Northern Lights on 2024 Alaska Cruises Guaranteed?

[danny8826]

 

We saw this article below on princess.com and we are wonderful how true is this.  How can they guaranteed that and what if on your sailing, there is no northern lights.  I tried chatting with the agent online, but they don't have an answer as to what if there is no northern on your sailing.  Does anyone know or have more info about this?

 

https://www.princess.com/en-us/news/news-releases/2024/05/see-the-northern-lights-on-every-princess-cruise-to-alaska-in-2024#:~:text=LAUDERDALE%2C Fla.%2C (May,Alaska are guaranteed to see.

 

Thank you.

[SiliconCruiser]

Princess tends to fabricate (outright lying through their teeth) some of their information.  There were lots of northern lights visible during a recent cruise (last week) in Alaska.  Seems that they were visible from most of the lower 48.  Oddly enough, the one place where they were elusive was in Alaska (!) where the skies were overcast.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, danny8826 said:

 

We saw this article below on princess.com and we are wonderful how true is this.  How can they guaranteed that and what if on your sailing, there is no northern lights.  I tried chatting with the agent online, but they don't have an answer as to what if there is no northern on your sailing.  Does anyone know or have more info about this?

 

https://www.princess.com/en-us/news/news-releases/2024/05/see-the-northern-lights-on-every-princess-cruise-to-alaska-in-2024#:~:text=LAUDERDALE%2C Fla.%2C (May,Alaska are guaranteed to see.

 

Thank you.

I believe they are referring to an experience th the theatre like a planetarium where project thins against ceiling and walls. There have done this before to show constellations 

[danny8826]

9 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Princess tends to fabricate (outright lying through their teeth) some of their information.  There were lots of northern lights visible during a recent cruise (last week) in Alaska.  Seems that they were visible from most of the lower 48.  Oddly enough, the one place where they were elusive was in Alaska (!) where the skies were overcast.

 

 

Yes, it sounds too good to be true.  I didn't think you can see northern lights in June or July in Alaska.  

 

6 minutes ago, memoak said:

I believe they are referring to an experience th the theatre like a planetarium where project thins against ceiling and walls. There have done this before to show constellations 

 

OMG. That is really a joke.  You can see it on Youtube.

[memoak]

4 minutes ago, danny8826 said:

 

 

Yes, it sounds too good to be true.  I didn't think you can see northern lights in June or July in Alaska.  

 

 

OMG. That is really a joke.  You can see it on Youtube.

We did this a few years ago to see constellations and it was pretty 😎 

[Ken the cruiser]

56 minutes ago, memoak said:

I believe they are referring to an experience th the theatre like a planetarium where project thins against ceiling and walls. There have done this before to show constellations 

You are correct. This is explained in the second paragraph in that promotion.

 

This new immersive Voyage to the Stars experience is part of the cruise line’s award-winning North to Alaska with Princess program set to debut for the upcoming 2024 cruise and cruisetour season that strengthens the overall guest connection in the Great Land. This year Princess guests will step inside a planetarium in the Princess Theater for a front row seat to the “Northern Lights” presentation showcasing the beauty and wonder of this phenomenon featuring live imagery, designed to engage adults and kids alike. 
 

In fact, we went to the planetarium show they had on stage on our 1st leg of our Alaska B3B which we just disembarked from today, and it was pretty enjoyable. However, we also saw the Northern Lights on the 2nd leg of our cruise, which I just reposted some enhanced photos of at the end of my Live From thread a few minutes ago at post 423.

 

 

However, if you really want to improve your chances to see the Northern Lights, Princess offers a Northern Lights cruise every October that cruises to a few Norway ports, Alta and Tromso, above the Arctic Circle that are known for folks seeing some awesome ones that time of year. In fact, they just posted their 2026 Northern Lights cruise! 
 
https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=8630

 

Edited May 23 by Ken the cruiser

[Torfamm]

The article is about a planetarium experience in the theater, not seeing the Northern Lights outdoors 

 

This new immersive Voyage to the Stars experience is part of the cruise line’s award-winning North to Alaska with Princess program set to debut for the upcoming 2024 cruise and cruisetour season that strengthens the overall guest connection in the Great Land. This year Princess guests will step inside a planetarium in the Princess Theater for a front row seat to the “Northern Lights” presentation showcasing the beauty and wonder of this phenomenon featuring live imagery, designed to engage adults and kids alike. 

