2 Questions: Boarding Time and Hotel Requets for Land Tour in Alaska

[CindyPie1004]

First time posting so bear with me please :D:

 

We are sailing in the Island Princess on July 5 from Vancouver. Departure time is 4:30. We are in a full suite and should have priority boarding. Our schedule shows as boarding from 1:00 - 3:30.

 

Question 1: does this seem correct? For priority boarding it seems late to me; even if I assume 1:00 is the earliest time, can they really board everyone it 2.5 hours? Should my boarding be earlier?

 

Next, for the land part of the trip (post cruise), we'd like to ask for a king size bed in the hotels.

 

Question 2: To who and when should we make this request? Do we ask the hotels beforehand or upon arrival or try to arrange through Princess; based on what I've read, that sounds like a crap shoot on how accurate the response from Princess customer service might be.

 

Thanks for helping a first time cruiser!!!

[skynight]

Being in a full suite if you arrive at the pier around 11am you should be one of the first to board. Boarding usually begins around noon, maybe a little earlier with special needs first followed by full suite passengers. The 1:00 to 3:30 is just boiler plate information..

[4cats4me]

You board when you want after those who need special assistance. When you print your boarding pass, it should indicate priority boarding

1:00 is a suggestion only. Nobody ever adheres to it. Regarding king size bed, call the hotel directly to request. Bed sizes are never guaranteed in hotels, however. It's been our experience that hotels try their best to accommodate bed types. However, it's also been our experience that most hotels have a heavier emphasis on two-bedded rooms vs King rooms.

 

 

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[nukesubsailor]

First time posting so bear with me please :D:

 

We are sailing in the Island Princess on July 5 from Vancouver. Departure time is 4:30. We are in a full suite and should have priority boarding. Our schedule shows as boarding from 1:00 - 3:30.

 

Question 1: does this seem correct? For priority boarding it seems late to me; even if I assume 1:00 is the earliest time, can they really board everyone it 2.5 hours? Should my boarding be earlier?

 

Next, for the land part of the trip (post cruise), we'd like to ask for a king size bed in the hotels.

 

Question 2: To who and when should we make this request? Do we ask the hotels beforehand or upon arrival or try to arrange through Princess; based on what I've read, that sounds like a crap shoot on how accurate the response from Princess customer service might be.

 

Thanks for helping a first time cruiser!!!

 

The boarding time you were given is a suggestion made to try and evenly spread out the passengers over the entire boarding period. It is not strictly enforced. You can arrive by noon and be among the first to board since you have priority boarding.

I do not recall having the option of requesting a king size bed at any of the Princess lodges we stayed at on our land tours. Nor do I recall if the beds were kings or queens. We too are used to a king sized bed at home but we had no problem with the beds at any of the 4 lodges we stayed at.

[VibeGuy]

You are sailing from Vancouver on a mid season day with just two comparatively smaller ships, so boarding is likely to be relatively non-chaotic, but I'd like to mention that of all the processes involved in boarding in Vancouver, only the very last one is improved by being in a full suite.

 

My suggestion would actually be to arrive slightly after 1:00 to let any crowds dissipate and use of the dreaded upstairs waiting rooms die down.

[azbirdmom]

We had kings in the lodges last year in Alaska and did not have to request them. My assumption is that they use the booking info from the cruise to determine the bed category on land.