rjeffler

When are you going?  We are going June 2021 and I would love to know where you stay and how it is!!

Did you ever get any info on somewhere to stay?  I have 8 folks that I'm planning for in June 2021 and wanted some ideas as well!

Just wanted to give some exhaustive notes on my recent cruise to help out anyone else that might be traveling…especially with a large group.  

We did the Celebrity Reflection from Dublin that went to Reykjavik, Akureyri, Glasgow, Belfast and Cork before returning to Dublin.    We also did 5 days in London ahead of Dublin, but I won’t add any of that unless someone is interested in it! 

We had a group of 12 so I made plans on our own so that we could hit all of the important places we wanted to see, but not feel like we were in a cattle call with 100 of our closest friends from the ship.  

In Dublin, make sure you hit Kilmainham Goal, Jameson Distillery and Guiness Storehouse.  I would suggest purchasing tickets ahead of time for all of these as they are very popular.  We also did the Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells, but bought tickets to those as we walked in.  We did the HOHO bus (Do Dublin) and used that a few times as transportation around town.  We got one driver that did live narration and he was MUCH better than the pre-recorded one.  We did a meal in Temple Bar and walked around a LOT.  We also did a meal at The Bank.  It is between Temple Bar and Trinity College.  If you get a chance, do that.  You can stop in for drinks and snacks or have a meal upstairs.  The upstairs is very small so you definitely need reservations.   https://www.bankoncollegegreen.com/ We also took the train to Howth one day to do something different.  We had lunch at the Dog House.  It is very kitschy.  While Howth is a beautiful place, there is a bit of hiking and lots of restaurants….not much else.  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Custom House Quay.  It was very close to a LOT.  It was about ½ mile from Temple Bar/Spire/Ha Penny Bridge and there were bus stops out front for everything.  The EPIC Irish Immigration Museum was right next door.   There was even laundry facilities if you have been on vacation for a few days and want to get on the boat with all clean clothes!  The hotel is about a 5 minute cab ride to the port. 

Our first stop was Glasgow, Scotland.  We went with Timberbush Tours for this stop.  Our guide was Eric and we really liked him!  We left the dock and first went to the Falkirk Wheel.  If you’ve never heard of it, check it out:  https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/falkirk-wheel/.   It is a lock that is a wheel.  Most of my group had done a Rhine River cruise and were interested in locks and some of us saw this particular engineering marvel on a TV show in the US, so we wanted to see it in person.  We did not take a boat trip on it, but just stayed at the bottom and watched it transit up and back down.  Even without the ride, it was worth seeing!  After that we made a stop at the Kelpies.  It was not a scheduled stop, but Eric through we would enjoy it and we truly did!  http://www.thehelix.co.uk/things-to-do/the-kelpies/ .  Then, we went to Stirling Castle which is the most popular thing in the area (my opinion).  Make sure to buy your tickets online ahead of time and miss the lines.  It was packed, but we wandered through the Castle and took lots of fun pictures.  Note here:  Make sure to get your drivers phone number!  We were all ready to go a bit before he was scheduled to pick us up and didn’t have a way to reach him!  Our last stop on the way back to the boat was Loch Lomond.  Just a quick photo/potty stop!  

We made it back to the boat with about 30 minutes to spare and felt like we really got our monies worth.   We paid $600# ($796) which worked out to $67/pp for the 12 with us.  The castle was an additional $16/pp.  Considering what the boat was charging for tours, I think we really got our monies worth!!

In Reykjavik, the most popular tour is the Golden Circle.  For that we booked with Arctic Adventures.  Our guide was Feeva(not sure exactly how to spell it).  She was a wealth of information and talked to us constantly throughout the tour.  We first stopped at Thingvellir National Park and walked through the crevasse made by an eruption many years ago.  The next stop was at Geysir which is like Old Faithful.  It erupts ever 3-5 minutes and is quite interesting to see.  Leaving this stop, we stopped on the side of the road to visit some local Iceland ponies.  This particular farm has set up a roadside stand for the tour drivers to stop at for photos.  They even have ‘horse candy’ for you to feed them.  They take great selfies!  🙂  Last stop for us was Gullfoss which was a giant waterfall.  If you bring a rain jacket, take the walk down and get closer to the falls.  It was really neat to be that close!  Then, you can walk above it to photo it was well.   No additional entrance fees required for this day.  It cost us $156,000 ISK or $1445 which worked out to $121/pp.  Again, much less than the boat and we got our own 18 passenger Mercedes mini-bus.  

