Cruise Report - Alaska on Island Princess 7/5 - 7/12

[lazarru]

We(myself, wife, son(10), daughter(8)) flew into Anchorage on 7/2 so we could have some time to get use to the time zone(from NJ) as well as do somethings around town. We didn't arrive until 11pm due to some delays in Chicago, thankfully the shuttle to pick us up for the Quaility Inn was there so we could ask them to come back, one thing to note, make sure you have the number for the shuttle and a phone that is working as you need to call them to pick you up if they are not there. 5 mins later he was back and we drove over to the Quality Inn as we decided to stay near the airport so I could pick up the car in the morning.

 

Anchorage 7/3 - Quick shuttle back to the airport to pick up car at Avis, no problems but did have to get an upgrade in order to carry all of our stuff. We had breakfast at Gwennie's just up the raoat, great breakfast, wife had a crab omelet which had about a pound of crabmeat, she wound up eating the crab and leaving the egg.

We had scheduled a hike at Mananuska Glacier which we knew would be a 2 hr drive, but wanted to also hit the Reindeer farm and possibly the Musk Ox farm, unfortuantly with stopping to do pictures and the time at the reindeer farm going to the Musk Ox was of the question. We spent almost 2 hrs at the reindeer farm, just a great place to go, reindeer are great will come right up to you but yet are not too agressive.

By the time we left the farm it was about 2:00, we knew we were going to have to eat prior to the hike so we just headed out for Mananuska. We were staying at the Tundra Rose Guest Cottages for the night instead of driving back, what we didn't know is that there is basically nothing else out there so once we got the cottages we ate at a small cafe that they have there, very nice food and not too badly priced.

By the time we checked in, ate and dropped some bags off it was time to head to the glacier. While it was still overcast the little rain that was falling had let up so we had great weather for the hike. After a 15 min ride to the glacier parking lot over a very rough road it was time to get started. I can't say enough good things about the hike. It was 3 hrs, the first 30 mins was over a trail through the rocks and the "dirty" part of the glacier. After learning a bit how to walk on the glacier we headed out. The hike really wasn't that much of an effort, up and down a couple of hills, after about 1:45 we arrived at a lake in the middle of the glacier where we stopped for a bit. The lake was just wonderful and well worth the hike. We did have to head out pretty quick since the enterance to the glacier does close at 9:30 and we hit the exit right on time. Back to the cottage after a 10 min drive and we were out like lights.

 

Anchorage 7/4 - We headed out from Mananuska around 9:30 as we planned to do the Anchorage Zoo and wanted to do a behind the scenes tour starting at noon. We tried to limit the amount of stops for pictures and got to the zoo right at noon. Thankful the tour had not yet started and we were able to get into the tour with just one other mother/daughter joining us. Tour was alot of fun, we got to goto behind the polar bear cage and were with 3-4 feet of them, behind the screens of the wolves wuch that we were within a foot of them. In addition we got detailed information about nearly every animal from our guide. The tour lasted about 2:30. After that we grab lunch at the cafe then spent some more time in the zoo before heading to the Comfort Inn Ship Creek. So the warning on the Comfort Inn, it's not where it actually says it is, at least it didn't seem so for us as we drove by it 3 times. It's not on the same block as the train station, it's actually on the next block. Once we got there and got checked it I brought the car back to Avis downtown and then walked back to the hotel. Another word of warning, make sure you have a pen when you drop off car afterhours as you need to fill out your paper work, thankfully there was a parking garage right next door and I got a pen from them. We were all pretty dead by this point and knew we had to be up early so we just had pizza delivered and then went to bed.

 

Whitter - 7/5 - Up nice and early for the train, we had breakfast the hotel, they had a nice spread but nothing fancy. We took the shuttle over to the train station, not becuase the walk was too far but because we had too much to carry. Check in at the train station was very painless, took less then 2 mins. They boarded the trains on time, but we didn't actually leave until about 20 after. The train ride was very nice, great views the entire way. If you are booking the train book throuhg the railroad and not the cruise line, the railroad cars were much nicer then the cruise line.

