Getting to the Ship

[dbhome]

Can someone confirm this for me or set me straight. If we book a Princess cruise out of Whittier, we need to buy some type of transfer from Anchorage to Whittier. If we go with HAL, we just meet at the convention center in downtown Anchorage and will be taken to the ship at Seward?

[GlacierLady]

Both Whittier and Seward require some type of transfer. Buses, trains, and car rentals are all options for both. They can done on your own usually with a savings versus purchasing through the cruiseline.

 

Seward is a great little place to spend a day or 2 before or after a cruise. Lots to do. I highly recommend the train.

[Budget Queen]

You will be making transfer decisions on any cruise, it isn't "included" with HAL. An excellent option for Seward is to just book direct, the Alaska RR. Gets you into Seward in time for some activies, which the cruiseline train doesn't, and bus probably doesn't.

[AkSusan]

Can someone confirm this for me or set me straight. If we book a Princess cruise out of Whittier, we need to buy some type of transfer from Anchorage to Whittier. If we go with HAL, we just meet at the convention center in downtown Anchorage and will be taken to the ship at Seward?

We just sailed out of Whittier on the Sapphire on Saturday, June 7th. As I am a local I just booked our Railroad tickets independently.

 

Boy did this all work out great. We headed to the depot (dog/house sitter was taking the car home) dropped off where you check luggage. Had them tagged already for our cabin, gave them to the Railroad people, who in turn them turned them over to Princess and they truck them down (Railroad doesn't have the room for all the luggage).

 

We had a nice 2 hour and 20 minute train ride from Anchorage to Whittier. Got right off the train and into Whittier's cruise terminal. I've never had such a short wait to get processed and through security. So into Whittier at 12:20 and we were on board I'd say about 15 or so minutes later, where we found out cabins were available already. Dropped off carry on and were off to the buffet in the Horizon Court.

 

Susan in Anchorage :)