Sailin Gal

This is a longshot but may be worth checking. . . Go to the USPS website and check your address there. If USPS has your address in their system with something oddly ordered or abbreviated, Princess’ site may be validating against that and not finding the address the way you usually enter it. Odd, yes, but it happened recently with a family member’s USPS deliveries. I dont know if you can get a Princess Cruise Vacation Planner this close to sailing, but a good one (or good TA) is priceless when you have issues before sailing. We cant name agents here, but Facebook searches will lead you to some of the popular ones. Hopefully you can get them mailed and you have a wonderful cruise!

Some municipal police departments offer vacation watch programs.

We did this in 2022. Booked the train on our own, had our Princess tags on the luggage, checked luggage at the train depot. There was a well marked area at the entrance to the depot for Princess luggage drop off. We got off the train and went stright to the 26 glacier cruise, then boarded our ship. Luggage was at our cabin when we boarded. Almost everyone on that train will be going to the ship, and many will be doing the 26 glacier cruise as well. Hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did!

Welcome to cruising and Cruise Critic! We have done 2 AK cruises on the Royal, and loved it. Completely agree with what others have said above about using a good PVP or TA, checking out the Alaska board, and booking early and watching for price drops. Our cabins on the Royal were forward facing deluxe obstructed, which I loved, but it was very cold and windy out there when the ship was underway. To see the view from inside, I had to be standing because the obstruction is that the lower part of the balcony rail is steel instead of plexiglass. We've also had a standard balcony on the Royal, and it was wonderful as well, and protected from the wind. I have also done AK on an interior cabin. IMO, go; go with whatever cabin you can afford. If you can get a sailing that includes both Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay, to me, that is ideal, but it usually means a one way northbound or southbound and flights can be expensive. That said, those sailings are often less than a RT from Seattle, so it may balance out. Whatever excursions you want, book them early as they can sell out, especially things like the Hubbard Glacier excursion which is a single excursion vessel with limited capacity (loved that excursion). AK excursions are very expensive, and you always have options of doing independent excursions from the pier in ports like Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. We watched a lot of YT videos of different excursions we considered to see how they looked to us; that helped us make some choices. Last year, we rented a car for the day in Skagway, and took the highway up (same basic route as the train) to Bennet Lake, Carcross, and Emerald Lake, and it was incredible and much cheaper than the excursion would have been. If you do that, get off the ship ASAP so you can beat the buses up the mountain roads! As far as the folks who say the Royal doesn't have good viewing areas, I think they must mean interior viewing. If you can put your coat on and get outside, the views are amazing. Here are views from one of the upper outside decks, and from L102. Both in Glacier Bay NP. Happy planning!!

Way back in the college dorm days, we had to use poster putty to hang things on our dorm room walls. Removable, reusable, non marking. Works great on cruise cabin doors. We only put one tropical party cutout on our door to make it easier to find.

MDR service was slow and chaotic on the Royal last August, too. First night, someone seated next to us said they had been there 2 hours and hoped ours went better. I think they gave up and left before dessert. One evening we had been seated for 20 minutes without any waitstaff coming to our table for anything. I finally got up and found someone to ask if we could get menus and order. Hoping things are better on the Regal this spring.

I keep reading about how great Alfredo’s pizza is, but the two times we tried it (on the Royal, different sailings, different years), it was some of the worst pizza we have ever had. Disgustingly soggy, barely cooked dough in the middle. Has anyone else experienced that?

Until the FCC shows up in your account, you can’t book with it. Our covid quarantine FCC took about 5 months to be issued.

No, it was the 6 hour Kenai Fjords NP tour. Their website shows the route map for each tour. The rough part was when we were between Rugged Island and Chiswell Islands. That doesnt mean it is always rough, it just depends on weather and wind conditions. They did tell us ahead of the trip that day what the conditions were.

Most likely because there is a separate Alaska time zone that is an hour behind the CUS West coast.

