karatemom2

We are considering booking this 10 day itinerary in September and I would love to hear from those of you who have done this cruise. It looks like an amazing itinerary and we love the Emerald. We have visited a couple of these ports before on a summer New England cruise, but the idea of doing the one way from Quebec and ending in Boston is very appealing. Unfortunately, due to our work schedules, we just can't go any later then mid September, so I'm wondering if we will see any beginning stage maybe of the fall colors? I know October is peak, but hoping we might catch some glimpse of the start of the season. Any feedback you can provide on this particular itinerary would be welcomed!

There are still cabins to be had, but if you think waiting will provide a cost savings, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. In fact, with Alaska, generally it is the opposite. The longer you wait, the higher the price. These cruises will sell out and as inventory falls the price will creep up. I would suggest booking sooner rather than later.

That really depends on a lot of issues. The day we were there, the weather was not ideal and the ship had some difficulties anchoring, so the start of tendering process was delayed. You will need to go to the lounge and get tickets, and there is always a crush of people who want to get off the ship as quickly as possible so the line for tickets can be very long and wait times for your tender group to be called can take awhile. If you are Elite with Princess or booked on a Princess excursion, you get priority tendering, but otherwise you just have to wait your turn. Another thing to consider is that the tender ride itself is pretty long - about 20 minutes, especially if the weather is not great, so you have to allow for transit time as well. All this to just say that it is very difficult to predict exactly what time you will be at the dock, so you need to build in some flexibility with your pick up time if possible. You might just want to wait until you are onshore and then get a taxi or Uber. If you want to try to be on one of earliest tenders, my advice would be to go to the lounge where tender tickets are being distributed at least 30 minutes to an hour prior to the time distribution is scheduled to begin so you can secure a spot at the beginning of the line.

You will not regret booking one of the forward balcony cabins - they are our absolute favorite. The spaciousness and complete views they offer is amazing. We managed to nab one for our Land of the Midnight sun cruise in Norway this summer and I am so excited about seeing the fjords with our expansive view. If we are on a Royal class ship, those cabins are always our first choice.

I would always recommend selecting an itinerary that includes Glacier Bay, especially if you are a first time Alaska cruiser. Glacier Bay is a full day of scenic viewing with guaranteed glacier visibility. Endicott Arm is often too full of ice for the ships to get through and is frequently missed, or proceeded into very minimally with little or no chance of seeing the glacier.

We paid for our family of 5 to do it on New Year’s Eve on Discovery. It was amazing and we loved it! Very pricey but worth every penny. There is another thread here that indicates it is being discontinued as a suite perk for anyone booking after the end of Dec 2023. So they must be selling it well enough now to fill all the seatings.

When calculating your transit time also keep in mind that the tender ride at Dun Laoghaire is quite long compared to your average tender ride. It’s a good 25 to 30 minutes from ship to shore.

They have a Mariachi band onboard that plays in the Piazza and by the pool.

Were the other excursions you booked also through Princess or through private tour operators? Rules may vary and the note about the car seat could apply on the Princess tour as it requires a bus ride. If the child is taking up a seat that could be used by another paying passenger, there would be a charge for that. Princes usually offers a child rate for their excursions, so at least you would be paying a lesser amount.

We try to schedule our MDR reservations for 6 to 6:30 now, but there was a time when we were traveling as a family with kids that we regularly headed to the MDR between 5 to 5:30. It left us free to enjoy evening fun on the ship and for them to have time in the clubs if they wanted to participate in any of the planned activities. So definitely not just a senior thing. More just a personal preference I think.

On Discovery a couple of weeks ago it was Vista lounge for the masses and one of the main dining rooms for Elite and Suite passengers. Your entire party needs to be present and each person gets an individual ticket. The line up heading into the Vista lounge started a good 45 minutes prior to the announced time when ticket distribution was to begin and snaked all the way down the walkway past Princess Live. It was chaos. Priority tendering is still one of the Elite benefits that offers real value!

We used EC Minibus last year and were quite pleased with the service.

We stayed at the Harbour Hotel Southampton just this past September on the night before our cruise. It was lovely - great room, wonderful setting in the harbor and nice breakfast. They are very convenient to the port and offer shuttle service - just be sure to sign up for your time when you check in. We didn’t realize that was necessary and it was quite busy in the morning with many pre cruise guests staying in the hotel. We opted to just Uber over as we didn’t want to wait for the next available shuttle time which was Noon. I would absolutely stay there again. We are visiting Portsmouth prior to our cruise this summer, but otherwise I would definitely be booking at the Harbour Hotel.

