Stealthdog

Packing complete. For the ~15 days, we ended up with 4 suitcases. If we were more familiar with Alaska and Princess we would have done 3. We organized the suitcases by phase - 1 for Denali, 2 for the cruise, and the little one for Vancouver and toiletries. We most definitely overpacked but wanted to make sure we had what we needed. Because we finished so early (a first) we just decided to head to Dulles early and hang out at a lounge. LyftXL from DC to Dulles is about $80. This is the first time I have been to Dulles in over 5 years. Last time I remembered it being hectic. This time, really quiet. No lines at all to get through security. We decided to hang out at the Turkish Airlines lounge. It’s pretty nice here - they have a self serve food area with ethnic Turkish foods a bar with automatic pourers making it quick to get drinks.

Awesome - see you soon! Feel free to contribute as much as you want. We (ahem Eric) wanted to specifically be on the Majestic, so we are really looking forward to it. How long a trip is it from Seattle to Vancouver?

I'll let you know! We were split between the half-day tour and the Hop on Hop off ticket, but wanted something that really didn't require us to plan our own stops.

I'll make sure to pay attention to walking distances and type of terrain we walk on, and include that in my review of the tour.

In that case, I won't be able to tip you off before you leave, but can at least give you some expectation management. 😉

We are getting closer to cruise time! We are leaving DC with a direct flight (IAD) to Vancouver on Thursday (cruise leaves on Saturday). I took the autotrain up from Sanford, FL to Lorton, VA last Wednesday. Sanford is about 30 minutes northeast of Orlando and Lorton is about 30 minutes south of DC. If anyone has any questions about the autotrain, let me know. For people from the mid-atlantic or northeast taking a cruise out of Florida, the autotrain may be a more affordable, or even reliable, travel option for a family - you can load up your car with luggage and not have to pay luggage fees with an airline, you have your car when you arrive, and if you book during a promotional period, the tickets for the seats can be really cheap (the roundtrip cost for the car will still be ~$500). Eric and I (JC) are staying at the Loden Hotel in Vancouver. This is our first time in Vancouver, but the hotel looks to be in a fantastic location. We booked a half-day Vancouver tour thru Expedia for Friday, with the local company called Landsea Tours & Adventure. The rest of the time in Vancouver, we will do on our own. The hotel is a little less than a mile from cruise terminal but will we uber/lyft or get hotel transportation to the terminal because we will have 4 pieces of luggage. Our check-in for the cruise is 1030-1100. We like to get on early to explore the ship and adjust dining options before the hordes arrive. We booked the cruise tour UA5 Off the Beaten Path, which is 5 nights after the cruise. I have been told doing the tour first and the cruise second is the preferred way, but timing pushed us in this direction. We will have 1 night at Kenai Lodge, 1 at McKinley Lodge, 2 at Denali Lodge, and 1 at Fairbanks Lodge. Our room is a balcony stateroom on the 10th deck (Caribe) starboard (right side). We have been told starboard is the best side for a northbound cruise, so we did not participate in any of the bid-up options because we didn't want to risk getting moved to the port side to a nicer room but less desirable location. When we booked, we booked the Princess Plus package - I had a cruise credit from the cruise we had to cancel from last June and we needed to spend the credits. Normally, we will just book the cheaper standard fare for our cruises. Somehow, we got a complimentary upgrade to Princess Premier. I don't know when or how that happened - one day we got a text from our TA saying our package was upgraded for no cost. The only addition that gives us that we care about is the 2-night specialty dining. We had a lot of OBC applied for this cruise (Shareholder benefits, AMEX Platinum benefits, military/vet OBC, princess promotion at time of booking, and TA OBC). I don't think we have ever had this much OBC before. The trick is it has to be spent on board and we can't use them for the land portion at the lodges. For excursions, we booked two with Shore Excursions Group and one through Princess. In Ketchikan we are doing a Rainforest Walk & Totem excursion through Shore Excursions Group; Juneau we have a Helicopter Icefield excursion through Shore Excursions Group; and Skagway we are doing a White Pass Rail through Princess. When we were looking for excursions, we found most of the desirable ones to us were sold out on Princess. That didn't bother us too much because we find the private tours are usually cheaper with fewer guests, and these ports seem to be small and our times in port long, so not worried about any delays getting back to the ship.

We are very excited for our first Princess cruise. This is a make-up from last summer - I got COVID the week prior and we had to postpone the cruise. No Escape Rooms for me a week before the cruise this time! We have been on Celebrity, Royal, Norwegian, and Disney, so will have a great opportunity to compare Princess to those brands. We have always heard that if you do Alaska, Princess is the way to go, so here we are! I'll provide more information later today and through the week about the packages we have, the excursions we booked, room location, and what we are packing. We will be staying two nights before the cruise in Vancouver (our first time there). We also have a 5 day Denali add-on at the end. I like my reviews to be helpful for other cruisers, so ask any questions about the ship, activities, ports, etc and I'll try to answer.

