Anchorage hotel

[mjdgarth]

We start our land tour on June 16th in Anchorage. My TA is telling me that she doesn't know the hotel yet. Think that's right ? I would think they would know that by now. I'm not real impressed with her services so far. We booked a year in advance and she can't guarantee me accessible rooms ??!! If anyone knows what hotel it is.... please share !!

[HMK8273]

Princess says on its website hotel rooms for the first night of your tour aren't available until 21 days before the tour starts. So I think you are a little early for June cruise tour.

 

We are doing a cruise tour starting in Anchorage on May 19 - I had my TA call Princess on Monday (still early but they had the info) to confirm we are starting in Hotel Captain Cook - and we are - because we fly to Anchorage on May 17 and booked 2 nights on our own pre-tour. Chances are you will be there too but there is another hotel that Princess uses - I think the Marriott - so don't pre-reserve anything (if you need to) until you know. We didn't want to have be in one hotel for 2 nights and then move to meet the tour.

 

Hotel Captain Cook staff were awesome. I emailed some questions about how to book all of this because i didn't want to change rooms once I was there - so we reserved the same level of room that would be included in the tour and all we need to do is tell the front desk on the day of check-in for the tour that we are already at the hotel in a room and they will take care of the rest. All easy via email and a quick phone call to change things - after our flights got changed (thank you Delta!) made things even easier. Everyone was helpful and they even offered a deal on the room over the phone - not sure it is still available - if we prepay one night, we saved money - so I went for it - so doesn't hurt to ask if there are any deals beyond what the website offers.

[mii]

If you go the Ports of Call board and then to Alaska there is all sorts of info on Anchorage hotels there. Maybe do a search.

 

Marilyn

[Colo Cruiser]

Its probably because your TA does not really know!!

 

As Toto stated the hotels are not released until much closer to the cruise.

[mjdgarth]

I'm really not trying to bash my TA, but when you travel with your DH who is in a wheelchair you want to make sure everything is in order. Our seats on the plane are rows 20 and 43 !! I told her from day one to keep in mind that he is in a wheelchair !! She said she would try and get ahold of different seats for us. I am definitely going to keep getting really excited about our trip !!

[HMK8273]

When you wrote "accessible" in your original posting - I thought something may have been missing. Didn't realize this was a wheel chair accessibility issue. If the rooms haven't been assigned yet, give it some time and see what comes up. I can't imagine the hotel not being able to switch rooms for you if things don't work out as you planned up front.

 

For the flights - if she can't get you assigned seats that meet your needs, ask when you check in - I would think someone would be willing to swap with you if the gate attendants asked around. Some seats don't get assigned until the day of the flight - so you will still have some hope if your rows don't change. Did you try changing your seat assignments online yourself? I don't know if you can do that if you booked your airfare through a TA but worth a try.

[katisdale]

We did a cruise tour on the Island Princess last season. For the first time we reserved an accessible room on the ship as my condition had deteriorated and I found it necessary to bring a scooter instead of just a rollator. Every room we were assigned including at the Cook Hotel was accessible. I found this to be very helpful. The only problem was that the last transfer from Denali Lodge to the one and Wrangel/St. Elias and from there on the the ferry to at Valdez was on a large bus which I had great difficulty getting into as the steps are very steep. The train however is very accessible if that is part of your tour.

[sbflcruiser]

We are also traveling in June, we will be in anchorage from June 16-18 and have been confirmed since the final payment date at the Hotel Captain Cook. It also shows up in the personalizer section of the Princess website, as the Hotel we will be at. We booked additional nights there directly as it was much cheaper for our group than direct with Princess. So maybe check in the Personalizer under itinerary and see what it list.

[CandCrew]

We are also traveling in June, we will be in anchorage from June 16-18 and have been confirmed since the final payment date at the Hotel Captain Cook. It also shows up in the personalizer section of the Princess website, as the Hotel we will be at. We booked additional nights there directly as it was much cheaper for our group than direct with Princess. So maybe check in the Personalizer under itinerary and see what it list.

 

Not to hijack the thread but when you say it's under the itinerary in the cruise personalizer, will it be under the "comments" section? I'm assuming this shows up after final payment is made no later than 75-days out?

[leoandhugh]

I am suggesting that you have a TA problem - one who is not willing to go the extra mile. We travel with wheelchair and scooter, always book an accessible hotel room and handicapped accessible cabin on the ship. We have always been able to find out months in advance which hotel they booked us in - and it was not always the one they use for most of their cruise/tour pax. We, at one time, had a TA like you are experiencing. From that point on, we always book directly with the cruise line so that we bypass an ineffective middle-man. I want to be able to talk directly to the cruise line and usually talk to someone in the Special Needs department.:)