karatemom2

We have done this tour as well and it's a great option if offered via the cruise ship. This is really not something doable on one's own from Skagway with what the OP is considering with a do it yourself ferry trip. We booked it through our ship and were literally the last group walking onboard before they closed up the gangway to sail away. It would be a risky bet to try to make that work as an independent tour. But your point is a good one, in that if the OP wants to see Haines, a ship excursion might be the best (and safest) option!

We have visited both Haines and Skagway a few times. Although Haines is a great place, I wouldn't shortchange Skagway if it is your first visit and you have a chance to spend a couple of port days there - especially if one is pretty fully taken up by the train excursion, which is very worthwhile. If you can do the combination train one way and bus the other, that provides a great option to see as much as possible. Chilkoot Charters is an excellent company for that. On your second day in Skagway, you can take in the other sites like the cemetery, museum and perhaps the "Days of 98" show. As suggested, you could rent a car and take a drive to the scenic and historic Dyea area or maybe do one of the short hikes in the area, an easy option is one that goes around to Yakutania point. There really is enough to see and do in Skagway to fill two days. The ferry to Haines is scenic, but it covers the same route that you see from the ship so it doesn't add much in the way of scenic viewing. The actual town of Haines is small and not much to see - a small Hammer museum and local shops. If you can get out to Chilkoot lake at the right time of year, you can sometimes see bears, but if you don't have your own car that would really require a tour of some sort. Perhaps for this trip your best bet would be just to focus on getting the most out of Skagway. It's a charming and historic town!

Every Hawaii cruise will have specific cultural activities related to the Aloha theme like hula lessons, ukulele lessons, lei making, etc. The gold standard on these cruises is Elua - a husband and wife team who provide music and cultural experience. Most recently they were on the Crown sailings out of San Francisco to Hawaii. Not sure if they have announced what ship they will be on for the upcoming cruises. You can do some internet sleuthing or maybe someone here will have an update. They are amazing. But that being said, all the Hawaii cruises will offer music and cultural experiences.

Ah yes, I see I misread her post. I thought it said the TA got them on the wait list. Well as long as it says wait list open there is hope! Maybe Princess is trying to add capacity - usually if there are waitlist slots you can add yourself online. Sounds like a systems issue. I know there is a specific excursions department. Maybe you could see if you could get through to someone there. When you say excursion website, I’m assuming you mean the Princess excursion site, not the tour operator’s site? On the Princess excursion site if there are waitlist openings it usually lets you select that option? Hope you gets some answers!

Unfortunately there is no special secret. It’s just a matter of slots available. There are only two ways to move off a wait list. One is if it’s the type of tour, like a bus tour, where the vendor can add capacity by providing an additional vehicle and guide. Sometimes if there is enough demand more spaces will be made available. If it is a finite tour where, from the outset, the number of available spaces are set, the only way to move off the waitlist is if people already booked cancel. Since they have up to 48 hours before the tour to cancel, you may be waiting until the last couple of days prior to know if you made it on the tour. Not trying to discourage you, just sharing our real experiences. We have been on three waitlists for a Princess tour and never made the cut. One was for a horseback riding excursion, one a small boat trip, and the other a kayak tour. All were excursions where capacity could probably not be expanded and clearly no one dropped out. Really, all you can do is wait and see what happens, hope for the best, and have a plan b.

It is unforgettable sailing by Alcatraz and out of the bay under the bridge. Really a great way to start a cruise. In terms of some other information on the Hawaii cruises, Princess does a wonderful job of providing an immersive cultural experience from beginning to end even on the sea days. There is a Hawaiian musical group performing, hula lessons, ukulele lessons, crafts like lei making. There are usually a few special dishes in the MDR - like a macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi as an example. I think they really try to imbue the whole cruise with an Aloha spirit. We loved each and every one - and of course your days in Hawaii are magical. I am sure you will have a fantastic vacation!

We have cruised to Hawaii from Los Angeles four times, once on the Grand. It’s a great cruise. We have also sailed several times on Princess ships out of San Francisco to Alaska, including on the Ruby. We like cruising out of LA because we live an hour away, but there is nothing particularly special about it unless you plan on spending a few days doing the Hollywood and Disney thing. The Grand is a nice ship and we have some lovely memories on her, but she is also the oldest ship in the Princess fleet and showing age. The Ruby is a beautiful ship and ten years newer than the Grand. San Francisco is an amazing port for departure - sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is truly an unforgettable experience. Since you are flying in, either destination would likely be equally convenient. So with all that being the case, if cost and itinerary are comparable I would definitely recommend the Ruby out of San Francisco.

We are on the Sky for that same cruise in June - so excited! It feels like the ship is going to be pretty full. People are wanting to get to the fjords before the large ship restrictions go into effect.

Not sure what your itinerary would be on the cruise you are considering but my only caution about the forward balconies would be for a cruise with a lot of open ocean days - like a transatlantic or Pacific crossing. They can be fairly windy on sailing days when you are at open sea completely unprotected or transiting. As much as I love them for most cruises, I might not choose them for cruises with lots of open sea days. Just something to think about.

