Just Back From Coral Princess - Sea

We managed to get on the first bus out of the McKinley Princess by being early to the lodge. We got down there about 6:15 AM, stood in line to get a cup of coffee and muffin because the resturants were not open. About 7 we stood in front of the lodge and watched for the buses to leave the parking lot. Everyone else was standing in front of the lodge so we walked down the sidewalk to the right where we had seen the first bus park the day before. It stopped right where we were standing and we got the front row seats behind the driver. Great view all the way.

Before I go on let me tell you about us. My wife and I are in our mid 50s and are from SC. We were traveling with life long friends the same age. They had never cruised and we had only been on Disney Cruise Lines, 2 3 day cruises and an Eastern and Western Carribian. We met some of the nicest people during the 12 days we traveled. Most were about our age or a little older. We never saw any children on the land portion and only about 6 on the sea portion. We noticed a lot of friends traveling together especially ladies who were in groups of 3 or 4.

We talked to our driver Paul as we made our 4 hour journey down the road to Anchorage and then on Whittier. We did stop in a little town with a little strip mall where we got good coffee and donuts and took a rest break for 20 minutes. Just outside of Achorage we again saw Dall Sheep standing on the mountain just across the road.

We stopped in a parking lot to wait our turn to go through the tunnel to Whittier. It was not what I expected. The tunnel is a narrow one lane deal that is only 1 lane wide. The train and motorized vehichles all use it and it is open an hour each way alternating all day. The driver told us that if we did not make the 12:30 opening we would have to wait until 2:30 to get through. Ours was one of the first vehicles in and we were driving on railroad tracks and the tunnel was carved out of rock with no liner. It took about 6 or 7 minutes to get through I believe. If you are claustrophobic you may want to shut your eyes and relax for this portion.

We came out of the tunnel into Whittier. My first impression was that we had been transported to Russian Siberia. It was raining and cold and this had to be the uglyiest port I had ever seen. I asked the driver why Princess had started using this port instead of Seward and he said that Seward had started charging a per head fee and Whittier did not.

The terminal is a metal building that looks like a warehouse. We were directed through a door where a Princess employee directed us to this long Que line. I pointed to our document with the nice pink tag showing we were to be expressed and she shrugged her shoulders and said she knew nothing about it. There were 200 very angry people in that line. We had stood in line at the hotel last night so we would not have to do this and here we were doing it again. A Princess employee fianlly got tired of listening to the complaining and pulled all of the pink tagged folks and put them in another line. We then noticed we were not moving. I walked up to the front of the line to find that we were in a seperate line but the Princess employee was still going through all the documents and wanting to see a charge card again. I interrupted her and told her that had all been done the night before and she finally got someone who knew what they were doing. After that it only took about 3 minutes per couple to get checked in and get an ID card. When you leave the terminal you have to walk down a pier about 100 yards. If the weather is bad have your umbrella handy. You will have plenty of time to get it ready.

Once on board we ran through all the folks selling wine and Coke tickets and were directed straight to our rooms. We had a Cat. AB on BAHA which is deck 11. The room was OK but the bathroom was a joke. I am a pretty good sized person, around 230, and I just barely fit in that shower. Our room steward was Adolfo from Mexico and he was great. He came into the room and introduced himself as soon as we arrived and looked out for us the entire voyage.

Now here is what we did for the week.

Sun. - Cruised College Fjord. Loved it. We would sit on our balcony and listen to the Naturalist talk to us on the TV. I ordered coffee from room service and that made it great too. Hot chocolate is a pot of hot water and a pack of instant hot chocolate.

Mon. - We went up to deck 15 and got chairs right against the windshield and sat there all day listening to the Nautralist. We saw an Eagle, a whale and lots of seals. My wife and her friend saw a Puffin and one of the folks said they saw a bear. This was a great day.

Tues. - We pulled into Skagway where we had an early morning helicopter ride to a glacier. This was great as well. Our photos were so good of this. We went into town later and I was a bit disappointed. Most of the stores are like you would find in any port with cheap junk made in China. We finally found "North To Alaks" which is a great store. They had lots of Made In Alaska items and shipped them to our home for the cost of postage only. The items were here when we got home Sat. night.

In the afternoon we went on the White Pass Railroad. It was OK but compared to what we had seen from the train the previous week it was a little lame. They do give you a bottle of water that is in a train bottle.

