haolenate

The Princess/Holland America trains are *separate* from the Alaska Railroad - you will not find them on the ARR's website. All the information you'll find online where people say "they just add the cars to the back of the train" are outdated. A good chunk of trains sold by HAL or Princess are on their own consist and schedule, so make sure you know the difference. The train from Whittier to Talkeetna/Denali is NOT the same as the ARR as well, and that schedule needs to come from your travel agent. But for reference: the Alaska Railroad train typically leaves Anchorage for Whittier at 9:45AM and arrives at 12:05PM (most check-in starts at 12:30PM). The cost is $94. The HAP (Holland America/Princess) train typically leaves at 12:45PM and arrives just after 3:00PM. The cost is $119.

Thanks for this thread, I'm just off the Carnival Splendor and it made me feel like I was reliving the 1990s, trying to dial in to AOL and hearing the dreaded busy signal, or when my mom would constantly pick up the phone when I was online. It was just beyond aweful. After talking with friends that work at other cruiselines, it seems that the cruise lines need to adjust the angle of the receiver - I live in Juneau AK of all places - and all of our dishes face the HORIZON. So that explanation made sense as the wifi only really worked around Vancouver Island (southern) and barely at all during our Southeast portion.

Its gotta do with the ArriveCAN app - and the fact there's NO cell service or wifi at Frasier, BC (Canada border stop). It would take nearly 2 hours to clear the train, and that's IF everyone had a smart phone on them and did a screen shot of the QR code & status to enter Canada. Maybe next year.

Greetings from a sunny Juneau! We're all super excited to welcome everyone back. I own a tourism-related business in Juneau (we do not service the cruises though, and NO, I'm not here soliciting business) and wanted to pass some information along and a plea. Princess is pushing the MedallionPay program, and HARD to guests and also vendors on the ground. While the benefits, as a consumer, are appealing, they are horrible for the merchants who use it. Princess is charging vendors 17.99% processing fee (versus 2 to 4% normal credit card fees) and also tracking ALL of your sales & information. This is a HUGE cost to the vendors and shops that accept it, as most of them are already on a small operating margin. Businesses, especially here in Southeast, are also dealing with labor costs that are about 33% to 50% higher than normal, a seasonal workforce that is having a VERY hard time finding a place to live (which also means the places they CAN find are exorbitantly high), and many of us are also dealing with a new tax bill from the City of Juneau where most of our property taxes were nearly doubled this year (their claim is no annual assessments have been applied for years, so they decided to increase everyone's values from 50% to 100% this year). So every penny we can keep, as a shoreside business, really does affect our bottom line. We all love Princess (as do I) and I enjoy sailing on them, but wanted to make this plea here since most of my fellow business owners aren't cruisers or have a login for this site. Backup (fees) flyer front: