Live From Majestic Princess JB5 Denali Explorer Alaska Cruise Tour 6-2022

[Steelers0854]

19 minutes ago, wblotner66 said:

Enjoyed you write up. So which nights were the formal night? Just trying to make sure I don’t have specialty restaurants selected those nights.

It was Hubbard Glacier and Ketchikan. We got lucky and were able to move our crown grill reservations as we originally had it for Hubbard Glacier night. But it was difficult I heard they were hard to get and a lot of people couldn’t get it. But I think it’s also because a lot of people had free specialty dining as well. 

[Steelers0854]

We had a disembarkation meeting time around 7:50. We went to the buffet for our final meal.

 

 

They began walk off disembarkation at 7:45. We were one of the first groups off (orange 3) and they called us at 8:10. No passports needed. No ArriveCAN needed. Just the Canadian customs declaration form. In less than 10 minutes we had our luggage and reached our transfer to the airport. It’s a very easy and efficient process with plenty of staff to ensure you know exactly where to go. We never waited anywhere until we hit the transport bus.

 

It took 15 minutes to fill and load the bus and it was a short 25 minute drive through downtown Vancouver to the airport.

 

Only 2 buses can unload at a time. We had to stop in a holding lot for all of 2 minutes before we could proceed to the terminal to off load.

 

And now we are just waiting for our flight. Thank you all for following along with us on our trip. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. I’ll do a recap post of our overall thoughts a little later. Happy to answer any questions. Thanks!

[clueless2]

Thanks for taking the time to do this "Live from" thread.  Enjoyed it.

[Steelers0854]

Global Entry is worth every penny, but most credit cards will pay for it. You get your own security line, kind of like PreCheck. No special exceptions though, you have to take everything off including your shoes. 
 

it also takes about 30 seconds to use a GE kiosk and get through customs. Preclearing customs in Canada is fantastic. 

[Steelers0854]

Final Thoughts:

 

-Medallion app continues to over promise and under deliver. I would frequently have to sign out and back in to get it to work correctly. When it did work it’s great being able to see where your traveling companions are, ship maps etc.

 

-Medallion App activity list is horrific. It’s basically unusable. They have to figure out a way to display this info better. I just took pictures of the patter since it was easier to view then their list in the app.

 

-Land tour first I think is best. The land tour was great but it’s very pack, put bags out, unpack, travel, go go go. The cruise at the end was a nice break before returning home that I don’t think I would have gotten had we finished with the land tour. Plus having the shorter flight at the end is a blessing.

 

-Land tours should try and do the train as much as you can. The train is fantastic and so easy. You feel like you’re in first class. Highly recommend it. Princess does a great job here.

 

-Princess EZ Air worked just fine. Had no issues during the trip with it.

 

-Princess really nails the food allergy thing in the MDR. They always go above and beyond in making creative dishes to ensure that you have as wonderful a dining experience as the rest of your party. I do wish in the buffet they would take a queue from Celebrity and label their dishes with icons indicating if they contain gluten, dairy, etc.

 

-I never used the food/drink delivery feature In The app. It wasnt because I didn’t want to, I was actually excited to try it, but because I never really needed to. There was always a server, a bar, or a place to get food easily accessible and I never really needed to use it. That said we were sitting with some folks at glacier bay and their order of chips and guacamole easily took an hour and a half to get to them. I’m assuming because everyone on board was using it to order the same thing lol.

 

-You miss Princess’ always available buffet (5am - 10pm) and international cafe when cruising other lines. Even when limited in offerings it’s nice to have access to something.

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you so much for your informative trip report!  We loved reading about your adventure and seeing your pictures!  Lots of great advice too!

[Willwils]

Thanks,  it was great to have your up to date info & pics. 

[Steelers0854]

On 6/19/2022 at 6:13 PM, alibabacruisers said:

Thank you so much for your informative trip report!  We loved reading about your adventure and seeing your pictures!  Lots of great advice too!

 

9 hours ago, Willwils said:

Thanks,  it was great to have your up to date info & pics. 

