Just off Coral northbound Alaska/land tour

We just got back from two amazing weeks! Northbound cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage on the Coral Princess and then the Off the Beaten Path Land Tour (Copper River, Denali! And Mt. McKinley)

I would be glad to answer any questions.

Are you going to be posting a review? I'd love to visit Copper River but you never hear much about the area.

Are you going to be posting a review? I'd love to visit Copper River but you never hear much about the area.

Me too. I'm looking at this tour for the future.

Did you save the Patters?

Did they offer crab legs in the dining room any nights? I saw they had them on the Ruby.

What night did they offer Crab Shack?

What movies were on board?

Entertainers?

We leave in 2 weeks for our tour, getting very excited!

Any observations on vegetarian dining options, in case that was something you would have paid attention to ?

I'm not vegetarian, but there were options every night.

One night we had a vegetarian couple near us and I saw someone from the dining staff come over to them to go over the next night's menu.

The vegetarian dishes I did eat were quite tasty.

Glad you had a great time. :)

How was your weather?

If you could change any of your packing choices, what would you do differently?

ie more/less warm/cool weather items, pants, tops?)

Not sure you can answer this one unless you have done different itineraries but... Did you notice more casual clothing at dinner? Formal nights?

How was your weather?

 

If you could change any of your packing choices, what would you do differently?

ie more/less warm/cool weather items, pants, tops?)

 

Not sure you can answer this one unless you have done different itineraries but... Did you notice more casual clothing at dinner? Formal nights?

We had great weather on the cruise part and most of the land part. Neither one of us took a heavy coat. We just layered, tee shirt, long sleeve tee, sweatshirt, and nylon wind breaker. This was plenty for cruising Glacier Bay and College Fjord. (Also took a ski band and gloves) The rest of the time it was sunny and pretty warm for cruising. (People were laying in the sun by the pool on some days.) I would pack a pair of shorts in case you get warm weather. It was more casual than other cruises. My husband just wore khakis and a button down shirt for formal night and we saw many like that. The other nights people wore jeans and a polo shirt for dinner. We took more dress up clothes than we wore so wouldn't do that again. Jog suit and yoga pants came in very handy! If you are doing the land tour afterwards you need that extra space in your suitcase for another week of very casual clothes so I would say more casual clothes rather than dressy and leave the fancy shoes, purses, accessories etc. home. It's Alaska.

Are you going to be posting a review? I'd love to visit Copper River but you never hear much about the area.

I wasn't planning on posting a review of everything since that's not my style but will try to answer questions.

We loved the Copper River lodge! It's remote and beautiful there. We took a trip into Kenicott for the day and did the mine tours. We only stayed there one night on the land tour so didn't get much time to do anything else.

Did you save the Patters?

Did they offer crab legs in the dining room any nights? I saw they had them on the Ruby.

What night did they offer Crab Shack?

What movies were on board?

Entertainers?

We leave in 2 weeks for our tour, getting very excited!

We did not save the Patters, sorry. We had to be very careful on the weight of our suitcases and had to get rid of enough to get them under the weight limit.

They did have crab legs in the dining room and they were excellent. Can't remember what night but it wasn't either if the formal nights.

We did not do the Crab Shack so don't know what night it was.

We also didn't do any of the movies so I can't remember what they were.

As far as the shows, they had On the Bayou, a comedian which we didn't care for at all, a guitarist singer which was very good (he performed two different nights) and another singing and dancing production by the Coral Prince dancers.

We were usually too busy staying on our balcony or deck looking for whales and sea otters to attend the shows. Also we got up very early (6am most mornings for the excursions and Glacier Bay cruising.)

Sorry we couldn't be more help with your questions.

You will have a fabulous time!

We did not save the Patters, sorry. We had to be very careful on the weight of our suitcases and had to get rid of enough to get them under the weight limit.

 

They did have crab legs in the dining room and they were excellent. Can't remember what night but it wasn't either if the formal nights.

 

We did not do the Crab Shack so don't know what night it was.

