Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[CruzeQueen2]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Here is Google Earth screen shot of where Hubbard Glacier resides.  It’s located inside of Yakutat Bay & then Disenchantment Bay

 

Here's the bigger picture of where Hubbard is located:

 

 

More close up map:

 

 

Few pictures of the area as Majestic Princess enters Yakutat Bay and Disenchantment Bay:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just to show you @harryfat1 - weather in May this year, brilliant bright day! Cold, yes. Loved it!

[CruzeQueen2]

9 minutes ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Just to show you @harryfat1 - weather in May this year, brilliant bright day! Cold, yes. Loved it!

Twelve day cruise - start and return to Vancouver. May 2 - 14, for anyone who wants to know. Weather was absolutely fabulous. Only complaint, too much ice in Endicott Arm, did not see Dawes Glacier on that trip.  Captain announced that we could not get too far into that "arm" that day.

Crossing fingers for this time around, in September to see Dawes Glacier. Prepared with rain gear this time, toque and gloves as well, of course! @harryfat1

Edited September 11, 2022 by CruzeQueen2
adding info

[harryfat1]

54 minutes ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Twelve day cruise - start and return to Vancouver. May 2 - 14, for anyone who wants to know. Weather was absolutely fabulous. Only complaint, too much ice in Endicott Arm, did not see Dawes Glacier on that trip.  Captain announced that we could not get too far into that "arm" that day.

Crossing fingers for this time around, in September to see Dawes Glacier. Prepared with rain gear this time, toque and gloves as well, of course! @harryfat1

Those are very nice pictures with the snow capped mountains and the blue skies.  Princess can use these as part of the Alaska promotion on your sailing. Thanks for sharing.

 

Note to self that the next time for an Alaska cruise should be in May when the snow hasn't melted yet.  By then I won't have to worry about the boys school schedule to be forced to go in August.

[harryfat1]

Time stamp was 3:50 as the excursion boat showed up.  Looking at Google Earth, I think the boat is probably based around Yakutat at the opening of the bay as they met up with Majestic while we were pretty far out from the Hubbard Glacier itself.

 

 

At this point, my wife and older son and the in-laws wanted to go up on the top deck to see what it’s like up there so they left while my younger son and I stayed down on deck 8.  So all of the upper deck photos are from her phone as you will see double coverage.

 

 

There's Hubbard Glacier way in the background as we stopped here for people to get on the excursion boat

 

 

The sun was just shining on the face of the Glacier so you get more of a reflection from it

 

 

If you turn on the cabin TV, you can see the bridge cam as well as hear the naturalist talk as we approach Hubbard Glacier.  The echo you are hearing is between the TV and the PA system in the back as we had the balcony door open

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here's a question for people who are tech savvy:

 

The web page keeps wanting to rotate 2 of my pictures that I want to post upside down.  Even though on my file manager and picture preview, they are right side up?

 

Here are the 2 photos as "flipped" by the software:

 

 

 

On my photo view it's at the right orientation - using screen shot to upload these instead of file attachment:

 

 

 

 

So I thought if the software thinks it's right side up, I will just rotate my original photo 180 degrees and then the software will rotate it 180 and we are good, right?  

 

Nope, when I attach, the software is still looking to flip the photo to the wrong orientation.

 

Anyone that has encountered similar issue of photo turning upside down, let me know if there's any fixes other than screen shots?

 

Thanks.

[Outerdog]

19 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Anyone that has encountered similar issue of photo turning upside down, let me know if there's any fixes other than screen shots?

 

The forum software is interpreting the EXIF orientation bit embedded in the file. You can try removing the EXIF data. You may not wish to do this on photos you intend to keep in your collection. Try it on a copy of the pics.

 

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/remove-metadata-from-photos/

 

 

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, Outerdog said:

 

The forum software is interpreting the EXIF orientation bit embedded in the file. You can try removing the EXIF data. You may not wish to do this on photos you intend to keep in your collection. Try it on a copy of the pics.

 

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/remove-metadata-from-photos/

 

 

 

Thanks for the info.  Much appreciated.  I will take a look and play around with it if I encounter more software issues.

 

Yeah, I want to keep all the pictures in the collection so I will make a copy and play in the sandbox without messing up the original pictures.

[harryfat1]

As there more "stuff to see" up on the top decks, I will show those first and then maybe flip back to lower deck coverage later on to show different perspectives.

