daisydawg

I’m glad to see the good feedback on this tour. We’re booked on it through Princess in July. Thanks for sharing!

Hopefully my MIL will get the views she wants! It’s a bucket list trip for her. I know there are advantages to leaving from Vancouver. We have to plan around my teenagers’ busy sports schedules and my husband’s job. It was more difficult for us to make it work, and we had to give up Glacier Bay for Endicott Arm/Dawes Glacier. I’m sure it will be a great trip, and it’s a special opportunity for my children to travel with my husband’s parents.

My mother-in-law wants to cruise the Inside Passage. It really limited our options. We settled on a round trip from Vancouver on Princess. As the previous posters stated, make sure you are NOT on a Royal class ship. We’re supposed to go through the Inside Passage on our way back, and I suspect we’ll sleep through at least part, if not all of it. Lol. I kind of wish I had pushed back a little on the Inside Passage thing (it would have been much easier and cheaper to fly to Seattle than Vancouver for us), but we wanted to make her happy. There is a benefit of sailing from Vancouver aside from the Inside passage thing. Generally, the Vancouver itineraries have more time in the various ports than the Seattle itineraries.

Thanks! It looks like a good experience. My husband and father-in-law aren’t really interested in the sled dogs, but my mother-in-law and my teens are. So it seems like a good compromise to self-drive and stop at the sled dogs.

Did you make a reservation in advance for the sled dogs at Tutsi? It says on the website that you don’t need to make a reservation, but I actually wouldn’t mind making one. We’re leaning towards renting a car when we’re there in July, but my mother-in-law really wants to do the sled dog cart (surprisingly). She’s in her late 70s, and this is a bucket list trip for her. She was asking me the other day if I had made a reservation yet for the sled dogs. Lol. Anyway, I don’t want to mess up and have her miss out on it.

I have a similar situation, except our group is 6 people. Landsea Tours has a post-cruise excursion that ends around 6:00 pm. Your cruise line may offer something similar. We’re on Princess, and their excursions end even earlier. The baggage storage at the port closes at 5:00 pm so that’s not really a great option. I looked at day use hotel rooms - that may be a good option for my husband’s parents, but my teens won’t want to sit in a hotel room all day. I think we’re going to rent a minivan from the airport and sightsee outside Vancouver on our own. We’re flying in two days early and are staying downtown so we’ll have already seen some of the sights in the city.

Thanks to all of you for your helpful responses! I’ll look into the rollator walker. That might be a good compromise and useful for her in general. She is usually happy to move along at her own pace and just avoids situations with lots of walking, but this is a bucket list trip for her.

Hi! Does anyone have recent experience with the Accessibility Lane, in particular in Vancouver. I’m taking a Princess cruise out of Vancouver this summer with my husband, two teen children, and my husband’s parents. My mother-in-law has mobility issues. She does not use a wheelchair or walker on a regular basis, but she does have a handicap tag for her car and has used a wheelchair to navigate the airport. It is difficult for her to walk long distances or wait in line. I looked at the mobility questionnaire on the Princess website, and it’s focused on mobility devices. She will not be bringing a mobility device on the cruise, but we would like to try to get her a wheelchair to get through the port and the lines. The rest of us are fine going through the regular lane. Any advice? I know it’s months away, but if we need to request special access, I’ll need to talk my in-laws through it.

Thank you for mentioning Murray’s Guide! It’s an awesome resource! I’ve rented a mini van for our stop in Skagway in July. My husband and I will be traveling with our teenagers and his elderly parents, and it seems like a better option for us than the train. My in-laws would enjoy the train, but my kids would probably be bored. The train would also be an expensive nap for my husband (source: past scenic train rides). Lol.

We ended up booking the cruise, but sadly the Endicott Arm excursion still isn’t an option to book. If it was sold out, would it say? It would be nice to know if it might be an option for budgeting purposes.

I think we’ve finally narrowed down an itinerary for July 2024. We’re pretty limited by our teen children’s sport schedules, and my mother-in-law wanted the Inside Passage. Anyway, we’re settled on a round trip Inside Passage itinerary from Vancouver on Ruby Princess (ports are Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan and our scenic cruising is Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier) and are getting ready to book. Here’s the question: if the Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer is not listed as an available excursion for that day of scenic cruising, will it not be an option? Maybe our time there is too short? Or does Princess add excursions later? I’m a little disappointed that our itinerary does not include Glacier Bay, but my husband really wants to make this trip with his parents work. just trying to figure out some cool excursions to make up the lack of Glacier Bay.

Thank you! I’m sure we’ll figure something out. One of my kids would love Uncruise, but my mother-in-law definitely wouldn’t be able to manage it. The kids actually read books so they’re better without TV and other entertainment than my husband.

Viking requires guests to be 18, which is awesome if you’re not traveling with younger teens. Lol. I’m going to show him some itineraries on Princess and HAL. I think he thinks the bigger boats don’t cruise the inside passage or go to Glacier Bay. Princess would be my choice, I think, although husband and kids would probably like NCL better.

Before he insisted on the small boat, I was leaning towards Princess so you’re confirming my instinct. I’m honestly less worried about the teens being bored than my husband. Lol.

Hi, everyone! I’ve googled and searched the boards, but I’m still struggling with this. We’re in the early planning stage for an Alaskan cruise in 2024. My husband and I will be 50, and we have two teenagers (15 and 16 at time of travel). My in-laws are potentially joining us. They’re in their late 70s plus my mother-in-law has mobility issues. My father-in-law wants to cruise on a smaller ship (like 400 passengers). I’m having a hard time finding cruise lines with smaller ships that are kid-friendly. Or they’re like the National Geographic cruises and not great for people with limited mobility (I can’t see my mother-in-law getting in a Zodiac to get to a port). My husband is easily bored and needs activities, TV, WiFi, etc so no TV and no WIFi is a no go for him. I’ve looked at Seabourn, Linblad, Alaskan Dreams, Uncruise, Adventuresmith, Windstar, Oceania, Regent, and American Cruise Line. Am I missing something? Alternatively, is there a major cruise line with a smaller boat that might be a good compromise position? I’m thinking maybe one of the smaller HAL boats, but they’re still almost 2000 passengers. I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!