LeeW

Lots of folks here recommend West Quay, so I am booked with them (haven't traveled yet). There app won't download in US and web site won't take your booking. I booked mine via email. They send you a payment link (from a taxi processing service) that is good for 36 hours, or 3 tries. First two times the credit card companies bounced the payment but after I told them it was me and got a new link from West Quay it processed with no problem. Around $180 US for car for 2/3, so if you can take the National Bus you might want to look into that.

Log in to the cruise personalizer and look at the payments tab. Mine shows both military and stockholder credit. Under new rules you can't get both but since stock is in both our names I can get military and DW can get stock OBC.

Little Mermaid reminds me of when we saw Plymouth Rock. Houses around here have bigger rocks in their front yards. If you are 100 feet away from the statue you really can't see it.

Since you are from Europe, your phone likely works. Would think that you can get Uber rides there. Also, you can get the taxi driver's phone number to call when you are ready to go back to the ship. In many ports this is very common.

Most of the time you are sailing is at night, but we do use our balcony on Alaska cruises. We also like smaller ships like Radiance, which has a glassed-in swimming pool. Waves in pool can be impressive.

Book a ship with decent public viewing areas - the Oasis class RCI ships have almost zero viewing from Promenade deck. Also, smaller is better getting on and off ships. In six trips, best was Island/Coral Princess going to Glacier Bay. Radiance of the Seas was pretty good going only to Hubbard, but fogged out one trip. We have another on that ship booked for next year with family, although ship has fewer kid-type activities. Expect very expensive excursions and food onshore in Alaska. Seaplanes and copters tend to be $400pp but are great for glaciers and bears. Even taking a bus to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau is now around $50pp - the park service requires the operators to buy park admission for each passenger even if you have a national park pass. And we have heard that the operators are running out of passes this year. We weren't impressed with Icy Straight as a port. Note that if you sail from Seattle you will most likely have to stop in Victoria. Nice city to visit (parliament tour is great and free) but you lose an Alaska day doing this. If you have time (and cash) book roundtrip from Vancouver. Then you can book either the Kenai Fjords boat trip or the 26 glacier boat trip on turnaround day. Both excellent. Booking back to back avoids the hassle and cost of flights to Alaska.

In the past I remember them doing scuba courses in the Aqua pool but when I took the refresher course on Harmony it was in the 4' deep sport pool. Really tough doing depth control and swims in that shallow a pool.

Problem I had was that my old Princess password wasn't valid on app because of new requirement for a special symbol. Once I went through nonsense of resetting password and adding special symbol in both places I haven't had a problem. Still prefer the web-based app to the phone one, though.

Once you are logged on and on your cruise page list, refresh the page - browser may be getting old cruise out of cache. Note that it isn't all that unusual for cruise updates to take a few days. Another thing you can try is to add the cruise again.

The Copenhagen Card was a good deal for us - all buses, rail and canal boats plus entry to most museums. Got it at a tourist office just north of Tivoli, but there are many around town. Little Mermaid is a joke! Fort adjacent to it was fun and palaces were great.

Typically you note any special celebrations (and the date you want to celebrate it) in the app profile. Used to be about a 45 day window around the cruise but never enforced. You will get a card in your cabin that you give to your waiter for small cake at dinner. Cake isn't bad, but heavy dark chocolate.

Turn left once you get on the island. Walk across the bridge with the photographers. When concrete path veers right, go straight. Merchandise kiosks will be on right, bar and scuba shop on left. You will see several hundred chairs with umbrellas under the palm trees. One of the main buffets is just beyond, nearest Snack Shack is a bit farther on the sand path. If you walk through the buffet you will hit the fresh water pool.

When we were there surf wasn't bad, although you couldn't see your feet in knee deep water. Food pretty good. You do get chairs and umbrellas free, although no shade in that area. Pretty similar to beach clubs in the Eastern Caribbean. On the whole we preferred going to West End (Tabyana) because you can snorkel there and lots more shade. We got this place on a sale for around $35pp so ok just for transportation and beach access. Don't think it is worth more than that.

Princess shouldn't have a problem with this (can't do online) but you CAN book one adult in each cabin online. Then switch cabins onboard.

If you are booked with a TA then Princess won't talk to you. Your TA will handle both lodging and transfers. Note that for lodging you will pay the rack rate for each passenger (double advertised hotel rate). This does cover transfer to hotel and hotel to ship.

The big problem with McKinley lodge is the 40 minute drive into Talkeetna. Buses don't run all that often and your stay includes only one bus there and one back - you pay if you want to waste another 1 1/2 hours in transit. Mountain looks great if it is out (and for us was on both trips). But really no activities near the lodge. Most require a trip back into Talkeetna. Food is ok, although expensive like all Alaska food. If you are taking the train, be aware that there is a LOT of standing around waiting for it. They will bus everyone to the train stop kiosk around an hour before the train is due. Nothing there, although some folks walked into town while waiting.

It was available (at the $400+ price) for both north and southbound Radiance last September. Northbound got cancelled since fog/rain blocked all glacier viewing that day - we didn't even get to the boat boarding location.

Things like slides may not open until 2. As cruiseguy suggested, use the app to select a current sailing of the ship you are interested in and you can see what is available on that cruise.

If you really want lots of photos it is possible to add a second cabin for half price to an unlimited package. Have to do this onboard. Not sure how they would handle 4 cabins. Not all that many backdrops and pier locations for photos on Radiance. We would have problems justifying one unlimited package.

Normally cruise lines transfer you airport to hotel, hotel to ship and ship to airport if you buy the hotel through them. However you will pay the hotel rack rate for EACH passenger. So a London stay was around $800/night for two people. For London plane was 5 hours late, so not arranging changes in transfers was an advantage. For Ft Lauderdale wound up at Hilton North, which was a long way from anything, including the pier. And have had the transfer to the ship delayed until 2 PM in Copenhagen (we left luggage with the agent and took train to ship at 11).

Garmin Nuvi and large battery pack in waterproof bag on balcony. Turn sound off and brightness down to conserve battery. Replace battery every other day. Transfer file to Google Earth to plot the trip.

Main dining will likely be prime rib that night. You can look at current sailings of Radiance on the app to see what the dinner menu is each night - select your profile, scroll down to bottom of your cruises, select ship and then sailing date. Next summer is a long way away but should give you an idea of menus.

See if you can recover deleted emails. Might be there.

Last time we flew to London the plane was over 6 hours late and immigration had mostly left, causing a 2 hour processing time. Missed our planned extra half day in London but sailing wouldn't have been a problem.

Did they pick you up at the terminal or at the long term lot pickup area?