Alaska Trip Report - Island Princess May 20th - 27th

First, a little about ourselves.. My husband and I are both 29. This trip was our honeymoon. We were married this January. I had cruised previously (like 15 years previously) on NCL to Bermuda, but this was my Husbands first cruise. Because it’s been so long since my last cruise and I was so young at the time, we can consider this cruise to be my “first” one, as well. We both love the outdoors, though we don’t do much outdoorsy stuff. The occasional camping trip maybe? But we picked this trip to do more adventurous things. I did all my research and wanted to have an itinerary that sailed Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. Princess seemed to have the best deal and so we booked with them.

We flew into Anchorage from Boston with a layover in Seattle on Alaska Airlines at 1:11am on May 19th. Oh my god were we exhausted. The flight was 11.5 hours total. After picking up our luggage we called the Super 8 motel to have their courtesy shuttle pick us up. Ten minutes later they were there. We had such great service from them. Free breakfast was nice in the morning, the rooms were rundown but still clean, and the price couldn’t be beat.

When we woke up the next morning we ate a quick breakfast then walked the block and a half to the Dollar rent a car place down the street to pick up our rental car. After getting in to the city in the dark, and being groggy and not awake all morning, it took me until I was sitting in the rental car waiting for my husband to finish with all the paper work to realize that I was staring at absolutely gorgeous mountains directly in front of me. That was the moment I realized Alaska was breathtaking. Being from Rhode Island I’ve been to New Hampshire and seen the mountains there countless times. But there the mountains are rounded and covered in trees. But Alaska’s were different. Snow covered and defined, sharp and pointy, they blew me away the entire trip. Just trying to get the sense of scale on them was a hard challenge.

After lifting my jaw off the floor, and then lifting my husband’s after I pointed out the mountains to him, we headed off to downtown. Our first stop was the Anchorage museum. It was a neat place; we spent a few hours here. We quickly got bored though. While all the displays were neat, they really didn’t have very much variety to them. The fishing spear from this tribe looked exactly the same as the other ones, etc etc. I think I’m spoiled living near New York and Boston with all their great museums, and having visited the Smithsonian in DC. Nothing compares now, oh well, we still had fun.

Seeing as how it was a Sunday, we headed to the Anchorage Market and Festival just a few blocks away from the museum. It was only the second weekend and it was unusually cold (like it had snowed yesterday cold) so there weren’t very many people or vendors out selling their stuff. Half the stuff was crazy over priced handmade stuff, and the other half was stuff that I found in the tourists shops the whole rest of the trip. All in all, another “meh” experience. Maybe later in the season it would be better.

That night for dinner we went to the Glacier Brewhouse. What a fantastic meal we had there. The crab and artichoke dip was to die for. We literally licked the plate clean. My brick oven pizza was great as well. Thoroughly enjoyed my time at this place.

After our first day we were tired from the flights and time change, so we only made one more stop after dinner to Earthquake park. It was just a little hiking trail with a decent view at the end. We saw the people riding their bikes down the coastal trail, and if it hadn’t of been so freezing cold I might have convinced the husband to rent some bikes. But just the thought of more wind blowing across my face quickly destroyed that notion. Back to the hotel for early bedtime!

The next morning we checked out of the hotel, painless, and packed up the rental car. Our transfer to Whittier wasn’t until 2:15 so we had the morning to kill before we had to drop off the rental car at the airport. It was a little warmer today (low 50s) and we decided to head out to the Alaska Zoo. It was a cute little place, though small. Again, I’m spoiled with my local zoos, and we’d just been to the San Diego Zoo a year and a half ago which just nothing compares to. But they did have a couple animals that my local zoo doesn’t have which were fun to see, like the sea otters.

It was time for lunch so we headed back to downtown to enjoy Humpy’s. The place was crowded even for lunch and we ended up sitting at the bar. I had the crab roll, and my husband had the fish and chips. Both were fantastic and the service was great. I think it might have been a little better than Glacier Brewhouse, but Glacier Brewhouse was a little more upscale.

After lunch we headed back to the airport to drop off the rental car and get on our transfer to Whittier. We used Anchorage Tours and Transfers. They were cheap and did a great job. Our guide was good at pointing out wildlife, and had some local info to tell us. We ended up seeing some bald eagles, Dhal sheep, fishermen and a rock climber. The snowfall from the couple days before covered the glacier’s blue ice, so while our guide tried to point them out to us, they were very hard to see. The scenery was still beautiful though and in no time the Island Princess came into view.