 

So glad you liked it!  

 

Yes, we found very little info especially recently info (even beyond the 2 years with no sailings due to covid) on these cruise tours so I am happy you enjoyed following along as much as we did.

[Cali Viajera]

Eagerly followed your report as we are currently on cruise land tour before embarking on Majestic on Saturday. Thank-you so very much for taking the time and detail for such an informative report🛳🛳

[caribill]

On 6/15/2022 at 3:15 PM, Steelers0854 said:

I would love to but in typical cruise critic fashion they don't like photos from my DSLR so I can’t post them. These are all from my iPhone. 

 

 

 

Is that because they are too large?

 

I often have to resize photos to get under the CC photo size limit.

[caribill]

On 6/17/2022 at 11:15 AM, ghgeckos said:

  Is the pool in the Hollywood Conservatory still maintained as an adult only pool while in Alaska?

 

On 6/17/2022 at 1:07 PM, Steelers0854 said:

 

the Hollywood Conservatory is only adults only after 10pm. 

 

However, the pool in the past has been "adults only" during all the time.

 

So is the pool itself still adults only all the time?

[cr8tiv1]

Your live thread was remarkable.  Lots of details, photos, descriptions, daily updates, and very enjoyable.  I hope you kept a copy of your posts (without all of our comments).  It would make a great Shutterbook.

 

As for the Journey View.  Yes, it is worthless.  Once the onboard navigators placed Ocean Concierge on my device, I was able to view my account, see a listing of activities like on the patter, and do a few other tasks.  Of course, no one bothers to tell you about this feature.

[wblotner66]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Your live thread was remarkable.  Lots of details, photos, descriptions, daily updates, and very enjoyable.  I hope you kept a copy of your posts (without all of our comments).  It would make a great Shutterbook.

 

As for the Journey View.  Yes, it is worthless.  Once the onboard navigators placed Ocean Concierge on my device, I was able to view my account, see a listing of activities like on the patter, and do a few other tasks.  Of course, no one bothers to tell you about this feature.

How do you get it on your device ?

[KLM3164]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

So is the pool itself still adults only all the time?

 It was adults only when we were on it in April 2022 and August 2021.

[Mom&MeCruiseAL]

Thank you so much for your trip report.  We are on the JA5 going north in July.  Your info and pictures are a huge help for my planning purposes.  And Go Steelers!

[cr8tiv1]

8 hours ago, wblotner66 said:

How do you get it on your device ?

 

I wasn't paying attention when the navigator made the Ocean Concierge a hot button on my home page.  Just ask them to do it on board.  I wouldn't have known about this feature if I wasn't having so much trouble with my Medallion Class app onboard.  

[Buckeye10640]

4 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

 It was adults only when we were on it in April 2022 and August 2021.

There were definity a few kids in the Hollywood Conservatory a couple times last month. I didnt notice if it said adults only - we didnt use the pool and the 'kids' with us were in their 20s.  Overall though very few children on the ship our mid-May sailing. 

[Steelers0854]

On 6/21/2022 at 12:29 AM, Cali Viajera said:

Eagerly followed your report as we are currently on cruise land tour before embarking on Majestic on Saturday. Thank-you so very much for taking the time and detail for such an informative report🛳🛳

 

You’re very welcome, you guys are going to have the best time!  I’m so jealous I wish I was back!

 

On 6/21/2022 at 1:14 AM, caribill said:

 

Is that because they are too large?

 

I often have to resize photos to get under the CC photo size limit.

 

So I was shooting in RAW and thought that was the issue, but then switched to jpg and never thought about the file size limit after that, that is most definitely the issue, they are 7MB.  Good to know for next time, but its such a pain to scale down photos especially while traveling.

 

On 6/21/2022 at 1:27 AM, caribill said:

 

 

However, the pool in the past has been "adults only" during all the time.

 

So is the pool itself still adults only all the time?

 

100% NOT adults only on our cruise.  Every day there were kids playing in the pool at all hours of the day.  That said it wasnt bad unless you were in the immediate pool area, when you got to the conservatory it was actually fairly quiet, they designed it well.