The second day in Reykjavik we wanted to do the Blue Lagoon.  I was warned to go early, so we scheduled entrance for 9:00.  We simply had rented a bus from Rejkjavik Excursions for the ride to/from the Blue Lagoon.  I included 6 other folks that I met through cruise critic for the transportation here so that we could save a bit of money!  We paid $695 for the Bus ($43/pp) and then $82/pp for entry into the actual Lagoon.  A few of us were quite wary of the lagoon but it was so much more fun than we could have imagined.  You do have to shower (totally nude) before you get in but they have showers with doors on them so you can be as private as you want to be.  Make sure to put LOTS of conditioner in your hair (they have it in the shower for free) before you go into the water.  If you have curly hair, try to keep your hair out of the water.  Mine is straight and I had no problems.  They also have hair dryers and qtips when you get out!  No need for swim shoes.  Our driver on this day simply drove us back and forth and gave us no additional information about Iceland, so he was just the driver.  🙂 

Next was Akureyri.  We did our tour with FAB Travel.   Our driver was named Hawk (none of us could pronounce his Icelandic name).  If I heard him correctly, he was the son of the owners and worked for them in the summer.  We found out very close to the end of our tour that he was a geologist!   We did quite a few stops and I couldn’t pronounce any of them.  It was the Myvatn tour.  We did Godafoss waterfall, Dimmuborgir, Namaskaro and Jarobodin.  Many similar aspects as the Golden Circle in Reykjavik.  Jarabodin is the nature bath that is a lot like the Blue Lagoon.  It is very pretty, but much smaller…much less busy as well.   If you didn’t do the Blue Lagoon, you should do this one!   Namaskaro is a hot mud sulphur mine.  The smell here can be breathtaking…literally.  It is awful.   This tour cost us $170,000 ISK which was $1592.  At $135/couple, still a great deal! 

Belfast, Northern Ireland was our next stop.  Originally it was to be Lerwick on the Shetland Islands but I think they changed it to not have a tender port. 😞  While Belfast was nice, we would have LOVED Lerwick!  Our tour company here was McCombs Travel.  We had large mini-busses prior to this, so we were shocked when the 12 of us were given a full size 50 person bus!  Who knew?  We could have sold tours and gone for free! 🙂 We got in quick and drove straight to Giant’s Causeway.  We arrived about 20 minutes before it opened.  The driver explained that we didn’t have to pay to see the Causeway, just if you wanted to see the Visitors Center.   Just walk through the tunnel and down the road to get there.  If you can, go really early.  We were there early enough to be able to take photos without anyone else in them!  When we started walking back up the hill, there were literally hundreds of tourists walking down.  I did a bit of research ahead of time and was able to find The Camel and the Wishing Chair while we were there.  If you have a lot of time, you can take a longer hike, but we just walked down, wandered a bit and walked back.  Wear tennis shoes as it is a good walk and out on the causeway can be slippery.  We have a couple of scaredy cats with us so the next stop was just to look at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  Our driver stopped at a lookout over it for us to take photos of.  Truthfully, I thought it looked pretty neat, but I saw it from WAY above.  I might not have thought that way if I was on it!  We did a drive through Belfast and he showed us the Murals (let us sign on the wall) and told a lot of history of the riots of 2011.  There are still gates around many businesses and even into parts of town.  The last stop was the Titanic Museum.  If you have the time, plan for 2 hours here.  Of course, we all know what happened to the boat, but to see all of the first hand accounts was very interesting.  The full tour today was $625 for the bus and then $242 for the Titanic so a grand total of $146/couple.  What a deal! 

Our last stop was Cork, Ireland.  For some reason, they shortened our call here by 2 hours, so we didn’t get to do everything we originally hoped to do.  We drove directly to Blarney Castle.  We had not purchased our tickets in advance so I bought them online while on the bus ride there.  What a good idea. 🙂  Because there were 10 of us getting off the bus, I went to the tour/group line and showed the person the confirmation on my phone and they let us enter directly.  This saved us waiting in line behind 50+ people! If you are going to Blarney Castle, go there immediately and once you get in, walk straight to the castle/Blarney Stone.  There is a line to get in and up to the stone, so do everything else afterwards!  You have to wait in line to get inside the castle and the Blarney stone is at the top.  Truthfully, it is kind of anti-climatic, but we were there, so we did it!  There was also a really great photo stop (on the grounds) for the castle.  When you are leaving, it is on the walkway between the castle and the front.  There is a large rock with a hole cut in it.  It frames the castle so nicely!  We then stopped at the English Market in Cork for a late lunch.  We spent a bit over an hour here but didn’t have time to do anything else as the boat was leaving soon.   We were originally going to do the Jameson Distillery, but we did the one in Dublin.  They changed our extra stop to Kinsale, but we never had time to go there.   This tour was $818 or $140/couple + the tickets to Blarney which I bought day of.  

