no1racefan1

This is what I plan on bringing: Prescriptions, daily supplements, vitamins, etc. Airborne and/or emergen-C Eye drops Tylenol Benadryl Bonine Tums/licorice tablets Covid tests Alka-seltzer cold & cough Throat lozenges Mini first aid kit Sunblock Just the covid tests and cold medicine are new additions since last time we cruised.

Wow. Mine still shows $299 for May 2024, but it also still shows at least 20 spots available, so I guess it hasn't filled up yet. I didn't realize the prices would change! Now I'm even more happy I booked all my excursions a year in advance, lol.

I'm somewhere in between, but probably lean more towards minimalism. DH and I each bring one 25" checked suitcase and backpacks as carry-ons. We both like to have 'extra' clothes and shoes options but we limit ourselves to just that amount of bag space. We used to bring bigger suitcases but several years ago DH declared he was never lifting those things into the trunk again 🤣 so now we make 25" work no matter what kind of trip it is. I don't mind doing laundry on vacation. I have a United credit card so we get free checked bags. I HATE bringing carry-on only and having to lug it around the airport, over my head, etc. Actually I'm secretly judging all the people in the plane in front of me when I have to wait for them to get their bags down, LMAO. I've occasionally had to do carry-on only when changing airlines at a connecting airport because I wouldn't have had enough time to claim bags and then re-check them...but I avoid it as much as possible!

If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? Just because somebody else makes a different decision, doesn't make it the right decision. Imagine if something happened to that other ship and/or passengers You'd be sure glad your captain made the safer decision. I understand your disappointment and I would be disappointed to miss a port as well, but I've never captained a cruise ship, so I'm just going to trust they know how to make better informed decisions than I would.

I posted this in a thread on the Princess forum, but wanted to share here for my fellow Princess cruisers. I'm not looking for help, I'm just sharing my advice on documenting EVERY move you make. Update on my situation--I have received the $49.95 refund to my credit card I was owed. However, I still have not got the $89.90 back in OBC. I have spoken to four Princess agents. Some of the questions and conversations are seriously laughable because of how nonsensical they are. Like you, it seemed they can't see any kind of excursion booking history. I've had to tell them what dates I booked, what excursions I booked, what forms of payment I used, when they were cancelled... and then they say they show no history of any of it. My advice for future cruisers: If you apply for shareholder OBC, take a screenshot as soon as you see it applied to your account summary. You will probably NOT receive an email stating you have it. Actually, do this for any type of OBC. The agents I've spoken to say there is no history that I ever had OBC. Unfortunately for me, I didn't screenshot it when it was there and I've since sold my CCL shares, so I can't re-request it. Take a screenshot of anything, especially excursions, that you book using OBC. You will NOT get email confirmation of these excursions. I only received email confirmation for excursions I paid for with my credit card. Take screenshots if you have to cancel excursions. You will NOT get emails confirming that you cancelled excursions. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my shareholder OBC back, but maybe this will help other people in the future. I can't even express how ridiculous I think it is that we have to keep such detailed accounting of all of our actions because Princess doesn't seem to be able to do so. I don't think I've ever done business with such a big company that can't seem to look at any kind of account or payment history. At this point I'm probably going to give up trying to get the OBC back since at least it's not out of pocket...maybe that's what they want, who knows. I just don't want this to continue putting a downer on my trip planning. 233 days to go until Alaska!!

@Nidwaldner any update on whether you got your OBC back? I agree, it's maddening. Update on my situation--I have received the $49.95 refund to my credit card I was owed. However, I still have not got the $89.90 back in OBC. I have spoken to four Princess agents. Some of the questions and conversations are seriously laughable because of how nonsensical they are. Like you, it seemed they can't see any kind of excursion booking history. I've had to tell them what dates I booked, what excursions I booked, what forms of payment I used, when they were cancelled... and then they say they show no history of any of it. My advice for future cruisers: If you apply for shareholder OBC, take a screenshot as soon as you see it applied to your account summary. You will probably NOT receive an email stating you have it. Actually, do this for any type of OBC. The agents I've spoken to say there is no history that I ever had OBC. Unfortunately for me, I didn't screenshot it when it was there and I've since sold my CCL shares, so I can't re-request it. Take a screenshot of anything, especially excursions, that you book using OBC. You will NOT get email confirmation of these excursions. I only received email confirmation for excursions I paid for with my credit card. Take screenshots if you have to cancel excursions. You will NOT get emails confirming that you cancelled excursions. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my shareholder OBC back, but maybe this will help other people in the future. I can't even express how ridiculous I think it is that we have to keep such detailed accounting of all of our actions because Princess doesn't seem to be able to do so. I don't think I've ever done business with such a big company that can't seem to look at any kind of account or payment history.

Are you suggesting that OP just accept that Princess is charging additional charges they are not aware of agreeing to?

Don't be shocked. From what I can tell, they need to hire an accounting department, because their record-keeping as far as what customers have paid is the absolute WORST.

Find a TA who has experience with Alaska cruisetours.

You referenced many people suggesting doing a Princess cruisetour/pre-cruise tour, and I can almost definitely say that would be through Princess cruises. I haven't heard of many people using princesslodges.com, and most certainly not if you are trying to put together a cruisetour. 2024 Princess cruisetours are available to book through princess.com and while I don't know the answer regarding if they are the same as what's available from princesslodges.com, I would be very, very surprised if there was much, if any, difference. My understanding is you cannot add a cruisetour onto an existing cruise booking. You may be able to independently book a stay/tour at Princess lodges, that would not be linked to your cruise booking.

