harryfat1

OP must be looking at some repo cruise early/late in 2023 as I believe Discovery Princess typically doesn't do Hubbard Glacier on her usual 7 day route from Seattle. We were on the Majestic Princess (same Royal class of ship as Discovery but Discovery is brand new) last week and we were diverted to Icy Strait Point instead of Skagway dur to RRF closure. Uncertain what will happen to the potential Skagway stop for next year. As for "scenery comparison", I think many people on these boards will say Hubbard Glacier is better than Dawes as Hubbard is bigger at 6 miles across so it gives you a "WOW" feel. But glacier viewing are never guaranteed in case of icy conditions when you arrive. The Princess medallion itself is a nifty feature in that it automatically unlocks your cabin door and you can locate your friends using the medallion tracker. The phone app itself is horrible. Many times it just says "loading" and we had to restart the phone to make it work. I don't believe Discovery Princess has covered indoor pool but you can double check their deck plan on Princess web page. The Majestic Princess has it as part of the Hollywood Conservatory but she was build specifically for the colder climates of the Asian market. As for ship length, you can't compare ships just by that as the bigger ships are also wider and taller to accommodate more passengers. You need to look at various Youtube video on ship walk throughs to see if there are features on either ships that appeals to your party. Here are few sample pics from our Hubbard Glacier last week:

I'm in the camp that says the bidding is for "category" of staterooms, not specific staterooms as per cruise critic's article, all other cruise lines that have bidding for cabin upgrades are based on "category" staterooms, not specific cabins. https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=4006 So do we think Princess is a leader or follower in the cruise industry in offering something better that no other cruise line is currently providing in favor of the passengers? Yes, in theory Princess can surprise me by being innovative/different than the rest of the cruise industry to providing something that is more cruiser friendly so it's less of a blind bidding in knowing exactly where my cabin is. Yeah, I believe in Santa too...

Here's link to Juneau docks schedule: https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.116/2xl.54d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/JNU-Juneau-2022.pdf Most likely it's the Franklin docks. Which is a bit further to walk by few minutes by not super far

After I forwarded the link to you, I read another article in the Google search as I was curious on why they bid for it and then backed away. Another article said since HAL and Princess has more seniority rights to GB in having been there for many decades, they get the prime spots as only 2 cruise ships can go there daily. RCI can only get the less popular dates or shoulder Alaska season like in May or September only when fewer ships are fighting for spots. So within the announcement, there may be some pecking orders on what cruise ship companies can select which dates on the calendar. RCI may be left with less desirable dates for handful of sailings at beginning and end of the Alaska season and they might of just say, "Forget it, too much disruption to our schedules for 2 GB sailings in May and 3 in September, we will just go to another glacier instead for the whole season". Here is the GB schedule for 2022. Mostly Princess/HAL/NCL ships: https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.116/2xl.54d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/GB-Glacier-Bay-2022.pdf

What I envision working well is if you are currently booked on some sort of "guaranteed category" such that you have no control of your cabin selection anyway. So mind as well bid for something in a higher class that is just as a random blind luck as your current cabin selection.

Yeah. They stick the wall of the cabin very well during the cruise as we put them with the magnetic hooks. Easy to grab and go each time we leave the cabin. The picture may not show it well, but the magnets are pretty much attached to the wall or else if the ship moves, they would be making a lot of banging noise.

Cruise Critic actually has an article on this process as many cruise lines have adopted this policy: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=4006 From what I'm reading, you are bidding on a "category", not a specific cabin location. So it's like getting a "guarantee cabin" in the category. Once the bid is accepted from the cruise line, they charge your credit card and there's no going back. So be careful on how much of a gamble you want to take if you are currently happy with your location, bidding up may not work for you.

I saw on the Alaska board the other day that RCI was part of the 7 cruise ship companies that were awarded the privilege back in 2019 to visit Glacier Bay for a 10 year contract period. https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/news/glacier-bay-issues-new-contracts-for-cruise-ship-services.htm However, shortly after getting the spots, RCI decides on not opting in to go to GB for whatever reason per this CC article: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4720/ So it'll be at least until 2029 when the next contract will be announced before RCI might go to Glacier Bay.

Glad it's helpful. Just in case it's a warm day and the guy isn't wearing his jacket, just look for the blue bus sign at the kiosk. You can also contact them ahead of time if you have any questions: https://www.mmtoursofjuneau.com/

So what do you see once you get to Mendenhall Glacier? Fist of all, it's US National Park run so there are park rangers around to answer questions as well having a visitor center. Visitor center away from the cold and rain: Pictures showing how much the glacier has receded due to climate change. I remembered it was much bigger back in 2002 and 2009 when we were there previously. Compare the 1958 picture to now - pretty sad to see. I told my son by time he brings his grandkids out there, there probably won't be much to see. In case anyone haven't seen enough of Glacier pics from me: If you have the time and energy, walk down the trail to see Nugget Falls. Here's a short video clip to show the sounds of the gushing water. Hopefully the upload works. 20220810_110351.mp4