Wed. - We are in Juneau and went whale watching with Capt. Larry of Orca Enterprises. I can not say enough good things about these people. They were all fun and typical Alaskan. We saw 6 whales and lots of seals. They served us salmon, cheese and crackers on the way in. Be sure and pet the dog taht sits on a purple blanket in the office. He is cool and will bark at you until you pet him. We did some shopping and then back to the ship.

Thurs. - Ketchikan, my favorite town on the cruise. We had to tender in here because the pier was full. There had been at least 3 ships in every port and that was true here as well. We went to the Explorer Lounge and waited until there was a enough people to fill a tender. We were a bit surprised when we got to the tender and had to sit on top. We did not dress for the kind of breeze and temps we had to endure up there. It seems some nice folks did not go to the lounge but went straight to the tender and were allowed to get on. Jerks in every crowd and Princess allows it. We walked along Creek Street and then through town trying to find somthing for each loved one our list. Again I was left behind in some stores as I talked to the people as my wife shopped. I met one store owner who has never been out of Alaska. He said he was 1/2 indian and his family had lived in this area for over 100 years. He asked me "why should I travel from here?". I had no answer for him. We then met a lady in a very nice shop who was a proud member of the Gateway Baptist Church in town. We got to talking because whe was playing Comtemporary Gospel music when we went in. She is shipping my custom Ulu knife to me. It is made of a sawmill blade and has a deer antler handle that has two prongs on it. I think I paid about $63 for the knife with tax and shipping. Very nice lady and she gave us a pamlet about her church and invited us to visit some time. We may just do that.

We tendered back to the ship and spent the afternoon sitting on our balconey watching the Eagles dive into the water after fish. This is one pretty port and I could live here in the summer.

Fri. Today is a sea day and it is a drizzly rainy day. The first since Whittier. That's right. I have not provided weather info. It was beautiful every day except Sat. and Fri. Lows in the 40s and highs near 70 most days. We were blessed. We spent the day sitting on the back of deck 11. I ordered a carafe of coffee and we sat in the lounge chair and watched the world go by. We saw one whale blow but that was it.

Sat. Disembarkation went great. I could not believe how smooth it was and how everyone cooperated to make it so. No stair sitters either. Our only downer came when we got to Vancouver Airport. We were on a Delta flight to Atlanta along with 246 other people. I know this because they told us while we stood in line for 3 hours. Yes, I am not exagerating on this. We stood in line with all of our luggage for this long. Delta, like Princess, kept telling us "this is our first trip of the year". Did these people hibernate all winter and wake up to find all of us there? I don't understand.

Dinning on board. This was one of our worst dinning experiances ever. The food was good but the servers were terrible. The head server took pleasre in making fun of our Southern drawl every night. I told him to get used to it because God talks like we do. He was just a jerk. He belittled a lady at our table from Brazil because she did not like her meal one night just like she was a child. She did not come back the next night. The tea was terrible and we had to ask for Sweet and Low on two different occasions.

Horizon Court is a joke. Ever who designed it had never seen a buffet. People end up going two ways in a line, you have no tray so you end up making at least 3 trips to get your food and beverage. Some people used the seating at the front as their personal viewing area on Sunday and Monday so there were not enough tables to go around. We finaly set our trays down and went to the room and ordered room service.

The common area temperature was usually way to warm. On formal night all the men were shucking their coats as soon as they sat down. I wish I had carried some golf shirts with me to wear to dinner on non formal nights. It was way to warm for the long sleeve shirts I did carry.

We booked this trip as soon as the schedules came out and did not get any upgrades. We talked to 2 couples that booked the month before and they got upgraded to a mini suite. Does anyone know how this works?

Well, that is our view. If I can help anyone have a better trip this year let me know.

Russ

SC Traveler

Until our Alaska Land/Sea Tour & Cruise

Sounds like you had a great time for the most part. I appreciate all the info on the ship. As far as the shower goes .......well Disney has the best showers of the ships we have been on.

Squid

coral Princess 8-04

Disney Cruises 3 + Sept 14th 4 day

RCCL in Jan '93

God must be a tarheel, because the sky is Carolina blue!

RCCI Legend of the Seas to Alaska 8/02

NCL Star to Hawaii 04/04

Next up:

Island Princess to Alaska 8/13/05

Fireplugs said <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> well Disney has the best showers of the ships we have been on.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Exactly - After 4 cruises with DCL I am so spoiled.

Kayla's Mom said <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>God must be a tarheel, because the sky is Carolina blue!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The sky is Tarheel Blue but the sunrises and sunsets are surely Clemson Orange. Go Tigers.

Russ

SC Traveler

Until our Alaska Land/Sea Tour & Cruise