Just back from Island Princess Alaska tour - my notes

[saxygirl]

I just got back today from my trip to Alaska. Thought I'd give an overview for those who are headed that way soon. If anyone has specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

 

Arrived day early in Vancouver. Stayed at Dufferin -- wouldn't stay there again. Took Vancouver city bus tour by Grayline. Good tour and they drop you off (with your luggage) at the pier.

 

Cruise: We used Personal Choice Dining so we could just sit with sis-in-law and husband, but we found a really great waiter/bus boy combo, so we requested them for the remainder of the cruise. You can arrange this with the Matre'd at the Bordeaux. Otherwise, you can call a reservation line each day to reserve your requested time, but we were told you couldn't reserve a time between 6:00 and 8:00pm. If any future cruisers find themselves at table 25 in Bordeaux, say hello for us (2 couples celebrating annivs. together) to Thep and Sara. They were fantastic!!

 

CDC-imposed restrictions were imposed during the first few days thanks to the recent Norovirus outbreak on the island. We couldn't even remove our own napkins from the napkin basket for the first couple of days. There were crew members everywhere with tongs to hand you everything! My husband noticed a CDC team on board when we left the ship in Juneau, and when we returned, we could serve ourselves everywhere.

 

We took the Deluxe Juneau & Mendenhall tour. It was quite good! I thought I'd be really board with the Salmon hatchery, but I found it interesting.

 

Internet access: We didn't use it, but there was internet access on board for about 35 cents/minute. We used the Juneau Public Library to check messages. We couldn't do this in Ketchikan, though. They would only allow access to library card holders. There was also free access at our rest stop during our bus trip from Whittier to Mt. McKinley.

 

Motion in the ocean: Our roughest seas were the first full day at sea. Basically any time the ship is out over "open waters" is potentially a little rough. I had been taking ginger capsules, which worked every other day, but I spent a good part of this day in bed waiting for Dramamine to kick in. The last full day of cruising is also rougher, although not so much for us because the weather turned incredibly gorgeous.

 

Weather/temps: We got really lucky with weather! By the time we reached Skagway, we never saw anything but sunshine.

 

The highlights of the cruise for me were Glacier Bay and College Fjord. It was really something to see those glaciers!!

 

Activities: My husband and I enjoyed ping-pong and mini golf on board, but these areas do sometimes see a bit of activity from the youth program. They weren't really a problem, just a little rowdy from time to time. If you're thinking about paddle tennis, a couple we met were disappointed to learn the net was in very poor shape and not really playable. I was especially impressed with all of the instrumentalists on board! The string quartet, guitarist, pianist, and orchestra were all extremely good, I thought. I did use the fitness room a couple of times, but found it very crowded during some times of the day, and I got a little sick working out on the elliptical machine during the rougher day at sea.

 

Mt. McKinley Lodge: Our opinions were swayed a bit, probably, by the fact that the weather was phenomenal!! We saw Mt. McKinley cleary the whole time we were there (3 days)! We were told this is quite unusual. We took the Talkeetna River Float Trip. Relaxing, but don't expect to see any wildlife on this trip. We were much more pleased with the Wilderness Rafting Trip at Denali.

 

Denali Princess Lodge: We were really busy while at Denali, but we did notice the lodge is not as nice as Mt. McKinley. Of course, it is older and less remote. We took the Wilderness Rafting Trip. It provided gorgeous scenery, some mild rapids, and we were very impressed with the company/tour guides providing the excursion. We upgraded to the 8-hour tour in Denali Nat. Park. This is definitely the way to go! Those who took the 4-hour ride (and our first 4 hours or so) saw basically no wildlife. During this time of year, the animals are in the higher elevations, thus requiring a longer tour to reach them. We saw sheep, caribou, eagles, and a total of 3 adult bears and 5 cubs - one time less than 100 yards from the bus! You get a box lunch on this trip and a stop for hot coffee/tea/cocoa along the way.