As we came through the tunnel into Whitter it was pouring, of course we had packed our rain gear in the suit cases which were checked since it didn't seem like it was that bad out, bad idea. Thankfully the coat that I did have was at least somewhat water proof, not so much for the kids. We had booked the glacier cruise through Major Marine but when we got to the women handing out tickets they didn't have ours. Thankfully we did have the receipt, she took it and called it in found out it was just an oversight and said there was no issue, we got on-line and when we got to the front then wrote up ticket for us. Food on the cruise was great!! really didn't expect it but the Prime Rib just melted in your mouth and the salmon tasted supper fresh. Even though it rained the entire time we ran outside as we arrived at the glaciers and we were to see them quite well. Having the rain did keep some people inside and allowed for the top level to be less crowded. Got some great video of the glaciers and waterfalls in the area.

 

Once the cruise was over we walked right onto the Princess not a single person as waiting. Of course they wanted to take our pictures, but since we had just walked through the rain we passed on doing that.

 

 

I'll post more of the cruise and some more pictures later, let me know if any questions

[lisapow]

We leave in 10 days and I'm excited to see your review!! Thanks for posting, the pictures look great

[Keith1010]

Thanks for posting your summary.

 

Keith

[CruisingGoddess]

I'm following your review, Russ!! The reindeer farm looked awesome! I would have loved to see them so close and pet them! Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

[lazarru]

Hubbard Glacier - 7/6 - We awoke to a rather dull, cloudy, misty day. After getting some breakfast at the buffet we dropped the kids at club and headed to the CC meet and greet. A great job by Rebecca in bringing everyone together, it was great to see everyone we've been talking with, plus it helped as we continued to see everyone through the week. Mid afternoon it was announced that we were nearing the glacier, well at least we were 6 miles away and it still seemed like we could reach out and touch it. We went out to the front deck on deck 10, this wound up being a great place to spend time, somewhere that we went nearly every day. We were able to stay out on the deck as we moved closer to the glacier, first to 4 miles, then 3, then 2, every time they announced a closer number it was just more and more amazing how large it was.

After getting to our closest approach we headed inside so we could get dressed for dinner. We took formal pictues on the stairs which came out well, we didn't wind up buying however as they just cost way too much. Anytime dining was packed and we had to get a beeper, after about 15 mins they beeped us and said that the anytime dining was full but they would bring us upstairs since there were open spots there. It took about 10 mins to get up and get seated as there seemed to be some communications break down as to what we were doing up there. Once we sat down we had no other issues and enjoyed a good meal, the view though much different story.

 

Glacier Bay - 7/7 - We got up early so we could see the approach to the bay, it was still somewhat over cast but you could tell it wanted to clear. After about a hour the fog and haze did lift and the day turned out great. Again we dropped the kids in the club and headed out to deck 10. We had a great view approaching the glaciers and as we slowed down the breeze died down and it was even warm on the front deck.

We spent nearly the entire day on deck 10, just having to go back inside to get the kids as the club is closed from 12-2 which is the one disappointing fact about the club.

When the club closed in the evening (5-7) the kids wanted to go into the pool. My wife went with the kids, I stayed outside, about 6:30 they started to announce different whales around, well for the next 90 mins we saw whales all over the place. In total I think we saw about 50 whales, there were so many we actually even had a take a different route out of the bay then usual.

 

Skagway - 7/8 - We headed off the ship about 30 mins after docking and headed to Avis. No line at all and we were in the car within minutes. We followed Murray's guide stopping at nearly everything that he mentioned. We left town about 9, around 1:00 we decided that we needed to stop stopping and drove the last 25 miles to Caribou Crossing. We got there about 1:30, grabbed something to eat at the cafe then headed to the dogs. We took the dog ride and talked with them caring for the animals for a few minutes. The ride while dusty was certainly a ton of fun. We then went into the puppy area, the puppies were very sweet. A couple of the mothers seemed to protect the pups but it turned out they just wanted to be played with as well.

