paddingtonbear

I am really sorry but we can not take our Island Princess cruise to Alaska on 8 July.

My mother in law has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer than has spread to her lungs. They have given her 3 - 6 months to live. Maybe next year.

Tom,

Absolutely fantastic resource!

Thank you very much for the time and effort it took.

While I recognize this is an old posting, it is extremely useful. My DW and I are about to book a RT Panama sailing for New Year and to celebrate her birthday, and this was just what I was looking for to choose a cabin.

 

One question for anyone who sailed RT Panama out of FLL - is there a preference of Port or Starboard for the transit? Also, do the bump-outs provide better vistas than the other balcony cabins?

 

Thanks

Intrigued,

You may need to start a new thread to get a response to your question.

Thanks for all the comments - I have been told to look at a Possum/wool jacket whilst over there, if I can manage to wait till I get there.

They are lovely, but expensive. I wasn't even tempted. :)

Very expensive. Think $200+ for a simple jumper. And mostly merino anyway. I know merino/possum is expensive and was prepared to pay but I didnt see anything that was really nice or compelling buying and I looked.

It was freezing in the south island late December to jan this year.

The sun was out in Milford sound but the wind was cold and in Dunedin the wind whipped icy rain into our faces. Christchurch was sunny but I still wore a woolen jumper and raincoat for protection from the wind.

I had long pants, thermal long sleeved tshirts, two woolen jumpers and a waterproof gortex jacket on in Dunedin and was cold. We live further south on the nsw sth coast so are used to fairly cold weather.

I have since bought a mountain designs windfleece jacket and a kathmandu special thermally rated merino jumper (much nicer than anything i saw in nz but it is made in nz so i obviously didnt look in the right places) in australia (one 50% off one 70% off) to avoid the cold next time!

HI David,

We are going on our first cruise

July 8 2013 Island Princess Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska

Would love to hear from anyone else doing this cruise.

Zelker is correct, the entire thread is comprised mostly of comments made by multiple posters.

 

This is my first cruise in 20 years, my join date is Feb '12...I have other comments to post, haven't gotten to it, yet.

 

Just let me know, I will gladly give you anything I am able, hoping to help you in making your decisions for several med cruise ports. Our trip, including Rome and Venice, was wonderful, and we felt we hit a home run with every guide we used...how fortunate was that? I hope yours will be fantastic, as well. Have fun!

Rwethereyet.

Good to hear. I am just paranoid after another thread where one time posters (on here and Trip Advisor) raved on about a guy in Alaska who turned out to be a charlatan. Don't mind me. :o

Full Day Athens Tour was fantastic. We had a very professional and knowledgeable guide and we toured all the sites we wanted in a safe and comfortable manner. I give this company a perfect 10 and will always recommend and will continue to use them in future trips. July 2012.

Why are all these reviews by first time posters? It is a bit of a worry.

Emily

If you go to London again, or for others who are going to go, the railway offers a buy 2 tickets for the price of 1 deal on most of the attractions/entry fees in London. You save an incredible amount doing this and all for the cost of the tube ticket you will buy anyway. There is lots of info on Trip Advisor.

We did a few of the london walks (walks dot com) and for 8GBP they were fantastic. Especially the London Tour which took you from Westminster to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards and the changing of the horse guards and then on to Picadilly and Trafalgar Square. That walk finished right in front of a pret-a-manger which we also found fantastic every day for lunch.

We didn't do the london eye either although we had half price tickets. The weather was great but we had heard mixed reports and we just didn't have time for it in 5 days. We took the river cruise all the way to Greenwich instead (half price).

I'm not sure of the pricing but you'd need to purchase three of any of the above per day for the card to pay for itself. Each drink is $2-$3.50, depending on the drink. I figured that I would have to get at least one mocktail a day if I were to buy the Ultimate card over just the soda card.

Those mocktails sound pretty cool. I don't drink soda but I am definitely leaning towards the Ultimate card after reading a recent thread about them. :):):)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1644719&highlight=mocktails

Land Sea are excellent operators but no, with what you have planned you really don't need them. Stick with the free shuttles or transit and you will make out just fine.

Thanks putterdude. We are doing a two day tour with them to Victoria and it works out better than I could do it independently so I am happy with them, for that tour.

No if you do Capilano there is no need to do Lynn - it is much smaller scale and run by the local Parks Board - other than an ecology center and a place to grab a bite to eat and some hiking opportunities there is little else to see.

 

Here is a link to one of my blogs where I posted some video of me crossing the bridge back in 2009

 

http://yvrcruiser.blogspot.ca/search?q=lynn+canyon+video

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Thanks Dennis it looks very nice. If we have time we might do it as well!

