May 14 Diamond Alaska cruise review

Got to the pier at around 10:30 saturday morning..was on board by 12...not bad..found our room...E 731 last balcony aft on starboard side with wonderful views....very nice room with wonderful covered balcony...Actually saw the Northern lights late one night off the back of the ship! Amazing..wanted to wake everyone up to share, but didn;t want to bang on doors..Ha.!

First couple days they had us in a sterile environment on board the ship..could not touch anything in food court! Everything was dished out to you..really a pain, but better than getting sick..I guess...Food in buffet was ok..nothing to complain about..always left full, and only had to hunt for seats a couple days..

Sailing into Juneau saw whales and orcas from our balcony in the early morning..too neat! Docked with port side facing pier..took the Best Of Juneau tour..saw mendenhal glacier and then salmon bake and some other places..it was ok..but only left us enough time to shop in the one shop by the pier..still managed to spend lots of cash...had a nice day...weather was wonderful.

Sailed to Skagway..Starboard side next to dock....we got up early and walked into town to shop..it is quite a little jaunt..so if you don;t like to walk..wait and get the shuttle from the boat...we took it back to the ship to catch our tour..

Yukon and White pass train trip..They took us on a bus to the main train station and we road the train up and then took the bus back down..stopped at Liarsville and had another salmon bake (the best one) and panned for gold and saw a show put on by the people..We liked it a lot..very cute and nice people to visit with!

Sailed into Tracy Arm..and no we didnt; make it all the way in, but it was a sunny day..the naturalist on board said it is only sunny about 10 days out of the year, so we felt special to have a beautiful day..loved seeing the icebergs in the water and how the boat missed and moved around them...very enjoyable day..

Sailed to Ketachan...Port side next to pier..we got some shopping in before the tour..Best of Ketachan... Ok..now heres the bad part..we hated this tour, and I would suggest you change if you have it scheduled..They put us on a bus and took us maybe 1/4 mile from the dock area and we walked around inside this descovery center and then had us go in this room and they showed us a 15 minute film a wiht scenes of Alaska (we ARE IN Alaska...for Gods sake I'd rather have been driven around for the 15 minutes) and then we were taken to another museum and looked at some totem poles that were old and listened to some lady talk about them..then we were taken to a salmon hatchery where there wasn;t any salmon..just some empty holding tanks with water running in them(guess it was wrong time of year for actual fish,..unreal) then we saw a couple of eagles in a confine and then drove around the roads for a while and dropped off at this brothel in Creek Street....really a waste of good touring time if you ask me...would rather of wondered around by ourselves and shopped...will know better next time..

Sailed for Victoria and had a heck of a storm on the way..really rocking and rolling on the ship...we loved that...really was fun! Lots of people got sick I guess..didn;t bother us..so, because of that we got to Victoria a couple hours late...so we didnt; bother to get off the ship..guess it upset a lot of people who had tours..but what can you do???

Over all, we enjoyed the cruise..We had booked 7 months ago for first seating traditional..and they put us in the Vavaldi restaurant...Don't know why we weren't put in the International dining room like we expected..I think they had too many people on the waiting list for traditional seating that they turned some of the other restauants into traditional seating. We liked the seating arrangements...nice people seating with us and good waiters...

Please ignore the spelling errors, and understand that this is my impressions only...please ask if you have any questions..thanks for reading..

elmtree........too bad we didn't get to meet......your review of the ship sounds alot like mine.......you should read....5/14/2005 Diamond Princess Review: Alaska Inside Passage......mine is also there......

Glad ya had a good time...........

Sharon

:) :D Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure. We're sailing on the Sun, August 1st - getting excited!!!!!