Alaska Connoisseur Land / Cruise Tour June 14 to July 1, 2023

[WVHillbilly]

On 7/31/2023 at 8:29 PM, Paula_MacFan said:

Thank you for the very informative land and cruise review!  We are doing a similar trip next May.  Your information is very helpful and I enjoyed reading your report 🙂 

Thank you

[WVHillbilly]

Final thoughts on the Land Tour:  I was glad we did the 10-day land tour as we got to see so much of Alaska, I had such a good time I told family and friends that if I were younger, I’d move to Alaska.  The only complaint I had was that two days at each lodge was not enough, one day is basically a travel day so you only have one full day at each lodge, several of us would have liked to have an extra day at each lodge. The connoisseur tour includes most meals as well as a dedicated tour director.  Our tour director was Susan Halseth, she has been in Alaska for more than two decades.  Her love of Alaska shined brightly in every story she told, she also would give us maps of things to do on our lunch breaks in Anchorage and Palmer.  Susan made our dinner reservations each night and gave out detailed itineraries for each day.  I don’t know if we made out with the included meals, but I enjoyed the benefit of ordering whatever I wanted.  I will say that our evening meals cost around $60-$80 a piece easily, we took advantage of ordering meals that were unique to Alaska.  The last half of June must have been prime mosquito season, they started the feast as soon as we got off the plane in Fairbanks, so don’t forget the repellant.  The temps were in the 50-60s each day, which was cool for that time of year they kept telling us.  We only had a few sprinkles for an hour or so.  The lodges were very nice, and the staff was very friendly and helpful.  The lodges at Mt. McKinley, Kenai and Copper River are remote so your only choices for dining are at the lodges.  Fairbanks has dining a short walk away at Pikes Landing and of course anywhere in town is accessible by taxi or uber and Denali has several establishments across the road to choose from.

[WVHillbilly]

Final thought on the Grand Princess:  I’ve only been cruising since 2018 and have been on seven Royal Caribbean ships from their smallest to biggest, this was my first Princess cruise.  I wanted a smaller ship for this itinerary so we could do the inside passage.  I also like the older ships as they feel like you’re on a ship and not in a hotel on the water.  The Grand is a beautiful and well-maintained ship.  The Di Vinci dining room was where we ate for about 5 nights and the food was served hot and I liked nearly everything that we ate.  Had breakfast sandwiches several mornings at International Café along with our coffee, it was a great place for breakfast before heading into the ports.  The buffet was well organized and easy to get around.  The ocean medallion was very convenient to unlock your cabin door when you approached, ordered room service once while in Glacier Bay and it came pretty quick, ordering drinks was a hit or miss thing. 

 

Our room attendant was very good, he talked to us on embarkation day and told us he would be doing two services a day and he always greeted us in the hallway.  MDR waiter and asst. waiter did an excellent job, although most nights we only had the waiter working our table, I just assumed they were short staffed, but it didn’t affect our dining experience in the least.  The bar staff were good although it did take some time to get their attention most evenings. The ship’s internet was sluggish and nonresponsive at times.  We didn’t use any of the pools but did use the hot tubs several times, the bubbles didn’t work in the covered Calypso Pool but were working in the outside pool. The hot tubs were hot and soothing both times we used them.

 

Comparing Royal to Princess; one difference was the dress of the MDR waiters, the white coats and evening dress seemed to be a step up.  Another difference is all of the Royal ships that I’ve sailed on have crew reminding everyone to wash/sanitize their hands before coming in to eat; I didn’t see a push by the crew to remind people to washy washy.  If anyone has any questions I’ll try my best to answer them.

[Thrak]

Do you remember the name of the Cruise Director?  The thread listing the officers has been missing this info for Grand Princess for quite some time and we will be sailing that ship soon.

[WVHillbilly]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

Do you remember the name of the Cruise Director?  The thread listing the officers has been missing this info for Grand Princess for quite some time and we will be sailing that ship soon.

Sorry I don't recall his name.