Its Going to Be Majestic - Live Review Princess Majestic Cruisetour - June 10-22

[Stealthdog]

We are very excited for our first Princess cruise.  This is a make-up from last summer - I got COVID the week prior and we had to postpone the cruise.  No Escape Rooms for me a week before the cruise this time!  We have been on Celebrity, Royal, Norwegian, and Disney, so will have a great opportunity to compare Princess to those brands.  We have always heard that if you do Alaska, Princess is the way to go, so here we are!

 

I'll provide more information later today and through the week about the packages we have, the excursions we booked, room location, and what we are packing.  We will be staying two nights before the cruise in Vancouver (our first time there).  We also have a 5 day Denali add-on at the end.  

 

I like my reviews to be helpful for other cruisers, so ask any questions about the ship, activities, ports, etc and I'll try to answer.  

 

 

[Fishbone]

Safe travels! So excited for you! Can't wait to read all about it! Looking forward to getting on - on the day you get off! 

[no1racefan1]

Yay, following!

 

[Stealthdog]

We are getting closer to cruise time!  We are leaving DC with a direct flight (IAD) to Vancouver on Thursday (cruise leaves on Saturday).  I took the autotrain up from Sanford, FL to Lorton, VA last Wednesday.  Sanford is about 30 minutes northeast of Orlando and Lorton is about 30 minutes south of DC.  If anyone has any questions about the autotrain, let me know.  For people from the mid-atlantic or northeast taking a cruise out of Florida, the autotrain may be a more affordable, or even reliable, travel option for a family - you can load up your car with luggage and not have to pay luggage fees with an airline, you have your car when you arrive, and if you book during a promotional period, the tickets for the seats can be really cheap (the roundtrip cost for the car will still be ~$500).  

 

Eric and I (JC) are staying at the Loden Hotel in Vancouver.  This is our first time in Vancouver, but the hotel looks to be in a fantastic location.  We booked a half-day Vancouver tour thru Expedia for Friday, with the local company called Landsea Tours & Adventure.  The rest of the time in Vancouver, we will do on our own.  The hotel is a little less than a mile from cruise terminal but will we uber/lyft or get hotel transportation to the terminal because we will have 4 pieces of luggage.  Our check-in for the cruise is 1030-1100.  We like to get on early to explore the ship and adjust dining options before the hordes arrive.  

 

We booked the cruise tour UA5 Off the Beaten Path, which is 5 nights after the cruise.  I have been told doing the tour first and the cruise second is the preferred way, but timing pushed us in this direction.  We will have 1 night at Kenai Lodge, 1 at McKinley Lodge, 2 at Denali Lodge, and 1 at Fairbanks Lodge.

 

Our room is a balcony stateroom on the 10th deck (Caribe) starboard (right side).  We have been told starboard is the best side for a northbound cruise, so we did not participate in any of the bid-up options because we didn't want to risk getting moved to the port side to a nicer room but less desirable location.  When we booked, we booked the Princess Plus package - I had a cruise credit from the cruise we had to cancel from last June and we needed to spend the credits.  Normally, we will just book the cheaper standard fare for our cruises.  Somehow, we got a complimentary upgrade to Princess Premier.  I don't know when or how that happened - one day we got a text from our TA saying our package was upgraded for no cost.  The only addition that gives us that we care about is the 2-night specialty dining.  

 

We had a lot of OBC applied for this cruise (Shareholder benefits, AMEX Platinum benefits, military/vet OBC, princess promotion at time of booking, and TA OBC).  I don't think we have ever had this much OBC before.  The trick is it has to be spent on board and we can't use them for the land portion at the lodges.

 

For excursions, we booked two with Shore Excursions Group and one through Princess.  In Ketchikan we are doing a Rainforest Walk & Totem excursion through Shore Excursions Group; Juneau we have a Helicopter Icefield excursion through Shore Excursions Group; and Skagway we are doing a White Pass Rail through Princess.  When we were looking for excursions, we found most of the desirable ones to us were sold out on Princess.  That didn't bother us too much because we find the private tours are usually cheaper with fewer guests, and these ports seem to be small and our times in port long, so not worried about any delays getting back to the ship.

[AJSkarbo]

Following along as we are doing the southbound next month with the land portion before. 

I am looking forward to your thoughts on the white pass rail in Skagway. My aunt and mother are looking at that excursion in Skagway and asked me to look into if it is a good option for them as they both have trouble walking. 

[Traveler1977]

On 6/5/2023 at 8:35 AM, Stealthdog said:

We booked a half-day Vancouver tour thru Expedia for Friday, with the local company called Landsea Tours & Adventure.  The rest of the time in Vancouver, we will do on our own. 