That is most of our trip so If you have any questions about tours, etc...let me know and I’ll answer if I can!

I've been doing searchs' on this website and google. I'm looking for a company to bring my group of 12 from the port to the Blue Lagoon and back. They don't want to have to shuttle into town to then walk to the Grayline to get a shuttle. We also want to go first thing in the am. Any ideas?

My parents have a Carnival CC and had lots of points they offered to me. We did the redemption online in February for my April cruise. To date, they still don't show up on my online profile. The card is in my fathers name and the booking in my name but they have the correct booking number. We've called twice (he has to be with me for them to talk to me) and they promise it will be done but I don't see it. I worry we'll get to Hawaii and it won't be there and I won't be able to contact them. I'm a bit of a worrier. Any ideas?

We did VNP and the Waterfall through Roberts Hawaii when we were there. We didn't get to spend much time at the visitors center and there is soooo much to see there. I think we got 20 minutes total. The waterfall was less than exciting. If you can find a tour that gives you enough time to spend places, that would be great. My review is in my signature.

We did a snorkel trip in Kona 5 years ago and it is still our FAVORITE tour of ALL time on 15 cruises!! It was through (now) Aloha Ocean Excursions. We were 2 of the 15 people on the zodiac and the only 2 from our boat. The others were staying on the island. They rushed us out as a pod of spinner dolphins was close. It was fascinating! I got a little panicky and got back into the boat pretty quickly but took some great pictures from there. Those in the water were soooo excited with the dolphin swimming and jumping all around us. We then did a short ride to do some additional snorkeling and sightseeing there and back. Saw so many different animals, it was great!! I highly recommend it. You can read my full review in my signature line! We are going back next April and going to do it again!!

I have a group of 8 really active middle aged folks going on this cruise. We originally planned to bike down Haleakala, but our ship doesn't arrive in Kahului until 9am and everyone I've contacted so far won't do a later tour.

I know we are NOT doing the road to Hana. I figure there is enough else on the island to keep us busy for the day.

What did you do that you REALLY enjoyed? I've read a lot about Lahaina, so that may be an option. Is there a tour you would suggest? Or just renting a big van and driving around??

Thanks in advance!!

We actually took a taxi from the ship to the store rather than arranging through the company. On the way home, we wandered down the street and caught the bus back to the ship (a short walk) for only $1-2. We were in Maui overnight that trip and went out to the taxi que the night prior and asked someone to come back and get us at 2am to bring us to Paia. She was there right when she was supposed to be!

We used Maui Sunriders when in Maui 5 years ago. The sunrise tour was great. There was even a local doing a chant at the top during the sunrise. Something you only see once in your lifetime. They then drove us down to the starting point for our ride back. This group you go at your own speed and stop where you want. You can read my review in my signature!

I've done this cruise in the other direction and am doing it again next year. The 5 days at sea are some of my favorite and most relaxing of the year. :p

Thanks so much for sharing! We hope to do the same itinerary in July, 2016 & are planning to book by tomorrow. A couple questions -- are there pros & cons to cruising one direction over the other? We'd like to begin or end our trip in Paris -- does anyone know if it would be easier/more economical to make connections to/from Paris via Basel or via Amsterdam?

We did it this way as we wanted to see the tulips at Keukenhoff and then go to a friends house in Augsburg. This direction just worked better for us. I would gather they are exactly the same...just depends on your schedule and train/air costs to your origin and then home.

I WILL say that we were tired after 3 days in Amsterdam and then 7 on the boat. There was a transportation strike starting the day we arrived in Augsburg and we were OK with it. We simply stayed in town rather than another day trip and were happy we did. We walked so much during the trip that a day to go leisurely was welcome. I would do the heavier parts of my trip prior to the cruise, but that is my opinion only!

