lcmslady

I'll check again but I think that Robert's told me they did not do airport drop-offs.

Can't do Pearl Harbor day of arrival as we are pushing the envelope a little and do not arrive until the afternoon of embarkation.

Starting to think about renting a car but then I don't think that guarantees us Pearl Harbor tickets like going with a tour would.

thanks for the suggestions!

Does anyone know of any tour companies that will pick you up at the pier, day-long tour (Pearl Harbor and North Shore at a minimum) and then drop of that airport?

Getting off POA on 10/24.

I thought this would be easy to find but proving to not be.

TIA

I keep seeing references to Lahaina (which is where NCL went in 2003). Upcoming trip it shows Kahuluhi.

Is that the same place? Doesn't seem like it to me.....

TIA

It was the Denali Princess where you stayed the last time. The McKinley Princess, which is out in the middle of nowhere, was built, in my opinion because Princess wanted their own lodges to house their cruise tour visitors in. They were subcontracting in Anchorage, which, I'm sure added a lot of costs, due to the short supply.

 

There are "problems" with the McKinley lodge- again, my opinion. But it clearly isn't anywhere I would stay without a rental car. There aren't any "activities" at the lodge except to sit on porches, or a short loop trail. This does offer a spectacular view of McKinley, but that is a rare occurrence. It is an hour shuttle to Talkeetna.

 

I find some people are fine with staying here, but- many of the cruise tours are short to begin with and I just can not find much good about staying here at the expense of other areas. An especially poor plan are the 2 nights at McKinley and 1 at Denali, adding to the mix, only enough time for the worthless NHT.

 

RCI and Celebrity, at least put their people up in Talkeetna, which offers far more options for food and tours, easily. Same spectacular viewing potential of McKinley.

 

I always suggest, people be VERY informed on every detail of mainland Alaska touring. A lot of people get caught by surprise when their assumptions were wrong and now they have some hard decisions to make. Every trip costs money, and time. Even if you go to Alaska every year, that still is a long wait for return.

You just confirmed my suspicion - they did this to cut costs. I also suspected that it was in the middle of nowhere.

Hence, I asked the question.

That whittles the choices down if I want to try to spend 2 nights at Denali.

What is also disappointing is that we took the train all the way to Fairbanks and then flew back to Anchorage. That isn't even available anymore although I think Celebrity offers it.

I'm a huge Celebrity fan but most in the group want to go with Princess.

Thanks for the honest opinion!

Things have obviously changed a lot since I first went to AK in 1999. Planning for 2016.

I notice that a lot of the Princess land tours have you staying at 2 lodges. 1 on the south side of Mt. McKinley and one to the north.

I suspect the one to the north is where I stayed in 1999.

Here is my question - what is so different about the 2 lodges in terms of things to see and do?

I can't quite understand why there is a need to do both.

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess we'll self dis-embark. At least we're on deck 3 and won't have to schlep the luggage down 6 decks.

This may be the first and last time I do an early flight :D

I thought I posted this yesterday and can't find it now. If this is a repeat, sorry!

We have an 11:25 flight on 1/31 getting off Vision of the Seas.

Should we walk off with luggage (ugh), or will we likely be in one of the first groups getting off.

I know, I usually don't book one this early but didn't feel like sitting around the Tampa airport until 2-3 pm

Thanks!

I've been researching the same thing for January.

I'm going to mess up the name of this area but it will be close - Ybor City is close to the pier and the Hampton Inn has a free shuttle to the terminal. It also appears that they are on the trolley line if that is of interest.

The White Pass and Yukon is one of the last (if not the last) narrow gauge railway left in North America.

It's path is similar to the path the miners took during the gold rush.

When we did it in 1999, you could actually still see the trail in spots.

The trip to Denali is very different.

They are both beautiful and worth doing IMHO

We definitely were off the ship well before that when we went out sightseeing in San Juan on a turnaround day. It was more like 7:30 or 8 when we left the ship.

 

As I recall, it was that if you were going off on your own that day you needed to be off the ship and punched out before 9:30 or so, when they zeroed out the count.

 

Then if you did it that way you would not be allowed back on the ship before a certain time.

 

If you were remaining on board that day, then you met together as a group and they escorted you down to punch out and go through immigration around that time, and then you were allowed right back on the ship.

 

That's exactly what happened to us in San Juan. They had a special breakfast in the MDR for the B2B folks (who wanted to). We were then escorted off until the count turned to 0, then allowed back on. Problem was that we couldn't get to our rooms until everyone else. All it meant was we had the pool to ourselves for a little bit.

I'm allergic to exercise so I don't know if they gym was open during that time or not.

Enjoy your B2B in SJ - great B2B itinerary!

What a stow-away! neat pictures - thanks for sharing

You may not have one right now but as you replace luggage, consider buying one with a suiter (?? spelling). Basically, it's a garmet bag that's on the front of the suitcase. You can hang dresses, suits, etc and then don't have to be rolled up or folded.

All of my luggage (except carry on) have it now - even my 22" piece. Wouldn't travel without one now that I've seen the value.

Good luck.

Have done 4 insides on M-class and 1 on an S-class

The 4 on M-class were on the Summit, deck 3 just forward of the atrium area. Great access to anything that I might need as well as meeting people for shared excursions, etc.

Had a family member who always booked deck 2 inside (to save money) until then shared a deck 3 inside with me and then saw the wisdom.

Our 1 inside on an S-class was on an upper deck - don't remember which. A little bigger but more wasted space. We also didn't like having to walk so far or take an elevator to just about anything that we wanted/needed.

Like someone else said earlier - I'm only there to sleep/shower and it allows me to cruise a little more often.

