We just got back from our Alaska trip! I will post detailed blogs about our trip but I wanted to get a short review up for people who are going this summer. Feel free to post any questions in the meantime or send me an e-mail!
About Us
Chris and I are a married couple of DINKS (Double Income No Kids) in our early 30′s and do not plan to have kids in the future. We live near Dallas, Texas but are originally from Los Angeles, California. This was our 4th cruise and 3rd cruise in the last 2 years. We have sailed Disney twice and Royal Caribbean once but this was our first Princess cruise. We don’t really have a budget so we did everything we wanted to but tried to save money on those activities, if we could without feeling like we had to compromise. We used the TourSaver coupon book and it saved us hundreds of dollars!
We did not do a cruisetour and booked our land portion (2 nights in Anchorage, 2 nights in Denali, train to Whittier, and Prince William Sound cruise) independently, though we used Princess for the Denali portion. Other than the Vancouver Overview tour before flying home, we also booked all our excursions independently.
Anchorage
Our flight from DFW was 7 hours long but at least it was non-stop. We arrived in Anchorage at 7 pm and took a taxi to the Historic Anchorage Hotel in Downtown. It was a great location and very close to shops and restaurants! The weather was windy and cool but once I started walking around, I took off my jacket. We had dinner at Glacier Brewhouse. The wait was 2 hours! But we didn’t have to wait if we ate shared a table at the bar so that’s what we did. We met other people from our cruise at the table as well as some locals. The food was really good. I had halibut and Chris had salmon. After doing a little souvenir shopping, we went to bed. The constant daylight didn’t bother me much but I didn’t sleep well that night because our room faced the street and we had to leave the windows open since there was no air conditioning. There were roudy bar folks until about 4 or 5 am and the mew gulls (like seagulls but they live inland) wouldn’t shut up. I guess cause it’s always daylight, they think they should be squawking.
Anchorage to Denali
The Historic Anchorage Hotel has free breakfast of hot waffles, pastries, toast/bagels, oatmeal, cereal, and hard-boiled eggs. I wasn’t crazy about their breakfast because I try to eat a lot of protein but I was able to get by with hard-boiled eggs and a bagel with peanut butter.
We are not on a cruisetour but we booked a rail package from PrincessLodges.com that included train to Denali on Princess glass-domed rail cars, 2 nights at Denali Princess, and motorcoach back to Anchorage, using a TourSaver 2-for-1 coupon so it cost us $587 for 2 people. We stored our 2 large suitcases at the Historic Anchorage Hotel for no additional cost and only took our 2 smaller suitcases with us to Denali. We walked to the train depot, which was only about 1-2 blocks away downhill with stairs but it would be difficult if you had more than one suitcase per person. We checked in with Princess and checked our luggage. We carried on a backpack and my backpack purse. The Princess rail cars are really nice. The assigned tables are upstairs and the dining room, bathroom, gift shop, and observation deck are downstairs. Even though the tables are assigned, there is a benefit to arrive early because which side of the table you sit on is not assigned so if you get there before the other party, you can choose to sit facing forward or backward. We shared a table with a lady and her son and they both sat at the window so Chris and I sat across from each other. Eventually, the son went to another table with his cousins so Chris sat with me and the mom had a bench to herself. We dropped off half of the passengers in our rail car in Talkeetna so we were able to move to another table on our own once those passengers disembarked. Lunch was served after the Talkeetna stop. Chris had reindeer chili and I had a crab salad sandwich. Both were very good but the chili portion was a bit small, even though it is considered an entree. Prices for lunch ranged from $11-12, not including drinks or tip (no tax!). I spotted a black bear in the river bed while eating lunch! Scenery from the train was great, though the ride was long so we dozed during parts of it.
Princess handed out our room keys right on the train so when we arrived at Denali Princess, we didn’t have to check in and went straight to our room. We had dinner at the Denali Salmon Bake and the food was very good. Chris had halibut fish and chips and I had grilled salmon. FYI – They do not do breakfast boxes anymore and their lunch boxes will only be delivered if you order at least 6 of them.
The Husky Homestead Tour picked us up from the hotel and took us to their dog camp. Right when you get off the bus, they put puppies in your arms! Some of the puppies were sleepy since it was already evening and feel asleep while being held. Other puppies were howling and giving kisses! Absolutely adorable! We watched them hook up dogs for a training run and the dogs all went crazy because they wanted to run! We got a presentation from one of the trainers as well as Jeff King. Jeff King is a riot! It was very interesting to learn about the Iditarod and dog mushing.
Denali
Got breakfast and lunch to go from Subway and boarded first Princess shuttle at 7 am to Wilderness Access Center. Arrived at 7:10 am. We booked Eielson shuttle tickets for 8:30 am but got on the 7:30 am Eielson shuttle via standby. It drizzled the entire day but was very rainy when we arrived at the Eielson Visitor’s Center. We had lunch there, put on our rain pants, and then took the ranger-led Eielson Stroll. It was very rainy and windy the whole time so that already made this walk uncomfortable. A group of 4 actually aborted halfway through because they were not dressed properly. I found the Stroll to be very boring. The ranger talked about animals but A LOT about plants, which were not interesting to me. I think the talk was geared towards kids because it had an Olympic theme to it. I would not recommend it personally. Instead, I would have skipped the Eielson Stroll and done my own hike. I heard great comments about the trail to Horseshoe Lake but by the way time we returned to the park entrance, it was pretty late and we had dinner reservations to get to. During the entire bus trip, we saw a mama grizzly bear with 2 cubs twice, numerous dall sheep, wolf, 3 wolf pups, red fox, ground squirrel, snowshoe hare, moose, and caribou!
We had dinner at the King Salmon Restaurant in Denali Princess. It has the atmosphere of a fancy restaurant but everyone dresses casually. I ordered the King Crab Legs and it was the BEST crab legs I have ever had in my life!! SO DELICIOUS!! Chris had a salmon pasta dish that was also great! I’m really glad that I had crab legs, salmon, and halibut before our cruise. During our cruise, we found that we did not have time to eat lunch in port because of our excursion schedule. If you have a lot of excursions booked, make sure you eat all your “must eats” ahead of time!
Denali to Anchorage
We got breakfast from Subway again and were scheduled to do the Wilderness Run Rafting excursion this morning. When the driver arrived to pick us up, he informed us that the excursion was cancelled because we were the ONLY ones who booked it! He offered us spots on the Canyon Run instead, which is up to Class III whitewater rafting. We were very hesitant to do this. Chris cannot swim and was very worried he would fall off and drown. The driver convinced us they have not had anyone go overboard this year and that about 1 in 1000 go overboard and they were not following instructions. We decided to go ahead and go. What a blast! It was an AMAZING trip and a ton of fun! Even Chris loved it!! We had lunch at Prospector’s Pizza and decided to have another local recommendations of ground elk, reindeer sausage, and buffalo mozzarella pizza. It tasted a lot like sausage pizza and was very good! We boarded the motorcoach to Anchorage but it made a stop at Mt.McKinley Princess to pick up additional people. I’m glad we got to see this hotel, which reminded me of summer camp because it was much more spread out with really “lodge-like” buildings. Taking the motorcoach back, instead of rail, was cool because we got to really drive through some of the small towns and get a different perspective than we did on the train. Once back in Anchorage, we decided not to go to a sit down restaurants and instead got reindeer sausages (served like hot dogs) from a street vendor in the park for dinner.
Back at the Historic Anchorage Hotel, we found out that the room we stayed in the first night, room 215, was haunted! A bride who was abandoned by her fiance hung herself there and there were reports that she still haunts it. I’m glad we didn’t find out until after we stayed in that room and thank goodness we didn’t have any experiences ourselves! This night, we got a room that faced the alley and it was much quieter. The room was a lot bigger too and handicap-accessible. By the way, Jessica the night receptionist is absolutely wonderful and very sweet!
Whittier
Breakfast at the hotel again. Since we had 2 pieces of luggage each, we decided to take a taxi to the Train Depot this time. The ride was $5. We booked the Glacier Discovery train to Whittier directly through Alaska Railroad. (There is no GoldStar option on this train.) We checked our bags in with Princess and they forwarded them to the ship. We only kept our backpack and my purse again. The seats are assigned so you don’t get to choose which way you face or which table you sit at. In our railcar, all the passengers got seats upstairs. There are large windows but the ceiling isn’t glass like on the Princess rail cars. I didn’t find this train ride very scenic, even though I’ve read reviews that it was. However, I was tired and did sleep through a portion of the ride. It was pouring rain in Whittier so we put our rain pants on while still on the train.
We walked off the train and right there was a rep from Major Marine. We took their Prince William Sound cruise and would highly recommend it! Their buffet lunch was surprisingly delicious! We didn’t expect much but the food was really good. Once we saw our first glacier, they also offered glacier ice cocktails and iced tea! It was still rainy and windy throughout the cruise but we braved the elements and went out on the top deck at each glacier we stopped at and when wildlife was spotted! We were some of the few who did this so the deck was never crowded. During the cruise, we saw several glaciers calve up close, whales, seals, kittiwakes, bald eagles, and sea otters. When the cruise ended, we walked next door to the Island Princess check in and there was no line. Our luggage was already in the room. We had dinner after the muster drill and spent the evening unpacking. It was actually sort of dark when we went to bed. That evening, we had rough seas. It was rocking and rolling all night.
I’m going to go ahead and include my ship review now…
Room
We booked a BH balcony guarantee and winded up with a BD balcony. We were assigned a room under the Lotus Pool. I’ve read on CC that the crew moves pool chairs around in the early morning and it sounds like a stampede of elephants so I requested to have our room switched to A620, which is on the port side (recommended here on CC) and under the Salon/Spa. The only time there was noise was around 11 pm one night for about an hour. It sounded very squeaky, like they were cleaning lots of glass.
