StrongMinded1

On 3/13/2019 at 9:35 AM, fishin' musician said:

 

 

Whittier is actually much closer to Anchorage than Seward.  If you rent a car you will likely be returning it to the Anchorage airport.  From there you can take a shuttle bus to Whittier (Princess or other).  My thinking is that August (at least early August) may be too early for Northern Lights as it still stays light much of the night.  If Northern Lights are important consider taking one of the last Alaska cruises in mid-Sept.  Fairbanks and points north would provide more/better Northern Lights options than Anchorage.  Consider flying to Fairbanks, renting a car and returning it to Anchorage (spending a day or three in Denali on the way).  I do know that many Fairbanks hotels will wake you (if you want) when the Northern Lights make an appearance.

Thank you so much! This is super helpful! 

24 minutes ago, StrongMinded1 said:

Has anyone done the guided photography excursions to see the Northern Lights as one of their DIY adventures?  I'm doing the same southbound Coral Princess cruise in Aug 2020 and am looking to arrive up to a week before the sailing to see Anchorage.  I am only now starting the planning part and am feeling overwhelmed about the logistics.  The ship leaves out of Whittier which seems very secluded compared to Seward.  How to get from airport? Can I drop the rental off at Whittier where the ship leaves from? Are there one-way car rentals? Where to stay the night before the cruise ship leaves? I'm not even sure I need a pricey excursion to see the Northern Lights as I read Point Woronzof Park is where the locals go to view.  But the advice on the likelihood of seeing it is worth us not going out all hours of the night every night in hopes we do.  

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Josie 

Sorry to quote myself, but I couldn't figure out a way to edit my post.  I found answers to a bunch of my questions on this page: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2863 .  But the Northern Lights or aurora borealis viewing and advice is something I can't find much about by querying these boards.  I find that odd as one would think that's on many bucket lists and in close proximity to seeing a Glacier or roaming Alaska! I guess I should start a new thread if I get no hits here.  

-Josie

2 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

That is their standard reply about the beds for liability reasons.

Just ask Stewart! There should not be an issue.

What a relief!  Thanks so much!

7 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

You are welcome.

Just make sure when you book that the cabin is not one where the rollaway is provided for one of the berths.

Verify that it does in fact have the drop down berth.  

Yes, it does.  I just got off the phone with Princess a little while ago.  Weird thing though - the reason I called is because on my booking, the only bed option is twin, not queen.  The Princess rep told me that the reason is because with the third person in our room, the ladder for the upper bunk has to come down BETWEEN the beds for "SAFETY REASONS".  But based on the photos shared by the OP, I plan on just pushing the darn twins together to make the queen.  No way I'm paying all that money and not snuggling up with my DH!  How crazy is that!  So my next question is.. In anyone else's experience, did the cabin steward respect the request to do the queen like in the OP's photo? HELP!

Thanks,

Josie

Has anyone done the guided photography excursions to see the Northern Lights as one of their DIY adventures?  I'm doing the same southbound Coral Princess cruise in Aug 2020 and am looking to arrive up to a week before the sailing to see Anchorage.  I am only now starting the planning part and am feeling overwhelmed about the logistics.  The ship leaves out of Whittier which seems very secluded compared to Seward.  How to get from airport? Can I drop the rental off at Whittier where the ship leaves from? Are there one-way car rentals? Where to stay the night before the cruise ship leaves? I'm not even sure I need a pricey excursion to see the Northern Lights as I read Point Woronzof Park is where the locals go to view.  But the advice on the likelihood of seeing it is worth us not going out all hours of the night every night in hopes we do.  

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Josie 

Following.  I'm going on this same cruise but in Aug 2020.  I was on the boards looking for info on hotels near Whittier Port and haven't found any info yet, but you pose an interesting question that I'd like to discover the answer to as well. 

-Josie

Thank you for the details colo cruiser and curlybelle2!  When my DH and DD got home and I showed them the drop down bed and mentioned your comments, they both agreed that the drop down bed was "really cool" and neither was concerned about the headroom or the ladder.  Likely because I'll probably be the "height challenged" one sleeping under it and I'm the one that gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom!  But that's ok.  I'm good with the extra floor space and balcony access.  

Thanks again for your help and Curlybelle2, I'm so glad to hear that they accommodated your son's needs on your recent sailing!

THANK YOU for posting this!!! It has been so frustrating looking for a photo of the drop down bed.  The closest I came was a YouTube Video but it was on the Star Princess

On 2/3/2019 at 9:38 AM, curlybelle2 said:

We cruise all the time with three in a balcony. Our son is disabled and can't get up the ladder. We just ask for a roll away cot. It is tight but it works at night. It is rolled away in the morning, and put in the closet under the hanging clothes.

 

Thank you for sharing this as well!  I had no idea that asking for a roll away cot was an option - the Princess rep never offered it.  Would you know if the roll away cot is just as comfortable to sleep in?  My husband is very tall and sleeps on that side of the bed so I might have to ask for the roll away cot for our 12 year old instead of the drop down bed.  Glad to know there's another option!  Thank you!

What I also want to share with everyone, because I never knew this and found out the hard way, is that what I've been told by United and Continental is that when you book air travel through an agent, the airline is not required to inform you (the paying passenger) when your agent makes a change to your booking. As Continental explained to me, "They own your record". That statement alone has solidified my resolve to NEVER BOOK MY AIR THRU AN AGENT EVER AGAIN. I'm the one paying for the flight and the Agent is allowed to make modifications without notifying me and the Airline has no obligation to even inform me when a "voluntary change" is made by my agent, supposedly on my behalf. I don't even have to right to lock the agent out of making additional changes on my booking, NOR can I lock the booking from being changed again.