I've never skipped a muster drill, even though I might want to. I understand the importance and I'm pretty sure that if didn't attend and something happened, I wouldn't know where my muster station was.

Post-Concordia incident, I now pay far more attention than I used to and I wish others would.

The drill would be over quicker if everyone just showed up and shut up.

I am sailing Infinity in less than 2 weeks. Haven't sailed her before but have sailed her sister, the Summit and also the S-class Solstice.

To be honest, there are things I like and dislike about both. I like the S-class layout of the buffet and also that there is a walkway to get around the casino instead of having to go through it.

I like the smaller size of the M class. This will be my first sailing on an M class post solsticizing, so it will be interesting to see what I think about those changes.

Ultimately, it's about the itinerary first and the ship second.

the only Christmas cruise I did was on the Summit out of San Juan. The airfare is more but not as many kids. We had 300-400 and really didn't have many problems.

Another trick is to book late seating dinner - the parents want to feed the kids early because they are hungry.

Sorry you had such a bad experience. I think the problem is that parents think that since little Johnny/Susy can't get off the ship, they don't need to be supervised.

To some extent, I can also understand Celebrity trying to walk a tightrope of making sure the rules are followed and not offending guests.

I'm not sure I know the answer.

I was actually thinking about an Xmas cruise for 2014 to escape all my family drama. Not sure I want to exchange my family drama for someone else's. At least with my family, I know what to expect. :eek:

Amen....well said!

We did a full transit in January 2013.

I would definitely recommend a full transit if you have the time.

As far as who to do it with - that depends on what you want to see. If you really start comparing the itineraries, there can be differences.

While we are big Celebrity fans, we ended up doing the cruise with Princess because they actually stopped in Panama City - so we could see another part of Panama.

Good luck making the decision and enjoy your trip. I originally said that I only wanted to do this trip once but it was so fascinating that I want to plan another one on a bigger ship once the new locks open.

I am surprised, wonder if you are using their proper email address? Are you corresponding with Dixianna? That is who we are chatting with. You will be getting onto the Infinity as we get off. We will wave to you!!

Do you have an e-mail address for Dixianna? I've e-mailed the person that we've been dealing with along with their general e-mail address and still nothing.

Oh heck - you've probably already left, I'll bet......:(

We are facing the same dilema for our cruise next month. All the operators what USD.

Personally, I would not use the ship's ATM unless absolutely necessary. At times it will be out of cash (for extended periods). In addition, it charges additional fees over and above what your bank or credit card company charge.

In terms of traveler's checks, it's almost impossible to find them in Missouri anymore. None of the banks sell them and neither does my local AAA office.

While I'm not thrilled about it, I'm taking enough USD with me (in new, crisp bills) to cover all the tours. any local currency I will need, I'll pull from an ATM with a credit card.

If you're going to use a credit card to get $$ from an ATM, make sure you have the pin. :)

Celebrity is my favorite line and I just ignore all the chatter on these boards.

Some folks like to make themselves look/feel important with their suites, perks, etc.

I've never really seen that on a Celebrity ship but I'm also usually in a cabin on a lower deck (and ofter inside), so I'm usually with the more normal people who just want to enjoy a great vacation.

There will always be people who think they are special.....just ignore it and have a great trip!

I'm surprised by those of you who are saying they are quick to respond.

I've been trying for a couple of months to finalize a trip with them and it's been a struggle.

They should be picking us up a month from tomorrow and some of the group is still trying to make arrangements to pay.

I can't seem to get them to tell us when we will be picked up - nothing.

I realize that high season is starting and that they are probably busy but.....

Unfortunately, this isn't the only operator that's been this way. I guess it's their culture to not be in a hurry but I'm in a hurry to put all the planning for this trip to bed :eek:

So is a flash mob what the dance class ends up being? If it's in the daily, it can't be such a surprise then can it?

On Princess this past January, they do a Pop Choir. We met and rehearsed and then on the last sea day performed for the passengers.

We had a large group around 50. They usually do it in the Atrium but moved it to one of the theatres. It was great fun.

I'm hoping this dance 'thing' is as much fun.

I doubt that the camera that I just bought is mirrorless (I have no idea what that means :confused:.

I had a Canon Powershot S5 IS with 8 megapixel and 12x zoom. At the time, the next step up was a DSLR. It has all the manual modes as well as other modes controlled by the camera

I recently purchased the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS with 12 megapixel and 50x optical zoom. Very similar to the old camera but I think there must be a ton of other options buried in menus because the dial has all the manual modes but less of the others

It's actually lighter then the old camera but I think that's because the body is not metal anymore.

The old camera used AA batteries while this one uses a proprietary battery.

I can't wait to use this on my South America cruise next month!

I also have a small Fuji waterproof for beach trips. Doesn't take nearly as nice of a picture but it serves it's purpose.

Good luck with whatever you do.

It's actually

The first time we went to St. Kitts, we did narrow gauge railroad just for the experience. A little overpriced and cheesy (IMHO) but fun.

The 2nd time and I'm going to warn you that this is only for the ones who like to live dangerously.....

We found a company that arranged a tour for us on Nexis. We rode the public ferry, had a driver waiting for us who drove us around and then dropped us off at a hotel on a mountain for lunch. He ended up sending someone else to get us who then took us to a different ferry for the ride back to St. Kitts.

The ferry operator here pulled in, got in his truck and left. We (and others) sat there for almost an hour before he wandered back. By this time, I was frantic that we were going to miss the ship and that our tour operator would have given up on us.

Luckily, they understood 'island time' but we were busting it to get back to the ship in time.

It's a fun story now and we could cross another island off the list but I don't know if I would recommend this.