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Hawaii 2010: Day 4 – Iolani Palace, Chinatown (Oahu)

26
Dec 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

We had a reservation for a guided tour of Iolani Palace this morning at 8:45 am but we were already getting exhausted with the early mornings and we’d have to wake up even earlier to pack, check out of the hotel, and eat breakfast to be at Iolani Palace by 8:45 am so I called and canceled our reservation yesterday. We winded up waking up around 9:30 am and had breakfast at Duke’s again. By the time we finished packing and checked out of the hotel, we were on the road again around 11 am. We made a quick, illegal parked stop at the Duke Kahanamoku Statue and got our photo with it.

Duke Kahanamoku Statue

We decided to drop off our luggage at the pier before sightseeing in Historic Honolulu. Our rental car was a Dodge Caliber, which has a tailgate-style trunk so people can see what is in your trunk if you do not pull the trunk cover over your stuff. Unfortunately, we could not pull the cover over our 4 suitcases so we didn’t want to park the car while sightseeing with our luggage visible in the back. This is something to keep in mind when you pick up your rental car if you plan to drive around with a lot of luggage in your car. We reserved Compact cars at Thrifty at every port and always got a Dodge Caliber, except in Hilo, where we were given a Ford Focus.

I set my Garmin to Aloha Tower, even though I knew that Pride of America was docked at Pier 2. We missed the street for Pier 2 the first time and went back around. It’s not the easiest to find. So for everyone’s reference, Pier 2 is on Channel Street off Ala Moana St. There is a very small parking lot of the cruise terminal. If you plan to drive yourself there to drop off your luggage, bring quarters for the meters. The cruise terminal wasn’t busy yet and we easily flagged down a porter to help us with our bags. We were just planning to drop off our bags but the porter advised us to go ahead and check into the cruise because it would get A LOT busier when we came back after sightseeing so we took his advice. To enter the terminal, you need to show your ID and cruise docs to port security. We had to show them again to enter the X-ray screening. The terminal was really big and there wasn’t many people there yet. They were setting up for a little hula show and already taking embarkation photos. The line had maybe 5 people in it so there wasn’t much of a wait at all and we had no problems getting our cruise cards.

By the way, Aloha Tower did not seem as close to Pier 2 as some people made it sound. It’s actually over a 1/2 mile away, which is questionable walking distance to me, especially in the heat, and probably not really walking distance to people with limited mobility.

We got back in the car and drove to Iolani Palace in Historic Honolulu, arriving there at noon. The guided tours were done for the day so we did the self-guided audio tour. We asked the cashier for change to get quarters for the meter and he told us that if we parked inside the gates, the meters were free since it was Saturday! We didn’t enough realize we could drive inside the gate. The audio tour is a timed ticket and we had some time before our tour so Chris went back outside and moved the car inside so we didn’t have to worry about it. We still had some more time before our tour so we walked around the basement of the Palace, which you don’t need the timed ticket to see. The Palace’s kitchen and servant areas were there, as well as some artifacts from Hawaii’s Royalty.

When we gathered for our audio tour, they ask you to wear shoe covers so that your shoes don’t scuff or dirty the floors they spent so much time and money restoring. I’d recommend that you don’t wear high heels or bulky shoes because you might have hard time with the shoe covers. I wish I had photos from inside Iolani Palace but we were not allowed to take photos. The tour was fascinating and extremely educational. We learned about the lives of King Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1882, his wife, and his sister and successor, Queen Liliuokalani. Queen Liliuokalani was the last royal of Hawaii and we also learned about her overthrow. The story of Queen Liliuokalani losing her throne is sad but at the same time, I’m glad Hawaii is part of the United States so it’s bittersweet. We saw the quilt the Queen made when she was imprisoned in a room within the palace for 5 years. Seeing the Palace was really cool too. We love seeing old houses, furniture, and how people used to live.

Aliiolani Hale (Hawaii Supreme Court) and King Kamehameha Statue

Iolani Palace

Hawaii Capitol Building

We left Iolani Palace around 2 pm and headed over to Chinatown for lunch. We parked in the public parking garage on Maunakea Street between Hotel & King Streets. Next door was Cindy’s Lei Shoppe. Originally, my plan was to buy a lei in Chinatown to wear for our embarkation photo but we received orchid leis at the Polynesian Cultural Center the day before and I stored them in the refrigerator in our room overnight. They held up pretty well so I decided just to wear those leis again. We peeked into Cindy’s Lei Shoppe anyway to take a look at the gorgeous leis. They have a wide variety of leis. The cheapest lei was $3 and the most expensive that they had ready made was about $25. Some of them were so elaborate and beautiful! This is definitely a good place to stop by if you are looking for an inexpensive or unique lei!

We decided to have lunch at the Food Court inside Maunakea Marketplace. They have stands for Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese food! Chris had roast duck wonton soup and I decided to try my hand at Filipino food, which I’ve never had before. I didn’t really know what anything about Filipino food so I just picked 2 dishes, a veggie dish and a beef tripe dish, that looked good to me, along with some roast pork, which I LOVE! The roast pork and beef tripe were delicious but the veggie dish had a very bitter vegetable that I wasn’t crazy about. I picked around it though. I have to admit the food court is not the cleanest place in the world but the food was very authentic and good!

Maunakea Marketplace in Chinatown

Maunakea Marketplace Food Court

Roasted duck wonton soup

We left Chinatown a little bit after 3 pm and headed to Costco to get gas for the rental car before returning it. The line at Costco was really long but we weren’t in a major hurry since we had already checked in for the cruise. While in line for gas, we saw vehicle identity crisis in the form of a Toyota Sienna mini-van with a license plate that said “JEEP”! LOL!

We returned the rental car to Thrifty and we didn’t have to wait 5 minutes for their shuttle to take us back to the pier. There was a separate entrance for passengers who have already checked in so we didn’t have to wait in line, except to go through the X-ray machine again. We were onboard the ship around 4:15 pm and we went to our room, where our luggage was already waiting. The Muster Drill was at 4:30 pm so we didn’t have much time to do anything before it. We were required to bring our life jackets and stand outside at our stations.

After the drill was over, we headed up to Deck 12 to take some photos of Honolulu before the sunset. There were some awesome views of Diamond Head and One Waterfront Towers!

View of One Waterfront Towers and Diamond Head from Pride of America

After taking some photos, we headed back to the room to unpack. We had dinner in the Skyline Dining Room a little bit before 7:30 pm and watched from the window as we sailed away from Honolulu.

Aloha Tower while sailing away from Honolulu

Coming up next, my review of Pride of America!!

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Category: Hawaii 2010 Tags: Norwegian Cruise Line, Pride of America One Comment

Hawaii 2010: Day 3 – Dolphin Encounter, Polynesian Cultural Center (Oahu)

25
Dec 2010

Rebecca

Friday, November 26, 2010

Instead of having breakfast at Duke’s again, we decided to get us some of those famous malasadas! We arrived at Leonard’s Bakery a little bit before 8 am. We each got a Portuguese sausage wrap and original malasada. I also tried a Haupia filled malasada and Chris tried a custard filled one. We ate outside the bakery on a bench. I really liked the Portuguese sausage wrap and original malasada but I’m not a fan of cream or custard so I didn’t like the Haupia filled one very much. It’d love to have another original malasada right now!! Yum! Chris liked his custard filled one though. We came at the right time because a Japanese tour bus pulled up and unloaded all its passengers right as we were leaving.

Leonard’s Bakery

Malasadas from Leonard’s Bakery

Our next stop was Sea Life Park, where we had the Dolphin Encounter booked! Our confirmation told us to be there at 9 am and we got there around 8:50 am. The park doesn’t open until 10:30 am and there were only a few people waiting at the entrance with us. I found out that other people’s confirmation said to be there at 9:15 am! We could have gotten at least 25 minutes more of sleep! Anyway, we walked down to the restrooms and it was weird to see all the shops and food counters closed. It was like walking around in an abandoned amusement park! When they finally let us in, we walked past a huge aquarium, sea turtles, and sea lions being fed. The sea lions are so noisy and funny! AR AR!

Sea lions getting their breakfast

After checking in at the Dolphin Gift Shop and buying a coin to use the lockers, we put our stuff in a locker and then donned a life vest. We were taken out to the Dolphin Pool in groups. We entered the Dolphin Pool in a line and the water was FREEZING!!! For the Dolphin Encounter, you stand and stay on a platform so the water only goes up to your waist. It’s perfect for small kids and people who prefer to be in shallow water. We picked the Dolphin Encounter because my husband does not swim so it was something we could do together. The platform was a bit slippery and had a slimy feel to it, as something that has been underwater for a LONG time would probably feel like. Chris was worried that he might slip but he never did.

