Alaska Princess Cruisetour Tips you may not be aware of!

[foggyphils]

Transfers:

If you buy a Princess Cruisetour (Vancouver to FB), you very likely bought transfers as well. Trust me, check your receipt or personalizer. It’s automatic through Princess and most travel agents. Some agents know better and take them off but they seem to be a rarity. It’s an $86per person charge. You CAN get this refunded and in most cases, should. Unless you just like throwing money away, like getting to and from the airport at crazy times, and putting luggage out the night before so you can carry dirty clothes in your carry on the next morning. Ok, I guess some people might like the luggage service part of it. I’ll give you that, but there are better options in my opinion. (FYI - If you do not contact Princess, you lose the money. They will not credit you afterwards. )

1. They only offer transfers on the day of embarkation (for a NB Cruise) so if you arrive a day or more earlier, no transfer for you! Which is fine because a taxi to anywhere you likely want to go is about $40CAD ($30ish USD). Heck, you could hire a limo driver to do everything for you and come out ahead of paying Princess. 
2. Y’all (I’m from TX), I could spit and hit the airport from the Fairbanks Princess Lodge. That’s how close it is. I looked up how much an Uber would cost when I got up (to gage how much a middle of the night Uber would be). $10+tip. Which leads me to....
3. For some ungodly reason, if you have a flight at 5:30am at the Fairbanks airport, Princess has you take their 3:10am shuttle! 🙄There is no other option. This isn’t O’Hare folks! It’s got 2 terminals, 6 gates, a bar, and a starbucks! Even the Aussies were out of the checkin line by 3:45. You can’t even go through security until 4am. There is NOONE there! 🤪Except for the bartender 😉

Bottom line, for ~$50 and more control, you can have better options. Or, you can pay Princess $172 for subpar transfers.

 

Lost Luggage:

I am one of the “super rare🙄” guests whose luggage didn’t make it off the ship to the land part of my (Princess) cruisetour. Late the first night on land in Anchorage, and once everyone stops saying, “We are still taking luggage to rooms. Come back later”, they had me fill out a triplicate paper form. There was no apology. Really nothing other than saying, “We always find the bag. We have a great system in place. Keep checking with us.” So on to Denali we go the next day. I ask about the luggage at front desk and go through the whole thing again. At this point, I’m getting a bit annoyed because there is no real explanation or apology. And really, this should be in the computer. After the third night, I’m asking more questions on the process of baggage tracking and getting very short, when the manager says, “I’ll just issue you another $50 certificate!”  I say, “I’ve never received a first one. No one has ever mentioned this policy to me.” Then she says she’ll send me a $100 certificate. So if they don’t have your luggage, they will issue you at least a $50 delayed baggage certificate. You can use these at any princess store or restaurant and they will give you cash as change. So you spend $5 on a coke, they will give you the rest back in cash. I never really figured out if they are suppose to issue you these for each night, each hotel, or if it’s just a willy nilly thing on who complains loudest. I also received a $50 certificate in Fairbanks. Because as you may of guessed, my bags didn’t show up there either. 😉So $150 for 5 nights of delayed baggage. 

So, lessons learned...

1. Have a really strong luggage tag with your name, address, and phone#
2. Split your belongings between luggage with your spouse or cabin mate (we did this inadvertently, but will do it on purpose next time!)
3. I will no longer put baggage out unattended. In Denali and Fairbanks, I waited until they knocked on the door and then took their names. Alternatively, I will just be one of those annoying people who bring their baggage on the bus. There is room underneath despite what they tell you and several people did it on my cruisetour. 
4. Glad I got the insurance. I got a pretty cheap policy but it pays $200 for delayed baggage and up to $1000 for lost. I haven’t filed yet, so I’ll see how it goes. 

 

So the kicker..Guess who calls the night I get home? Yep, Princess. They found my bag. 🤷🏻‍♀️Apparently, the tags had ALL been torn off. BUT, it was suppose to be delivered today according to Fedex tracking. But is it here? Nope. It’s somewhere in Memphis, TN. Been sitting there since Sunday. Me thinks the bag is jinxed.

I have more tips. I’ll add as I think of them. 

[foggyphils]

Another thing about luggage, it was never “ready in our room” except in Fairbanks. 

Not In Anchorage or Denali. We had an excursion in Denali (ATVs)  a couple hours after our train arrived. But no luggage so we had to wear our traveling clothes. Not ideal but we made it work. So if you have an excursion planned soon after arrival, bring appropriate clothing on the bus/train with you. 

[foggyphils]

If your first stop off the ship is Anchorage (and perhaps those being picked up from the airport to start their land portion first), they don’t drop you off at your hotel. They drop you off at their hospitality center where you can check in carry ons. There will be a line and a bunch of people. We had planned to drop off our stuff at Captain cook Hotel and take the free shuttle to the Native Heritage Center. (It stops right in front of the hotel). Instead, they expect you to mill around for a couple hours and then be back at 3:45 for the shuttle to the hotel. Fortunately, the hotel isn’t too far away so we skipped all that nonsense.  So instead, we made a couple back and forth trips to the hospitality center then walked with our carry ons to the hotel. Everything turned out fine, but we should of been able to just drop our stuff off at Captain Cook. It’s a huge hotel. None of this was communicated until we arrived in Anchorage. Everyone was a bit confused. Especially the ESL and non English speakers. I saw them on the train the next day so I guess they figured it out 😉

[AKStafford]

For me, this is just more reasons to not book your land tour through the cruise lines. Rent a car and put together your own great trip.

[donaldsc]

Note to the OP, no need to YELL on your post.  I am sure that you did not realize it but a post w all large case letters is considered yelling.  You do have good ideas however.

 

DON