camarodrivenrs

My last Alaska cruise was a 55 liter backpack each as it was the start of an across the U.S. road trip. We weren't planning on doing the formal nights, but we had good tablemates so I rented a tux onboard and my girlfriend had one dress rolled up so it worked for us. We are planning on going this route again and using Celebrity's pacific crossing to Japan to do an across Asia/Europe backpacking trip assuming this cruise is offered during the fall of 2017.

For the underware, I start with 14 pairs and either do laundry or discard them and purchase more when needed.

Its true that 15 drinks is a hard cut off, but for example on your sea days (if planning to drink more) before you get to your cut off you can buy beer buckets or the beer tubes by the pool without counting against your 15.

Not sure about check in, but maritime law requires a gangway watch at all times a gangway is in place. Interesting question though, hope someone else can provide an answer for you.

Yes, for Alaska the itinerary is more important than the ship. Also depends on what ship you have booked with Princess. If you are on the Island or Coral they are hard to beat.

While the intention is to increase income for the Spanish government, this tax policy will likely lead to a similar response in regards to future ship deployment as we saw in Alaska when the state government implemented a head tax on passengers. The cruise lines reduced the number of ships in Alaska and the tax was quickly repealed and reduced a couple of years later. Save to say this tax won't be around for long

 

BTW: do you have any idea how hard it was to read your so called review It you had used paragraphs it would have been a lot easier.

Very right. I've no idea what your review said because its basically impossible to read that way.

I was hoping you could shed some light on the visa requirements for the Russian stop. I've read that if you are on a Celebrity tour, the visa isn't required, but if on your own a visa would be required?

Definitely the key with the Cheers program is to quickly make friends with the bartenders (Cash tips and good conversation work well), because I found they wouldn't always enter the drink into the system so they wouldn't count against your 15 total. On my Triumph cruise I hit my limit each day so it was definitely worth it for me.

I would be interested in the light rail since will be staying in Seattle after our cruise in June 2015. Any info regarding Seattle will be very helpful. Don't know what hotel we are staying at yet....Still researching. Thank you.

The light rail was really easy and cheap, though I'm no means an expert. We took a cab from the hotel to the downtown station and it was like $10-15. This could be accomplished using the bus system but the busses always looked crowded and we didn't feel like doing them with the luggage. Once at the station, you just purchase a ticket from the automated system for $2.75 cash or credit. It basically works on the honor system so hang on to your ticket, because if they catch you getting on the rail for free the fine is relatively high and I did see some transportation employees walk through the train, although I was never asked for my ticket. The stops are clearly marked and SeaTac is the terminus station, takes about 20 minutes or so. Pretty comfortable and there were many others with luggage so no one will look at you funny for bringing it.

Hi

Thanks for the review - I had a quick question since you mentioned the open pool - can it still be used or do they have it closed? We'll be on the Crown at the end of June southbound and I have a 5 year old who is going to want to swim no matter what the weather!

I believe there was at least one pool and one hot tub open during the day at all times. I don't think there were a lot of children on this sailing as the children's programs were not running. I did see some parents with kids using the children's pool.

Hi, we are sailing on the island June 11 can you tell me what the movies under the stars were?, thanks

I know there was Captain Phillips, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Saving Mr. Banks. I can't remember the others, but I believe there was a couple of nights the screen was just turned off cause no one was watching and it was too cold, wet, and windy.

We had a really long day in Skagway, if I remember correctly we were docked from 6:00 am till 8:00 pm or something along those lines. My opinion is that there's the railroad and after that there's not much happening there. Personally, I'd much rather have an extended stop in Juneau. There is so much to do there and doing Mendenhall Glacier properly takes more time than they give. Skagway would be great if you've never done the White Pass Railroad or you forgot to do your shopping on your last Caribbean cruise.

Here's a quick review of our Crown Princess Alaska southbound sailing. We drove down from Fairbanks the night before and stayed at the Anchorage Hilton. The hotel was fine especially if you get it online for a decent rate. We did see lots of wildlife on the drive down and Denali was not hiding behind clouds so it was a nice drive. Saturday morning, we drove to Whittier with various stops along the way. The weather was fantastic: blue skies and well into the 60's. The first two days were glacier cruising, the first was Hubbard and the second Glacier Bay. The captain, pilot, and staff did an outstanding job getting the Crown Princess so close considering how early in the season this cruise was. It was overcast both days, but lots of glacier activity and wildlife. In fact it seemed wildlife was in an abundance during the entire trip. We saw many whales, including a group of orcas, seals, and eagles.

