Skagway AK Landslide possibility causes itinerary "adjustments"...

[ImperialLady]

On 7/30/2022 at 11:25 AM, Ptroxx said:

Word on the street is they are tendering pax to Skagway. 
 

 

🤢 I detest tendering..too many people crowded into too small a space

[TAMU Dad]

Hope not too many passengers wanting to tender off such a large ship as the Discovery Princess @ Skagway.  They better drop as many lifeboat/tenders as possible on that size ship, if crowded, or displeased guests will exist.  Port has no tenders to assist.  Carnival Miracle used only 2 of their tenders on Saturday, but it's a much smaller ship.

[Renmar]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

That's not even counting the other berth with another ship in town.

 

For us, we will be there the same day as the Radiance. In theory between two ships, it could be upwards of 5K+ people in town - depending on how full both sailings will be.

 

 

Especially with our sailing being a late change, many people will have no tours planned given the last minute change to a port they haven't researched.

 

The line for the free gondola ride at ISP could rival Disneyland like wait time.

We will be in ISP on August 10 aboard the Royal (just changed from Skagway) and according to the port schedule there are 2 more behemoths in port, the Norwegian Bliss & the Quantum of the seas. Even of all 3 of them sail at 60% capacity there will be still about 8000 passengers in this small town. I whish that they had changed to Haines. So far there are no ships planned for Haines on August 10.

 

Theo

[JT1962]

4 hours ago, Renmar said:

. I whish that they had changed to Haines. So far there are no ships planned for Haines on August 10.

 

Theo

I agree this would be a better option, if no other ship is scheduled for Haines. They can still do excursions to Skagway as well using the fast ferry, if the port times are long enough.

[Cali Viajera]

Haines was a tender port disembarking but not on embarkation for us last month. Those who booked Skagway through Princess were taken by ferry to Skagway for their already booked excursions.

[deltaqueenie]

On 7/30/2022 at 12:25 PM, Ptroxx said:

Word on the street is they are tendering pax to Skagway. 
 

 

We were on the Discovery July 24-31, and did not go to Skagway due to (landslide reason stated in a letter to psgrs. the day before we were to be in Skagway). Why didn’t we tender? I asked several staff onboard, no one had an answer..
We had booked the White Pass Railway and were looking forward to it! Sitka was OK, but we preferred Skagway. Our cruise missed Endicott Arm with Dawes Glacier (due to ice), also disappointing.

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, deltaqueenie said:

We were on the Discovery July 24-31, and did not go to Skagway due to (landslide reason stated in a letter to psgrs. the day before we were to be in Skagway). Why didn’t we tender? I asked several staff onboard, no one had an answer..
 

I understand that the pier under normal circumstances has two docking positions. I think Discovery was scheduled to dock at the forward position where the landslide took out part of the pier.  If another ship was already scheduled to dock at the aft position they would have been using tenders to bypass the damaged pier.  I think I read that was the case.

[TAMU Dad]

Yes, Quantum of Seas was at aft dock on 28th in Skagway.  No one anchors/tenders at Skagway probably because the fjord is too deep to do so.

[nattie]

We are on Discovery boarding this Sunday (YAY!) and have received notification over the weekend that we are rerouted to Sitka instead of Skagway. They already have posted the excursions available on Personalizer and there are some decently good ones available. 

[Italy52]

12 minutes ago, nattie said:

We are on Discovery boarding this Sunday (YAY!) and have received notification over the weekend that we are rerouted to Sitka instead of Skagway. They already have posted the excursions available on Personalizer and there are some decently good ones available. 

Thanks for the information.  We are on the Discovery sailing on 8/14 and anxiously awaiting news of our Skagway port visit.  Guess we will have to wait until the weekend to see if we get any news.

 

Have a great cruise.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Italy52

[Sea Hag]

12 hours ago, deltaqueenie said:

We were on the Discovery July 24-31, and did not go to Skagway due to (landslide reason stated in a letter to psgrs. the day before we were to be in Skagway). Why didn’t we tender? I asked several staff onboard, no one had an answer..
We had booked the White Pass Railway and were looking forward to it! Sitka was OK, but we preferred Skagway. Our cruise missed Endicott Arm with Dawes Glacier (due to ice), also disappointing.

