jean-lynd

We enjoyed the Skagway museum. It is open til 4:00 and it is donation based.

Princess and Holland America are the 2 lines that have the best Glacier Bay National Park access. I personally wouldn't take an Alaskan cruise without a balcony. We spent so much time out there on our last cruise. We saw sea otters, seals, whales, dolphins, bald eagles, waterfalls and rainbows from our balcony. Make sure to take binoculars! Just for fun I just looked at the Princess site for a cruise from seatle that includes Glacier Bay National Park in August and you can get a balcony for $3,664 for the 2 of you. Not sure what your budget is but this gives you an idea. I hope this helps! Happy planning!

There are actually 4 levels of dining. Complimentary, Casual, Specialty and Experiential. The Casual ones cost $14.99 & 18% service charge and 2 of them are included in the Plus plan. On the Caribbean Princess those are Planks BBQ and Steamers Seafood. The thing that causes so much confusion is that they use very similar names for different venues. The "Salty Dog Grill" is complimentary pool side food but the "Salty Dog Gastropub" is a sit down "Casual" venue on some of the ships. The Gastropub is not on the Caribbean Princess, To add to the confusion both of the Casual dining venues on the Caribbean Princess are listed as "popups". I haven't been on a ship with them yet but according to the Princess website they will be in a Section of the "World Fresh Marketplace" during the hours that they are open. I wish they would be on my ship because they sound better then the ones we have. Oh well, I don't cruise for the food and I probably won't use my 2 free casual meals. I have attached a screen shot of the venue categories. I hope this helps!

No, the entire cruise internet is $24.99/day. i don't know if the pay as you go internet is still $25. I think it went up when the other prices went up but I haven't seen what it is now.

yes - you will have to give them your log on information. Basically, you will all use the same log on and as long as you don't try to have more then 4 devices connected at the same time it will work. I hope this helps!

I know that last May they were tendering from the "railroad dock front" because of the rockslide. Has anyone docked there later in the year who knows if they were able to stop tendering and walk off. That is the dock we are supposed to be at this year so I'm curious if we will be able to walk on and off or if we may need to tender. Thanks for your help!

There are pop-ups for "Casual" venues that would be included with the "Plus" fare. Anything for the "Specialty" venues would not be included with the "Plus" fare. I hope this helps!

The last time we did an Alaska cruise with Princess - we embarked on Saturday and the formal nights were Sunday and Thursday. It really depends on your itinerary.

no

This may help

This worked for me. I am 166 days out - only "gold and balcony". I couldn't make reservations on the app on my phone. I tried the "web version" on my laptop and was able to make all of my reservations and now I can see them in the app on my phone. I hope this helps!

The non-alchohol package costs $35, crew appreciation is $16 and wifi is $25. If you don't plan on getting wifi you will probably be better off to just do Standard Fare and pay as you go for beverages. I hope this helps!

Yes the tours are identical. There is only one boat so evveryone will be together. For this one you basically get off of your ship and walk across the pier to get on the crab boat. We ended up booking through Princess because when we booked the Princess price was $219.95. The only advantage I can see to booking through the ship is the fact that sometimes people with excursions are allowed off of the ship first so you might be able to get a better seat on the crab boat. Certainly, not a big deal either way. The only other thing would be if for some reason your ship didn't make it to port it would be an automatic refund through Princess. Not sure how that would work booking independently. I hope this helps!

Vines is on the Sapphire and it is one of the casual meals. They open at 11am on sea days and 4:30 on port days. I hope this helps!

Have you looked at the details of the "Plus Fare"? Even if you don't drink alchohol they can be a good deal if you are each getting WIFI and paying the Crew Appreciation. WIFI is now $25/day/person and crew appreciation is $16/day/person. Since the Plus Fare is $60/day/person that leaves $19/day/person for everything else. Your 2 drinks will be more then that. If your wife would like bottled water, soda, specialty coffees and teas, smoothies, mocktails, hot chocolate, and fresh squeezed juices it would be pretty for her to use the $19. Then there are a number of other items that you might enjoy trying since they are included. I hope this helps!

Another option I just learned about is using the "web version" of the app on my laptop. I was not able to book dining reservations on the app on my phone but it was very easy to do it on my laptop. You may want to try it because it doesn't seem to be as glitchy as the app. I hope this helps!

I had trouble ordering our medallions on the app. It would let me order mine but not my husbands. Our travel agent did it for us and it will be shipped to our home. We did this on 1/8. I hope this helps!

I can tell you that the last time we did Alaska on a Princess ship the big production shows were at 8 and 10. Reserved seating in the theater is just a special area of the theater. Not sure when the medallion app will populate. I hope this helps!

You could look at any NCL cruise that is going to your ports this year and look at what excursions they are offering at each port. Things may change before next year but it should give you a pretty good idea of what may be available. I hope this helps!

Just an FYI - Internet is going up to $25/day on Monday - so - $12.50 for you. In case you want to buy it now. I hope this helps!

We booked ours a little over 6 months before. I just looked at them again yesterday and all of the prices have gone up so I am glad we booked early. I hope this helps!

From what I have seen that is just when the ship is supposed to get in. We will disembark at a normal time in the morning. The transfer we have booked to Anchorage stops at the Wildlife Conservation Center which opens at 10am. It is only 1/2 an hour from the pier so I am thinking we won't be leaving until around 9 or so. I do know there is a one way tunnel that has to be worked around to get to Anchorage. I hope this helps!

True - so that would increase the value by $35/per person if you use the 2 casual meals ($14.99 plus the 18% service charge) and $14.99/per person for the Ocean Now activation fee! So another $50/per person. Kind of hard to put a value on the room service since that would be included with Ocean Now.

Here are all of the included items with the cost in the Plus Fare as of when we booked so it is the cheaper WiFi rate. I hope this helps!

Very strange. We have the Plus Fare and we picked our own cabin with no problem.