RU_Gremlin

If I’m paying for a limited quantity, I should be able to share. If I buy a water package to have 12 bottles of water delivered to my stateroom, can I not share those either?

 

 

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It's the same with the beverage package... Up to 15 per day. As long as I stay under 15 a day, I should be able to give them away? People on here rail against the constantly, say it's "stealing" but this everyone seems on board with. Not sure I see the difference.

If I pay for 15 specialty coffees, why can’t I share them with others? I understand not sharing the brewed coffee, tea, etc., but why not the specialty coffees? Currently, one card gets me and DW one latte each morning to get us moving..

 

 

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Do you also support sharing alcohol beverages if one person gets the package?

If anyone has Coral Northbound out of Vancouver, I'd love to take a look!

Here's a printable version of the map: https://westcoastsightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/17LEA0842_WCSS_Hopon_Brochure_Winter18_MAP.pdf

I used their actual website. It's not 24 hours from purchase. It's 24 hours from 1st use.

Going to be in Vancouver 24 hours before our cruise in June (Coral Princess, leaving 6/20). I read recently that the Trolley Company and West Coast Sightseeing have merged. Looking at reviews from last summer, there are a lot of terrible reviews on Yelp and a pretty good mix of reviews on Trip Advisor. Most of the complaints being that the wait was sometimes 3-5 buses long (1+ hour). They're also pretty expensive.

Bottom line - is the Hop-On Hop-Off worth it to go see the majority of the city? Has there been a tangible impact from the merger improving the tour? Any locals noticing that there are long wait times for tourists? Any thing else I should know/consider?

Thanks

I was looking over the travel summary I received from Princess. The final few nights in Fairbanks still do not have a hotel listed, but instead have some generic statement about "the hotel information will be provided before the cruise". Has anyone experienced the same? Does anyone know when Princess generally updates with the Fairbanks accommodations?

Thanks

I was looking into doing this myself. All of the tour companies said that they have people do this all the time and are used to working with each other so they know what times they need to be back. I'd just let both companies know that that is what you are doing.

It really is difficult to recommend ideas for a Fairbanks visit without knowing your interests. I would suggest checking the Fairbanks Visitor and Convention Bureau website (www.explorefairbanks.com) for a comprehensive list of ideas.

Northern,

If I was narrowing our interests to the top 4... Science, sports, good food, good beer (for me, I'd add history, but my wife would only enjoy that in moderation).

Since it's the last two nights of our honeymoon, I'd say food-wise, at least one night pub-ish (or say 2 $$ on most restaurant review sites) and maybe going upscale for our last night away. Breakfast will be very early one morning, and maybe a little late one morning (closer to "brunch" time).

Good evening!

I see advice for almost every other city near the top of the board, how about Fairbanks? I'm on a cruise tour to Alaska in late June, and will have 3 days, 2 nights in Fairbanks (getting there around 5 PM, the next day a large portion of the day is on the Riverboat Discovery through Princess, and then most of the 3rd day before an 8 PM flight).

Where are the best places to eat?

What are some things that are "must do"s or at least good ways to kill time in Fairbanks?

Is there any advice in general?

Thanks!

Now... We're going the end of June. In October/November some of the times I wanted for different excursions were already taken.

^+1 to the above, and aside from specifying that you definitely want to visit Vista House as one of the scenic stops along the gorge I really don't have a thing to add to that I82-Maryhill-US97 loop, it definitely incorporates the top views and the oddest of Great American Roadtrip roadside attractions. I'll even tolerate McMenamins beers - which in almost any other state of the union would be very good, but suffer poorly in comparison to the truly ridonkulous number of great Oregon brews - because they do do a superb job with their building renovation & repurposings (consider staying in one of their hotels - e.g. the Kennedy School in Portland - for a night).

