Disappointed: Cancellation of important Alaska excursion after final payment for cruise

[AE_Collector]

My opinion is that things are in turmoil and everyone needs to just go with the flow. If one excursion being cancelled is going to ruin the trip it is probably too soon after Covid (still during to some extent) to expect everything to be as it was before Covid.
 

We ere on Royal Princess in Alaska May 2-14 and there were some cancelled and some reduced capacity excursions. Exact reasons weren’t given and there are likely several,different reasons. But lack of man power by excursion operators is bound to be one of the reasons. There was something about an excursion at Juneau that involved a boat to Sitka that was shut down due to the entire boat crew having Covid. some of these problems are going to happen last minute. 
 

In Sitka the new cruise pier is at least 5 miles out of town and you should have seen the mess with the shuttles from pier to town when the ovation of the Seas tied up beside us. We only had 1600 passengers but rumour was they had 4000. They will sort these problems out eventually but best to remain flexible and enjoy the holiday rather than getting bent out of shape. JMHO…

[MommyOTwins]

22 hours ago, hpeabody said:

Hmmmmm, I have discovered another issue pertaining to my booking on Discovery July 31st. This is all very fishy.  I just now looked in my cruise personalizer and this Endicott Arm excursion is there for me to choose and showing 20 openings.  But ....... when trying to book it, a notice appears saying that there is a conflict.  Our time in Endicott Arm is 5am to 9am, 4 hours.  The excursion is 7am to 1pm, 6 hours.  Yes, this sure is a conflict.  I checked multiple dates of this itinerary and all appear the same.  The funny thing is that we arrive in Endicott Arm at 5am and we are not scheduled to arrive at our next port, Juneau until 12:30 PM the next day.  Juneau is all of 43 miles away from Endicott Arm.

 

It seems to me we passengers on this itinerary are victims of perhaps too many ships being allowed in Alaska requiring intricate scheduling requirements to avoid so called "congestion" problems, perhaps Alaska state mandates play a part, possibly could be $$$$$$ charged to cruise line driven.  I am feeling like we passengers are being robbed of the Alaska experience this season in particular.  I have been reading many posts about excursion issues and disappointment recently.

 

I did go on live chat to inquire about this situation.  As I expected I got no answer other than what I already knew, that the ship is not scheduled to be there long enough for this excursion.  So why did Princess even offer this excursion at all?

So actually, this is why I didn't book this excursion.  If you read the details of the excursion, the tour boat picks you up from the ship (like a tender) but then spends several hours sailing back back on its own to Juneau and you are dropped off at the Juneau pier to meet up with the ship that has already docked in the port.  I thought this was a very disappointing way to do the excursion--I'd have loved it if it was a few hours tour round trip to and from the ship while in the fjord like it is on most other sailings, but having what is the equivalent of a multi-hour ferry ride at the end of the excursion to meet up with the ship at port sounded exhausting, especially after the early wake up call.  We're going to enjoy seeing Alaska from the ship instead.

 

I actually had an anxiety dream about our Discovery Princess cruise last night... I feel like the closer and closer we get to the cruise the more I am just stressed out and convinced it's going to be a terrible, very expensive disaster.  It's my fault of course, but I like you somehow thought in my mind that Endicott Arm was a separate day from Juneau, and when I went to book excursions and saw that in fact we have to get up at dawn to see the glacier for a couple hours before breakfast before zipping over to Juneau, and then cram in an excursion at Juneau before dinner, I just felt so disappointment.  What a silly schedule.   

[Coolmama_1]

18 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

My opinion is that things are in turmoil and everyone needs to just go with the flow. If one excursion being cancelled is going to ruin the trip it is probably too soon after Covid (still during to some extent) to expect everything to be as it was before Covid.
 

We ere on Royal Princess in Alaska May 2-14 and there were some cancelled and some reduced capacity excursions. Exact reasons weren’t given and there are likely several,different reasons. But lack of man power by excursion operators is bound to be one of the reasons. There was something about an excursion at Juneau that involved a boat to Sitka that was shut down due to the entire boat crew having Covid. some of these problems are going to happen last minute. 
 

In Sitka the new cruise pier is at least 5 miles out of town and you should have seen the mess with the shuttles from pier to town when the ovation of the Seas tied up beside us. We only had 1600 passengers but rumour was they had 4000. They will sort these problems out eventually but best to remain flexible and enjoy the holiday rather than getting bent out of shape. JMHO…

We were on that cruise too. When we got back on our bus at the end of the tour in Sitka, they were calling for all available drivers to come to the port . We also heard that the Ovation had 4000 and apparently, the port was unaware(?) so they said that they were coming in at that time. People were trying to walk to Sitka. It was crazy!

[Eaglecw]

We have done the excursion “Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer” numerous times and were a little disappointed when we booked this cruise and found that the Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer excursion is sold out. This is a wonderful excursion and we were looking forward of doing again this year. This excursion is run by Allen marine tours. In years past there has been 2 tour boats pick up passengers off the ship. I believe that there was only 1 boat that picked up passengers off the Discovery. The boat ride back to Juneau can be a long boat ride but we’ve seen bears on the beach and many whales on the trip to Juneau, s that in itself has been a plus. It’s a whole new cruising world we live in with staffing shortages, this leads to logistical problems for tour operators and so on.  

[Italy52]

1 hour ago, Eaglecw said:

We have done the excursion “Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer” numerous times and were a little disappointed when we booked this cruise and found that the Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer excursion is sold out. This is a wonderful excursion and we were looking forward of doing again this year. This excursion is run by Allen marine tours. In years past there has been 2 tour boats pick up passengers off the ship. I believe that there was only 1 boat that picked up passengers off the Discovery. The boat ride back to Juneau can be a long boat ride but we’ve seen bears on the beach and many whales on the trip to Juneau, s that in itself has been a plus. It’s a whole new cruising world we live in with staffing shortages, this leads to logistical problems for tour operators and so on.  

 

We have also taken this excursion a few times and like you, we enjoyed it very much.  We loved being "up close" to the beautiful bergs and closer to the shoreline than what the big ship could offer us.  The beauty is definitely in the journey.  I realize that this excursion might not be for everyone and that's ok --- everyone has their favorites.  Like you, it is one of the highlights of our trip.

[karatemom2]

8 hours ago, MommyOTwins said:

So actually, this is why I didn't book this excursion.  If you read the details of the excursion, the tour boat picks you up from the ship (like a tender) but then spends several hours sailing back back on its own to Juneau and you are dropped off at the Juneau pier to meet up with the ship that has already docked in the port.  I thought this was a very disappointing way to do the excursion--I'd have loved it if it was a few hours tour round trip to and from the ship while in the fjord like it is on most other sailings, but having what is the equivalent of a multi-hour ferry ride at the end of the excursion to meet up with the ship at port sounded exhausting, especially after the early wake up call.  We're going to enjoy seeing Alaska from the ship instead.

 

I actually had an anxiety dream about our Discovery Princess cruise last night... I feel like the closer and closer we get to the cruise the more I am just stressed out and convinced it's going to be a terrible, very expensive disaster.  It's my fault of course, but I like you somehow thought in my mind that Endicott Arm was a separate day from Juneau, and when I went to book excursions and saw that in fact we have to get up at dawn to see the glacier for a couple hours before breakfast before zipping over to Juneau, and then cram in an excursion at Juneau before dinner, I just felt so disappointment.  What a silly schedule.   

Actually getting picked up at the ship and returned to Juneau is ideal. We have done the round trip from Juneau and even though the transit takes a little over an hour, at least this way you are only getting that one way. And we have often seen whales and other wildlife in that transit. The opportunity to get up close to the glacier in a small vessel is such a great experience. It just can’t be duplicated on a cruise ship. We have done it twice and would do it again in a heartbeat. Sadly it was sold out on our last cruise and we missed out. 
 

OP, I totally understand your disappointment. I hope something opens up and you are able to go!

[Eaglecw]

When the ship enters Endicott Arm Fjord it's more like Fjord sightseeing cruising. You don't get all that close to Dawes glacier, maybe a mile or so away, mostly do the ice conditions. Don't get me wrong it's still a beautiful area, just don't be disappointed if you don't get up close to the Dawes glacier.

[AE_Collector]

10 hours ago, Coolmama_1 said:

We were on that cruise too. When we got back on our bus at the end of the tour in Sitka, they were calling for all available drivers to come to the port . We also heard that the Ovation had 4000 and apparently, the port was unaware(?) so they said that they were coming in at that time. People were trying to walk to Sitka. It was crazy!

Fortunately our tour was early and we were on our way back to Royal Princess by noon. As we got closer there were more and more people walking towards town on the side of the road. I wondered if they had any idea how far they had to walk! The last 1/2 mile to the ship we also saw people walking back to the pier who likely had given up and turned around. Then we could barely fight our way through the mob to get back to our ship. Seemed a little ridiculous to have a ship of that capacity somewhere like Sitka. But then again our ship had 3600 capacity though only 1600 passengers on board.