Did you go to Tracy Arm for Sawyer Glacier instead? That's what's supposed to happen if Endicott is too icy, but I suppose it could happen that both are too icy. 

[TAMU Dad]

30 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

Thanks for the information.  We are on the Discovery sailing on 8/14 and anxiously awaiting news of our Skagway port visit.  Guess we will have to wait until the weekend to see if we get any news.

 

Have a great cruise.

Your Skagway should be good to go as only 3 total ships visit during your day there.  Worst case scenario is tender only from Aft railroad dock.  Handicapped passengers only an issue for them in this scenario.

[azbirdmom]

34 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

Thanks for the information.  We are on the Discovery sailing on 8/14 and anxiously awaiting news of our Skagway port visit.  Guess we will have to wait until the weekend to see if we get any news.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

I think you'll make it to Skagway.  On August 18th there isn't a ship scheduled to be in the aft position at the railroad dock so I think they will simply shift the Discovery from forward to aft.  You'll likely have to tender off but you should be able to enjoy Skagway on your cruise.

[Ptroxx]

1 hour ago, nattie said:

We are on Discovery boarding this Sunday (YAY!) and have received notification over the weekend that we are rerouted to Sitka instead of Skagway. They already have posted the excursions available on Personalizer and there are some decently good ones available. 

I’m on discovery now.  And we are going to Skagway.    I think it has something to do with what ships are in port that day.    

[harryfat1]

So if the theory/pattern holds that Princess ships can dock at Skagway only when there's no other ship using the RRA dock, that would only leave the Discovery Princess going there every other week on alternating Thursdays.

 

Whereas Royal and Majestic are likely going to Sitka or ISP, depending on if they are going north or south bound.  Royal Princess is at ISP today instead of Skagway as the south bound ships have been going there on Tuesdays and Majestic will go to Sitka tomorrow on her north bound voyage instead of Skagway.

 

[D. B.]

I'm sailing on Royal August 20th. (14 nights) and we have stops at Skagway scheduled for Aug.24th. and Aug. 30th.

 I have not received any message from Princess if either or both of those visits have been affected.

    I would be disappointed if one or both get cancelled as I have independent excursions booked for them.

[stevenr597]

On 8/1/2022 at 12:32 AM, TAMU Dad said:

Hope not too many passengers wanting to tender off such a large ship as the Discovery Princess @ Skagway.  They better drop as many lifeboat/tenders as possible on that size ship, if crowded, or displeased guests will exist.  Port has no tenders to assist.  Carnival Miracle used only 2 of their tenders on Saturday, but it's a much smaller ship.

When we recently visited Skagway on Discovery Princess we were told the since Skagway is in a fjord the waters are quite deep, too deep to drop and ancho,r which would rule out tendering passengers into the port, unless the ship wanted to constantly use its thrusters.

[azbirdmom]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So if the theory/pattern holds that Princess ships can dock at Skagway only when there's no other ship using the RRA dock, that would only leave the Discovery Princess going there every other week on alternating Thursdays.

 

Whereas Royal and Majestic are likely going to Sitka or ISP, depending on if they are going north or south bound.  Royal Princess is at ISP today instead of Skagway as the south bound ships have been going there on Tuesdays and Majestic will go to Sitka tomorrow on her north bound voyage instead of Skagway.

 

With all of the other problems that the Crown Princess has been experiencing they at least have been scheduled for the Broadway dock with isn't affected by the closure.  One less thing for those on the Crown to stress over.

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, D. B. said:

I'm sailing on Royal August 20th. (14 nights) and we have stops at Skagway scheduled for Aug.24th. and Aug. 30th.

 I have not received any message from Princess if either or both of those visits have been affected.

    I would be disappointed if one or both get cancelled as I have independent excursions booked for them.

You may not hear from Princess until you get on the ship.