 

On the Portland itself front, which breweries/restos/donuteries to visit definitely needs more info about your tastes, budget, and tolerance for queuing up. The donut angle is the only one I'm confident in summarizing - tourists go to Voodoo because they are gloriously weird, but actually making a quality donut was never their game plan; it's all about ridiculous toppings which sometimes work and sometimes don't on top of middle-of-the-road donuts. Tim Hortons up here makes better actual donuts than Voodoo...

 

Blue Star is the bees knees of modern donuts - and if you prefer old-school then Pips or waiting until you get to Seattle to eat Top Pot. For me, as a broad-spectrum donut lover, Blue Star spanks literally everything else out there - I only eat them once a year as a birthday treat these days (diabetes), and I have returned to Blue Star for my donut fix every year since they opened. Their Old Fashioned base is pretty much as good as anyone's but their brioche dough version is, pardon the pun, the real bread & butter of their rep. If in doubt, start with the Blueberry Bourbon Basil.

 

Resto-wise, you have to hit a Food Truck pod for a casual meal - but there's so many that again without knowing what would be the best kind of food for you impossible to say which to hit - and at least one locavore PNW resto. But depending how high/low brow you like your food, it's seriously challenging to say which to visit. Kachka definitely deserves all the praise heaped upon it, and how often do you find good Russian food in the US?

 

Happy Hour in the Portland City Grill is a safe bet - be prompt if you want a window seat, it's all about the views! The regular menu is a fairly typical big city steakhouse affair, but there's a few quirkier items available too (kung pao calamari is reliably good) and it's very keenly price during Happy Hour (worth a buck or two extra per beer compared to Bailey's close by for the view). I could go on for hours about the food scene - but instead I'll point you to Eater, where the PDX site is very active and should give you a very solid start on new & interesting as well as tried & true eateries.

 

Baileys is the pub to go if you want a single spot to sample as many beers as possible - while there are a couple of other beer halls with even more choices on tap, they are pricier and less convenient for downtown core tourism. If you have the time to actually visit multiple breweries, then you need to do more research or give examples of particular beer styles and other breweries you enjoy to tease out the likeliest candidates for you - personally I'd try comparing different takes on the same kind of beer all the way up the coast. I think at last count Portland alone was approaching 70 breweries inside the city limits, more than anywhere else on the planet (they overtook Cologne last century IIRC) so it's simply not even feasible for most to sample even one product from each brewery!!!

 

Other stuff to do - Tripadvisor is a great starting point, but there are some things that are way down the list due to their obscurity that might really make for a definitively Portlandian experience. Try googling 'weirdest things to do in Portland' and you'll find lots of travel blogs with big lists of stuff. The single best thing we've done was the bridge tour we went on - with PDX Bridge Tours. While there are some cities that have more bridges, apparently there's nowhere else you can actually see every type of bridge simultaneously - and you get to join an operator inside their 'control tower' as well as actually standing inside the guts of a bridge while it's opened & closed.

Wow... A ton of great information in here. That bridge tour sounds different and cool. I'll look into it a little more.

To answer your other questions: we'd like to consider ourselves "foodies". We are game to try anything once (okay, I'm game to try anything once, she'll wait to hear if it's good or not). We aren't looking to break the bank, but definitely will splurge for a nice meal if it's worth it. As to how high/low brow we're looking to go: I don't plan on breaking out the suit until the cruise ship. It would be nice if it was casual enough that nice casual/business casual dress wouldn't get weird stares.

We do want to stop at a food truck pod at some point (is there a map of where they are usually located? I found an app but it was last updated 2015), and planned on hitting the Saturday Market as well to see what's there.

And just so people don't think it's all about the food and booze (although, it is a LOT about the food), we're already looking to go to the Rose Test Garden, Lan Su, Powell's, etc. We just also want some things that may not appear without digging 10 pages deep into Trip Advisor or other "tourist-y" websites but are one of a kind or must see experiences.

Another point: we are only looking to have a rental car on days we are going from city to city, else we plan on relying on public transportation or walking.

Good morning!