 

We also didn't do any of the movies so I can't remember what they were.

 

As far as the shows, they had On the Bayou, a comedian which we didn't care for at all, a guitarist singer which was very good (he performed two different nights) and another singing and dancing production by the Coral Prince dancers.

 

We were usually too busy staying on our balcony or deck looking for whales and sea otters to attend the shows. Also we got up very early (6am most mornings for the excursions and Glacier Bay cruising.)

 

Sorry we couldn't be more help with your questions.

 

You will have a fabulous time!

Thank you!

We had great weather on the cruise part and most of the land part. Neither one of us took a heavy coat. We just layered, tee shirt, long sleeve tee, sweatshirt, and nylon wind breaker. This was plenty for cruising Glacier Bay and College Fjord. (Also took a ski band and gloves) The rest of the time it was sunny and pretty warm for cruising. (People were laying in the sun by the pool on some days.) I would pack a pair of shorts in case you get warm weather. It was more casual than other cruises. My husband just wore khakis and a button down shirt for formal night and we saw many like that. The other nights people wore jeans and a polo shirt for dinner. We took more dress up clothes than we wore so wouldn't do that again. Jog suit and yoga pants came in very handy! If you are doing the land tour afterwards you need that extra space in your suitcase for another week of very casual clothes so I would say more casual clothes rather than dressy and leave the fancy shoes, purses, accessories etc. home. It's Alaska. ��

Thanks for the info. We are doing 4 days land precruise. Cruising south from Whittier. But then staying in Seattle for 3 nights afterwards. Packing is always tough for me.:o

Did you notice any of the problems that have been mentioned about the Coral recently; notably sewage smell?

How was your weather?

 

If you could change any of your packing choices, what would you do differently?

ie more/less warm/cool weather items, pants, tops?)

 

Not sure you can answer this one unless you have done different itineraries but... Did you notice more casual clothing at dinner? Formal nights?

One of the best tips for clothes are the convertible travel pants for both men and women. (The ones that have the zip off legs) I got mine from Gander Mountain and hubby got the Columbia brand ones. They are light but warm, don't take up any room in your suitcase, and are perfect for the ever changing weather in Alaska. A lot of our our guides wore them on our land excursions. We saw many of the passengers wearing them as well. They are very comfortable for traveling in the airplane also. :)

Did you notice any of the problems that have been mentioned about the Coral recently; notably sewage smell?

Only one time while walking the promenade deck did we notice a faint smell. Other than that we didn't notice any smell. We also had plenty of hot water for our showers. :)

I am glad the OP had a great trip. Congress changed the name of the mountain (finally!) to Denali over the Ohio delegations protest. AK is a frontier state and people dress in outdoors clothing. Layering is the order of the day in AK. So underclothing, shirt and pants, light sweater and outer jacket that is windproof along with sturdy shoes like hiking boots. Be prepared for rain as it does rain particularly in Ketchikan where they get 200 inches a year! I love AK but then I like the outdoors. I have been several times on land only trips and several cruise trips. On land trips I rent a car and go see the less visited sights. AK is great in the summer (only!).

Any observations on vegetarian dining options, in case that was something you would have paid attention to ?

Princess always has amazing vegetarian selections! I am not a vegetarian, but I often select this choice!

If you are not vegan, try the Twice Baked Goat Cheese Souffle!

Princess always has amazing vegetarian selections! I am not a vegetarian, but I often select this choice!

 

!

DH does the same. The waiters sometimes look at him confused, as he usually switches it up from a meat dish to vegetarian more than once.

I eat the seafood/fish dishes most every night. Much better, I feel, than on X.

Looking forward to reading all your posts. We just booked this tour, in reverse, for May 2017. Have done Coral before and Denali, but not Copper River. Would love to hear all about it.

We just got back from two amazing weeks! Northbound cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage on the Coral Princess and then the Off the Beaten Path Land Tour (Copper River, Denali! And Mt. McKinley)

I would be glad to answer any questions.

Glad you enjoyed it.