Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

@harryfat1I don’t  know if you have an iPhone….so don’t know if these tricks will work for you.

1.  Use your computer to write out your posts, submit…..then go to your phone, edit post, and add your photos straight from your phone.  It will eliminate one step.  Or Airdrop photos from phone to a file in your Home Screen.  
 

2.  Just learned this (again iPhone, sorry).  Open Notes app.  Upper right corner are three dots.  Click to open.  It will automatically scan.   Hopefully it will give you a clearer pdf.  

Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately, I’m an Android user.  Back in the days when Apple iPhones were at a premium price, I opted for the cheaper Android alternatives and just stuck with it.  Although nowadays the really high end Samsung phones are priced more than iPhones.

 

Speaking of phones, I actually bought a new phone yesterday after holding onto my current Samsung Note 8 since 2017. It still works fine and I typically don’t like to give up on working technology just to upgrade like the younger generation but Verizon/Samsung is having a promotion whereby they are giving me $800 credit to trade in my 5 year phone that’s only worth $79 on Gazelle.

 

The phone arrived yesterday via Fed Ex but I have yet to activate it.  Waiting to do that this weekend as if something goes wrong, I need my phone for work purposes during the weekday. Transferring data is always painful in switching equipment.

 

I just upgraded to the newer version of Samsung that comes with a S pen.  It should come as no surprised by now that I’m still old school and prefer to “write” with a pen than to type so I will likely stick with the Samsung pen series forever.

 

The past couple of days, I’ve been looking for a phone case to protect the new phone. Kind of scary to think you are protecting a $1K phone with a $18 case.

 

I don’t know how much time and effort y’all put into selecting a phone case.  Do you pick the case based on comfort/feel on hand or maximum protection (Otterbox) or fashion statement/cute design?

 

If you think about the phone and the case and how much time we spend daily looking & holding it, that time is WAY more than the time we spend looking at our spouses/loved ones. What does that say about us as a society when we look and touch an inanimate object more than family members?  How many hours do we look at the phones/tablets and how many hours we look at other people?

 

I’m pretty sure my wife will notice a crack on her phone faster than she can spot a crack on my face.  Whereas she will feel upset if her phone is damaged, with my face, she’ll just say, suck it up and put a band aid on it…

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

You get to see a lot of AK before you even get on the ship. Bonus! 😁

 

6 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Why not just provide the PDF? Then if the reader is interested, they can click & open. Those not interested (me 😉), just keep reading.

And you save time (you could put it in your bottle).

 

Yeah, extra scenery.

 

I typically put the daily schedule at the top as occasionally in the report, I will reference back to say “at 4 PM, per the schedule, we did this” just to have a visual reference for people casually reading along.  Trying my best to make things easier for the readers for the premium price they paid on their elite tier CC membership…

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, palolake said:

 

Here's something to consider.  Because of a snafu (that I corrected immediately after getting home) I didn't have TSA Precheck 2 weeks ago when I should have.  I had the husband go through precheck with the laptop, Kindles, liquids bag, etc.  It made it much easier for me to go through the regular line.

 

Ah, excellent suggestion. Thanks! 

 

I need a “selling point” to get the family to buy into me being in the express lane while they stand behind 300 people in line - having Harry as the mule to haul stuff across might do the trick.

[san diego spartan]

Hi - I'm sorry I'm having trouble finding where I read that someone use the covid company OnPoint to proctor their home testing.  Was that you?  

[dani negreanu]

5 minutes ago, san diego spartan said:

Hi - I'm sorry I'm having trouble finding where I read that someone use the covid company OnPoint to proctor their home testing.  Was that you?  

 

Yes, he was 😁

 

For us, we did the online proctor testing with OnPoint at $15/pp using the test kits from government/private insurance. The process was simple as you pay online and then set up an Zoom meeting online where someone watches you do a self test you got from government or private insurance. The results were delivered via PDF within the hour to print out to bring to the pier. So for anyone still looking on doing their pre cruise Covid testing, take a look at Onpoint Testing.

[harryfat1]

32 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Yes, he was 😁

 

For us, we did the online proctor testing with OnPoint at $15/pp using the test kits from government/private insurance. The process was simple as you pay online and then set up an Zoom meeting online where someone watches you do a self test you got from government or private insurance. The results were delivered via PDF within the hour to print out to bring to the pier. So for anyone still looking on doing their pre cruise Covid testing, take a look at Onpoint Testing.

