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You can get the same table/servers/time in the MDR now. After dinner on the first night, I go up to the front desk of the MDR and request the same table and servers. I have celiac as well—I tell them that in order to have safe food I need the same servers every night. Have been on 10 cruises this past year (Enchanted, Royal, Ruby, Discovery, Island) and have always had the same table and servers each night. To the OP—thanks for doing this! We’re on the Majestic (B2B) in June! Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

Not on a HAL land tour but a Princess one this summer. You might find the info that Princess provides helpful: “TIPPING INFORMATION Farewell to your Tour Director Today you will say goodbye to your tour director and motorcoach driver and conclude your Princess escorted tour. As traditions and customs vary widely across the globe, we often have guests ask what gratuity guidelines are appropriate for the region they are touring. It is our belief that gratuities are a direct reflection of the level and quality of service received. It is customary to extend gratuities as a sign of appreciation on the last day of your land tour. The following is the recommended industry standard for tour directors and motorcoach drivers in the Canadian Rockies: Tour Director: 5.00-7.00 USD per person per day Motorcoach Driver: 3.50-4.50 USD per person per day Extending gratuities is a personal matter and should be distributed on an individual basis without solicitation and not on behalf of any group.” We also leave a few dollars each night for hotel housekeeping. As we’re on a couple of excursions on this tour, I’ve budgeted tip money for those as well. For our 7 day Canadian Rocky land tour, I’m taking about $300-400 for gratuities.

My suggestion is to visit Mendenhall Glacier (if that’s on your list) as early as possible! If you can be there when the park opens (I think it’s 9 am?), you can enjoy the visitor center and some of the trails before the tour buses come! Much more enjoyable! Ditto on visiting Eagle Beach, the shrine—we usually stop and pick up a deli lunch and picnic. A visit to the Alaskan Brewing Company is fun too. There will also be food trucks at the tasting room.

Ward Cove is another reason why we will never cruise to Alaska on NCL again. As mentioned, the time and ease of getting to downtown is ridiculous. If not on an NCL tour, you have to wait until those on cruise tours have left. Think of tendering.

Good luck to you but I would think it easier to change the flight! People on this board who have travelled from Whittier to Anchorage post cruise AND Alaskans (folks who there!) have all encouraged you to do so. I’ve disembarked at Whittier a few times but my flights out of Anchorage were around noon or later. Once left at 8 for a noonish flight— we were stopped by road construction and barely made the flight! Lots of RV traffic that significantly affect the speed. You just never know driving in Alaska.

Prefer the right side because of the Turnagain Arm views but you will have great views on either side! We‘ve a,ways been assigned our seats—one time we were on the left and unable to change seats. It turned out okay since we saw many, many Dall sheep and moose on the left hand side!

We prefer the Concerto. We like having a pre drink at Crooners or Bellini’s and then just head in for dinner.

You can have your dietary requests for lunches in the MDR (but I think only on sea days?). I have celiac disease—each night I am provided with the next day’s lunch and dinner menus. I frequently have lunch in the MDR but usually don’t request the same table/servers.

Sparkling water does, though? That's what we usually get. Not sure what we ended up with--we all had sparkling wine in a champagne flute. It was more the friendship and what a great cruise than quality of alcohol.....

Just off the Discovery this month. Hubby and I had the drink package, our two table mates in MDR did not. I tried to order a bottle of champagne to toast our last night together. The wait staff said "why don't you just use your drink package and order 4 glasses? Much cheaper!" We did just that (hubby and I were nowhere near the 15-drink daily drink limit). It was a nice way to end our cruise and toast new cruise friends! (Both hubby and I frequently buy drinks for each other in addition to picking up some bottled water. I sometimes have 6 drinks all at once--doubles for two, water for each. No one has ever challenged that or told me we couldn't do it.)

I no longer bring dresses for our Alaskan cruises. On formal nights, I wear black pants, sparkly tops and dressy sandals. I also bring my cashmere pashmina—I’m one that always gets cold. Hubby doesn’t bring a sports coat but wears dress pants, collar shirt and a pullover sweater. We’re “above average” in our attire—there will be some folks who will dress up (tux, gown) but not enough that we feel uncomfortable.

We’ll be visiting Prince Rupert for the first time this May. I’ve downloaded a self-guided walking tour. We’d like to visit a couple of museums (Northern BC, the railroad) as well as get a bite to eat at Dolly’s. I’ve also heard visiting the cannery is a must—I want to check into the public bus option for our July visit.

Ditto on the recommendation for Glacier Wind Charters as well as the advice to book early! Have been on four trips with GWC. Small sized group, professional and friendly crew, and fantastic wildlife viewing!

It is 7 laps--I was just on the Discovery last week and walked daily.

Lots of cool things to do in Haines! You can stay in town and tour Fort Seward, go to the brewery and distillery, visit the Hammer Museum, check in at the Bald Eagle Foundation, pick up lunch at Mountain Market and picnic at the beach. We've also rented car in Haines to go to Chilkat State Park for wildlife viewing and a hike. (Princess Cruises actually has spirits from the Port Chilkoot Distillery on board their ships. I always get their gin and vodka when in town.) I can also recommend Rainbow Glacier Adventures if you're interested in a tour. We took a rafting tour with them--very professional and fun! Here's a link to the visitor center: https://www.visithaines.com/ Enjoy your planning!

We usually arrive the night before a cruise late in the evening (we take Amtrak) so I hate to spend the $$$ for a few hours before boarding. I try to get a room for less than $200/night but that generally means we’re not staying close to Canada Place. We don’t mind walking or taking public transportation to the port. We like to stay downtown but at times we’ve stayed closer to the airport. I also recommend the YWCA. We stayed there twice last summer (both times with a private bath) and would stay again. After seeing the accommodations, we would also consider staying in a room with a shared bath. The bathrooms are similar to college dormitories—not the best but good for one night. Nothing fancy but very clean, well run, and friendly and helpful staff. The roof top terrace is a great place to sit and relax with a cup of coffee. We took the sky train to Canada Place the first time and then walked the second stay. We’ve also stayed at the Sylvia a number of times. It is an older hotel so the room layouts are a bit funky but we love the location.

Just off the Discovery on Saturday. I can also confirm that we were able to use our shore excursion OBC on other purchases (Crown Grill and the Princess shops).

I would leave the suit at home. Just off the Discovery Princess—men wearing suits/tuxes were certainly in the minority. Hubby wore dress pants, collared long sleeved shirt with a tie. He was the best dressed man at our MDR table. (He still packs dress shoes—doesn’t feel comfortable wearing sneakers on dress to impress nights!)

I have to give an update about using the Metro Lounge at Union Station. Amtrak no longer allows business class travelers to visit the lounge as part of their fare. It will cost you $25 pp to visit if you’re business class on the Pacific Surfliner. (Sitting in the lounge right now. Very nice Amtrak staff allowed us to use the lounge since we hadn’t heard about the change.)

If you’re going to Ketchikan, I recommend Ketchikan Kandies—locally owned and pretty good fudge and chocolates. Pre-Covid, they had a store downtown. Last year they were at Ward Cove (7 miles from town) in the NCL building. I spoke to one of the daughters of the owners—she said she thought they would be back in downtown this summer. The popcorn shop in Skagway also sells fudge. Haven’t tried theirs since we only get their popcorn.

Don’t have a definite answer to your question but on my last cruise (January 2023, Discovery), there was a woman who was playing all three lobster slot machines at once. She was sitting in the middle chair—I stopped to chat. She was hitting jackpots and was up (according to her) a few thousand. I asked how was it possible to play all three—she said she just used her medallion to log on.

Nice! I only gamble about $50 a night on slots with minimum bets on each machine (I budget $400 per cruise for gambling). I only get inside offers on Princess but upgrading to a balcony or a mini suite is usually inexpensive. Get much better offers through HAL (same budget) but can't get the shareholder's OBC on them.

That is my experience. I had the coupon on a cruise--called to refare. The CVP told me that if I continued with the refare I needed to know that I would lose the coupon book worth over $900! I refared my cruise and saved over $600. But, no coupon book for me! 🙂

The fettuccine alfredo is gone from the Princess favorites on the menu, but one can always ask for it! I've been able to get it on my last four cruises with Princess.

I use a HAL insulated coffee mug on board. The staff at the Crows Nest always filled my cup directly on a number of ships (Koningsdam, Westerdam, Zuiderdam). In fact, they would greet me in the morning and ask for my cup after the first visit. They were very good about not touching the milk pitcher/espresso cups to the lip of my cup. And, I wasn’t the only one to have a travel mug.