Alaska CruiseTour Luggage

[Indyluck]

Going on Alaska Cruisetour next July 2017. Starting in Fairbanks touring for 6 days then Cruise South to Vancouver. What are baggage requirements/restrictions and how are bags handled during the trip?

[cherylandtk]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I found this thread using the search feature, which should answer most of your questions.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[cruzrbachoua]

some luggage meets you at each of the lodges and then you have luggage that meets you at the ship. take a small carryon bag with you if you need meds etc while on the bus/train travel portions as the bags that go with you are loaded separately and meet you at the lodge and you have no access to them during the day. That link the other poster posted is a great review and details the baggage. have fun

[Sea Hag]

Be sure to pay attention to the luggage specs for the train. There really is very limited space, and anything much larger than recommended isn't going to work.

[nanabananna]

We also have a cruise tour planned in May. My husband and I plan to each have luggage, 2 large suitcases. We are going to pack together the land portion in one bag and have it travel with us from lodge to lodge. The luggage we are having us meet at the ship we will pack together, too. No need for us each to have a bag while traveling together! I think the porter handling the lodge bag will appreciate one less bag to load too!

 

I have read, as posted above, there is little room on the train. We will have a backpack for our daily needs due to little room to store under the seat on the train.

 

Maybe this will give you an idea as to packing for the cruise tour. :)

 

enjoy!

Sandra

Edited November 8, 2016 by nanabananna

[reedprincess]

Going on Alaska Cruisetour next July 2017. Starting in Fairbanks touring for 6 days then Cruise South to Vancouver. What are baggage requirements/restrictions and how are bags handled during the trip?

 

Princess really does try to make it easy for all of us. Here's their luggage information specific for Alaska cruisetours:

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/cruisetours/cruisetours_alaska.jsp

There's also loads of info about the cruisetours in general, dress guidelines, and so on there... Well worth a read through

Enjoy.

[dieselmama]

We are going to have concerns we will be addressing with Princess on our cruise tour, as 2 of our group of 3 are on bipap or cpap and we will be carrying an oxygen concentrator (likely not needed except at night, but as the equipment is expensive not something we want to risk breaking or getting lost). Plus we carry our son's food as he is tube fed, again not something we want to lose because we can't exactly replace it in Denali! Our TA is very familiar with special needs, so thankfully she is helping us to take care of these kinds of issues...

[Potstech]

Also be advised there is nowhere on the trains to charge any kind of equipment what so ever. Make sure all your cameras, phones, tablets have full charges before getting on the train. In May there were several people who did not do this and missed out on some good pictures.

 

Food selection n the dining car is also limited and pricy but what we had was good.

 

Enjoy your trip.

[azbirdmom]

Here is a picture of the upper level of the train from Denali which is where Princess seats its passengers. The area under the seat in the picture was able to fit two backpacks, each with a CPAP, laptop, and other stuff in them. The lower level had seating and was available if folks wanted to stretch out but we noticed that there were some larger bags that were left down there. On the busses our bags didn't fit in the tiny overhead but they were very accommodating and opened the luggage storage below for us and a few other passengers.

 

Edit: Picture would not upload - tried twice - sorry!

Edited November 9, 2016 by azbirdmom

[Nhsaltshaker]

Going on Alaska Cruisetour next July 2017. Starting in Fairbanks touring for 6 days then Cruise South to Vancouver. What are baggage requirements/restrictions and how are bags handled during the trip?

 

You are allowed one piece of “Join Me Tonight” baggage per person on the land portion of your cruisetour. Like others have suggested, this web page helps. http://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/faq_answer_legal/CAB_Alaska.pdf

 

 

 

[cheeseclan]

We are doing this in the opposite direction, cruise first and then land tour. How does it work for luggage that way?

[caribill]

We are doing this in the opposite direction, cruise first and then land tour. How does it work for luggage that way?

 

Basically the same. One suitcase/person for the tour. The rest will meet up with you at the end of the tour.

[nanabananna]

Food selection n the dining car is also limited and pricy but what we had was good.

Enjoy your trip.

 

Do you remember what the kind of food available to purchase and the prices?

 

I have low blood sugar and need to eat a little something sweet at times, do they have candy or a dessert of some kind? :D

[jelenedra]

Just did the 7 day, tour first, in September, and we did very well with packing one large suitcase each that would get tagged "meet me tonight" at Lodge X. We each also carried a backpack that had our meds, camera and phone junk, raincoat or fleece, depending on what we were wearing at the time, and some wrapped snacks we brought from home. Water bottle also. Things you would need with you at all times. That fit on the bus in overhead bins. I also carried my cpap case...I personally put my meds in there, as it was medical, and i wouldn't let it out of my sight! That fit at my feet, shoved under the seat in front of me (I am kind of short, so I didn't care) The buses did have room in the bottom for larger cases, if you really needed to take a larger one along. Other than that, the luggage pieces magically appeared in your room each night.

 

Packing to actually fly to Fairbanks was different....we started with one large case as a checked bag, and one carry on case each for the plane. Hubby carried his backpack as a personal item, and I packed my backpack in my big suitcase, and carried a purse and my cpap as personal items. As i remember, the plane was full and they gate checked our small carryons for free. When all the bags arrived at Fairbanks Princess, we repacked what we would use on the ship into our small suitcases and tagged them "meet me at the ship" (bye bye for a week), and packed our large suitcases with our land tour stuff. Then we used our backpacks as our "come on the bus" daypacks.

My big suitcase has a nice outer pocket that I put my crossbody purse and a wristlet in, for when we were going on daytrips from the lodge, and I didn't need a backpack.

 

Sorry if I can't help with the train, as we were unable to take it due to a landslide that blocked the tracks that day :-( (we just took a bus), but I tried to plan for what I would need to carry on certain day of the trip and just figured it out from there. But point is, if you have to carry your medical devices, they have to let you. I think on the train we were supposed to take, it was assigned table seating, from the looks of our itinerary. We would have just stuffed our bags under our side of the table under the seat. If there are medical devices, they have to let you travel with them, I don't think you will have a problem. Enjoy your trip!

[geoherb]

Do you remember what the kind of food available to purchase and the prices?

 

I have low blood sugar and need to eat a little something sweet at times, do they have candy or a dessert of some kind? :D

I remember the menu on our train as having typical brunch items--French toast, egg dishes, etc. I don't remember seeing any candy. I suggest taking some granola bars or other easily carried items with you.

[caribill]

Do you remember what the kind of food available to purchase and the prices?

 

I have low blood sugar and need to eat a little something sweet at times, do they have candy or a dessert of some kind? :D

 

Some pricing from four years ago (not a complete menu):

 

Sandwiches (served with Alaska Thunder Chips):

Smoked turkey BLT - $11.25 (see picture below)

Veggie Garden Delight sandwich - $11.00

Desserts:

Islander Key Lime Pie - $7.00

Flourless Chocolate Torte (gluten free) - $6.25

 

You may want to purchase some candy (if you can eat that) at the lodge to bring on the train with you.

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by caribill

[JoRoy218]

There are two types of trains you may encounter -- the "dome train" has very comfy seats and a small area under seat in front of you (similar in size to commercial aircraft). The other type of train is that with four seater booth type set up and that storage space is much smaller, basically what you can keep at your feet and under your seat, very tight. As mentioned above, try to just carry-on necessities. Princess excels at getting your luggage to you without problems.

And we also travel with small packages of granola bars or nuts, can be helpful to those with low blood sugar problems.