Davistx1

We just did this through Barcelona Day Tours...it was 300 euros for 4 people for airport pickup, 4 hour tour that included Park Guell admission and drop off at hotel. We really enjoyed it and 4 hours was just the right length for us after flying all night.

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We did the Sanctuary on the Island Princess last year and really enjoyed it. They came around several times throughout the day with different food and beverages. When it rained a little, they brought umbrellas to each lounger. They came around and took a photo that was included with the day's package. To each their own but we would definitely do again.

I recently posted the Patters from the Aug 10 Island Southbound...posting from Tapatalk so can't link but hopefully a search will bring it up.

You've been incredibly helpful, I've taken notes and shared them with our team. We know when (if we have the same schedule as you did) we'll get a second shot to do things, where we want to have dinner and lunch each day, that the dinner on Saturday is actually worth giving up some of our port time in Ketchikan - my group of 12 is super slow about making decisions. Now at least we can each make informed decisions.

 

I hope today the wonderfulness outweighs the sadness of it ending.

 

If you make it back online, I'd love to hear about your weather, the ship activities you participated in, your port time, everything you liked & didn't like.

 

We leave town this Saturday. Reading your thread was like a vacation preview to me. THANK YOU.

I am so glad you enjoyed it!! We had such a great trip!!

First, I want to put in a good word for Louise McMahon...she has a beautiful voice and plays the piano and guitar...for our week she was mostly in the Bayou Cafe...really, really awesome...check her out!

Our weather was pretty rainy but we still had a great time. It was mostly just drizzly and would come and go not a constant downpour. Weather did not affect any of the activities we had planned but some of the flights did get cancelled in Skagway because it was rainy and foggy there.

Alfredo's in Sabatini's is awesome on sea days. We tried the Bayou Cafe, maybe it was an off night but it was not our favorite...the service was great but didn't love the food. We also ate in Sabatini's one night and the food and service was excellent. We also went to afternoon tea one day and that was fun too. The MDR food and service was really good too. My favorite for this trip was the Coconut Curry Halibut on the Skagway night.

In Glacier Bay, we booked The Sanctuary for the day and had such a good time. It was $60/person for a lounger (they had cabanas too but I don't remember the cost) and no you don't "need" to do this but we really had fun with it. The package includes a ton of food that they keep bringing around...I seriously couldn't believe they kept coming around with more. It also included an ear warmer fleece and a Glacier Bay photo. It rained a little on our day and they had golf umbrellas for everyone. It was a really fun splurge for us.

In Skagway, we did the Yukon Discovery tour with Frontier Excursions. We decided not to do the train in Skagway so this was a small bus to the Yukon and back. We made many scenic stops along the way. It was really interesting because the weather in Skagway was really bad but by the time we made it to Emerald Lake, the sun was shining. Here is my fave pic from this tour...even the tour guide grabbed his camera for this one.

In Juneau, we did Mendenhall and Whale Watching Photo Safari with Gastineau Guiding. This was the only excursion I booked through the ship. First we did a nature walk through a forest near Mendenhall Glacier...from the trail we had great views of Mendenhall and Nugget Falls and at the end, we got to see salmon running. There was a chance for bears but there were none feeding when we were there. Then we went whale watching...Gastineau has custom designed boats that sit close to the water level and the windows swing up for taking photos. We saw bubble net feeding and orcas on our day...it was awesome!

In Ketchikan, I booked Traitor's Cove Bear Watch through Island Wings. This was AWESOME!! We saw probably 10 bears at 2 different locations. We saw mother and Cubs and also got to see big males. The guide first took us to the lake observation point because he had seen a bear there on his last tour. When we got there, she was still there plus at least 4 more bears...this was where we saw the cub.

Sorry so slow-Day 7 Dinner menu..this was a fun night!!

Day 7 -Sea Day Patter

Day 6 - Ketchikan menu

Day 6-Ketchikan Patter

Day 5 Juneau dinner menu

Day 5-Juneau Patter

Day 4-Skagway dinner menu

Day 4 Patter- Skagway

I'm sure you don't want to use a lot of your trip time, but I really appreciate seeing these. Would also love to hear what you choose to do and how it goes. Doesn't have to be immediately, of course.

Hi-I will try and write something after the cruise or in one of the ports with data service.

Day 3-Glacier Bay dinner menu

Day 3 Patter-Glacier Bay

Day 2 - Hubbard Glacier...1st formal night...here is the dinner menu...sorry I missed the day 1 menu.