We will be doing a similar cruise a little later in the season. We will be following your thread for your comments and tips. Our cruise is southbound and we finish in Vancouver where we will be staying a few days on our own. We are especially interested in hearing about the Vancouver tour you booked.  

[Stealthdog]

9 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

Following along as we are doing the southbound next month with the land portion before. 

I am looking forward to your thoughts on the white pass rail in Skagway. My aunt and mother are looking at that excursion in Skagway and asked me to look into if it is a good option for them as they both have trouble walking. 

 

I'll make sure to pay attention to walking distances and type of terrain we walk on, and include that in my review of the tour. 

[Stealthdog]

7 hours ago, Traveler1977 said:

We will be doing a similar cruise a little later in the season. We will be following your thread for your comments and tips. Our cruise is southbound and we finish in Vancouver where we will be staying a few days on our own. We are especially interested in hearing about the Vancouver tour you booked.  

 

I'll let you know!  We were split between the half-day tour and the Hop on Hop off ticket, but wanted something that really didn't require us to plan our own stops.  

[Purple Gallinule]

We will be on the Majestic on June 10th also. We are doing a B2B, going on the southbound on June 17th. We are happy you are taking this on and we will try to contribute to the thread as we go. This will be our third cruise on Majestic and it is our favorite ship.

 

We finished packing today and will fly to Seattle on Friday. Then we take the Princess transfer from SEATAC to the ship on Saturday - a new experience for us!

[Stealthdog]

19 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

We will be on the Majestic on June 10th also. We are doing a B2B, going on the southbound on June 17th. We are happy you are taking this on and we will try to contribute to the thread as we go. This will be our third cruise on Majestic and it is our favorite ship.

 

We finished packing today and will fly to Seattle on Friday. Then we take the Princess transfer from SEATAC to the ship on Saturday - a new experience for us!

 

Awesome - see you soon!  Feel free to contribute as much as you want.  We (ahem Eric) wanted to specifically be on the Majestic, so we are really looking forward to it.  How long a trip is it from Seattle to Vancouver?  

[Purple Gallinule]

19 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

 

Awesome - see you soon!  Feel free to contribute as much as you want.  We (ahem Eric) wanted to specifically be on the Majestic, so we are really looking forward to it.  How long a trip is it from Seattle to Vancouver?  

They tell us our "luxury motorcoach" trip takes about 4 hours. I think they allow that for the border crossing. We decided after last summer's trip to Vancouver (a real hassle) that we would simply fly Southwest to Seattle and use the Princess transfer. The hotels around the Seattle airport for Friday night are much less expensive than what we paid last July in Vancouver, too. Who knows, we may get home and say "never again" to the transfer, but at least they guarantee we will make the departure. It is our sixth Alaska cruise, and just one more experience to partake in. 🙂

[Stealthdog]

Packing complete.  For the ~15 days, we ended up with 4 suitcases.  If we were more familiar with Alaska and Princess we would have done 3.  We organized the suitcases by phase - 1 for Denali, 2 for the cruise, and the little one for Vancouver and toiletries.  We most definitely overpacked but wanted to make sure we had what we needed.  Because we finished so early (a first) we just decided to head to Dulles early and hang out at a lounge.  LyftXL from DC to Dulles is about $80.  
 

This is the first time I have been to Dulles in over 5 years.  Last time I remembered it being hectic.  This time, really quiet.  No lines at all to get through security.  We decided to hang out at the Turkish Airlines lounge.  It’s pretty nice here - they have a self serve food area with ethnic Turkish foods a bar with automatic pourers making it quick to get drinks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[belcherwm]

2 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

Packing complete.  For the ~15 days, we ended up with 4 suitcases.  If we were more familiar with Alaska and Princess we would have done 3.  We organized the suitcases by phase - 1 for Denali, 2 for the cruise, and the little one for Vancouver and toiletries.  We most definitely overpacked but wanted to make sure we had what we needed.  Because we finished so early (a first) we just decided to head to Dulles early and hang out at a lounge.  LyftXL from DC to Dulles is about $80.  
 

This is the first time I have been to Dulles in over 5 years.  Last time I remembered it being hectic.  This time, really quiet.  No lines at all to get through security.  We decided to hang out at the Turkish Airlines lounge.  It’s pretty nice here - they have a self serve food area with ethnic Turkish foods a bar with automatic pourers making it quick to get drinks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, looking forward to following you all this week. My wife and I are sailing on the Majestic on June 23rd with a four day land tour after. 
We live in Northern Virginia and will be flying into Bellingham, WA on Southwest and then Amtrak into Vancouver. 
If you want to save a few dollars when you get back, look at taking the metro from Dulles into DC. 

[CruizinSusan70]

On 6/6/2023 at 3:06 AM, AJSkarbo said:

Following along as we are doing the southbound next month with the land portion before. 