Hi, Dani,

 

Many thanks for finding my post so quickly.  It would have taken me awhile to find the post as after awhile on so many posts within this trip report, I have no idea when I said what. 

 

 

39 minutes ago, san diego spartan said:

Hi - I'm sorry I'm having trouble finding where I read that someone use the covid company OnPoint to proctor their home testing.  Was that you?  

 

Hi, 

 

Yes, we scheduled our OnPoint testing as it was (still is) required to sail to Canada.  They were cheaper than the EMed option suggested by Princess site but with OnPoint, you have to supply your own test kits.  Any antigen test kit (like the free one from the government) will do as long as they are not expired or open as they want to it seal at the zoom meeting.

 

If you sign up on their web site, you might get a 5% discount as I got that but $15/pp is still a good value.

 

In theory they said they are 24/7 as they have proctors worldwide. We scheduled ours on a Thursday noon from home.  There is a limit of 4 people per appointment and that works for us.

 

You pay online and get confirmation code for each person and then you schedule for a Zoom meeting at a time that works for you.  They will send confirmation email 24 hours and 1 hours prior to the actual meeting time so you won't forget - doubtful you would forget considering this test is the barrier to you going on a cruise or not.

 

You can do zoom meeting on laptop or prop up your cell phone.  Just need to stay online the whole time for them to keep an eye out on your test kit so you don't "switch" on them.

 

After seeing your negative result via the web cam, they will send you a report in PDF via email in less than an hour.  Print that out and bring to port to show the Princess workers and you are good to go.

 

If any part is unclear, don't be shy to ask.

 

[harryfat1]

For the Princess newbies, you will notice on the phone app that there’s part where you select or Princess selects for you the time you are supposed to be arriving at the pier.  In the pre covid days, it was a free for all with most veteran cruisers arriving as soon as possible to get on the ship to do their thing (eat/book excursions/dining).  With Covid, Princess is supposed to spread out the arrival time by time slot assignments.

 

So for days prior to our sailing, I kept looking at the phone app to try to select a time slot to board the ship and I was never able to select a time as the app kept giving me error message saying I will do this closer to sailing date. 

 

 

Well, today is sailing date and nope, still can’t select the time.  But if you think about it realistically, arriving at Whittier isn’t the same as arriving in Florida or Los Angeles or Seattle.  Those other ports are closer to the city and you can hire Uber/taxi/shuttle to take you there anytime prior to your sailing time. 

 

 

Well, for Whittier, you have basically a choice of 2 bus shuttles (ACT or Princess) and a Princess train.  I never read anyone hiring Uber to Taxi to take them 60 miles and a $13 toll to cross the tunnel to get to Whittier.  I guess you can rent a car and drive yourself there but that has to be a small group.

 

Thus it’s not as if you have much say on WHEN the ACT or Princess bus drops you off.  You get to the port whenever they drop you off. Princess can say “come at 2 PM” but if you are taking the bus that only runs once in the morning, you get there whenever the bus gets you there maybe at 12 noon or maybe at 2 PM. You might have to wait at the cruise terminal once you get there (spoiler alert – no waiting necessary) but you are at the mercy of the bus and train schedule at Whittier arrival versus having more control on arrival time at the other ports.

 

But that doesn't prevent Princess from emailing me 4 days before sailing and on the first thing to do is "pick an arrival time"...Maybe for other sailings but not ours.

 

======================

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I read online that the best place to sit is on the right side of the bus (opposite side of the driver) as you get a potential water view.  If you are on the left hand side, all you see is bottom of the mountain as the road skirts the mountain on its 60 mile journey.

 

Note you are along side the railroad that Princess is running from the land tours down to Whittier.  The same railroad that shares the tunnel we will cross soon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

One of the most unique part of the drive from Anchorage to Whittier is passing through the Anton Anderson Tunnel.  What’s special is that it’s only a one lane tunnel built in the 1940’s such that they only allow traffic to come from any direction every half hour. The road also shares the train track we saw in previous post so the train passes through the tunnel as well. For us, we were going south bound from Anchorage so they open the tunnel at bottom of the hour for our time slot. 

 

As the bus was somewhat early, they stopped by a rest area right before the tunnel for people to walk outside and take few pictures but there was a bit of misty rain so not everyone from the bus got out. The time stamp on the first picture was 11:08 AM so we had few minutes to kill before the tunnel opens on our end at 11:30 AM.