Day 2

We boarded the Island Princess today!! Here is the day 1 Patter. It's a pic from my phone but hopefully clear enough.

Here's the food menu from Tracker's, they are open for lunch or dinner. Then the dinner menu from Edgewater Grill.

These are the drink menus from Tracker's Bar and Grill in Fairbanks.

Hi - After all the research I have done on this board, I want to share my experience too. During our cruisetour, we will visit Fairbanks, Denali, Mt McKinley and Kenai Lodges before boarding the Island Princess on Aug 10. I will try and answer any questions and post pictures of menus and Patters.

It was freaking awesome! :D

 

Denali made an appearance for us. There were folks in our group who were visiting for the fifth time and this was the first time they had ever seen the mountain. Only 30% of visitors ever see it. It was fantastic!

 

On the Tundra Wilderness Tour we had caribou come down onto the road in front of the bus and walk along the road just ahead of us for quite a while. We saw lots of them. We saw a grizzly camped on top of a caribou kill and it "discouraged" a wolf from trying to take part of the kill. It's very rare to see a wolf as the park is huge and there are really very few wolves. This one kind of went along near the road and then blew the bus driver away by coming up onto the road. It was right there by the back of the bus and just sauntered along.

 

We had a mother moose with her calf come out on an island behind the Denali lodge (we actually saw Denali at the McKinley Wilderness Lodge) and they made an appearance every morning and evening. I'm told they were also out in the middle of the night but I was sleeping.

 

It was very odd to never have night. It definitely took some getting used to as the sun would just "dip" barely below the horizon for a few hours. It looked like sunset or sunrise but it never did get dark. My wife (naturally) had to get me out wandering around one "night" in the wee hours just because it was so unusual and the lighting was so "different" from anything we had experienced before.

 

We had the connoisseur cruise tour and the food was included. We could order whatever we wanted - appetizer, main course,desert and a non-alcoholic drink - and we took full advantage of it. My wife enjoyed the crab legs ($52) and we both had a number of excellent dinners and breakfasts. We had a choice of a couple of venues and tried several. All were good but some were better than others. Lunches were not included except on the train ride from McKinley Wilderness Lodge to Whittier. It was very cool not to have to care what the price was as it was all included. (Of course we paid a premium for the connoisseur tour...)

 

The connoisseur land portion also included several excursions: The riverboat cruise in Fairbanks was much better than expected and we enjoyed it a lot. The gold dredge was interesting (we only managed to pan $21 worth of gold between the two of us) but there was an "entertainer" on the train portion to and from the gold dredge who has to be experienced to believe. He can not sing! It was supposed to be kind of "down home" and we didn't want to beat him or anything but OMG! :rolleyes: The gold dredge tour also included visiting a portion of the Alaska Pipeline. Truly an amazing engineering feat. There were special problems to be solved due to the permafrost as they had to be sure to not allow the pipeline to impact it or the whole thing would collapse. It was very interesting. The Tundra Wilderness tour was also included. I had seen a picture of the snack they provided in the past and was pleasantly surprised to find that the one we got was a bit larger. Given all the food that was included with this land tour we really didn't need a huge lunch anyway. We felt we had waaaaaayyy more food provided than we really needed with the breakfasts and dinners.

 

All in all we had a really great land tour and I'm glad we sprung for the connoisseur version. Our group leader kept us all well informed and took care of us nicely. We met some really nice people in our group and, of course, they were also on the cruise portion so it was kind of nice "knowing" some folks onboard.

 

We plan to go back to Alaska - hopefully next year - but this time we want to drive. We have a little teardrop trailer for camping - queen sized bed and a hatch back for our kitchen area - and we will camp 3 or 4 days and then get a hotel. We will go to Montana first and visit Glacier National Park then take the Rocky Mountain Route up through Canada to the end of the Alaska Highway and take the Gold Rush route back home to California. I've read that one can drive the highway up and back in 10 days but we will probably take about 2 months. That way we can take side excursions to see cool things, take a rafting excursion, etc. I just (finally!) retired and there are a lot of places to see both in the USA and in other countries. The recent cruise tour to Alaska was the kickoff. :D

Did you happen to keep any Patters or take pics of menus? We are doing Connoisseur and the Island Southbound starting Aug 3.

Hi - Cruising on the Island Princess on the Aug 10th cruise...wanted to bump this thread and see if anyone has anything to share yet??

Agree...I see 2nd image.