no1racefan1

Have I mentioned I'm a terrible millennial? I posted those last two posts (with pics!) from my phone so I could practice before our trip 😅 I hate typing on my phone. And sideways pics? Yep, get ready for those!!

I've never considered myself an overpreparer when it comes to medicine-y stuff but after the last four years, you just never know. I put together this little kit and hopefully having it means we won't need it. (Not pictured: zicam nasal spray and thermacare heat wraps)

Gathering has begun! I've started making a pile of the things from around the house that I want to bring but might be easy to forget.

I printed everything out today! I had to search CC to figure out where to go to print luggage tags.

Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan, in that order.

I've been reading about Princess doing Alaska shore excursion 'sales' the last few weeks and I finally got the offer! Up to 20% off shore excursions. @Ken the cruiser mentioned in his Live review that one of his excursions actually became cheaper than when he booked it (yeah!!) so of course I had to check 'em out: Chilkoot Trail Hike & Float--originally booked at 164.95, was 239.95 before sale and currently 189.95 with the sale Bike & Brew Glacier View--originally booked at 139.95, was 169.95 before sale and currently 154.95 with the sale Alaska Fishing & Wilderness Dining--originally booked at 369.95, was 504.95 before sale and currently 419.95 with the sale So, no deals for me yet, but happy for Ken that he saved some cash and a reminder to all of us to periodically check on reservations. Deals can be sneaky!

They are through AARP Rewards, which is free to sign up for. Don't know about an app, I just use their website. https://www.aarp.org/rewards/?intcmp=GLOBAL-HDR-LNK-CLK-AARP_REWARDS-UXDIA If you search CC boards for AARP gift cards you'll find lots of threads about them.

Part of the reason I started this thread was to help people (and myself!) figure out how to budget for Alaska. This will be my last pre-cruise budget update! All the other categories are estimates that I won't really know until we get there. No, I will NOT be tracking every expense as we go during vacation, but I will do an accounting when we get back. Column on the left is with estimates, column on the right is what we've actually spent so far. I copied/pasted this from Google Sheets and I'm sorry I can't figure out how to make it less ugly! $1,000.05 Plane tickets $1,000.05 Plane tickets $219.07 Rental car $219.07 Rental car $80.00 Gas in rental car Gas in rental car $1,161.74 Cruise fare+protection $1,161.74 Cruise fare+protection $0.00 Lodging at Alyeska Resort $0.00 Lodging at Alyeska Resort $27.00 Parking at Alyeska Resort Parking at Alyeska Resort $192.00 Lodging in Anchorage $192.00 Lodging in Anchorage $512.94 Lodging in Seward $512.94 Lodging in Seward $178.00 Alyeska Nordic spa $178.00 Alyeska Nordic spa $100.00 Wifi on board Wifi on board $224.00 Onboard gratuities $224.00 Onboard gratuities $848.60 Shore excursions $848.60 Shore excursions $80.00 Anchorage bike rentals $80.00 Anchorage bike rentals $280.71 Orca quest tour $280.71 Orca quest tour $196.54 Seward kayak tour $196.54 Seward kayak tour $650.00 Dog sitting Dog sitting $120.00 Guide tips Guide tips $60.00 Extra ship tips Extra ship tips $650.00 Meals Meals $202.00 Train to Whittier $202.00 Train to Whittier $60.00 Taxi/Ubers Taxi/Ubers $150.00 Miscellaneous Miscellaneous $25.00 Fishing license Fishing license $30.00 Laundry Laundry $35.00 Bear spray Bear spray $400.00 Shopping Shopping $7,482.65 $5,095.65 My original goal was to do the trip for under $7,000 and it doesn't look like we'll make that. However, when I first started planning I thought we were looking at around $10K so I'm pleased with the areas we've been able to save. Splurges: our only real splurge so far was upgrading the 2 longest flights to economy plus for extra legroom Saves: booked cheapest cruise cabin possible, DIY land tour instead of cruisetour, AARP gift cards to pay off the cruise, early bird promos on most of our land tour excursions, credit card points to book hotels

I'm so excited for you and can't wait to hear about your trip! Thanks for delivering the ship to Whittier for us 😉

19 days until we're headed to AK! Which means 17 days until vacation begins... 12 work days.... I don't think I've ever been so distracted by vacation before but this one has been a LONG time coming! I'm going to try to do a 'live-ish' review of our trip. I don't spend a lot of time on my phone while on vacation but I have a whole year's worth of dedication to this thread so I owe it to my CC fam to report on the actual trip 🤣

That would be fantastic! I hope that's the case for you.

Can't wait to follow along! I'll be getting to AK the day your trip ends.

Oh YES, I need this in my life! Headed to AK in 3 weeks.

Since we were talking about the increased price of shore excursions, I decided to look at those as well: Chilkoot Trail Hike & Float--booked at 164.95, currently 239.95 Bike & Brew Glacier View--booked at 139.95, currently 169.95 Alaska Fishing & Wilderness Dining--booked at 369.95, currently 504.95 Lumberjack Show--booked at 39.95, currently 43.00 (I cancelled this one) I'll say it again--if you're reading this and haven't booked your shore excursions yet, even if you're going in 2025, BOOK THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

I was printing out all of our various travel confirmations and caught something interesting. When we originally booked the cruise, these two days were as follows: Glacier Bay 9:15am-7:30pm Skagway 7am-8:30pm They are now listed as: Glacier Bay 9:15am-6:15pm Skagway 5:30am-8:45pm I don't know when they changed as Princess never sent any kind of notification about a change in itinerary. I noticed the Skagway thing a few days ago so decided to review the rest of the itinerary. I saw somebody's post about a different Princess ship shortening their time in Glacier Bay, so maybe its just going to be a thing. Not going to affect us at all, it's just interesting to see what all changes might be a surprise to people who aren't reviewing things regularly. You might remember we also didn't get a notification when shore excursion times changed.