I am looking forward to your thoughts on the white pass rail in Skagway. My aunt and mother are looking at that excursion in Skagway and asked me to look into if it is a good option for them as they both have trouble walking. 

Currently on the Majestic finishing up our 14 days.  We went on the rail excursion and booked it through Princess in the handicapped train car since I'm in a scooter.  The train was close to the ship.  We enjoyed the excursion.

[Guest ldtr]

2 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Currently on the Majestic finishing up our 14 days.  We went on the rail excursion and booked it through Princess in the handicapped train car since I'm in a scooter.  The train was close to the ship.  We enjoyed the excursion.

2 questions

 

1. Is the Catch by Rdui, the new specialty dining venue open?  It shows on my DMW but indicates no availability.

 

2. Is the Hollywood pool area adults only or are they allowing children in on Alaska cruises (I hope not)?

[CruizinSusan70]

Just a heads up.  Last week on the northbound portion, Skagway ended up being a tender port all day long.  The Niew Amsterdam from HAL got the lone dock spot, but they lent us their tenders so more cruisers could get ashore quicker.

This week we had split tendering in both Icy Strait Point and today in Ketchikan.  The tendering was in the afternoon in ISP and in the morning in Ketchikan.

Edited June 9, 2023 by CruizinSusan70

[CruizinSusan70]

18 minutes ago, ldtr said:

2 questions

 

1. Is the Catch by Rdui, the new specialty dining venue open?  It shows on my DMW but indicates no availability.

 

2. Is the Hollywood pool area adults only or are they allowing children in on Alaska cruises (I hope not)?

Catch by Rudi is open.  We are ending our 14 days there tomorrow night. Edit. We got reservations on our first day.

Don't know about children being allowed in the Hollywood Conservatory area.  Did not see any kids there the two times we went.  Bad air circulation though, very "stuffy".

Edited June 9, 2023 by CruizinSusan70

[Guest ldtr]

11 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Catch by Rudi is open.  We are ending our 14 days there tomorrow night. Edit. We got reservations on our first day.

Don't know about children being allowed in the Hollywood Conservatory area.  Did not see any kids there the two times we went.  Bad air circulation though, very "stuffy".

Thank you.

 

Sounds like they are keeping it adults only.  Will have to continue to rry to book the catch.

[AJSkarbo]

3 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Currently on the Majestic finishing up our 14 days.  We went on the rail excursion and booked it through Princess in the handicapped train car since I'm in a scooter.  The train was close to the ship.  We enjoyed the excursion.

Unfortunately for her sailing the wheelchair accessible excursion is sold out. Did you happen to notice how steep the stairs to get onto the train where? My mom gets around with a walker but cant handle large steps. 

[CruizinSusan70]

34 minutes ago, AJSkarbo said:

Unfortunately for her sailing the wheelchair accessible excursion is sold out. Did you happen to notice how steep the stairs to get onto the train where? My mom gets around with a walker but cant handle large steps. 

The train can be booked independently.  And it runs multiple times per day.  If not, there is a step stool that my DH took and including it there were 3 steps to climb that were not bad.  There were also handrails on both sides.  With someone behind her for balance she should be able to navigate it if the independent booking falls through.

[AJSkarbo]

31 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The train can be booked independently.  And it runs multiple times per day.  If not, there is a step stool that my DH took and including it there were 3 steps to climb that were not bad.  There were also handrails on both sides.  With someone behind her for balance she should be able to navigate it if the independent booking falls through.

wonderful information! Thank you so much!

[Traveler1977]

4 hours ago, ldtr said:

Is the Catch by Rdui, the new specialty dining venue open?  It shows on my DMW but indicates no availability.

I’m on the Majestic in July.  I couldn’t make a reservation in The Catch by Rudi on DMW, so I called Princess and was able to make a reservation that way. 

[Stealthdog]

4 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

wonderful information! Thank you so much!

I’ll try to get some photos so you can get a visual of it.

[Stealthdog]

4 hours ago, Traveler1977 said:

I’m on the Majestic in July.  I couldn’t make a reservation in The Catch by Rudi on DMW, so I called Princess and was able to make a reservation that way. 

I plan on going to the restaurants to book first thing when we get on tomorrow.  In my experience on other lines, they withhold a lot of seats from pre-cruise booking and you can book good times when on board.  Will find out tomorrow.

[Stealthdog]

Quick update and will provide more information later.  After the 6 hour flight, we landed in Vancouver last night.  Went straight to the Loden Hotel and went to bed.  Loden looks beautiful.  Jet leg not too bad - woke up at 5am local time, so after tonight I shouldn’t have any issues.  I’ll post some photos of the hotel, the tour we are doing today, and thoughts on the Air Canada, the Vancouver Airport, and Vancouver itself.

 

Also, bad me….I forgot to pack the binoculars, so we will be looking to get a cheap pair today.