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

[4x4bob]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

After the show, same nightly routine.  Go to IC for water before going back to the cabin for the night. The boys cabin still not functional. The screen recognizes their Medallion app to say “door is unlocked” but the knob doesn’t turn green with a glow.  Guess whomever was supposed to fix the door knob never came tonight.  Good thing we have connecting cabins or else we’d have to go down to guest services.

 

Tomorrow would be our first day in port.  After being on sea the past 2 plus days, I’m glad to be back on land as I’m just not a sea person.

 

Our first port is Icy Strait Point (ISP).  It wasn’t supposed to be ISP as we were originally scheduled to be going to Skagway but I assume most people are aware of the rockslide issue at Skagway earlier this summer and the closure of the Railroad Forward dock and that forced many Princess sailings to relocate to ISP or Sitka or Haines.

 

As you can see from Google maps that these ports up in middle part of Alaska are pretty close to each other.  You have Hoonah (which is ISP) and up north a bit you have Haines and Skagway and to the East you have Juneau so not like the ship has to go far during this part of the voyage. 

 

 

Which was why Princess allocated 14+ hours for us to be in ISP (originally Skagway) because the next town isn’t that far away and we can afford to be in town for a much longer time. One of the advantages of sailing one way instead of round trip from Seattle is you have more time in port (although I will discuss how/why we lost 3 hours in port later on – got to have teaser to keep people coming back, right?)

 

Anyway, as we got back to the cabin and looking outside, the Majestic Princess is already docked at 10:40 PM for tomorrow’s port as it took around 3 hours to travel from GB to ISP.

 

The air outside was very smoky because ISP has a wood burning fire pit in the port area and the wind blew a lot of that smell into the ship area.  After couple of pictures, time to hurry back to the cabin and close the door to keep the nasty smoke out. 

 

 

More neon lights from the sky walk above

 

 

Since I can’t go outside the balcony to take more pictures, time to go outside the cabin door and take one from there at 11 PM. Not a single person to be seen. Besides being only 60% full, not an active crowd compared to other sailings in Caribbean/Mexico we have been on previously.

 

FYI that starboard carpets are red and Port side carpets are blue.  So, if you when your elevator drops you off at your deck and you are uncertain to turn left or right, look for color of the carpet that corresponds to your port or starboard color carpet.

 

 

This concludes the day 3 trip report - as always, thanks to everyone for reading along and providing the "like" support at all the posts.  Much appreciated.

 

I really enjoyed your trip report and photos.  In the future if both of us are on the same ship I would like to meet with you.  So, If I see someone taking photos on the fantail of the ship early in the morning to catch the sunrise or late in the afternoon to catch the sunset that I believe is you I will walk up and say Hello.  Such as, Hello are your the HarryFat1?  However if I have guessed wrong I can imagine how the conversation will kinda go down hill at that point. 

Any way looking forward to your next trip report

Bob

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Thank you for your posts and especially the food pictures! Love princess and wish you smooth sailing. 

Thanks for the note.

 

Yeah, I like the food pictures as food is synonymous with cruises. 

 

Although looking back, other than day one on boarding the ship, I didn't take as many buffet pictures as I should have. I missed out on the central hot food serving areas.

 

I didn't take picture of the guy standing in the mid area of the buffet wall handing out napkins/utensils as you are not allowed to grab them yourself.  The buffet area workers give it to you via a serving tong so even they don't touch the napkins directly or so the theory goes (although you will need to assume they wore gloves to put the utensils inside and then wrap it).

 

As I mentioned, my wife and I have different perspectives on how to take the pictures.  Her pictures cover more of the background where my photos are the in your face style.

 

In the pre cell phone era, people at other tables used to looked at me sideways when I brought in the DSLR to take pictures of food at MDR at dinner time.  Nowadays with social media and everyone uploading their food pictures regularly, nobody blinks an eye when you take pictures of your food on your phone.