The room was a bit smaller than what we are used to on Disney but I think they did a great job in using the space. (For example, there is no sofa or large coffee table in the way.) I LOVED the closet! It was very large and open with no doors. I think it really maximized the space. There is also a flat-screen TV. The bed was very firm, as people have reported, but we found it very comfortable and didn’t need an egg crate. Our room steward was wonderful! She accomodated all our requests and we didn’t have any problems with her. There were little things on Princess that we loved, like chocolates every night, robes, and a free reusable shopping bag in our room. (We also got a free larger bag at Denali Princess.) The refridgerator was also much better than the ones we have had on other cruise lines. The balcony was a good size. I recommend that you make sure your balcony is covered. It was windy and rainy in Hubbard Glacier. When we looked down on the other balconies, the uncovered balconies were empty and when people did go out on them, they didn’t stay long. This includes the corner bump cabins too. Since they stick out, they were not protected from the wind and rain either. Our cabin was only 2 away from the aft bump and I was worried about not seeing around it but it wasn’t an issue at all. I couldn’t see the back of the ship but the wildlife spottings and glaciers were not THAT close to the ship so we could see everything fine, including whales!!
My biggest complaint about the room is the shower. It’s tiny. I had to turn off the water to shampoo, condition, and soap without water hitting me. The shower curtain is also the attack-type and attacked me constantly. It would take up half the shower space. I think Princess should do a better job in weighing the curtain down.
Food
We had breakfast in the buffet every morning. The selection was probably the best we have seen on a cruise. They even had congee, Chinese rice porridge, and rice!! I love to eat rice with corned beef hash and happily ate this every day, in addition to alternating between eggs, bacon, and toast. We used the omlette station on sea days. The OJ was watered down, like on other cruises. Breakfast was very good.
We had lunch once in the Main Dining Room and I thought it was horrible. I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and the cheese they used was not Cheez Whiz nor regular cheese. It was some powdered mix and it was disgusting. It was the most disappointing thing I ate onboard. We also were not thrilled with the lunch buffet. There wasn’t anything that was particularily fabulous. After that, we just got burgers or pizza from The Grill and Pizzeria by the pool for lunch. They were VERY good! The pizza crust is so crispy! We also had afternoon tea on the last day at sea. The waiters brought around trays of sandwiches, scones, cookies, and desserts. They were good but not very filling. I would feel guilty for taking too many because the trays emptied quickly.
We had all of our dinners in the Main Dining Room and we had Anytime Dining. On the first formal night, we tried to eat at 7 pm and we had to wait for 35 minutes. After that night, we tried to have dinner between 6-6:30 pm and didn’t have to wait. The general experience I was finding out from others that coming between 7-7:30 pm resulted in a 20-30 minute wait. We were flexible in sharing a table and shared a table every night, except for one. We were usually put at tables of 8 or 10. It was nice chatting with other cruisers about their experiences. (If I mention “I heard from other cruisers”, it was probably someone we met during dinner.)
The food in the Main Dining Room was fabulous! I loved the variety and choices. I enjoyed every dish I had! I also loved having cheese for dessert, which was a new experience for me! I absolutely hated the iced tea though. It was always very bitter and strong, even when I drank half of it and diluted it with water! I winded up drinking soda or water after the first couple of nights. We had different waiters every night. Some were great and made you feel really taken care of, while others we were lucky if they told us their name. For the most part, the service was great! On 2 nights, we also brought our own sodas that we bought in port into the Dining Room and we did not have any problems. The waiters didn’t make us feel bad or anything.
Ship
Island Princess celebrated her 7th birthday during our last sea day! (They had a birthday cake for her at the Dessert Buffet.) I didn’t notice anything in the public areas that showed her age (unlike when I was on Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas). I never really felt like the ship was crowded, except when waiting for a table for dinner in front of the dining room and at the Lotus Pool on the last sea day. However, I like the Royal Promenade that is on the Royal Caribbean ships better than the layout of the shops and lobby area of the Island Princess. It was really annoying trying to go between Decks 5-7 (the most popular public areas) when they closed the staircase for photos!
We signed up for the Ultimate Ship Tour and were really excited to be the first ones to sign up on Embarkation Day. However, they called us the evening before our last sea day when the tour was scheduled and they told us it was canceled because we were the ONLY people who signed up for it! 
Very disappointing. I can’t believe we’re the only ones out of almost 2,000 passengers who signed up!!!! Grrr…hopefully, we’ll get to do it next time.
Entertainment
We’re really not the type to see shows unless they involve Disney characters. But we decided to see the Comedian Kevin Hughes after hearing rave reviews about his first show during dinner. We loved him! He was hilarious and we saw his 2 other shows! We laughed so much that we were crying! We also watched the magicians Kalin and Jinger. They had some really good acts but also some of it was not as impressive. We pretended to be judges on “America’s Got Talent” and we would have definitely buzzed them a few times. =)
Overall, I’d love to sail Island Princess again! I’m actually considering sailing her through the Panama Canal in the future.
