Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

harryfat1 · September 29, 2022

After breakfast, time to get back to the cabin to pack up the backpack to get ready for a day in Juneau. Yes, this time I made sure I have my wallet as I need to pay for the shuttle bus to go to Mendenhall Glacier.

A HAL ship pulled in to dock next to us. Here’s how they feel about Alaska:

Another view of NCL ship as with the tender boat in the background:

The gangway is on deck 6. We are at the Franklin dock, which is pretty far south so we have a few minutes walk to get to the central area where the tours are sold:

Before we get there, how about those mooring lines? Alaska piers don’t let you come near them like the ones in Caribbean or Mexico.

Al righty, let’s walk out there. Good thing it wasn’t raining.

harryfat1 · September 29, 2022

Few pics of the NCL ship as they seem so lonely out there by themselves and must tender in

Here’s the back side of the Majestic Princess – with no wrap around rear end. I prefer my ships to be like the Oasis class ships with nice big round backside.

All ships should have a backside like this:

Speaking of round back side, time to queue up my favorite rap song:

As we are in the Pacific Northwest, seems only appropriate to use the video from Seattle Symphony (with 11.9 million views, it can’t be bad)…

caribill · September 29, 2022

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Yeah, I understand we can’t forecast tides months/years out and due to the size of the Royal Class ships not able to squeeze in underneath the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver during high tides.

My post was sarcasm (as wowzz recognized).

Tides can be predicted into the future far longer than needed. At the time an itinerary is set for anywhere in the world, Princess can easily determine what the tide situation is for every port.

When an itinerary change due to tide levels is announced as late as Princess has been doing, it is basically an admission that either those setting up the itineraries have no idea of how tides can affect schedules or are incompetent in their jobs.

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

I think at the minimum, Princess should have an asterisk on the south bound itinerary for the entire season with a disclaimer “Due to unforeseen tidal conditions, your port time is subject to change for your sailing. Please check your cruise itinerary regularly to ensure the estimated port times will be applicable on your sailing”.

Not necessary if Princess would run the calculations (or just ask Mr., Google) at the time an itinerary is announced. The published itinerary should take tide conditions into account from the start.

harryfat1 · September 30, 2022

22 hours ago, caribill said:

My post was sarcasm (as wowzz recognized).

Tides can be predicted into the future far longer than needed. At the time an itinerary is set for anywhere in the world, Princess can easily determine what the tide situation is for every port.

When an itinerary change due to tide levels is announced as late as Princess has been doing, it is basically an admission that either those setting up the itineraries have no idea of how tides can affect schedules or are incompetent in their jobs.

Not necessary if Princess would run the calculations (or just ask Mr., Google) at the time an itinerary is announced. The published itinerary should take tide conditions into account from the start.

Sorry, my apologies. Bad day at the office yesterday and just read your post quickly and took it at face value.

harryfat1 · September 30, 2022

OK. Kiosks selling whatever Juneau tours you want.

I was a bit surprised by how aggressive some of the vendors are as we walked passed them in trying to hustle up some business. I had some walking around not in these kiosks asking me if I need help signing up for a tour. Not as aggressive as Cabo vendors when you get off the tender boat but I was taken back a bit for an American city.

Maybe because it was still early in the morning and not many people walking around the pier area so some people were trying to drum up some business in asking everyone walking around.

The "blue bus" is pretty famous in taking people to Mendenhall and that's what we did this time. We went with them back in 2009 and it was WAY cheaper back then at $14 round trip. Now it's $45. How much inflation is that annually? We must be in developing country or something.

The blue bus is the far one on the right. If you zoom in, you might be able to see the $45 price. When I was researching for the cruise, I was surprised how much the price jumped as I knew back in 2009, it wasn't that expensive.

Sure enough, went back to my photo archive and found the same blue bus selling for $7/one way back then.

harryfat1 · September 30, 2022

Anyway, the “blue bus” shuttle run every 30 minutes at the top of the hour and bottom of the hours from both the docks and at the Mendenhall side.

The Blue Bus is run by the M&M tours people and you can reserve it online if you like or just book it when you get off the ship. Since there’s no economic advantage to booking early, I opted to pay on the spot in case we ran into heavy rain that day, then we will just skip Mendenhall for the day.

https://www.mmtoursofjuneau.com/

I knew ahead of time that the cost to get to Mendenhall was $45/pp. Yeah, pretty steep for just a shuttle transfer. Ports in Caribbean/Mexico would give you a half day tour of the island for that price. In Alaska, you get to ride on a school bus for 20 minutes each way.

Your other option is take the city bus that will drop you off like 1.3 miles away from the visitor center and then you have to walk on your own to get there.

Same for Uber/Lyft type of ride shares. They aren’t allowed to drop you off right at Mendenhall. You also have to trek the 1.3 miles one way path on your own.

Since we had 2 things planned for Juneau, time is more important than cost.

As we had time to kill before the next bus arrived, we walked around the pier area. It’s been awhile since we were back in Juneau, I don’t recall any of this boardwalk area from previous visit. Anyone recall when this was built?

I also don't remember this sign from the past

Nor the sculptors

Tram to go up to the mountain - the one at ISP seems to go up to the higher mountain top but that's newer and I'm sure they built that one to beat the Mount Roberts Tram - well, it used to be called that. Now it's Goldbelt. Yeah, whatever...

Description

Many YouTubers stop here for seafood. Some spent over $100 for 2 people. Too rich for Cheapo Dad. Easy pass on this one.

harryfat1 · September 30, 2022

Tourist Visitor Center. Never met a visitor center I didn’t like. For the +9 level anal people like yours truly, free tourist info is never a bad thing whereas the boys couldn’t care less about tourist info as they looked at their phones while I was inside.

OK, Finally it's time for the blue bus.

Anyone misses their school bus days? Well, this bring back memories...

Maybe other companies uses the more fancy buses for their glacier tours. If anyone has taken them, leave a comment below.

More fancy buses. Even a "green bus"

Way back in 2002 in our first Alaska cruise, we did a city tour as well as Mendenhall but that was too rushed as our time at Mendenhall was limited. We wanted just do a shuttle and can come and go as we please (well, assuming we make it back before ship sails...)

Essiesmom · September 30, 2022

I remember the blue bus at $7 in 2010but I also remember the tram as $16. By the time I returned in 2013, tram was $33. EM

4x4bob · September 30, 2022

Your photos of the Kiosks brought back a funny memory. A few years ago the Wife Unit convinced all of her In laws and Out laws to come with us on a cruise to Alaska.

Her Brother-In-Law convinced her brother that when they arrive at Juneau that if they wait awhile until the ship empties out and the dock is clear of people the Kiosks operators will negotiate on the price of a tour. Me being a graduate of the 6th grade, was smart enough not sign on to their plan.

So the two of them hurried into town as soon as the ship was cleared. They poked around for little while then headed back to the dock.

Part 1 of plan. Dock was clear of people, check. Part 2 of plan approach Kiosks, whoops, they are all shut down and operators have left the area.

That night at dinner in the MDR I asked them what tour did they finally go and how much did they save? Mumble Mumble pass the butter.

Could you repeat I did not understand what you said. 😁 Finally they fessed up. They did not go anywhere. But, hay, they did save a nickel.

Bob

Edited September 30, 2022 by 4x4bob

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

15 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

I remember the blue bus at $7 in 2010but I also remember the tram as $16. By the time I returned in 2013, tram was $33. EM

That's very high inflation of 25% to double in 3 years. I bet many people were unpleasantly surprised at the price increase.

Now it's $45 to take the tram up.

Maybe in 10 years when I next go back to Alaska, we might do the tram just to check it off the list but I feel I get a higher mountain ride at the ISP gondola at $49.

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

12 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

Your photos of the Kiosks brought back a funny memory. A few years ago the Wife Unit convinced all of her In laws and Out laws to come with us on a cruise to Alaska.

Her Brother-In-Law convinced her brother that when they arrive at Juneau that if they wait awhile until the ship empties out and the dock is clear of people the Kiosks operators will negotiate on the price of a tour. Me being a graduate of the 6th grade, was smart enough not sign on to their plan.

So the two of them hurried into town as soon as the ship was cleared. They poked around for little while then headed back to the dock.

Part 1 of plan. Dock was clear of people, check. Part 2 of plan approach Kiosks, whoops, they are all shut down and operators have left the area.

That night at dinner in the MDR I asked them what tour did they finally go and how much did they save? Mumble Mumble pass the butter.

Could you repeat I did not understand what you said. 😁 Finally they fessed up. They did not go anywhere. But, hay, they did save a nickel.

Bob

That's a great story.

So your wife unit lets you deviate from the rest of the family? Did you guys booked your own tour?

When on vacation, time is money. You are only in port for X number of hours so you must take advantage of the time when you do have it. Trying to wait out the workers at the kiosk doesn't sound like a good usage of time.

Not to mention those are probably employees of the company that have no say in price reduction. It's not as if you are negotiating with a taxi cab driver in Caribbean/Mexico trying to get a good deal on rates as the driver can set his own rate.

The workers at the kiosk may not have any leeway to change prices. Even if you do get a reduction in price of $5 or $10/pp, you probably lost an hour of valuable time waiting for everyone to clear out.

Well, I guess they got to walk around downtown Juneau to check out the Diamonds International store...

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

On the way to Mendenhall on the blue bus, the driver told pointed out various info about the capital city of Alaska. I’'s the only one where there there’s no road to/from the outside due to glaciers all around.

You can only get to Juneau either by plane or ship. The road they have only gets out of town for so far and it comes to an end. Thus if you commit a crime where people knows who you are, you won’t be able to drive out of town.

There’s a Costco in town where many people from the neighboring small towns like Hoonah comes periodically on the ferries to load up on groceries as we saw how expensive some items are. There was a Walmart there also but it was closed and another major brand took over but I forgot the name. If anyone knows, please leave a comment below.

So, we made it to Mendenhall Glacier. Since it’s a US park, you will see park rangers around to answer any questions. You get a glimpse of the glacier in the background.

First thing first, walk up the ramp to the top of the hill where visitor center is located.

Parking area

Here is where the we will be soon – Nugget Falls on the right side of the picture. Meanwhile, guess who took these picture with foreground? Not me…

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

Here is the view from the visitor center. One of the better viewing spots a US National Park visitor will provide as with other national parks, their visitor centers are located from far from the main attraction so there are no views there.

For Mendenhall glacier, the view up here is very nice as it has good seating and protected from the outside in case it’s raining on the day of your visit.

We typically only see the “face” of an glacier but behind them are miles of miles of ice

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

The most striking display is the one that showed how much of the glacier has receded throughout the years

For me, it’s sad to see so much of the Mendenhall has receded. This is our 3^rd visit to Juneau and we’ve always came to Mendenhall Glacier but the face has narrowed a lot since 2009.

Here are pictures we took back in 2009

These are the pictures from 2022. Sad to see so much of the face has receded

Zooming in to see more of the mountain now showing

I told the boys at this rate of shrinkage, by time they bring their kids here, the face of the glacier may not even be touching the waterline anymore

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

Few more pictures of the area from the top before we venture down to hike the 2 mile trail to the Nugget Falls

That's where we will be going next. If you can see the people by the bottom of the Falls, you can see how big the Falls is

dani negreanu · October 1, 2022

On 9/30/2022 at 8:59 AM, harryfat1 said:

I also don't remember this sign from the past

It was there in July 2013 😉

4x4bob · October 1, 2022

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

That's a great story.

So your wife unit lets you deviate from the rest of the family? Did you guys booked your own tour?

When on vacation, time is money. You are only in port for X number of hours so you must take advantage of the time when you do have it. Trying to wait out the workers at the kiosk doesn't sound like a good usage of time.

Not to mention those are probably employees of the company that have no say in price reduction. It's not as if you are negotiating with a taxi cab driver in Caribbean/Mexico trying to get a good deal on rates as the driver can set his own rate.

The workers at the kiosk may not have any leeway to change prices. Even if you do get a reduction in price of $5 or $10/pp, you probably lost an hour of valuable time waiting for everyone to clear out.

Well, I guess they got to walk around downtown Juneau to check out the Diamonds International store...

