Paula_MacFan

In the past I think it was much easier to walk up and get a table. Now with so many people booking packages with specialty dining or getting meals as part of booking promotions it seems a little harder. Point being what happened in the past may not be reflective of the current environment.

They are located under the Journey View section on the app. Be forewarned however, that they may not be specific to your sailing. For our upcoming cruise (3 weeks away) the port guides are generic and don't match the actual pier where we are scheduled to dock in several ports.

Good points and I only included the screen shot because some people miss that tab and don't realize it's there with the specifics 🙂 I just looked at my trip pictures to see if I had any of the bus and I don't. I do know it was definitely a modern tour bus and not a school bus. It had high-backed comfortable seats and many (most?) of the people on the bus fell asleep on the way back because we had to leave so early in the morning to align with the tides. Here is what I wrote in my tour diary for that day: 10/10/18 Wednesday/Saint John – We had to be at the theater by 7am to meet our tour, and were on the bus in the dark at 7:10. Last night we had to set the clocks up ahead by an hour. Got on the bus with our guide Rose and driver Orlean. Rose was very knowledgeable and kept us informed all day. Two hour bus ride to Hopewell Rocks in Fundy Provincial Park. Very pretty drive past many trees turning fall colors and some covered bridges. Arrived at Hopewell Rocks just in time for low tide and got to walk on the ocean floor and see the huge rock formations. Our Provincial Park guide John got on the bus with us and drove down to the staircase to the bottom by accessing a gate with a key -- nice to have special direct access. We took extra shoes and they had a shoe washing station, but it wasn’t too muddy if you walked on the rocks or gravel spots. Spent an hour here on the beach exploring. Then back to visitor center where we watched videos showing a huge rock slide and also how high the tide rises – 25 minutes to cover a person’s head. The tide changes 46 feet every 6 hours and 13 minutes, day in and day out. We looked around the visitor center on our own for awhile, then the tour provided boxed lunches. We had turkey sandwiches, chips, carrots, and pecan pie. Back to Saint John by 2:30 for all aboard at 2:45. We have to leave port on high tide or be stranded here. We saw ships on our tour that were in dry docks on the way to the park, then floating in water on our way home a few hours later. Very interesting sights unique to this area.

I agree with the person who said a cruise is what you make of it! So many people will only post a review to complain, and not as many people post a glowing review. Also I think many people fail to do their homework and select an itinerary, ship, room, or other choices that don't align with their expectations. Example -- we are longtime loyal Princess cruisers, but early this year we sailed on NCL's Pride of America around Hawaii and had a phenomenal time. It was a trip of a lifetime and we couldn't have had a better time. Yet, if you read reviews of POA they are more negative than positive, primarily (IMO) because people fail to research and have unrealistic expectations. We have also sailed on the Caribbean Princess twice and had a wonderful time both times. Both were Caribbean itineraries. I wouldn't hesitate to sail that ship again. If you have found an itinerary that works for you, give it a try 🙂 Take the complaints with a grain of salt, plan out your time to the best of your ability, and enjoy!

First let me say we have been on this excursion through Princess and it is excellent! I highly recommend you go. Yes, it's a long day, but you will see so much it is totally worth it. We were on a very nice modern tour bus, in no way was it a school bus situation. We had a professional driver and guide, and if I remember correctly there was a restroom on the bus. Of course this was pre-pandemic so things may have changed, but I would be highly surprised if they took you on this long of a tour on something primitive. You will get to see the tides go in and out which is phenomenal, then stop at the visitor center where they have a park ranger give an informative talk. We had plenty of time to explore the beach/rocks area, the overlooks, the visitor center, and use restroom facilities. They provided a boxed lunch which was very good as well. We've been on countless tours in our 20+ years of cruising and this is one we still talk about! Secondly, let me ask if you've looked at the excursion details on the Princess website? It does break down the day with travel times and if restrooms are available. I've attached the first part of the detail in a scree shot, but you can look at the rest on the website. It does appear that restrooms are available according to this. You shouldn't have any problem leaving your cushion on the bus. We were able to leave jackets, bags, etc with no problems as the driver stayed with the bus while we were away. https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/saint-john-for-the-bay-of-fundy-canada-excursions/discovery-recommended-hopewell-rocks-and-tidal-discovery/?preserveScrollPosition=true

Per the Princess website: https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/cruise-ports-and-hotels/

We have 3 booked cruises, one in 30 days. No email. Fail Princess!

Amazing pictures and wonderful review! Thank you very much and I've enjoyed reading it 🙂 I especially welcomed your Hubbard Glacier excursion review and pictures as we have that booked for 2024.

