Alaska Cruisetour - Island Princess

My DD, SIL and I did a two week cruise tour of Alaska with Princess, June 18 - July 2. I've put some pictures in my gallery, it's a work in progress, we took over a thousand pictures. http://www.momj47.com/gallery/

We had a great time. We spent the first week on the land tour - starting in Anchorage, finishing up in Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, and the second week was a southbound cruise from Whittier to Vancouver.

This was our first cruise, and our first trip to Alaska. The land tour was definitely our favorite, but the cruise was wonderful, too. A criusetour is clearly the best way to see Alaska, especially the first time. It appears that there are 11 roads in the state, and many of the places you want to see don't even have roads!

Princess does an amazing job of coordinating travel, hotels, luggage, meals, etc. Everything went smoothly. (Our favorite picture, that we never took, was two young hotel employees standing in a parking lot behind the Captain Cook Hotel in the middle of about 300 suitcases!)

The guides at each leg of the trip were amazing. They clearly love Alaska and were happy to share. They have an amazing knowledge of history and natural history of the state, we learned so much.

We had eight days of sunlight - very disorienting, but we'll never experience that again. We were lucky to be in Fairbanks on June 21, Midnight Sun Festival, great timing Princess.

Denali is beautiful, even in the rain. We did the Wilderness Tundra tour, I recommend it. The train ride from Anchorage to Denali - it was OK, but not my favorite part of the trip.

The two day bus ride up the Dalton Highway was awesome, full of little surprises, too, like the forest fire, and the Japanese kid cycyling to Deadhorse. The bus driver knew the road like an old friend, and shared his family's secret camping and fishing spots with us. (I don't think it's much of a secret, actually)

Stops include Joy, AK, the Hot Spot Cafe, Yukon River Bridge, the Arctic Circle (no dotted line), Coldfoot Camp, Wiseman, AK. and Attigan Pass. Coldfoot has some of the hungriest mosquitos I'v ever seen, they were ready for fresh blood. Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay was great fun, my SIL took a dip in the Arctic Ocean, it was 32.4 degrees, barely melted along the shore. We'll never be back, so it was now or never.

The flight back to Anchorage was beautiful, our pilot took a small detour and circled Mt. McKinley, twice, so we could all get pictures.

The cruise on the Island Princess was wonderful, great staff, good food, lots to do. I did learn that an inside cabin can cause claustrophobia, but a warm corner of the Lido Deck or a nice chair in the library works magic. Glacier Bay was beautiful, and we loved the Wilderness Jetboat tour we took in Ketchikan.

We saw lots of wildlife, especially caribou - them's good eatin'.

I certainly want to go back to Alaska soon.

I hope everyone else has a great trip.

Thanks for sharing!

So glad you had a wonderful trip. But you mention something very important...The Tundra Wilderness Tour. Last year and this year both, that tour has sold out very early for the entire season. Only cancellations left. The Parks department regulates the number of coaches and passengers it allows into the park and there are more people who want to do the longer tour than the shorter. So, if this tour is important to you, book early!

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We're leaving for Vancouver on Sat, July 30th - will be onboard the Sun, August 1st - can't wait.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We're leaving for Vancouver on Sat, July 30th - will be onboard the Sun, August 1st - can't wait.

You all have a fantastic adventure in Alaska! :D