

 

Thanks for any responses.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[amymoore]

For dinner, we just wore what we had worn that day and didn't feel out of place. Jeans and a nice top. As far as tipping, we gave our person 100. She was great!

[caribill]

Two questions that I don't seem to have found covered anywhere:

 

What is the typical "dress" for dinners in the restaurants on the Cruisetour? Are nice jeans good?

 

 

Anything acceptable for smart casual or even casual is fine. Just do not wear shorts.

[CMM]

thank you for this detailed review. We are taking land tour similar to this with princess(not connoisseur) Sept 2016 and found this most informative.

[PSR]

Deleted

Edited June 2, 2016 by PSR
deleted

[PSR]

This information was in the Princess Alaska Cruisetour Guidebook:

 

"HAND-CARRY TOTE/BACKPACK

 

You'll want this bag with you every step of the way, so include only the essentials

 

Items to pack in this bag include travel documents,photo ID, important medication, toiletries,camera and any extra layers of clothing such as jackets or hats.

 

Your hand-carry tote bag should be a size that is comfortable to carry and should be able to be stowed under your seat. We recommend sort-sided tote bags or backpacks no larger than 17"X14"X4" width with a zip enclosure.

 

Wheeled carry on cases that are used as carry-on luggage on airlines are too large and are not suitable as hand-carried luggage on motorcoaches and trains."

 

The attachment I wanted to post here was "invalid" :rolleyes: so I typed it out...

 

Penny

[westview1900]

Wow. Beautiful. We are going on May 11, 2017 on the 13 day JB6 (no food package) land/sea from Fairbanks to Vancouver. Do you think that the food package is financially worthwhile?

 

Best regards,

Bob and Caryn

[Thrak]

Wow. Beautiful. We are going on May 11, 2017 on the 13 day JB6 (no food package) land/sea from Fairbanks to Vancouver. Do you think that the food package is financially worthwhile?

 

Best regards,

Bob and Caryn

 

The connoisseur tour wasn't just about the food. Our group had our own bus and group leader. When we were at the first lodge we had rooms overlooking the river rather than looking out on a parking lot or businesses across the street. (Loved watching the mother moose and her calf come out to eat in the mornings and evenings. We could see them out of our room's window.) The tour person knew each person or couple's excursions and made sure everybody knew where to go and when and assisted with that stuff as well as having listings of the other tours and activities and helped people get what they wanted. Quite a few signed up while on the bus.

 

We really liked the excursions that were included with our connoisseur tour. We saw a grizzly guarding a caribou kill and a wolf trying to get in on it. (The grizzly ran it off...) The wolf trotted along near the road and then hopped up onto the road right behind our bus and trotted along the road. We rolled backward to keep it in sight. It was very close. Denali National Park is over 2 million acres and the 2015 wolf census in the park was only 62 wolves. Very cool to see one at all let alone so close and for the length of time we saw it.

 

As for the food, it was extremely convenient to have that all taken care of. Some of it was better than others of course. We had breakfast in one place and decided to do a different one the next day which was much better. It was great to be able to order whatever we wanted without regard to the price. My wife loved the crab legs in one restaurant - I can't remember but I think her dinner was priced at something like $50 or $60 on the menu. The convenience of the whole thing was something we really enjoyed. Whether or not it is worth it to you is something only you can determine.

 

We got really lucky on our last day. The clouds went away and the mountain came out in all its glory. Wow! It's actually a fairly small percentage of visitors who get to see the mountain with no cloud cover. Most only see a bit of the mountain. There were people in our group who were on their fifth visit and this was the first time they had ever actually gotten to see the mountain.

[westview1900]

Dear Thrak,

Thank you very much for this review.

Best regards,

Bob

[Freespir8]

Wow, this is an incredibly helpful thread! We are on the Denali Explorer tour in September and I just sent an email to my TA to see what the difference in price would be to upgrade to the Connoisseur tour. Thank you for taking the time to do this! Now if I can only find the thread where someone posted an example of a backpack they ordered on Amazon. I would be set!

[bidtrips]

Wow, this is an incredibly helpful thread! We are on the Denali Explorer tour in September and I just sent an email to my TA to see what the difference in price would be to upgrade to the Connoisseur tour. Thank you for taking the time to do this! Now if I can only find the thread where someone posted an example of a backpack they ordered on Amazon. I would be set!

 

 

 

Google Daypacks...... we bought Go Wiss come in two sizes.... inexpensive and fold up into a 4x4 ouch

[Freespir8]

Google Daypacks...... we bought Go Wiss come in two sizes.... inexpensive and fold up into a 4x4 ouch

Thank you so much! Will do!

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[TourBusGuy]

What a blessing your review has been to us, as well as many other first time Alaska visitors. Thanks for taking all the time involved to put it together. The photos were amazing and all the details with the meal prices were helpful. Like cruisequeen4ever, we were sad to see your journey end. We now have an idea what our trip will be like in May.

 

Jim & Nancy

[Thrak]

What a blessing your review has been to us, as well as many other first time Alaska visitors. Thanks for taking all the time involved to put it together. The photos were amazing and all the details with the meal prices were helpful. Like cruisequeen4ever, we were sad to see your journey end. We now have an idea what our trip will be like in May.

