ErLee

Enjoying the planning portion of your review!

We leave for Vancouver June 10th, board the Coral Princess on the 12th for a northbound voyage of the glaciers with the same stops you have, and then continuing on to the Connoisseur Land Tour up through Denali, finally ending in Fairbanks on June 25th.  This is our 25th anniversary trip and I’ve been planning it for a year and a half. Hard to believe it’s finally only 50 days away!

We picked Jayleen’s for our whale watch in Juneau, Island Wings for the flightseeing in Ketchikan, and Chilkoot Charters for the full Bennett Lake trip in Skagway. I could not be more excited and look forward to hearing how your trip goes!!

Hope you have a fantastic journey!

I have a question maybe some of you can answer about the Hilton Marina FLL. We have a pre cruise room booked there for January 2020. I had read elsewhere that there are nice and not so nice parts of this hotel, but it was confusing when I was choosing my room type. I ended up with a “low tower bridge view” room - does anyone know if that’s a good choice or not?

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

 

Scrape along her port side or not, I am looking forward to my embarking Coral Princess in Whittier on July 31st very much.

Scrape or Scrap be damned!!! I’ll be on her June 12th and it can’t get here fast enough!!!!

On 3/29/2019 at 4:11 PM, helby said:

The Emerald arrived this morning to start the 2019 season. According to port officials there will be 41 ships from 24 cruise lines in Vancouver this year. Princess is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave.  Over 1,000,000 passengers are expected this year.

We are part of that 1,000,000 and super excited about it!  Two months from today we’ll be sightseeing in Vancouver prior to our 2 weeks in Alaska!  🥳

8 minutes ago, bobbismith said:

Our cruise is June 16 and the internet packeage is Connet. I will keep checking.

Bobbi

Sorry, I misunderstood you, Connect is what I’m seeing too, but I was referring to no longer seeing the old per minute packages! Sorry for the confusion!

This is strange, because we’re on Coral in June, and I’ve got the new internet packages available for purchase in my personalizer....

I usually take Bonine, which is meclizine, starting the day before I leave and then for the duration of the trip. I also take it when I fly. It works great for me. Good luck!!

We're doing the float plane with Island Wings in June, I've heard nothing but great things about it and can't wait!

5 hours ago, BullyLvr said:

Wow I can’t believe  none of you have mentioned the most amazing thing to do while in Fairbanks yet!   Check out Running Reindeer Ranch. https://runningreindeer.com/

We went in May 2017 and it was one of the most enjoyable and unique “excursions” ever.  

Wow, I haven't heard about this place at all, and now I want to go!

10 hours ago, disneyochem said:

WE booked a 2020 Alaskan connoisseur tour as well as a 2019 Alaskan Cruise this year.  The 2019 cruise was a great deal—haven’t seen the prices go lower than what we got back in early February.  

 

Question—do the land tours ever go down in price?  I’m thinking that maybe the cruise portion might decrease but can’t imagin3 that the guided land tour will.

Our June 2019 Connoisseur Tour hasn't gone down since we booked it in Jan 2018.  But I've checked it weekly just in case!

Glad to hear you loved the Coral - we’ll be on her in June for the first time!

49 minutes ago, schlogee said:

We booked our 2019 Alaska cruise in early 2018 - wanted a specific deck and a few cabins together.  I've been watching prices for the past year, and they haven't gone done for our room, so I'm happy I did it early!

This has been exactly my experience - we booked a connoisseur land/sea trip for June 2019 way back on Jan 2, 2018.  I got an amazing deal for a minisuite, and a week later it was $1200 more pp and that’s where it’s been ever since, and I check it weekly!  Maybe it’s different if it’s cruise only, and maybe it’ll drop for last minute, but no way could I plan a trip that long at the last minute!!!

6 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

 

That is excellent.   You are driving to your whale watch?    Makes the best use of your time.   Can  really have an excellent day.   🙂  

I said that wrong...it’s 8 - 9 😆. Do you have suggestions of what to see there?

I was thinking perhaps I should contact them about driving there instead of being picked up. Is it likely we’d be seeing other things in the same direction as where the whale watch launches so it would be better to meet her there than have to go back to the dock area for pick up?

52 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

What is your port time?   

 

9 - 8

12 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

 

You have to go around  and not direct,  to get to Juneau Car Rental.   The coastal transit is blocked off.   It is farther than 1/4  mile from your dock.     And up hill.    

Thank you for the info!!  Not too worried about it, we live in a very hilly area and walk them every day!

Based on all the great reviews I’ve read, the older car thing doesn’t bother me a bit for a one day rental. One of our cars is 19 years old with 200,000 miles on it, and it runs great so maybe that inspires confidence in me 😊.  I loved the lady I talked to on the phone, so that sealed the deal for me!