We're going to London next month for 4 days and then boarding a ship from Southampton visiting 8 countries. I plan to take some pounds and euros just in case. We have chip enabled credit cards but my fear is they get flagged for some potential fraudulent or out of territory activity and may not be usable. I've contacted my banks to let them know we're traveling but most said 'we don't need that information, you'll be fine'. They say that, but one time in Washington DC our card was flagged as potential fraud for out of area usage at a grocery store, so we had to use another one. If it can happen here in the US, I know it can happen overseas. I'd rather be safe than sorry 🙂

Thank you for the very informative land and cruise review! We are doing a similar trip next May. Your information is very helpful and I enjoyed reading your report 🙂

We were there 4 years ago on Princess NE cruise and they offered a shuttle for $20 per person. So that's not very current info -- maybe someone else can chime in with updated info.

We were on an Eastern Caribbean cruise right before the covid shut down that turned out to be a music cruise put on by a group called Concerts At Sea. I didn't know about it before we booked and found out much later by happenstance. For our cruise they had specific bands aboard and many group-specific activities that were only open to people who paid for the group sailing. So every evening the Vista Lounge had this group's activities and Club 6 was booked up most nights as well. The Piazza music trended toward this group but of course that was open to all passengers. In retrospect it didn't ruin our cruise, but it definitely impacted it since we didn't have as many evening activities open to us, and we also noticed that large groups of people congregated in the open areas more so than on our other cruises -- i.e. people from the music groups tended to stick together and move about en masse. I wouldn't necessarily cancel just because of a group, but go in expecting that it will likely impact your sailing in some ways. Edit to say given the nature of the group and whole focus on dancing, I would expect those types of venues to be closed to other passengers off and on during the sailing. The Vista Lounge is usually one of our favorite venues on any cruise, but we didn't get to enter it at all on this cruise as it was used exclusively by the group.

We are also cruising from Southampton in September. We have had our hotel booked for months now and every time I've checked lately our hotel is sold out. You might be paying higher prices now and/or be limited on choices. Princess does have pre-cruise hotel packages (see their website https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/cruise-ports-and-hotels/) but you'll have to do the math and see if it makes sense. Keep in mind the prices are quoted per person based on double occupancy and are not priced per room. For transfers since you said you've booked on your own, log into the Personalizer and at the bottom of the 'Travel' tab you can book your own transfers both to and from the ship. They are $59 each way and are offered from both LHR and Victoria Coach Station if you choose to stay in London pre-cruise and don't want to go back to the airport. See screenshot attached. Again for your excursion choices -- I'm afraid those may be limited too. Many excursions for our September cruise from Southampton have been sold out for months now.

I'm not sure if that was directed to me since I was responding to the person who asked about how to book land tours for the cruise tour. The land tours that aren't included in the package are listed in the Personalizer. Since the Denali History Tour and associated Wilderness Tours are part of the cruise tour package, they are not listed on the Personalizer. You have to contact Princess directly to make changes to tours included in the package. If I misunderstood your post then I apologize and you can ignore.

Land tours can be booked from the Personalizer online when they become available. For our cruisetour in May 2024 the land tours aren't available yet but the cruise excursions are and we've already booked those. To upgrade your Denali land tour just call Princess. It took a 3 minute phone call for me to upgrade our tour with my CVP. Pretty easy.

It's easy -- first you click 'manage flights' and then you click 'change flights'. See what is available and if a better flight is available or the price has dropped on your existing flight, then you make the changes.

I check our EZ Air flights every day for every cruise we have booked. I've re-fared many times over the years by simply using the Personalizer. It's one of the best things about using EZ Air in my opinion.

Same here. I do everything on laptop pre-cruise and only use the app close to sailing for required things. I haven't had any issues with the website lately, but it can be glitchy from time to time. I always keep an updated PDF of my Travel Summary saved in case something would not show up later.

Not sure where your hotel is located but Princess also does a transfer to Southampton from Victoria Coach Station for the same price as the LHR transfer. I know this info is current as we are going in September. We are also IHG members and regularly use points for hotels. There is a Holiday Inn Express Victoria a few blocks from Victoria Coach Station. Maybe that doesn't work with your plans but just thought I'd share. 😊

I have CC bookmarked and it comes up to the forum page. Are you typing in 'cruisecritic.com' every time you want to access the page? Just save it as a favorite to whatever pages you most frequent. Maybe I'm not understanding your problem correctly.

These are just a few, but I hate to hijack this thread as it's supposed to be about the bidding process only. You can use the search function to find more if you're so inclined.

Yes, and there have been a few lengthy threads lately discussing this topic 🙂

Three months? For our upcoming European cruise most excursions were sold old around 7 - 8 months. We've already locked in excursions for our next 3 cruises that are anywhere from 2 months to 10 months away. I've noticed prices just keep going up, so if you know you want to do it, why not just lock it in.

I'm sorry, but I've been reading this thread and just can't get past this first line. Wouldn't your daughter-in-law and her husband be your son and daughter-in-law? Maybe it's my detail-oriented brain but I'm trying to figure out who is who in this scenario.

I could be wrong and I'm sure someone will correct me if so 🙂 but I thought the Kantishna tour wasn't offered now due to the road closure through 2026. https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/conditions.htm https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/bus-tours.htm