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

[Meiying]

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.

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!

The ship was lovely. There were certainly spots that were showing its age (i.e. rust near the windows in the dining room, stains on the grout in the bathroom of our mini suite, rust on our balcony that they actually fixed while we were there) but nothing that detracted from the cruise.

The staff was lovely - you would be hard pressed to find a staff member on this ship who was not friendly. We loved our room steward Erwin. The room was always perfect and he always greeted us by name and with a smile. Whenever we asked for anything from him - it was there in a flash.

We had anytime dining and in the past we found a waiter we liked and then requested him every night. It was different this time - we felt like they were not as attentive as they had been in the past. Some nights it seemed like they didn't care - just wanted to get the food out on the table and then get you out of the dining room. No big deal. The food was good and we certainly ate plenty of it.

Entertainment - We were disappointed that they do the same shows as they do on other Princess ships. We saw the production show "Do You Wanna Dance" on the Caribbean Princess and it was the same exact show here just with different performers. Sort of boring the second time around. We saw both of the comics, Scott Wyler and Cary Long - both were good. We participated in the various trivia games, Jeopardy games, watched the Not So Newlywed Game, etc. - plenty of options for entertainment.

Disembarkation was a little slow but not terrible. Our assigned time to go off was 8:30 am and our group was called at 8:50 am. 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 wonderful trip and Princess does a nice job. I am already planning our next trip!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[georoc01]

Thanks for your review..

This just goes to show that two people can go on the same cruise and have totally opposite experiences. For us, the dining room staff was incredible for us (anytime dining the the Bordeaux dining room, generally eating after 8pm) but it was the room steward who inattentative and not as friendly as in the past.

Totally agree on the Harvard Glacier. And the weather just added to the visual experience, although we were fairly chilled by the time we departed (it was 47 degrees at 6am when we were there, we just hung out on our balcony).

It was a memorable cruise for us as well. As a first visit to Alaska, it reminds me of my trip to Australia a couple of years ago. It was just a taste of what was there, so much more to see and do that at some point we will have to return.

[Caribbean Sunsets]

Nice review. Thanks for taking the time to add so much detail.

It must have been awesome to see whales as you were dining on the ship.

[RickEk]

Thanks for the review. The Island Princess was my first cruise and holds a special place in my heart...

[Modeen]

Great review!

How long did it take you to drive from Skagway to Emerald Lake with your stops?

Thanks.

[Meiying]

Modeen - The drive took us about 6 hours total. Keep in mind that we stopped A LOT to take pictures. It was approx. 150 miles round trip so I am sure it can be done in a shorter period of time.

I TOTALLY forgot about the seals in Skagway! 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!

[Meiying]

georoc01 - Interesting about the dining/room steward thing. I loved our room steward so much I wish I could have taken him home! Where did you sit in the Bordeaux? We seemed to always be on the starboard side by the windows. We are early diners - we usually were there by 5:30 pm.

[georoc01]

We were late diners as my gf loves to go to tea at 3:30. So we would skip lunch, go to tea and have dinner late. We were all over the place. We had the singing wait staff where they would bring out a guitar and sing happy birthday, anniversary, honeymoon and a variety of other tunes at the end of dinner. It was my gf's birthday on Friday and they really treated her well.

I missed Saturday's menu as we were doing Chef's dinner. The maitre D overheard me and they made the crab legs and rack of lamb special for me on Sunday.

We also had dinner one night where we had some fisherman and they had brought the catch onboard and the chef cooked it up special for them too.

Another night we had dinner with a couple that had a coupon for a free bottle of champagne from their TA. Since they were at a table of 8, they brought out 2 and gave everyone at the table free champagne that night.

BTW, we did the same drive from Skagway, left at 10am, and got back at 3pm, with the same stops at the Cinnamon Cache for lunch (we were there at the same time as Dyea Dave and his group), had our passports stamped in Carcross and spent some time at Caribou Crossing as well. On the way back we were sharing the road with lots of bicycles so you had to take it easy on that side of the pass. We missed the seals, but saw some of the largest salmon I have ever seen caught in pens on the other bridge. Apparently they are being used to try and repopulate another stream by capturing these salmon for their eggs.

Our room steward was the worst I have had in 5 Princess cruises. Check out my review down the page if you want to see the details. Other than clean towels and making the bed, everything else was pretty much pulling teeth, including have to go to the purser's desk to get patters one day as he never dropped one off the previous night and was nowhere to be found.

Totally agree on the shows, although Adrian Zmed wasn't bad. We pretty much closed down the Wheelhouse bar every night as my gf loves to dance. Geraldo SA was awesome and actually would do a dance with her every night so she could have a decent partner and not put up with my two left feet on the dance floor.

[rdsqrl]

Thanks for the review; sounds like an awesome trip.

[Meiying]

georoc01 - Sounds like we should have shared waiters and room stewards - then we would have had the best of both worlds! I am actually shocked at how horrible your room steward was. I used to work for NCL and lived on the ships for a long time, never once in my life have I heard of such a horrible room steward.

Dyea Dave must have had several groups going through the Cinnamon Cache as we were there with 2 Dyea Dave groups and I am guessing we were there about an hour before you.

[LARGIN]

Thanks for the review.. We have 3 Alaska cruises scheduled for 2010..

[firefly4423]

thanks for sharing that!

[beachbrat]

[quote=Meiying;20662274]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.
I bundled up and headed to the "secret" part of the Caribe deck.


Where is the "secret" part of the Caribe deck??

[Meiying]

All the way forward on the Caribe deck. There is a beige/white door there that you have to go through and then there will be another door that says warns about high winds when you open it. There is a similar viewing spot on the Baja deck but it is smaller. Enjoy

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to write the review. Sounds like you enjoyed your cruise.....

Bob