Mrs.Gosse

Oh! I really wish Starbux was available on Princess😳 Of course I realize there will be the same number of folks who don't want Bux onboard; but they don't count.😄

Lol. I'd probably need 2 coffee cards!

I just saw this advertised yesterday too. I had seen the first cruise go out a few weeks ago and thought it was so interesting that it was a working Cruise, so to speak. My husband has no interest in going to Cuba but in a few years when we may have the ability to do a vacation style cruise and not a working Cruise I would love to stop in for at least one day in Port. I would prefer to go there than Key West that I can drive to.

Not to mention FLL is the longest TSA checkpoint I have been in, in years! That whole thing was laid out terribly and the staff was the rudest I had ever encountered at an airport. We thought we had too much time but it turned out the security ate up a lot of it, lucky for us since we had to wait about 4 hours. We have the ability to take an early flight but since we didn't want to risk it the next nonstop flight wasn't till 5 p.m. . That was a really long time for us to wait so we did one of the Fort Lauderdale excursions through princess. We really enjoyed it and we love not having to worry about getting a taxi or an Uber to the airport. It was also extremely cheap. I think we ended up spending $20 more than the cab would have cost. We decided from now on we are going to fly home the day we get back but just take a princess sponsored Excursion that drops you off at the airport. It was so easy. Every other cruise we stayed the night just in case because we prefer a.m. flights. This was worth are change in routine.

While I was on a cruise to Hawaii a while back I met a woman who was asking everyone to sign a petition asking Princess to do an Alaska cruise out of Los Angeles. I signed and thought it sounded great, but doubted that Princess would ever do this. WELL..... Princess must have listened! There is a 12 night Alaska cruise sailing April 27, 2018 on the Emerald Princess. Bookings just opened today. I'm posting this for people who like to sail out of Southern CA. I don't want you all to miss this opportunity. I'm guessing this is a test by Princess to see how well it sells. BTW, it follows the 28 day Tahiti, Somoa, Hawaii cruise. That would be an awesome B2B!!

That sounds wonderful! Haven't had an opportunity to look for it, would it make any American Port stops along the way before I'm assuming it will stop in Seattle or Vancouver? And I would love to do that Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii Cruise. That sounds fantastic. What a very cool way to do a B2B if you could.

I don't ride motorcycles so I can't comment on any of those but as a previous poster suggested starting on the West Coast or in the center of the country. That might be a very good idea. You might want to make a motorcycle trip across the USA a 2 time trip. Do one Coast this time and in a few years do the other. If you drive in a car Non-Stop about 18 hours a day it is likely to take you 6 days to get across our country. If you were riding shorter than that and enjoying the sights it could easily take you 20 days. And as someone mentioned the Plains and the corn fields are beautiful... For a few hours LOL but for several days you would really be missing out on some beautiful country on the West Coast that you could be seen during that time. Or the East Coast if you wanted to fly after your travels. Also in the East you are likely to find a motel or maybe even a campground pretty close together. Once you get to the middle part of the country you can go hours between towns. That is no exaggeration. When I lived in Germany we could be in any other country in three hours. You can't even be across one state in 3 hours here. Just something to think about. There is some extraordinary country to be seen in the western half on motorcycle. The East Coast might be a little more fun and also a little less hot by car or some other form of transportation at another time.

You can get the Starbucks Via at any grocery store in the USA. They have several different roast available. I personally don't like them at all and I adore Starbucks. I like the coffee on the ship. If it was Starbucks I would be happier of course but oh well. And there would be no other way to do it other than a French press that you would have to bring with you if you do not do the instant via packets.

This is rather saddening. I hope that it makes bathroom breaks. I have to use the bathroom alot. One of the things that made me unsure about taking this tour was that I did not want to spend most of my time on a bus. It shows our Tundra tour that they booked for us having what sounds like a 4 hour bus ride during an 8-hour day the day before before. I would not mind if we could take the train both ways instead of just one. This really bums me out. And for everyone who keeps talking about the lunch break, I said in my original post that we are stopping in Anchorage for lunch. It just surprises me how long of a travel day this is, the day we get on the ship. That is definitely going to be the only thing that gets me through. Especially with no signal to watch Netflix lol

It sounds like you are on a Princess tour. They work closely with HAL in Alaska and every bus tour I have taken with a HAL cruisetour stops somewhere appx every two hours for a short comfort (bathroom) stop. THe train is a much more comfortable way to travel.

This is included in my package. Train is not an option.

I thought the exact same thing the first time we went to Alaska. As the previous poster mentioned , whale watching is a lot of work. Plus the whales are very small. I would not give anything to replace our whale watching tour in Juneau. It was so incredible we very likely will do it again when we go back. I highly recommend it.

When I booked our land and sea vacation package from Anchorage to Vancouver following a five-day connoisseur package I asked how long we would be on a bus. The woman said about 3 to 4 hours each time. I got on today and noticed they had added some information to each day's details. The day we leave Denali it says we are on a motor coach for eight and a half hours with A2 hour lunch break in Anchorage. Will someone please explain how that time line works? I am having a lot of trouble with the idea of being on a bus for eight and a half hours. I'm hoping that they meant 8 & a half hours including the lunch and no more than 4 hours on the first leg. Things like that. My husband will lose it on a bus for that long. Not to mention his bad knee will have a lot of trouble. I was really hoping to have some enjoyable time in Anchorage. Plus we will be meeting our daughter there who can not do the land segment. Sounds like that might not work out.