I'll let you know after the first couple of days so you can adjust your final packing if needed. Just remembered you were doing the pre-AK portion. What day do you fly out?

I'm on it! Gators need to stick together - Eric went to UF. 😀

Starting today. Hope to be done tomorrow. Will create my thread tomorrow - don't want to take away from Fishbone and her experiences and review.

I’ll be posting a live review of the June 10th sailing, followed by 5 day Denali add on. If you want me to check something out before you board, let me know! I’ll try my best not to break the ship on my sailing, but no promises! 😂

I think I just learned something new on Cruise Critic. Where is Cruise Conversations?

Thanks for the review and pictures! We are on the Escape in December for a B2B. Look forward to reading your reviews on the restaurants! Happy Anniversary!!!!

I misread what you wrote. I thought you were saying that the only way you could select the night you wanted was booking prior to the sailing without the UDP discount and paying full price. When we got on board, we were able to select the night we wanted because every night was available (except for 1 that only had one seat available, and we needed two). I guess its a gamble, but if there was availability every night on a new ship that was at about 100% capacity....... Off topic (kind of) but we never have a hard time getting good times (6-730) at the restaurants we want to dine in on the days we want. First thing we do when we get onboard is go straight to a restaurant to make the reservations before the rest of the masses.

No you dont. We booked on board the Odyssey and had the UDP. When they brought us the bill, it was discounted because of the dining package.

Got this version of the offer - spend $500 get 17,500 points. Looks like I need to figure out my 2024 travel plans!

For my Beyond sailing, Eden was shown as sold out months before the sailing. We booked Eden before getting on the ship. While in the terminal waiting for the staff to start boarding, i got on the ship wifi and was able to book for the day and time I wanted. The app is awesome now - do everything while you wait for boarding and you will beat everyone else that tries to go to the restaurant once on board to make reservations. Some may not like this comment - but this is another reason to get to the terminal early before your assigned time. Even if they dont let you into the terminal, you should be close enough to the ship to get onto the wifi and app.

We dont fly to Florida anymore. We normally drive (last time we took autotrain). Yeah its a long 14 hour drive for us, but we got tired of multi hour delayed flights and figured its so much cheaper just to drive it.

We noticed the same backing of odds restrictions on Royal Caribbean as well. We havent sailed a different company line since COVID, so not sure how the others compare. We wont play craps on royal or celebrity anymore.

With this month's points, i am now a 10-day cruise from Elite. Come on - give me more videos to watch!!!!

So jealous! You are leaving right before the temps get in the teens. Hope you have a great time!

Here is my review for the Dec 3-11 sailing.

Sadly, our cruises came to an end and that realization hit us quickly as we watched the sunrise over the Frozen Tundra of Northern Virginia the morning after debarkation as the Autotrain brought us to Lorton, Virginia. But, we have hope as our next planned cruise is in 173 days, 2 hours, and 34 minutes (now 170 days). I don't think I will last that long and will probably end up on a last-minute cruise out of Baltimore or Florida this winter. Celebrity is our favorite line, and this sailing on the Beyond was wonderful. The staff on board was the best we have experienced. We really enjoyed the E-Class style and would not hesitate to go another. I'm not sure how we would feel going on an older class now. I hope this review was helpful for people already booked on the Beyond, or considering it, and hope you all have a wonderful time on the ship! Happy Sailings!

First E-Class sailing for us. The views on Beyond in Blu were outstanding. We would have been really disappointed if the views were blocked by lifeboats, so I'm glad they made that correction. 🙂

Because we changed to Local Time, we had an extra hour sleep between Day 7 and before getting back to Fort Lauderdale.....or get up early to watch the sail into the port and the Fort Lauderdale sunrise. I chose the latter 🙂 The port is really nice and its good to see the cruise industry operating again under normal conditions, with so many ships in port to see. On debarkation day, the dining rooms are open early so one last opportunity for great food and service. Forgot to post about the Casino....Like the gym, the Casino was a little smaller than we expected, but it never felt overly crowded. The was a good variety of slot machines and the standard table games (poker, blackjack, roulette, and craps). It is smoke free so there isn't a haze or any discomfort with anyone wearing contacts. But best of all, the Host (not sure what her real title is) is Renee who we met on other Celebrity ships - she is fantastic and if you ever need anything or have any issues while in the Casino, she will handle it personally.