Hubbard Glacier
I organized the Meet & Mingle for our CC roll call. We didn’t have anyone commit to coming so I didn’t notify Princess or coordinate with them because I didn’t want officers attending and it was just me and Chris! We winded up having 10 people attend with 6 people wearing the shirts I designed! Yay! I also made magnets and postcards with our cruise logo on them to hand out at the meet. We chatted for about 45 minutes to an hour. After lunch in the Bordeaux Dining Room, we hit the hot tub and Lotus Pool, which is completely indoors. The pool was cool but not cold and comfortable enough to swim in. I found out later that the Lido Pool is actually heated so it is actually warmer than the Lotus Pool but it is outdoors so when it’s not raining, the Lido Pool might be a better and less crowded bet.
Hubbard Glacier scenic cruising began around 5 pm. First, we went out on Deck 15 but almost all of it has a railing wall that makes it impossible to take photos. Also, the wind blew rain into our faces, making it too hard to see. We went back to our balcony to watch the rest of it and it was much better. It continued to be windy and rainy but the covered balcony protected us from the elements. We also saw a small calving. The ice was amazingly blue there.
Formal night: We took formal photos and then tried to eat at 7:15 pm but there was a wait. We winded up doing the Champagne Waterfall while waiting for dinner and got a great photo as well as appeared on the cruise DVD! We didn’t get into dinner until 7:50 pm so we missed the Magic Show that night. We hit rough seas during dinner and our table felt like it was bobbing up and down but it calmed down by bedtime.
Glacier Bay
We had the Champagne Breakfast on our balcony beginning at 10:30 am, as we sailed into Glacier Bay. It was a bit windy and cool but not too cold and we got by wearing our robes over our clothes (didn’t need jackets). We listened to the Ranger Presentation on the balcony by cranking up the volume on our TV. After breakfast, we alternated between watching glaciers from balcony and the “secret” viewing deck on Deck 10 forward. There were only about 8 people there and it was great as we approached the glacier but once the ship starting turning, it was a bit pointless and it got warm facing the sun. We wore long-sleeved shirts and pants as a base and then alternated between a fleece, windbreaker, or warm jacket on top. The weather went from cold due to the wind chill to warm while facing the sun.
While on the secret deck, we had a great view of a harbor seal resting on an iceberg that as about to get run over by our ship. As the ship approached it, he started to scoot himself to the edge of the iceberg. He gave us one angry look and dove off the iceberg. He was probably thinking, “I was here first! You suck!” From our balcony, we saw Marjorie Glacier give us a good calving and saw whales while cruising out. Again, the covered balcony helped with the wind and also the sun. A large pod of whales were also spotted around 8 am and then again after 7 pm but we didn’t see them (wasn’t awake that early and was at dinner).
Went to dinner at 6:30 pm and saw the Kalin & Ginger magic show that evening.
Skagway
We booked the Yukon Rail & Bus Tour with Dogcart Ride through Chilkoot Charters. Chilkoot Charters took us to the Rail Depot and we boarded our train car. Unlike the trains we took in Anchorage and Denali, this train has a vintage feel to it. We rode the train to Fraser, British Columbia and saw some gorgeous views along the way. It was really cool to see the rail bridges perched so high up in the mountains and then cross over them! You also have to go and stand out on the platform a couple of times. It’s amazing to hear the clanking of the train and feel the wind blowing in your hair! Chilkoot Charters picked us up in Fraser and drove us to Carcross and Emerald Lake. The motorcoach was a small one, not one of those big huge ones used by the cruise line. We had several scenic photo stops along the way, including the “Welcome to Yukon” sign, Carcross Desert, Lake Bennett, and Emerald Lake. The stop at Caribou Crossing was very rushed. We only had an hour to eat lunch and do anything else we wanted to do before leaving. The BBQ lunch was very good. The chicken was tender and those cinnamon donuts were some of the best donuts I’ve ever had. We had pre-booked the dog cart ride and I highly recommend that you do so if you think you might want to go on it. There were others on our tour that decided they wanted to do it when they got there but could not get a time slot before our bus left so they missed out. The dog cart ride was a lot of fun! The dogs were dirtier and less trained than the ones we saw at Jeff King’s Husky Homestead but still adorable. The ride was very dusty though and we were covered in dirt when it was over. We wore insect repellant wrist bands the whole time but I still got 2 mosquito bites and Chris got one. Definitely stick with Off Deep Woods wipes or spray. The return trip to Skagway was much less eventful but highlighted with a stop at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign and at Bridal Veil Falls.
We got back to Skagway around 3 pm and we had Chilkoot Charters drop us off at 7th & Broadway so we could walk our way back down to the ship. It was very warm and sunny so we converted our pants to shorts. We spent the rest of the day (3-4 hours) doing the self-guided walking tour and shopping. All the shop workers kept saying how the warm weather was really strange, that it has rained every day this summer up until now, and that we must be lucky cruisers bring the warm weather with us.