We left the Crossing and drove the last few miles to Emerald Lake, one view after another was better then the next. As I said to my wife "It's not that any view was better, it was different". We left Emerald and hit a couple of spots that we missed on the way out, getting back to town about an hour before boat boarding. That gave us just enough time to drop the car and do a little quick shopping. One note, there is only 1 gas station in town(it's also the laundry), it did take us about 15 mins as there's only 2 pumps and one of the guys was filling what seemed like a tank, so if you are going to do make sure you account for that time, if you drop at Avis without filling it's $8 per gallon.

We got back to the room seeing that we had a message on the phone as well as written message from our Whale cruise the next day. Seemed that their boat (Adventures in Ameirica) was having issues and wouldn't be able to take us, however they did arrange for a different boat to take us so not a big deal.

 

Juneau - 7/9 - We headed off the ship where we were met for the whale tour. Our contact hands us a bag and says "Did you posted on Cruise Critic about wanting fudge? Well here you go pick some up for you". What was suppose to be shared whale cruise with another group had now been split up to 2 different boats so we actually were going to wind up with a personal cruise.

We drove about 20 mins to get the boat for the cruise and headed out. We seemed to go a different direction then most other people as we were going to try and see if we could find some Orca, we never did find any Ocra but we did get some nice views of about 4 or 5 whales, includes one that was sleeping which was amazing that there could be so many boats around 1 whale just sitting there. We headed in after about 3 hrs as we had to catch our ride to Mendenhall.

Our ride was waiting at the dock for a short 10 min ride over to Mendenhall. We were only going to have 45 mins at the glacier since we were doing flight seeing so we quickly headed down to the photo point. 45 min was just enough time to do that, stop for a short time at the beach and take a look at some glacier ice that they had out. 45 mins certainly wasnt enough time to fully enjoy the glacier but I was glad that we did take the time to stop.

Our ride was waiting for us in the parking lot and we headed back to the harbor for flight seeing. On the way we ate the lunch that was supplied by Adventues in America(they had arranged everything about our day and it worked out great). We got the harbor and checked in, they said it would be about 20 mins before we left so we just hung out at the docks. After about 25 mins they did call us, it was just us and 1 other guy as paying customers so a couple of friends of someone who worked there also tagged along. We took off from the harbor and within 5 mins were over the glaciers. It was just an amazing next 35 mins, seeing the glaciers just go on and on for miles was amazing. We flew back over Mendenhall on the way to the harbor and landed about an hour before we needed to be on the ship. One note about the flight seeing, if you do have more then 1 person get on different sides of the plane, my wife and I wound up on the same side as the pilot said we were going to come back the same way we went in. We likely would have gotten some more pictures if we were on different sides of the plane.

After landing and get back on land we did not see our ride so we decided just to walk to the ship since my wife wanted to stop at some stores anyway. It was only about a 10 min walk back and after hitting a few stores we were on the ship about 15 mins before we needed to be. We then proceed with a typically getting dinner at anytime dining which we did nearly every night

[CruisingGoddess]

Glacier Bay - 7/7 -

When the club closed in the evening (5-7) the kids wanted to go into the pool. My wife went with the kids, I stayed outside, about 6:30 they started to announce different whales around, well for the next 90 mins we saw whales all over the place. In total I think we saw about 50 whales, there were so many we actually even had a take a different route out of the bay then usual.

 

I'm glad you got to see this! We were having dinner and missed all of it. I saw it on the TV the next day and it looked amazing! Did you see them all from Deck 10 or somewhere else?

[lazarru]

Ketchikan - 7/10 - The morning opened as another overcast day. We were up earlier enough to see coming into port but we couldn't see the port until just a little bit away from it. Wwe had breakfast as usual in Horizon then headed out to catch the boat for the Deadliest Catch tour which was just a short walk away. As we got underway the fog started to lift a little but didn't really lift until near the end of the tour but that didn't stop the enjoyment of the tour.

The first stop was at the bald eagle nesting area. We stayed there for a good 10 mins as they totally emptied an entire case of fish and had about a dozen eagles all around the ship. Seeing the eagles in flight that close was just amazing but very difficult to get pictures.

