Disembarking in Whittier

[Eileen G]

Just got off the Coral Princess this morning and thought I'd share our experience. We decided to do the Princess transfer since we had a lot of OBC. It is $54 pp and buses leave all morning depending on what time flights are or where you are going. We had red 3 because we were going to the airport to rent a car. Our meeting time was 7:05 in the explorers lounge and they left right on time. There is no immigration or customs so you just walk out as a group. The luggage is sent to the airport by truck so you don't need to find it and get it on the bus. The buses need to go through the tunnel on the top of the hour. Since we had a lot of time our driver gave us a tour of Whittier. He was great and talked the whole way to Anchorage. It was like an additional excursion.

 

The luggage is put in a secure room at the airport and you don't need to pick it up until 7PM if you have a late flight. We rented a car for the day as our flight was at 8PM. We were able to leave our larger suitcases at the airport and not worry about having them in a rental car all day. You need your cruise card and picture ID to pick up your luggage. I was very pleased with the transfer as it was worry free. When you get off the ship in Whittier you do need some kind of prearranged transportation to Anchorage as there are no taxis.

[Tyskie]

Excellent informative post - thank you!

[Eileen G]

Here are the debarkation groups and times. 

 

 

[1emerald1]

How long was the bus ride to Anchorage?

[Idahoan58]

Wow your experience was 10x better than mine using the princess transfer in whitter. 

 

We bought our flights and transfer through Princess. Our flight departed at 1:15pm. They originally had us leaving whitter in Orange 2 group which left at 9am. We were able to switch to pink 1. The airport shuttle didnt take use to airport instead to the hospitality center downtown. Shuttles left there every hour on the hour for the airport. We got to the hospitality at 10:30am and opted to take a uber to the airport instead of waiting until 11am to take the shuttle. If we would have listen to princess we wouldn’t have been at hospitality center until 11:30am and would have had to take 12pm shuttle to the airport and most likely would have missed out 1:15pm flight.

 

I am glad your experience was better!!

[Mike45LC]

I don't want to steal Eileen's thunder, but she does not give enough praise to Princess.

 

As Eileen noted, our luggage was taken to the Secure Luggage Room at the airport, where we retrieved it when we were ready to check in for our flight.  

 

We did not rent a car at Anchorage.  Instead, the bus took us to a “Hospitality Center.”  This was in the Egan Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.  There was a large room with chairs and tables.  Clean restrooms.  Lots of people to answer questions.  

 

We had a few hours to kill in Anchorage, and at the recommendation of one of the hospitality people, we ate at Glacier Brewhouse, just two blocks up from the Convention Center.  We wandered around, and then back to Hospitality Center for the shuttle to the airport.  

 

Kudos to Princess: The Hospitality Center has a carry-on baggage check!!  So we could dump it all there to wander around.  Free downtown shuttles, free shuttle to Ulla Factory, …

 

Our shuttle back to the airport was painless.

 

Overall, this was a fantastic way to end the cruise.  (The extremely long and uncomfortable flight back to the lower 48 is a very bad memory!!!!) 

 

I'm sorry that Idahoan had a bad experience.

 

[Idahoan58]

I am glad most people have had a positive experience with it. I think ours would have been better if they had us a on a earlier shuttle. I am not sure what they were thinking putting us on a such a late shuttle when we had a earlier flight. 

 

We were on the Royal and not on the coral and the guest services person wasn’t very nice or helpful. She reluctantly put us on the 8am instead of 9am shuttle. If we were on the 9am shuttle we would have missed our flight. I wonder how princess would have handle that since the shuttle and flights was booked directly through them. Luckily, we didn’t have to find out.

[geoherb]

Did you meet anyone staying on the ship? Do you know what the in-transit passengers did? I'm torn between hiking the Portage Pass Trail and taking the 26 glacier cruise.

[Eileen G]

5 hours ago, 1emerald1 said:

How long was the bus ride to Anchorage?

 

The ride is 1 and a half hours but the buses can't leave until on the hour to go through the tunnel. So even thought we had to meet at 7:10 in the Explorers Lounge our bus didn't go through the tunnel until 8. We arrived at the airport at 9:30.  

[Coral]

5 hours ago, geoherb said:

Did you meet anyone staying on the ship? Do you know what the in-transit passengers did? I'm torn between hiking the Portage Pass Trail and taking the 26 glacier cruise.

I have done multiple B2Bs. I recommend the 26 glacier cruise. 

 

We have been given options. If you are staying on the ship - they often have you show up at one location at one time and you just have your picture retaken with your new card (sorry - haven't done it with a medallion). Otherwise, you are told to exit with your old card and then re-enter with your new card if you want to go ashore.

 

There are no customs/immigrations in Whittier. 

 

-------------------

 

One time we got lucky and they had norovirus on the ship. They did make us disembark to sanitize the ship and they paid for all of us to go on a boat ride (Major Marine - Surprise Glacier, no longer operating in Whittier).

Edited May 29, 2019 by Coral

[fishin' musician]

5 hours ago, geoherb said:

Did you meet anyone staying on the ship? Do you know what the in-transit passengers did? I'm torn between hiking the Portage Pass Trail and taking the 26 glacier cruise.

The 26 Glacier Cruise could be the high point of your vacation.  Highly recommended!