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Does anyone know if the balcony for B626 on Star Princess is covered? I know there's that website for Coral and Island Princess where you can check but is there one for other ships?

I was on the Coral last year, Northbound and did 3 days on land. The Coral was absolutely beautiful. Now having done a northbound with land, I decided for next year I'm going to do Southbound with 5 days on land first. Last year it was hard living out of a suitcase after having unpacked when I was on the ship. After talking with people on land who were doing it first, they were looking forward to relaxing on the ship. Now, going Southbound with land is more expensive than going north. I was in Denali in late August early September and the fall colors were spectacular. Living in San Diego, I don't get to experience the colors and this was wonderful. It did rain for most of the trip but it didn't stop me from having a wonderful time.

Next year I'm going right after the solstice to experience 20 hours of daylight and hopefully the greenery of Alaska.

Enjoy your trip. Alaska is extraordinary!

Last year I changed my mind so many times that if I had pre-paid it would have been an accounting nightmare. Next year in Alaska I'm going to do what I ended up doing last year and just send money to my OBC account. "Technically" I prepaid for my excursions as I had the charges paid off before the trip but if I changed my mind it didn't cause any issues.

Depending on how long you have in port, you can take the Old Town Trolley Tour and go to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park. Both are about a 10 minute drive from the port. You've also got the Gaslamp Quarter that is filled with restaurants.

I have to say, being a San Diego native (very few of us left :p), our port is truly in the best possible location for so much to see and do. I work downtown and love driving into work in the early morning and watching the cruise ships coming in.

You may need to have your travel agent print your OBC sheet for you. It should show up on there. Last year when I pre-purchased my internet, I received and email confirmation from Princess directly. Things may have changed since then.

Well it appears that what Princess told me was incorrect regarding saved cruises. I saved my cruise again in My Princess. I left the site for a few hours and went back in. I went to my saved cruises and saw that the orange update price button there. I clicked on it and I didn't get the error message anymore and was able to check availability. I'm not sure how long this will last but glad to see it's back to normal again.

For the past couple of days I've been trying to check on pricing for my cruise tour for next year. Every time I would find it, it kept saying pricing was not available. Well finally this evening it finally showed pricing and it looks like they've done some updates. Now a box comes up and says "I'll pick my own cabin" or "Choose for Me". Unfortunately, there was no price drop but I'll keep checking. I'm not leaving for 375 days. :D

I've been getting the same thing when I went to check on the pricing for the cruise I already booked. It's been that way since yesterday.

They've been having some problems with the website lately.

I just went in to do my round about search for my cruise to check pricing and no cruises are available to check pricing. I'll try again later. Here's hoping for a price drop. Not going until June of next year but paying a pretty hefty price for an Alaskan Cruisetour so any drop would be nice. So far I've only at a $50 drop since I booked in March.

If this is new thing, it only started with me this morning. I have both booked and potential cruises saved and nothing will update.

Sue. are your cruises booked through a travel agent?

They said slowly but surely that this is making it's way on the site. :mad:

Good morning everyone!

Just got off the phone with Princess about this situation. Here's what I was told:

Since the cruise I've saved is the same one I've already booked and it's in My Princess, it won't let me update the price because I already have the cruise booked through my travel agent. This is something new that they've implemented within the last month or so (hence when the error started happening with me). You're not supposed to be able to get pricing information if you've booked through a travel agent. If you go the long way and search for the cruise, you'll be able to see pricing because it's not attached to My Princess.

Hope this makes sense. Now if any of you are having this problem and didn't book through a Travel Agent, then you'll need to call and let them know that it's not a travel agent booking issue.

Good luck!

Yes it is

Thank you all. I'm glad I'm not the only one having the problem. I will call them on Monday.

I like to monitor my future cruise by saving the trip in saved cruises on the Princess website. For about a month now when I click on Saved cruise and click update price, the picture of the ship disappears. If you click on view itinerary, you get an error message. I've tried this on all 3 of the browsers I use and get the same error. I get it on my iPad and on my computer at work.

Now I can go and search for cruisetours and check the price that way but it was so much each when I would click on my saved cruise.

Is anyone else having this problem?

I took the Mendenhall photo safari/Whale watching cruise in early May. I can't say enough good things about it. I can't remember the young man's name - but he was wonderful.

 

From the ship to the beginning of the "safari" he talked about camera settings (aperture, speed, composition, white balance, etc.) and when to use which ones.

 

We did an easy hike/walk through a forested area and took pictures along the way. He explained how to get photos with aperture control (mushroom, glacial ice) and with shutter speed control (waterfall, creek).

 

We were then shuttled to the dock for the whale watching portion. He continued to talk about settings, lighting and composition. We boarded a small boat and headed out. He explained to use the "sports" setting so we have a better chance of getting the whale tale. The boats were small and you had the option of being inside or out. If you were inside - there were large windows that they would "flip up" and fasten to the ceiling so you could lean out the padded window to shoot. They raced to and following any whale sighting.