I did bring my scarf, gloves and a beanie. I wore all of them at Glacier Bay. But they were hardly anything to pack. So well worth it. I also brought two pairs of tennis shoes in case one got soaked. It never even rained the whole week we were there but better safe than sorry. I was really glad I did not invest in the waterproof tennis shoes on L.L.Bean.

Waterproof clothes are way more fashionable than a poncho and some other rain gear. Plus they can double as regular clothes when the sun is out. We went in September but the only day I needed winter clothes was when we visited Glacier Bay. I wore a long sleeve shirt, a fleece and my spring coat. My spring coat was a little on the heavy side but definitely not considered a winter coat , especially for a Northern State but not even here in Tennessee. I wore leggings under my jeans instead of bringing heavy pants. Those are also great because if your jeans get wet you're likely to still feel dry. we had such great weather I don't even know what to pack when we go back next year.

Thanks Karen.

 

I assume because we are not paying the extra then we won't get the Club Class benefits. Oh well! some you win, some you loose. I will enjoy the cruise either way.

Princess would never do something like that to you.

I just realized this morning that they might treat the club class dining like sabatini's breakfast. We are not allowed to bring other people in our party. We are bringing one of our children and my sister-in-law on our next cruise but they will be in a regular room. Either interior or balcony. Not likely a mini-suite even though it hasn't been decided yet. If they are not able to dine with us even though they are in our party we are going to completely miss out on this new perk.

We were on the coral in February. We had a ton of problems post dry dock but the thing that stood out was how good the food was. Better than our voyage on the Emerald. When i called to complain about what we went through I made sure they knew how good the food was.

The syrup coffee is fine. Hit or miss. I have a coffee card.

I'm going to be so upset if we lose Sabatini's every day for this.

It's been 16 months. I got the cards.

 

Ketchikan is my least favorite port.

Ours as welll.

I don't mind some of the cheesy tourist stuff. We did the train and really enjoyed it. Of course we had the entire day there. About 14 hours. By 1 p.m. we had done all of the shops and our Excursion. My husband got back on the ship and relax and I got off and walked about 4 miles around the town. During that time I got to really see the town itself and many of the homes and small buildings have signs that have historic markers in the Gold Rush days. That was pretty neat. I also did the little Museum. It really isn't that exciting of a town but it does have a little bit of charm. Plus the mountains on either side of the inlet are real pretty. We are probably doing the glacier helicopter thing next time. I know that's not a lot of help but it does kind of sound like you wouldn't be too interested in the port. They have quite a few excursions so I'm sure they will never stop going there just because of how many excursions they can pump out. Sounds like the Emerald Lake driving tour might be better than nothing if you aren't into the helicopter Glacier thing LOL

Love the Star... spent almost 30 day on her this past Oct./ Nov. and will be on the Star again for April/May for another 32 days....

 

You can't go wrong with her... :)

We chose the star. :)

Oh I also go pretty easy on breakfast because there's not really something for breakfast that I haven't had the option to eat every day of my life compared to the amazing stuff you can get for lunch or dinner. I usually have to save my calories for the specialty pizzas at lunch! I think my husband eats pizza 3 times a day when we Cruise LOL

I'm also calorie counter and the yogurt parfait will definitely push you over LOL Although it is a lot healthier than high cholesterol foods. If there is a low fat yogurt option and you get less than half a cup and lots of fresh berries that would be okay. The HC is definitely your best bet for calorie counting. English muffins well technically have a tiny bit less calories than toast. But a Dry Cereal with a load of berries is probably your best bet. Oatmeal is not a low calorie option. The amount of oatmeal people serve themselves out of a buffet is usually about 4 times what you get in the little microwave packets. You are looking about 800 calories or oatmeal if you loaded up and it was a good-sized bowl. The little one at McDonald's is almost 400. It's true with the Dry Cereal too , a serving of Dry Cereal is typically 130 calories but it's usually about the size that fits in the single-serve boxes. If you load your bowl up with berries it will fill you up for less calories. If you feel like you need more protein I usually get a English muffin and split a sausage link. That's usually about 230 calories.

Your cruise card will not come to you until you check in for the cruise portion of your trip. Land expenses are cash or credit card, paid as you go.

 

Again, many of your expenses are covered in the rate you are paying for the "connoiseur" package.

I was just wondering if the charged it all to our room/cruise. Not the actual physical card. Alcoholic beverages are obviously not included. Those are the kind of thing i am referring too.

My 7 and 8 day connoisseur tours included most ,but not all, meals. I would think the 5 day would include some also??? Can you get into Princess.com and view this?

Yes it includes many. I was wondering about the meals it does not include or meals we choose to eat outside the resort

The college in our town started a spring breaks on the 4th

If you book an early duck tour you should have a good portion of the day left. We booked a very early one and we were back before lunch. Not sure what time the walking tours are. After the tour we walked on our own. The duck tour goes all over the town, and overlap some areas a few times. I'm sure that doing both will be fun but honestly you're going to hear a lot of the same stuff and see a lot of the same things several times. After the duck tour we decided to walk on our own and look at a few areas we wanted to see a little longer. And then we went to lunch. And our cruise left at 11:45. We only had a half day there.