 

We were soon joined by the other ACT bus but it started to drizzle so everyone made our way back to the bus to get ready to pass through the tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was trying to zoom into that dot in the middle of the last picture as that was someone in the kayak but by the time I tried to zoom in and focus, the guy already made the turn to the left and I missed it

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

You will need to look a bit ahead in the picture – zoom in if you can. The vehicles are assigned specific lanes based on the type.  The freight trucks are on the far right and then second from the right are tour buses like ours and other RV and cars on the left.

 

 

At $13 per vehicle, it’s not a cheap crossing.

 

As the bus driver said, the tunnel traffic control people typically let the big tur bus go first as having us go early impacts more people per vehicle than the average car for 2.  Sure enough, the tour buses were allowed to go in first. Our bus was #2 on the pecking order with at least one more ACT bus behind us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to get a good picture of the tunnel view as everyone ahead of us were leaning toward the middle with their cell phones out trying to take the same picture but you get the idea – it’s a typical tunnel but just very narrow as being only 1 lane and no incoming traffic (yeah, that would be a bad thing if you see any incoming traffic). 

 

Somehow the cartoon Roadrunner and Coyote immediately comes to mind.  Beep! Beep!

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Right after the tunnel is the port of Whittier. It’s always exciting to see the ship for the first time in person after watching more than enough YouTube videos on the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Again, full disclosure on preferences here.  We like big mega sized ships. The Majestic Princess is pretty much the largest sized ship Princess has to offer but still seems to be a tad small compared to our previous RCI ships.

 

I’ll let Gloria explain what we like:

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The bus driver being a nice guy drove us right up to the baggage claim.  Actually, a tad TOO CLOSE as between a thong of people waiting for their luggage to be unload from the bus and the line of people waiting to give the luggage to the workers, there’s not much room to maneuver.  He would have been better off parking the bus another 15 feet further out as to give people the space between bus and baggage drop off to stand in line – actually there wasn’t much of a line, just a mob of people.

 

Especially some people didn’t staple/tape their luggage tags so they had to get help with that.  For a while, it was pretty chaotic over there.  So try to have your tags stapled at the hotel to save yourself some last minute work.

 

Be sure to tip both the bus drivers and the baggage people as I saw people didn’t tip.  I’m sure I’ll have 5 people come out to debate on why tipping is or is not necessary. 

 

Anyway, after dropping off the luggage, you walk down the covered tunnel area.  It reminds me of those secret military operations like X Files TV show in having some aliens behind some white tent (Yeah, I know, I watch too many sci fi movies).

 

Guys are just sitting there chilling waiting for the bus to show up

 

 

 

 

Things can get a bit chaotic

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So the white series of covered walkways leads you to the glorious Whittier terminal.  The on board comedian told many jokes on the Whittier terminal and their workers.  Most of them are funny as heck but so politically incorrect.  If I repeat them here, I will get roasted on these board so I will just repeat one joke that no one should be offended.

 

The comedian said the Whittier terminal is so shoddy that they must have built in the night before. Now if you have never cruised before, you will think the Whittier terminal is ok as you have nothing to compare it to.  However, if you have sailed out of Florida where they tend to have many grandiose cruise terminals, the Whittier one is “less impressive” (to be diplomatic about it). 

 

Yeah, go ahead and be “THAT Guy/Gal” to come out with a long post explaining the military history of Whittier from WW II and its importance and so on.  At which point the joke has long lost its comedic value as we move on…

 

So for you Princess cruise newbies, on the phone app, Princess tries to get you to upload all the relevant travel documents and based on the completeness of your uploads, the app will upgrade you from the default “blue” lane to a better “green” lane. By some accounts, the “green” lane is a preferred lane as it’s supposed to be faster. Thus we uploaded everything and made sure we were on the “green” lane.

 

Then you get to Whittier and realize those rules might apply at other ports.  At Whittier, there’s no difference between “blue” lane or “green” lane or “red lane” or “diamond lane” (California carpool lane reference) or even Penny Lane (Beatles).  It’s all the same lane to stand in line – unless you are the higher status, then you have special line at other side of terminal.

 

 

 

 

 

There is ONE lane for all us peasant cruisers.  The higher status folks go to the left

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I have seen YouTube videos of Seattle boarding for the Discovery Princess – holy cow, hundreds and hundreds of people in line out there. But for Whittier, this was the “crowd”.  Maybe since the ship doesn’t depart until 8:30 and many of the cruisers did the land tour of the Princess package before joining so they are not there yet that early.