I'm going on an Alaskan Cruise next year, leaving from Vancouver. I'm going to spend the week before hopping up the coast from Portland to Seattle to Vancouver. I've gotten a lot of great advice from this board on the last two stops. Anyone have some "can't miss" information on Portland? We are excited to hit a handful of the breweries the Pacific Northwest is famous for, and some donuts.

Other than that, what are the best "attractions", restaurants, bars, etc. that we must hit during our stay?

Thanks!

I've booked a cruise to Alaska for next year. I wanted to go about it myself, but my fiance convinced me that the best choice was to use a travel agent. They'll help with the flighst she said, and watch for better deals, and make recommendations. Long story short, I lost that battle. Now we have an issue where the travel agent we booked is horrifically unresponsive (I'm not talking about a day or even a week to respond... I'm talking it's 2-3 weeks before we get frustrated, send an email asking what's going on, and then 2-3 weeks before we get a response to that). The response is always accompanied by an excuse.

What recourse (other than leaving a terrible review, or going through all the documentation that Princess requires to change the booking to as if we did it ourselves) do we have, if any?

Thanks

Somethings to consider:

- You said you are Platinum. Maybe Princess believes they are showing you respect by NOT offering you the move over offer? "We hold our platinum passengers in such high regard, we would never ask them to downgrade"

- Have you stayed in the same type of accommodation every time you've cruised (or at least the past several)? That would make them less likely to think that you'd accept any less than that.

- As others have said, distance before leaving (you're flying in from the UK), excursions, and other things may make people more/less likely to take the offer. They are going to make the offer to those they think are most likely to take it to get it over and done with as quickly and cheaply as possible. The longer they wait, they may have to up their offer.

Just because your price did not go up when the AIBP was added to your booking does not mean that it's not already included in the price.

 

Believe me you will pay for it one way or the other.

Not sure I understand the point here fully. It seems like you are making the perfect argument FOR S&S. If you believe that it is already factored into the price you are seeing for the "non-promotion" booking, then it becomes a bargain. You are either paying for the AIBP and then paying for every drink on the ship (paying 2x) since Princess already factored that into the price, or you pay the promotion price and take advantage of an aspect you already believe to be included.

I will always buy the package for the simple convenience of being able to completely prepay for all of my drinks and not having to settle up at the end of the trip. Using the spreadsheet in a post above, though, here is a completely doable "break even" assuming that your trip has NO sea days (every day is in port):

- Fresh Squeezed OJ and Specialty Coffee Drink with Breakfast

- Taking 2 bottles of water and maybe a can of soda (never know when you need a little sugar) into port with you

- Another soda beverage when you get back on board

- A gelato as a sweet treat

- A pre-dinner cocktail

- 2 glasses of wine with dinner

- An espresso or coffee drink after dinner

- A "night cap" during a show or while listening to an entertainer.

Throw in one or two extra drinks if you have a sea day (a cocktail or wine with lunch, for an Alaskan cruise maybe an "adult" hot chocolate to keep warm, etc) and at a minimum you break even. No need to worry about tipping on every single drink, and all paid in advance so one less stop right before the end of your vacation. And nowhere near as "wasted" as some people around here would believe you'd need to be.

broberts,

I'm not assuming the worst of someone. I put two examples that would be beyond a passenger's control (illness and ship malfunction). The cruise line does not the get luxury to assume noble intent. Do you think Immigration Services would accept "well he told us he was going to stay in his room" as an excuse if he gets caught on land? Look at chengkp's post at the top of the page. It does/has happened. No, I don't think this particular person would have attempted something like that. But also, I don't think that the cruise line will ever accept that risk. The requirements are clear.

As an aside, we borrowed back our passports in South America so that we could have them stamped at "the bottom of the world" post office. Security knew when we left the ship and made us go straight to Customer Relations to hand them back as soon as we got back on board.

 

So they could have stopped you getting off the ship.

Sure, the ship could stop him, or take him at his word, or otherwise. As other people have addressed, though, what if there was an illness to him or his family that required being removed from the ship? How about an onboard emergency that required everyone to get off? What if he said that he'd stay in his room and then decided to try to find a way to sneak around security, or took the keycard of someone who looked like him (maybe traded with a relative)?

