The 2025 Overplanners Thread

[SightCRR]

Here is another option but the most important thing is the date and if the bears will be there. Not sure when this video was shot. Another source for tours is youtube as almost every detail of your trip will have some video. Look for the personal ones and not the ad ones and newest the better. 

Ketchikan Alaska | Bears bears bears! Our favorite excursion of the cruise | Part 4 (youtube.com)

 

[trvlgirlmq]

On 10/1/2024 at 2:55 PM, MistyRo76 said:

Another over planner here! ✋

 

Currently also working on our first Alaska cruise which will be August, 2025 out of Seattle. We are spending two nights in Seattle pre-cruise and one post-cruise. Our flight doesn't get into Seattle until 8PM so that day will just be getting to the hotel and sleeping. We are cruising on the Carnival Spirit to Tracy Arm Fjord, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria, BC. On this trip it will be myself, my husband, our daughter (10), my sister, and a friend. I started my vacation spreadsheet long ago along with planning every minute detail. After a planning lull over the very busy summer, I'm back in the thick of it. 

 

Our plans so far are: 

Seattle - I've only been to Seattle for work and the rest of the fam has never been. So, we want to see as much as we can on this visit. We are staying downtown at the Hotel Max pre-cruise. Looking at doing the City Pass to get entry to Space Needle & Seattle Aquarium and three other attractions - thinking of Chihuly Garden & Glass, Museum of Pop Culture and a harbor cruise tour. May do the harbor tour the morning we board the ship. On our post-cruise day, I'd like to visit the Museum of Flight as I work in avaition and have always wanted to go. Also interested in the Underground Tours, Pike's Place Market, Mariners game or stadium tour. Plus we love to try local foods! 

 

Tracy Arm Fjord - will be purchasing the ships tour on the smaller boat to get closer views of the sites. 

 

Juneau - Likely booking a Whale Watching Tour. Considering Harv & Marv's or Jayleen's. Would like to try to combine it with the salmon bake if timing works out. We're in port 7AM-3PM. 

 

Skagway - Looking at doing a combo train/sled dog tour. The #1 thing my kiddo wants to see is the sled dogs. Huskies are her absolute favorite dog (don't tell that to our Portugese Water Dog though! lol). In port 7AM-8PM. 

 

Ketchikan - Only in port 7AM-1PM, which is a bit disappointing to me, cause it looks like there's tons we'd love to do here. But given the busyness of our other stops and expensive excursions, we may just make this a chill day and explore the immediate port area on foot. Check out the totems, creek area, shops, local museums, food and maybe take in the Lumberjack show. 

 

Would love any other suggestions on things I might not have uncovered yet! 

This is our itinerary as well on July 1. We plan on 2 days in Seattle arriving late afternoon. We will probably walk down to the waterfront area just to check it out. Our full day will be Chihuly, looking at the space needle (not going up), and Pike Place Market.

 

we have booked 3 excursions with the cruise line. It’s so much easier with my mom who has some mobility issues. We are doing the Tracy Arm excursion, whale watching in Juneau and for Skagway a trip on the train then gold panning and sled dogs. We will just walk around Ketchikan since it’s a short day.

 

Really looking forward to all the beautiful scenery.

[peety3]

2 hours ago, trvlgirlmq said:

We are doing the Tracy Arm excursion, whale watching in Juneau and for Skagway a trip on the train then gold panning and sled dogs.

Is Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm on the same day as Juneau? Two tips for the Tracy Arm excursion:

 

First, if you're so inclined, go to the shore excursions desk and ask about the meeting place for the Tracy Arm small boat tour. It's likely in the theater. Ask, perhaps even beg, them to have someone from AV be there and connect the bridge cam to the projection screens so while you're stuck in the wonderful but utterly windowless theater, you can all see what's outside. Their excuse is always that none of the shorex people are allowed to touch the AV gear.

 

Second, if by chance they are using two boats for the tour, lie about what time your Juneau tour is and make sure you're in the group that'll be on the first boat back to the ship. If there's only one tour boat, it doesn't really matter (you just want to be at the front of the line to get off the tour boat), but if there are two tour boats they will designate one of them to be back at the ship first and unload first; you absolutely want to be on that boat (unless your Juneau tour is not for HOURS after the supposed finish time of the small-boat tour). This is the voice of experience speaking...we figured when they were asked anyone with tours before 1:30 that we were fine for a 2:00 tour. Alas, we were not. Our bus had already left by the time we got out there at 1:55. It was an easy fix by saying the magic words: "we were on another ship's tour and had you checked the computer, you'd have seen that we didn't reboard the ship until 1:45 and had to walk across the ship then exit to the gangway and this was the earliest we could have been here" at which point they realized their oops. (Turns out the small boat tours that pick you up from the side of the ship have certain rather strict regulations: they have to wait until the ship confirms everyone made it back onto the ship, all of the trash has to be placed on the ship for the ship's crew to handle, and sometimes the ship security boards the tour boat and checks the trash cans for stowaways. The tour boat also comes back to the ship and ties up to the same tender platform where you boarded the tour, and you MUST reboard the ship from the non-dock side via that tender platform and check back in; that puts you on deck 4 on the other side of the ship at a time and place when lifts (elevators) are hard to come by. I usually end up carrying 20-25 pounds of photo gear so I'm not super quick walking up the stairs...)

