newbiewfromms

I am doing this same land/cruise tour end of June into July. Does anyone know which hotel in Fairbanks that Princess uses for the first leg of the trip?

So beautiful. Thanks for the awesome videos. Will be cruising there this July. My first time to Alaska. Seeing this has really got me excited 🙂

You are correct. It says Anchorage (Whittier) AK. I didn't realize they were two separate places. So it looks like we should try to pick some up in Fairbanks on the first leg of our Land tour. Thanks for the info. Now going to research our ports some more. They will be Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. I would love to get in some whale watching in Juneau. I saw the Adventure Bound tour and was so excited until I realized we will be leaving Juneau at 5:00 pm so we would get back too late. I will try and research some Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching combos. Skagway I'm looking at Dyea Dave Emerald Lake tour. Since were going on the Direct-to-Wilderness train ride do you think it would be worth it to take the train back to Skagway or just stay on the bus tour?  I've also read good things about the Jewell Garden since my mother in law loves flowers/gardens. Any personal experiences on that? We are in port from 7:00 am to 8:30 pm that day. Still wide open on Ketchikan but like I said just starting to getting into researching.

Hi all. I am not new to cruising but have only been on Carnival so far. We are going on an Alaska Land/Cruise tour with Princess departing Fairbanks on June 29, also first time in Alaksa...so excited . There will be 7 of us total, it was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law to her kids and spouses. We arrive in Fairbanks and spend 4 days on land (Fairbanks/Denali) before boarding the Coral Princess in Anchorage. We take the train from Denali to Anchorage which takes us straight to the cruise ship. My question for the day is: We do like to bring on the allowed bottle of wine per person but  how/where can we purchase the wine in Anchorage before boarding the ship? Should we try to purchase the wine before we take the train to Anchorage to board the ship at either Fairbanks or Denali or is there a place at the port in Anchorage we could purchase wine? Thanks in advance and I've gotten so much wonderful advice reading these boards so thanks in advance to everyone.

I am brand new to Princess on an Alaska land/cruise tour this June. I have been on 6-7 Carnival cruises but have never ventured to another line. This is a trip gifted by my Mother in law to her kids and spouses. Very generous and very appreciated. 4 first time cruisers on this trip so I am very much looking forward to their reaction of cruising and everyone's first time in Alaska. I'm loving all the great things I'm hearing about Princess. Thanks for the "secrets" and keep em coming. Doing all the research now on our ports Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan along with the land portion 4 days in Fairbanks and Denali. 🙂

I was also on the 3/4 Fascination cruise. A group of 4 of us and I cannot say a single bad thing about the cruise or ship. We had an unbelievable time. It was my first time to any of these ports. We flew in a day early and stayed at Hotel Milano in old San Juan. It was just okay. We didn't spend much time in the room but they had a nice rooftop restaurant where we ate. We walked around and did a little shopping, picked up some cokes at the CVS to take on the ship. Walked around quite a bit in Old San Juan the next day as our boarding time was 3:00 to 3:30. We visited the forts which were really cool and did some more shopping.

Embarkation was so smooth. Just walked right on the ship as there were no lines due to the staggered boarding times. I have been on the Dream several times so was a little worried about a smaller ship but I ended up LOVING it. Could get around very easily all over the ship and learned my routes quickly. We had anytime dining which was also my first time for that and loved it. Everyone on the ship was so friendly. We had great room stewards and also great wait staff in dining room each night. Loved Guys burgers, the deli, pizza and all the other food we had. It was very very good.

St. Thomas was our first stop and there was some rough weather prior to us getting there so we were told only two beaches were open. We took a taxi to Emerald Beach club I think it was called. Nice beach. Nice bar on the beach with decent prices. Try the Painkiller. Delicious. I think taxi there was around 8.00 each way and we told our driver what time to be back and they were right on time.

Sea day was nice and relaxing, our only sea day. Hung around the pool, serenity deck and hit casino a little.

Barbados we walked out of the port with no particular plans and found a taxi driver with a nice air conditioned toyota larger type van. Her name was Malik. She was great. For 30.00 each she took us on our own private tour. Visited a beautiful church where they were cooking fresh fishcakes and tried those. Then went to the top of the mountain and got out and walked around, took pictures and had some delicious rum punch. She took us to a nice beach club in Bridgetown (can't remember the name now) and asked us what time we wanted to leave. We decided to stay a couple hours and she picked us back up. We didn't rent chairs because we weren't going to be there long enough. They delivered drinks to the beach which was nice. Water was beautiful but still a little rough. We left around 2 shopped a little at the port and were back on the boat by 4.

