karatemom2

We were told exactly the opposite and had no problem with multiple entries. Once you establish your travelers you can go in and update your travel plans as needed. We did three updates in total - one for our arrival in Vancouver, a second the day before our day in Skagway and the third at the request of Princess before our day in Victoria. The only place they actually checked our QR code was at the border in Skagway. I think it might depend on the timing of your entries. We boarded in Vancouver and then technically left Canada as our next stops were in Alaska. So we were re-entering Canada and our Skagway stop was more than 72 hours after we had been in Vancouver. So, technically we were coming into Canada again. They definitely wanted to see it had been completed at our border stop. We then left Canada and returned to the US. Then our next stop in Canada going to Victoria was once again greater than 72 hours later, so it made sense that Princess would ask us to update our ArriveCan. It is so easy to do, I would just go ahead and do it if you are unsure. Better than having your plans to travel in the Yukon upended.

We just got off the Royal last weekend after the first cruise and actually talked to a fellow passenger who had pre-booked a reservations at Sabatinis and actually showed up at the scheduled day/time just to discover upon arriving that it was closed. He was not pleased!

The weather was exceptionally good most days - but it was quite cold, even when it was clear. We definitely still used our hats and gloves on some days and we did get hit with some intermittent rain in Juneau and Ketchikan - but nothing that interfered with our activities. We were very fortunate with the weather overall. And don't stress about ArriveCan - it is actually pretty intuitive once you get all your travelers entered. It is really pretty easy to use.

We just did the Lumberjack show last week on our cruise day, and like you we bought our own tickets. Based on your change of schedule I would advise you to reach out to the vendor and see if you can change your time to another show that day. If you are now not docking until 11 a.m., you would really be tight in making the 11:30 show depending on where your ship docks. If you end up at one of the berths that is further away, it is a pretty long walk. They ask you to be there at least 15 minutes before the show which is when they start letting the audience in to be seated. Best case scenario that your ship gets clearance to let people off right at 11 a.m. and you can be one of the first off, you still need time to walk there and check in. It would be tight and put stress on you which is no way to start a port day. We went to the 1:30 p.m. show - I would see if they have that time available for your port day and see if you can move your tickets to that time.

We did some research in advance just in case. We found a few rental agencies that would do one way from Vancouver to Seattle airport locations. I imagine given the proximity there is a lot of back and forth between those locations. We could then rent another car in Seattle that we could return at an LAX location.

I totally understand. It was a real source of stress for me as we prepared to end our cruise and we could sense the cases onboard really starting to pick up. As it turns out my daughter, her fiance and I all tested positive yesterday just three days after coming home. We all have mild symptoms, but I'm so glad it didn't manifest until after we were safely home!

Yes, that's how I did it. You set up an account and your login works on the computer or app.

Honestly, this was our plan as well if we tested positive. I don't think they can hold you hostage in quarantine if you can demonstrate that you have the ability to drive home. As I understand it, the Canadians on our cruise who tested positive were allowed to drive home. There is nothing morally wrong with making your own alternate travel plan as long as it long as it doesn't expose other people. If you are willing to pay to rent a car and drive yourselves home in a way that is safe and responsible there should be no issue.

Also, you can fully populate your ArriveCan account site with each of your travelers and all of their pertinent vaccine and passport information well before the 72 hour limit. It's just your specific travel plans that can't be entered until that 72 hour window. It saves a lot of time if you have your travelers all set up - then you are just going back in to put your travel plans in and answer the health questions.

Icy Strait Point is a great place for whale watching - you will definitely see whales. Hoonah Travel Adventures is an excellent company. They also do bear watching trips, but your mileage may vary on those sightings. We have done a couple in the past there with no luck. But on this trip we did a whale watch and got a bear viewing as a bonus. So you just never know with wildlife - but the whales there are a virtual guarantee. There are some nice nature trails in Icy Strait Point as well as the Zip Line and Adventure Park they just opened. You can also just take the Gondola to the top of the mountain and there is a hiking trail up there as well. If you have a long port day you should have time to do at least a couple of options.

Your Avis reservation is guaranteed as long as you pick up the car close to the time you specify in your reservation. We had reserved for a 9 a.m. pick up and were running a little late after having breakfast onboard. I just gave them a call to let them know we were coming so they wouldn't give our car away. In your case, since you are doing the train and car you could either book your car pick up time for after your train ride or a better plan might be to pick up your car first thing before your train trip and just park it, do your train ride and then have it waiting there for you when you come back. There are plenty of parking places in Skagway where it would be fine while you were doing your train ride.