From there we headed out to the various traps. All together they pulled up 5 different sets of traps, each time telling about what they catch with the set of traps, what work is involved in the traps, some general stories about life then pulling up the trap and letting everyone hand what they brought up. The boat was only about 1/2 full so I spent most all of my time on the top deck where there was nobody and I could look right down on them from any angle. I would then head back downstairs when they were letting you handle, although they were bringing some up to the top deck as well.

By the time we started to head in the fog was lifting and we did get some good views of the coast. We had about 2 1/2 hours to spend in town before we had to get back on the boat but didn't really have a plan. We looked for something to eat wandering around for about 30 mins, thought we had found somewhere but were not getting servered. We never did wind up finding anything as we didn't want to take a hour or more sitting for a meal so we just add some energy bars and continued walking around.

We headed back to the ship a bit early as we were doing chef's table and had to get the kids some feed prior. My review of the chef's table can be found here - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1235953

 

Inside Passge - 7/11 - We awoke to yet another foggy overcast morning. Unforturnatly unlike other days it never really did lift until late in the afternoon so we really didn't do all that much. We let the kids goto the club, and wife and I just roamed the ship. I think they expect that it will be clear and more people will be outside so there didnt' seem all that much to do on the ship. We got all of our packing down and suitcases out around 7, my wife realized 10 mins after we put out the suitcases that she did want to keep something, only problem was they were gone already, make sure you have everything, I think they have radar and are ready to move as soon as you close your door.

 

Vancouver - 7/12 - We had no set plans and were not flying until the next day so we had one of the latest windows for leaving the ship, 9:15. We left our room as 8, pretty much every room at that point was cleared out, one note, as they check rooms they leave the doors open so it's a great time to see the sizes of other rooms. We had a slow breakfast and even though they were starting to clear down we didn't feel rushed. Leaving the ship was rather easy other than having to find the 4 black suitcases that were not marked with something to stand out, something we realized on day 1 we should have done.

We took a cab to the airport and found that there was a free shuttle to the suspension bridge about 90 mins later so decided to do that. Problem was when the shuttle came he just drove right though the lot. After I ran down the street after him he said "Oh yea I'm full so I didn't stop, the next one will be around in 90 mins unless they send out another one", closed the door and took off. So now he we are not knowing when the next shuttle will come, we check on a cab but he wanted $40 for the drive which seemed way too high. Thankfully after 10 mins another did so, saying he had no idea why we got the wrong info. We headed to the bridge and of course as soon as we got there everyone was hungry. We ate at a a little cafe across the street that was really good.

It was after 12 before we finally went in, we wound up spending about 3 hrs walking around the area, there's some nice views in the park but to be honest it could have been done in about 90 mins, we just took our time since we had to be back for the last shuttle at 4 and were not really going to go anywhere else. We wond up spending some time in the story pole area, they were very nice and more then willing to talk so we got some good details on the poles and their history.

We caught the free shuttle back to the hotel and decided to just walk along the water and find somewhere to eat. Problem was we didn't realize how hungry and how far it was so we wound up walking a good mile to get to gas town. By the time we got there we thought we would just grab at the 1st place we saw then found out it was 3 blocks to the Spaghetti Factory so even though we were starving took the extra time. We were glad that we did as we had a great meal to end the vacation.

 

Overall Thoughts

This had to have been the best vacation that we ever had and something we have to find a way to do again. While the kids were not into it every moment of the trip and some will say didn't get everything out of it, they certainly were into more then enough to justify going at this age. There are things that thye are talking about which we didn't even realize that they were enjoying. I really can't say that anything on the trip was the best part of it, everything was great in it's own way. I do wish they gave more time in the ports as we were rushed in a couple of them, and even the one time we thought we were going to have a ton of time we wound up not really because of how wonderful it was touring the area.

I would certainly recommend this trip to anyone and to anyone that can't decide what exactly to do I would say I don't think there is a bad thing that you can do, I did not hear one person on the entire trip say they were disappointed with anything that they did.

 

You can also find other images(just a small amount of all the pictures we took) at my flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/52131870@N08/