I've just booked a car with Juneau Car Rental for June 15th, $94 for a midsize, and it's 1/4 mile from Franklin dock where our ship will be.  We actually have a whale watch booked with Jayleen's at 2:30pm, but plan to use the car all morning to see Mendenhall and whatever else we have time for before meeting up for the whale watch.  

On 2/26/2019 at 5:49 PM, Crew News said:

After much research and discussions on the HAL Forum, ending a cruisetour in Fairbanks means departing flights after midnight.   Ending a cruisetour in Anchorage will leave lots of flight options.

Actually we're flying out of Fairbanks this June at 1:55pm.  We do have a bit of a layover in Seattle though, and certainly won't get back to Atlanta until the next morning, but if you're not traveling as far as we are, it might be better.  

We are doing a 13 day connoisseur tour in June, cruise first and then land.  The schedule just worked out better for us, and I wanted to spend a couple of days in Vancouver before the trip while we were still fresh!  We, like you, wanted someone else to do the driving and schlep the bags, LOL! I haven't heard anyone that's done it in either direction say it wasn't fantastic, so I'd say just find what works best for you.  One thing about cruising northbound is the scenery just gets better and better!

Enjoy your planning!

We will be in Juneau from 8am - 9pm.  We have a whale watch with Jayleen’s booked for 2:30pm.  My question is whether it would be a good idea to rent a car to see the sights before the whale watch or will we really not have enough time to do anything except go to Mendenhall, in which case we’ll just take the shuttle. Thoughts from those who’ve been there?

On 2/22/2019 at 12:10 PM, vacationlover_mn said:

We went in mid June and completely overpacked 🙂. The weather is so iffy... we brought raincoats and warm jackets, but didn’t use them.  Alaska is hard to pack for!

It is so hard to know! We’re going mid June this year, and I’m struggling with the same thing. We live in Georgia so we’re not used to crazy cold and want to be prepared, but also don’t want to overpack. We’re going on a 13 day land-sea trip so we’ve got so many days to cover!!

Thanks for starting this thread! We’ll be on our first Princess cruise in June - we’re sailing on the Coral to Alaska and then doing a land tour - and it’s so disheartening to read all the negativity on these boards sometimes.  It’s a refreshing change to hear what everyone loves about Princess! Cruising is my happy place, and I’m looking forward to loving our first Princess trip! I’ve even already booked our 2nd with Princess on the Sky in January 2020 😊

We're in the exact same situation as you OP, and we decided to take Martincath's advice and have booked at the YWCA for this June. Even booking one of their most expensive rooms so that we can have a private bath, we are still saving almost $200 US over our other options, and plan to use that to have a very nice dinner in Vancouver. We're also flying in very late from Georgia, and it just didn't make sense to spend the time traveling back and forth to an airport hotel when we only have a day and a half to visit this lovely city before leaving for a two week trip to Alaska, especially when there is such a highly rated and affordable option downtown. Apparently the YWCA in Vancouver is nothing like what we think of in the US when we hear YWCA!  Enjoy your trip, whatever your decision!

I can’t figure out how to search individual forums on this new platform, so forgive me for not searching for an answer!

We’ll be on the Coral in June and it looks like the new internet packages are available instead of the per minute plans of the past.  I’m looking for opinions from those who have experienced the new plans on which level will be suitable for primarily email access and mild surfing? I mainly want to be sure that I can be in touch with my kids at home. 

Thanks for for any advice!

On 1/9/2019 at 1:21 PM, wolfie11 said:

  My absolute fav in Skagway is Bennett Lake train trip.

Glad to hear this @wolfie11! We’re doing the Bennett Lake trip on our first Alaska trip this June. We booked directly with Chilkoot Charters.

On 1/9/2019 at 11:42 AM, Cailey53 said:

One packing tip that we found handy when we went to Alaska this past July—I bought a box of  suitcase size Ziplock Space Bags at Wal Mart. They require no vacuum to remove the air—instead they have a one way valve and you get the air out by rolling them. They are affordable (11.00 for a box of 5), worked really well and saved a lot of suitcase room for our fleece, coats, vests etc. We could not wear all our outerwear on the plane as, like you we live in GA and June and July are pretty toasty.

 

Enjoy your Alaska cruise—we had a ball!

Cathy

This is exactly what we plan to do so I’m glad to hear the ziplock space bags worked for you. We are leaving from Georgia this year in June for a two week Alaska trip, and there’s no way we can wear our heaviest clothes on the plane.  Fleece in Georgia in June?? I think not!!l 😅