We did the 6 hour trip with Major Marine, which is a larger vessel than the longer trip. There was one portion of the trip through unprotected waters where we had maybe 6-8’ seas and there were some pretty sick folks. From talking to the crew, that sounded like a not-so-rough day in those waters. Whether or not the people who got sick had taken any meclezine or dramamine beforehand, I don’t know. We are monohull sailors who typically don’t get seasick, but we meclezined up prior to boarding that morning. I will say that tour was our favorite part of our Alaskan trip (3 days DIY before SB Whittier to Vancouver). We saw so much gorgeous scenery and wildlife on that tour that we would do the tour again in a heartbeat.

@Ferry_Watcher Do you by chance know if the info above is still valid at Pier 91? Will be arriving via Seattle Express for Royal Princess. I’ll be a month past major surgery, and while I will be able to walk, I doubt I will be able to stand for a long time or walk long distances. Princess does have me down for wheelchair assist. Also curious if we will be able to use porters as I may not be able to drive my luggage, either. Edit: booked an early shuttle from airport hotel, but willing to modify that if certain time windows have better porter and wheelchair availability. Thank you, Jen

@Thrak Thank you, that jogged my memory! Now I remember checking that outlet before we disembarked to make sure we had retrieved our adapter.

For those of you bringing cheese on at embarkation or from a port stop, is that allowed or do you have to smuggle it on? Never would have thought to do that, but I do love some cheese and fruit as an evening snack and agree the selection and quality of cheese onboard is disappointing.

Pretty sure on the Royal last year DH plugged his CPAP into an outlet behind the bed.

Unless I’m hiking a trail that will require more water, I love my Chico Bag water bottle sling. Holds a pretty big water bottle and the stretchy pocket securely holds my cell phone. https://www.chicobag.com/shop/bottle-sling-repete-20#attr=30

You’ll never know unless you try it. Waterproof your shoes, pack some layers and rain coat or poncho, and give it a try! Its a completely different experience than a Caribbean cruise, and all about the scenery. Photos and videos don’t do it justice. Its just magical.

They’re right there together. We did the 26 Glacier cruise before boarding Princess for 8PM sailing last year. No problem, and no lines for Princess embarkation that late in the evening.

So glad I saw the posts about the dental repair kits! Had to get a temporary crown the other day so asked the dentist what to do if one falls out on vacay. He said plain old toothpaste will usually hold it in until you get to a dentist. He prefers toothpaste over denture adhesive because if it comes out again before you can get to a dentist, he said the toothpaste is easier to clean out of the crown than denture adhesive.

Darn Tough Vermont wool socks.

Yes, have done this. Had been to the ports previously, we needed an ‘unplugged from work’ vaca, and got a good deal on a cruise from a port we could drive to. It was a wonderful do-nothing week.

Lots of things to consider. Haven’t been to ISP, so can’t comment on that. If Endicott is a draw, I’d try to find out how much of it the ship actually cruises through, or if it just pauses near the entrance to let pax get onto the excursion boat that goes to the glacier and then meets the ship in Juneau. We sailed all the way up Endicott on Carnival and loved it. You can absolutely do a whale watching excursion from Juneau. Hubbard and GB are both spectacular. Think about whether you want your turn around day to be in Seward or Whittier and what your options are there. Then there are the ships themselves if that matters to you. Lots of ship tour videos online. We have not sailed NCL in AK, but have our 2nd Princess AK cruise booked. Whatever you choose, it will be amazing!

Enjoying all your posts, and really glad you posted about getting Indian meals in MDR. A lot of the MDR dinner entrees don’t sound good to me, but I do love Indian food, so will be asking for that on our next sailing!

Bubbles. It started several years ago on a girls’ cruise when we each had little bubble wand bottles in the goodie bags one of the girls brought. Any time we have a balcony, I try to take a bubble wand.

All Trails app is a great resource for info on hiking trails, including maps, trail details, and photos. We have paired that with online street maps and sat overlay to get context for trail locations.