connoisseur tour questions

Hi all-

Wow, what a resource this board is! I am planning a cruisetour for late May (PB7). I am travelling with my Mom, and neither of us has been on a cruise before. I had a couple of questions that I couldn't find easy answers to....

1) Flightseeing - we were considering doing a flightseeing tour from the McKinley Lodge - as we'd prefer to fly around the mountain rather than the ocean. Are the views usually decent, or is the weather/clouds often such that you can't see anything? Worth the price?

2) Excursions in general - there are a few we know that we really want to do - do excursions ever sellout? We are interested in the more "popular" ones - the crabboat tour, the glacier walk, whale watch, etc. It seems like its cheaper to book day-of after you disembark, but I don't want to miss out on anything.

3) Scenic cruising - My mom has some pretty significant mobility issues and cannot stand for long periods of time...but this is the part of the cruise we are both really looking forward to. I've read a bit about booking a lounge in the "Sanctuary" area....is that necessary, or are there free lounge chairs elsewhere in good viewing locations? We are fine with being outside and bundling up to stay warm. I can also get up early to save us chairs if they tend to run out fast.

4) We have the option of arriving in Fairbanks a day early. Is there much to do there?

5) As we are mother/daughter, we'd prefer not to share a bed if possible :) . Looks like requesting twins on the cruise portion is easy enough, can this also be done on the land portion?

Thanks all!! :)

Flying McKinley is spectacular, but weather does play a part with no way to predict anything. You do realize, that you will have to take a 2 hour round trip bus to do this tour from the McKinley Lodge? Other option would be to book independent, IF you are on the train, around that timeframe, since you will be arriving/departing with the train in Talkeetna. Be well aware of the differences in the flight tours as well. It's a big difference from a summit flight and summit view, as an example.

It's up to you, if you want to chance booking tours at the dock. Issue will be less than favorable tour times, wasting valuable port time, sold out tours. It is simple to book in advance, and IF you want a whale watch and glacier helicopter landing book them in combo with one vendor dropping off for the other, otherwise you are adding at least an hour in backtracking. This is out of Juneau. If you are flying out of Skagway, there is only one helicopter vendor, TEMSCO. Book these flights in advance.

Fairbanks is well worth getting there days early. It up to you and your interests. http://www.explorefairbanks.com In my opinion a car is necessary.

On the cruisetour, most of the Connoisseur tours do have the TWT, but verify this if you haven't already done so. It could be of benefit to be near the first in line for boarding the train, if included, since Princess has table seating with 2 riding backwards, if of any issue.