By the way, if you want to buy drinks, the liquor store across from the Train Depot on 2nd Ave. has the cheapest sodas and the Alaska Shirt Company on 1st & Broadway (or in Juneau across from the tram) has the cheapest bottled water. Yes, we comparison shopped!
I got maps from Frommer’s, Visitor’s Bureaus from the different towns, as well as other online resources and my favorite maps were the ones in the Destination Alaska coupon book! It was very helpful in figuring out exactly where our ship was docked and how to get back to it.
Juneau
We booked the Dog Sledding on Mendenhall Glacier Tour through Temsco and they picked us up at the Mt. Roberts Tramway parking lot at 8:15 am. They drove us to their office and helicopter pad, where we watched a safety video, locked up our belongs (no bags allowed, only cameras), and donned snow boots. There was only one other person in our group, a young guy working for a dental program in Alaska for the whole summer, so it was just 3 of us. They assign your seat on the helicopter based on weight. Chris and I were put in the front row with the pilot with me in the middle. The other guy was in the back by himself. This was our first helicopter ride and it was exhilarating! It was amazing how it could lift you straight in the air. There was It seemed like there were windows all around us, even under our feet, so when we were up above the trees and glaciers, it was like you were flying! The view was spectacular and gorgeous. I didn’t realize how big the glaciers are until the pilot pointed out the dog camp and I could barely see it until we got closer. The landing at the dog camp was very smooth but walking around on the glacier wasn’t easy. I feel on my butt once or twice! (I talked to someone who went on the Glacier Trek and the spikes in their boots are a lot longer so it’s probably easier for them to walk. Our spikes were about the same length as, if not shorter than cleats.) We were taken to a sled with dogs already hooked in. The musher introduced us to each dog and then we were off! There were three stops along the ride so we each got to try sitting in a different spot or stand in the back for each leg. It was so amazing dashing through the snow with surrounded by such beauty. The weather was very nice, though it got chilly once the sled was moving. We wore long-sleeved shirts, jackets, long pants, and gloves. It worked out perfectly. The ride lasted about 20-25 minutes. After it was over, we got a few more photos with the adult dogs and then moved on to the puppies! There were about 4 puppies at the camp and we took turns holding the 2 that were awake. Adorable little guys!! Then we waited for our helicopter to land and fly back to Juneau.
We were dropped off at Mt. Roberts Tramway around 11 am. The weather was pretty warm so we decided to go back to the ship to unload our jackets. Since we were already on the ship, we thought we’d grab a quick lunch at The Grill too so we’d have more time to go to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center. By the time we finished lunch and got back off the ship, it was already 1:30 and we had to be back onboard by 3:30 pm so we decided 2 hours wasn’t enough time to go to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center. Instead, we visited Patsy Ann’s statue and then shopped up Franklin St. I really wish we had more time in Juneau. It would have been nice to visit the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center, in addition to actually being on it!
That evening was the second Formal Night. We took photos again and had dinner early so we could watch Kevin Hudges the Comedian’s show.
Ketchikan
Our good luck in weather ran out in Ketchikan. It was foggy and drizzling the whole day. It didn’t rain so hard that you needed to bust out the rain pants (though we packed them in case) but water resistant pants and a waterproof jackets were musts. The ship was supposed to arrive at 10 am but we were able to disembark around 9:45 am. First time we were actually in a line to wait to disembark.
Our tour picked up at 10:45 am so we had about an hour to walk around and shop. I winded up buying quite a few things in 45 minutes and Chris took them back to the ship while I walked out to the Eagle Totem to take photos of it. We were worried we wouldn’t have time to walk around when we got back from our tour so we tried to squeeze in as much as we could.
We booked Anan Creek Bear Viewing with Family Air Tours. They picked us up at the Liquid Sunshine Gauge next to the Ketchikan Visitor’s Center on the pier and drove us to their plane hangar. Dave is the owner and pilot. The plane is a Cessna 185 on floats so it takes off and lands in the water. We were the only ones on the plane for our trip. I sat in the back and Chris in the front, next to Dave. The flight was about 45 minutes (longer than advertised because Dave had to take “the long way” due to the fog. When we landed in Anan Bay, we expected that we’d hop off the plane on to a sandy beach but we basically had to jump off the floats on to slippery rocks. I almost fell in the water! I think this part might be difficult for those with limited mobility. The ranger helped rangle our floatplane to shore and then checked us in. Since it was already 11:30 by now, we decided to eat our packed lunches since you cannot bring food on to the trail. However, we found out there is a food storage locker at the ranger station that you can store your food to get or eat later. There is also an outhouse at the bottom and top of the trails but they recommend that you use the one at the bottom because bears are frequent the outhouse at the top and you may be stuck in the outhouse if a bear decides to hang out in front of it. (One of Dave’s employees was stuck in it for 45 minutes!)