You can take in both the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain with by transit or with their free shuttle bus.

 

Who is the operator of the tour you are looking at?

vancouversightseeing dot com/vancouver-capilano-suspension-bridge/

Land sea tours do one of Capilano Suspension bridge and Grouse Mt but I think I can get to them by myself if I needed to do both.

I am considering a trip to Grouse Mountain if the weather is fine.

Is it worth it?

I am not interested in paying extra for the zip line (although that sounded good even to me who hates heights until I saw the price!).

The capilano suspension bridge and cliff walk sounds like a must do.

These are both fairly easily accessible by bus.

Is Lynne Canyon worth doing too (requires a taxi ride between Capilano Suspension bridge and Lynne Canyon) or if you have seen Capilano is that enough?

I thought I would give Granville Island a miss because I don't think I will really be interesed in markets. Although there is a tour that does Capillano, Gas Town, Stanley Park and Granville Island which might make it easy. Has anyone done this tour with landsea tours?

Surely you could get a better deal than 57k for an inside cabin??

I would not worry about being forward. But for north bound sailings the starboard side (right side) is always the side looking at the main shoreline. The port side looks out to the outer islands.

Thanks very much for confirming this. I did get a starboard cabin but somehow listed a "port" cabin in the original post by mistake. :rolleyes:

Dh and I were in c227 on our Alaska cruisetour' date=' Sept. 2009, and in c230 on the Panama Canal partial transit, Nov/Dec. 2011. Love the minis in that location, used the covered balcony a lot on both cruises. You picked a great location!! Enjoy!![/quote']

 

A repeat customer of those particular minis - thanks!!

That site provides very good info. It's a keeper.

 

I love the Island Princess and hope you enjoy her.

 

~Doris~

Thank you for all your comments. We will keep the mini.

I did not realize that Island Princess Caribe deck mini's had no couch.:confused:

I was on the Island and our Dolphin deck had a couch, as well as every other Princess mini I have been on.

Can anyone can confirm or deny this for Caribe deck on Island?

You misread my post. I was comparing the mini to the balcony cabin. The mini has the sofa. The balcony cabin does not.

I was in C204, which is nearly all the way forward, and I loved it. I think it's a great location, because you're also close to the front open viewing deck, and the buffet is forward on this ship, as are the dining rooms. Generally, I just thought being in this area was way more convenient, as opposed to being aft on the other class of ships. Except for laundry room access -- it's a long walk aft to the laundry room!

That is very reassuring. Thank you. I see yours was the extra large mini with the window. From what I gather the exercise might do me good to get to the laundry after eating all the great food. (As long as someone else cooks it I will think that it is great food!)

Refer to the link below for more info

 

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

That is the site I went to to pick the cabin!

I should point out that this is the first cruise for all of us (except a large ferry) so we have no idea what we are doing. :rolleyes:

We have booked a ME mini suite on the Island Princess to Alaska in July 2013 at the front of the ship and asked for no upgrade. We did this because

1) we wanted the extra space inside to entertain our friends incase it rains and is cold and we can't use the balcony.

2) it has a covered balcony which we can use if it rains.

3) it is on the port side which is supposed to be best for views going north.

On another thread people say do not book a bow cabin, aft is best. Have we done the wrong thing? Should I just get a Caribe balcony cabin? (bigger balcony and half covered but no inside couch) :confused: Our friends are looking at getting the caribe balcony so we could share that.

I just did a week of Aurora photography in Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs in late Feb / early March. I had 4 days of totally clear skies in Chena Hot Springs. A typical photo is attached. I also got to see the international ice carving festival in Fairbanks. It may not have been a cruise but it was a great trip.

 

DON

Great photo!

OH MY GOODNESS - What are the chances??? We are on the Volendam and get into Skagway on a Sunday .... and .... we can't rent a car to cross the border since we are Canadian.

 

OK,

anyone have a plan B?

You can still do the 7.5 hr Chilkoot tour (train and bus) which goes to only the tip of Lake Bennett. You just can't do the 11 hour tour (where the train goes around the side of Lake Bennett).

How does this work for buying 2 tickets for 1 person? would the aisle and middle seat be best? Premium Economy seems to be about the price of 2 economy. I was thinking about PE on BA but would 2 economies be better There wouldn't be any extra leg room but you could spread out and maybe turn to the side a little to stretch your legs??

With Qantas and BA in Premium Economy you get a lot better service, priority boarding, more toilets that are restricted to Business or PE and much, much better food and drinks all included. :)