Rockies land/train tour plus alaska cruise with Celebrity or Princess?

[joandbun]

Hi all, any thoughts on which cruise line would give us the best overall package ?

We are planning Alaska cruise plus rockies 13/14 night package for end Aug/Sept 09

I know we could get it all cheaper if we put the package together ourselves but I do not need the stress or worry of arranging everything &

monitoring it all during the holiday & we do not have the enough time off to travel in a day or two early etc. I need to know its all taken care of.

 

Looking at 08 itineraries for Princess there is a tour whichstarts in Calgary, couple of days land then the train to Vancouver, then 7 night cruise from & back to Seattle. Probably upgrade the train to gold leaf.

 

We have sailed on Princess & Celbrity but has anyone done this itinerary & any thoughts on who would look aftre us best & give us the best deal?

We prefer a celebrity M class ship rather than the Mercury

 

sorry to ramble on but any feedback much appreciated

 

jo

[margord]

Hi all, any thoughts on which cruise line would give us the best overall package ?

We are planning Alaska cruise plus rockies 13/14 night package for end Aug/Sept 09

I know we could get it all cheaper if we put the package together ourselves but I do not need the stress or worry of arranging everything &

monitoring it all during the holiday & we do not have the enough time off to travel in a day or two early etc. I need to know its all taken care of.

 

Looking at 08 itineraries for Princess there is a tour whichstarts in Calgary, couple of days land then the train to Vancouver, then 7 night cruise from & back to Seattle. Probably upgrade the train to gold leaf.

 

We have sailed on Princess & Celbrity but has anyone done this itinerary & any thoughts on who would look aftre us best & give us the best deal?

We prefer a celebrity M class ship rather than the Mercury

 

sorry to ramble on but any feedback much appreciated

 

jo

 

Hi Jo,

 

I can only speak from our experience. In the summer of 2006 we did the Princess land/cruise tour through the Canadian Rockies. We had the motor coach (fancy name for bus) from Calgary to Banff to Lake Louise and then to Jasper. From Jasper to Kamloops and Kamloops to Vancouver we were on the Rockie Mountaineer and upgraded to Gold Leaf. It was one of the most awesome trips we have ever been on. Princess treated us like royalty. It was just fabulous. We stayed at all the Fairmont Hotels (except in Kamloops) and they were fabulous. We were not going to do the Rockie Mountaineer until friends of ours decided to join us. Boy were we glad we did. That Gold Leaf was first class the entire way. I highliy recommend this trip. I don't think you will be sorry expecially if you like to travel at 4 and 5 star hotels and go first class. The only somewhat disappointing part was the Fairmont Jasper was not air conditioned and it was a hot day. Luckily it did cool down at night and we made it through. The cabins and grounds were lovely and we woke up to Elks in our front yard.

 

Marilee

[joandbun]

hi marilee - wow this sounds just like the trip we have been looking at. thanks for the info. It sounds wonderful. hope ytou dont mind if I pick your brains. ;)

Always wanted to stay at the chateau lake louise - With the gold leaf did you get to stay in a lake view room ? not essential but it would be nice.

how long did you spend on the coach each day & was it boken up with stops?

sorry some picky questions

Was it very early starts each day? With gold leaf service did they serve breakfast on baord or at the hotel or both? & I gather all drinks are included so does this mean open bar at any time or only at lunch/dinner?

I read somewhere that you have to store your suitcase & just live out of a carryon. Is that right?

 

Which Princess ship & itinerary did you cruise? It will be our first time to AK so I know we will not get to see all the highlights in the time we have

available. What did you think of the cruise portion?

 

sorry about the inquisition:D

regards

jo

[margord]

hi marilee - wow this sounds just like the trip we have been looking at. thanks for the info. It sounds wonderful. hope ytou dont mind if I pick your brains. ;)

Always wanted to stay at the chateau lake louise - With the gold leaf did you get to stay in a lake view room ? not essential but it would be nice.

how long did you spend on the coach each day & was it boken up with stops?

sorry some picky questions

Was it very early starts each day? With gold leaf service did they serve breakfast on baord or at the hotel or both? & I gather all drinks are included so does this mean open bar at any time or only at lunch/dinner?

I read somewhere that you have to store your suitcase & just live out of a carryon. Is that right?

 

Which Princess ship & itinerary did you cruise? It will be our first time to AK so I know we will not get to see all the highlights in the time we have

available. What did you think of the cruise portion?

 

sorry about the inquisition:D

regards

jo

 

We did get a lake side room at Lake Louise and it was fabulous.

 

We were on the coach from around 8 a.m. till 4-5 p.m. It did not stop at all. The gold leaf train was 2 levels. Wonderful, seats up top with the dome. I actually fell asleep for a while because they were so comfortable. You got a running commentary when there was something to see. Half of the train was called down for breakfast. You were seated a tables with table clothes and beautiful place settings, You were given a menu with a few choices of what to have. While the first group was downstairs having breakfast upstairs got coffee and muffins. Then at lunch basically the same thing happened. While the first group was downstairs the group upstairs was served wine and cheese. Later in the pm there was an open bar and then fresh made cookies. It was awesome and the day went by so quickly.

 

With gold leaf they bused out suitcases to the next hotel. THey were actually in the room (at every hotel) when we got there. It was really awesome. I did take a small carry on for the train with essentials that I just couldn't let go ahead without me like medicines and cameras, etc.

[margord]

Which Princess ship & itinerary did you cruise? It will be our first time to AK so I know we will not get to see all the highlights in the time we have

available. What did you think of the cruise portion?

 

sorry about the inquisition:D

regards

jo

 

We did the round trip Seattle cruise to AK. We actually did this because I wanted to see Seattle and stayed and extra 3 days. AK was really great but it was actually anti-climatic after the Canadian Rockie tour. I can't say enough nice things about the tour. In addition to the fabulus way they treated us the sites were breath taking. They also offered us to optional tours (that, of course, cost more). One was sky lift between Banff and Lake Louise. When you get to the top the view is beautiful and you can see the Fairmont Lake Lousie. We took many, many pictures. The second was white water rafting in Jasper. None of us had ever done it before and it was a level 1 rapid which isn't bad at all. Of course the guy steering the raft made sure we all got wet. It was also very fun.

 

Marilee

[margord]

how long did you spend on the coach each day & was it boken up with stops?

jo

 

As far as the motor coach. It wasn't bad at all. The first day we did not need to leave Calgary very early. I would say around 9:30 and we drove for about 2 hours and they dropped us in Banff for a few hours. We shopped, looked around and got lunch. From Banff to Lake Louise was only about 2 hours also with the stop at the ski lift. I think the Lake Louise to Jasper portion was the longest as we walked on the glacier that day. It was great.

 

Marilee

[joandbun]

hi Marilee,

this is great info. thank you so much. DH is not good with sitting in a bus all day so if its broken up a bit that will not be so bad.

From looking at the 2008 brochures it seems that Princess have it all covered on land & at sea. will have to see what options there are when the 09 itineraries are out. We usually book early:D

regards

jo