Also, according to the webpage for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for Ireland, a visa is required to enter Ireland (https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/egypt/our-services/visas/visas-for-ireland/). Also, according to their immigration website, "All passengers and crew on cruise ships seeking to land in the State remain subject to the requirement to present to an immigration officer and produce his or her passport or other document satisfactorily establishing identity and nationality (including where appropriate the possession of a valid Irish Visa) and be subject to the normal checks in accordance with the Immigration Acts." (http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Streamlined%20immigration%20arrangements%20in%20Ireland%20for%20cruise%20liners%20for%202012%20season)

Maybe your contact has incorrect information rather than every person you've talked to at Princess. I, with one search, found two Irish websites that clearly state the requirement to have a visa. Sorry, but I think this one is on you, as are the expenses associated.

First off, "he" not "she". ;p

Second, I'll explain with a little more backstory to hopefully help. When narrowing down potential destinations, we had a few criteria:

• Some place both of us had never been
  
• Some place we'd likely never have another chance to go to
  
• Some place that we both want to go
  

Her family has been all over Europe and the Caribbean, I have been to 45 of the 50 states. We've heard about it and seen the pictures and decided (pretty quickly) that Alaska was definitely the way to go. Cruise tour sounded perfect since, although I personally love driving, it stresses her out. Yes, for a different occasion or for a different point in time (or if I was going alone) DIY would be the way to go. We are actually doing almost a week DIY beforehand in the Pacific Northwest. Northbound in late June was the only thing that fit into both of our work schedules. Also, instead of multiple nights at different locations, we wanted to see as much of the state as possible in what might be our only trip, so the only place we went for the 2 night option is Fairbanks so we aren't rushed for a flight. Hopefully that explains for everyone (in long, painful detail) why a cruise tour was definitely the best idea for us :D

I mentioned the Tundra Wilderness Tour vice Natural History based on recommendations seen here. I will contact the Lodge and see if there is any way to get on the afternoon TWT when we get there and have the next morning to relax instead. My original question still stands: for those who have been there, assuming that the current plan will remain the plan of record, are there any recommendations of things to do or see around the Princess Denali Lodge?

Thanks again!

RU_Gremlin, the company you mentioned, Denali Backcountry Guides, sure gets great reviews on TripAdvisor. That evening hike sounds great. We just booked with them for a hike that we can fit into our schedule whereas the ranger-led hikes won't.

 

Have fun with your planning.

Please let me know how it is! I'd love to hear first hand from someone when they get back!!

Oaktree, tamsocal, and jd: Thanks!

Good morning!

My fiance and I are spending our honeymoon on a cruise-land tour through Princess next June. Looking at our itinerary, it seems like we have a lot of time at the Denali Princess Lodge, but there doesn't seem to be much of a plan.

Is there anything interesting around the Lodge, or walking distance nearby?

I found a company that does an evening hike (Denali Backcountry Guide). Does anyone have any experience with them? Is it worth it or should we just relax and wait for the Natural History Tour the next morning (I know, I know... Most people recommend the Turnda Wilderness Tour, but unless we find separate transportation from there to Fairbanks, we won't be able to do that).

Thanks in advance!!

Can you find a hotel with adjoining rooms? I haven't looked (personally) to see what Seattle hotels offer this. I know that it's two rooms, but they connect through a pair of doors in the room. You essentially get 4 beds in one room. My family used to do that a lot when traveling with 2 adults and 3 young children.

Should've added this to my first message, but didn't think of it:

In addition to my scrapbooks, other ideas from family members:

- A handwritten journal for each trip. Where we went, when, who was the tour guide, what did you see/do/talk about? Where/what did you eat? Interesting facts... It's a cool way to look back in a few years

- As several others have mentioned, a Shutterfly album. They look really professional and make great gifts for anyone who went.

- Shot glass per port

- Christmas ornament per port