Alaska on Sapphire Princess, June 2022

[jebbs]

I’m hoping the Alaska pros can help me. I have recently been emailed my cruise itinerary with shore excursions.  To me, it seems like a crazy amount of Princess run tours.  In Skagway 49 tours offered, Juneau says 54, and Ketchikan lists 45 tours.  From my experiences, this seems like a lot of offerings.  I’m wondering if Princess will be discouraging private tours, perhaps forcing a bubble approach.  
Your opinion is valued!  
Thanks!

[Coral]

Princess has always had a ton of tours.

 

No one can predict how bubbles will work and when they will be required or not required. Impossible to predict.

[franktown]

I don't remember the exact number of tours that were offered in each Alaska port but there were quite a few.  There is much to do and see in most Alaskan ports and the tours offer many different experience from a simple tour of town to a helicopter tour of glaciers and everything in between.

[Lady Arwen]

The more offered, the better.  It may, or may not, be and indication of whether Princess will allow DIY tours in 2022.  Only time will tell.  I would book some just in case they are your only options.  You can cancel them if Princess allows private tours.

[milolii]

We sailed to Alaska in 2019.  There were hundreds of of tours  available, so not sure that is new.  For what we wanted, there was very little price difference.  We did book a private float plane because the pilot is highly rated on the Alaska Cruise Critic boards, and we wanted her.  The price difference for the same experience was less than $20.00.  Princess is very dominate in the Alaskan Market, but they also offer a superior product. 
 

As many have said, much to do in Alaska.  
 

It seems many people got that email this week.  We didn’t.  
 

 

[caribill]

14 hours ago, jebbs said:

 I’m wondering if Princess will be discouraging private tours, perhaps forcing a bubble approach.  
 

 

Princess is no doubt assuming that when regular cruising resumes (as opposed to the middle-of-the-pandemic special cruises elsewhere in the world) passengers will be able to do what they always have been able to on shore.

 

If it becomes necessary to have "bubble" tours only, Princess will make such an announcement.

 

(Of course Princess, as do other cruise lines. always discourages private tours. Just read the wording about how a Princess tour guarantees you will not miss the ship if returning late.)

[skynight]

No one knows if there will be private tours allowed in 2022, just like no one knows when the covid pandemic will truly be under control. Therefore, no one really knows if bubble rules will be in place.

Yes, there were normally lots of tours offered in Alaska. They are all shown in your cruise personlizer. Alaska attracts many first time cruises not familiar with private tours. 

Princess always encourages ship's tours. That is a good source of their income. Discourage, maybe, but it's more like we offer a lot on our tours, so why not book them.

Almost any booked tour can be cancelled within the time frame indicated by Princess. For most land tours that is around 2 days prior to the tour. In Alaska certain air tours have special cancellation provisions. Read the cancellation provision for each tour carefully.

[Thrak]

We're booked on Sapphire for Alaska in May of 2022. We also got email about booking Princess excursions in advance. I looked at the offerings and found that, with a number of them, when I actually clicked to get more information I got a "page not found" type of error. I wasn't planning to book the excursions anyway but was interested to see where they went and what they did to see if I might eventually be interested in booking. It's kind of a slap in the face to have them push early booking and then not actually have the information available. As usual, the marketing people have no connection to the reality of the IT people. Marketing people are "special" that way.