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

I really enjoyed your trip report and photos.  In the future if both of us are on the same ship I would like to meet with you.  So, If I see someone taking photos on the fantail of the ship early in the morning to catch the sunrise or late in the afternoon to catch the sunset that I believe is you I will walk up and say Hello.  Such as, Hello are your the HarryFat1?  However if I have guessed wrong I can imagine how the conversation will kinda go down hill at that point. 

Any way looking forward to your next trip report

Bob

Oh, yeah, if we ever end up on the same cruise, please come by and say hi.  Obviously, I won’t know what you look like but you can probably find me easily as I will be taking pictures of Tabasco sauce in the buffet area - yeah, that MUST be the Harry guy…🤪

 

In my previous cruise on RCI, I had various people come up to me and asked if I was Harryfat/Cheapo Dad as they recognized me from my previous trip reports and they knew I would be on that sailing from the roll call. I always joined the roll calls prior to every sailing since I don’t cruise in “incognito” mode.

 

Not sure if it's a good thing to be on the same sailing as me as I might accidentally take a picture of you in the background and making fun of you in the post.  

 

Tentatively, my next cruise will be on the Christmas week of 2023 to the Southern Caribbean on RCI when the boys are off school.  But the problem is when my kids are off, so is everyone else in North America and that drives the cruise prices sky high to cruise during the holidays. Cheapo Dad needs to go to therapy after paying the post cruise bills…

 

Maybe we will try out the new Carnival mega ships in 2024 as they look interesting or go to Europe as we have cruised out of the four corners of the US already and being more of a "port person", I want to seek out new ports to explore more than just sit on the Lido deck and read a book - especially since I'm illiterate...

[4x4bob]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Oh, yeah, if we ever end up on the same cruise, please come by and say hi.  Obviously, I won’t know what you look like but you can probably find me easily as I will be taking pictures of Tabasco sauce in the buffet area - yeah, that MUST be the Harry guy…🤪

 

In my previous cruise on RCI, I had various people come up to me and asked if I was Harryfat/Cheapo Dad as they recognized me from my previous trip reports and they knew I would be on that sailing from the roll call. I always joined the roll calls prior to every sailing since I don’t cruise in “incognito” mode.

 

Not sure if it's a good thing to be on the same sailing as me as I might accidentally take a picture of you in the background and making fun of you in the post.  

 

Tentatively, my next cruise will be on the Christmas week of 2023 to the Southern Caribbean on RCI when the boys are off school.  But the problem is when my kids are off, so is everyone else in North America and that drives the cruise prices sky high to cruise during the holidays. Cheapo Dad needs to go to therapy after paying the post cruise bills…

 

Maybe we will try out the new Carnival mega ships in 2024 as they look interesting or go to Europe as we have cruised out of the four corners of the US already and being more of a "port person", I want to seek out new ports to explore more than just sit on the Lido deck and read a book - especially since I'm illiterate...

I am easy to spot.  I am 4 foot tall, 4 foot around with a long white beard hanging down and I always wear a tall pointed hat with narrow brim.  And I will be carrying a Nikon camera with a 300mm lens that I have modified to mount wheels on the end of lens so I can roll it around.  If I see you on a roll call I will be sure to notify you that I will be on that ship also.

Our next trip is Sea of Cortez in January 2023.  Then if I can pick up enough aluminum cans in the park, maybe Hawaii later in the year. And you think you have a corner on the market for being Cheapo.  😁

Bob

Edited September 22, 2022 by 4x4bob
add

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

I am easy to spot.  I am 4 foot tall, 4 foot around with a long white beard hanging down and I always wear a tall pointed hat with narrow brim.  And I will be carrying a Nikon camera with a 300mm lens that I have modified to mount wheels on the end of lens so I can roll it around.  If I see you on a roll call I will be sure to notify you that I will be on that ship also.

Our next trip is Sea of Cortez in January 2023.  Then if I can pick up enough aluminum cans in the park, maybe Hawaii later in the year. And you think you have a corner on the market for being Cheapo.  😁

Bob

Tell me afterwards (email me at my email address below) on how was the Sea of Cortez cruise.