Great review! Thanks for sharing. Did the tour excursion info come in your precruise package or was it distributed on the boat? Looking forward to our turn end of August on Viking Idi, doing same direction you did AMS-BSL!

I think I could see some of the cruises ahead of time, but you will get a book from Viking about 3 weeks prior and it has all of the optional tours in it as well.

Tour descriptions

http://s1252.photobucket.com/user/rjeffler/library/Viking?sort=3&page=1

Great review. We were on the Kara during Thanksgiving, had a great time. And if I am correct we had Rene on the Helvetia several years ago. Ciao for now!

Funny you should mention that...our group is still using that phrase, even in emails!! He was GREAT!!

I just put up a link to the Daily's for the trip. The front page that I showed was the only information that you really needed for the day. The inside was a history or brief on a museum or the area that you would be in for the day. The back cover was things to see, restaurants, shopping, etc...

This boat was different from all other cruise lines as they NEVER asked for money. The only money we spent on board was for drinks not during meals. They GIVE you water as you get off the boat each day and call it 'Excursion Water'. They give you a snack/drink/warm cloth as you get back on the boat each day after your excursion. They even made sure to get everyone back to the boat for lunch daily so you didn't have to spend the money on shore if you didn't want to. Of course, if we were to stay docked, you could always go back out on your own.

Each day we had a briefing in the lounge to go over the next days events. You (or at least one person from your group) need to be there to find out the times to be off the boat, etc... They were very entertaining and short. This is also when they tell you about special tours. The first night we were told about the Wheelhouse Tour and needed to sign up for the following day. When they added an additional tour, this is where they told you about it.

Here is a brief synopsis of our trip and what we did while on board:

We left Amsterdam at 11pm on our way to Kinderdijk and the Windmills.

Kinderdijk: There was about a 30 min ride to the windmill village. The guided tour was quite informative and our guide was great. The tour finishes at the 2nd windmill that you can go up and look inside. Back on board and casted off for Cologne. Leisurely afternoon around the boat. There were a couple of events and the tour of the wheelhouse. They did the tour in groups of 10-15. Once the captain showed us everything he does we were able to ask questions. He also told us anytime we wanted to drop by, just knock and if they could, they would allow us in. Many of my friends did just that and spent time in the wheelhouse during different portions of the trip.

Cologne: The boat dropped us off to get on busses for the ride to Koln/Cologne. The walking tour started and finished at the cathedral. After the hour tour, we had the rest of the day/afternoon off. Part of our group visited a brew house and then the Lindt Chocolate Museum while the rest of our group did a couple of art museums. The boat arrived in Cologne while we were on our tour and we were able to photo it coming down the river. In Cologne there is a bridge over the Rhine that they put Love Lock's on. They have quite a few stores that sell the locks as well. A very neat thing to see if you haven't ever seen it. This day there were 2 extra tours available. I'll try to get a photo of the price list/options in soon. We left Cologne after 11:00pm.

Koblenz: Arrived early morning and had a tour of Marksburg Castle. This was one of my favorites. There was an additional tour added this day that was new...Ehrenbreitstein - Ride up a gondola to the hilltop fortress. I gather this one had a bit less walking than the normal tour. It was a free tour as well, just another option available. After we left for the tour, the boat left to meet us in Braubach. Then we sailed for the rest of the afternoon.

This was the day of the Castles!! My friends and I got a lounger on the top deck and settled in for hours of castles. It was still a bit cold, so we used the towels as blankets. The Program Director was also up on deck and narrated each castle as we passed it. Quite a bit of history and beautiful scenes. The chef/waiters even came by and gave us 'Happy Chocolate' which was hot chocolate with schnapps! Quite a nice surprise.

Rudescheim was a lovely town, but we arrived at 5:00 and nearly all of the stores close at 6:00. We did some shopping in town and then had dinner. They had an optional tour here with dinner, band, etc... We didn't take the tour and ended up in the restaurant next door with the same music. After dinner, the only stores open are on the road that parallels the river.

Heidelberg/Mannheim - we arrived in the morning and took a bus up to the castle. While the tour was nice, it was quite short and didn't show much of the grounds. If you didn't know better, you probably wouldn't mind. Our friends live in Germany and had just been there 2 months prior and showed us pictures of all of the things we missed. We could have easily spent 2 more hours there looking around. But, they bussed us back to town and we had some time to look around and shop. I truly don't remember Speyer. I haven't seen my pictures yet (my friend does us a large drive of everyone's photos) so as soon as I do, it may bring back my memories!!