 

Fairbanks: For some reason, we were not booked in the Princess Lodge, but rather in Pike's Waterfront Lodge right next to it. The hotel is new and quite nice, but we were quite dissatisfied with the service from the Princess employees there. I guess that's the risk you take when you "outsource" your business to another hotel. There weren't major problems, just minor inconveniences like finding an extra 6 bags on luggage in our room upon arrival and being forgotten on an excursion. Both situations were rectified, but not without some persistence on our part. We did the City of Gold tour in Fairbanks, which gives you a brief tour of the city, a 15-minutes stop to view the pipeline, and an entertaining stop at El Dorado Gold Mine to see demonstrations and actually pan for gold.

 

Train ride: This was a fun part of the land tour. The scenery is pretty good, and we saw several moose along the way. The food is good and not outrageously expensive -- about what you'd pay at a really good restaurant.

 

There's the overview. I hope it wasn't too long and boring for all of you! LOL! Fire away with those specific questions, and I'll answer in the best way I can.

[happy2]

Thanks for your review! It seems like no one ever talks about the Island Princess. I was beginning to wonder if anyone was on it. We are cruising the Island to Alaska on July 24th so I do have some questions.

1. Did you use the digital photography services? I'm wondering if they have the capability of downloading the pictures from my camera card so that I can reuse it when it is full.

2. What were women wearing on formal nights as well as casual nights?

3. What clothes do you need most? I know...layer...but did you wear long sleeves, short sleeves, long pants, shorts, or what?

4. Did you take any other shore excursions other than the Mendenhall trip?

5. Was there anything you packed that you were really glad that you had or anything you wish you would have left at home?

6. How was the food?

7. We have a quad room. Any idea how they are set up?

Thanks for all of the information. I really appreciate it!

[DesrtDrmr]

Thanks for the nice review. SOMEDAY we're going to do the land package...............I will save your comments for that time.

What kind of cabin did you have?

We are on the Island next year, and the deck plan looks kind of cut up between the dining rooms and theaters, is that the case?

Thanks for any information

[saxygirl]

Happy 2:

1 -- I noticed the kiosk for printing digital pictures. There was also the option of loading a card's contents onto CD. The prices seemed not too much more than back at home. I filled a 128MB card and used part of another.

2 -- Most women went pretty formal -- long dresses or skirts -- but many also wore shorter "cocktail" dresses. As for casual nights, mostly skirt and blouse or dress pants and blouse. You'll always see a few, though, who are much more casually dressed.

3 -- I tend to be cold nearly everywhere I go. We had exceptional weather (sunny and 60's to 70's every day) and still it is much cooler and windier when the ship is in Glacier Bay and College Fjord. I'd recommend the always-recommended layers. I didn't wear shorts once while on the ship, but if you're more used to cooler temps, you just might. I did see plenty of men with their shirts removed/gals in swimsuits by the pool on the sunny days.

4 -- Mendenhall/Juneau was our only tour on the cruise. In the other ports, we stopped by the visitors centers and picked up walking tours and explored on our own.

5 -- My packing worked out pretty well for me. A decent pair of binoculars are a must!! I do wish I had brought my "old" non-digital camera along because it had more zoom power. If you have a lot of plug-in appliances, you may want a power strip or extension cord. I only saw 2 electrical outlets in the room. I worked around it, but if you're going to be charging lots of batteries or whatever, it might be handy.

6 -- I thought the food was good, but you're really asking the wrong person on that one! I'm no gourmet, by any means. I have 2 young children, so any meal that doesn't involve finger foods is a treat to me. I did find the food in the Horizon Court (buffet) to sometimes be not as good as in the dining rooms, but still certainly acceptable.

7 -- We didn't have a quad room. (See my next responses below.)

 

 

DesrtDrmr:

We were in Aloha 314. It was an outside room w/ balcony. I highly recommend the balcony!! In the glacial areas it was so nice to just sit on our balcony and watch instead of fighting the crowds on open decks. In both Glacier Bay and College Fjord, the route is up and back on the same path, and the captain turns the ship a complete 180 degrees at the inside end, so all sides get a good view. Our balcony was fully covered, which was nice if there was rain at all. It did also block the sun and we had to work around the overhang when taking pictures, but it was worth it to us to be dry and to not have someone looking down on top of us.