 

We are sailing this Saturday on the Majestic southbound.  On the cruise personalizer, under the "itinerary" tab, Princess swapped out Skagway with ISP for our sailing but officially Princess hasn't told us a thing on the port change.  No one from our roll call has received any communications from Princess on the port change. I suspect we will get a letter in our cabin when we board in 4 days telling us that they have switched ports.

 

Someone from our roll call is on the similar back to back Majestic sailings from Vancouver that departed last Saturday.  On their itinerary, on the north bound sailing, Sitka was swapped for Skagway and the southbound sailing (the one with us) will be stopping at Icy Strait Point.  If you look at cruise mapper online or Princess bridge cam, you will see that the Royal Princess is docked at ISP today instead of Skagway.

 

You might want to have a backup plan for going to Sitka and ISP for those 2 dates in case this pattern holds true for your sailings.  I had to do a crash course on ISP last few days watching YouTube videos on what to do at ISP as I was all prepared for Skagway.

 

We also booked independent tours for Skagway and I have been in contact with the owner telling her it's unlikely we will dock there next Tuesday.

[_rusty_shackleford]

They now have Sitka and ISP listed as alternate ports on my Royal itinerary leaving 3 September. The last few days have just had ISP so I suspect others are correct and it will be Sitka NB and ISP SB.

[mam11]

We're on the Grand, B2B starting Aug 17. Scheduled at RRF on Aug 21 and Aug 27- 3 ships and 4 ships respectively. So what are our chances? Website stills shows Skagway. 

 

[TAMU Dad]

12 hours ago, mam11 said:

We're on the Grand, B2B starting Aug 17. Scheduled at RRF on Aug 21 and Aug 27- 3 ships and 4 ships respectively. So what are our chances? Website stills shows Skagway. 

 

We r with u on 8/17 trip and we should be good, will know for sure when the Grand is due on 8/7 at Skagway with the same 3 ships.  We could even walk off on Ore dock verses tender from Aft RR dock.  My opinion, will not stop on return of your B2B, will stop elsewhere..

[Ramblin Wreck Cruiser]

6 minutes ago, TAMU Dad said:

We r with u on 8/17 trip and we should be good, will know for sure when the Grand is due on 8/7 at Skagway with the same 3 ships.  We could even walk off on Ore dock verses tender from Aft RR dock.  My opinion, will not stop on return of your B2B, will stop elsewhere..

We are on the Grand a week before you and received this notification from our travel agent several days ago:

 

Please be advised that due to the closure of the forward berth at the Railroad Dock, Grand Princess will utilize the rear berth for the duration of the call to Skagway, Alaska on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Out of an abundance of caution, the path adjacent to the dock will be closed and a ship-to-shore water shuttle service will be available to enable you to go ashore. As a result of this change, wheelchair access may be limited. 

 

I haven’t checked to see what other ships are scheduled to be in Skagway that day. We were certainly relieved though, as we were really looking forward to the White Pass Rail trip.

[TAMU Dad]

1 hour ago, Ramblin Wreck Cruiser said:

We are on the Grand a week before you and received this notification from our travel agent several days ago:

 

Please be advised that due to the closure of the forward berth at the Railroad Dock, Grand Princess will utilize the rear berth for the duration of the call to Skagway, Alaska on Saturday, August 13, 2022. Out of an abundance of caution, the path adjacent to the dock will be closed and a ship-to-shore water shuttle service will be available to enable you to go ashore. As a result of this change, wheelchair access may be limited. 

 

I haven’t checked to see what other ships are scheduled to be in Skagway that day. We were certainly relieved though, as we were really looking forward to the White Pass Rail trip.

From day one of the season Grand was to be at Aft RR dock on 8/13 but of course now will tender.

[harryfat1]

For 8/13, it looks like the Zuiderdam will need to move to another dock from RRF as there is only 3 ships in port that day so the Grand Princess will be able to tender in.

 

For 8/27 sailing, that may not work as there will be 4 ships in town.  The Grand may not be docking at Skagway that day.