The trainer used a whistle to communicate with the dolphin and one came swimming to us. We were lucky enough to interact with Kekaimalu, 1 of only 2 wolphins in captivity! Her mother was a dolphin and her father was a whale! The other wolphin in captivity is her child. Kekaimalu was HUGE compared to the other dolphins and it was a shock to find out her dolphin mother had to birth her! She was adorable too. After every trick, she would come back to the trainer and open her mouth to say “Feed me now!” LOL! Each of us got to touch her and we took photos of her kissing us, us kissing her, and “dancing with” her (she would stand upright out of the water and we would touch her fins). In between, she did tricks like splashing us, sticking her tongue at us, and nodding. The trainer would also tell us about Kekaimalu and dolphins in general. It was a wonderful experience! Obviously, I’m not an expert but I never felt like the dolphins there were “sad”, as the “Oahu Revealed” book suggested. Their pool is very large as you can see in my photo and they seem pretty content to me. I would not hesitate to recommend this activity to anyone! It was a lot of fun and a wonderful experience!

Gorgeous backdrop for our Dolphin Encounter

Dolphin Encounter

Chris’ Dolphin Encounter

After the Dolphin Encounter, we went cleaned up and got changed. There are several changing rooms and 3 open showers. We spent about 30 minutes walking around the park to visit the sea lions, penguins, and feed the sea turtles! Unlike the Dolphin Pool, the exhibits for the penguins and sea turtles looked a bit small. They could definitely use more space. The park is pretty small, compared to Sea World or even a regular theme park. I personally wouldn’t recommend a visit unless you plan to do one of the dolphin programs. Feeding the sea turtles was fun though! They were so excited to get their veggies!

Chris pretending to eat the sea turtle food

Sea turtles

Sea turtle

Penguins

This was the only morning on our entire trip that we did not apply bug spray before leaving the hotel/ship. We didn’t want to wear bug spray knowing we were going into the water where the dolphins swam. I was bitten 7 times and Chris was bitten 4 times by the time we returned to the Sea Life Park parking lot! We liberally applied bug spray in the parking lot before leaving. We were on the road again around 11:15 am.

For lunch, we stopped at Zippy’s in Kaneohe around noon. We spotted chickens in the parking lot so the place instantly got Chris’ seal of approval. When we walked into the restaurant, we walked right up to the fast food counter. We both ordered the Korean fried chicken and lilikoi (passion fruit) drinks. Chris really liked the Korean fried chicken but I found it to be a bit too saucy and salty. I liked the lilikoi drink though, despite my aversion to passion fruit. We didn’t realize that there was a sit-down section of the restaurant, where waiters actually serve you. It would have been nice to go there if we knew about it but we didn’t really have that much time anyway. We left at 12:45 pm.

Zippy’s

Korean fried chicken at Zippy’s

We arrived at Laie Point at 1:30 pm. It was definitely a nice stop! The sea arch was beautiful and the waves were really strong. We noticed someone built a rock pile on top of the sea arch too. CRAZY!

Laie Point

Big waves at Laie Point

We arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Center at 2 pm. We pre-booked the Ambassador Ali’i Lu’au package. After exchanging our vouchers for tickets, we were asked to wait in a waiting room for our guide. Instead of a guide, a staff member told us we were going to join a tour that just started. She gave us and another couple our shell leis and took us to our guide and our group, who were seated for the Canoe Pageant. The seating was really good and right up to the water. The bad thing is that the sun was beating down on that side of the river so it was hot when the clouds weren’t blocking the sun. Before the pageant started, a canoe went by that was selling ice cream and fruit. I think it cost $5 but I don’t remember exactly. They sell this ice cream everywhere throughout Polynesian Cultural Center and at every presentation. Our guide made a joke that we’ll be so sick of ice cream by the time we leave! The ice cream and fruit mixture was good though! I had fresh pineapple and canned peaches. This is the same dessert that is served during the intermission of “Ha: Breath of Life” and is included with the Ambassador packages.

The “Rainbows of Paradise” Canoe Pageant was great! The dancing and costumes were beautiful and really helped me appreciate the culture of all the islands presented: Hawaii, Tonga, Aotearoa, Samoa, Tahiti, and Fiji. It was also interesting to see how similar the cultures were but also see the differences. It was also shocking to see the Samoa dancers rock their canoe so much that their driver fell into the water!! Our guide said that the drivers know if you get the Samoa canoe, you’ll probably end up in the water. LOL! Poor guy!

Rainbows of Paradise Canoe Pageant

Samoa canoe driver in the water

After the Pageant, our guide took us the Samoa village to watch the presentation there. This presentation was probably my favorite part of the whole experience at Polynesian Cultural Center and made our trip to Polynesian Cultural Center worth it! It started with a young Samoan who cracked some jokes to warm up the crowd, followed by some live music. Then the “chief” came on to give the presentation. This guy was SOOOO hilarious!! We were literally crying from laughing so hard! He just had awesome jokes, his timing was perfect, and he had some great facial expressions! Other than being a comedian, he made fire using wood and coconut husk. He also showed us how they shelled a coconut, split it in half by hitting it once with a rock, carved the coconut meat out of the coconut, and made coconut milk!! Wow! After all that, another Samoa climbed this SUPER tall tree to show us how they would get the coconuts! It was such a wonderful presentation and definitely the best one we saw out of all of the villages!

Making fire in Samoa

Tree climbing in Samoa

After the Samoa presentation, our guide took us the Canoe Landing and we took a canoe ride through the villages. The canoe ride was lovely and the scenery was very nice. We landed in Tonga and our guide helped us great seating to the Tonga village’s presentation. At Tonga, we watched the Tongans demonstrated the nose flute, blowing conch shells, and drums. After the demonstration, they called up three volunteers to learn how to drum and it was funny watching tourists try to imitate drumming and yelling the native chats!

Canoe ride

Drumming demo in Tonga

The last village we visited was Aotearoa Village, which represents the native people of New Zealand. At the Aotearoa Village, we tried our hand at twirling poi balls, which we had see the Aotearoa people do in the Canoe Pageant. It’s much harder than it looks!! After that, we tried the Maori stick game, which was used to develop hand-eye coordination for their warriors. We also visited an exhibit of portraits that showed the different facial tattoos worn by the Aotearoa people. Finally, we had an opportunity to get our own temporary ink tattoo!

Aotearoa Village

Twirling poi balls in Aotearoa Village

Temporary tattoo from Aotearoa Village

Our guide then escorted us to our dinner locations. For the Ali’i Luau, there are 3 different luau locations but we were told they are all the same. It’s just to spread out the number of people. We were assigned to the Hale Ohana location and by itself, it was pretty huge! I can’t even imagine how many people they feed in one night at all 3 locations, plus the non-luau buffet and Super Ambassador dinner!

The line into the luau was a bit long but it moved quickly. We were greeted with a fresh orchid lei and took a photo with our greeters. We were then taken to our table. We had a table right in front of the stage, which was really nice! The show itself was fairly short and not all that impressive. It was hard to concentrate on the show when you have to go and get your food and people walking around all the time. There was some singing and some hula. Not much to miss if you saw the Canoe Pageant or will see “Ha: Breath of Life”.

The buffet included all the traditional Hawaiian dishes, like poi (taro paste), lomilomi (raw salmon salad), kalua pig (pork cooked in an underground oven), and poke (raw, marinated tuna). I really liked the poke, lomilomi, and chicken long rice (glass noodles with shredded chicken)! The rest of the food was a bit bland. I read the reviews of the luau so I didn’t expect much so I wasn’t really disappointed. Plus, it’s hard to make anything taste spectacular when you’re cooking for that many people! I ordered a virgin pina colada and it came in a hollowed-out pineapple! That was a lot of fun to drink! (A lot of people don’t like the fact that Polynesian Cultural Center doesn’t serve alcohol but we are not big drinkers so this didn’t bother us at all.)

Ali’i Luau

Hula dancing at Ali’i Luau

Ali’i Luau food

After we finished dinner, we took the “Ha: Breath of Life” Behind the Scenes Tour. We got to see the actors rehearsing and props and costumes used in the show. We saw the ti-leaf skirts the actors wore when they sit on fire and we learned that ti leaves have so much moisture that it takes longer for them to catch on fire. It was a short tour but pretty neat.