St. Lucia was my favorite. We did Spencer Ambrose tour. We didn't book ahead of time but walked through the port and saw a girl holding a Spencer Ambrose tour sign so we decided on this one. They took us by Speedboat out to a beautiful beach (Sugar Beach) between the two Pitons. The tour included chairs to the left side of the dock as the other chairs belonged to a resort there. Plenty of chairs and umbrellas, a cooler full of beer, water, sodas and rum punch. They served a nice buffet lunch and even had snorkeling gear. This beach was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed there about 2-3 hours I believe. I did try the snorkeling right before we left and saw tons of beautiful fish right there at the beach. Speedboat ride back (around 30 mins) and were back on the boat by 330.

St Kitts we decided to wing it again, found a taxi to take us to Cockleshell beach for around 6 dollars each way I think per person. Let us get out on the top of the mountain where we took beautiful pictures. He dropped us off at this little bar/beach with umbrellas/chairs which I think were 5 each for the chairs and included an umbrella. The bar I believe was called Lions club. Cheap drinks/beers and had a delicious lunch of ribs which my husband and I split. I think lunch was around 16 dollars. Local beer was 2 and rum punch was 5. We had a nice time here and walked up and down the beach. I think the Reggae beach club was down a bit from us.

St. Maarten was I believe the prettiest water I've ever seen. It looked like it was dyed blue. We took a water taxi over to the beach you can see from the cruise ship. It was 7.00 and you could use it all day. Absolutely beautiful beaches and really nice shopping. We walked around for a long time, went into one of the many bars and had lunch and a bucket of beers. Put our towels down on the beach vs. chairs/umbrellas since we were only going to stay at the beach for hour or so. Nice clear calm water. I loved St. Maarten.

Got back to boat and went and had our last dinner in dining room. We ate in dining room 5 our of 7 nights. We did see two shows, Diva and another one I can't remember the name of. Both were good. We went to comedy club and loved it, the last night there was a mentalist/comedian in the Palace theater who was really good.

We got back in port and debarkation was effortless. We carried our own luggage and was off the boat by a bout 745. We stayed the night in Old San Juan at a place called Villa Herencia which was beautiful. A very small boutique hotel, almost like a bed and breakfast. Headed back home on Monday.

We really really really enjoyed this cruise. I cannot say a single bad thing about any of it. If your on the fence, GOOOOO. We loved the ship and all the ports. It was a little exhausting but thats really my fault as I have FOMO (fear of missing out) so we were on the go a good bit of the time. Not a whole lot of down time on this cruise.

This is very disheartening to hear as i will be boarding her this Sunday March 4. I am truly sorry you had such a bad experience. Most of us wait anxiously for our next cruise and it's awful to have such a terrible experience. I hope they can get their act together very soon. Will post comments when we return. This is my first southern Caribbean itinerary and was very much looking forward to these islands.

Yayyy. Nice start so far. Thanks for taking the time to review. Will be sailing on this same itinerary on May 3. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Brianna,

I cannot tell you how much I THOROUGHLY enjoyed your review. My husband and I have been on 4 cruises with Carnival so far and this will be our first one without kids. Hah. We'll see if we make it :) jk. Im looking forward to spending some one on one time. My kids are my heart but after being married 27 years it will be nice to spend some time together alone for a change. I loved every single bit of your review and I thought it was amazing. Especially all the fun you had with your Krewe and I have to say the sunset pictures are my favorite. You hit the nail on the head of why I LOVEEEE cruising. Sitting out on the deck staring at nothing but ocean for miles and miles is just so serene, calming and soothing to my soul. It's been a couple of years since we cruised but leaving on the DREAM on May 3rd going to Key West, Nassau and Freeport. So looking forward to it and I for one appreciate all of the time and effort along with the awesome pictures you posted on your review. I appreciate it very much and hope to one day see you on a cruise. If I see ya then Im gonna join right in if you don't mind. Looks like you are my kinda people :) Enjoy your next cruise and thanks again for the Mahvelous review.