In terms of the time it took for our round trip drive with plenty of stops along the way I would say around 5 to 6 hours is a safe plan. We hit the road around 10:30 a.m. and were back in town by around 4 p.m. So if you pick your car up as soon as you get off the ship and get on the road you should have plenty of time to have a nice drive up within your time frame. In terms of ArriveCan, we had to set up our account with all 5 of our travelers prior to flying in to Vancouver. You are required to input your specific travel plans (modes of travel, dates, time, point of entry, etc.) within 72 hours of arrival. So we had entered our flight plan for arrival in Vancouver, but then had to update at each additional point of entry. It was pretty easy because you just select all your travelers and provide the updated travel plan - for Skagway it was via car at the Fraser point of entry and for Victoria we had to do it again for entry into Victoria via cruise ship. For our Skagway visit, I just did it the day before. You can't input the travel information any sooner then within the 72 hour window. It provided a QR code for our whole party and they scanned it as well as our passports at the border.

If you do decline service please keep your gratuity in place for the steward though. They really rely on those tips and there may be an assumption if you decline service that you plan to remove gratuities as well. So if you do opt out of service be sure your steward knows that he/she won’t be financially harmed. I’m sure they would still be happy to drop by daily and pick up dirty towels and leave clean towels. That would be about the minimal you could get by with I would guess.

You might want to test again if you continue to have symptoms. We also got negative test after negative test the past three days despite having mild cold symptoms. Guess what - this morning it was positive for both my daughter and I. My doctor said that since we are both vaccinated and as such our bodies are more efficient in putting up a fight, it may delay the viral load from getting strong enough to register on an antigen test. He basically said if you have symptoms - especially following a vacation where it appears there was significant spread - it is probably best to assume you are more then likely positive even if the antigen is saying negative. It sure turned positive today!

We really enjoyed going on our trip the last two weeks in early May. It was the earliest we have ever been and the weather, while chilly at times, was pretty beautiful. We had only minor bouts of rain, but by and large we had a series of stunning days. We did note that the ice made it somewhat difficult to get close to a couple of the glaciers and my husband did miss being there when the salmon are running. But it was really great to see it in a different way with so much snow and the lakes still frozen over. I would definitely go in May again.

Yes, the generous port days as well as three glacier days were the main reason we chose this cruise. It was wonderful to have so many ports and full days to enjoy them.

Juneau - 1:30 to 10:00 pm (but we didn’t arrive until 3:30) Skagway - 7:30 am to 8:00 pm Icy Strait Point - 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Sitka - 7:00 am to 5:00 pm Ketchikan - 7:00 am to 6:00 pm Victoria - 7:00 am to 5:00 pm

Thank you Coral! I work in health care so I reported this morning to our Employee Health Department - just waiting for my follow up interview where they will document everything for me and tell me when I’m allowed back in the office. I’m sure they can provide me with the letter you mention. Thanks for the heads up. I should be super immune now after 4 shots and an infection. That is so nice of you to mention my kids. Yes I have been around the board for a long while. We started cruising with Princess when they were 5 and 10. My daughter is 22 now and got engaged to her long time boyfriend on this cruise. It was so wonderful! And my son is 27 and just finished his second year of law school. We timed this trip so he could join us between finishing exams and starting his summer internship with the Navy Jags. So despite picking up the cooties it was an amazing family vacation.

A little post script to my review. My daughter and I tested positive for COVID this morning. I’m quadruple vaxed and she is triple vaxed - we have felt it might be coming on for a couple of days but continued to test negative until this morning. I guess it’s our unwelcome souvenir. We both are experiencing mild to moderate illness so it appears our vaccines are helping us with this fight. I'm sharing this because in retrospect we let out guard down as the cruise went on. We were having so much fun and it felt nice to be normal. But we should have been more vigilant about wearing our masks, especially in Princess Live. We did sometimes and forgot them other times. Just a word of caution for those who have trips coming up. On the upside I should have pretty strong immunity going in to our British Isles cruise later this summer.