“Ha: Breath of Life” actors rehearsing

“Ha: Breath of Life” Props

We took our seats in the theater. Premium seating is part of the Ambassador Luau package and I liked our seats a lot. We were right in the center of the stage about halfway up the seats. The Super Ambassadors have seats closer to the stage but I’m not crazy about sitting close to a stage. The theater was more like a stadium to me! It fits 2,675 people! It was definitely a large crowd!

“Ha: Breath of Life” is a man and his life as he travels to the different Polynesian islands. There is a long scene for each island that is represented at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I heard a lot of good things about this show but I personally thought most of it was boring and we almost fell asleep several times. It was a very long, 1.5-hour show with the highlight being 5 minutes of firedancing. The dancing was beautiful and very impressive but the scenes were waaaayyy too long for each island. It started to get old. The fire twirling was very cool but I don’t think it was worth sitting through the whole show for the few highlights. After the show was over, some of the actors were outside to take photos with. We did a little souvenir shopping and before heading back to the hotel.

Video of “Ha: Breath of Life” wedding scene

Video of “Ha: Breath of Life” fire twirling

Two nights later, we attended Old Lahaina Luau in Maui so naturally, we would compare it with the Polynesian Cultural Center. The experiences were very different since the Polynesian Cultural Center has the villages. We are glad we went to both but I would say overall, Polynesian Cultural Center was a bit disappointing to me. The food at Old Lahaina Luau was much better than the Polynesian Cultural Center. The Polynesian Cultural Center show was longer and had fire dancing but the Old Lahaina Luau show seemed to flow much better and the traditional dancing seemed much more interesting. The only reasons why I don’t regret going to Polynesian Cultural Center is because of the hilarious Samoa presentation and the 5 minutes of fire dancing but I question whether or not those things are really worth spending almost a whole day at Polynesian Cultural Center and the cost. If someone was choosing between Old Lahaina Luau and Polynesian Cultural Center, I would highly recommend Old Lahaina Luau over the Polynesian Cultural Center. If you really want REALLY good traditional Hawaiian food, go to Ono Hawaiian Foods in Honolulu! Their food blew both luaus out of the water!

When we returned to the hotel, we made another stop at the ABC Stores across the street. Chris bought a spam musubi there for a snack. It was 11 pm when we got back to the room. Time to shower up and sleep! Next day, Historic Honolulu and embarking Pride of America!!!

Spam Musubi from ABC Stores

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Category: Hawaii 2010 Tags: Norwegian Cruise Line, Pride of America 4 Comments

Hawaii 2010: Day 2 – Grand Circle Island Tour (Oahu)

20
Dec 2010

Rebecca

Thursday, November 25, 2010

We woke up around 7 am on Thanksgiving Day and was greeted to this gorgeous sight on our balcony!

Morning view of Waikiki Beach from our balcony

Not bad for a “City View” room, huh?! As I mentioned in my review of Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach, I loved having breakfast at Duke’s Waikiki. This was our first morning there and the view was something special! After breakfast, we had about 5-10 minutes to kill before our tour so we walked the couple of steps down to the beach from Duke’s. This is why I insisted on a beachfront hotel. You can literally flop on the beach from it! We took a few photos and headed to the hotel entrance to get picked up for our tour.

Breakfast at Duke’s Waikiki

Waikiki Beach

This day, we took the Oahu Grand Circle Island Tour through Polynesian Adventures. Generally, we try to stay away from big motorcoach tours, including those offered by cruise lines, and we had a rental car so we could have driven around Oahu ourselves but there was a lot on Oahu that I wanted to see and taking the tour would hit a lot of the things on my list. I figured taking the tour on at least one day would allow us to see more than we would be able to do on our own and there was nothing on the tour that I felt I needed to spend more time on. (For example, Chris is a HUGE war history buff and likes to read every plaque at a museum so I knew we had to go to Pearl Harbor on our own so we could spend as much time as he needed there.) Once I decided to take a Circle Island tour, I compared several tour companies and all the tours seemed fairly similar. I winded up going with Polynesian Adventures because of the lower cost and timing. (It picks up a little later and ends a little later than other tours I saw. I figured we could use any additional sleep I could squeeze out!)

Our pickup time was 8:25 am and we waited outside the hotel with about 8 other people. I chatted with 2 couples and found they were from Australia. Almost all the tourists we met in Oahu were not from the U.S.! Many were from Australia, Canada, and Japan. Japanese tourists are everywhere in Honolulu! Anyway, the motorcoach didn’t arrive until 8:47 am so it was late and we had to wait quite awhile. After picking us up, our bus rendezvoused with another one that had picked up additional passengers and once they boarded, we were off. The actual tour probably didn’t start until around 9:15 am.

Our tour began by driving up Diamond Head. I don’t know how far up we went but we saw the Diamond Head Lighthouse. The tour itinerary said that we would go to “Amelia Earhart Lookout” but if we did, I had no idea where it was. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop at Diamond Head and kept driving so I never got to set foot on Diamond Head. =( An unfortunate part of these types of tours.

We drove by Koko Head. If you thought hiking Diamond Head was a great experience, you may want to try Koko Head next! If you look at the photo and see that yellow vertical line on the mountain, that’s a staircase up to the summit!! O_O

Diamond Head Lighthouse

Koko Head

We reached the famous snorkeling sight, Hanauma Bay, at 9:45 am and it was our first stop. The views of Hanauma Bay were beautiful!! You could see where the reef was in the water. I had really wanted to snorkel here but we didn’t have time in our itinerary. After seeing it, I think it was for the best that I didn’t snorkel there. Chris doesn’t snorkel so he would have had to wait on the beach and there wasn’t any shade. But it made for a great tour stop!

Hanauma Bay

Our next stop was Halona Blowhole. From different parts of the lookout there, you can see Sandy Beach, the Blowhole itself, and the “From Here to Eternity” Beach. The lookout was extremely windy but the blowhole was nice and active! There were also some lava rock piles on the ledges above the blowhole and I can’t imagine the crazy people who went out there to make the piles. (I just read online that rock piles aren’t a Hawaiian tradition and usually done by tourists!) By the way, the “From Here to Eternity” Beach was much less breathtaking than I thought it would be. It actually looked really rough and the sand seemed thin, though the ledges around it looked like they would be fun to explore.

Halona Blowhole

From Here to Eternity Beach

From there, we drove by Sandy Beach and Makapuu Point, where we saw Rabbit Island. (Yes, I took the photo of Rabbit Island from our moving bus!) Then, we stopped made the obligatory tour bus stop at a large overpriced souvenir store, which was New Hawaii’s Treasures in Waimanalo. They had many of the same souvenirs we saw at Walmart for a premium. The good thing about this stop is that they sold some snacks and had a decent sized restroom.

We arrived at Nuuanu Pali Outlook around 11:15 am. While still on the bus, our driver warned us that if we thought was windy at Halona Blowhole (which we did), then we would be shocked by how windy it was at Pali Outlook. He recommended we did not bring any hats or loose sunglasses…and he was right! It was super windy here! Luckily, immediately, we were greeted by Chris’ favorite animals, chickens!!! I felt a little bad for them because it was so windy and they were all huddled in the trees and bushes to get some protection from the wind. The views from Pali Outlook were stunning!! It’s definitely worth a stop.