To answer your question about us going on our own Tours. I signed up for a Photo Safari that went out whale watching then a hike through the forest that came out above Mendenhal Glacier. The three ladies rushed into town to go shopping which would give a average husband a chill just thinking about that. The other two men, after missing out on a tour, went back to town to visit Diamond International for their free gift. 😆

When we travel with family or friends, my rule is, we are not joined at the hip. Can go and do separate things. Can you imagine three families standing on a street corner, each pointing a different direction that they wanted to go? 😬

Bob

Edited October 1, 2022 by 4x4bob

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

7 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

It was there in July 2013 😉

Hi Dani,

Thanks for the picture and time reference. I wonder if there's any connection between the build out of the pier area and the price increase from 2009 to 2013?

Meaning they must have spent millions of dollars to construct a nice port area in anticipation of Alaska cruises expanding in the next few decades. Almost every Alaska bound ship stops at Juneau so the nicer port area is good for tourism and can charge more fees.

I dug back to my 2009 photos and noticed some areas that are no longer there in 2022 so that must be the area they built out and put up the sculpture

Back then, the tour kiosks were facing the other direction (waiting for Bob's in law family that never showed up) and the greenery area is now gone

Back then we walked off on some old wooden pier. The current pier area has much nicer newer wood per my posts above

The coast guard dude means business:

wowzz · October 1, 2022

27 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

The coast guard dude means business:

You never know when those Somalian pirates might appear !

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

6 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

To answer your question about us going on our own Tours. I signed up for a Photo Safari that went out whale watching then a hike through the forest that came out above Mendenhal Glacier. The three ladies rushed into town to go shopping which would give a average husband a chill just thinking about that. The other two men, after missing out on a tour, went back to town to visit Diamond International for their free gift. 😆

When we travel with family or friends, my rule is, we are not joined at the hip. Can go and do separate things. Can you imagine three families standing on a street corner, each pointing a different direction that they wanted to go? 😬

Bob

Oh, yeah, outdoor shopping where the wife unit goes from door to door is the worst. At least inside the mall shopping you can find some sitting area as most malls have places for the bored/tired spouses to sit and play with their phones. Door to door shopping means you must tag along to have a vague idea where they are on any given street.

I read awhile back that the difference in shopping habits between men and women stems all the way back to the cave ages.

Men shop (hunt) with a purpose in mind – go kill a boar for food/go buy some a pair of jeans. Check list shopping if you will.

Women shop with some vague idea but not a true list in mind. I always ask my wife – so what are we getting at the store? She always says – I don’t know yet. I will see what they have and then decide. This is from the old days where men hunt and women forage around the home forest area gathering whatever is available.

The worst type of shopping experience is when they try on different clothes and they ask if it looks good on them – does it make me look fat or make my behind too big? You’d better think twice/three times before answering those no-win questions…

Don’t get me started on one of my pet peeves in life – large groups of clueless people standing at important junctions talking/blocking the way trying to decide where to go/what to eat. We go to Disney parks all the time and it never ceases to amaze me that a large group just standing in middle of sidewalks/key junction points trying to decide what ride to go on next or where to go for lunch/dinner.

As if they didn’t have more than enough time to think about it while standing in the 30+ minute lines or they can just stand off to the side by the fence somewhere to talk amongst themselves but had to stand in key areas so people have to walk/through their party of 10+ blocking the way…

And silly people thought they are reading this thread to learn about Princess Alaska cruise…

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

20 minutes ago, wowzz said:

You never know when those Somalian pirates might appear !

Oh, yeah, I feel safer already...

CruzeQueen2 · October 1, 2022

16 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

The most striking display is the one that showed how much of the glacier has receded throughout the years

For me, it’s sad to see so much of the Mendenhall has receded. This is our 3^rd visit to Juneau and we’ve always came to Mendenhall Glacier but the face has narrowed a lot since 2009.

Here are pictures we took back in 2009

These are the pictures from 2022. Sad to see so much of the face has receded

Zooming in to see more of the mountain now showing

I told the boys at this rate of shrinkage, by time they bring their kids here, the face of the glacier may not even be touching the waterline anymore

Great photos and information. Thank you for sharing!

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

Couple more pictures of the area and then off to see Nugget Falls:

Walking down from the visitor center above

All signs point to this trail:

harryfat1 · October 1, 2022

Time to walk the trail to the Nugget Falls – per the sign, it’s 2 miles around trip. Easy paved flat service for most of the way.

More bear warnings on the right but given it's summer tourist season and hundreds/thousands of cruise passengers come by regularly, not sure if there will be any bear sightings in August