 

Jim & Nancy

 

 

This was the review that decided it for us. Last June we booked the 13 day connoisseur cruise tour and were glad we did. Enjoy your cruise and land tour. :)

[us2]

After reading your review of the cruise tour, we decided to take the Connoisseur tour. I tried to send your review to our travel-mates, but the pictures will not come out now. This is what is on the screen. Is there something wrong on my end. I hesitant to try a web site I don't know anything about.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[caribill]

After reading your review of the cruise tour, we decided to take the Connoisseur tour. I tried to send your review to our travel-mates, but the pictures will not come out now. This is what is on the screen. Is there something wrong on my end. I hesitant to try a web site I don't know anything about.

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

No, there is no problem at your end.

 

Photobucket, where the photos are stored, has decided to not allow the photos to be displayed on third party sites like Cruise Critic unless people sign up for an expensive monthly package with them. I am not the only person on Cruise Critic to have this happen to them.

 

What the image is showing you is that 100% of use of my photos has been on a third party web site, not just sharing with friends and family.

 

 

If I get a chance, I will find another site to host the photos and repost with photo links to that site.

[Thrak]

No, there is no problem at your end.

 

Photobucket, where the photos are stored, has decided to not allow the photos to be displayed on third party sites like Cruise Critic unless people sign up for an expensive monthly package with them. I am not the only person on Cruise Critic to have this happen to them.

 

What the image is showing you is that 100% of use of my photos has been on a third party web site, not just sharing with friends and family.

 

 

If I get a chance, I will find another site to host the photos and repost with photo links to that site.

 

Same problem. The only way Photobucket will now allow third party hosting is to pay them $400 per year. (Or you can do the monthly plan that comes out to $719.88 per year!)

 

I'm looking into Shutterfly. From there I'm told you don't insert the pictures url but, instead, simply copy and paste the photo from Shutterfly directly into the body of the post. There is no way I'm going to pay PB $400 a year to host the few pics I embed here.

[cruzrbachoua]

Caribill I have another question....I looked through the post and don't believe I saw you mention this....did the tour also include transportation to the airport at the end of the cruise or did you have to purchase that transfer separate? I know when we have booked the princess hotel pre-cruise it comes with transfer from airport to princess hotel and then after cruise to the airport...

 

thanks in advance

[Worldtraveler 4727]

Caribill I have another question....I looked through the post and don't believe I saw you mention this....did the tour also include transportation to the airport at the end of the cruise or did you have to purchase that transfer separate? I know when we have booked the princess hotel pre-cruise it comes with transfer from airport to princess hotel and then after cruise to the airport...

 

thanks in advance

 

I wrote a pretty comprehensive trip review of the Princess Connoisseur Tour my DH and I took this past summer. It might help answer some questions you have.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2653193&highlight=connoisseur

[cruzrbachoua]

I wrote a pretty comprehensive trip review of the Princess Connoisseur Tour my DH and I took this past summer. It might help answer some questions you have.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2653193&highlight=connoisseur

 

thanks for that, but I see you took a taxi....did you opt out of the transfer by Princess or was one not included? We will not be doing self disembarkation and usually have them take our luggage off for us. I would like to know if the transfer to the airport is included with the connoisseur tour like it is for just the regular pre cruise hotels. We have done the sky train to the airport and wont mind doing that if their is no transfer included but there will be a group of us so I want to get that answer so our group will know and we can make a decision of what we want to do.

[I_r_a]

Hi Cassandra,

 

 

We took a land/cruise tour with Princess in 08/2015.

Transfers to and from the hotel were not included.

 

 

It was a wonderful experience.

 

 

 

Perhaps your TA can advise you further.

 

 

Ira

[Worldtraveler 4727]

thanks for that, but I see you took a taxi....did you opt out of the transfer by Princess or was one not included? We will not be doing self disembarkation and usually have them take our luggage off for us. I would like to know if the transfer to the airport is included with the connoisseur tour like it is for just the regular pre cruise hotels. We have done the sky train to the airport and wont mind doing that if their is no transfer included but there will be a group of us so I want to get that answer so our group will know and we can make a decision of what we want to do.

 

We were on the most expensive of the Princess land/sea tours and transfers were NOT included; HOWEVER, when we flew into Fairbanks, Princess reps and buses were waiting there to take us to the hotel. This was not made clear at all in any paperwork, and my TA never got a straight answer from Princess either.

[cruzrbachoua]

ok thanks

[Thrak]

We did a connoisseur tour in 2015 and have another one booked for next May. In 2015 there was a transfer from the airport to the hotel. We didn't fly out right away afterward so declined that transfer at the time of final payment and the fee was refunded.

 

The connoisseur tour for next May clearly shows a transfer to the airport as the last entry on our booking confirmation:Transfer: Ship To Airport

 

The difference between our land tours and those who are saying there was no transfer may be that the ones we booked were both connoisseur cruise tours - which is what caribill was originally posting about.. Those cruse tours definitely do include transfers.

[cruzrbachoua]

We did a connoisseur tour in 2015 and have another one booked for next May. In 2015 there was a transfer from the airport to the hotel. We didn't fly out right away afterward so declined that transfer at the time of final payment and the fee was refunded.

 

The connoisseur tour for next May clearly shows a transfer to the airport as the last entry on our booking confirmation:Transfer: Ship To Airport

 

The difference between our land tours and those who are saying there was no transfer may be that the ones we booked were both connoisseur cruise tours - which is what caribill was originally posting about.. Those cruse tours definitely do include transfers.

 

Thrak thank you very much. I thought it would be odd not to have the transfers for such a in depth cruisetour and yet have them for a simple pre cruise hotel. Depending on the time of our flight I will take into consideration if we want to just keep the transfer from princess or ask for it to be refunded and we take the skytrain. I know the entrance is not that far from the pier so we could do that if we had a later flight. thanks for the info.