RedE2Go64

I booked a cruise with a refundable deposit for this June. Final payment is due today. Yesterday, I asked my TA to cancel the reservation and he said OK. My reservation is still showing up in my RC Planner though. I can't get hold of TA to make sure it was canceled. 

If TA doesn't cancel reservation by final payment date, does the reservation just automatically cancel and would my refundable deposit automatically get credited back to my credit card? How about my purchased drink packages, specialty dining etc? 

Will I get any sort of statement showing that I should have money credited back to my credit card?

I'm sure these are easy questions that my TA could answer  if I could get in touch with him. 

Thank you for any help.

On 2/18/2020 at 11:26 PM, SweetPea0517 said:

I wanted to come back here to let everyone know we went to Tabyana Beach through Carnival’s excursion and it really enjoyed it!

Thank you for the update!

Wow....thank you for this whole thread. Super helpful and exactly what I needed.

Did you do a Day Pass at West Bay beach, or is that just the name of the whole beach area? 

Im considering a day pass at resort, but if I can just walk along the beach, is it something that I need?

Thank you 

On 2/24/2020 at 7:08 PM, Marylandteachergirl said:

If you are looking for just one day, there are lots of rentals available at/around the Anchorage Airport.  There are also several rental locations throughout the city.  I know there is an Enterprise location in midtown and an Avis location right downtown off of B Street.

Thank you again for all your help !

2 hours ago, martincath said:

And while you're asking, tell her to cancel the Vancouver transfer. There are zero circumstances when they are worth it - there is no quality improvement, indeed usually it's the opposite, to offset the significant financial hit compared to arranging it yourself.

Wow...thank you for all that info. I really had not even considered that the transfer in Vancouver wasn't useful. 

22 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

We departed from Whittier and wanted to get there early, to take a pre-cruise glacier tour of Prince William Sound / College Fjord.  Well worth it!!!  

This sounds interesting!

15 hours ago, idahospud said:

Yes, there are two options but the train frequently sells out. The price for the train is higher so I’m not sure why your TA is telling you she won’t know what kind of transportation you’ll be taking. You either pay for the bus or train as a separate transfer or as part of a cruisetor. 

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my TA didn't know as much about Alaska cruising as I thought she did. She seemed knowledgeable enough when I booked it, but when I started digging deeper and wanting more details, I realized that she just knew very surface information. I've learned more on this CC board and realize there are a lot of details that she can't help me with (or I feel uncertain about trusting her information blindly). 

I wondered why the quote she gave me was $88 for transfers in Anchorage AND Vancouver, when the one way train from Anchorage to Whittier was more than that. Your  answer explains that....she must have been quoting for a bus transfer, not a train.

I will ask her about it, again. Thank you.

Thank you all for your help.  I was hoping to ride a train to whittier from Anchorage, but it seems like it is a bus. I asked my TA about it and she said they won't know which it is until it gets closer to our travel date. So does Princess offer both options?

2 hours ago, Marylandteachergirl said:

We rented a car last time, but were a group of 4 traveling together.

We are traveling with another couple who MIGHT go on this, so maybe a rental car would be an option if they go. Was it a hassle/expensive to rent just for the day? I like the ease of just having them shuttle us though.

I'm so glad you loved the experience. It's so expensive but I think we will regret it if we don't do it. 

On 2/22/2020 at 12:49 AM, Marylandteachergirl said:

t’s about a 45 minute drive from Anchorage, and they also have a RT shuttle available that you can book. https://www.alaskahelicoptertours.com

Thank you! We were hoping to not rent a car, so the shuttle option is a definite plus. Thank you for your info!

4 hours ago, CRUISEWITHH said:

Price isn't everything. 

Good point. 

Thank you for the info. We have reservations for cruise through a travel agent. So we need to contact Princess directly to purchase the transfer, is that correct?

10 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

If you decide to change TAs, contact Princess. I think there's a form you have to fill out. Maybe it's available online?

Thank you....

I have so much to learn.....

Oh gosh! It never occurred to me that there might be a cancellation fee through the TA.  I'll definitely check the fine print. 

Thank you

Can anyone purchase the Princess transfer from Anchorage to Whittier? Or can it only be purchased through Princess?

I saw similar post, but it didn't quite answer my question. I am booked on Star Princess through a local travel agent. I've put down refundable deposit and picked the cabins. I got excited and booked it last week before shopping around for better price/perks.

Yesterday I checked with an online agency and they can beat the price by $100 per person. 

I know the original TA will not be happy about it, but can she release my reservation directly to the online agency? I really want to be able to get the same rooms back that we have but am I at the mercy of when she cancels my reservation so that the rooms open up and new TA grabs it before someone else does? 