I've really enjoyed the Carnival cruises we've been on. I probably would have looked at them for Alaska but Princess had the itinerary I wanted.

Eww! I would hate to have 5 sea days in a row. Obviously safety first though!

Thank you, I understand all of this. I have checked my credit card statement and the current remaining balance of OBC daily. I definitely have not been refunded what I am owed. The Princess agent I spoke to today told me to wait another week and I should receive an email stating that the refund has been processed (which is what the previous agent told me about this week). And then she tried to sell me an upgrade to Princess Plus! I actually put LOL in the chat. Like I'm seriously going to allow you to charge me more money when you currently OWE me money??

It's now been 6 business days since I contacted Princess and 17 days since I cancelled excursions, and still no word and no refund of any kind. I don't really care if they refund my credit card or OBC..... but I am due a refund. The amount of work people have to go through to not be ripped off by Princess is maddening.

Information for those of us planning to travel to Whittier by train in May. I had reached out because the Glacier Discovery train is not available to book online yet. This makes it sound like you will only be able to book round trip, but I did clarify that one way bookings will be available. Thank you for your interest in traveling with the Alaska Railroad! We are currently having issues with our system and being able to book for our 2024 summer season, we are hoping to have this resolved within the next few weeks but there is no set date at this time. As for the Glacier Discovery, we are scheduled to have it operate roundtrip only from Anchorage to Whitter on May 11th, 15th, 18th, and 19th. From May 25th to 31st we will have roundtrip service from Anchorage to Whittier and Spencer. Starting June 1st we will have our full service. Please let us know if there are any further questions!

Yikes! Princess is $299.

I have had the most success with Princess customer service (by phone and chat) by volunteering as little information as possible and just waiting to see what they will ask. This goes for any topic.

If you want to go to Alaska in 2024, I would book ASAP. In planning our 2024 Alaska trip, all of the vendors I have talked to have said their 2024 bookings are already through the roof, and most have just barely opened up availability online. Going to be very busy in Alaska next year! That being said, our cruise on Sapphire in May was showing tons of cabins of all types available up until a couple of weeks ago, and then all of a sudden all but a few cabins were unavailable--and it has stayed that way. I have a hard time believing that all of a sudden 90% of the ship got booked within just a few days, so I do think Princess is manipulating availability. Maybe to see if they can get bookings at higher prices? I have no idea. We booked in February when they first opened up.

Thank you. I started with $100 OBC. Yes, I did cancel the original Juneau excursion before booking the new one. No, I did not wait for OBC to be restored before rebooking. Maybe this is the hangup--the system can't figure out that it needs to restore my OBC since I paid with my credit card. The second Princess rep says a refund request has been submitted and I should receive an email confirmation when the refund processes within 3-5 business days. She couldn't tell me what that would actually consist of, so we shall see!

oh.my.goodness!! I am so glad you had an amazing time, thank you for sharing! I may or may not have stalked your profile the last couple of weeks to see if you were posting in Viking, haha.... I really appreciate the detail, especially the information about the restaurants! Also this confirms you were able to check your bags on the railroad directly to the cruise ship even though you didn't book through the cruiseline. Awesomeness!!

I was really hoping I wouldn't have any issues with my excursions but it appears that is not the case. I cancelled three excursions on 9/5 and have yet to see any type of refund. Is this what other people are experiencing as well? Juneau excursion for DH for $49.95, paid with credit card Juneau excursion for myself for $49.95, paid with shareholder OBC Excursion for myself for $39.95, paid with shareholder OBC I actually cancelled the $39.95 by accident, so immediately rebooked it, for which it charged my credit card. I also immediately booked a different excursion for Juneau, at a higher cost, that was charged to my credit card. So no potential refunds were applied anywhere else. By my calculations I am due $49.95 on my credit card and $89.90 OBC. Am I missing something? Does anybody else hate that Princess doesn't send any kind of cancellation notice for excursions? And why, when chatting with the Princess agents (two different times now) do I have to tell them the amount of the excursions, the dates they were booked, etc.? Do they really not have that history?

I booked a Resurrection Bay kayaking tour with Adventure60North https://adventure60.com/ for our last morning in Seward; their 2024 prices are slightly higher than 2023 prices. That's something I've noticed a couple of times, so make sure to factor that in to your budgets!

Ooooh, this is solid advice, thank you! PSA, if anybody uses the ibotta app, right now they have some cruise favorites on there such as Bonine, Tide pens, and Downy wrinkle release!

Today I noticed several excursions are now showing fewer slots available, so they are starting to fill up! Nothing is sold out yet, and several still have at least 20 spots available, but the ones that are smaller groups are definitely looking like they will sell out pretty early, as has been reported on CC. So for you 2024 cruisers, don't wait too long! Edited to add: I've also seen at least one excursion change times! DH's fishing excursion time has been moved by a couple of hours. So things are happening in the excursion department for 2024, for sure. I haven't seen any refund for the shore excursions I cancelled on 9/5, so I'm tackling Princess via Live Chat today. I wish Princess would actually send cancellation emails or even just be consistent about sending excursion emails, in general. Ugh. Will let you know how it goes!

Oh I see. Yes, I've never seen this that I can recall. I think it's probably the exception, not the norm.