 

On 6/21/2022 at 3:12 AM, cr8tiv1 said:

Your live thread was remarkable.  Lots of details, photos, descriptions, daily updates, and very enjoyable.  I hope you kept a copy of your posts (without all of our comments).  It would make a great Shutterbook.

 

As for the Journey View.  Yes, it is worthless.  Once the onboard navigators placed Ocean Concierge on my device, I was able to view my account, see a listing of activities like on the patter, and do a few other tasks.  Of course, no one bothers to tell you about this feature.

 

Thanks so much for your kind words.  I actually write all my posts (with the exception of the quick one offs) in pages on my phone/iPad and then copy and paste into CC, so yes I have all my old live forms in a nicely organized folder on my device.  Makes it easy to search for specific things.  One thing I didnt do on this one that I actually forgot about was labeling the day, I usually do “Day 1 Whittier” as an example.  Guess I am out of practice, oh well time to book more cruises!

 

I wish i had known that while on board, that would have been really helpful, oh well have a little nugget of wisdom for the next one (May 2023, British Isles, we are so excited!)

 

On 6/21/2022 at 12:27 PM, Mom&MeCruiseAL said:

Thank you so much for your trip report.  We are on the JA5 going north in July.  Your info and pictures are a huge help for my planning purposes.  And Go Steelers!

 

So glad you found them helpful, you will love this, The land portion will take a lot out of you but its so worth it.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Steelers0854

[Thrak]

On 6/21/2022 at 10:19 AM, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I wasn't paying attention when the navigator made the Ocean Concierge a hot button on my home page.  Just ask them to do it on board.  I wouldn't have known about this feature if I wasn't having so much trouble with my Medallion Class app onboard.  

 

All they did was put an intranet shortcut on your desktop. Simply open a browser window and go to "ship name".princess.com - majestic.princess.com - royal.princess.com - emerald.princess.com - etc. That gives you the old listing you used to get. You can't make your own list from it like you used to be able to do but it does give you the old style list which is vastly easier than that "back and forth and up and down" crud in the app.

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

All they did was put an intranet shortcut on your desktop. Simply open a browser window and go to "ship name".princess.com - majestic.princess.com - royal.princess.com - emerald.princess.com - etc. That gives you the old listing you used to get. You can't make your own list from it like you used to be able to do but it does give you the old style list which is vastly easier than that "back and forth and up and down" crud in the app.

 

zoom, zoom, zoom,   👀  🚀  ⚡️    right over my head. 

 

But thank you @Thrak for explaining it to others.  

[Thrak]

23 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

zoom, zoom, zoom,   👀  🚀  ⚡️    right over my head. 

 

But thank you @Thrak for explaining it to others.  

 

In your browser you enter cruisecritic.com to get here or else click a shortcut you have saved. It's the same thing. In a browser enter majestic.princess.com (or whatever the name of your ship is) and you will get to the easy to use patter listing of events for that day. It will only work when you are on the ship.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Thrak

[cr8tiv1]

@Thrak  I had problems seeing my onboard account AND a few other issues.  Once the navigator made this hot button on my ipad home screen, all worked seamlessly.  The Medallion Class app is a dismal failure.  

 

I tried to load icon and address photos to this post, but received an error message.  Photos were in jpg form.  Not important.  But yes, grand.princess.com.  Icon is blue sea witch with a white background.  Agree, this only works while on the ship.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Outstanding depiction of your cruisetour; thank you for sharing!

[ImperialLady]

WOW!  Thank you for pointing me to your live review. The photos were a wonderful addition!!  I do not think I have ever enjoyed reading a review more!! I am so glad we decided to to the land portion first!!

[Steelers0854]

59 minutes ago, ImperialLady said:

WOW!  Thank you for pointing me to your live review. The photos were a wonderful addition!!  I do not think I have ever enjoyed reading a review more!! I am so glad we decided to to the land portion first!!

 

I’m glad you found it helpful, we had a wonderful time and it was such a great itinerary.