ErLee

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 😅

Thanks for posting!  We'll be on her Jan 2020....I think I see my cabin 

Where did you stay in Vancouver? We are doing a northbound out of Vancouver in June and are planning a couple days there before we board. Hoping for great weather to do the biking around Stanley Park!

On 9/23/2018 at 2:17 AM, dale65 said:

Really enjoying your report

My husband and I will take our first cruise ever on the Coral in June 2019 to Alaska. Love all the details.

 

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What sailing will you be on dale65?  My husband and I will be on the Coral for the first time June 12, 2019 as part of a 13 day cruise tour!

It's nice to read all these overwhelmingly positive comments about the Connoisseur tours, because we are booked on our first one for June 2019 on the Coral.  Over on the Alaska board you sometimes feel like if you're not doing a DIY land tour you're just plain dumb 😋 When I was first trying to decide if it was worth the money, a few fantastic reviews like caribill's helped me make the decision.  I just know it's going to be an amazing trip!

Great input everyone, thanks! I think you confirmed my idea that doing the Bennett Scenic Journey is the way to go. Chilkoot says they'll be booking 2019 by mid October, so I'll just keep an eye on that. I'm planning to book directly with them. I was also thinking about Dyea Dave, but I don't see that there's an option to go to Bennett.

On Chilkoot's website it specifically says that the Bennett Scenic Journey does not go to Caribou Crossing Trading Post, but is the only tour that covers the full area of Bennett Lake and allows you to tour historic Bennett on foot which is only accessible by train, so I'm trying to get opinions on the two options.

Thanks for your review!

Thanks for the great review! We are booked on the Coral northbound from Vancouver next June with a Princess Connoisseur Escorted land tour afterwards through Denali and up to Fairbanks. We're really looking forward to the trip and your review just flamed that fire!

We're going to Alaska in June 2019, and I'm trying to make a decision about Skagway. We're interested in doing a bus/rail combo. In looking at Chilkoot Charters we can either take the Yukon trip that includes Caribou Crossing but not Bennett or we can take the Bennett trip that skips Caribou Crossing. Any opinions from those that have been on these trips? Or is there another operator that includes both? It's a bit confusing choosing between the various options!

Thank you roving rabbit for the resto rec and thank you martincath for the great advice and detailed input on eats and a bit of touring! All super helpful!

I went ahead and booked the YWCA to hold a room while I decide what we want to do since you advised that it fills up. Does anyone know if they have 24 hr check in? We’ll be arriving very late, and i’ve noticed some hotels don’t. Wherever we stay I want to make sure it’s not an issue if we get hung up.

I may have more questions as I get closer, and you’re such a great source of info. I’m really looking forward to Vancouver and know we’ll only get a taste of all there is to do. Atlanta - Vancouver isn’t too expensive to fly so I’m sure we’ll be back for a proper visit!

Thanks for the input on this! I’m going to look into the YWCA based on these recommendations and see what’s available and if I think it’ll suit us. I’m also going to look again at Blue Horizon. This will be the first two nights of a two week 25th anniversary trip so one of my main things was to start off on the right foot and not end up in a sketchy place by my own ignorance of Vancouver.

In answer to your question, martincath, we will not be hanging around the hotel wanting room service and luxurious amenities. But I do want to start our big trip in a comfortable bed and a nice room after a long flight! If I can do that and spend less, that just leaves more of my Vancouver budget for other things.

We’ll have a day and a half to see a few sights in what I’ve heard is a lovely city. I’d like to rent bikes and ride around Stanley park if the weather is nice, go to Granville Island, explore a bit of downtown on foot, not sure what else yet, but I’m certainly looking on these boards for recommendations for that too and some restaurants that are unique to Vancouver. I’d love to enjoy a really fabulous seafood dinner somewhere before we leave on the cruise where the food is often hit or miss!

We'll be staying in Vancouver 2 nights pre cruise next June and are looking at hotels. I really don't want to spend more than around $300/night, so I'm looking at Blue Horizon, Hotel Blu, and Residence Inn by Marriott - this last one after seeing it pop up favorably in several recent trip reports.

Any input from those in the know that would help me decide between these or another better suggestion?

Thanks!

I am doing a cruisetour in June 2019, also flying Atlanta to Vancouver and then home to Atlanta from Fairbanks at the end. I just this week decided to go ahead and purchase my plane tickets on Delta. I watched the fares for this June all last spring just to get an idea of what I should be looking for. I wanted some pretty specific time parameters so when I saw something that would work perfect for us at $662 total per person I went ahead and reserved it (booked as multi city RT). To me the main downside to booking so early is that airlines often change the flight times, so my perfect timing could get screwed up! I checked Princess EZAir but they didn't offer any departures after 6pm, and we want to leave Atlanta in the evening, so I didn't even ask for a quote.

I want to do this tour next June, but my husband really wants to book a whale watch out of Juneau, so I'm not sure I'm going to get to do it this time around!

I'm looking at hotels for a couple of nights pre cruise next June. I'm wondering about any input on Blue Horizon or Listel Hotel? Good, bad, ugly? Any advice appreciated!

Thanks for the review!

Have a great trip!

Great review! I have a question about the Tracy Arm trip. What time did your ship get into Juneau? We're there next June and I really want to do Tracy Arm but our time says 8am - 9pm in Juneau so I'm not sure if it's feasible to get to Adventure Bound in time. Any insight from your experience?

Thank you for the great review and pictures! We are going northbound on Coral next June. I do have one question - we have followed conventional wisdom and booked starboard for the northbound cruise, but I've seen some reviews that made a pretty convincing argument that port might be even better. I just wondered what your opinion is now that you've done the northbound in a starboard cabin?

Our first Alaska cruise isn't until 2019, but I'm excited to spend this summer reading all the great reviews from the 2018 Alaska bound cruisers!!

Thank you for sharing your travel log, it made for interesting reading! It sounds like you had a great trip! We are in that 18 long months of planning phase as we booked our first Alaska trip back in January for June 2019. We're going with Princess on a 13 day cruise/land tour, but we're doing the cruise first and ending up in Fairbanks for the very long flight back to Atlanta. I hope we enjoy our trip as much as you and your wife did!

Well who knew we would get our mini suite upgraded to club class two weeks before departure? How fortuitous of me!

Come back after and let us know how you like it! I'll be interested to hear!

. Key elements about the local hotel scene though, so you have a better understanding to ask a more detailed question/research yourself:

Wow, that's a lot of really helpful information! I'm saving your tips myself for the future as we'll be looking for a pre-cruise Vancouver hotel in 2019.

Thank you!

Last time I cruised into FLL my flight left late in the day. We took a taxi to the Bonnet House and did the tour there, which was very interesting, and also rode the water taxi, and found a nice place for lunch.

We were on HAL and used the luggage program to send our bags directly to SW at the airport so we didn't have to fuss with them, but our biggest problem was we were off the ship too early for anything to be open! It was January and kind of chilly, so we ended up finding a breakfast place that was open and staying there as long as we could killing time until the wait staff started giving us dirty looks because we were hogging the table :D We left a nice tip and gave up our spot earlier than we wanted to!