I do remember that this was German Night in the restaurant. There were sausages/pretzels and bread on the table when we arrived and all of the staff were dressed in traditional garb. The meal was great EXCEPT no schnitzel. We expressed our disappointment to the waiter as well as on our comment cards. He didn't know why schnitzel had been removed as it was there in prior tours. Other than that, it was a great night!!

Strausborg- We arrived early am and took a bus over the bridge into France. My biggest memory from this day was the storks. The area is well known for them and they take you down a street where the storks have nests on the top of each tree. It is truly fascinating!! There is also a lovely cathedral here. They dropped us in the middle of town and we did a walking tour that ended at the cathedral. Since it was Sunday, we couldn't go in to look around. You had about 1 hour of free time and then back to the meeting point to go back to the boat. They did run a shuttle 3 more times that afternoon if you wanted to either stay in town or come back after lunch. It was about a 1/2 mile walk from the cathedral to the bus stop, though, so be prepared!

Breisach - We arrived and got on the bus for the Black Forest Tour. This was the only day that our bus was totally filled. About a 1 hour drive to get to the stop for the day. They did make one photo stop along the way. We had a local guide that was also a organic farmer and she brought wild garlic, carrots and apples for everyone on board to try. The stop in the Black Forest is mostly a tourist stop. There is the largest cuckoo clock in the world (side of a building), shop to buy cuckoo clocks, a glass blower and a restaurant where the do a demonstration of Black Forest Cake. If you are not into that, there was also a tour into the forest or you could walk on your own. We were back on the boat by 1:30 and off to Basel. We did stop once around 6:30 to pick up the people that had been on the Colmar/WWII tours.

We actually arrived in Basel by 9:00 that evening although they didn't seem to let anyone off the boat that night.

We took a cab to the train station (smaller one, only about 2 miles from the port) and took a train to Augsburg for our next 4 days. I'll go into that part of the trip later.

Please let me know if you have any questions!!

I'm just back on 04/21 from Rhine Getaway. I've started my trip report at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2202938

This is a play by play of my trip. We were 8 adults aged 42-67. We were 2 days prior in Amsterdam (on our own) and 4 days after in Augsburg, Germany (also on our own). I'll give you things that I would have like to have known as well since this was our first River Cruise.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 8:00am. We were supposed to train to Centraal Station but there was construction and we ended up in a taxi. $50 E~ for 6 people and luggage. We were staying at the Doubletree Centraal Station and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, no rooms available that time of the morning, but we gave the luggage over to the porters and ventured out into the city. The location of this hotel is great. It is right next door to the train station. The port for the river boats are right behind it and most of the canal boat tours start right in front of the train station.

The only definitive plan we had for this day was the Van Gogh Museum at 4:00. If you plan to visit any of the museums, make sure to buy your timed tickets online ahead of time. There were more than 100 people in line. We walked up to an employee and showed them our tickets and were ushered directly into the door. The museum is 3 floors and takes more than an hour to tour. There is an audio tour available for a few euro if you care to do that.

After the museum, we walked out back to take photos on the IAMSTERDAM sign. The Rijksmuseum is just behind the sign as well. By this time, we were so tired, we took the trolley/tram back to Centraal Station. Ate dinner in a bistro near the train station. Be prepared if you travel in a large group like we do....Finding a table for 8 is very hard AND they don't like to split tickets.

We toured Keukenhof Gardens the next day. Our concierge was able to sell us tickets at a discounted price. We had to train back to the airport ($4E/each way) and then catch a bus to the garden from there. It was about a 30 minute bus ride. The gardens were fantastic!! We spent about 4 hours wandering and looking at the exhibits. Note here...if you want to bring tulips back to the U.S., you need to buy them at Keukenhof. They have a booth that sells everything they grow and they will mail them directly back to the U.S. for you. Any other flowers will not be allowed back into the U.S. We did a one hour canal tour as well. You HAVE to do a canal trip while in Amsterdam. You have lots of options...one hour, booze cruise, hop-on/hop-off. The booze cruises were sold out a day ahead of time so purchase early if that is your choice. The one hour tour was quite informative. We had dinner at the Asian restaurant across from the Doubletree. Although it was good, it was extremely slow.