 

It's a great tour and you'll be super glad you did it.

[trvlgirlmq]

@peety3 our Tracy Arm day is completely separate from any other port day.

[peety3]

Overplanners rathole #7257: Future Cruise Deposits

 

Princess lets you buy FCDs for $100pp, which you can then redeem as a $100 deposit for a future cruise. (The cruise still costs the same price, just lowers the size of the deposit far in advance.) They now require that the FCDs be redeemed within one year or they're automatically refunded to the card used. So, time for me to "overplan":

 

We had a great two-day repositioning cruise to introduce our son to the world of cruising. We're already booked for an Alaska cruise next June, right after school is out. I don't want to book more cruises until we're back from that June cruise, but boy am I anxious. We're partial to Alaska cruises since we live in the Seattle metro area and they're convenient from here, summertime is our most flexible season, and we really enjoy the beauty of Alaska.

 

So...time to overplan, right? My thought is to buy three sets of FCDs (a "set" being three deposits, for the three of us) while we're on our June 2025 cruise:

The Monday after our cruise, I'll call up my travel agent and book a June 2026 cruise with the first set. We'll know the 2025-2026 school calendar by then, so we'll be locked and loaded for that cruise.

On that same call (or email), I'll book a June 2027 cruise with the second set. My assumption is the Alaska cruise calendar would have been announced 2-3 months earlier. I can estimate the 2026-2027 school calendar, knowing that my son's school starts on the first Tuesday of September and counting out 39 weeks from there (my assumption is they'll have the same relative professional development/conference/holidays every year), so we'll have only a minor risk that we picked the wrong dates and could certainly change dates once the school calendar comes out in January 2026.

I'd hold onto the third set of FCDs until the 2028 Alaska cruise calendar is announced around March 2026. I'd make the same estimation of when his school year ends, knowing that we could adjust dates January 2027 if needed.

 

Then...when we do the June 2026 cruise, we'd buy one set of FCDs. In March 2027, we'd use those FCDs for a 2029 cruise. At this point, we'd be on a lather/rinse/repeat cycle of buying one set of FCDs on each cruise to use for three years out. My risk is if the cruise calendar is delayed so much that the FCDs expire, but we'd end up on another annual cruise vacation right around the time they expired so I could buy two sets on that next cruise to give us a reset.

 

Any flaws in my plan, aside from giving Princess a small interest-free loan that far in advance?

 

I figure we'll alternate through the "Seattle Saturday Glacier Bay" run, the "Seattle Sunday Endicott Arm" run, and the "Tuesday Vancouver Glacier Bay" run for a little variety (my kid loves trains, so we'd take Amtrak north to Vancouver and the Skytrain, spend the night at the Pan Pacific, do our cruise, then either store our bags at the Pan Pacific for the day or spend another night there before coming home.

[Marylandteachergirl]

18 hours ago, peety3 said:

Overplanners rathole #7257: Future Cruise Deposits

 

Princess lets you buy FCDs for $100pp, which you can then redeem as a $100 deposit for a future cruise. (The cruise still costs the same price, just lowers the size of the deposit far in advance.) They now require that the FCDs be redeemed within one year or they're automatically refunded to the card used. So, time for me to "overplan":

 

We had a great two-day repositioning cruise to introduce our son to the world of cruising. We're already booked for an Alaska cruise next June, right after school is out. I don't want to book more cruises until we're back from that June cruise, but boy am I anxious. We're partial to Alaska cruises since we live in the Seattle metro area and they're convenient from here, summertime is our most flexible season, and we really enjoy the beauty of Alaska.

 

So...time to overplan, right? My thought is to buy three sets of FCDs (a "set" being three deposits, for the three of us) while we're on our June 2025 cruise:

The Monday after our cruise, I'll call up my travel agent and book a June 2026 cruise with the first set. We'll know the 2025-2026 school calendar by then, so we'll be locked and loaded for that cruise.

On that same call (or email), I'll book a June 2027 cruise with the second set. My assumption is the Alaska cruise calendar would have been announced 2-3 months earlier. I can estimate the 2026-2027 school calendar, knowing that my son's school starts on the first Tuesday of September and counting out 39 weeks from there (my assumption is they'll have the same relative professional development/conference/holidays every year), so we'll have only a minor risk that we picked the wrong dates and could certainly change dates once the school calendar comes out in January 2026.

I'd hold onto the third set of FCDs until the 2028 Alaska cruise calendar is announced around March 2026. I'd make the same estimation of when his school year ends, knowing that we could adjust dates January 2027 if needed.

 

Then...when we do the June 2026 cruise, we'd buy one set of FCDs. In March 2027, we'd use those FCDs for a 2029 cruise. At this point, we'd be on a lather/rinse/repeat cycle of buying one set of FCDs on each cruise to use for three years out. My risk is if the cruise calendar is delayed so much that the FCDs expire, but we'd end up on another annual cruise vacation right around the time they expired so I could buy two sets on that next cruise to give us a reset.