Does anyone else see that there is something inherently wrong with this?

The Continental Rep said they have to "Assume the changes made are on behalf of the passenger".

Also, in the passenger rights (what they called the Contract of Carriage?), you are allowed to request a full refund for a flight has a time change greater than 4 hours. In other words, if you book a 6am and they change the flight's time to 10:01 am, they have to grant you a refund should you request it. In these same rights, the carrier is NOT limited to the number of times they make a flight change.

Back to my personal gripe: :mad:

RCCL has their own set of parameters stating what's the latest flight arrival time for flights they will allow you to travel in on. In other words, if they think I can arrive as late as 1:30 pm and still make the ship, Choice Air will not accomodate me wanting to arrive before noon out of "personal preference". They are abiding by the RCCL guidelines and that's that. This is where I'm talking customer service... I didn't ask RCCL or Choice Air what time they think I should arrive by... I purchased tickets on a flight that I felt comfortable being on. And I booked & paid for it 5 months in advance just to ensure I could get those flights... But none of that was or is being taken into consideration.

So I'm held hostage, literally, by Choice Air. It's a horrible feeling. :(

Wow! Thanks so much to EVERYONE for all this feedback! It's very helpful.

To give a little more information as requested...

I know we are all subject to Airline changes. That is a given and I totally expect that. When they changed my 6:40 am to 7:30 am, it was no biggie.

What's upsetting is that a Royal rep called me to tell me about the change and said it was a carrier change, when Choice Air's Supervisor Camilla never called me back, I called United and then Continental and the Supervisor Joe Urvine in their Salt Lake UT customer service location advised me that the change from my 7:30 am flight to the 9:00 am flight was completely voluntary, BY MY AGENT, Choice Air. They track all changes to a flight and have the CHOICE AIR's computer's IOTTA number to prove the change was voluntary by them. What's more horrifying is there was a TWO DAY delay from when CHOICE AIR took me off the 7:30 am flight and put me on the 9:00 am flight. So now the 7:30 am flight is oversold and we can't be put back on it. I'm lucky I got on the 9:00 am flight considering I was in limbo for 2 days, at the complete mercy of whoever was pushing the buttons on the computers at CHOICE AIR.

I booked a 6:50 am flight because we are traveling in a group of 8 with age ranges from 5 year old to 73 year old and my mom who is handicapped (oxygen dependant). We can not push the envelope of arrival time because this group can not navigate anywhere very quickly. That's why I purchased the 6:50 am flight.

Has anyone had any success complaining directly to RCCL about the level of service they received from Choice Air? I don't know if that route is just a waste of my time. I absolutely learned my lesson on this one and am thankful for all the input.

I made the biggest mistake booking my air through Royal Caribbean's "Partner", Choice Air. I purchased assigned seats for my party of 8 on a 6:40 am flight back on 3/7/2011. The carrier changed the flight time to 7:30 am but since the flight didn't change, I had the same assigned seats. On June 5th, Choice Air took me off my 7:30 am flight with NO reason, DID not notify me and then TWO days later, put us on a 9:00 am flight. Royal Caribbean called me and said the CARRIER made the flight change but after spending 4 hours on the phone yesterday with the carrier and Choice Air, I found out the change was voluntary by my agent, Choice Air.

BOTTOM LINE- CHOICE AIR makes it completely THEIR choice to do what they please with the flights that YOU paid for. You have no control over your own reservation and now I will be subjected to who knows how many more changes they feel like making until my cruise departs on August 27th, 2011. This is THE WORST agent you can deal with. And to add insult to injury, Royal Caribbean takes absolutely no responsibility for their "PARTNER". It's disgusting and obscene. My next stop is a complaint with the BBB. Royal Caribbean should be ashamed of themselves, partnering with Choice Air. Choice Air's customer service is horrible and their agents are untrained. Save yourself the aggravation AND added cost and book your own flights- it's the only way to guarantee you get the flights and seats you paid for.

I'm posting this to get feedback from others as well as to warn others about the pitfalls of using CHOICE AIR.

I made the biggest mistake booking my air through Royal Caribbean's "Partner", Choice Air. I purchased assigned seats for my party of 8 on a 6:40 am flight back on 3/7/2011. The carrier changed the flight time to 7:30 am but since the flight didn't change, I had the same assigned seats. On June 5th, Choice Air took me off my 7:30 am flight with NO reason, DID not notify me and then TWO days later, put us on a 9:00 am flight. Royal Caribbean called me and said the CARRIER made the flight change but after spending 4 hours on the phone yesterday with the carrier and Choice Air, I found out the change was voluntary by my agent, Choice Air.

BOTTOM LINE- CHOICE AIR makes it completely THEIR choice to do what they please with the flights that YOU paid for. You have no control over your own reservation and now I will be subjected to who knows how many more changes they feel like making until my cruise departs on August 27th, 2011. This is THE WORST agent you can deal with. And to add insult to injury, Royal Caribbean takes absolutely no responsibility for their "PARTNER". It's disgusting and obscene. My next stop is a complaint with the BBB. Royal Caribbean should be ashamed of themselves, partnering with Choice Air. Choice Air's customer service is horrible and their agents are untrained. Save yourself the aggravation AND added cost and book your own flights- it's the only way to guarantee you get the flights and seats you paid for.