The ports were Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. I'm no fan of Skagway, but it was a nice day and we did some hiking. Juneau was a fantastic day so we took the tram up Mt. Roberts for the views and hiking and returned to the ship early to lay out on the decks. Ketchikan, well lets say the town showed us why its a rain forest. I heard someone say they got 10 inches of rain that day.

We found very few flaws with the Crown Princess. The cruise was not at capacity, I think the captain said 2700 or 2800 passengers, so the ship seemed quite deserted and I don't recall waiting in a single line. In my opinion, the major drawback with sailing the Crown Princess in Alaska is the lack of an enclosed pool. I was very envious the two times I saw the Golden in port with her solarium. I knew this going in though, and picked the Crown because it worked best with our schedule. If I had a choice I would definitely make sure a covered pool was available. We thought the crew and food were both very good. The entertainment was very blah and there wasn't a great deal of passenger participation. Embarkation and Disembarkation were flawless. We arrived at Whittier about 12:30 pm and were onboard no later than 1:00.

We spent two days in Vancouver after, staying at the Sylvia Hotel. It is very old, but it is very unique and has a fantastic location. We caught the Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle yesterday and stayed at the Marriott Waterfront. We are doing the light rail to the airport this morning so I'll report on that if anyone is interested.

I agree with the previous poster about getting an Alaska Airlines credit card, the companion ticket is worth its weight in gold, plus the bonus miles. I always tell people to search one way tickets when coming/leaving Alaska and watch for specials with Alaska or United. I usually score tickets back home to Florida for under $500 round trip.

You don't give any dates/final payment etc.

Are you worried about cancelation fees?

I got a hold of my travel agent. Cruise is 2 weeks away. I was mostly worried about it causing a problem at check in, if the whole party wasn't able to make the cruise. Princess told the travel agent that it wouldn't be a problem and that if our 3rd person in the cabin couldn't make it, check in will proceed as normal.

Well I was booked with an online travel agent and they aren't answering the phone right now.

For our upcoming Alaska cruise, we have three people booked in a mini suite. Unfortunately, due to some work schedule changes, one of the passengers may not be able to come. The scheduling is still be sorted so I can't cancel them off yet. I know I'm not going to get much/any refund and I'm not looking for a refund. My question is if I leave the 3rd person booked and they can't come, can they just not show up at check in?

My Crown Princess Alaska cruise coming up in a couple of weeks has dropped significantly after final payment. There are still balcony and mini suites open, but they may not be the location you want. From what I've seen the Crown won't be the most desirable Princess ship in Alaska, so cabins will likely be open and discounted.

The balcony is easily large enough to set the chairs and table aside and spread towels out and lay down. The shape is like a right angled trapezoid and does extend a couple of feet back into the bulkhead.

Looking from room:

Looking forward:

Looking aft:

Overall, we really enjoyed the cabin and extra balcony space. It was very quiet and very close to buffet and aft pool area. Expect some vertical and lateral motion due to the location. We would choose this balcony again.

I've often thought when walking to my room and seeing all the doors propped open how easy it would be to sneak into someone's room. I feel this is really a big procedural oversight by the cruise lines. Imagine if something worse than theft happened as a result of this cleaning procedure. I would think that if the open door is out of sight, it should be closed. I would wager a bet that's how corporate says it should be done.

I think this promotion was very interesting. I wouldn't have been on the Ruby Princess this past January without it and I wouldn't have upgraded my upcoming Alaska cruise to a mini suite without it. Add in my 5 day shipboard account and I'd imagine Princess is going to come out ahead on me.

If there's time and the weather is nice I'd stop by the Pump House and enjoy the deck for a bit

Perhaps future plans for a line like Princess with many fans of the promenade deck will include a separate life boat deck either above an actual promenade deck. This would likely take up space in other areas though.

Having been on both ships, there really isn't any comparison. Caribbean Princess is miles ahead of the Inspiration. Though I didn't have a problem with the Inspiration. My time on the Inspiration was a guy's cruise and it was the perfect venue for that though.

I didn't realize the Royal only has a 66% approval rating. That's shocking to me, although I have been away from Princess for a while. Dang, we were thinking about heading to Venice to pick up the new Regal in August...

 

I also notices that the new RCCL ships, while still being enormous, will actually have slightly fewer passengers than the 5,400 person shopping malls... "trimming down" to 4,900..

 

Maybe I'm a closed-minded fool (well, definately a fool), but I just think the CB, Ruby, Emerald and Crown is just the right amount to big ship amenities and small ship feel...

I remember early last year (2013) I was considering booking the Celebrity Reflection and at the time it was less than a year old, maybe less than 6 months old, and the reviews were much lower than the rest of the Solstice class ships. I think it takes about a year for the reviews the average out and stabilize.