We have rented cars in Skagway, Juneau, Haines and Ketchikan on our cruises and honestly some of our best days in Alaska have been when we rented a vehicle and ventured out on our own. In Skagway we have rented from both Avis and Affordable. Avis is probably our preferences as the cars are nicer and newer but of course you pay extra for that, but we had no problem with Affordable - the car was a little more tired and beat up, but we were driving to Dyea that trip and it was nice not worrying about gravel hitting the windshield since it probably wouldn't have mattered. They were super nice and didn't have rules about not driving there. No matter what, you will enjoy your day - plenty of amazing things to see under your own power and control.

Early August is a better time if you want to catch the salmon run, which will improve your opportunities to see bears. Whales are there all summer, so either time would be fine in that regard. We have been in both time frames, and had a wonderful time - but slightly sunnier in July in most instances.

Yes the balconies have the standard furniture. They are large enough to accommodate more and we were actually able to get a couple of extra chairs on one of our Alaska cruises since we had family traveling with us. Our room steward arranged for that at our request - not sure it’s always an option. But worth asking if you need it.

This is why DH is so interested. We have a friend who lives about 20 minutes from the port in San Pedro and she has been sailing with Princess since she was a teenager. Suffice it to say that was a long time ago and a lot of days so she regularly is a guest at these meals. She has shared the photos and how outstanding the food is, so it would be nice to try. Meeting officers would be pleasant, as well I guess. The bragging I would prefer to avoid. I’m embarrassed to even talk about our number of cruises and try to avoid it when friends or family ask “Are you guys going on ANOTHER cruise?” Not that it should be embarrassing to have a form of travel you love, but people get weird about it so I don’t really discuss it - outside of this forum of like minded people! 😊

On our cruise last summer our medallions worked without issue getting on the ship, but they would not open our door. It took 4 trips to guest services and we were not happy campers. They kept telling us they were”resetting” them but no luck. Our poor room steward kept having to let us in our room. Finally, when it still wasn’t working after dinner I went back down to guest services and pretty much went full on “Karen” on them. Not my proudest moment but I was so annoyed that after multiple trips to the desk we still couldn’t get in our room. Finally they sent someone from IT up and he reprogrammed our door panel - which was where the problem was, not with our medallions. In general, we have had great experience with them - that was the one exception.

Roll calls are hit and miss - we have a super active roll call for our summer cruise, but the roll call for our recent New Year’s cruise was virtually non existent, even though the ship was full. In our recent experience it seems our longer cruises and those to more distant places where shared excursions are a desirable option seem to get better participation. Very glad the one for our June cruise is so great. We have made many friends from our roll calls, a number we still stay in contact with many years later.

Well perhaps a Vancouver B2B is in our future at some point. We did that several years ago when our kids were younger and it was nice having all that extra port and glacier time. Honestly, I never get tired of Alaska.

Well we do love Alaska! Considering a cruise in September if we can make it work - it's between that and a New England cruise, but we do love going out of San Francisco and saving the flying part. I'm not holding out much hope for our Norway cruise this summer - it's looking like a very popular choice!

Question for those that have attended a "Most Traveled Passenger" Luncheon - I'm guessing there are a number of you here who have based on being loyal Princess cruisers for many years. My DH is really looking forward to getting the invite one day - we will go over 350 days with our cruise this summer. That seems like a lot to us, but then we attend the Captain's Circle parties and the top Princess cruisers usually have days in the thousands. So, one wonders if we will ever make the cut, no matter how many cruises we manage to take. Mind you, we intend to keep cruising with Princess for many years to come - I'm not even retired yet. But will we ever catch up? Who knows? So, for those of you who have attended, what was the number of days you had when you first were invited? And, what was the lowest number of days for anyone that you know made the list? DH is so hopeful, but perhaps I need to manage expectations!

My daughter is Elite and her husband isn’t, but they allowed them both in the lounge and she was able to order cocktails for both of them. This was on Enchanted last August for their honeymoon, so I can’t guarantee this would always be the case on every ship, but in our general experience with the Elite lounge benefits if you have a non Elite travel companion you can include them within reason - just not abusing the privilege. By the way, if the menu is the same I highly recommend the Deep Sea cocktail - my favorite!

Yes, June 15. Sounds like they are holding to the 6 month time limits again. It seemed for a little while they were just accepting it even for cruises that were further out, but I guess they are tightening back up on that. But, you will be at the mark soon!

Agreed, the new system is better for people who use the internet more frequently onboard. I know for me with my work demands it’s definitely easier and I do like not worrying about logging out or running out of minutes. But for those like the OP who just want to do a few brief check ins, a package with a finite number of minutes would be a nice option. It’s too bad Princess can’t offer both and let people choose what works best for their personal situation.

I think for some with the sofa beds it’s not so much the space, but comfort of the mattress. Both my adult kids have used them in rooms with us, and both have found them somewhat less than comfortable. If you use the sofa bed, you can ask your room steward for a foam cushion or extra comforter for more padding which my kids found improved the comfort for them.

Yes, it was nice in the past how it worked with minutes you could purchase and use up, but sadly that is no more.

We just submitted via the app again for our Norway cruise this summer and now that we have our account set up from our last submission it was super easy. Basically just log in, enter your cruise booking and you’re done. We did it yesterday and already got confirmation this morning that our $250 OBC has been applied.

We were just in a mini suite on Discovery over New Year’s and our adult son was in the room with us. He used the sofa bed which our room steward pulled out and made up each evening. I certainly don’t know the exact dimensions, but based on the size of the space I think you could make it work. It may take up the whole space, but so does the sofa bed when it’s pulled out. So you should be ok.