 

Very few cruise ships go to La Paz and Loreto and that's probably the only west coast Mexico cruise ports I haven't been to as I have been to Ensenada/Cabo/Mazatlán/PV/Acapulco/Zihuatanejo/Manzanillo in previous Mexico cruises.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Day 4 – Icy Strait Point (ISP)/Hoonah

 

Here is the schedule scan:

 

 

 

Technically you can get off early at 7 AM to explore the town but unless you have an excursion that started at 8, there’s no hurry to get off the ship as we are here until 8:30 PM with an all aboard at 8 so that's 13 hours at ISP.

 

As discussed previously, some people love ISP, others less so.  Anyway, we have plenty of time to talk about ISP as we see different part of the town.  For now, typical morning photo(s) and then breakfast time.

 

ISP used to have the world’s longest zip line but has since been overtaken by few places overseas but it’s still the longest zip in the US. The zip lines (red arrow) are a tad difficult to see compared to the gondola line (yellow arrow)

 

 

The gondolas at this view looks like Christmas ornaments

 

 

[harryfat1]

There’s the RCI’s Radiance of the Seas docked at the other pier. You would think you can just “walk along the shoreline to go from pier to pier”.  Nope.  Doesn’t work that way. There’s no walkable path along the shoreline between the 2 pier.

 

Wait, that's too far.  How do you know what's the name of the ship?

 

 

Let's zoom in a bit to see.  Nope.  Still can't see.

 

 

Well, let's zoom in some more:

 

 

Of course, you can look online to see who's in port for the day but why do things the hard way when you can just look out, but here is the official schedule:

 

 

Prior to our sailing, the Majestic Princess didn’t even show up on the schedule as she was supposed to be in Skagway.  With this revision, she docked at 9:30 on Monday night and didn’t depart until 8:30 PM the next day.  On paper, we were at ISP for almost 23 hours but no one was allowed to get off the ship on Monday night so it was just for paperwork purposes we were there that long.

 

Also saw people walking off the ship to cross the bridge to get ashore

 

 

 

OK, enough morning pictures from the balcony.  Time to get something to eat.

Edited September 22, 2022 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

Congee is effectively rice porridge – a stable in the Asian breakfast scene – like American version of Oatmeal.

 

 

Only people I saw in line to get these were Asians.

 

Princess gives you the plain version (with some ginger and chicken flavoring) and you just add whatever condiments you want on it. For this day, I put them on the side. Later in the cruise, I just added them directly on top. 

 

 

 

Photo from the buffet

 

 

 

My breakfast (plus the congee above)

 

 

Grab and go

 

 

 

I like these help yourself smoothies.  The avocado flavor was surprisingly good.

 

 

Smile, you are on CC

 

 

 

Holy Cow - that's a lot of liquids.  No wonder I had to go to the rest room often that morning

 

[harryfat1]

There’s the daily activity similar to what you get from the phone app on the giant screens by every elevator bank but because you have to scroll left and right instead of up and down, I find it hard to manage.

 

 

Here is the official policy of mask wearing inside the elevator and limit of number of people per elevator.  But very few people adhere to this. Probably feel this is like the speed limit on the freeway - recommended but need not follow strictly

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After breakfast, back to the cabin to gather our stuff and headed off to see our first port. As we were walking out, we saw our cabin steward in the hallway and he mentioned that even he couldn’t access my boys’ cabin last night with his pass as the door handle is not responsive and he used the connecting door like we did. He made a call on his phone to expedite the repair process as we walked down to the gangway.

 

 

Guess now is a good time to talk about ISP – it’s basically a “made for cruise ship” port, similar to the private island in the Caribbean.  I called it “sanitized” cruise port experience like something Disney would set up if they were going to set up a cruise port in Alaska (minus the hidden Mickey's).

 

Some people like it more than Skagway in that it’s clean and more scenic as you can look out at the super calm water and feel serene (or as serene as you can be with 4,000+ people from 2 cruise ships near you).