 

As for the deck plans concerning dining rooms, it is true that you have to make a little "detour" as you walk from state rooms to dining rooms, but we quickly learned where this was and it didn't bother me. The only place we ad real trouble finding was the mini golf course. Only one indoor stairway leads to it! It took us a while to find it! LOL!

[cunarder]

saxygirl,

 

Thanks for all the info. We are doing Alaska next year on the Island Princess.

The info will be quite helpful.

 

Ed

[mscloyd]

How were the beds. Had read somewhere last year that when configured into a queen (twins pushed together) they were very uncomfortable. What did you think? It was recommended to purchase a "bed doubler" which consists of a foam piece that lays on top of the crack and a strap that wraps around both beds keeping them together. But, I wonder if it is really necessary or if it is worth the investment. Also, how was disembarking in Whittier?

[saxygirl]

That's a tough call. There is the crack there, but if you mostly sleep on "your side" on the bed it won't really be a problem. I found the bed otherwise comfortable. If you sleep in the middle of the bed, then it would be a problem for you.

[srphnx]

Thanks Saxy, we found the beds to be very hard on Diamond, you can request a pad, which we did, that also helped with the "seam of death".

[DesrtDrmr]

Thanks, Saxygirl, for your info. We have also booked a balcony cabin, but on the Caribe deck. I'll look forward to it more, now.

Our bed on the Sun was very hard, too, and we asked for a foam pad that made all the difference. Since we are driving to the port, we are thinking of taking one for our Hawaii trip................no cooler, no iron, no keg of beer, no case of wine, just a foam pad for the bed!

[Taters]

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed reading it very much!

 

Just a quick note - The locals here in Fairbanks find the service at Pike's lacking, too! LOL I also hope that wherever you got stranded while her was a nice location, anyway! That would be an awful feeling discover that you'd been left behind.

 

Anyway - I'm glad you had a good time and thanks for taking the time to write about the Island Princess!

 

Taters

[saxygirl]

Oops! Just realized I missed a question from mscloyd. Disembarking in Whittier -- Everything went smoothly for us there. We took a bus to Mt. McKinley Lodge from there.

 

I forgot to mention in my first comments that we found the Princess service to be far superior on the ship as compared to once we left the ship. The train service and organization getting on and off was good, too. Where we noticed a difference was on the land tour portion. For example, at Mt. McKinley Lodge, we took a shuttle (1 hour) to Talkeetna for a rafting excursion. We were dropped off at the shuttle lot without any instruction about where to go for our rafting trip. Luckily, we had a Talkeetna map and could walk to the rafting company. We just found we had to fend for ourselves more once on land.

[kdt]

Thanks for the review on the Island Princess! I'll be doing my first-ever cruise in mid-Sept. from Whittier to Vancouver, so it's good to read another's experience. We decided to get a mini-suite balcony cabin due to my DH's health issues which might confine him to the cabin periodically. Sounds like it was a good idea. So here's the $2,000 question - how was the coffee??

[happy2]

Thanks for the answers to all of my questions. You've made me even more eager to go!

[saxygirl]

Sorry, kdt. I'm not a coffee drinker, so I didn't have any on board. Someone with us drank plenty of it, so it must not be too bad.

[cindim]

Thanks so much for your report on the Island Princess. We are doing the southbound cruise w/ 4 nights land before the cruise. Can't wait!

 

We are in Caribe 317--looking forward to sitting on the balcony and enjoying the scenery.

 

Will write report when we return!

 

cindim

[Kaylas Mom]

Thanks for the great review Saxygirl.

 

I have a question for you....did you use the kids' club at all? Did you get a look at it? I am just hoping it's good -- my daughter LOVES a good kids club and was sorely disappointed in the NCL one. Are there lots of fun activities, arts & crafts, games, etc.?

 

THANKS!

[saxygirl]

This was an anniversary celebration for us, so we went without kids!! What a treat for us! (We have saints for parents who were willing to watch our kids for 2 weeks.) So, other than seeing the groups of kids parade through the recreation areas from time to time -- I don't remember seeing younger children; mostly teenagers -- I don't know anything about the kids' programs. Sorry I'm not much help on that one.