Continuing on with the Alaska post cruise summary: Day 5 - Juneau. State Capitol of Alaska. Interesting fact about the city is there are NO roads to go into the city. You either fly in or come in via ship. No outside roads connect to Juneau due to all the glacier around the city. Any road they build will be destroyed by the glaciers. Probably our favorite port of the 3 as I guess we prefer more active vibrant places. ISP doesn't do it for us but I can see how some people like the tranquil nature of the place. Personal preference thing. Anyway, depending where your ship docked, you either make right or left after existing make your way to the bottom of the Mt. Roberts tram where you will see a ton of tour operators more than happy to hook you up on any tour. I was a little surprised at how aggressive some were in trying to drum up business as you walk by. Not as aggressive as some Mexico ports where they walk with you side by side to sell you something but I was asked numerous times walking down the pier if we need to book a tour. Juneau was full that day so this NCL ship had to tender in her passengers HAL came in after us and guess what region they love? We were docked a ways down so had to walk an extra few minutes to get to the central area As mentioned previously, can't get a good line shot with access all blocked off. Alaska docks tie their ships way high compared to say Cozumel. This board walk looks new. I don't recall seeing this back in 2009 the last time we were in Alaska. Vendors.... And more vendors: There were many more but you get the idea... We typically take the M&M tour (blue bus) to Mendenhall. The dude in the right in red coat. The blue bus (yes, they actually repainted the kids school bus type to be blue color) comes every half hour and on the hour to take you to Mendenhall Glacier. What I like is there's no time limit as in an organized tour where you feel rushed to go from place to place. They just say the last bus is around 5:30 coming back from Mendenhall. You better be on that bus or else you are calling a taxi to pick you up.

Bob, Yeah, switching to Ketchikan is a much better choice as you have more options to do different thing there if you prefer a more active port. ISP is more tranquil if you prefer a surrounding that has less activities. Our visit to Ketchikan was cut short by couple of hours as the ship needs to get back to Vancouver by 3 AM instead of the scheduled 7 AM due to high tides as the ship is too tall to safely go under the Lion's Gate bridge during high tide. Later on I will upload more pictures from our Juneau and Ketchikan stop but here are couple samples. For Juneau, we took the $45 shuttle to Mendenhall and for Ketchikan we just did the self guide tour of the town using the map you obtain from visitor center. ISP: Always gives me warm fuzzies when I see these signs on trails... Juneau: Ketchikan: Salmon season

No, the captain never said how far out we were. Just said due to ice, we can't go further as he made a subtle reference to the movie Titanic. They said Hubbard is 6 miles across and I believe this was the closest we got. Looking at the picture below, I'm guessing maybe 4 miles out? There were a lot of ice around the ship so I'm sure that was the limit for that day for a major cruise ship. The boat excursion got closer but I was never able to find them in my pictures. Only saw them coming to the ship to pick up/drop off passengers for the excursion.

We took the shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau and the driver said after the cruise season is over (May through September), all the jewelry stores near the water front closes shop and the workers go back to the Caribbean. No locals buys stuff from there. Can't go on a cruise without seeing these guys... Juneau version: Ketchikan version:

Same calving story as you folks. You stare at it forever until your eyes are blurry and then walk away to get a drink and you hear a small thunder roar and turn around to see water ripples from far away... Too much ice at Hubbard Glacier to get very close. I was surprised we got as closed as we did as you can literally see lots of ice next to us. The captain must not be worried. Glacier Bay had no ice field but no calving either but makes for better photo op. I couldn't see the goat live in person but I kept looking for it as the ranger was saying over the PA system - "over at the 3 o'clock position , at the green flat area, you will see a mountain goat". Then every one scrambles to look for one and maybe 8 people will see it and say "Oh, yeah, right there". Then there's the 90%+ of rest of us blindly aiming our cameras and cell phones at the big old mountain asking, WHERE? WHERE? Ah, forget it, just take a dang picture of the whole mountain and find it when I get home with a computer (don't cruise with my laptop). Hubbard Glacier area: Lots of ice near the ship Glacier Bay (less ice in water):

We encountered a wide range of temperature during our one week cruise. At the glaciers it was in the 40s but by Ketchikan, it was close to 70 with some people in t-shirts outside. At night when the ship was sailing at 20 knots and it's 55 degrees outside, you will feel the wind/cold. Don't think people are dressed for the luau

To all the folks looking for line pictures, sorry to say that Alaska piers tied their ships way high and away from pedestrian walk ways so no really good pictures unless I grew wings to fly to each post. As per my previous post, you see how the Radiance is tied up far away from any passenger access in the rear. Pretty much the same story everywhere. Only somewhat decent one I could find is Discovery Princess tied up in Juneau