We have been on the Discovery twice in the past year. In fairness, both were high volume trips - one last year for Super Bowl weekend and just a few weeks ago for New Year's. The ship was obviously filled to capacity both trips, so we proactively knew that we would need to be patient. However, Discovery seems understaffed. Bar service in particular was really slow and dining times were quite long. We also left before dessert on a couple of occasions. We had the exact opposite experience on the Sky Princess this past September however. Service was stellar and prompt across the board. So I have to believe this may be an issue with Discovery. Perhaps they need more crew and more training.

Yes, you should be able to stay together for boarding and debarkation, but your suite benefits and perks onboard will only be available to those booked in the suite cabin.

Yes. The ferry service is very reliable and an easy walk. We have done it a couple of times on port days. Once from Haines to Skagway and once from Skagway to Haines and back. There will likely be other cruise ship passengers onboard with you since the ship sells excursions in Haines.

Agreed. Most tour companies that cater to cruise ship passengers have a full refund policy if the ship misses the port. If you are going with a company that does not offer this guarantee, I would at least try to negotiate a deposit to hold the reservation with full payment due when you actually do the tour so at the worst you lose you deposit. I would be very hesitant to pay in full for a tour with zero refund policy, especially if you are the one holding the financial responsibility for a group of people.

We did a tour to the Chateau D'If. Ferries are located right at the harbor and it was really quite interesting and something a teen might enjoy. We also took the tiny train tour the drops you Notre Dame De La Garde. Both if these things we were able to just do on our own without a tour. There are a lot of restaurants, and shops around the harbor that make for a nice day.

A good, high quality pair of binoculars will greatly enhance your experience on an Alaska cruise. There is so much to see from the ship in terms of scenic viewing and wildlife, and really good binoculars make these opportunities do much better. We also take ours with us on excursions - never know when you might spot wildlife on which you want to get a closer look. We have Fujinon Marine binoculars that my husband uses on his boat that are very good, but there are many models that you can invest in for less money that still would provide much better results then anything the ship would supply.

Most people coordinating private tours on roll calls collect money from their group in advance of the tour via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo to ensure the financial commitment of the participants.

The LA to Hawaii run can be cold and rough, especially in December. We did this cruise for several years out of LA at Christmas time, and the weather crossing the Pacific was fairly cold and windy up until you got close to Hawaiian waters. On a couple of trips it was downright nasty. This can be challenging even in a covered and more protected balcony, but would likely make a completely open balcony less than usable in inhospitable conditions. Once you get to your port days in Hawaii, it will likely be more pleasant. So, if you are ok with potentially getting minimal use on most of the sea days, it would probably be fine. Pro would be that they are bigger and would probably be really nice while cruising among the islands, especially if you want to try a Balcony dinner or breakfast.

We had this issue on our recent Discovery cruise - for some reason when my DH completed our boarding information process, he said it didn't give him the option. However, my daughter and son-in-law who were on the same cruise were able to get it shipped. Neither of us had the package. They were able to literally walk right on the ship. We, however, stood in an packed, hour long, crowded line at San Pedro, to pick up our medallions because Princess no longer offered a Suite/Elite line as we have experienced in past cruises. Never again! I made sure that we got our medallions ordered and paid the $10 for our upcoming cruise this summer. I don't know what the secret sauce was on the app when I did that made it work, but I will not pick up the medallions at port ever again. If you aren't finding it working on the app, go out and try again later, call Princess, call your travel agent, reload the app, or get your teenage child or grandchild to assist. Mailing is still available for non-package passengers at a charge and I would very much recommend you find a way to make it happen because like many of you, I didn't think it would be an issue picking it up at port. But it was a giant pain and did not lend itself to a fun or relaxing beginning to our cruise.

That's great news. I'm glad you got it sorted out and that she was so helpful. But, inquiring minds do have to wonder what she meant when she referenced that there were "a lot of changes coming". Princess seems to be shaking things up lately and it is concerning when hearing this coming from the Loyalty host. Makes one wonder if the loyalty benefits are about to be altered in some way.

We have done this excursion twice on port days in Juneau. We booked through a company called Adventure Bound - here is the link: https://www.adventureboundalaska.com/ The key is that your port hours need to align with their hours for the excursion - on the two occasions we booked with them we had early arrival and a long port day so it worked. It still ranks in my top 5 excursions we have ever done - well worth it!

Wow, these are impressive. We have been considering trying Celebrity. Can you share how many cruises or days they require to reach this level? Also, any insight on their Casino benefits?