Edited May 23 by Torfamm

[memoak]

12 hours ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Princess tends to fabricate (outright lying through their teeth) some of their information.  There were lots of northern lights visible during a recent cruise (last week) in Alaska.  Seems that they were visible from most of the lower 48.  Oddly enough, the one place where they were elusive was in Alaska (!) where the skies were overcast.

What this means is that you did not read the press release which makes it clear that this is an on board experience manufactured for the passengers. There is actually no attempt to fabricate snything

[TRLD]

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You are correct. This is explained in the second paragraph in that promotion.

 

This new immersive Voyage to the Stars experience is part of the cruise line’s award-winning North to Alaska with Princess program set to debut for the upcoming 2024 cruise and cruisetour season that strengthens the overall guest connection in the Great Land. This year Princess guests will step inside a planetarium in the Princess Theater for a front row seat to the “Northern Lights” presentation showcasing the beauty and wonder of this phenomenon featuring live imagery, designed to engage adults and kids alike. 
 

In fact, we went to the planetarium show they had on stage on our 1st leg of our Alaska B3B which we just disembarked from today, and it was pretty enjoyable. However, we also saw the Northern Lights on the 2nd leg of our cruise, which I just reposted some enhanced photos of at the end of my Live From thread a few minutes ago at post 423.

 

 

However, if you really want to improve your chances to see the Northern Lights, Princess offers a Northern Lights cruise every October that cruises to a few Norway ports, Alta and Tromso, above the Arctic Circle that are known for folks seeing some awesome ones that time of year. In fact, they just posted their 2026 Northern Lights cruise! 
 
https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=8630

 

Keep in mind that even on that cruise there is no guarantee. Last year we had few opportunities due to weather. Only a couple of glimpses at the Northern ports, then finally at the last port finally got a clear night with a decent show.

[Paula_MacFan]

13 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Keep in mind that even on that cruise there is no guarantee. Last year we had few opportunities due to weather. Only a couple of glimpses at the Northern ports, then finally at the last port finally got a clear night with a decent show.

I think the point is the OP didn't read carefully the article posted that describes a theatre show (which has also been discussed here last week when the article/press release came out). Now Princess and the chat are getting dinged unnecessarily. I'm all for calling Princess out when warranted, but this is clearly not a case of Princess misrepresenting anything. 

[TRLD]

18 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

I think the point is the OP didn't read carefully the article posted that describes a theatre show (which has also been discussed here last week when the article/press release came out). Now Princess and the chat are getting dinged unnecessarily. I'm all for calling Princess out when warranted, but this is clearly not a case of Princess misrepresenting anything. 

Your response has nothing to do with my post which was strictly in response to a post about the Norway cruise Princess does each fall.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

Keep in mind that even on that cruise there is no guarantee. Last year we had few opportunities due to weather. Only a couple of glimpses at the Northern ports, then finally at the last port finally got a clear night with a decent show.

Understand! We were just cruising on the Grand for 3 weeks in Alaska and were lucky enough to see them one of those days when the NL potential was at a 10!
 

We also saw them in Aug 2022 cruising between Iceland and Greenland. I guess my point is that they can be addicting if you’ve been lucky enough to have seen them before.

 

In any case it’s still a pretty cool cruise and we’re taking the TA back to the US afterwards, so all is good. But we’ll still be hoping for clear skies while we’re above the Arctic Circle! 😁

[Paula_MacFan]

45 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Your response has nothing to do with my post which was strictly in response to a post about the Norway cruise Princess does each fall.

Apologies, I was commenting on the possibility of a 'guarantee' of seeing the northern lights on any cruise. Your comment was even on the Norway cruise there's no guarantee, and I agree there's no way the cruiseline would guarantee that on any cruise, and this whole thing arose from a misunderstanding.

 

 

[Cruise Raider]

We did the planetarium experience on the Discovery while on the Total Solar Eclipse cruise.  The thought of offering this is great but it is not for anyone that has any physical limitations, as we all had to lay down on yoga mats and some people didn’t want to share the space on the floor.  I think it held about 25 people at a time.  While we are not normally outward vocal about any physical limitations we have, we were surprised this was offered without any alerts to this.  We couldn’t stay.  