Having not cruised much at all I can't compare the Island Princess to any other ships, however she seemed spacious, and clean. The staff was very friendly, and our room steward Mary Grace was good. Not great, we had to ask her for pool towels once after she forgot to replace them in our room. But after that she brought them and even left them out for us because she knew when we would be heading for the hot tubs. The indoor pool area was hardly ever crowded and it was only towards the end of the cruise when we started seeing a lot of people in there. Food was good, again not great, but any food that is mass produced isn't going to be as good as something you get at a nice restaurant. We never went hungry though and could always find something we wanted to eat. We had anytime dining and never waited for a table for 2. One night they sat us at a table for 4 and made it just for us so we wouldn't have to wait. Our normal time for dining was on the early side, around 5:30, but there were a couple days we went closer to 7 with still no problems. However I still did see the pagers come out. One night we went and they only had tables for 2, and people who wanted to share had to wait.

The only problem I had the entire cruise was the entertainment on board. We're both 29 and were definitely the youngest people on the cruise. I think I saw maybe 5 kids, and everyone else was 60+. The shows and comedians were geared for them for sure. None of the jokes were funny, and all the songs were oldies. After the first few nights of attempting the shows we gave up and decided to watch movies in our room away from all the crowds which ended up working out okay. The only problem with that was that the schedule given to us in the room for the movies and TV shows was wrong. So when a certain movie was supposed to start playing, they were still playing the previous movie that was supposed to be on etc etc. It was very annoying trying to guess when the next show you wanted to see would start. The only show that we went to that we did enjoy was On the Bayou. It had hip enough music and story to keep us interested through the whole thing. Can't say the performers were the greatest but they were definitely enthusiastic.

Our first port of call was Hubbard glacier, and with gorgeous weather I was excited to see it, but worried we wouldn't get close as it was still the end of May. Well, unfortunately we only got within 3 and a half miles of the face. It was still impressive though. We spent the whole time on the secret forward deck on deck 10. At its peak, there were probable only about 20 people on the two decks with us. Was such a great spot to stay even though we were cold with the wind. Our naturalist however was terrible. He was all over the place and couldn't finish a sentence before he moved on to his next thought that popped into his head. We had gone to his first naturalist lecture and it seemed that he literally just took a bunch of pictures, jumbled them together and called it a presentation. They weren't even organized into groups like "wildlife" "glaciers" etc. They were all over the place. It was so bad we never went to another one of the lectures which I had been looking forward to.

Here's the timelapse of our transit:

Glacier Bay was next up. Again we had absolutely gorgeous weather. We were back up on the forward decks with very few others. The park ranger we had to narrate our trip was okay. He didn't talk much at all though. I really would have liked more information than he gave. And we didn't want to leave the scenery to go up to the Horizon court to talk to them. We were seeing sea lions and bald eagles from the ship, and it was so warm in the sun that I was able to take off all my layers! Marjorie glacier put on quite a show with many big calvings. There was a piece of ice falling off the face every couple minutes. We were in awe. I just made me even sadder that we couldn't get closer to Hubbard to see that calving. Oh well, next trip! Our biggest surprise though was at Lamplugh glacier. The ship spent all totaled maybe 15 minutes here. We literily pulled up, turned around, and left. But as the ship was turning a massive chunk of ice fell off the face and landed on the gravel moraine in front of the glacier before smashing sideways into the water. I never expected to see any calving here, especially with our short time in front of the face. However because the ship was turning we were no longer in view of the glacier and about to make our way from the secret deck to the promenade to get in a better position when another large chunk of ice fell into the water. We ran back to see if we could catch it but it was too late, the ship had turned too much and we missed it.

Here's the time lapse of our transit:

We arrived in Skagway an hour late due to a medical emergency the night before. Of course there were no announcements or anything letting everyone know what was going on, and as the time came and went for the time we were supposed to meet our excursion, I got more and more nervous. We were taking the float trip through the eagle preserve out of Haines and I knew that the ferry we were supposed to take was a public one and was not going to wait for us. Sure enough, we were finally let off the ship a half hour after our scheduled meeting time, missing the ferry and our tour. I ran down that stupid long pier and was out of breath trying to find someone who knew what was going on. The princess rep was very nice though and immediately offered us a 1:30 trip which wasn’t originally offered for booking, and we took it. But now our day was flipped upside down. Instead of coming back after lunch with the tour and having the rest of the evening to shop, we had to get our shopping in, go back to the ship to eat lunch, and then go meet our excursion. Oh well. At least with Skagway we had a long day in port.