The last day we had tickets for the Anne Frank House. The timed tickets sell out WAY ahead of time. We had a group of 8 and booking 60 days out I could only get 4 tix at 10:00 and 4 tix at 11:00. We arrived 10:05 and they were nice enough to let our group go in together. Just for fun, we walked the line for those without tickets and there were more than 2000 people in it. BUY YOUR TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME!!! After our walk back to the hotel we were off to the boat.

4 in our party received an email that the boat was not docked at one of the 3 usual docks and was instead across town. We had the concierge arrange a taxi to get there and the taxi driver notified us that the boat WAS at the normal dock (walking distance from the hotel). This event was the first chance for Viking and they far exceeded our expectations. They took our names and cabin numbers and 2 days later returned our taxi money to us in cash because of the confusion.

Getting on this boat was easier than any I've ever done. We arrived at 1:45 and 2 of our 4 cabins were already clean and ready for us. The front desk person walked us to our rooms and showed us all the cabin amenities. We had lunch on the 3rd floor terrace and then spent the afternoon unpacking and relaxing. We had walked nearly 10 miles each of the days we spent in Amsterdam! There was an included walking tour of the city that afternoon but we asked the concierge about it and we had already seen all of the areas they were going to.

Here I should go over the dress code. I've been on 15 large ship cruises and I dressed as casually or more on this ENTIRE trip. I read lots of trip reports and most of them said that jeans was uncommon...NOT so. My group of 8 as well as more than half of the guests were in jeans every dinner. I brought black slacks and a skirt and 5 dressy shirts and only wore them one night. I ended up having dressy slacks and 4 shirts that I never wore. They do not have a dress up night. They had a Captains Cocktail party on the night before we finished, but no mention of dressing up.

There was no assigned seating on the boat. The window tables all seated 6 and then the inside tables sat 8 or 10. We chose a table the first night and really liked our server. We also have person with some food allergies so it was nice to tell one person and have it handled. We didn't want to rehash everything with a new server daily. They were so concerned about his allergies that they brought us the next day's menus each night so that he could choose an entree and make sure it could be made for him. They were very easy to work with. Nearly every meal we sat at the same table. Most people did. We weren't there when the door opened on day 5 and a group of 2 ladies sat at our table and we had to change locations. So, if you want the same table daily, make sure you are there immediately!!

This is a VERY active cruise. We walked an average of 6-8 miles daily. Be prepared. Have enough shoes to be able to wear a different pair each day. I'll give you a few minutes to digest this and then I'll try and scan the 'Daily's' and talk about each day on board.

I'm just back from the Amsterdam to Basel cruise (Apr 14-21) on Viking Kara. We flew into Amsterdam Saturday night (arriving Sunday morning) and boarded on Tuesday afternoon. We did Keukenhof on the 13th and it was wonderful. There were a few areas that hadn't bloomed yet, but for the most part, they were up. I think we were only the 2nd cruise of the season for our boat. I know Keukenhof is only open 8 weeks or so a year, so plan accordingly. Our cruise sold out nearly a year in advance.

We LOVED this boat, the trip, the excursion, etc...

I'll be trying to post a review in the near future. We have been on 15 large ships prior and I'm going to have a hard time going back to them! Might even try the Mississippi River cruises when they hopefully start in 2017!

GBTW, did you happen to go into the visitors center in Anchorage?

We did not. Actually we did almost nothing in Anchorage. Got there one night and left the next morning for Fairbanks. When we arrived back, had dinner with a friend, spent the night and got on the train for Seward the next morning.

Sadly, we had to prioritize and Anchorage was just a stopover for us.

I don't think the ship left port until 8 or after. I know my family didn't get on board until around 1:30.

I did a 16 day trip like you mentioned. Large name hotels all of the way and didn't spend very much. Rather than rehash it all, check out my pre-planning and post cruise links in my signature. I started planning 16 months out!

I will say, Running Reindeer Ranch in Fairbanks was one of my favorite as well as Whale Watching with FISHES in Icy Straight Point.

I had planned so much, I was worried about things not working out and they all did. Even if my plans weren't the best for someone else, they worked great for my husband and I!!

You did fine! Port is a great side for going south. Just did it myself a few weeks ago. Rest easy!

I can't help with helping you pack less as my family brings WAY too much every time (15 cruises in)!!

I will say that we enjoyed having our rain jackets. They are Columbia brand and are like windbreakers but water resistant. Loose enough to wear heavier layers underneath if needed. The ponchos seem to be one time use.