sherylc

It really pays to watch closely for sales. We booked our Solstice 12 night Dec 9th Australia/New Zealand cruise category 1B in May for 2149 per person plus port fees/taxes. In August, we noticed they were having a sale and we were able to change to only 1200 per person for the same cabin! They have a price guarantee that is worth researching for those that have already booked but not yet made final payment: https://www.celebritycruises.com/company/customer-support/best-price-guarantee

My sister did a similar cruise and she said Phillips Island penguins was an absolute highlight. For that reason we are actually getting off our cruise in Melbourne (instead of Sydney) so that we can get to experience this. We will take the second day in Melbourne to see the Great Ocean Road, then fly to Sydney for a couple days before we head home. I was really disappointed when I found our ship didn't stay in Melbourne long enough to see the penguins, but am looking forward to it so much more with our itinerary change (did have to pay Celebrity $65 for the honor of leaving early!) Hotel in Melbourne and air to Sydney was surprisingly inexpensive.

We are trying to figure out best option for our Tauranga day. We are considering doing the white water rafting trip (through the ship since I can't find any other takers to split transportation) vs the Waiotapu thermal park. Has anyone been to both Waiotapu and Yellowstone National Park? We had several days at Yellowstone and are likely to return. Does Waitoapu compare or are we better off going for a bit of an adrenaline fix? (We are also planning on white water rafting in Queenstown pre-cruise)

We are booked on Celebrity's Solstice Dec 9 and went back and forth regarding this overnight trip. In the end, we decided to fly into Queenstown a few days before our Auckland departure and have now booked the shotover jet boat, white water rafting and canyoning. In addition we plan on taking the gondola up the mountain and playing in the luge cars. (We looked at the steamship/farm tour but decided to pass although we might be able to squeeze it in the first day). We have 3 nights in Queenstown, then 1 in Auckland before we sail.

Just thought people who want to see Queenstown for all of the amazing outdoor activities might want to consider a pre or post cruise stay instead of the overnight the cruise offers (there really isn't any time in their itinerary for enjoying the wild options of Queenstown and even with 3 nights, we aren't coming close to experiencing everything!!)

Anyone know if you can use a minute or two of wifi on a kindle to download a book that is coming out while I am cruising. I have used the ship's wifi on a laptop, but never on my kindle. Wondering if I would be better off trying to find a wifi hot spot in one of the ports for the 30 sec or so my kindle would need to download a book I prepay for.

Thanks for all the replies (9 days and counting until our Alaska cruise on the Star!) We got the 3 for free as a promotion in addition to our travel agent lowering price, giving us an additional $175 OBC per cabin for a total of $350 AND TA gave us prepaid tips. Seems like a good deal to me. Even better if we can use the $50 per person "shore excurion credit" for something else on board. I am also hoping we either don't get assigned a specific restaurant or can change it once on board since none of us want to go to Sabatinis, but would like to hit the steak house a few times.

Thanks again to all who responded.

Hi. I will be in Juneau on the Star Princess in June. We are tendering. I booked our own helicopter/dog sled tour with a 0915 pickup (0800 arrival time for the ship). The helicopter company believes we will be fine. I am curious for those who have had direct experience - is this realistic for us to be off the ship? (I am willing to stand in line for however long to get the earliest tender tickets available).

Thanks.

Hi. I will be in Juneau on the Star Princess in June. We are tendering. I booked our own helicopter/dog sled tour with a 0915 pickup (0800 arrival time for the ship). The helicopter company believes we will be fine. I am curious for those who have had direct experience - is this realistic for us to be off the ship? (I am willing to stand in line for however long to get the earliest tender tickets available).

Thanks.

Got free shore excursion credit for our upcoming cruise in addition to some regular onboard credit. We weren't planning on booking any excursions with Princess. Does anyone know if I can transfer this credit to regular shipboard credit or do I lose it? Also one of the perks was a free dining for each of us in a specialty restaurant. Have heard multiple versions of how this is implemented - are people getting a card with a date/time/restaurant or can you book it yourself onboard.

Thanks all (sailing in 2 1/2 weeks on the Star)

I also would really love to see the Patters. Thanks in advance!

We also failed post - final payment. We booked through Costco and got a bunch of shipboard credit and tips paid by them. They tried hard for us with Princess but didn't get anywhere. Suggested we try for an upgrade when we check in. (We are on the no upgrade list right now because we have balcony cabins next to our teen daughters).

We compared one way vs round trip for this summer for my family of 4. We ended up booking the 11 night RT from San Francisco to save on air (we can drive there in 4 hours). It would have cost us $2000 in air for the four of us for the one way 7 day Alaska trip. We were thinking of doing cruise tour but if you add in all of the cost of excursions on the land portion, we again were likely to add at least another thousand or two. Our 11 night cruise was significantly cheaper than the 7 day cruise plus 3-4 days cruise tour portion plus air. We used the difference to book the more expensive excursions (mostly including flying). Hope that helps.

I have cruised many times and only gotten sea sick once (when the crew themselves were getting sick too -- force 10 winds). With that being said, the absolute worst day of my life was my whale watching tour in Victoria on a zodiac. I don't think I have ever been that sick. I also tend to get seasick easily. I did a larger boat trip (25-30 people) in the protected waters of Juneau and was fine. It does tend to vary and there are a lot of over the counter medicines that can help. From someone who does get seasick, though, it can be one of the absolute worst feelings -- much worse than pain.

I'm not sure you understood my exact question. I am planning on booking in Juneau (our first stop.) My thought is that a company could take 2 approaches to my 10 am dog sledding tour having a weather issue -- "Sorry, here is your money back. No other options in this port." versus "Sorry we can't make it at 10 am but if the weather opens up later this afternoon, I will try to accommodate you." I am asking whether any of the Juneau companies are known for the latter response rather than the former. My comment about Temsco was that if their Juneau dog sledding is cancelled I might be offered a glacier trip but would still have to pay their cancellation fees for that glacier trip in Skagway if I didn't want to do it twice. The two Temsco companies in Skagway and Juneau act as completely different companies so no real benefit of staying exclusively with them.

I booked two balcony rooms for my family for Alaska and put one adult and one teen (two girls age 17 and 14) in each for the booking. Will Princess let me change who's key opens which room or do we constantly have to swap cards so that the kids can get into their room and the adults into ours and then re-swap to get on and off the ship?

My family will be doing an inside passage tour mid June and going to Juneau then Skagway as part of it. My teenage girls really want to go dog-sledding (which my hubby and I did in Skagway 10 years ago). I know these tours are the most sold out. I have heard book in first port to give you an option of second port if first sells out, but I don't want to actually book dog sledding for 4 in both ports and have to pay a cancellation fee if we make it in Juneau. I have heard very mixed reviews on going with first tour vs waiting until afternoon for possible fog to blow off. I still haven't seen any real recommendations between the 3 companies out of Juneau and Temsco is not willing to work as one company between their Juneau/Skagway offices to offer any advantage of booking a dog sled tour and a glacier walk (what we also would like to do). So to the question: Do any of the dog sledding operations in Juneau make more of an effort to reschedule a trip versus just cancelling if the am trip gets weather cancelled? Also is one glacier or another less likely to be weather cancelled (dog camp base glaciers). We prefer to book independently. Thanks!!!