We stopped at the Back Alley Rock Shop first and tried our hand at some gold panning. It’s $22 and there was literally no one there, we had it all to ourselves. It was fun and we got to bring home a little seeded gold. The owners are a husband and wife team and they were very friendly and nice. They were even happier than normal cause it was a warm sunny day we had.

We had a fantastic time on our excursion. The ferry ride is narrated and we even ended up seeing a whale. All of the guides were great. CJ is the main guide and he was the one who met us at the pier and talked with us as we drove to where we would get onto the river. He was so funny and nice and we were lucky enough to get to be on his raft. We only saw a few eagles and not much else, unless you count the naked couple sunning themselves on the beach. But we had a great time anyway and it was well worth the money for a relaxing trip on the water with good company. Now, the reason the time for this excursion wasn’t originally offered was because the tour is supposed to come back 15 minutes before the ship is supposed to leave. And sure enough the ferry was late bringing us back. We arrived back in Skagway at 8:00 on the dot, and had to walk that entire pier again. And for the jerks who were heckling us as we walked back, suck it. I ain’t running when I’m not late of my own accord.

Thankfully after Skagway, we arrived at Juneau with no problem, right on time. Which was good as this was the only port I wasn’t taking a Princess excursion. We’d booked a whale watch with Harv and Marv and the rep was waiting for us when we got off. We were with Captain Shawn and he was amazing. He was so excited to see the whales, even more than we were I think. He said we’d had the best trip out so far this season. We ended up seeing 5 different whales, all humpbacks. We went out to look for Orcas but there weren’t any around that day. But it was okay, because what we did see was way worth not seeing Orcas! After only 10 minutes of being on the water we spotted our first whale, and shortly after seeing him, the thing rolled onto its back and started slapping its pectoral fins on the top of the water! It was amazing. Captain Shawn was so excited that we got to see that, and we joked with him that he’d have a hard time topping that for the rest of our trip. Well, he came through. After going to watch the other whales diving, and feeding with some backs and tails, we spotted in the distance a baby whale slapping its tail and starting to go crazy. Well, us and everyone else around us booked it to that baby which then proceeded to jump out of the water about 50 times right in front of us! It was so amazing. What a great trip we had. Their small boats were wonderful too. There ended up being only 4 of us on the boat, and I was able to sit at the front and see everything without a problem. With me being only 4’10” it’s important that I don’t have to fight for railing space as I can’t see over people. Not a problem here! I would do that trip again in a heartbeat. It was our best thing we did on the cruise hands down.

After the tour they dropped us off at Mendenhall and we caught the bus back to the ship. At that point we were getting tired and didn’t bother doing the visitor center, instead we quickly walked through the shops downtown and headed back to the ship for the evening.

Video from our tour:

Our final port was Ketchikan. This port we arrived a half hour early in, so we decided to get off the ship before our excursion time and just walk around the shops close to the ship. It’s a cute little town, great to walk around in. Here we did that Totem Bight state park and Lumberjack show. Now I know I could have done both of these on my own and saved some money, but I decided that it would be too much of a hassle trying to catch busses and worry about getting back to see the lumberjack show in time etc etc. So we just booked the tour through the ship. Well, in hindsight, I kinda wish we’d done it on our own. The park isn’t really that big and we could have walked around and seen everything much faster than the pace we were going at. Our guide was a slow talker and almost managed to put me and my husband to sleep. But it was still cool to see the totems and clan house. The Lumberjack show however was great. So corny and touristy and fake, but fun fun fun. Really glad we went to this. Afterwards we roamed around the town, checked out Creek Street, and got back on board shortly before we were supposed to leave.

We had one final day at sea before we got kicked off the ship in Vancouver. We spent most of the time in the hot tub. This was the day we saw the most people here. After go go going the whole rest of the week, we definitely rested and relaxed the entire day. The next morning we docked at Canada Place early again. We were catching the Princess transfer to Seattle by bus. They were only about 15 minutes late calling us from our scheduled meeting time and it was quick and easy to get through customs, get on the bus, and head right out to the airport. Our bags were waiting for us when we got there and it was totally painless. We ended up having to take the detour seeing as how the bridge had collapsed in Seattle, which added about an extra 20 minutes to our trip. But the worst part was getting through customs at the border. Even though they’d sealed the bus, they made everyone get off and show their passports in the building. Which I think was only done because it’s easier for the customs people. But that added 50 minutes to our time.