Day 4 - Originally we were scheduled to go to Skagway but due to rock slides at the RRF dock, Princess moved many of her ships to other ports. We were diverted to Icy Strait Point (ISP) instead of Skagway. We had booked a bus tour to take us up to the Yukon area but that went down the drain. To me, ISP is Alaska version of Falmouth. Artificially created port just for cruisers. The port is know for 2 items - zipline and whale watching. Maybe 3 if you care to ride the $49/pp gondola at top of mountain. Many people opted to just walk around the port shops looking at $130 jackets and kept on walking. Yeah, no typo. There's a ONE in front of the next 2 numbers. As this is a RCI based thread, I should at least mention something RCI related. Radiance of the Seas is docked next to us but she left way early before 3 PM. Then HAL took her spot at 6 PM. Not sure if it's even worthwhile to get to port at 6 PM but guess cruise companies feel the need to have an extra port day to get more revenue. $49 gondola takes you way up the mountain Free gondola takes you for a 4 minute ride instead of walking through the woods to do more shopping and food places. There is a nice paved walkway to the town of Hoonah but there's nothing to see there but the scenery on the way was pretty. The highlight of the day was seeing whales from the walkway as they swam by. Whales

Had to quote myself to find out where I last left off on our Alaska cruise upload from few days ago. Never caught up with bad wifi signal on day 3 onward. Now that we are home, here are some more pics that I couldn't upload from days 2 and 3. More glacier pictures than an average person cares to see... For $279/pp, you can take a boat excursion that comes to the ship to take you closer to the Hubbard Glacier. Too rich for my blood. Calm waters of Glacier Bay Everyone was on deck trying to find wild animals. Funny to see all the people run to the starboard side when it's announced something there and then run back to the port side when another announcement of something spotted on another side. Guess that replaces the tread mill exercise for the day. Think the captain was worried about the ship tipping over as all the overweight people were leaning to one side on those whale sightings.... So I'm blind as a bat and I can NEVER find whatever animal the park ranger announced over the PA system during the whole day we were there. Everyone else gets all excited when something is announced. I can't see a dang thing in the sun fighting for elbow space. So just aim at the basic direction of what people are pointing and take a picture to hope for the best. I believe that's the mountain goat that was mentioned but I couldn't see it until after coming home and looking for it on a laptop... As we had all day at Glacier Bay, we were roaming from station to station to see what each area offered. The park ranger got all excited over couple orcas right in front of the ship while we were there. I have never seen75 year old grandmas run so fast to fight for spot to take pictures. I never did sees the orcas in person myself but my older son got a picture of it through the window. Few more glacier pics:

We just got off the Majestic Princess on the 8/6 to 8/13 Alaska sailing. We were only at 60% capacity. Saw the Discovery Princess at Juneau on 8/10 and I could tell the number of people getting off the ship that sailing is considerably more crowded than ours. For us, buffet was mixture of self service and staff assisted. For any drinks at the buffet, the staff takes your orders and bring to you as they won't allow you go go back to the drinks section. They also have someone manning the distribution of napkins and utensils. Any hot food items are served by staff with the serving dispensers facing them so you can't touch it. Just bring your plate and point and they will give you the food. The small "grab and go" items like smoothies or desserts are self served. No guests are allowed at the self serve drinks at the buffet. They will serve whatever drinks you want from the section. Food items that requires guests touching serving utensil that other guests might also touch are handled by staff only Note the serving utensil are pointing toward staff so they will serve you Some fruits are served by them as well as they don't even show any self serving utensils Same for donuts. Can't touch that... Here are self served items: All dessert items are self served As we were only 60% capacity, they only open some of the serving area. The seating area away from the serving stations are mostly empty as people don't want to walk far with plates of food.

Finally made it to a city with 4G signal. 2 days behind in pictures upload versus real time. Day 3 highlights - Princess spends 9 hours at Glacier Bay National Park with Park ranger taking over the PA system after they board the ship as well as set up shop on the ship's lounge.

Few more pics from Hubbard Glacier. Bad internet connection from ship. Can't upload too many pics together on CC before bombing out. Crazy to see how closed to the ice field the captain brought us next to

I'm not a fan of sea days. I know that puts me in a minority amongst many cruisers in CC in general but I cruise to see different places so sea days are not days I look forward to. However for our sailing on second day, we got to stop at Hubbard Glacier. Per the naturaliston board, it's one of the few remaining growing glaciers out there. It's supposed to be 6 miles across and over 600 feet tall. Here are some pics. No time to explain details until I get home.

Went to gift shop raffle. Like all cruises, the shops need raffle to drum up foot traffic. My younger son won the Alaska Moose raffle - McKinley.

27 days? Wow. Not sure if I have the personality for cruises longer than 10 days. 9 days has been my longest so far and that's close to my max. Princess is very traditional in their ship design as they cater to people that prefers the old style instead of the WOW style of RCI. But Princess has the interesting feature of the medallion. You use that medallion as room ket as well as ID chip. Takes the Disney world concept of magic band to another level. Automatically open all cabin rooms as you walk up. Never need to take key out of pocket. Also acts as ID such that you walk up to any bar, the worker will see your name and face on their ipad and they greet you by your name and if you on drinks package, you order whatever and you never need to tap or sign anything to pay. They know to charge the drinks to your package automatically. For the ultimate in laziness, you place any drinks on the app and you can be anywhere on the ship and with the medallion app, they will deliver your drink to you based on where the software can track you. Or so the theory goes... Just ordered 4 drinks to be delivered. 55 degrees outside on balcony but no wind hitting us. I'm in t shirt.