Yukon Expedition - Bus/Train Combo Excursion - Bad Experience

[RondaRed]

Last Week on Thursday June 24th from the Sun Princess I had booked the Yukon Expedition, Bus/Train Combo trip. I had a bad experience and I don't feel like I received what I paid for and I just wanted to let everyone know what I was told so that you can be aware of what you are getting or are guaranteed according to Princess.

After reading these boards I booked this excursion so that I would have the photo opportunities the bus provides and have the rail experience too. The photo opportunities was important to me and the reason for booking the bus portion of this excursion. I had heard good things about the bus portion and it sounded like a good match.

That day I was unfortunate enough to be one of the passengers on a very sick bus. Upon boarding the bus I took the advise of other posters and asked the driver if we could visit Emerald Lake. She wanted to know how I knew about Emerald Lake and then said she would try but it depended upon time and that she wasn't sure if we would have time because she had a slow coach. That is understandable and I didn't have a problem with this.

Unfortanetely even she didn't know how "SLOW" her coach was going to be that day. I think we could have walked faster at times and I'm seriously not exaggerating. On flat slope the bus had a top speed of 10 mph. And uphill it went a whopping 2 mph. I'm serious... no exageration here. The guy in the seat next to me timed the time it took to climb one hill and it was 9 minutes.

Needless to say due to time constraints we did not visit Emerald Lake. In fact we only had one photo stop and that was at the bridge. We barely made it to Carcross in time to gulp down lunch. We also had to be offloaded from the sick bus to another ships busses to even make it to the train in time before it's departure.

I understand that this is not a normal experience and it probably does not happen often. However I felt like I didn't receive what I paid for and asked Princess for a partial refund of the excursion. They told me on the ship at the excursion desk that they were aware of the bus problems but that the excursion did complete as expected. That they only guarantee one photo stop and that is at the bridge.

I mentioned to them that the brochure says photo stops... plural with an "S" meaning more than one. But they reiterated they guarantee only one stop.

So I just wanted everyone to know what you are guaranteed if you book this excursion. If you want photo stops you may or may NOT get them. You may be fine with this if all you want is a drive to the summit but I was under the impression I would have photo opportunities off of the bus to take pictures not through a glass.

Thank you for the opportunity to relay my experience
By the way the train portion of the excursion was fine along with the cruise itself.

Ronda

[Coral]

Rhonda,

I am so sorry since I recommend this combo trip quite a bit. The fact that you only stopped once is awful! I would send a letter to Princess and again, request your money back. There is no reason you should have been in a non-functional bus!

I just recently returned (june 7) from a B2B and did the train one week and the bus the next week. On the bus, we stopped tons of times. I would have been furious if we only stopped once on the ride down.

Good luck and again, I am sorry. I recommended the trip you went on to several over my 2 weeks on the Dawn and they all had a great bus experience.

--
I had a problem once with an excursion after a trip (before they dropped me off at the airport). It was a tour of FLL and it poured the entire time. We did not see anything and spent the majority of the time at Starbucks. I wrote Princess and they did credit me for the full excursion. So you still have a chance to get your money back.

[mii]

When we were in Alaska last year we took the "Experience the Yukon" bus trip all the way to Emerald Lake. It was a newer bus, air conditioned and we stopped many,many times. I would certainly write a letter to Princess for a refund. I am very sorry that you had a bad experience. I certainly don't think that this was case on every trip. But still I would request a refund.

Marilyn

[RondaRed]

I filled out a form at the excursion desk and they sent me a nice letter the last day of the cruise apologizing for the experience but saying there was nothing they could onboard the ship. They did give me an address I could write to if I wished to take it further. I tried not to let the bad experience ruin the rest of the day. Not only did I not get to experience what I had hoped but I wasted many hours not doing something else with the time. I don't see why they couldn't give me a partial refund for the bus portion of the trip. A bus in that condition should never have even been in service. Be aware of bus # 117. I suppose I could protest the payment with my credit card in addition to writing the letter. $338 is a lot of money to just throw away.

Ronda

[Coral]

Ronda - I am curious, who was your guide?

We were on bus 117 in May and during that time, it ran fine. Our guide was Kara and her husband was also a guide on another bus.

I would definitley follow up with Princess since you should recieve a partial refund for the bus ride. Your trip was unacceptable in my opinion.

[Casey12]

We did this tour previously -bus and train combo -and it is a wonderful tour that I also would recommend and have recommended it to others.

The bus portion that you described is nothing like our tour. You should have received a good portion of your money back because you didn't get the tour you paid for.

[RondaRed]

Our Driver was Sarah Brown if I remember correctly. She was funny and did a good job. It seems she said she had been doing the tours for about a month.

[MWcruiser]

We also did the Yukon Expedition and RR bus/train combo on Thursday June 24th from the Sun Princess. We were on Bus 111 and our guide was Bryan. When we go on the bus, we asked if we could go to Emerald Lake and Bryan said we could if we had time. Our tour was scheduled to leave at 8:30. Everyone who was scheduled to be on this tour was there by 8:15 so we left early. We stopped at least 5 times for pictures and went all the way to Emerald Lake. I am so sorry you were not on our bus. Emerald Lake was gorgeous...breathtaking. We had extra time at Carabou Landing and Carcross. The only negative would be the very hot weather that day. The AC worked but had to be turned off everytime we pulled over.

The train was downright hot in the afternoon. We had to stand outside the whole time as the windows do not open in the cars. We still enjoyed the trip.

This was an expensive excursion. I would definitely ask for some of my money back as you did not get the same excursion that we got (on the same day).

[RondaRed]

We actually left about half an hour late in addition to the other problems. When we were all ready to leave a lady up front spoke up and said her sister got off the bus to go the restroom. So we had to wait for her to return. And she never did return. They spent lots of time looking for her. Calling the ship, searching her cabin, calling the other busses. They finally decided that she must have boarded another bus in which it turned out that she did but it caused us to leave half an hour late. By the time I arrived at the bus the first bus had just pulled off and left. Wish I had made it on that one instead of the one that crawled all day long. What irritates me more than anything was Princess saying they only guarantee one stop. I told them that I knew for a fact that most busses make several stops and they still said but we only guarantee the one stop.

Ronda