The trail itself is a mix of raised platforms, like a boardwalk, and dirt trail. As everyone said, it was impossible to get lost. We used a bear bell the entire way and it took about 20 minutes. We didn’t see any wildlife on the way up, though we saw lots of scat. The Observatory sits right over Anan Creek, where an enormous amount of salmon are swimming upstream. Bears come to the Creek to catch salmon. When we arrived, there were probably about 10 people at the Observatory. Part of the deck is covered. We spent close to 3 hours at the Observatory, including 30 minutes in the photo blind. You can only sign up for one photo blind spot during your first visit. (I think this is a new rule change this year because the text on the sign-up sheet that said you can sign up more than once was crossed out and corrected with “once”.) We had to wait for about an hour and a half for our reservation. The photo blind brought us closer to the salmon running but we didn’t see as much from there because the deck is so low and you can’t see what’s going up higher up the hill or on the other side of the Observatory. I was happier with being out on the top deck but spending 30 minutes in the photo blind was good to get a different perspective. We probably saw 15-20 black bears of all different sizes/ages as well as young and adult bald eagles. It was so amazing to see the bears catch salmon right in front of us! We also had a young bear climb the tree in front of the deck and sit up there almost the entire time. Near the end of our visit, the group from Taquan Air left and we were the only ones at the Observatory with the ranger. A bear walked right under the deck and popped up on the other side of the fence. He was literally a couple of feet away from us! He looked at us a little surprised, calmed down, and then climed the tree right in front of us! SO AMAZING!! We were told that earlier in the morning around 8 am, there were also a few brown bears and otters but we didn’t see them. It stayed drizzly the entire time we were at the Observatory but it didn’t bother us. We were dressed appropriately and seeing the bears, salmon, and eagles was so awesome. On the way back down the trail, we had a brown bear cross in front of us. I’m thinking that she heard us coming because of the bear bell and decided to cross the trail before we got to her. The ranger later told us HER name was George. =)
Dave picked us up at 3:15 pm. We had also booked the add-on flight through Misty Fjords but Dave checked with other pilots who just got back from there and said it was too foggy to see anything. Really honest guy. He refunded our money for that portion of the tour.
We got back to Ketchikan earlier than we thought we would since the Misty Fjords flight was cancelled so we had some extra time to walk around town. We walked up to Creek Street and saw the various totems along the way. There were a few salmon in the creek and some people were standing over the bridge oooing and ahhing. I kept thinking that this was nothing compared to Anan!!
After dinner that evening, we watched Kevin Hudges’ show. Word was obviously spreading that he was hilarious because it was completely packed about 10-15 minutes before his show started. People who showed up later couldn’t find a seat at all, not even in the front rows!
Day at Sea
After 3 days of waking up early (and losing an hour because we changed to Pacific Time at 2 am), we decided to sleep in and then had breakfast at the buffet. At 11:30 am, while we were still in Horizon Court, they opened the Dessert Buffet. Today was Island Princess’ 7th birthday and they had a birthday cake for her along with a ton of gorgeous and yummy looking cakes and desserts! (It’s such a coincidence that it was Island Princess’ birthday. It was also Voyager of the Seas birthday during our last cruise! We must have good nose for ship birthdays!) We went to the Photo Gallery, sorted through all our photos, and bought 4 total. By the way, if you want a professional photo of you at Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier, you need to be out on the top decks. The ship photographers only hang out there. We didn’t even know they’d be taking pictures and would have liked to go out there briefly to get a photo done.
We packed for a couple of hours and then went to afternoon tea, followed by some time in the hot tub. They had some reindeer chili at the Lido Pool so we tried some of that too. I played some video poker in the casino and actually came out ahead! (I won $7.50!!) We had sent out some laundry using the all-you-can-fit-in-a-bag special for $25 and it arrived when we got back to the room. We went to dinner at 6:30 pm and this night we had long service. We weren’t out until around 9 pm and hurrily finished packing so we could set out the luggage at 10 pm for pickup. We also went to the Internet Cafe to check into our flight and print our boarding passes.
Forgot to mention that Chris needed to check his work e-mail throughout the cruise so his work pre-paided for the 250 internet package before our cruise and we got an additional 60 minutes free. It’s a very good deal to pre-pay before your cruise if you know you’re going to need an internet package. We checked our work and personal e-mail every day (sometimes more than once a day) along with the weather on the night before we got into a port. Surprisingly, the wireless internet in the room was a lot faster than the computers in the Internet Cafe but you need to go to the Internet Cafe to print. In general, the internet was a lot faster than we have experienced on other cruise lines. We ordered a lot of minutes because we thought the internet would be really slow but we winded up having 89 minutes left out of 310 minutes.
Make sure you ask for a print out of your onboard account in the morning of this day. We did and found out they had not given us credit for pre-paying for our internet package so essentially, we were paying for it twice! They said they couldn’t correct it until 11 pm this evening because “the night manager handles refunds and credits”. If we found out on the morning of disembarkation, we may have been out of luck on getting it corrected until we got home.
Disembarkation
When we woke up at 6:45 am, we had already pulled into Vancouver. The final onboard account bill was delievered at 5 am and it was now correct. After having one last breakfast in buffet, we meet for our Vancouver Overview tour at 8:20 am. Even though we try to avoid ship-sponsored excursions, this tour was the most convenient for us. Our flight left at 2:30 pm and this tour would drop us off at the airport at the end.