 

Big draw for the port is zip line/whale watching/ATV.  None of which are important for us but if those are high on your list, then obviously you will like ISP more than us.

 

Originally for Skagway, we booked an excursion to see the Yukon territory as Skagway may not be as pristine (sanitized) as ISP, but Skagway is more of a gateway for train or excursions to see the area and those are higher priority for us.

 

It goes back to what you want in your port/vacation.  No right or wrong – just personal preference.

 

 

[harryfat1]

It’s a bit of walk to the first set of building.  For those that need mobility assistance, they have these carts that takes you across the bridge.

 

 

 

The green colored gondolas are free as they are just a fancy shuttle to take you from one pier to the other pier.

 

 

 

Of course one of the very first thing you see is a gift shop.  Sure, let’s go visit the uncle in prison (aka shopping).

 

Yeah, at $63 for hoodie, I kept on walking...

 

[4x4bob]

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Tell me afterwards (email me at my email address below) on how was the Sea of Cortez cruise.

 

Very few cruise ships go to La Paz and Loreto and that's probably the only west coast Mexico cruise ports I haven't been to as I have been to Ensenada/Cabo/Mazatlán/PV/Acapulco/Zihuatanejo/Manzanillo in previous Mexico cruises.

 

 

OK.  This will be our 2nd trip down there. La Paz and Loreto are quaint little towns that are fun to just walk around in, find a outdoor cafe and order a beer and nachos and watch the world walk past.  Our last trip we kept bumping into the Ship paid walking tour, like I said Little Towns. Had to wait for them to clear the area so I could take photos my self. 

Bob

[cr8tiv1]

16 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Tell me afterwards (email me at my email address below) on how was the Sea of Cortez cruise.

 

Very few cruise ships go to La Paz and Loreto and that's probably the only west coast Mexico cruise ports I haven't been to as I have been to Ensenada/Cabo/Mazatlán/PV/Acapulco/Zihuatanejo/Manzanillo in previous Mexico cruises.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

OK.  This will be our 2nd trip down there. La Paz and Loreto are quaint little towns that are fun to just walk around in, find a outdoor cafe and order a beer and nachos and watch the world walk past.  Our last trip we kept bumping into the Ship paid walking tour, like I said Little Towns. Had to wait for them to clear the area so I could take photos my self. 

Bob

 

Love the Sea of Cortez cruise.  Can never go wrong with these visits.  You know it isn't geared to tourist when you can't find a Diamond's International.  I mean...that have one in Cabo....

 

May not be for you as there isn't really anything "exciting" happening in La Paz/Loreto.  Save it for when you retire.  

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

OK.  This will be our 2nd trip down there. La Paz and Loreto are quaint little towns that are fun to just walk around in, find a outdoor cafe and order a beer and nachos and watch the world walk past.  Our last trip we kept bumping into the Ship paid walking tour, like I said Little Towns. Had to wait for them to clear the area so I could take photos my self. 

Bob

Yeah, I had read that those were little towns but if there's something to see, then it might be worth a visit.

 

Not high on the bucket list but someday will want to check that off as a "been there" west coast Mexico port. Think only Princess and occasionally HAL might offer this itinerary as the other cruise lines just visit the boring "big 3" in Mexico.

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

 

Love the Sea of Cortez cruise.  Can never go wrong with these visits.  You know it isn't geared to tourist when you can't find a Diamond's International.  I mean...that have one in Cabo....

 

May not be for you as there isn't really anything "exciting" happening in La Paz/Loreto.  Save it for when you retire.  

Haha, not like I'm the "dancing on the table" guy at Senor Frog's that can't get enough of Cabo.

 

I like small towns if there's something to see/take a picture of.  As it's pretty obvious by now from my various uploads that I vacation through my camera so if there's something new/worthwhile to see, I wouldn't mind going.  But like you said, not high on my bucket list so this can wait until I retire.