In any case we got to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight because our flight didn’t leave until 10:40pm. So instead of sitting and waiting for 8 hours in an airport, we hopped on the Sound Transit metro and headed to downtown Seattle. It was raining but we didn’t care. We headed over to Pike’s Place Market place and walked around before enjoying a bite to eat at the Steelhead diner, which was very good.

All in all we had a great trip and I would gladly do it again. Though it’ll probably be a while and I would rather go again with a big group. Not that I don’t love my husband, but I think we would have enjoyed ourselves more if we had a group of people to hang out with, considering we didn’t want to go to any of the nightly entertainment.

Thanks for taking the time post about your trip. We are the same age as you guys and just did our honeymoon in Alaska as well. There were actually quite a few couples our age on our ship. But it definitely skewed towards the older set. Would love to see some scenic/whale photos from your trip :)

We can't wait to return! Unfortunately our day in Glacier bay was pretty dismal ...still amazing...but wish we had better weather.

Nice review. I was on the cruise with you, and also had done the previous week as a B2B.

Like you I was highly disappointed in how close we got to Hubbard, I'd estimate we were more like 5-6 miles away not 3 1/2. In Glacier Bay we were far closer than we got the 1st week and on that one the Capt didn't even make an attempt at the Lamplugh but just sailed on by. The first week we also didn't get any closer than 6-7 miles from College Fjord.

I head to Alaska almost every year and I'd put these in about the farthest I've ever been from the face of all the Glacier stops. Guess the Capt didn't want to scrape the paint.

The weather for the first couple of days was fantastic but a bit cold. I was on deck pretty late for the sail away from Whittier and it was magical, that is what keeps me coming back.

I very much enjoyed your review and trip report.

Keith

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Loved the video of your whale watching excursion. Those seals were hilarious.

We had one final day at sea before we got kicked off the ship in Vancouver. We spent most of the time in the hot tub. This was the day we saw the most people here. After go go going the whole rest of the week, we definitely rested and relaxed the entire day. The next morning we docked at Canada Place early again. We were catching the Princess transfer to Seattle by bus. They were only about 15 minutes late calling us from our scheduled meeting time and it was quick and easy to get through customs, get on the bus, and head right out to the airport. Our bags were waiting for us when we got there and it was totally painless. We ended up having to take the detour seeing as how the bridge had collapsed in Seattle, which added about an extra 20 minutes to our trip. But the worst part was getting through customs at the border. Even though they’d sealed the bus, they made everyone get off and show their passports in the building. Which I think was only done because it’s easier for the customs people. But that added 50 minutes to our time.

 

 

 

In any case we got to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight because our flight didn’t leave until 10:40pm. So instead of sitting and waiting for 8 hours in an airport, we hopped on the Sound Transit metro and headed to downtown Seattle. It was raining but we didn’t care. We headed over to Pike’s Place Market place and walked around before enjoying a bite to eat at the Steelhead diner, which was very good.

 

All in all we had a great trip and I would gladly do it again. Though it’ll probably be a while and I would rather go again with a big group. Not that I don’t love my husband, but I think we would have enjoyed ourselves more if we had a group of people to hang out with, considering we didn’t want to go to any of the nightly entertainment.

Wonderful review. We will be doing this same trip in July. It saves us quite a bit to fly home via Seattle rather than Vancouver, so we opted to take the ships transfer. Was the bus ride very scenic? Thanks.

Trudy

Thanks for this review. We are taking this same trip/same ship in July and have taken note of the secret forward deck on deck 10!

Wonderful review. We will be doing this same trip in July. It saves us quite a bit to fly home via Seattle rather than Vancouver' date=' so we opted to take the ships transfer. Was the bus ride very scenic? Thanks.

 

Trudy[/quote']

Unfortunatly no, the bus ride isn't very scenic at all. It's like any regular highway driving you'd do at home. We coudln't take the train because of the crappy times it runs, or else we would have because it's way more scenic

Thanks for posting your review! Your videos are outstanding!

Is the ride from Vancouver to Seattle scenic?

It depends on where in the country/world you are from.

I'm originally from Seattle...............grew up right on the sea and viewed the Olympic Mountains ...................... but I STILL appreciate the ride. You see beautiful green..............all shades of green...............