 

Another reason could be a large number of the cruisers are doing the Vancouver back to back and not needing to board in Whittier and the B to B cruisers are out on excursions to see more glaciers or maybe the Princess buses/trains are coming next hour when the tunnel opens again for southbound traffic.

 

Whatever the reason, this was the one and only lane to line up at Whittier. No one asked to see the phone app on your lane color. Time stamp for this picture is 11:53 AM, about 23 minutes after the bus was allowed to enter the tunnel, drop off luggage and walk into building.

 

This whole check in process reminds of the song by the Who as each worker asks the same question - WHO ARE YOU?

 

 

 

At 12:05, we almost made it to the front.  Note the long counter area behind the podium where the workers check your documents?  That area is where you pick up your medallions if for some reason you didn’t order it more than 12 days prior to sailing.  You pick it up at the port and that long set of desks is where you pick them up after you are done with the check in process.

 

 

 

 

As mentioned previously for our sailing, a negative antigen test result was required 2 days prior to sailing. I printed those in hard copies, and we paper clipped our vaccination cards to the passports so everything was organized for the lady to clear the 6 of us quickly.  She commented that she appreciated how organized we were as we had hard copies and consistent for all 6 of us.  No need to use the phone to scroll to a section for her to read.  So, yeah, old school method works here.

 

I spent a lot of time to complete the Arrive Can app for the 6 of us.  There was a part of the app I didn’t know how to answer exactly and actually had to post a question on the Canada board of CC to get an answer.  Uploaded the negative test info and finally got the “good to go” QR code to show the people at the check in.  But nobody asked for it at the check in and nobody asked for it the entire cruise. 

 

Thank you for completing the info – I want to believe the time and effort I spent to complete the required info on the Arrive Can app was actually read and checked by someone in the back office of Canada border patrol/Princess office and I didn’t waste my time. Yeah, I believe in Santa Claus too…

 

Note on the left hand side of the first picture – security screening.  After you have cleared the document control and grabbed your medallion, you head off to the left side for security check of your carry on. For us, it’s easy as we only travel with backpacks as carryon. No rollers to screen.  Unlike TSA, you keep your shoes & belts on.  Yea!

 

After the security check, you exit the “built last night” building and you then walk through more of the “Secret government alien quarantine white tunnels” (see my red arrow).  Meanwhile you will notice the boat, Bravest, as she is taking a full set of passengers on an Alaska excursion:

 

https://phillipscruises.com/our-fleet/

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by harryfat1

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Then you get to Whittier and realize those rules might apply at other ports.  At Whittier, there’s no difference between “blue” lane or “green” lane or “red lane” or “diamond lane

I think that is pretty much the same in every port around the world,  apart from those in the US that are staffed by Princess personnel.

The check in staff at Athens, Southampton, Whittier etc  have no knowledge or interest in the Princess app, and just want to see your documentation.  The idea that any port is going to have various colour coded lanes based on the  colour shown on your app, is laughable.

[EllieinNJ]

So you don't have to download your vax card to the app?  Just bring the hard copy instead?

[JF - retired RRT]

8 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

 

Those white tunnels are in case it snows. 🤣

[JF - retired RRT]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

I think that is pretty much the same in every port around the world,  apart from those in the US that are staffed by Princess personnel.

They work for the port, not Princess.

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

They work for the port, not Princess.

Even more reason then for folks not to get worked up about what colour boarding lane they are in. Just a total waste of time for all concerned.

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

I think that is pretty much the same in every port around the world,  apart from those in the US that are staffed by Princess personnel.

The check in staff at Athens, Southampton, Whittier etc  have no knowledge or interest in the Princess app, and just want to see your documentation.  The idea that any port is going to have various colour coded lanes based on the  colour shown on your app, is laughable.

Thanks for the info.  Appreciate the insight.

 

Being a Princess newbie, we had no idea on how big of a gap between what Princess Corporate envisioned versus what's actually being implemented at each port.

 

I'm sure Princess Corporate has some utopia artist concept drawings of people standing in various lanes with blue lane people needing the most attention/help as not everyone is tech savvy. But if it's not being implemented as planned, then it's a waste of people's time.

 

Princess Corporate emailed cruisers like us to complete the app to be in a faster lane and who doesn't want to be in a faster lane to board? Being a newbie, you error on the side of over doing the paperwork instead not doing it and run into problems at the cruise terminal.

