aknursemom

Do a land tour. You won't regret it. Alaska cruises are beautiful, to be sure. I decided to move to Alaska after my first cruise! If you don't do the land portion you won't know what you missed, but you will miss a lot! If it's a once in a lifetime trip, do a land tour. It would be a shame not to!

Has anyone done this? Have whole day in anchorage without a car and wanted to do/see something different from our other visits to anchorage. Thanks, laurie

I've never taken the shuttle, but love climbing flattop! It starts out as a nice hike and finishes with some scrambling at the end to get to the top. It's windy and chilly up top. The price for the shuttle is much cheaper than cabbing it. My son has a view of flattop from his condo!

There are pie making classes in Talkeetna.

from a visitor point of view, I don't find using Anchorage as a base a good choice. Sure Anchorage is a very nice- "city", but getting outside is even better. :)

Yep! Anchorage is a great city - i hear you can see Alaska from there ;p

Has anyone used or seen people use in Alaska those waterproof boot/shoe covers with rubber soles? We are thinking about buying those as we currently don't have waterproof boots/shoes. They range in price from $10-20 per pair and we could use them on other trips/vacation that we don't want to take hiking boots but hey will still easily fit in our luggage. I actually discovered these planning a trip to Shanghai later this year and read about someone being there in the rain and seeing everyone wearing them and wishing they had them. Thoughts on these types of covers. We are going to be with 3 kids ages 1-4 so no major hiking.

Right now i see a lot of weatherproof boots, but i haven't seen the shoe covers. Maybe you can start a trend!!

Personally, I am partial to the Kenai Peninsula. I just spent the weekend in Seward. Lots to do. I always enjoy Homer, too. And Valdez! On the other hand, going to Denali is exciting. If you go with Denali, you will spend a lot of time driving.

As far as enough to do in Anchorage - yes you can make that your base if you like. You will need a car to get to different places.

How well they treated my children when they were young.

The room service lasagna.

There are plenty of options for cursing in Alaska...

 

As to cruising, some research down the board will find dozens of threads asking essentially the same questions. "Best" is a very vague term and means many different things to different people. As you have experience with various cruise lines, which do you think "best" met your needs. All of those cruise lines sail in Alaska.

 

Some reading will also reveal that Glacier Bay is an important destination, but not all routes and cruise lines go there. Royal Caribbean doesn't go to Glacier Bay, and if Carnival does it is very limited. Princess and HAL go there the most.

Very true. In fact I was cursing in Alaska this morning!

I would assume that only the Princess promotion dinner shows in your Personalizer. We haven’t had a full suite complementary dinner show up in our

Personalizer but our last time in a full suite was about 16 months ago.

 

 

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Thank you for the info!

Did you book through a travel agent? If so contact them and see what night you are book for. If you log into your cruise personalizer it should show your reservation

 

I received a specialty dinner the first night of cruise for being in a suite. That was listed in my cruise personalizer

I will be in a suite for the first time in May. I also received specialty dining as part of a Princess promotion. Only one specialty dining shows in my personalizer. Should it show two?

Awesome! Enjoy!

Yes' date=' I'm that compulsive person and look at my cruises almost every day...and the price of my fall cruise went down by $300 pp today. We will lose some perks, but even with that will save $100 pp. We had a good deal to begin with and I honestly didn't think it could get any better.[/quote']

I check daily, too!

This is a portion of the path along the water that we walked. Lots of RV's.

 

 

 

I've parked my RV at that park in the summer. We really like it there!

Thank you for the photos. You've got skills!

Congratulations on getting a great deal!

I see many posts of people wanting to eat early so they can get to a show. It seems to me that trying to do too many things in short time leads to stress that I don't want on a vacation. For me, some nights I'll prioritize dinner at a two-top and some nights I will prioritize the early show.

What an interesting thread! I'll be following.

I've never been impressed by Humpy's... Seems like a tourist trap.

The best halibut fish & chips is at the F Street Station, if you can find a seat.

The dirty little secret is that most seafood caught in Alaska is shipped to Seattle for processing and distribution. The locals catch their own.

I agree. I ate there once. Never went back.

Beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing.

Looking for a recommendation for a 1 day car rental in Anchorage....preferably downtown as we will be at the Captain Cook. Concerned about the timing of returning the car early evening if the rental agency may close at 5pm. Princess Cruisetour starts the next morning so returning car the following day is not doable. Thanks!

 

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There's Avis downtown, too.

Less than 3 months away from our Alaskan cruise and I'm thinking about any other items or clothing that I need to buy for it.

 

What are items that you forgot to pack but wish you did??

Antacids or something for tummy troubles.

It wasn’t forgotten but one the 3 previous AK cruises, I didn’t have a jacket that was long enough. I could keep legs warm from knees to toes and was fine from hips to head but my legs above the knees would be cold. So I found a couple of items, 2 different weights, that are longer and I can layer together or with other items of clothing. Both have dual zippers so can stay closed but still be unzipped as needed from bottom up or from top down or both. Previous cruises were in Aug or Sept but upcoming is in May so expecting cooler temps than before.

 

Also bringing a waterproof sneaker-style shoe that will serve multiple purposes: fine in rain, good for walking, hiking, and even exercise...saves on number of shoes!

For your legs I recommend an insulated skirt to wear over your pants or leggings. They zip on the sides for easy temp control. Lots of women wear them up here. They have them at Costco sometimes . Just Google down skirts or insulated skirts. Some are expensive, so look around.

Please do not be disappointed. We just got off the Regal today and had OMs. They are just about useless. They worked to unlock our door about 75% of the time and that is IT! the crew isn't using it with the exception of the check-in process. Nothing works and you are not missing a dang thing. Our next Regal cruise in November is not ***** and I won't miss it one bit.

Thank you for the feedback. Our upcoming May cruise was supposed to be Ocean Medallion. I got the email later that it would not be on our cruise. I was not offered, nor did I ask for, any compensation. I noticed our cabin price decreased by $400 from when we booked it. I was able to get the new price and I am happy with that. It more than made up for any disappointment over no *****!

Yes, Afternoon Tea is held on every ship in the MDR, every day except turnaround days.

Only exception is certain ships in Asia may not.

 

In addition Royal Afternoon Tea ($20 with champagne, $10 without) is held in the Piazza of Royal and Regal Princess on sea days. But the complimentary tea is also offered daily. Though if that is what you attended on Regal, you will not find it on the CB.

 

...and not to be pedantic, but no Princess ship offers High Tea, which would include a hot savory dish (such as soup or quiche) in addition to the normal Afternoon Tea courses of sandwiches, sweets and scones.

I often hear people refer to afternoon tea as high tea. Thank you for pointing out the difference. High tea sounds fancier, but is actually a working class meal.

My iPad mini fits with room to spare.

I might have missed it, but in which month will they be in Alaska? Also, the only Princess Lodge I've been to is Cooper Landing and they had a gift shop with fleece jackets and vests on sale. We were in their RV park last Father's Day weekend and they had those things.