[harryfat1]

Throughout our travels, we collected various holiday decorative items from places we visited.  Then take them out annually during the holidays to remember where we have been so later on my wife bought something from another store.

 

 

Here is one of the wood burning areas for people to keep warm but also made the air very smoky as we can smell them from outside our balcony.  Heads up if you are sensitive to smoky air.

 

 

If you want to check out the area instead of the gondola ride, there’s a half mile nature trail you can walk.  We opted for gondola in the morning and did the nature trail in the afternoon.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As I mentioned previously, ISP was a substitute port for Skagway post the rockslide.  It was switched out less than a month prior to sailing so I had to do a lot of YouTube video watching to have an idea on what ISP has to offer.

 

One thing I was confused about was how the green gondola is connected to the whole community as the online map from ISP web site made no mention of it.  That’s because the map online is outdated as they started with only one pier (the one where Radiance of the Sea was docked) and expanded to the second pier (where Majestic Princess was docked).

 

Here is the map online:

 

https://icystraitpoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Icy-Strait-Point-Map.pdf

 

Here is the actual map - like the commercial says, Not exactly the same:

 

 

So we are docked at the “Wilderness Landing” (see my white arrow) and to go to the right side of the map where all the activities are, you either walk there through the nature trail (red arrow) or do the free gondola (purple arrow). This map was not found online as some of these are new but confused the heck out of me as I didn’t know where was what until I saw the map in person.

 

Looking back at our ship

 

 

So free gondola it is

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After a short 4 minute ride, we made it to the main compound area.

 

 

Here is different view of the Radiance.  Earlier we saw her from a different angle so this gives you an idea on where we are on the map. 

 

 

The Orca statue was donated by NCL.

 

 

You can chill here for awhile just looking out into the Alaska scenery

 

 

 

Another fire pit area with more wood burning smoky scent.  I understand this is Alaska and you need to keep warm but the weather was in the low 60s in the morning so it doesn’t seem so cold and not sure for the need to fill the area with that much smoke but guess they want to keep the lunch paying crowd warm in case it gets windy later on.

 

[4x4bob]

5 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

As I mentioned previously, ISP was a substitute port for Skagway post the rockslide.  It was switched out less than a month prior to sailing so I had to do a lot of YouTube video watching to have an idea on what ISP has to offer.

 

One thing I was confused about was how the green gondola is connected to the whole community as the online map from ISP web site made no mention of it.  That’s because the map online is outdated as they started with only one pier (the one where Radiance of the Sea was docked) and expanded to the second pier (where Majestic Princess was docked).

 

Here is the map online:

 

https://icystraitpoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Icy-Strait-Point-Map.pdf

 

Here is the actual map - like the commercial says, Not exactly the same:

 

 

So we are docked at the “Wilderness Landing” (see my white arrow) and to go to the right side of the map where all the activities are, you either walk there through the nature trail (red arrow) or do the free gondola (purple arrow). This map was not found online as some of these are new but confused the heck out of me as I didn’t know where was what until I saw the map in person.

 

Looking back at our ship

 

 

So free gondola it is

 

 

 

 

 

 

A report from an Old geezer.  Back in the day, as my Grand Pa used to say, when we arrived at ISP the ship dropped anchor out in the bay and we rode the Tenders into a small dock in front of the Cook House.  Then up behind it was the remodeled cannery along with the mandatory gift shop to separate the sheep from their wool, er money. 

 

Also there was a hiking trail up through the woods and campfires on the beach at which you could buy small chips of wood to toss in for good luck that was supposed to bring you back to ISP.  I guess the small chip we tossed into the fire was not big enough to have strong magic to bring us back.

 

From your photos there really has been some changes made since we were there.

Bob

[harryfat1]

Rocky beach area with lots of shopping and a free museum on the history of salmon cannery.  So it’s time to visit the uncle in prison as we darted in and out of the various shops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Huge shopping area inside many of the barn structures

 

 

As you can tell, the place is big such that even with 2 ships n town, you are not being overwhelmed with people and the area is clean (sanitized).

