Which Major Marine & Timing of Sapphire Cruise

[GrandCanyon2005]

We are considering a Major Marine Cruise out of Whittier, but have concern about making it back in time for our Sapphire boarding.

 

1. First, we can do the 4.5 Hour Tour (Blackstone, Beloit & Northland Glaciers), or a 5.25 Hour Tour (Surprise Glacier). Which one would be the better tour?
    
   
2. Second, the 4.5-hour returns to Whittier at 5:15, and the second arrives back at 5:30. Is it recommended to arrive back that late to board the ship, and if so, what do we do with our luggage in the meantime and what would we give up by boarding so late?
   

It may be worth noting, that we are in a Suite, but I have heard the free specialty dining on embarkation out of Whittier does not exist. Thoughts on everything?

[frugaltravel]

Why do you think boarding your ship at 5.30pm is "late"? Doesnt your ship not depart until 8pm?

 

I think a PWS cruise is an excellent option before boarding. I did it before my Princess cruise earlier this year.

[Chenega]

We are considering a Major Marine Cruise out of Whittier, but have concern about making it back in time for our Sapphire boarding.

 

1. First, we can do the 4.5 Hour Tour (Blackstone, Beloit & Northland Glaciers), or a 5.25 Hour Tour (Surprise Glacier). Which one would be the better tour?
   
2. Second, the 4.5-hour returns to Whittier at 5:15, and the second arrives back at 5:30. Is it recommended to arrive back that late to board the ship, and if so, what do we do with our luggage in the meantime and what would we give up by boarding so late?
   

It may be worth noting, that we are in a Suite, but I have heard the free specialty dining on embarkation out of Whittier does not exist. Thoughts on everything?

 

Both are excellent trips and either one is a good choice. The longer trip does go through a beautiful area known as Esther Passage where wildlife is often seen.

[kenmii]

We are on the sapphire in a few weeks and if you have the same departure time of 8pm, either pws tour should be fine. We are doing the longer pws tour and were told that we can store our luggage with major marine in their office. The downside (which I dont think is one): you have to find your own lunch, rather than eating on board (major marine offers it at an extra charge). You have to walk back from the tour to the office to retrieve your luggage and then walk back to the cruise terminal to check in. They tell me it is a 5 min walk and from what I can tell from the maps, it's not a big deal. You also lose out on exploring the ship, but IMo, you can do that while at sea etc...

 

I would do the pws tour. I hear it is worth it and different from other glacier tours.

 

FYI - You could drop your luggage with sapphire, but I think that starts at 1pm or 2pm, but the pws tour starts at noon. So that won't work...

[koolforkatz]

We are just off the Diamond (which sails from Whittier same time) and did the Blackstone Glacier tour with Major Marine. It all worked out great. We did the train - checked the luggage at station and didn't see it again until we got on board the ship at 5'ish. We opted to buy the salmon/rib buffet - I thought the food was great - much better than I expected. The tour itself was fabulous. I'm glad we did it because there's nothing much else to do in Whittier!

 

We were also in a suite and, no, we could not eat in a specialty restaurant that night because they were both closed.

[Suzanne123]

We just did the longer trip through Esther Passage. Great trip, and MM stored our luggage.

You give up nothing (IMO) boarding late.

[Keith1010]

Remember on embarkation day you need to be on board the ship 90 minutes prior to sailing.

 

Keith

[frugaltravel]

Remember on embarkation day you need to be on board the ship 90 minutes prior to sailing.

 

Keith

 

...but arriving back from the tours about 5.30pm and sailaway at 8pm means they have 150 minutes! Major Marine office, Princess check in and Major Marine dock are literally butting up next to each other. Even with a lot of luggage it would take all of 5 minutes to get from one to the other, less with less luggage.

[Coral]

We did Surprise Glacier one and really enjoyed it.

[powelweb]

We also did the Blackstone 4.5 hour tour with Major Marine on 8/8 when we sailed on the Island Princess, and we had driven down from Anchorage in an Avis rental, so MM stored our luggage at no charge during our glacier cruise for us since Princess didn't open for luggage until after we sailed for the glacier cruise (we did give the staff a nice tip).

 

We also then hit the jackpot in terms of returning back from the PWS tour, reclaiming our luggage from Major Marine and checking in with Princess before the Denali train carrying 500+ passengers arrived shortly after 5:30.

 

We literally waltzed through the empty terminal and onto the ship, hearing later that some folks had lines up to an hours' wait due to the train.

 

I think you'd have a great glacier crise with either tour, and make sure you order the buffet- it was fantastic! The only thing we thought they could improve was it was sometimes hard to hear the ranger over the engine noise.

 

have a great cruise.

[koolforkatz]

We also then hit the jackpot in terms of returning back from the PWS tour, reclaiming our luggage from Major Marine and checking in with Princess before the Denali train carrying 500+ passengers arrived shortly after 5:30.

 

I will second that - we also just beat the 500+ train passengers. Something to consider!

[GrandCanyon2005]

How much more do you really see with Major Marine than what you would see on Sapphire at Hubbard and Glacier Bay?

[Coral]

How much more do you really see with Major Marine than what you would see on Sapphire at Hubbard and Glacier Bay?

 

You won't go to Hubbard and Glacier Bay with Major Marine. You go to smaller glaciers but get much closer. It was an amazing experience.

[kenmii]

I will second that - we also just beat the 500+ train passengers. Something to consider!

 

We are doing the same thing. How can I tell that train will be coming? Should I try to beat it anyway? Should we check in first and then retrieve our luggage? I'll have two tired kiddies and my parents.

 

Thanks!

[koolforkatz]

We are doing the same thing. How can I tell that train will be coming? Should I try to beat it anyway? Should we check in first and then retrieve our luggage? I'll have two tired kiddies and my parents.

 

Thanks!

 

Both the tour and the train are on schedules. If you take the Blackstone Glacier tour, you should get in before the train. We got off the tour and walked directly from the tour to the ship (they are within yards of each other). We didn't hear the train come in while we were checking in with the ship (and there were probably about 50 people checking in because a bus had just arrived) so you do have a bit of time. Our luggage was already on the ship because we had checked it at the Alaska train station in Anchorage. It's all pretty seamless.