After we disembarked, we went to the luggage claim area to get our luggage and we were missing one suitcase. Chris scoured the entire area looking for our suitcase, which is easy to spot because it’s orange, and couldn’t find it. After everyone with our color luggage tags got their suitcases, there was one left that was red and the same size as ours. We figured that the owner of this red suitcase must have taken our luggage by mistake because the luggage tag said 2 of 2 and 1 of 2 was already gone. We talked to the Princess and terminal staff. They tried to locate our suitcase but couldn’t so we filled out the lost luggage form. We were pretty sure that the owner of the red suitcase had ours and since everyone with Navy luggage tags were on our tour, we were pretty sure that our suitcase was on another bus for the same tour. If they didn’t find our luggage, the owner of the red suitcase just might check ours in at the airport and off to Arizona!! We informed the terminal and tour staff of the other person’s name and what we thought happened but there was nothing else we could do but start our tour and try not to worry about it. During the tour, dispatch contacted our driver and said they located the bus that the red suitcase owner was on. The other bus driver would try to meet up with our bus since we were both stopping at Stanley Park. At the park, the other bus driver found us and opened up the first luggage compartment door on his bus. There was our orange suitcase!! What a relief! How someone can mistake an orange suitcase for a red one is beyond me. (Don’t want to sterotype but when Chris called the phone number on the luggage tag, he said the voicemail was of an elderly woman.) I’m glad I didn’t meet this person face to face or I would have had some choice words for them. Please, for the love of God, make sure you triple check that you are taking your own luggage and not someone else’s!! There are signs all over the terminal that asks you to make sure but people obviously ignore it. The ages of people on this cruise definitely skewed up so I almost think Princess should check the luggage tags as people leave to make sure they have their own luggage. Anyway, I would have been majorly pissed if this lady took my ulus with her back to Arizona and I’d call her every day until she sent my suitcase back! I’m glad everything worked out.
The Vancouver Overview tour began at 9:30 am. We saw Financial District, Chinatown, Gastown, Yaletown, and stopped at the totems at Stanley Park for 20 minutes. They dropped us off at the airport at 12 pm. It was a good tour for the short timeframe. The tour guide was very informative and knowledgable but sometimes I felt like it was a bit too much information. For example, while driving through an intersection, “If you turned right here and walked 3 blocks, there is an excellent Italian restaurant”. Uhhh…first of all, we can’t see it because we’re driving and it isn’t exactly a key landmark so why bother mentioning it? Plus, everyone is being dropped off at the airport so we’re all flying out today. When would we eat at this excellent Italian restaurant?? He was very good in sharing history about important landmarks and sights though. I guess too much information is better than not enough. I would have also rather spent more time in Stanley Park or made an additional stop in Gastown or Chinatown than just driving through some of the districts. Overall, I’m still glad I got to see a little of Vancouver before leaving.
Check-in and security at the Vancouver Airport was a breeze. We grabbed lunch at one of the quick service restaurants in our terminal. Our flight was delayed by 20 minutes so we also had time to buy some souvenirs, such as maple syrup, maple cream cookies, and lobster pate.
Overall Thoughts
This vacation was literally day after day of amazing experiences! Like many, I thought this might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska but I definitely plan to return in a few years. I loved everything we did but there is so many more things I want to do!
*** See the photos from our trip ***
Packing
Other than the usual cruise stuff, I thought it might be helpful to know what I recommend bringing for this trip, now that I’ve actually been. Please be aware that weather varies from month to month and even day to day but this was our experience for a July Alaskan cruise.
I’ve already posted my recommended clothing packing list earlier but I made some additional notes and changes below:
WOMEN’S
Bathing suit
Bras
Breast petals
Convertible pants – converts to shorts so didn’t need to pack them seperately. We brought 4 pairs each for 11 nights.
Formal dresses
Sundresses for dinner
Fleece cap
Fleece pullover
Flip flops (I didn’t pack these and wish I did to walk around the ship on sea days)
Formal shoes
Gloves
Jewelry
1 set of long underwear top and bottoms
Pajamas
Baggallini Messenger Bagg for ports – This backpack purse is awesome. It even fit my jacket or fleece when I wasn’t wearing it.
Formal night purse
Rain pants
Socks that can be worn with pants or shorts
3-4 short-sleeved shirts and the rest long-sleeved shirts
Low top hiking shoes
Waterproof jacket w/hood
MEN’S
Suit with dress shirts & shoes
Fleece pullover
Flip flops
Gloves
Convertible pants – converts to shorts so didn’t need to pack them seperately
1 pair of long underwear bottoms (did not use tops)
Pajamas
Rain pants
Socks that can be worn with shorts or pants
Swimming trunks
3-4 short-sleeved shirts and the rest long-sleeved shirts (some of them should be nice enough to wear to dinner)
Low top hiking shoes
Waterproof jacket w/hood
Kipling Hiker Expandable Backpack
I want to stress how awesome convertible pants and a good waterproof jacket are. The convertible pants were really lightweight, water resistant, and converted to shorts when it got warm so not only did we not have to pack shorts but we already had them on!! Forget bringing jeans or sweatshirts. They soak up water and are heavy. Stick with a waterproof, windproof, and breathable jacket with a hood that is light enough to pack into your backpack. I also recommend packable rain pants, especially if you’re the type to brave the elements out on deck to see glaciers and wildlife, regardless of the weather.