View of Rabbit Island from Makapuu Point

Chickens at Nuuanu Pali Outlook

Nuuanu Pali Outlook

From Pali Outlook, we had about a 45-minute drive to our next stop and it will not be a drive I will soon forget. Part of the way into the drive, my cell phone rang and it was my home security alarm company. They informed me the alarm in my house was triggered and asked if they should send the police. I told them I was in Hawaii and yes, they should. I then proceeded to call my neighbor, Brad, who lives across the street. He said he was not home but would call my other neighbor Shannon to see if she could find out what was going on. I also called my pet sitter and left her a voicemail to see if she accidentally triggered the alarm. A few minutes pass but of course to me, it seemed like forever. I had just read an e-mail reminder from Brad the night before about the next Crime Watch Committee Meeting and they would be discussing some “recent incidents in our neighborhood”. (Those incidences turned out to be spray paint vandalizism.) I was freaking out that burgulars figured out we were on vacation and my house was being robbed of everything inside!! Then, I got a call from Shannon and she said, “It’s me! I’m so sorry! I set off the alarm! I have 20 people over at my house for Thanksgiving and needed an extra oven to heat up the turkey. I knew ya’ll weren’t home and didn’t think you’d mind! I’m so sorry!” I was very relieved. She has a key to my house for emergencies and because we’ve locked ourselves out many times but never thought to give her our alarm code! Then, she said, “Oh, the police just pulled up. Hello, officer.” She identified herself as my neighbor and showed them her license to prove it. I hung up to let her deal with the officer. When we arrived at Kualoa Ranch, I called her back to make sure everything was okay. The whole thing stressed me out quite a bit because I was so worried and then very relieved to find out is was nothing. I also felt bad talking on my cell phone while the driver trying to narrate the drive. But once we got to Kualoa Ranch and started eating lunch, I was able to calm down and realize the humor in all of it. When we got home, Shannon told me the police had their hands on their guns and everything! Her house guests thought it was all hilarious and took photos. I now have a great story about how my neighbor broke into my house to heat up her Thanksgiving turkey! LOL!

So our next stop was Kualoa Ranch, which is one of the most popular filming locations for “LOST”. When we got off the bus, Kualoa Ranch employees greeted us with a shell lei. I thought that was a nice touch and it was my first lei in Hawaii! The ranch was set underneath these gorgeous cliffs. It was easy to see why it was a popular filming location.

Lunch was not included in our tour. Our driver gave us a discount coupon for the buffet served at the ranch but we decided to order off the a la carte menu instead. We each got the Hawaiian local dish, Loco Moco, which is hamburger patties smothered in gravy served over white rice and topped with fried eggs. It was pretty good and very filling!

Our motorcoach in front of Kualoa Ranch

Loco Moco at Kualoa Ranch

I browsed through the gift shop quickly and then it was time to meet outside for our ranch tour. We boarded a small tram for the “Legends and Legacy” tour. The tour felt really short, though the web site said it was an hour long. Maybe we got an abbreviated version. Basically, a recording in the tram told us about the history of the ranch as a sacred site to the Hawaiian people. In addition to being a popular filming site for TV & movies, they have activities, like horsebacking riding and ATVing. The tour took us a little ways up the mountain to the best part of the tour, which was a perfect view of Chinaman’s Hat! After our tour, we boarded our motorcoach again and we were off to the next stop. It would be nice to come back here to do the Movie Sites Tour or return as part of the “LOST” Hummer tour. Upon leaving Kualoa Ranch, we passed the ruins of the Kualoa Sugar Mill that used to be on the property.

Kualoa Ranch Tour Tram

Horseback Riding at Kualoa Ranch

Chinaman’s Hat from Kualoa Ranch

Kualoa Sugar Mill Ruins

From Kualoa Ranch, we headed to the North Shore. When we drove by Turtle Beach (aka Laniakea Beach), I was able to see a sea turtle on the beach! This tour is supposed to include a stop at Byodo-In temple but it was closed for Thanksgiving. I was disappointed by that news because I was looking forward to seeing where Sun & Jin from “LOST” got married. Instead, we made a stop at Sunset Beach, which the driver said usually isn’t part of the tour. It was great to stop at such a famous beach and see surfers in action!! Back on the bus, we also drove past other North Shore beaches, including the Banzai Pipeline, Pupukea Beach Park (also known as Sharks Cove & Three Tables), and Waimea Bay.

Sunset Beach

Surfers at Sunset Beach

Pupukea Beach Park (Sharks Cove)

Waimea Bay

We passed by the real working coffee and pineapple farms found in the middle of Oahu before arriving at our last stop, Dole Pineapple Plantation. A tent in front of the Plantation entrance was selling fresh tropical fruits and fresh flower leis. The Plantation Garden Tour was included in our Grand Circle Island Tour. We saw pineapples in different states of growth, tons of Hawaiian flowers, and some fish! We also got to see some of the machines they use to harvest pineapples. The garden was really pretty, though the fish pond water was a bit murky. After the Garden Tour, we saw a peacock wander around. It was time get us some Dole Whip!! I love Dole Whip and used to eat it at Disneyland when I lived in California. Chris got a Dole Whip cone and I had a Dole Whip float. After enjoying our Dole Whip on the patio, we went back inside for some shopping. In case anyone is interested, you can buy Dole pineapples packed to fly home for $5.76 each, $14.40 for 10 lbs, and $44 for 27 lbs. They can also ship them home for $33.51 for 10 lbs. or $73 for 27 lbs. At the airport, Dole pineapples were $24 for 3. I decided to buy them at the airport before flying home because I didn’t want to keep the pineapples for the rest of our trip and OMG, they are so good!! They were very ripe and much juicier than the ones we have at the grocery store at home. I’m so glad I brought them home. It allowed me to enjoy Hawaii just a little bit longer.

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Dole Plantation Garden Tour

Small pineapple growing at Dole Pineapple Plantation

White hibiscus in the Dole Plantation Garden

Self-harvester machine at Dole Plantation

Peacock at Dole Pineapple Plantation

Chris eating Dole Whip

There wasn’t anything interesting on the way back and our driver stayed quiet so we took a nap until we got back into Waikiki. That’s one of the nice things about not driving yourself, you can sleep during the ride! I’m not exactly sure when we were dropped off but I think it was around 5:30 pm. Overall, I thought the tour was good and we got see a lot of places I wanted to visit all over Oahu in a short amount of time. When you try to see so much in one day, obviously there are places you wish you could spend more time at and others you feel you didn’t need to see. This is definitely a big bus tour and geared to those that are not active or have limited mobility. (There was a man in a wheelchair on our tour and the bus was equipped with a lift.) I wish the tour description had been more clear about where you actually stop and where you drive through. I would have rather driven ourselves at our own pace but I’m sure we wouldn’t have seen as much in one day doing it on our own because we would not time it right. If you do have the time, I’d skip the tour and go on your own.

After the tour, we headed back to our room and changed for dinner. The sunset was setting when we came back down from our room so we took a few quick photos on Waikiki Beach. Knowing that we would not have any beach time pre-cruise, I also wanted to at least get my toes into the sand of Waikiki Beach before getting on the ship so I finally got to feel some sand between my toes, even if it was just for a minute.

Sunset on Waikiki Beach

We had dinner at Side Street Inn. It was one of the restaurants Anthony Bourdain visited during his “No Reservations” show on Travel Channel. I had also written down a list of recommended dishes from Yelp. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found out they were only serving a buffet this night because it was Thanksgiving night. We decided to go ahead and have dinner there anyway. The buffet was a mix of traditional Thanksgiving dishes along with some of Side Street Inn’s popular dishes. We had Portuguese beanless bean soup, oysters on half shell, poke, Chinese roast pork with buns, stir fry noodles, char siu fried rice, fried porkchops, stuffing, mac & cheese, pumpkin pie, and more! The food was good but I don’t think it was a good judge of the restaurant. As with buffets, some of the food wasn’t all that hot. I did love the Portuguese beanless bean soup, roast pork, and poke!!

Side Street Inn

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and walked across the street to the ABC Store and International Marketplace for some shopping. It was PACKED! I was worried a lot of stores would be closed for Thanksgiving night but everything as opened and jam packed with people. ABC Stores are WONDERFUL!! They have a lot of great souvenirs and at much reasonable prices than we found elsewhere. We both bough aloha wear to wear later in our trip and lots of gifts for everyone back home. During our trip, we winded up going to 4 ABC Stores!! LOL! Some ABC Stores are smaller than others, so there may be stuff you haven’t seen at a previous store. In addition to souvenirs, they also sell snacks, to-go lunches, and drinks. By the way, if you spend over $100, $200, or $300 combined at all ABC Stores, you get a free gift. The more you spend, the better choices for the gift. We winded up spending $300 during our whole trip and got a free t-shirt.

The International Marketplace is a lot bigger than it looked. There were tons of carts and many of them were selling the same things. I picked up a couple of necklaces but I think most of the souvenirs I needed were at Walmart or the ABC Stores. We had another early day the next day so we went back to the hotel around 10 pm, took showers, and hit the sack!