It would be perfect if the put lounge chairs inside the planetarium and would have loved to see more of the show.  Maybe they will consider this in the future, as it really seemed to be pretty amazing.  

[CrankyOldGuy]

It's in the article you posted but didn't read.  I have not read others responses but I'm sure the answer has been posted already.  It's not the actual northern lights....   

This year Princess guests will step inside a planetarium in the Princess Theater for a front row seat to the “Northern Lights” presentation showcasing the beauty and wonder of this phenomenon featuring live imagery, designed to engage adults and kids alike. 

[lnhoney]

Is this currently available on the Majestic?

[cr8tiv1]

On 5/23/2024 at 10:29 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

Understand! We were just cruising on the Grand for 3 weeks in Alaska and were lucky enough to see them one of those days when the NL potential was at a 10!
 

We also saw them in Aug 2022 cruising between Iceland and Greenland. I guess my point is that they can be addicting if you’ve been lucky enough to have seen them before.

 

In any case it’s still a pretty cool cruise and we’re taking the TA back to the US afterwards, so all is good. But we’ll still be hoping for clear skies while we’re above the Arctic Circle! 😁

 

I hope your luck rubs off on me.  Was pretty sure that it was going to be too light in the summer to see the Northern Lights.  Keep sending success vibes, please.

[frugaltravel]

22 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I hope your luck rubs off on me.  Was pretty sure that it was going to be too light in the summer to see the Northern Lights.  Keep sending success vibes, please.

No true northern lights viewing in Alaska from early/mid May through mid August.  Just not enough darkness.  Best time is to come back in March.  Go to Fairbanks.  Spend at least 3 nights and statistically you have about an 80% chance to see the northern lights.

 

[cr8tiv1]

24 minutes ago, frugaltravel said:

No true northern lights viewing in Alaska from early/mid May through mid August.  Just not enough darkness.  Best time is to come back in March.  Go to Fairbanks.  Spend at least 3 nights and statistically you have about an 80% chance to see the northern lights.

I won’t be on an Alaskan cruise.  

[lnhoney]

I was asking about the planetarium type experience that Princess advertised they would have in the theater on all Alaskan cruises this year. Has anyone seen this done on the Majestic Princess?

[Ken the cruiser]

8 hours ago, frugaltravel said:

No true northern lights viewing in Alaska from early/mid May through mid August.  Just not enough darkness.  Best time is to come back in March.  Go to Fairbanks.  Spend at least 3 nights and statistically you have about an 80% chance to see the northern lights.

 

That's probably true in most cases, unless you are lucky enough like we were on May 10th to be cruising between Juneau and Skagway when there was that huge solar storm starting around 10:45 pm that was visible all the way down to Alabama and beyond. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, lnhoney said:

I was asking about the planetarium type experience that Princess advertised they would have in the theater on all Alaskan cruises this year. Has anyone seen this done on the Majestic Princess?

Hopefully they will. This is what the stage setup looked like on the Grand when we went in May.

 

 

But you'll have to keep an eye on the Patter as this was how the Sign Up period was advertised.

 

[lnhoney]

Thank you. Exactly the information I was wanting. Hopefully they will have this on the Majestic when we go next month. 🙂

[tothemall&beyond]

The only cruise lines of which I am aware that have any type of Northern Lights Promise (guarantee) are Hurtigruten and Havila which offer it on 11 night roundtrip voyages of their coastal ferries from Bergen (Norway) up to Kirkenes and back to Bergen.

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, tothemall&beyond said:

The only cruise lines of which I am aware that have any type of Northern Lights Promise (guarantee) are Hurtigruten and Havila which offer it on 11 night roundtrip voyages of their coastal ferries from Bergen (Norway) up to Kirkenes and back to Bergen.

True. But Princess offers their Northern Lights cruise with a follow on TA back to Ft Lauderdale, while visiting some pretty cool ports along the way. 

With the guarantee NL cruises you referenced, do you get your money back if you don’t have the time or funds to stick around to go on their next NL’s cruise?