 

Any flaws in my plan, aside from giving Princess a small interest-free loan that far in advance?

 

I figure we'll alternate through the "Seattle Saturday Glacier Bay" run, the "Seattle Sunday Endicott Arm" run, and the "Tuesday Vancouver Glacier Bay" run for a little variety (my kid loves trains, so we'd take Amtrak north to Vancouver and the Skytrain, spend the night at the Pan Pacific, do our cruise, then either store our bags at the Pan Pacific for the day or spend another night there before coming home.

 

[Marylandteachergirl]

Will Pan Pacific let you store bags even if you didn't stay that night/or aren't staying that night (but you have in the past) with a generous tip?  I am wrestling with the flying home after ending in Vancouver, too.  Most of the flights back to the east coast (US) leave very late.

 

Thank you!

[peety3]

4 hours ago, Marylandteachergirl said:

Will Pan Pacific let you store bags even if you didn't stay that night/or aren't staying that night (but you have in the past) with a generous tip?  I am wrestling with the flying home after ending in Vancouver, too.  Most of the flights back to the east coast (US) leave very late.

 

Thank you!

I have heard they will, and/or perhaps there are lockers there.

[curry767]

@Marylandteachergirl for luggage storage, I use a company all over the world called Bounce. They have a very good app and looking at Vancouver I can see a storage place just 5mins walk from Vancouver Place and it gets very good reviews. This location is also on Google Maps as "Bounce Luggage Storage - Howe".

 

It's also a very convient location for Waterfront Station to get to the airport, if the train is on your radar.

[curry767]

@peety3 Have to say, I'm pretty jealous with so many Alaskan cruises, sounds awesome. I reckon your best off asking your FCD question is the Princess Forum of Cruise Critic.

For 2026 onwards, be aware that Juneau is starting to restrict cruise ships in town. Being that Juneau is on most Alaskan cruise lines itinerary, it may have a sizeable impact on the offerings. One to bear in mind.

I suspect we may see more of this in other Alaskan ports as well.

I would also advocate for doing a one way out of Vancouver and spending some time in the interior of Alaska before flying back to Seattle.

[peety3]

3 hours ago, curry767 said:

@peety3 Have to say, I'm pretty jealous with so many Alaskan cruises, sounds awesome. I reckon your best off asking your FCD question is the Princess Forum of Cruise Critic.

For 2026 onwards, be aware that Juneau is starting to restrict cruise ships in town. Being that Juneau is on most Alaskan cruise lines itinerary, it may have a sizeable impact on the offerings. One to bear in mind.

I suspect we may see more of this in other Alaskan ports as well.

I would also advocate for doing a one way out of Vancouver and spending some time in the interior of Alaska before flying back to Seattle.

For 2026, the schedule is already published, and I suspect every line's 2026 Alaska schedule is also published so Juneau will have a hard time shaking the tree. Regardless, if we aren't booking our 2026 cruise until June 2025, I'm sure any 2026 adjustments will have been worked out by then.

For 2027 and beyond, yes I do suspect there's a risk of schedule changes. I think the biggest adjustment is Juneau saying no cruise ships on Saturdays, but if I'm doing a Saturday-Saturday or Sunday-Sunday round-trip out of Seattle, there's no way for us to be in Juneau on a Saturday. The Tuesday-Tuesday RT out of Vancouver could be impacted depending on port sequence, as would the Wednesday NB/SB runs.

I don't think this will impact other Alaska ports. They will see dollar signs to pick up what Juneau is dropping, and the cruise lines will start apply pressure all around the US if Juneau pushes too hard and/or other cities try to jump on the bandwagon.

 

[curry767]

7 hours ago, peety3 said:

For 2026, the schedule is already published, and I suspect every line's 2026 Alaska schedule is also published so Juneau will have a hard time shaking the tree. Regardless, if we aren't booking our 2026 cruise until June 2025, I'm sure any 2026 adjustments will have been worked out by then.

For 2027 and beyond, yes I do suspect there's a risk of schedule changes. I think the biggest adjustment is Juneau saying no cruise ships on Saturdays, but if I'm doing a Saturday-Saturday or Sunday-Sunday round-trip out of Seattle, there's no way for us to be in Juneau on a Saturday. The Tuesday-Tuesday RT out of Vancouver could be impacted depending on port sequence, as would the Wednesday NB/SB runs.

I don't think this will impact other Alaska ports. They will see dollar signs to pick up what Juneau is dropping, and the cruise lines will start apply pressure all around the US if Juneau pushes too hard and/or other cities try to jump on the bandwagon.

 

You may well be right, but I know of some cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have not published their 2026 sailings for Alaska yet. Bottom line will be some impact, regardless of days of the week as I understand it's max 5 ships per day with a total of 16,000 people from 2026 onwards. I believe the residents of Juneau just voted down the no cruise ships on Saturday, but there is a reduce limit of 12,000 people for that day. It simply means more cruise lines vying for reduced slots and as you say they will have to go elsewhere which will upend their entire schedules. Princess may well be in a good position due to their history in Alaska?