International Marketplace

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+ Read more about my Hawaii 2010 trip

Category: Hawaii 2010 Tags: Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises Leave a Comment

Hawaii 2010: Day 1 – Outrigger Waikiki & Sushi Sasabune (Oahu)

18
Dec 2010

Rebecca

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I was a bit anxious on the days leading up to our flight. The news was buzzing about the airport security body scanners and the “more thorough” pat downs. There was a campaign urging airline passengers to “protest” on this day by opting out of the body scanners in order to cause delays in the security line. DFW has body scanners and we went through them back in July when we flew to Alaska. So I arranged for us to get to the airport 30 minutes earlier than we usually do just in case some idiots actually decided to follow through with this protest. Luckily, when we arrived at DFW, the security line was not only short but they weren’t even using the body scanners so there was nothing to “opt out” of. Thank goodness!

Our non-stop flight arrived at HNL at 4:25 pm, about 30 minutes late. If you didn’t arrange for a lei greeting when you arrive, there are flower shops in the terminal that sell leis! There are also several shops to pick up your first or last minute souvenirs. We made our way to the baggage claim and there is this bridge we walked over from the terminal to the baggage claim area. It looked over the tarmac and Oahu greeted us with our first Hawaiian rainbow! I was so thrilled!!

Rainbow at HNL

After picking up our luggage, we made our way to the rental car shuttle pickup area and hopped on the shuttle to Thrifty. We rented from Thrifty in all the ports, except Kona, and in Honolulu twice. There was never more than one person in front of us for the Blue Chip counter. We never had a problem with any of the offices.

After getting a car, we headed to our hotel and hit bad, rush hour traffic. I started to get worried because we had to change for dinner reservation at 6:30 pm and drive to the restaurant. We didn’t get to our hotel until almost 6 pm so my plan of strolling Waikiki Beach until sunset before heading to dinner was out the window. We checked into Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach and saw the sunset from our balcony, as we hurried to change for dinner.

I was very pleased that even though our “City View” room was on the side of the hotel, I could still see the beach from the balcony when I went out on it. The room was very nice and a great size. The decor was subtle and plain but there were Hawaiian touches, like the hula girl lamp. The walls seemed thin though. I’m a light sleeper and was awaken by our neighbors and people talking loudly in the halls a few times. There was also a buzzing sound that drove me bonkers for about 30 minutes on the first night before Chris identified the noise as the air conditioning. (I have this thing were sounds drive me crazy unless I know what it is.) The staff was very helpful and friendly. When the bellman brought our bags to the room, he explained all of the room and hotel amenities and answered any questions we had. We didn’t have enough change to tip him well but we tipped him again the next time we saw him. He must have remembered us because he later saw me in the gift shop looking at the bamboo beach mats. He called us over to him and took us to a closet where they kept beach stuff abandoned by other guests and let us take our pick of mats and floating rafts! How nice of him!! Anyway, I thought that was awesome. Valet parking at the hotel was a pain. The staff was always courteous and quick to bring the car but the sidewalk in front of the hotel was so busy that every time we pulled into the hotel garage, I was worried we’d hit someone. The staff tries to stop the pedestrians but sometimes they ignore them. To me, valet parking in general is a pain because you have to have someone bring the car around every time you leave or just need to get something out of the car. The hotel was very busy but we were there during Thanksgiving. Sometimes we had to wait a bit for the elevator and the public areas got pretty crowded. We didn’t eat any meals other than breakfast there but the restaurants looked like they had quite wait during dinner when we walked by. We had the buffet breakfast at Duke’s two mornings and liked it a lot. I LOVED the view from Duke’s. It’s really something to have your breakfast a stone-throw’s away from the sand. The buffet also had a nice variety of good quality food. (I actually preferred it to Pride of America’s breakfast buffet!) They even had Portuguese sausage, a local favorite, and of course fresh pineapple! The buffet comes with coffee, tea, and juice. Definitely get the POG juice (passion, orange, and guava)! I’m not a fan of passion fruit or guava but I liked my POG! Definitely the best thing about this hotel is the location, in the middle of Waikiki. It’s surrounded by shops, including International Marketplace and 2 ABC Stores across the street. I wish we had more time to take walk around the Waikiki area because the hotel was in the perfect spot for that so I highly recommend this hotel if you want to be the middle of all the action!

Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach

Hula girl lamp in our hotel room

View from our “City View” balcony of the sunset over Waikiki Beach

For dinner this night, we did “omakase” at Sushi Sasabune. Omakase means “It’s up to you.” in Japanese and at a restaurant, it means Chef’s Choice. The chef gives you a series of dishes of his choice. For sushi, it usually means the best and freshest sushi. The reviews call the chef “Sushi Nazi” because they don’t serve non-authentic rolls (in other words, it’s all raw fish) and they strongly recommend when you should or should not use soy sauce and wasabi to eat each dish. OMG. I cannot tell you how AWESOME this place was! Chris and I have eaten at some of the best sushi restaurants in Los Angeles, New York City, etc. and we both agreed that this was seriously the BEST sushi we have ever had in our lives! The fish was SOOO fresh, buttery, and the flavors balanced so well. Even the sushi rice and fresh wasabi were superb! From my experience, omakase is usually a set price and a set number of dishes but at Sushi Sasabune, you pay per dish and they keep bringing it out until you tell them to stop. There is a threshold of about 11 or 12 dishes where most people quit so the waiter asks if you want to stop at that point or keep going. I actually bailed about 2 dishes before that point and Chris called me “weak”. He finished the usual number of dishes plus one extra dish he requested. We had green tea ice cream after that too. We found out near the end of our meal that Sushi Sasabune has an American omakase and Japanese omakase. We were having the American one. The Japanese version is similar but some of the dishes are swapped out for much more exotic foods, like sea urchin. We will have to try the Japanese version next time! Omakase is pricey though. Our bill came out to $250 after tax and tip for 2 of us without any alcohol. It was the most expensive meal we had on our trip but OMG, it was worth it!

“Trust Me!” sign at Sushi Sasabune

Yellowtail sashimi at Sushi Sasabune

Lobster tail at Sushi Sasabune

Chris full & happy after his dinner

Walmart was right down the street from the restaurant so we headed there after dinner. We winded up doing quite a bit of shopping while there, buying souvenirs, 3 gallons of bottled water, and a 6-pack of Coke. I’m a big on souvenir shopping and Walmart definitely had the best prices for the souvenirs they did have. We winded up going to Walmart in Maui and Kauai also and the Oahu Walmart had the largest selection of souvenirs by far. They also had a huge selection of flavored macadamia nut, macadamia nut chocolates, cookies, and other goodies you’ll see all over the islands. I’m still eating all of the goodies I bought but my favorites so far are Kauai Kookie Kompany cookies, Hawaiian Hosts Caramacs (chocolate-covered macadamia nuts with caramel), and Mauna Loa Maui onion and garlic flavored macadamia nuts.

It was past 10 pm by the time we returned to the hotel and we were dead tired. We woke up at 7 am CST that morning to catch our flight, which would be 3 am Hawaiian time!! Plus we were being picked up at 8:30 am the next day for our tour, so we took a shower and went to bed.

+ See all Oahu, Hawaii photos
+ Read more about my Hawaii 2010 trip

Category: Hawaii 2010 Tags: Norwegian Cruise Line, Pride of America 3 Comments

Alaska 2010: Island Princess

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Are you going to Alaska in 2012? I’m looking for someone to split the cost of the TourSaver coupon book. Please e-mail me if you are sailing in May-July and interested!

About Us
Chris and I are a married couple of DINKS (Double Income No Kids) in our early 30′s. 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 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. For more info about this, see my Day 2 post. Other than the Vancouver Overview tour before flying home, we also booked all our excursions independently.

Feel free to post any questions in the meantime or send me an e-mail!

Trip Report
Below are links by day to my DETAILED trip report with photos:

+ Day 1: Anchorage, Alaska – Historic Anchorage Hotel
+ Day 2: Denali National Park, Alaska – Alaska Railroad, Denali Princess, Husky Homestead Tour
+ Day 3: Denali National Park, Alaska – Eielson Shuttle Bus
+ Day 4: Denali National Park, Alaska – Canyon Run Whitewater Rafting, Historic Anchorage Hotel
+ Day 5: Whittier, Alaska – Alaska Railroad, Prince William Sound Cruise
+ Island Princess Review
+ Day 6: Hubbard Glacier, Alaska
+ Day 7: Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
+ Day 8: Skagway, Alaska – White Pass & Yukon Railroad
+ Day 9: Juneau, Alaska – Mendenhall Glacier Dog Sledding
+ Day 10: Ketchikan, Alaska – Anan Creek Bear Viewing
+ Day 11: Day at Sea
+ Day 12: Vancouver, Canada
+ Newbie’s Guide to Princess Cruises

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!

Trip Photos
+ My Alaska photos
+ My photo book

All photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1, which we bought for this cruise because it has 12x optical zoom, and the Canon PowerShot SD790 IS digital cameras. Many of the photos of Chris and I together were taken using Xshot Camera Extender/Monopod.

Trip Planning
I am an obsessive trip planner and detailed-oriented. These were the resources that helped make my trip a success:

+ Cruise Critic Alaska Forum: The folks on the Alaska Forum are SO helpful and I learned about so many things I would not have otherwise known.
+ Guide Books: Frommer’s Alaska and Frommer’s Alaska Cruises & Ports of Call
+ Port Maps: Destination Alaska coupon book
+ Cruise Compete: Get the best deal on your cruise by getting quotes from multiple travel agencies at one time! I’ve used this site to book 3 cruises now and have always gotten a killer deal!

Packing
Check out my tips on what to pack for an Alaskan cruise, including things we packed but didn’t need and separate clothing lists for men and women:
+ Alaskan Packing List

Shopping
I love collecting souvenirs and I share my favorite deals from my Alaskan trip:
+ Alaska Shopping

Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises 2 Comments

Alaska 2010: Day 12 – Vancouver, Canada

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Monday, July 12, 2010

When we woke up at 6:45 am, we had already pulled into Vancouver, British Columbia. The final onboard account bill was delivered at 5 am and it was now correct. After having one last breakfast in buffet, we meet for our ship-sponsored Vancouver Overview tour at 8:20 am. Even though we usually try to avoid ship-sponsored excursions, this tour was the most convenient for us because our flight home departed 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 terminal 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 their luggage tag said 2 of 2 and obviously 1 of 2 was already claimed. 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 Horizon 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 ask you to make sure but people obviously ignore them. 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.

On the tour itself…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 but I understand we had to be at the airport by noon. Overall, I’m still glad I got to see a little of Vancouver before leaving. I especially enjoyed Stanley Park and the totems. They were pretty neat!

Island Princess docked in Canada Place

Horizon Coach Lines motorcoach

2010 Olympic Cauldron

Chinatown lamp post

Gastown steam clock

Vancouver buildings from Stanley Park

Stanley Park Totem Poles

This Totem Pole gives perspective on how tall they really are

Scuba Girl Statue in Stanley Park

Inunnguaq rock statue

Science World

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, including maple syrup, maple cream cookies, and lobster pate.

Read my final thoughts on our Island Princess Alaska Cruise.

+ See all Vancouver photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises Leave a Comment

Alaska 2010: Day 11 – Day at Sea

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Sunday, July 11, 2010

This was a day at sea as we sailed towards Vancouver and past Vancouver Island. 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!)

Dessert Buffet

Island Princess’ Birthday Cake

Sailing past Vancouver Island

We went to the Photo Gallery, sorted through all our photos, and bought 4 total in addition to buying the Panraven photo book deal. 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 the day before using the all-you-can-fit-in-a-bag special and it arrived when we got back to the room. We went to dinner at 6:30 pm and this night we had very slow 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.

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.

See my thorough review on Island Princess for more detailed opinions on the ship.

+ See all Island Princess photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises Leave a Comment

Alaska 2010: Day 10 – Ketchikan, Alaska

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Our good luck in weather ran out in Ketchikan. It was foggy and drizzling the whole day. It didn’t rain so hard that we 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. This was the first time we were actually in a line to wait to disembark.

Foggy, drizzly morning in Ketchikan

We had about an hour before our tour picked up and I winded up buying quite a few things in 45 minutes so Chris took them back to the ship while I walked out to the Eagle Totem to take photos of it. Our tour was scheduled for the entire day so we were worried we wouldn’t have time to walk around when we got back so we tried to squeeze in as much as we could.

Welcome to Ketchikan sign

Ketchikan Liquid Sunshine Gauge

Eagle Totem

We booked the Anan Creek Bear Viewing with Family Air Tours for $475 per person and added on a flight over Misty Fjords for $110 per person but we got 15% discount for booking before the end of January. Basically, what this entailed is chartering a plane to take you to Anan Bay in the Tongass National Forest. From there, you hike up a trail to the Anan Wildlife Observatory over Anan Creek, where bears come to fish for salmon. Family Air Tours picked us up at the Liquid Sunshine Gauge next to the Ketchikan Visitor’s Center on the pier at 10:45 am and drove us to their plane hangar. Dave is the owner and pilot. His 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. We got to see Ketchikan and Tongass National Forest from the sky. People often ask if flightseeing in a floatplane is a lot different a helicopter. Since we experienced both in 2 days, I can say it’s a lot different. You can see much less inside a floatplane because the windows are much smaller and don’t seem like they’re all around you like in helicopter. Also, the wings of the plane were often in my photos and obstructed part of the view. Lastly, the flight experience in a helicopter is just so unique because it can go straight up and down. Take off and landing in a floatplane is very similar to being on a regular airplane, even though it happens on the water. That being said, we weren’t taking this floatplane for the flightseeing. It was a mode of transportation to Anan Creek.

Tongass National Forest from our floatplane

When we landed in Anan Bay in the Tongass National Forest, the ranger helped wrangle our floatplane in so we could deplane. I 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. After dropping us off, Dave set a time for when he’d come back to get us and then left. The ranger then checked us in and gave us a brief safety talk. 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 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. When booking this tour, I was worried about not having a guide but, as everyone said, it was impossible to get lost. We used a bear bell, which we bought at Wal-mart, 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.

Family Air’s floatplane in Anan Bay

Anan Bay

Forest Ranger Station

Boardwalk portion of Anan Creek Trail

Anan Creek Trail

The Anan Wildlife 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, which was good for the pansies who didn’t want to be in the rain, but you really need to get out on the deck to see the bear action! 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. Being close the salmon made me realize the effort they make to swim upstream, only to spawn, and die. It’s sad but inspiring. Here is a video of the salmon swimming upstream that I took.

Right after we arrived, a young bear climbed the tree in front of the deck and sat up there almost the entire time. We probably saw 15-20 black bears of all different sizes & ages, including a mama black bear and her cub, as well as young and adult bald eagles. It was so amazing to see the bears catch salmon right in front of us! Near the end of our visit, the group from Taquan Air left and we were the only ones at the Observatory with the ranger. Maybe because it was so quiet but 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 climbed the tree right in front of us, not more than 5 feet away! 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. I’ve never felt so much like I was truly in the middle of nature.

Black bear

Chris in front of the Anan Creek Observatory’s shelter

Bald eagle perched over Anan Creek

Black bear with salmon in his mouth

Bald eagle

Black bear on rocks

Mama & Baby Black Bears

2 adult bald eagles & young bald eagle

Black bear catching a salmon, dropping it, and catching another one

Black bear climbing the tree in front of us

Black bear in a tree a few feet away from us!

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 flightseeing through Misty Fjords but Dave checked with other pilots who just got back from there and said it was too foggy to see anything. I was very impressed on how honest Dave was about this and not just take us there so he could keep our money. He refunded the cost for that portion of the tour. I was a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t see Misty Fjords but this was one of the most amazing experiences in my life! I’m so happy that I went and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Ketchikan or Wrangell.

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 Ketchikan Creek and some people were standing over the bridge oooing and ahhing. I kept thinking that this was nothing compared to all of the salmon we saw in Anan!! After visiting Creek Street, we shopped around Ketchikan. Chris also got a yummy Alaskan blueberry ice cream cone inside Salmon Landing Marketplace. If you like shopping for souvenirs, make sure you also see my Shopping post. Ketchikan had the best souvenir deals in my opinion.

Raven Stealing the Sun Totem Pole

Creek Street

Ketchikan from our balcony

After dinner that evening, we watched another show of Comedian Kevin Hudges. 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! If you see this guy on a future cruise, make sure you see him!

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Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises 8 Comments

Alaska 2010: Day 9 – Juneau, Alaska

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Friday, July 9, 2010

We booked the Dog Sledding on Mendenhall Glacier Tour through Temsco for $479 per person and they asked us to meet them at the Mt. Roberts Tramway parking lot, which was about a 5-minute walk from the ship. They picked us up at 8:15 am and they drove us to their office, where the helicopter pad was also located. 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 our seats 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.