 

Lots of people on the top decks

 

 

With no access to the bow, this is about as "frontal view" as you can get on the Majestic 

 

 

If you look to the far right of the picture below, you will see the excursion boat has picked up its passengers are now headed for Hubbard Glacier.  The Majestic Princess will soon follow.

 

 

I find it interesting there's a group of people just hanging out at the hot tub as the ship is pulling into Hubbard Glacier and not really caring about the outside scenery. I guess we all have our preferences.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

More pictures from the top decks:

 

View from the port side

 

 

Same limitation as the starboard side - this is as far as you can go

 

 

Lots of small chunks of ice 

 

 

 

You can tell by the mountain ranges that we made headway into the bay as this is looking at the back of the ship

 

 

Getting closer

 

[caribill]

13 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Appreciate the insight.

 

We were on the Star Princess 20 years ago - which I believe to be a Grand class ship - and wanted to try the newer class of ship this around.  The Royal class has certain things that are frustrating at times but not a deal breaker for our cruising style.

 

The Grand Princess balcony cabins would be out of my cheapo price range.  Here's a price example for next year's Alaska cruise.  If we book it on a Grand, it would be the obstucted window view for the best value:

 

 

 

Here's the Majestic:

 

 

The Majestic balcony starts with the obstructed balcony (peasant balcony as I call it) so it's a lower cost balcony compared to a better/bigger Grand Princess balcony.

 

Obviously the prices will change as time goes on but it depends on what each person's comfort zone is in spending their vacation dollars.

 

In most cases, the obstructed balcony cabins are not shown in the Balcony section on the pricing.

 

For the Grand you should see the obstructed Balcony pricing when you look at the Oceanview Category.

 

For the Majestic, you should see the obstructed Balcony pricing when you look at the Inside category.

 

If you do not see the Obstructed Balcony listed when you check those places, then the category is sold out.

 

Example when looking at Majestic Inside category pricing:

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

In most cases, the obstructed balcony cabins are not shown in the Balcony section on the pricing.

 

For the Grand you should see the obstructed Balcony pricing when you look at the Oceanview Category.

 

For the Majestic, you should see the obstructed Balcony pricing when you look at the Inside category.

 

If you do not see the Obstructed Balcony listed when you check those places, then the category is sold out.

 

Example when looking at Majestic Inside category pricing:

Thanks for the insight.  Good to know that the Princess web site classifies the obstructed balcony as part of the inside group.

 

I typically use a 3rd party travel agent to book my cruises so I'm not familiar with the details of the Princess web site this is good info to pass onto others.  

[harryfat1]

Back to the top deck photos from Hubbard Glacier:

 

It's hard to appreciate how massive the Hubbard Glacier is from pictures far away as the big cruise ships can't get very close but if you see how small the excursion boat is relative to the glacier, you will appreciate the size.

 

 

 

People standing elbow to elbow 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

[CruzeQueen2]

49 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Back to the top deck photos from Hubbard Glacier:

 

It's hard to appreciate how massive the Hubbard Glacier is from pictures far away as the big cruise ships can't get very close but if you see how small the excursion boat is relative to the glacier, you will appreciate the size.

 

 

 

People standing elbow to elbow 

 

 

 

 

 

Great photos! Happy to see that the weather cleared up for you. 

[wowzz]

Just watched the first episode of Frozen Planet 2 on BBC tonight, narrated by David Attenborough.  Make the most of the views,  they won't be around much longer !

[dani negreanu]

It amazes me to see a lady in bikini, or one in short sleeves, or, even in person in shorts.

 

Bbrrrrr ❄️

[partybarbie]

54 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

It amazes me to see a lady in bikini, or one in short sleeves, or, even in person in shorts.

 

Bbrrrrr ❄️

Surprisingly, in July of this year, even the weather in the glaciers was around 80F.

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

It amazes me to see a lady in bikini, or one in short sleeves, or, even in person in shorts.

 

Bbrrrrr ❄️

 

I assume the bathing suit people are from the hot tubs and have towels/robes nearby to warm up.

 

Yeah, some people have different tolerance for the cold when you see many people wearing jackets on deck.

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, partybarbie said:

Surprisingly, in July of this year, even the weather in the glaciers was around 80F.

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise picture.  Must feel nice to be wearing a summer dress with snowcapped mountain and glacier in the background.

 

From various reports, it seems this Alaska summer has been warm and sunny on various sailings.  Hopefully this trend continues for few more weeks for the late season cruisers.