 

 

Yeap, $27 for a t-shirt.  Cheapo Dad kept on walking after taking this picture…

 

[harryfat1]

My wife spent fair amount of time here and found a Christmas ornament that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg as you can tell from the other prices that ISP isn't cheap.  Yeah, I know, the profits are for the natives but the markups are very high

 

 

Time to hand over the hard earn $$ for overpriced souvenir – only if I had brought my wallet!🤑

 

Yeah, really, I left my wallet back in the safe inside the cabin as after I got on the ship on day 1, I put my wallet in the safe as all transactions run through the medallion device. Then totally forgot to take it out this morning.  DOH!

 

Yeah, Cheapo Dad hasn’t been a cruise in 5 years.  Forgotten all my cruise routines.  But good thing other people in the family had credit card to pay.

 

 

[harryfat1]

15 minutes ago, 4x4bob said:

A report from an Old geezer.  Back in the day, as my Grand Pa used to say, when we arrived at ISP the ship dropped anchor out in the bay and we rode the Tenders into a small dock in front of the Cook House.  Then up behind it was the remodeled cannery along with the mandatory gift shop to separate the sheep from their wool, er money. 

 

Also there was a hiking trail up through the woods and campfires on the beach at which you could buy small chips of wood to toss in for good luck that was supposed to bring you back to ISP.  I guess the small chip we tossed into the fire was not big enough to have strong magic to bring us back.

 

From your photos there really has been some changes made since we were there.

Bob

Yeah, if you click on the link of ISP map on post #392, you see that was the old map with only 1 dock.  Think map was updated after your original visit as the dock where Radiance of the Seas didn't need to do any tendering.

 

The green gondola is very new as it's not even on the map.

 

I assumed there was no red gondola ($49/pp) or zip line when you visited awhile back?

 

I think they will continue to develop ISP to be the #4 Alaska port.  Especially with Skagway having dock issue from landslide, more ships will be stopping at ISP in 2023 and beyond.

 

Cruise lines always want to have new ports to attract repeat cruisers.  So look for other ports like Sitka and Haines move up in having more visitors in near future as Skagway's loss in their gain.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Lots of tables for people to eat lunch later.  Right now, it’s empty at 10:45 on the time stamp of this picture

 

 

After taking enough pictures of the area and done visiting the uncle in prison (shopping), it was time to walk outside the ISP compound and visit the “real” town of Hoonah. I called it the real town as I don’t consider ISP to be a real town.  It’s just a shopping/food/entertainment complex for cruisers.  The real town of Hoonah resides 1.5 miles south.

 

 

 

 

So you just head outside of the compound past the security check point – although unlike security check points at other ports like Caribbean/Mexico where they check your cruise card when you come back, nobody checked anything when we came back. 

 

On the left, there’s a theater area for Tribal Dance with performance time listed.  I don’t know if there’s a cost associated with as we didn’t go. If others have seen it, please leave a comment below.

 

 

There are booths right before you leave the compound to help you if you needed help.

 

 

Security booth has sign that tells you where the town is and how far is it.  All created with the tourist in mind – good or bad, you be the judge.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Walkway to Hoonah

 

 

 

Saw a deer right outside of the compound

 

 

[harryfat1]

The paved path is along the shoreline so there’s zero chance of getting lost. It’s paved (well maybe 1/2 of the road is paved) and there’s only one road so you can’t get lost

 

 

Lots of people doing the walk to town so we weren’t the only ones

 

 

Looking back at where we started

 

 

 

As there’s only ONE road to town, you shouldn’t get lost but the nice people provide you with a guide map in case you want to know where you are in the process.

 

 

Some benches along the way if you are tired or just want to sit and chill and enjoy the scenery.

 

 

Along the way, we saw a whole lot of vehicles coming our way and kicking up a whole heck of dust on its trail.  Check out this fleet of jeeps – assume they are for some off road excursions. 

 

 

If this was a movie, they might have some rock music in the background: