Its Going to Be Majestic - Live Review Princess Majestic Cruisetour - June 10-22

[CruzeQueen2]

7 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

Absolutely - I’m JC (the bald one).  Eric is the one with hair.

 

We went to the IC before leaving the ship today. I pointed to the cookie tray behind the counter and got this.  It was delicious.  

Glad you found it to our liking.  Thanks for playing along.

I'm Donna - so nice to follow you on this thread. I'll back off now. Have fun!

[Stealthdog]

Day 4 activities.
 

6 ships were in port in Juneau today (2 NCL that appeared to share 1 dock station, 1 Celebrity, 1 Holland, 1 Viking, and us).  Poor Viking was the only one that tendered.  The rest of us docked.  
 

Was a beautiful day in Juneau - mid-high 40s and turned sunny in the afternoon.  We did a private tour - helicopter to the glacier.  Will post that info tomorrow because I have so many photos and have to organize them.  It was a trip of a lifetime and didn’t disappoint.  The glaciers and Denali are the two reasons we booked this cruise. 
 

The rest of the time off ship we walked around the downtown area, ate at Tracy’s and went souvenir shopping.  Tracy’s Crab Shack IMHO seemed like a tourist trap with insane prices.  I got the pork sliders and Eric got crab legs and cakes.  He enjoyed them but they were not worth the price.  We should have gone to Deckhand Daves instead - that was the recommendation from the locals who worked at the helicopter tour company.  We did get a local cider at Tracy’s that was pretty good.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Purple Gallinule]

Here is a screenshot I captured off the Juneau Harbor Webcam this morning as we arrived. 

[Stealthdog]

In Juneau we did a private tour booked through Shore Excursions Group called Helicopter Icefield Excursion.  The local vendor used was Coastal Helicopters.  This excursion was pricey (I think it was ~$400/person), but this was one the main reasons we booked this cruise.  Unlike in Ketchikan, it was a little bit of walk to go to the meetup place for the tour.  In Ketchikan the tour groups meet you right off the ship.  Only Princess tours gather right off the ship in Juneau.  It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the parking lot area towards downtown for the meet up location.

 

We were packed into a minivan and made an additional stop at the Celebrity Millennium to collect more individuals for the excursion then brought to the tour office at the airport.  They provide everyone overshoes to wear, store your bags in a locked footlocker, put you on a scale and weigh you, and require you to watch a short safety video.  There was a weight restriction and I presume the weighing is to distribute weight across helicopters used and on your specific helicopter.

 

After the safety video, the groups (6 per helicopter) wait outside to be loaded onto a helicopter for transport to the glacier.  You can bring water, phones, binoculars, etc with you.  The doors of the helicopters securely shut so you don’t need to worry about anything falling out.  On the helicopter they have headphones to help damper the noise and allow you to hear the pilot.

 

Our pilot was Oceana and she flew us to Herbert Glacier, which is a little past Mendenhall - you can see Mendenhall along the way.  While flying the pilot was able to point out some mountain goats to us and a few other interesting sites.  The flight time was about 15 minutes, and the ride was really smooth.  There was a few areas of wind pockets that I felt, but it was absolutely safe with great views over water and land.  
 

Once Oceana found a safe spot to land the helicopter, we got off and had about 15-20 minutes to explore the glacier.  We could see the crevices, which apparently can be hundreds of feet and heard a huge underglacier waterfall, which was awesome.  After a while, we loaded back up and flew back to the airport.  The company drove us back downtown and dropped us off wherever we wanted to go (restaurant, ship, shops, etc).

 

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  Walking on top of a glacier is something I never thought I would do.  It was Eric’s first time in a helicopter, so there was that added excitement too.  We both wore 3 layers, and that made the cold bearable.  A hoodie or earmuffs were useful and gloves might be good for some too.  Eric had a windbreaker style jacket and I had a cloth hoodie and they both worked.
 

Whether it’s through a private tour or a cruise line tour, taking a helicopter to a glacier is a must do for cruises at least once in their life.  If you are apprehensive of the helicopter ride, you can take ground transport to the welcome center at Mendenhall and still be able to see the glacier, but it’s not the same thing.  We would totally use Coastal Helicopters again.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

[Stealthdog]

Day 5 (Skagway) is a tender port. Looks like rockslides destroyed part of the docking area.  Information and instructions for tendering below.  Also Day 5 event list.

[CruzeQueen2]

1 hour ago, Stealthdog said:

In Juneau we did a private tour booked through Shore Excursions Group called Helicopter Icefield Excursion.  The local vendor used was Coastal Helicopters.  This excursion was pricey (I think it was ~$400/person), but this was one the main reasons we booked this cruise.  Unlike in Ketchikan, it was a little bit of walk to go to the meetup place for the tour.  In Ketchikan the tour groups meet you right off the ship.  Only Princess tours gather right off the ship in Juneau.  It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the parking lot area towards downtown for the meet up location.

 

We were packed into a minivan and made an additional stop at the Celebrity Millennium to collect more individuals for the excursion then brought to the tour office at the airport.  They provide everyone overshoes to wear, store your bags in a locked footlocker, put you on a scale and weigh you, and require you to watch a short safety video.  There was a weight restriction and I presume the weighing is to distribute weight across helicopters used and on your specific helicopter.

 

After the safety video, the groups (6 per helicopter) wait outside to be loaded onto a helicopter for transport to the glacier.  You can bring water, phones, binoculars, etc with you.  The doors of the helicopters securely shut so you don’t need to worry about anything falling out.  On the helicopter they have headphones to help damper the noise and allow you to hear the pilot.

 

Our pilot was Oceana and she flew us to Herbert Glacier, which is a little past Mendenhall - you can see Mendenhall along the way.  While flying the pilot was able to point out some mountain goats to us and a few other interesting sites.  The flight time was about 15 minutes, and the ride was really smooth.  There was a few areas of wind pockets that I felt, but it was absolutely safe with great views over water and land.  
 

Once Oceana found a safe spot to land the helicopter, we got off and had about 15-20 minutes to explore the glacier.  We could see the crevices, which apparently can be hundreds of feet and heard a huge underglacier waterfall, which was awesome.  After a while, we loaded back up and flew back to the airport.  The company drove us back downtown and dropped us off wherever we wanted to go (restaurant, ship, shops, etc).

 

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  Walking on top of a glacier is something I never thought I would do.  It was Eric’s first time in a helicopter, so there was that added excitement too.  We both wore 3 layers, and that made the cold bearable.  A hoodie or earmuffs were useful and gloves might be good for some too.  Eric had a windbreaker style jacket and I had a cloth hoodie and they both worked.
 

Whether it’s through a private tour or a cruise line tour, taking a helicopter to a glacier is a must do for cruises at least once in their life.  If you are apprehensive of the helicopter ride, you can take ground transport to the welcome center at Mendenhall and still be able to see the glacier, but it’s not the same thing.  We would totally use Coastal Helicopters again.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

A - MA-zing! Thanks for sharing the pics AND all the information. Ride of a lifetime, for sure. 

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by CruzeQueen2
word added

[corky4man]

Did the water shuttles start running before 8am?  We are suppose to meet our tour at 7:30.

 

[Stealthdog]

4 minutes ago, corky4man said:

Did the water shuttles start running before 8am?  We are suppose to meet our tour at 7:30.

 

I don’t think so.  It sounded like the first water shuttles were leaving at around 830.  It’s a hot mess.  All Princess excursions are leaving the ship late.  There are only 2 shuttles being used and they each can carry about 120 people.  We are in the theater waiting for our excursion to move off boat - looks like we will probably be at least 30-40 minutes late. This is the only port we booked the excursion through Princess, so I guess we are fortunate.  
 

it’s weird because there is a NCL ship right behind us and I was watching their passengers walk their ships gangplank onto the pier that we supposedly can’t use.  

[CruzeQueen2]

Good morning SkagwayI I can see this from your ship's bridge cam.

Here's my question. Is the tender dropping people off where I see the metal gangway with the blue cover? Very strange indeed. Then do they shuttle you via bus farther along the way? 

 

It looks like you are being tendered to just past where the barrier is located at the rock  slidel site.

I thought the tender might take you to the dock at the end of Broadway...

We only had the bus shuttle in May, no tender.

 

Nevertheless, enjoy your excursion in Skagway when you get there. Another sunny day!

Have a fried dough treat  from the vendor on the side street, at 5th? or some popcorn while in town.

In Canada the dough treat is called a beaver tail, in Boston I think it's called a whales tail! Always tasty. 

Enjoy!

Edited June 14, 2023 by CruzeQueen2
Missing words

[Stealthdog]

Quick update - we had a 845 time for the theater and got off the water tender around 945, so we are probably about 30 minutes behind.  

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

I don’t think so.  It sounded like the first water shuttles were leaving at around 830.  It’s a hot mess.  All Princess excursions are leaving the ship late.  There are only 2 shuttles being used and they each can carry about 120 people.  We are in the theater waiting for our excursion to move off boat - looks like we will probably be at least 30-40 minutes late. This is the only port we booked the excursion through Princess, so I guess we are fortunate.  
 

it’s weird because there is a NCL ship right behind us and I was watching their passengers walk their ships gangplank onto the pier that we supposedly can’t use.  

The problem is that the dock where you are would place passengers directly on the pier under the slide area. They have done remediation and part of that is too install monitors in the slide area that would give a couple of minute warning if a slide started. This is enough time that busses from the rear dock could clear the slide area, but not enough time for passengers walking or exiting/entering the ship at the front dock to clear the area. That is why the ship at the rear dock offloading onto the pier, but they cannot walk to town, they must be bussed, while the passengers at the front dock have to be tendered from the ship and cannot use the pier.

[Stealthdog]

18 minutes ago, ldtr said:

The problem is that the dock where you are would place passengers directly on the pier under the slide area. They have done remediation and part of that is too install monitors in the slide area that would give a couple of minute warning if a slide started. This is enough time that busses from the rear dock could clear the slide area, but not enough time for passengers walking or exiting/entering the ship at the front dock to clear the area. That is why the ship at the rear dock offloading onto the pier, but they cannot walk to town, they must be bussed, while the passengers at the front dock have to be tendered from the ship and cannot use the pier.

that makes sense.  I saw all the passengers lining up in front the rear of our ship.  They must have been waiting for the buses to take them past us.

[Stealthdog]

2 hours ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Good morning SkagwayI I can see this from your ship's bridge cam.

Here's my question. Is the tender dropping people off where I see the metal gangway with the blue cover? Very strange indeed. Then do they shuttle you via bus farther along the way? 

 

It looks like you are being tendered to just past where the barrier is located at the rock  slidel site.

I thought the tender might take you to the dock at the end of Broadway...

We only had the bus shuttle in May, no tender.

 

Nevertheless, enjoy your excursion in Skagway when you get there. Another sunny day!

Have a fried dough treat  from the vendor on the side street, at 5th? or some popcorn while in town.

In Canada the dough treat is called a beaver tail, in Boston I think it's called a whales tail! Always tasty. 

Enjoy!

They tendered us to the far side of the rock barrier you see at the bottom of your picture.  The actual tender ride was maybe 5 minutes.  They only had two tenders to use and I guess Holland America was sending one of theirs to speed up the process.  
 

once we were dropped off, we walked the rest of the way to the tour pickup location.  There were no buses for us.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Mike & Zen]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:17 PM, ldtr said:

2 questions

 

1. Is the Catch by Rdui, the new specialty dining venue open?  It shows on my DMW but indicates no availability.

 

2. Is the Hollywood pool area adults only or are they allowing children in on Alaska cruises (I hope not)?

Stealthdog, I’ll answer question No. 2.  You can take that one off your “things to do list.”

 

The Hollywood Pool Club/Conservatory are open for everyone.  The rules for children in the pool are posted on the bulkhead in the pool area under, “Please note:” and “For your safety and comfort:” in the “Swimming Pool - Health and Safety Advisory.”

 

[maggieq]

9 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

In Juneau we did a private tour booked through Shore Excursions Group called Helicopter Icefield Excursion.  The local vendor used was Coastal Helicopters.  This excursion was pricey (I think it was ~$400/person), but this was one the main reasons we booked this cruise.  Unlike in Ketchikan, it was a little bit of walk to go to the meetup place for the tour.  In Ketchikan the tour groups meet you right off the ship.  Only Princess tours gather right off the ship in Juneau.  It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the parking lot area towards downtown for the meet up location.

 

We were packed into a minivan and made an additional stop at the Celebrity Millennium to collect more individuals for the excursion then brought to the tour office at the airport.  They provide everyone overshoes to wear, store your bags in a locked footlocker, put you on a scale and weigh you, and require you to watch a short safety video.  There was a weight restriction and I presume the weighing is to distribute weight across helicopters used and on your specific helicopter.

 

After the safety video, the groups (6 per helicopter) wait outside to be loaded onto a helicopter for transport to the glacier.  You can bring water, phones, binoculars, etc with you.  The doors of the helicopters securely shut so you don’t need to worry about anything falling out.  On the helicopter they have headphones to help damper the noise and allow you to hear the pilot.

 

Our pilot was Oceana and she flew us to Herbert Glacier, which is a little past Mendenhall - you can see Mendenhall along the way.  While flying the pilot was able to point out some mountain goats to us and a few other interesting sites.  The flight time was about 15 minutes, and the ride was really smooth.  There was a few areas of wind pockets that I felt, but it was absolutely safe with great views over water and land.  
 

Once Oceana found a safe spot to land the helicopter, we got off and had about 15-20 minutes to explore the glacier.  We could see the crevices, which apparently can be hundreds of feet and heard a huge underglacier waterfall, which was awesome.  After a while, we loaded back up and flew back to the airport.  The company drove us back downtown and dropped us off wherever we wanted to go (restaurant, ship, shops, etc).

