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I am also doing a cruisetour with Princess that starts in Fairbanks. Our plane gets in around 12:30 am local time on Tuesday morning. Our "tour" starts that same day.

I checked with Fairbanks Princess Lodge and you can NOT check in until later in the afternoon. They said to come between 1 and 3 pm.

We have cancelled the Princess transfers and will get a shuttle (basically a cab the hotel pays for) from the airport to a different hotel.

We have reserved a hotel room so we can get a few hours sleep and take a shower in the morning. We will then wander around until time to check in with Princess at the Lodge.

I had heard that if you use a large magnet to hold open the sliding door, you can sleep with fresh air coming into the room.

Would this cause any problems?

This advice was posted on Norwegians forum.

Just asking :rolleyes:

Can I plug anything else in the "razor only" plug in the bathroom? I want to put a night light so I don't have to leave the bathroom lights on during the night. I'm not sure about electricity and don't want to cause a problem.

Thanks.

Yes they do. It's called the Ship's Ultimate Tour. It isn't advertised. As soon as you get on-board go right to the pursers desk and get on the list. There are a limited number of people allowed. It cost (in August 2014) about $150 each and lasted about 2 or so hours.

You go from the very bottom of the ship (engine room) to the top (where the captain is). You must be able to walk stairs as that is mostly how you get around. At the end they feed you some nice snacks and drinks. Later that day you will get some gifts delivered to your cabin. We got 3 copies of group pictures (8 X 10) that had been taken by the ship's photographer, a nice wooden frame to put it in, a Princess apron and a Princess bathrobe. The gifts are per person so my husband and I each got the gifts.

I have seen others say they got different gifts. Must be according to the ship you are on.

We are looking at the Princess excursion when we disembark in Vancouver. It is a 4 hour tour : 25 minutes to explore Stanley Park, 30 minutes at the Lyn Canyon Suspension Bridge and 1 1/4 hours at the Capilano Fish Hatchery and Rainforest. Cost $115 pp.

Two questions -

1) What hotels will they drop you off at? We were sort of looking at the Blue Horizon.

2) Is there a better company to grab a tour with? We are only spending the one extra night in Vancouver and will be leaving early the next morning to catch our plane home.

This tour would get us back to a hotel early (1:30 pm) and leave plenty of time to explore downtown.

I saw a post recently that said new mattresses will be brought on the Coral during the mini dry dock in February or March.

Hope this happens!

These changes are exactly why we switched from the Island to the Coral for our cruise next summer.

I will be extremely disappointed if they make the same changes to the Coral.

Hope not!

Dorothy

Just got the All Inclusive Beverage Package added to our cruise at no extra cost. Very happy.

I know the soda package just puts a sticker on your cruise card.

How do they identify you when you have AIBP?

For all those replying.

 

Only a few of the replies recognize that the OP is asking about an Alaska cruisetour.

 

Responses about extra shore excursions do not apply to what the OP is asking about.

 

Op's real question comes down to is the Coral really sold out on the desired cruisetour or not.

It appears that the cruise/tour in question with the Coral is NOT sold out. I just looked and they are again available. I'm guessing it was a glitch. I quickly emailed my travel agent to switch to the Coral.

Here's hoping!

To add to the confusion - if you look at just the sailing of the Coral, there are plenty of cabins available all summer 2016.

But if you look at the cruise/tour with the Coral, they are sold out all summer.

Somethings fishy.

Should I ask Princess? What is the likelihood they will actually know?

We have booked a cruise/tour (FB4 - 2 nights Fairbanks, 2 nights Denali and train to Whittier) for summer 2016. We have never been on the Island so we went ahead and booked. After reading about the changes made during dry dock, I decided we would be better off moving our departure back a few days so we could sail on the Coral instead.

I investigated it for a few days and was going to talk to our travel companions to see if they agreed to the change.

When I went online again, all tours with the Coral are suddenly sold out. My travel agent says people are booking early for next year.

Is it possible that Princess will add more of this tour? It's the exact one we want to do as our friends have never been to Alaska and this gives them a good taste.

Thanks

We have done the rail/bus twice now and love it. The train experience is fun and they tell you about the gold rush on the way. We did it independently with Chilkoot Tours (sp?). Did train up and bus down the first time and bus up and train down the last time. We did the all day tours with lunch included. Both are great. Well worth the price.

You should ask this on the Princess board.

Take a look at http://www.mightygreattrips.com They have the "big blue bus" that goes directly to Mendenhall Glacier. It drops you off at the visitors center. No need to walk a long way. The current cost appears to be $20 round trip. It starts at 9 am and last return trip is at 6 pm. Stay as long as you want then catch the next bus. They run every 30 minutes. We have used them and found them easy and efficient.

Buy tickets and pick up the bus at the parking lot under Mt. Robert tram.

We have taken the long trip to Carcross 2 times and loved it both times. The first time was our first time to Alaska. We booked directly through Chilkoot Tours. We took the train up, got off and onto a bus which made numerous stops for photo opportunities. We went to Caribou Crossing for lunch (BBQ chicken and fixings), then had a relaxing trip back down to Skagway, again stopping for pictures.

The second time we took the bus up and the train back. Either way is fun and the trip is beautiful.

Don't hesitate to book directly. The buses are smaller than what the cruise ships use so the tour is more personal. The driver asks what you want to see and where to stop for pictures.

Check out Chilkoot (sp?) Tours. Very reliable company. We have done it twice. Once train up and bus down and last time bus up and train down. Saw something different both times. The bus stops where ever people want and any time there is wildlife to see. Well worth the price for a full day tour. We had plenty of time to walk around town afterwards. The main part of town isn't all that big.

I know there are different shapes in mini-suites but not sure about actual size. The shape makes a big difference in perceived size.

On the Diamond and Coral the rooms are long and thin. You have to walk past the bed to get to the sitting area.

On the Sea the room is much closer to a square. You walk into the sitting area in the first half of the square and the bedroom is the other half of the square. You can pull a curtain across to separate the two rooms.

I much prefer the squarer shaped room, myself.

On Princess?

 

I have never seen a Princess balcony cabin that had a curtain like you describle.

We had a mini suite with balcony on the Sea Princess for a 10 day Alaska out of San Francisco. It had a curtain between the "bedroom" part and the "living room" part. When my husband got a migraine it was invaluable. We shut the curtain and he was able to have complete darkness while I watched tv in the other room.