 

[harryfat1]

Yesterday I uploaded pictures from my wife’s phone showing activities from the top deck.  Now I will show views from decks 7 and 8.  Even though there are more things happening up on top, I prefer the tranquility on the lower decks and being closer to the ice floats.

 

Here's another view of the excursion boat heading for Hubbard Glacier earlier

 

 

I went down to deck 7 as I saw from our balcony that the area was empty.  By not having a wrap around deck, maybe this area isn't as well known or liked.  If you come down here, you don't have to fight for a viewing spot as you would from deck 17 above

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As one can see, the Hubbard Glacier is massive. When the ship got closer. you can't fit it all in on a normal cell phone.

 

 

Lots of ice floating everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we got to the point where the ship can't go any further due to the ice in the water, the captain did a slow turn so every part of the ship has sufficient time to see the Hubbard Glacier front and center.

 

Here's the view of the opening of the bay where we came in when the ship rotated out

 

[cheone]

22 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just watched the first episode of Frozen Planet 2 on BBC tonight, narrated by David Attenborough.  Make the most of the views,  they won't be around much longer !

Why won't the views of Hubbard Glacier be around much longer?  Hubbard Glacier has advanced 2 miles in the last 100 years.  Half of the Glaciers in Alaska are advancing and 50% receding.   Mendenhall Glacier has even stopped receding 3 years ago.  

[dreaminofcruisin]

15 minutes ago, cheone said:

Why won't the views of Hubbard Glacier be around much longer?  Hubbard Glacier has advanced 2 miles in the last 100 years.  Half of the Glaciers in Alaska are advancing and 50% receding.   Mendenhall Glacier has even stopped receding 3 years ago.  

 

I googled because I was interested to find that Mendenhall Glacier stopped receding, but couldn't find that information. Do you have a source?

This is what I found:

Since the 1750s snowfall at the site has been less than the rate of melting.  By 2050 the glacier is expected to be completely out of view from the U.S. Forest Service Visitor Center at the southeast corner of Mendenhall Lake.

 

https://www.blm.gov/blog/2022-01-05/challenge-opportunity-1952-and-2022

 

 

[wowzz]

55 minutes ago, cheone said:

Why won't the views of Hubbard Glacier be around much longer?  Hubbard Glacier has advanced 2 miles in the last 100 years.  Half of the Glaciers in Alaska are advancing and 50% receding.   Mendenhall Glacier has even stopped receding 3 years ago.  

Temperatures in Akaska are increasing at twice the rate of the rest of the US

https://climatechange.chicago.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-alaska#:~:text=Over the past 60 years,rest of the United States.

[harryfat1]

Not that I am an advocate how people should be spending their money but the question of “should we get a balcony cabin for Alaska” shows up repeatedly on CC – especially over at the Alaska boards. Being cheap, I never want to tell people to spend extra if they are ok with the basics, but I will present both sides and people can make their own informed decisions. 

 

I will never be the one that reply on CC to say “Of course, you MUST do it this way as that’s how we did it.  If you don’t do it our way, you must be an idiot…”

 

If you are able & comfortable enough to be elbow to elbow standing at the railing fighting for position with hundreds of people, then maybe inside cabin will work for you.  My wife likes the “excitement” of being with a large group of people to feel festive.  I, on the other hand, is very anti-social.  Not a people person so having less people around me is a good thing. You need to decide what you prefer.

 

Being on top has advantage of mobile as you can go from side to side – especially when we get to Glacier Bay National Park tomorrow for wild animal siting.  Whenever they announce something on the port side, you can rush over there and if something is happening on the starboard side, you can run over there real fast if you are on top decks (or on deck 7 of Promenade).  You can’t see the other side if in your cabin.

 

However, at the really important areas like glacier viewing, the captain will do a slow 360 degree turn so every area on the ship will have a straight on view of the glacier.  No-one will be left out so no worries to be on the "wrong side" during the glacier viewing events.

 

Also be on the lookout for any “deals”.  For 2022 Alaska one-way sailings, Princess had the $300/pp airfare credit on balcony cabins such that if your price difference between inside and obstructed balcony is less than $300, then you are better off with a balcony cabin as you actually “save money” by upgrading to a balcony.

 

 

You see the price for our cruise had listed the inside to be $658 inside and $798 obstructed, both before the port charges and taxes.  But with $300/pp airfare credit on balcony and above cabins, you are better off with the balcony cabin than inside.

 

 

Finally, if you have a large group whereby you were able to secure a group of adjacent balcony cabins, you can open up the outside partitions and have one large opening to sit and chill out during glacier viewing time.