My Island Princess Review - 7/27 - 8/3 *LONG*

[Meiying]

I posted most of this review on the Princess board but thought I would post it here too since I wrote a lot about Alaska and not just about the ship (I've tried to edit out most of the Princess stuff here)...hope someone here can benefit from the info. We are so thankful for all the info we got from all of you!

We really enjoyed this cruise. Having heard so much about the cold and rain in Alaska we were prepared but ended up with beautiful warm weather for almost all of the cruise.

We started out in Anchorage where we rented a car. We spent one night at the Anchorage Marriott downtown before heading to Denali. On recommendation of this board and the gal behind the desk at the Marriott, we ate at The Moose's Tooth - loved it! We drove to Denali where we spent two nights at the lovely Denali Lakeview Inn. So many people on this board have said good things about the place and rightfully so. It was really a lovely place to stay. In Denali, we took the free shuttle to the dog sled demonstration, drove the Savage River Loop on our own, and then the next day we took the park shuttle to the Eielson Visitor Center. We saw loads of bears, artic ground squirrels, ptarmigans, and caribou. Best of all we got to see both peaks of Mount McKinley! Before heading back to Anchorage to catch the bus to the ship, we stopped in Palmer at the Musk Ox Farm. It was neat to learn about these animals and to see them up close.

It was rainy and foggy for our ride on the Princess bus ride from Anchorage to Whittier. Princess has this down to a science. We walked up to the Princess desk, told them our names and within 10 seconds, they whisked away our bags (which we didn't see again until we boarded the ship) and a Princess rep walked the two of us to the bus. The bus goes through what was some really beautiful scenery - I can only imagine how much more spectacular it would have been had it not been raining! Embarkation was easier than ever. We walked right in - waited for about 1 minute for the person in front of us in line and then before we knew it we were walking right onto the ship.

Our first "stop" was College Fjord and this was our one cold rainy day. When we arrived there, we looked out the balcony and were totally bummed about the weather. I bundled up and headed to the "secret" part of the Caribe deck. At one point I was out there alone and at the busiest point I was out there with 5 people. One was the videographer for the ship and he said that he had worked on the ships for a long time and they had never had the ship as close to the glaciers as they did this day - I really felt like I could have touched the Harvard Glacier. Despite the rain, viewing all of the glaciers was amazing.

Next up was Glacier Bay. The day started out foggy and we were afraid that we were going to be disappointed but wow what a beautiful day it turned out to be. The glaciers were impressive and we loved seeing the sea otters go by as the ship went farther and farther into Glacier Bay.

In Skagway we rented a car and used Murray's Guide along the way. (Thanks Yukon - this is a FABULOUS guide!) The weather was beautiful and warm. We stopped so many times to takes pictures - it is really gorgeous up there. (We loved that the first thing was saw in Canada was a bald eagle perched on a tree.) We stopped at Cinnamon Cache where we had a yummy cinnamon bun before heading to Emerald Lake which was a turnaround point. On the way back we stopped in Carcross. The ladies in the visitor center are quite friendly and we had a nice chat with them and learned a bit about the town.

I read somewhere on here that if you went to the footbridge in Skagway that you would see seals. We headed up there 2 times and saw nothing. We stopped and asked some people and they told us to go where the Holland America ship was docked (Broadway dock) and low and behold there they were playing in the water. At the end of the dock closest to town there is some type of water shaft that is pumping lots of water - around it there were loads of fish - the seals must be attacted to the fish because they were playing all round there. Very cool!

When we woke up in Juneau I opened the door to our balcony and the first thing I saw was a huge bald eagle flying by! I saw several after that but no more later on in the day. We went Whale Watching with Orca Enterprises. We went out on what looked like their largest boat but there were only 15 or 16 of us. The boat never felt crowded and we never had a problem viewing the whales. They were actively bubble net feeding which is truly an awesome sight to see. And for a bonus we got to see one breach (that's when they jump out of the water). The weather was lovely and we really enjoyed the trip. After our whale watch we headed over to the Mendenhall Glacier. We heard some people that were there earlier saw some bears very close - but we weren't so lucky. The glacier is spectacular so it was well worth the trip (even without the bears!)

In Ketchikan we went kayaking to Orca's Cove with Southeast Seas. It was a warm sunny day and I have a nice tan to prove it. We saw several eagles and a nest with and eaglet - lots of fish jumping out of the water. We enjoyed the peacefulness of the trip. Afterwards we headed to the famous Creek Street.

One thing I have to share is that it seemed that it was pointed out several times that you could see whales as the ship was going into Glacier Bay. I never heard anyone say that there was a possibility of seeing them during the last sea day. We were sitting by the window at dinner and saw loads of orca. It was incredible. The best was when one came up right outside the window - so close I felt like I could have touched it. So be sure to keep an eye out on that day!

In Vancouver we stored our bags at Canada Place with CDS - we paid a fee to store the bags and then a nice surprise was that for an extra $15 they would take the bags to the airport for you. We took the hop on/hop off trolley around Vancouver for the day - because they took our bags to the airport there was no need for us to have to go back to pick them up and then carry them along in a taxi to the airport. Well worth the $15 in my opinion. We enjoyed the trolley - we went to Stanley Park, ate lunch in Chinatown, visited the Dr. Sun Yan-Set gardens, and walked around Granville Island. It was a very nice way to spend the day in Vancouver. (A word of warning though...some people from this cruise rented a car so they could see Vancouver. They left their belongings in the car while visiting Stanley Park. Their car got broken into and a lot of their things including their passports and some money were stolen. They later heard from the police that this happens all the time!)

It was a lovely cruise and I already wish we were going back to Alaska - what a beautiful state!

[vegs1]

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Thank you for sharing your review.

[Coolcruise02]

Thanks for posting a review!