1st Princess Cruise - thoughts and opinions wanted..

We have booked our first Princess Cruise aboard the Coral to Alaska. We decided on the Southbound Whittier to Vancouver due to date availability. This site has been a great help, seems like I have been reading for weeks now.

I am mainly looking for some help with arrival and departure. We will be flying into Anchorage very late, my plan as of now is to book a room, get some sleep, then board the train south, avoiding the coach transfer. Is this a good idea? We will arrive in Whittier about Noon with an 8:30 departure. Just trying to coordinate transfer from hotel to rail station. Suggestions for hotels and alternate transfers are welcome.

For departure, we arrive in Vancouver approx. 7:30am, with our flight leaving late that night. I was looking into the Hop-On, Hop-Off Sightseeing w/ Airport Transfer from Princess. This would take care of our luggage and we could use the day to explore Vancouver then head to the airport at our leisure.

We would love to here other plans or past experiences. We are really looking forward to this! Thank you for all the information!

We just did the coral in July. We did the land tour before the cruise. We stayed at the Captain cook hotel in Anchorage and loved it. There is so much around there you can walk to. We loved Anchorage. So much to see and do. We have been on the Coral twice and love the ship. If you want to do a whale watching trip I can't say enough about Harv and Marv in Juneau. If you have any questions let me know.

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

Take the train to the ship for sure.

We booked ours through Alaska Railroad directly.

Once you hand your luggage to the porter for the baggage car you won't see it again until its in your cabin. Its a beautiful trip!

Your plans for Vancouver sound great too.

Too bad you can't add a day or two at one or both ends. Both cities are worth spending more time. It is also much cheaper to rent a car and fly home from Seattle (depends on the discounts you can get, and you do need the time to do this).

Coral is probably the best ship for Alaska - nice loungers around the indoor pool so you can watch scenery in shorts and step outside to take pictures. Hidden balconies on Baja and Caribe bow are usually open for passenger use.

The train is a neat way to go, but you will arrive at the ship with several hundred people instead of 40 or 50. Since you are doing Princess transfers you will likely already have your room key, so processing at the ship should be minimal.

Make sure you research your ports on the Alaska boards. Lots to do in each!