Alaska Cruisetour - Land first - Arriving a day early

[dlh015]

Sorry if this has been asked before (pretty sure it has) but my search did not return a pertinent answer. Perhaps my search criteria was inadequate.

 

We intend to arrive a day or two early before our land portion begins. Documentation says we will need to (under normal circumstances of arriving on the first day of tour) visit the Tour Desk to pick up our Fairbanks Welcome envelope and luggage tags. 

 

We will, of course, inform Princess of our air schedule as required. 

 

My question is: have others arrived early and been able to secure their Fairbanks Welcome envelope and tags ahead of time? And what was required to get them. (go to the airport? They get mailed? Whatever...)  Any info would be appreciated. I would assume Princess as this well in hand but would like to know what other folks have experienced...especially in these almost post-covid times. 

 

Thanks! 

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, dlh015 said:

Sorry if this has been asked before (pretty sure it has) but my search did not return a pertinent answer. Perhaps my search criteria was inadequate.

 

We intend to arrive a day or two early before our land portion begins. Documentation says we will need to (under normal circumstances of arriving on the first day of tour) visit the Tour Desk to pick up our Fairbanks Welcome envelope and luggage tags. 

 

We will, of course, inform Princess of our air schedule as required. 

 

My question is: have others arrived early and been able to secure their Fairbanks Welcome envelope and tags ahead of time? And what was required to get them. (go to the airport? They get mailed? Whatever...)  Any info would be appreciated. I would assume Princess as this well in hand but would like to know what other folks have experienced...especially in these almost post-covid times. 

 

Thanks! 

When we arrived early to Anchorage for our land tour (2 days early, BTW), we couldn't pick up anything or get anything for our tour until the actual first day of the tour. The desk was at the hotel listed as the start of the tour, where we were booked into by the land tour portion..  

So, even though we were there two days early and staying at the same hotel as where the land tour would begin, we couldn't get anything on our tour til the actual day it was supposed to begin...

I suspect it will be similar in Fairbanks. 

Doesn't hurt to ask on arrival though .. 

 

[georgiacat]

We arrived a day early in June, 2022 and stayed at the Fairbanks Princess Riverfront Lodge.  They have a desk devoted to Princess information and staffed with a couple of people.  It is to the side of the main lobby on the way to the dining room.  We did schedule our extra day through Princess because I did not wish to change hotels.

I made a report on our stay in Fairbanks on the Alaska forum.

[cruisequeen4ever]

They may or may not be willing to give it to you early, but like someone else mentioned, your best bet is to stay at the same hotel as you’ll be staying at when the land tour begins. That way you won’t have to switch hotels, and you’ll have access to the Princess reps the whole time.

[dlh015]

1 hour ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

They may or may not be willing to give it to you early, but like someone else mentioned, your best bet is to stay at the same hotel as you’ll be staying at when the land tour begins. That way you won’t have to switch hotels, and you’ll have access to the Princess reps the whole time.

That is certainly what we would like/intend to do. I guess we'll have to wait until Princess tells us that information. The booking states we will be assigned a hotel prior to travel. I'm sort of assuming it would be the Princess Fairbanks Riverside Lodge from other posts I have read. At this time, I can't find that info in the Cruise Personalizer (which is where the booking says it will be...)

 

But there is plenty of time to get it sorted...

[georgiacat]

We did not hear which hotel until the final itinerary was posted.  That is where you will find the hotel, in the fine print.  At that point many hotels may be booked up.

Though I think that Fairbanks Riverfront Hotel is the primary hotel that Princess uses, they also use one in downtown Fairbanks; I don't know the name of that one.

[Steelers0854]

When you get to the airport there will be a Princess desk there.  Go to the desk and let them know you’re early, they will send your packet directly to the hotel otherwise it will get sent to the airport, then when you get to the Princess hotel they will have to call to have someone from the airport bring it to the hotel.  It didnt work out for us, we arrived a day early (technically that same day we checked in, but got in at 12:30AM) and we stayed at a Hilton hotel in Fairbanks, and when we got to the Prince hotel that afternoon they still had to call.  But technically this should have worked.  

 

I think our hotel was assigned about 30ish days out.  The only place we saw this was when printing the Travel Summary, I don’t think i ever saw it anywhere on the site or app.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Princess prides themselves in owning and operating their own lodges, so pax receive the same stellar Princess experience throughout. Though it’s not a guarantee you’ll be at the Princess lodge, it’d be your best bet to book your extra night there. Even if you end up finding out that’s not where they put you, it seems like it’d be easier to switch away from there than switch to it. 

[dlh015]

6 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Princess prides themselves in owning and operating their own lodges, so pax receive the same stellar Princess experience throughout. Though it’s not a guarantee you’ll be at the Princess lodge, it’d be your best bet to book your extra night there. Even if you end up finding out that’s not where they put you, it seems like it’d be easier to switch away from there than switch to it. 

Thanks, I did indeed try that after learning of it. Unfortunately there was no availability for my dates!

But I intend to keep looking from time to time...something usually becomes available...

[Lady Meer]

We spent 3 days at a B & B in Fairbanks prior to staying at the Princess Fairbanks for the included 1 night. We checked in and were given our room key, however our package had been sent to the airport despite the fact we had told Princess we would not be arriving by air that day. We then spent an hour at reception whilst they tried to tell us that we hadn’t paid for the land tour 😡. Not a great start.