I just posted a review of our cruise on the Princess board and thought I would share the section about our port days here as well. We had such an amazing trip! Juneau - rented a car from Juneau Car Rentals which they kindly delivered to port for us which was so appreciated as we ended up being two hours late arriving due to some weather challenges heading up from Vancouver. We drove to Perseverance Trail and did a hike there - the trail conditions were not quite ideal yet this early in the season so we didn't go quite as far as we planned but what we did do was absolutely beautiful. We then took a drive out to the very end of the road and back which was very pretty and by that time were starving so headed back on board for dinner and sail away. Skagway - rented a car from Avis and drove the Yukon highway all the way to Emerald Lake. Keep in mind you need to do the ArriveCan again for this - they did check at the border to make sure we had our QR code. It was the best day! There is still so much snow - more then we have ever seen on previous trips. But it was a beautiful day - the lakes are still frozen so just a completely different look and feel. We stopped at Caribou Crossing and visited the museum and fed the animals and held the puppies! Everyone working there was so kind and happy to have visitors again. It was a great day and we capped it off at the Skagway Brewing Company before dropping off the car and walking back to the ship. Icy Strait Point - We did a whale watching trip with Hoonah Travel Adventures. What a wonderful company! They were so nice - the boat was comfortable and we saw plenty of whales and a brown bear roaming the beach as a bonus. We hung out at the wharf area after our tour and did a little shopping and then back on board where we sat on our balcony and watched eagles and whales all afternoon right in front of the ship in the harbor. Another gorgeous day! Sitka - This was an exceptionally great day! We rented a boat from a local vendor - I'm not going to mention the name as he does not typically rent to cruise ship passengers, but made an exception in our case because after talking to my DH felt comfortable that he had the level of boat operating experience and skill required. This is not for novices. The boat was fantastic - super comfortable for our group of 4 and we just had the best day of fishing in Sitka Sound. We caught multiple ling cod and rock fish - but the absolute thrill was catching a huge halibut, literally as big as full grown adult. We didn't have the tools to weigh or measure to be certain it was in the slot limit so opted to catch and release. It would have been nice to filet it up and send it home - but given our one short day there and not being sure how much it would cost or if the fish was even legal it just seemed the best course of action. We will always have the photos! This launched us into our three glacier days. The weather for Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay was phenomenal. Literally just gorgeous, clear, blue sky days. It was some of the most stunning views we have ever enjoyed. In Glacier Bay we also saw many more whales and otter as well. Our third day in Endicott Arm was also very pretty, but a little cold and rainy, and unfortunately there was too much ice for us to approach the glacier so we had to settle for just a short jaunt into the very beginning area of the fjord - but really, no complaints. What we had been able to see for those three days was truly magnificent. Ketchikan - Given our many trips to Ketchikan, we opted to just stay in town and enjoy doing some of our favorite things again. We went to Cape Fox Lodge for breakfast - you have to try the reindeer sausage! It was quite a hike up to the lodge as the funicular is not working right now - but the food and views are so worth it. We spent some quality time on Creek Street and then did some shopping in town before going to see the Lumberjack Show again - it had been a number of years since our last visit and one member of our traveling group had never been. It's a bit hokey at times, but very fun and entertaining. We got fish and chips at the restaurant next door afterwards and then slowly worked our wayback to the ship with a mandatory stop at Tongass TradingCompany and the brewery. Just a super fun and stress free day.

Why would you hide things? Are you talking about valuables? I can assure you that the room stewards would never take anything. I have left jewelry, cash and credit cards laying around and it is always carefully left within plain view. If I rush out and leave my makeup in a mess it is neatly arranged when I return. Clothes are folded and sunglasses are neatly stacked on the book by my bed. There is a safe in the room for anything you want to keep secure - we only ever use it to store our passports so we know where they are at all times. Your steward provides a much higher level of service then you receive at a hotel. It’s a small room and daily cleaning and refreshing makes it so much more pleasant. I can’t imagine forgoing that service. Your room steward is masked with a KN95, tested frequently and is not in the room with you at the same time. Any exposure from him or her would be virtually nonexistent. I work in healthcare and can assure you your risk from your steward is negligible - COVID is an airborne illness that require fairly close personal contact with an infected person. As has been pointed out, your risk in elevators, lounges and dining areas onboard is much greater. Let your steward clean your room - you will appreciate the service.

Yes to water and soda. There is a limit on alcoholic beverages - wine is ok, but there is only a certain number of bottles allowed and you pay a corkage fee.

We rented from them once and the car was pretty rough. They were also hard to contact. I would really recommend using Avis. We have had great experiences with them - super convenient and nice cars. The Toyota Highlander we had last week was very new - only 20,000 miles and nice and roomy.

Yes, there were definitely bus tours going into the Yukon. We saw a couple of tour buses and vans. You might check with Chilkoot Charters. It’s really easy to rent a car if you feel comfortable driving yourself. You will need to do the ArriveCAN app before hitting the border. We had already done it for our arrival in Vancouver and just updated it for our Yukon day. It was a breeze at the border - they just scanned our ArriveCAN code and checked our passports. We held the puppies at Caribou Crossing but they also had puppies on the ship too. Not in the Piazza this time but up by the pool area.

Formal nights were a real mixed bag! I did not see one single man wearing a tux. A few were wearing suits. Most were wearing nicer pants and a button up shirt with and without ties. Some wore khakis, button up shirt and blazers. There were a few who were super underdressed - literally t-shirt and jeans. My DH brought khakis, button up and blue blazer and looked pretty well dressed compared to most. My son and daughter’s fiancé wore dark pants and suit jackets but took the jackets off when the saw how casual most were. You could definitely get by with a pair of slacks and button up shirt and not feel underdressed at all. Alaska seems more casual on dress code.