 

I thought I read on CC that there were blue/green lane separation at some ports - were those FL based ports?

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

So you don't have to download your vax card to the app?  Just bring the hard copy instead?

As I said before, one cruise does not make me a Princess cruise expert so I will let other veteran Princess chime in on their experience.

 

Being anal, we did both.  You have to upload all the vax info onto the app to be in the "green" lane - now it's debatable how much value that represents.  We also completed the Arrive Can app ahead of time with all the vax info to get a "good to go" QR code.

 

I'm just saying no one at Whittier asked us to see info on either app.  I assume if you have the app, you can show it on the phone and that should work. I had both apps opened in the phone but never had to use it.

 

Being old school, we brought hard copies of the vax card as the phone app has "iffy" reputation and we don't know how reliable it is to pull up the info or if the worker will complain they can't read the card info via the phone.

 

We had the passport and vax card attached in one hand and other hand the hard copy of the negative antigen test.  After looking at the second one, the lady developed a routine as all 6 of us were the same way, it was a fast process from that point on. 

[nini]

When we were on the Emerald last May (British Isles), EVERYONE from the airport to Princess, only wanted to see our hard copies! They specifically asked for those ( Covid test results, Passports, Vaccination records). Our vaccination card remains with our Passport at all times.

 

 

[RNRcruisers]

Another CPA here enjoying your trip report! 

 

We have done all three versions of Alaska cruise and liked them all. My daughter and I did the Anchorage to Vancouver trip that you are on (the pictures are bringing back fond memories). We also did the ACT bus pickup but they stopped in a few places for photos and at a nature center. We enjoyed that. 

 

I am more of a small ship person, especially one that is only 60% full! Hope you enjoyed your trip!

 

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, nini said:

When we were on the Emerald last May (British Isles), EVERYONE from the airport to Princess, only wanted to see our hard copies! They specifically asked for those ( Covid test results, Passports, Vaccination records). Our vaccination card remains with our Passport at all times.

 

 

 

Thanks for the insight.  Wow, paper copies only. 

 

I can see the younger generation would want to only store everything on their phone as they want to be paper free but guess not everyone has bought into that.

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, RNRcruisers said:

Another CPA here enjoying your trip report! 

 

We have done all three versions of Alaska cruise and liked them all. My daughter and I did the Anchorage to Vancouver trip that you are on (the pictures are bringing back fond memories). We also did the ACT bus pickup but they stopped in a few places for photos and at a nature center. We enjoyed that. 

 

I am more of a small ship person, especially one that is only 60% full! Hope you enjoyed your trip!

 

Nice to meet a fellow CPA.  Thanks for following along.

 

This was our third Alaska cruise and we had done north bound and round trip previously so it just made sense to do the southbound to complete the loop.

 

We are not frequent Alaska cruisers and maybe next time we do this, we will add the land portion on top of the one-way trip.  Most likely north bound as we can spend few days in Vancouver first.

Thanks for pointing out the second option on ACT.  I should add in their web site link in case anyone needs it.  Sometimes I get too anxious to talk about my next point that I forget to mention all the options available in case people wants another option:

 

https://alaskacruisetransfer.com/whittier-tours/

 

So ACT offers two options to get to the cruise terminal from Anchorage: 1) Direct bus transportation like the one we had 2) Stop by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWC) on the way to the terminal

 

Originally, I was interested in option 2 as you guys because the original flight was to land after midnight at Anchorage.  The plan was to get up late at 9 AM to have breakfast and then rest in the hotel room until check out at 12 noon and then see the AWC on way to the port as option #2 would give us more time to sleep in/rest up so we wouldn’t be as tired on boarding day.

 

However, when our original flight was cancelled by the airline and we were in Alaska earlier, we didn’t want to sit in hotel all morning long with nothing to do so we opted for #1 instead. 

 

Option #2 is certainly a possibility for those that are only arriving the morning of or need extra sleep.  Although with airlines not being the most reliable in being on time nowadays, I’m not sure I want to chance flying in on the morning of the cruise.

 

I don’t recall exactly but I think the Princess pre cruise transfer wants the flights to land by 3 PM(?) the latest in order to transfer to you to Whittier on time so I would be worried to fly in the day of cruise departure as there aren't that many flights into Anchorage daily and the closest US city from the lower 48 is probably Seattle and that's a good 3.5 hours away.