TEMSCO Helicopter

Inside the helicopter

This is definitely one of the most amazing things a person can experience in their lifetime. In one excursion, I was able to do three things that not many people can say they’ve done: ride in a helicopter, set foot on a glacier, and take a dog sled ride on snow. This was our first helicopter ride and it was exhilarating! If you’ve never been in a helicopter, the accent is quite an experience in itself. It was amazing how it could lift you straight in the air. The views of the mountain tops and the glaciers were absolutely stunning. 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 we 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.

Leaving Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier Helicopter Flight

Husky Dog Camp on Mendenhall Glacier

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.) The dog camp is run by Alaska Icefield Expeditions. We were taken to the sled with dogs already hooked in. The dogs were all very obedient and very friendly. 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 sun was very intense though so wear sunscreen and sunglasses. It’s a truly amazing experience. 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 4 puppies at the camp and we took turns holding the 2 that were awake. Adorable little guys!! Then we waited for a few minutes as our helicopter returned to fly us back to Juneau.

On Mendenhall Glacier

Glacier dog sledding

Visiting the resident puppies

TEMSCO dropped us 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 pm and we had to be back onboard by 3:30 pm. We decided that 2 hours wasn’t enough time to go to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center and get back in time so we spent the last 2 hours walking around Juneau. I’m still a little sad that we didn’t have a chance to see Mendenhall Glacier from the Visitor’s Center but I tried to comfort myself with the reminder that we were ON it! Plus, I’m glad we got a chance to see Juneau up close and personal.

We visited Patsy Ann’s statue, Red Dog Saloon, and then shopped up Franklin St. I mentioned this in my Skagway post but if you need bottled water, the Alaska Shirt Company has the cheapest bottled water and they come in large bottles too. They are located across the street from the Mount Roberts Tramway. If you like shopping for souvenirs, make sure you also see my Shopping post.

Mount Roberts Tramway

Juneau & Red Dog Saloon

Patsy Ann Statue

Alternative “hunting trophies” at Taku Smokeries

Alaska Forget-me-not Flowers

Alaskan Brewing Co.

That evening was the second Formal Night. We took photos again and had dinner early so we could watch Comedian Kevin Hudges’ show. You can read my review of him in my Island Princess Review.

Second Formal Night

Comedian Kevin Hughes

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Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises 3 Comments

Alaska 2010: Day 8 – Skagway, Alaska

23
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Thursday, July 8, 2010

We booked the 7.5-hour Yukon Rail & Bus Tour with Dogcart Ride with Chilkoot Charters. The cost was $206 per person, or $175 per person without the dogcart ride. Upon disembarking the ship, you face a cliff wall and it’s painted with tons of cruise logos. That was really neat to see.

Skagway harbor painted cliff

Chilkoot Charter mini-bus

We walked through security and found the Chilkoot Charters guide easily. When everyone in the tour arrived, Chilkoot Charters drove us to the White Pass & Yukon Rail Depot and we boarded our train car. The guide did not board the train with us. He was going to drive to Fraser to meet us with the mini-bus. Unlike the trains we took in Anchorage and Denali, this train has a vintage feel to it.

People always ask what side to sit on the train & bus for the best views. Leaving Skagway on the train, sit on the left side but make sure you get up and go outside on the platform while the train is moving!! Once you get to Fraser, sit on the right side of the bus. On the way back down via bus, sit on the left side. If your train/bus legs are not in the same order, please see this page for info on the best views.

White Pass & Yukon Route train engine

White Pass & Yukon Route train caboose

Onboard the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad train

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! We were also up SO high on the mountain. The views were amazing and none of the other train rides we went on were so high up! 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! I also saw a really fat, arctic ground squirrel and that made my day!

Bridal Veil Falls

White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad

Video I made outside on the viewing platform

Arctic ground squirrel

Steel bridge

Landscape as we approach Fraser

When we arrived at the Fraser train station, our guide from Chilkoot Charters was there to pick us up and continue our tour. Arriving in Fraser was very exciting for me because it was my first time on Canadian soil!! Even though Fraser is in British Columbia, Canadian officials never stamp our passports. The Fraser train station has a souvenir passport stamp that you can use to stamp your own passport. We had several scenic photo stops along the way, including Lake Bennett, the “Welcome to Yukon” sign, Bove Island, Carcross Desert, and Emerald Lake. And yes, Emerald Lake is as gorgeous as it sounds!

Arriving at the Fraser Train Station

Lake Bennett

Yukon, Canada

Carcross Desert

Bove Island

Emerald Lake

Believe it or not, we did all of that before lunch! 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 served at Caribou Crossing was very good and that is saying a lot coming from me because I generally don’t like chicken, unless it’s fried and even then, I mostly like the skin! The BBQ chicken was tender and those cinnamon donuts were the 2nd best donuts I’ve ever had!! (Second only to freshly made, piping hot Krispy Kreme donuts!)

Caribou Crossing

Caribou Crossing BBQ Chicken Lunch

Our time at Caribou Crossing felt especially rushed because we pre-booked the dog cart ride there. If you want to do the dog cart ride, it costs $31/person extra and I highly recommend that you pre-book also. There were others on our tour that decided they wanted to do it at the last minute but could not get a time slot before our mini-bus left so they missed out. You could see a crowd of people watching the dog camp from outside of the gates and they looked jealous when we walked in with our tickets. The camp was a bit muddy and EXTREMELY dusty so the dogs were dirtier and less trained than the ones we saw at Jeff King’s Husky Homestead. The dogs were so excited to get picked for the cart ride but they were hard to control so the drivers struggled to hook them up to the cart. Still the dogs were absolutely adorable!! The ride itself was a lot of fun! We rode through the forest behind the camp and spotted a few times for the dogs to get a drink. The plastic pools they drank out of were pretty disgusting though. The water was really dark from all the dust. The ride was very dusty also and we were covered in dirt when it was over. Bring your sunglasses to protect your eyes from all the dust. Overall, the ride was a lot of fun and worth the money! However, it was NOTHING compared to glacier dog sledding, which we did in Juneau. If you debating between a dog cart ride and glacier dog sledding, defintiely go with glacier dog sledding!

Husky dog camp at Caribou Crossing

Dog cart ride at Caribou Crossing

After the dog cart ride, we had about 10 minutes to do some souvenir shopping and use the restrooms. I’m a souvenir fiend so rushing through the shop was tough for me but I managed to snag a magnet and postcard. Once back onboard the mini-bus, we drove through Carcross and Nares Lake. Then we headed back to Skagway. The return trip was much less eventful and I slept almost the whole way, waking up for the scenic stops, which were the “Welcome to Alaska” sign and a waterfall. By the way, since we thought we’d be on a train or bus most of the day, we decided to give the insect repellent wrist bands we bought from Wal-mart a try and they failed. I was bitten twice and Chris once!! FAIL. Definitely stick with Off Deep Woods wipes or spray.

Carcross Train Station

Welcome to Alaska sign on Klondike Highway

Waterfall along the Klondike Highway

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. (I cannot stress how awesome convertible pants are! See my Packing List post for more info.) We spent the rest of the day (3-4 hours) doing the self-guided walking tour and shopping. The buildings in Skagway are so adorable! It kind of reminds me of a theme park! 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 bringing the warm weather with us! Places we saw in Skagway included the Historic Skagway Inn, Moore Homestead, Sarah Palin Store, Days of ’98 Theater, World War II Barracks, Mascot Saloon, Arctic Brotherhood Hall, Red Onion Saloon, Klondike Gold Rush Museum, White Pass & Yukon Railroad Depot, and Pullen Creek & Pond.

Skagway Old Town

Moore Homestead

Sarah Palin Store

Arctic Brotherhood Hall

Red Onion Saloon

Rotary snowplow at White Pass & Yukon Rail Depot

Toliet in a gazebo

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! If you like shopping for souvenirs, make sure you also see my Shopping post.

Walking back to the ship was slightly confusing since we did not walk from it. We were NOT docked at the Broadway Way Dock, which is at the end of Broadway and really easy to get to. Island Princess was docked at the Railroad Dock and you have to walk past the Rail Depot and down Congress Way to it. We were slightly confused on how to get over to Congress Way because or the tracks and Pullen Pond. The most useful maps I found were the ones in the Destination Alaska coupon book. They are much more detailed than some of the other maps I’ve seen of the main tourist areas and very helpful in figuring out exactly where our ship was docked. Make sure you pick up a coupon book before boarding the ship in Whittier!