 

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  Walking on top of a glacier is something I never thought I would do.  It was Eric’s first time in a helicopter, so there was that added excitement too.  We both wore 3 layers, and that made the cold bearable.  A hoodie or earmuffs were useful and gloves might be good for some too.  Eric had a windbreaker style jacket and I had a cloth hoodie and they both worked.
 

Whether it’s through a private tour or a cruise line tour, taking a helicopter to a glacier is a must do for cruises at least once in their life.  If you are apprehensive of the helicopter ride, you can take ground transport to the welcome center at Mendenhall and still be able to see the glacier, but it’s not the same thing.  We would totally use Coastal Helicopters again.

 

Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Amazing pictures!  Thank you so much for sharing 😊 

[CruzeQueen2]

@Mike & Zen Thank you for posting the officer board.

Thank you for posting the board from the Hollywood Pool. Very clearly stated. No room for mis-interpreting what it says!

Thank you for pointing out that stealth dog deserves time off. He has posted and responded MORE than enough to our questions and queries.Thank you, JC and Mike & Zen.

 

Enjoy your cruise everyone there, on board. I wish I was on the ship with you...

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, Mike & Zen said:

Stealthdog, I’ll answer question No. 2.  You can take that one off your “things to do list.”

 

The Hollywood Pool Club/Conservatory are open for everyone.  The rules for children in the pool are posted on the bulkhead in the pool area under, “Please note:” and “For your safety and comfort:” in the “Swimming Pool - Health and Safety Advisory.”

 

 When I was last on the Majestic they had the same rules board posted, but then they had a sign (metal sign on a gold colored background on a moveable post at the entrance) that stated adults only.  Sounds like they are doing the same as they did in Australia and removed that sign.

Edited June 15, 2023 by ldtr

[Stealthdog]

8 hours ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Nevertheless, enjoy your excursion in Skagway when you get there. Another sunny day!

Have a fried dough treat  from the vendor on the side street, at 5th? or some popcorn while in town.

In Canada the dough treat is called a beaver tail, in Boston I think it's called a whales tail! Always tasty. 

Enjoy!

No time for that today.  Got back from excursion at 530pm.  Because we had to tender, we didn’t have any time to linger in town.  Needed to get on the ship and get in line for the PUPPIES!

Edited June 15, 2023 by Stealthdog

[gottagoacruzn]

Gonna but the picture of you an puppy?

[Stealthdog]

1 minute ago, gottagoacruzn said:

Gonna but the picture of you an puppy?

Unfortunately people were camping out in line for hours like it was a Taylor Swift concert.  We ended up getting right in front of the pen and got to watch them.  Was good enough this time.  I want dog time in Denali though!

[gottagoacruzn]

Sorry if I wrote that wrong, i meant to say buy the picture.

[gottagoacruzn]

Oh, the puppies look so cute.

[Stealthdog]

On Day 3 the naturalist on board narrated our passage through some areas after we left Ketchikan.  He was broadcasted in the World Market and into the stateroom TV on the live channel.  For about an hour, he pointed on sightings of whales, porpoises, and seals for us to look for.  It was really nice - some of them where really close to the ship.  You can see the blows from the whales from far away.  The seals were laying on a red buoy (which is hard to see on the picture).  The binoculars were really helpful for this activity.  The photos don’t do it justice because it was hard to capture the whales fin waves after they finished their breaches.  

 

 

[Stealthdog]

Our faith in the MDR has been restored the last couple of nights.  We decided to switch it up a little and went to Concerto to give Allegro a break from us - I imagine the staff in Allegro are terrified whenever they see us approach.

 

Day 4 was Italian Night.  We switched up our strategy and ordered just about everything from the menu that was not steak and figured something would be good.  Everything was good - we particularly liked the lasagna.  The chicken Parmesan gets a shoutout as well.  One of the staff was live preparing a meal on the dining floor as well that was good.  He was calling it penne arrabiata ala Indonesia.  It was fairly spicy and garlicky.  The veal was bad either.
 

Appetizers the prosciutto and melon was the way to go.  I was expecting the arancini to really pop with flavor because of the truffle, but it was a little bland.
 

For desert the tiramisu was great, but the soufflé was a little dry.  

Edited June 15, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

Day 5 we returned to Concerto and the theme was Chefs Recommendation (sorry, forgot to take a photo).  It was also a very good night for the food.  
 

Beef carpaccio desert and the lamb were the stars of the night.  We are always hesitant to get lamb because so many places overcook it.  But, the chef prepared it very well - I think it came out medium rare.  We also shared a carbonara which was pretty good.

 

The bruschetta was a little disappointing - the tomatoes were season and prepared nicely, but the break portion was boring and tasted like white toast you can get at breakfast.  The cobbler and chocolate tart were both great for dessert, but the chocolate cheesecake was disappointing.