Land tour assigned seats?

[villager13]

We will be taking a land tour with Princess after our cruise. There is a lot of long travel involved on both trains and busses. Does Princess assign seats to the passengers on both the train and the busses? We've been on other tours where people practically shove you out of the way to be first in line to get the "best seats" on the tour busses? I'm hoping that seats are all assigned to avoid this! :eek:

[AKStafford]

I used to drive motorcoach for Holland America. Seats were not assigned, but the tour guide always encourage people to rotate around. I'm not sure that it actually happened though....

[Budget Queen]

Train tables are assigned, and in the past, bus seats were not.

 

If you want the forward facing seat on the train, you would still, likely have to be first to your table.

[xlxo]

If you have special needs.... they may reserve a few rows in the front of the bus. Otherwise it is first come first served on the non-Princess tours I've been on.

 

On the White Pass train.... I think they designate a train car for each bus....

 

if you are slow to the seat to take pictures or use the bathroom.... you may loose that coveted seat.

Edited July 3, 2016 by xlxo

[gpb11]

On HAL (sister company to Princess), the Alaska Railroad train from Anchorage to Denali had assigned seats in the domed car. All seats faced forward, no tables except in the dining room portion and those you ended up with based on when your turn came for the breakfast or lunch seatings.

 

White Pass Yukon Route was (as mentioned) one assigned train car per bus and seats were on a first come basis. Four seats to a table, two forward facing and two rearward facing. The train car wasn't full in our case though, so it worked out.

 

Both the AKRR and WPYR train cars had an outside observation platform you could use for picture taking. Folks generally shared the space pretty well.

 

Bus / Coach seats were first come basis, again as mentioned the first couple rows were generally held for those with more limited mobility.

Edited July 5, 2016 by gpb11

[K.T.B.]

On my Celebrity tour, we did not have assigned seats per se, just a group of seats set aside for us. The last 10-12 rows, I believe, of the domed car. We could sit wherever we wanted within those rows.

 

And as GPB said, the dining car was wherever they put you depending on the time you picked to eat.

[cruiserny]

Assigned seats on the train but not on the buses

[mek]

On our Princess tour last year we got lucky and were assigned seats in the Holland car. Much better than the Princess cars, IMHO.

[Cate M.]

The only part I did not like of our land/cruise tour were the inconsiderate rude people. On the bus part certain people - two couples from New Jersey - always left something on the seats so they could have seats near the front. Seats were not assigned. I almost put one of their pink flowered bags on a back seat. One of the ladies always made a comment out loud to everything our guide said.

 

One lady also talked to her daughter via handheld computer when Matt our guide was talking up front. My DH and I were behind this lady and had a hard time hearing the commentary. All we heard was her and her daughter talking about what her grandson had done that day. Talk about rude.

 

Also we found that we would go to the entertainment at night on the cruise and invariably there was someone talking when the cruise director was talking on stage.

[xlxo]

The only part I did not like of our land/cruise tour were the inconsiderate rude people. On the bus part certain people - two couples from New Jersey - always left something on the seats so they could have seats near the front. Seats were not assigned.

I would like to hear others opinion on this. I thought unassigned seats only applied when first boarding. Once everyone is on the bus.... there isn't any seat changes in my trips. There are seat changes on multi-day bus tours.

[mek]

I would like to hear others opinion on this. I thought unassigned seats only applied when first boarding. Once everyone is on the bus.... there isn't any seat changes in my trips. There are seat changes on multi-day bus tours.

 

Agree, I don't see this as a problem. Many times we leave things on the bus because we don't want drag them along with us.

[villager13]

I would like to hear others opinion on this. I thought unassigned seats only applied when first boarding. Once everyone is on the bus.... there isn't any seat changes in my trips. There are seat changes on multi-day bus tours.

We are almost done with our land tour. Currently at Denali and leave for Mt Mckinley tomorrow. There were no changes of seats once everyone was on board for the day as people had their things on their seats ( coats, cameras, water,) when we got off the bus each time for rest stops etc. Whatever seat you got when you got on you had for the 8 hour bus trips. It seemed to work very smoothly and everyone was very considerate of each other.

 

The only problem was today with the Tundra Wilderness tour in Denali.

We were all waiting outside for the bus to pull up for our tour. When the bus pulled up this couple that had not been outside in line came out of the lobby and went right to the front of everyone and got on so they could get the two front seats. Can't do anything about rude inconsiderate people except feel sorry for them.

[Ashland]

Agree, I don't see this as a problem. Many times we leave things on the bus because we don't want drag them along with us.

 

And on the tour bus's we've been on they encourage you to feel free to leave items on the bus.

[gpb11]

Can't do anything about rude inconsiderate people except feel sorry for them.

 

Yep. On our TWT in general everyone was very accommodating and conscientious, making way at the windows for the folks on the other side of the bus and so on. That still didn't stop one woman from getting rather upset at another guy over him leaving his window open. She was cold and he was warm. Bus driver had to intervene just like back in middle school. :rolleyes:

[donaldsc]

The only part I did not like of our land/cruise tour were the inconsiderate rude people. On the bus part certain people - two couples from New Jersey - always left something on the seats so they could have seats near the front. Seats were not assigned. I almost put one of their pink flowered bags on a back seat. One of the ladies always made a comment out loud to everything our guide said.

 

One lady also talked to her daughter via handheld computer when Matt our guide was talking up front. My DH and I were behind this lady and had a hard time hearing the commentary. All we heard was her and her daughter talking about what her grandson had done that day. Talk about rude.

 

Also we found that we would go to the entertainment at night on the cruise and invariably there was someone talking when the cruise director was talking on stage.

 

If the guide could not or would not handle it, I would have politely and then impolitely told her to "shut up". Sometimes you have to take the initiative with annoying people.

 

DON