I just returned on June 2 and most of the people on our bus back to Seattle were ooohhhing and aahing all the way. They lived in places where green trees, evergreen and/or deciduous, are rarely seen.

My seatmate was thrilled to see horse farms and even dairy cows after seeing none in Alaska.

The highway is nice and smooth and the medians are also green. Im MY eyes, it's a beautiful drive.:)

After lunch we headed back to the airport to drop off the rental car and get on our transfer to Whittier. We used Anchorage Tours and Transfers. They were cheap and did a great job. ...

Really enjoy reading your post and watching the video, awesome!!

We are taking the same boat on 8/26 and we are planning to do exactly as you did - returning the car to the airport and take the 2:15 pm bus to Whittier (To return the car in Whittier will cost us triple the price!!).

When you get chance, could you let's know a couple of questions -- thanks in advance!

1. How did you book the bus transfer? Did you call them or just book via the web site?

2. It seems that the bus pick-up location is right across where the car rental, correct? As we are travelling with 2 children, a long walk might be impossible ..

3. I heard that the airport is the last stop for them to pick up .. is it true? If so, 2:15 pm is just a ball-park time to be picked up, correct? Would you mind let us know how long people need to wait on the airport for the bus?

Thanks again!

Andy

1. How did you book the bus transfer? Did you call them or just book via the web site?

 

2. It seems that the bus pick-up location is right across where the car rental, correct? As we are travelling with 2 children, a long walk might be impossible ..

 

3. I heard that the airport is the last stop for them to pick up .. is it true? If so, 2:15 pm is just a ball-park time to be picked up, correct? Would you mind let us know how long people need to wait on the airport for the bus?

 

Thanks again!

Andy

We booked through the website, didn't have a problem at all. They picked us up where all the courtesy busses and shuttles pick up. It was near where the rental car drop off is, but I wouldn't say it was right across.

You are the last stop for pick up, but they got there to pick us up at 2:10. We had gotten there at about 1:50 just in case. But we're worry warts and always get to places way early.

We booked through the website, didn't have a problem at all. They picked us up where all the courtesy busses and shuttles pick up. It was near where the rental car drop off is, but I wouldn't say it was right across.

 

You are the last stop for pick up, but they got there to pick us up at 2:10. We had gotten there at about 1:50 just in case. But we're worry warts and always get to places way early.

Thank you so very much for the information!

Glacier Bay was next up. Again we had absolutely gorgeous weather. We were back up on the forward decks with very few others. The park ranger we had to narrate our trip was okay. He didn't talk much at all though. I really would have liked more information than he gave. And we didn't want to leave the scenery to go up to the Horizon court to talk to them. We were seeing sea lions and bald eagles from the ship, and it was so warm in the sun that I was able to take off all my layers! Marjorie glacier put on quite a show with many big calvings. There was a piece of ice falling off the face every couple minutes. We were in awe. I just made me even sadder that we couldn't get closer to Hubbard to see that calving. Oh well, next trip! Our biggest surprise though was at Lamplugh glacier. The ship spent all totaled maybe 15 minutes here. We literily pulled up, turned around, and left. But as the ship was turning a massive chunk of ice fell off the face and landed on the gravel moraine in front of the glacier before smashing sideways into the water. I never expected to see any calving here, especially with our short time in front of the face. However because the ship was turning we were no longer in view of the glacier and about to make our way from the secret deck to the promenade to get in a better position when another large chunk of ice fell into the water. We ran back to see if we could catch it but it was too late, the ship had turned too much and we missed it.

 

 

Here's the time lapse of our transit:

Hi Cutetrill,

Got another quick question for you when you get chance ..

So for the first 2 port call (Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay) - we don't have chance to get off the boat, correct?

For Glacier Bay, do we need to register with the Park Ranger before hand?

Thx,

Andy

So for the first 2 port call (Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay) - we don't have chance to get off the boat, correct?

 

For Glacier Bay, do we need to register with the Park Ranger before hand?

 

Thx,

Andy

You don't get to get off the ship for either of those days, no. All you have to do is board the Island Princess on the first day and Princess does the rest for you. No need to register with the Park Rangers or anything. They'll hop on the boat on glacier bay day by taking a pilot boat in. It was cool to watch from our balcony.

You don't get to get off the ship for either of those days, no. All you have to do is board the Island Princess on the first day and Princess does the rest for you. No need to register with the Park Rangers or anything. They'll hop on the boat on glacier bay day by taking a pilot boat in. It was cool to watch from our balcony.

Thanks again!!