We packed but did not use scarves and ponchos. Chris did not need long underwear tops or his fleece cap. We could have done without the gloves too. We only found them useful during our glacier dog sledding. All other times, we just put our hands in our jacket pockets and it was fine. I wore my fleece cap once while we were cruising Glacier Bay and wasn’t wearing my jacket but I guess I could have done without them also. You’re much more likely to use your jacket hood to protect you from wind (and it protects you from rain too). Our jackets are 3-in-1 jackets and we mostly used the outer shell alone. We wore the thick jacket liner once by itself in Glacier Bay but it is not waterproof alone. We never wore the shell and liner together because it never got that cold. We probably could have done with just waterproof jackets with hoods and not gone with the 3-in-1 jackets.
As for non-clothing items, we are items we packed and used:
Bear bell – for Anan Creek or if you plan to hike on your own in Denali
8×40 waterproof binoculars – one pair turned out to be fine for both of us because we would switch off between looking through the binoculars and taking pictures but make sure it is at least this strength. We brought a smaller pair (10×21) and never used them because they weren’t good enough.
Defog sponge
Insect repellant
Collapsible, insulated lunch bag – used to store snacks and packed lunches. We brought 2 small ones that we found at the Dollar Store and they fold completely flat when not in use.
Sunscreen – We used wipes from Sephora and lotion.
Toliet paper (travel size)
Toliet seat covers (travel size)
Reusable shopping bag – Princess gives you on at Denali Princess and on the cruise
TourSaver book – saved us $400 and I resold it for $80 when I got home!
These are things we brought but did not use:
Alaska Cruise Companion book – Princess had someone reading from the book on the TV
Denali Mile-by-mile guide – I forgot I get carsick when I read while in motion so I couldn’t read the book while on the shuttle bus
Hand/toe warmers
Ponchos – Waterproof jacket with hood worked much better and easier to wear
Umbrella – Same as above
Waterproof pouch for camera – We brought this for our Denali rafting trip but we were worried that we might lose it and we had to hang on to the safety line the whole time so we didn’t use the camera at all. Instead, we bought the photos that the rafting company took of us.
Scarf – Our jackets covered our neck when fully zipped up
Thick/wool socks – Not cold enough to need them, not even on the glacier
Shopping
I love collecting souvenirs and below are some of my favorite places/items I got during my cruise. Any prices listed below are only valid with coupons from the Destination Alaska coupon book, which is free at the pier when you board your ship in Seattle, Whittier, Seward, and Vancouver. See the web site for more details.
Skagway
Alaska Shirt Co. – $1.99 bear claws, $0.99 pins, cheapest place to buy bottled water
Corrington’s – 2″ jade bear holding salmon for $11.95, have a lot of nice Alaskan display items
Skagway Outlet Store – Free train wooden whistle (no purchase required)
Liquor Store across from Train Depot on 2nd Ave. – cheapest place to buy soda
Juneau
Alaska Christmas Store – more “Made in Alaska” handmade ornaments than Christmas in Alaska in Ketchikan
Juneau Trading Co. – $0.99 magnets, free bear claws with any purchase
Red Dog Saloon – Free poncho (no purchase required), free coaster w/ $5 purchase, free coin w/ $10 purchase
Alaska Shirt Co. – $1.99 set of black diamond hematite earrings, bracelet, and necklace, cheapest place to buy bottled water
Jade store (also in Ketchikan) – 25% off anything and $10 Circle of Life necklace
Caribou Crossing – $7.95 Alaskan made Forget Me Not earrings, lots of Alaskan made crafts
Ketchikan
Set of 4 crystal ornaments for $0.99 each. Get a free Alaska shirt, gold vial, and ulu from the same stores. Ketchikan Mining Co – Made in Alaska totem for $29.95. Dockside Trading – Made in Alaska ulu for $19.95 ($35 everywhere else)
Jade store (also in Juneau) – 25% off anything and $10 Circle of Life necklace
Ketchikan/Juneau/Skagway
Miner’s Gems – inexpensive (but small) Ammolite and Northern Lights jewelry
Tip: If you decide to collect the free coins or free charm bracelet, send a man to fetch the free items at each store to save time. When I went to get a free item, they insisted that they had to show me some pieces of jewelry before they could hand over the free item. When I sent my husband in alone, they never asked him to look at anything and just gave it to him. They probably think they have a chance of selling jewelry to a woman but not a man by himself.
+ See all Alaska photos
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