We looked at these for next year also. We liked Coral except that there were a couple things from the itinerary next year that didn't work for us. 

1. When we are traveling, they aren't stopping in Ketchikan. I know a lot of people don't care for that stop, but my husband really wants to do the Misty Fjords float plane there.

2. We just couldn't get excited about Icy Straight Point. I'm sure if I looked into it more, we would have found an excursion there that my husband would like as much as the Float Plane in Ketchikan.

3. The Coral was departing on a Wednesday. This may not be a factor for you, but we needed to be able to utilize both weekends to be able not use up all of our vacation days.

4. We wanted to go Southbound so that we could do our pre-stay in Anchorage and explore. Knew we didn't want to do it at the end of the trip.

I've read so many comments and they seemed to mostly point to Coral Princess, so that's what I tried to make work. It just didn't for us, so we are booked on Star Princess. I am very happy with the decision, especially since it seems to be one that most people still give a thumbs up to.

Wow...thank you all for your help and suggestions. Not sure that I want a totally uncovered balcony since we will be in Alaska and I have heard theres a lot of rain July/August. We might want to have a partial covered balcony, but the size of the mini suites and room the balcony on D732 just might sway me! 

We are debating between a mini-suite on the Dophin deck 9 (Star Princess) or a regular balcony cabin on Caribe deck (deck 10) for an Alaskan cruise next summer.

Are the balconies on mini-suites deck 9 partially covered, like they are on the Caribe deck? Or totally uncovered? I can't tell from the pictures I've seen of the Star Princess.

Are the baclonies on the caribe deck and Dolphin deck the same size? I believe the room is a bit bigger, but not sure about the balcony.

If we are on the Dolphin deck, can we look straight down into the water, or are we looking at the top of lifeboats or someone elses balcony?

Do you get any extra perks being in a mini-suite, or is it  just that we would be in a slightly bigger cabin?

Thank you for any help. 

Thank you....I checked out both sites you mentioned and they were very helpful!

58 minutes ago, DENNAS said:

 
I booked this combo. Train\bus with Chilkoot in July. The 7.5 hour trip. Goes to Emerald Lake. Looking forward to it. 

I was thinking of using Chilkoot too. Is that the one that stops for lunch in Carcross? Are you doing the train first? 

We want to do a helicopter/dog sledding sometime on our cruise next year. Traveling first week of August. I'm a big concerned that the dog sled camps might be closed for the season by then, especially since they closed early this past season. Plus, there is a bit of time crunch in Juneau for us to do helicopter/dog sled, and go out to Mendenhall Glacier Nugget trails (falls?) AND try to go up the tram.

So we are trying see if a helicopter to glacier/dog sled is possible, or advisable in Anchorage, before our cruise. We should get in to Anchorage around 2:00pm and we will need to catch a transfer to Whittier the following day. So just the one night in Anchorage. 

Has anyone tried this, or can give advice? I do feel like we are trying to cram it in but I really don't want to miss out on an opportunity to dog sled on a glacier.

7 hours ago, Kitty Ellas Mom said:

see my recent thread Royal Princess in Alaska:  What to Expect, it will give you some more insight about that option.  

Thank you, I will check it out!

On 2/14/2020 at 3:37 PM, AlanF65 said:

I have done the train to the border and back, and a bus into emerald lake. The combination get the best of both. You see more on the bus tours that go to Emerald lake

Thank you ! Your pictures are beautiful! I think the combination tour sounds like a good fit for us. Long day, but I doubt that we will ever be back to Alaska. Thank you for your help.

On 11/10/2019 at 3:54 PM, Mrscanadianbacon said:

We lucked out with amazing weather! We ended up doing the train ride and bus tour to the Yukon (highly recommend the train ride, I'd skip the bus tour) And in Skagway we did the Mendenhall glacier with the tram. We saw bears! 

Ketchikan, we just walked around

 

The bonus to end of season cruise was all of the sales 😂 we scored 

I'm trying to decide if we want to do the train/bus combo. What was it about the bus portion that you didn't enjoy as much? I've heard that the bus will stop for some photo ops, but other than that, I don't know the advantage of a bus vs a train. They see basically the same thing as the train, correct?

For those that loved the bus ride...what was it that stood out to you as reasons?

We are considering the train/bus combo with Chilkoot Charters.

On 2/11/2020 at 9:37 PM, Kfrech said:

How do you find out if your ship is tendering? We are sailing on the Koningsdam in June and will be in Juneau on the 15th, from 1-10 p.m.

In the published itinerary, "water shuttle required" was written next to the port of call