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Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises 8 Comments

Alaska 2010: Day 7 – Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

19
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

We reserved the Glacier Bay Champagne Breakfast the day before to be delivered to our cabin around 10 am. It was perfect timing because we were sailing into Glacier Bay, past gorgeous scenery but nothing too exciting that we had to pay close attention. The breakfast cost $32 for 2 people and included the following:

Alaskan King Crab Quiche served with 2 crab legs and a cheese-stuffed tomato
Smoked salmon with dill cream cheese and toasted lemon brioche
Fruit & berries medley
Assortment of pastries
1/2 bottle of Heidsieck Monopole Champagne
Choice of juice
Coffee or hot tea

See photos of all the Champagne Breakfast food. The breakfast was very good and filling! Though next time, I would ask if they can substitute the champagne for Martinelli’s Sparking Cider because we can’t drink much and had about 1/2 a glass each of the champagne. The Ranger Presentation began at 11 am and they showed it on the TV so we turned the volume all the way up and listened to it while we ate our breakfast on the balcony.

A toast in Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay Champagne Breakfast

Sailing into Glacier Bay

The Ranger commentary and Glacier Bay scenic cruising began around 12:15 pm. Our ship visited 3 major glaciers: Reid Glacier, Margerie Glacier, and the Lamplugh Glacier.

Glacier Bay

Reid Glacier

We spent the most time at the Margerie Glacier but I think the ship turned for at each of them so both sides of the ship could see. Scenic cruising ended around 5 pm so there was plenty of time to alternate between spots on the ship. We viewed the glaciers from our balcony and the secret deck on Deck 10 forward. On Decks 9-11, walk all the way forward and through the doors on either side of the ship. They will lead to public decks that most people do not know about. At most, there were 10 people and sometimes I was there by myself. I thought it was good to see the glaciers from both my balcony and Deck 10 forward. Approaching Margerie Glacier was my favorite part while on Deck 10 forward because you’re facing the glacier and there is nothing obstructing your view. It was beautiful! There was also this harbor seal who was chilling on an iceberg but it was in the path of the ship. He looks up at us and starts to scooch himself towards the edge of the iceberg. He then gives us the dirtiest look as if to say “I was freaking here first!!!” and then jumps off the iceberg before the ship pushes it aside. Poor guy!!! LOL! Once the ship started to turn, we headed up to our balcony and viewed from there until the ship was facing the glacier again, then we would return to Deck 10 forward.

The harbor seal who hated us

Margerie Glacier

At one point, we also stopped by Horizon Court, where Glacier Bay Rangers were selling merchandise, and we popped over to the Forward Deck in front of Horizon Court. It was very crowded so we headed up to Deck 15 and realized almost the whole ship was outlined in this blue glass that made it hard to see and almost impossible to take photos. There were only a few spots without the blue glass and they were completely crowded with people. Luckily, there was a small section that people were taking turns to use for a group photo and then stepping aside to let others go next.

Park Ranger in front of the damn blue glass

Our photo in the shared photo spot

We had beautiful weather the whole day! It was sunny though sometimes a bit windy. I took my jacket off on the forward deck because sunny and uncovered but I wore it when I was on our balcony since it was shady and not covered. Apparently, this type of weather is not good for calving so we didn’t see much of it in Glacier Bay. Marjorie Glaicer gave us one good calving but still not as big as what we saw at Hubbard Glacier and not even close to Prince William Sound.

In terms of wildlife, we saw whales, bald eagles, and harbor seals. A seagull also decided to make a perch out of a balcony a few doors down from us. He was HUGE upclose! While we were on the Lido Deck, the Park Ranger on the bridge said she spotted a brown bear but no one could find it, not even the Park Ranger that was on the Lido Deck with us.

Bald Eagle on iceberg

Pair of harbor seals

Whale in Glacier Bay

Seagull on balcony railing

Lamplugh Glacier

Overall, Glacier Bay was stunning! I can see why people on the Cruise Critic Alaska Board say it is a must for the first time Alaska cruiser!

We went to dinner at 6:30 pm and didn’t have to wait. After dinner, we watched Kalin & Ginger’s Magic Show, which I reviewed in my Island Princess review.

Kalin & Ginger’s Magic Show: Sawing Ginger in half

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Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises Leave a Comment

Alaska 2010: Day 6 – Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

18
Nov 2010

Rebecca

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

We wanted to have breakfast in the dining room at least once but never did because we didn’t want to wake up early enough to make it. We had breakfast at Horizon Court buffet. I organized the Meet & Mingle for our roll call, which was fairly quiet, so I wasn’t expecting much. I was just praying someone else would show up at the Wheelhouse Bar at 11 am. To my utter joy, we had 10 people attend the Meet & Mingle and 6 of those people wore the shirt I designed!! Yay!! Trivia was going on at the same time in the Wheelhouse Bar but I don’t think we disturbed them since we sat in the back off to one side. Friends of people at the Meet & Mingle winded up winning the trivia! I handed out postcards and magnets that I made and we all chatted until about 12 pm before disbanding.

Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle at Wheelhouse Bar

We had lunch in the Bordeaux Dining Room and this was when I had the crappy Philly cheesesteak that I mentioned in my Island Princess review.

We were scheduled to arrive at Hubbard Glacier at 5:15 pm so we had a few hours to kill before then so we hit the Lotus Pool and the hot tubs.

Speaking of Hubbard Glacier, the Princess Patters say “Yakutat Bay” in the place they print the day’s port and I thought that was confusing because I had never heard of it and everyone always talked about Hubbard Glacier. Well, Hubbard Glacier is in Yakutat Bay for your future reference.

Sailing into Yakutat Bay

It was gloomy, drizzly and windy the whole day and the weather was no different when we arrived at Hubbard Glacier. We wore our waterproof jackets, rain pants, and long underwear and tried going out on the open decks at first. It was hard to stay on the upper and forward decks because the wind would blow rain into our eyes and all over the binocular lenses and cameras. We winded up staying on our covered balcony the rest of the time and it was perfect. We didn’t even have to wear waterproof jackets and just wore fleece pullovers. (I also wore a cap and gloves.) There wasn’t fog though so I guess we were lucky in that department! (Our photos look foggy but I think that was mostly due to the gloomy lighting. It was actually pretty clear to see.) Also, it was drizzly so the weather was ripe for calving! What I loved the most about Hubbard Glacier was the gorgeous, gorgeous blue icebergs that were floating in the water. They were so blue and pretty that I’d love to set it in jewelry!! I’ve never seen ice so blue.

We were lucky enough to see Hubbard Glacier calve a few times but nothing really big like we saw during our Prince William Sound cruise.

Gorgeous blue iceberg

The massive Hubbard Glacier

Close-up of Hubbard Glacier

Hubbard Glacier from our balcony

Hubbard Glacier scenic cruising lasted about 1.5 hours. Then, it was time to get ready for formal night! We got dressed and took our formal photos. As I mentioned in my Island Princess review, we tried to eat at 7:15 pm and there was a long wait. We winded up watching the Captain begin the Champagne Waterfall and still we were still waiting, we went ahead and did the Champagne Waterfall ourselves!! This was our 4th cruise but first ever Champagne Waterfall! LOL! We were finally seated for dinner at 7:50 pm. We also hit rough seas during dinner and our table felt like it was bobbing up and down but it calmed down by bedtime.

First Formal Night

Champagne Waterfall

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Category: Alaska 2010 Tags: Island Princess, Princess Cruises 2 Comments

Cruising Goddess

Archive for the Category »Cruises «

Hawaii 2010: Day 4 – Iolani Palace, Chinatown (Oahu)

Hawaii 2010: Day 3 – Dolphin Encounter, Polynesian Cultural Center (Oahu)

Hawaii 2010: Day 2 – Grand Circle Island Tour (Oahu)

Hawaii 2010: Day 1 – Outrigger Waikiki & Sushi Sasabune (Oahu)

Alaska 2010: Island Princess

Alaska 2010: Day 12 – Vancouver, Canada

Alaska 2010: Day 11 – Day at Sea

Alaska 2010: Day 10 – Ketchikan, Alaska

Alaska 2010: Day 9 – Juneau, Alaska

Alaska 2010: Day 8 – Skagway, Alaska

Alaska 2010: Day 7 – Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Alaska 2010: Day 6 – Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

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