 

We certainly could have spent 10 more hours with him - but we never felt rushed and came back with knowledge and some great photos.

 

You are given a snack (granola bar, nuts, water, fruit leather) and as much personal attention as you need. We has some people with small point and shoot cameras and we had one personal with a Cannon DSLR and a white 300mm lens.

 

I would do it again in a minute!

Thank you. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Did you post any of your pictures here on CC? I would love to see them.

Last year when I was in Juneau, I did Harv and Marv. Next year, friends that I met on the last cruise that I'm going with next year, are going to do Gastineau Guiding. I've checked out their website and they look great and the photography support on the tour will be perfect with my new camera. I'm just curious if anyone else has been on a tour with them.

I'm enjoying your photos so much. I was there last September and going back again next July. This brings my trip back to me again and just how beautiful Alaska is.

I have to ask, with all the hiking you do, isn't there a risk of running into bears? I want to do more hiking next year when I go, but that's my biggest fear. After hearing what happened to that woman a week and a half ago that was out jogging and ran into a bear that tossed her around until she played dead. I would love to get some great photos of bears but really don't want to shake hands with one.

I still had mine from my cruise last August for my cruise next June. It still works you just don't get any messages.

If you would like, I can try and send it to you via email if your email accepts .exe programs.

I've been having a problem for over a week when I click on a saved cruise and "update Price". As soon as I do, it goes to a different screen from before and when I click on itinerary, I get an error message saying it can't find the itinerary. I have already booked my cruise and I put the same cruise in "Saved Cruises" so I can monitor the pricing. If I hunt for my cruisetour, I can find everything I need but it's so much easier to go through the saved cruise.

I have a saved cruise in my personalizer which is the same one I've booked. I check this every once in a while to see what the price is. However, now when I click on it and then hit update price, the screen doesn't update with a picture like it normally did and when you hit itinerary, you get an error message. I think there might be a glitch somewhere.

I've tried clearing out all my cookies and history but I get the same error in all three of the browsers I use.

Last year I did Harv and Marv. We had Captain Shawn and a young girl who told us all about the different whales we were seeing. I tipped them both. I honestly don't remember how much. It might have been $5.00 or $10.00 each.

Tipping was something that I didn't expect to do all the time. I knew about the excursions but there were the bus drivers that took us to the different locations on the cruisetours. Now, one gal was terrific and kept us entertained from McKinley Lodge to Denali Lodge so I didn't mind that one.

Just make sure you keep small bills of cash with you are on your excursions and tip what you feel is appropriate. They are all very appreciative.

When you are on the ship, you are using the ships services not your cell/iPad service. This is very costly. Now the internet packages on the ship are not cheap and is very slow. When you're in an Alaskan port, you are in the US and you use your cell service.

On my Alaskan cruise on the Coral last year, I bought an internet package. I only used it in the evening to post to my blog and check emails. I ended up buying additional minutes before the cruise was over. I had to always make sure I logged off from their system. When I was on the ship I made sure my Wifi and cellular was off on my phone. I didn't want it searching and costing me a lot of money.

I still listened to music on my iPad but it was downloaded to the iPad and wasn't listening online.

I'm sure others can give more detailed explanation of why you don't want to use your cell phone on the ship. Wait till you get to Port.

Got up this morning at 4:15 to take a picture of Denali at Sunrise, Will see if I can post it.

 

We're going into town then catching the train to Whittier and board the ship.

 

Anyone considering the 10 day cruise tour I recommend NOT doing it. Try to fid a way to take a couple extra days on land. I wish I could have taken the longer tour of Denali, but time wouldn't permit.

 

My opinion only.

BigWI your opinion is valid. I did that cruisetour last year but North bound. I did manage to get my Denali tour changed to the TWT but I went in late August.

Next year I'm doing a longer tour as you mentioned but southbound. We start off in Anchorage then two nights at McKinley Lodge and 2 nights at Denali Lodge then cruise. We're also going in late June. I wasn't fortunate enough to see McKinley last year as it rained the whole time.

I agree with you about the Princess Lodges and their organization. It was impressive.

I wasn't impressed with Fairbanks and made sure next years tour didn't include it. I will say that on the riverboat tour, I loved the beautiful houses we saw along the way and of course the plane in all the backyards. :p

Enjoy your trip!

I've been watching on a Vancouver webcam and was wondering what was taking so long. I hope you're underway soon.

I was on a cruisetour last year with the tour at the end. I went at the end of August through the beginning of September. For me, it rained most of the time and was cold so no bugs. I have booked my next one at the end of July next year with the land tour first. I'm hoping to see Alaska "green" unlike last year that was all fall colors and we're going 1 week after the solstice so we'll experience the 20 hours of daylight. However, I think next year I wil have a bug problem to deal with. :rolleyes: