Alaska CruiseTour Review 5/28 - 6/10; Diamond Princess; From planning to trip pics

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6/2/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess - Hubbard Glacier part one

 

We woke up to cloudy weather but it was comfortable on the balcony as we were blocked by the wind. We decided to start our day with breakfast in Sabatini's. It was everything I expected and more. Fresh squeezed orange juice, mochas, fresh fruit plates, made to order eggs and a great view. And the waiters were joys to get to know. All 3 waiters were from the Philippines so again, I was able to chat about where they lived and the places I’ve enjoyed visiting.

 

 

We headed back to the room to figure out the plans. We reviewed all the various documents left on the desk for us. Invitations to Skywalkers Lounge for happy hour, the Princess Patter, coupons, art auctions…it was almost mind numbing. I set it all aside, and decided we just hadn’t come to Alaska to play trivia or bingo. One big reason I chose the suite was so we could enjoy the balcony and I suspected a majority of our time would be spent there. If we missed something big because I didn’t read it, we were both ok with that. We decided to take the morning and wander the ship.

 

Calypso’s Reef which was a very nice covered pool area:

 

 

Aft pool area:

 

 

Skywalker’s Lounge:

 

 

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6/2/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess - Hubbard Glacier part two

 

 

The Atrium:

 

 

 

 

 

And Movies Under the Stars showing Overboard. The sound wasn’t overly loud but it seemed good enough to enjoy the movie.

 

 

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6/2/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess - Hubbard Glacier part three

 

And then there’s the miniature golf course….

 

 

This is a view from the MUTS screen looking forward.

 

 

Some views of the decks:

 

 

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6/2/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess - Hubbard Glacier part four

 

We made it back to our room around 3pm and found our corsages for formal night.

 

 

However, we had decided before we left for Alaska that formal for us was going to mean ordering in! it was still early though – too late for lunch and too early for dinner and we were hungry. I ordered afternoon tea for 3:30pm and while we waited for that, because it was still an hour out, some hot chocolate to tide us over. We curled up on the balcony and decided to look for whales…

 

 

We spotted several whales in the distance – thank goodness that we both brought good binoculars! And while we were looked, chocolate covered strawberries arrived!

 

 

And right behind them was our afternoon tea.

 

 

And just as we were settling in with our spread of food, we entered our first ice flow and amazingly, the cloud cover lifted. Weather was certainly playing in our favour for this trip!

 

 

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6/2/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess - Hubbard Glacier part five

 

We walked on deck to see the glacier but it was cold in that wind and it we were hard pressed to find a spot along the rail to get a good view. Our balcony was shielded from the wind – we were going back there. When the boat turned to depart, we had our own eerily quiet, private and amazingly gorgeous view of Hubbard Glacier. It was amazing and incredible and the pictures we took will never do it justice. I don’t think we were able to get as close to it as some do because of the ice but it was breath-taking all the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did decide to go and check out the Captain’s Welcome. We were casual in dress so we knew we needed to stay away from the dining rooms…but as we got closer to the Atrium, it was very very busy and everyone was very dressed. I was actually surprised – lots of suits, tuxes and lots of sparkly dresses. We felt out of place in our jeans and sweaters. We checked out the champagne fountain that was being poured and then dodged the formal night crowd and headed back to our room. May had left the MDR menus and we ordered. We enjoyed a fabulous meal on our balcony.

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6/3/2013...Trip Day 9, Diamond Princess – Glacier Bay part one

 

Today was Glacier Bay and I was so excited. We went down to Sabatini’s for breakfast and then headed upstairs to settle in on the balcony for a day of gorgeous scenery. The day started off cool but warmed up so our fleeces and blankets weren’t necessary.

 

 

 

 

The Grand Princess passing by in Glacier Bay

 

 

Marjorie Glacier was incredible – and we were able to see some pretty stellar calving. We did go out on the deck for awhile but ultimately, we ended up on our balcony because the view was just fantastic and it was perfectly private.

 

 

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6/3/2013...Trip Day 9, Diamond Princess – Glacier Bay part two

 

We decided to watch our departure from Glacier Bay from Skywalker’s Lounge. I remembered the invitation to the happy hour so we decided to go upstairs.

 

 

 

I was surprised that it wasn’t very busy. The food was yummy and as usual, the service was perfect. Then we decided to head to a main dining room and see what we were missing. We decided Sante Fe would be our first stop – I got the signature dish of fajitas and was very disappointed. And service here was just so-so. They put us at a table that was awkwardly placed too close to the bench. And of course, the tables don’t move so we basically ate with the table cutting into our chests. The waiters we had were not overly interested in our table – they seemed to be focusing on their regulars and we were an afterthought. I got the love boat dessert and it was quite good.

 

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((ok folks...I'm taking a break. Hopefully I haven't bored you all to tears or worse, to sleep. More to come shortly.))

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6/4/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess – Skagway part one

 

We had arrived in Skagway in the early morning before we were even awake. There were a few cruise ships already docked as well. We went down to Sabatini’s and enjoyed our personalized breakfast, and then got ready to head out. Our excursion was with a helicopter company doing a glacier landing and hike. We were pretty excited as we had a flavor of this in Talkeetna and were looking forward to another. Plus, DH had never been in a helicopter so he was looking forward to the ride and the views!

 

Our first great view was of the Diamond and Celebrity Solstice docked in Skagway as we flew away towards the glacier.

 

 

 

 

This was definitely a different kind of glacier than the last one we were on! Very rocky and lots of fissures. It was interesting to see the fissures in the ice and to hear a rock hit bottom after 4 or 5 seconds. Those blue glacial colors were pretty cool. The hike itself was oversold…it was just a very slow in a very small area where certain geological things were pointed out. We were expecting quite a bit more but we both said we would do it again – it’s a unique experience and the differences between this glacier and the ones we saw near Denali were very interesting. I do think the guides seemed less than interested but I suppose that happens when you repeat the same thing over and over again.

 

 

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6/4/2013...Trip Day 8, Diamond Princess – Skagway part two

 

We opted to not wander around Skagway too long. It wasn’t overly impressive and we just weren’t interested in souvenirs. It was early afternoon and we were heading back to the ship. First a few pictures of our room from the port.

 

 

 

Note the vents below our room. There was, at times, a bakery-esque odor that we could faintly smell when we were cruising. It wasn’t something that was overly noticeable nor was it unpleasant. If we were leaning against the railing of our balcony, we could get a whiff of a smell. DH found it pleasant (he has a sweet tooth!) and it really didn’t bother me one way or the other.

 

We cleaned up a bit and then headed up to Skywalker’s for Happy Hour and to watch us sail away from Skagway. Here’s a picture of Skywalkers and some of the carved fruit.

 

 

 

 

We ended up leaving port late…apparently 2 passengers weren’t back. They made several announcements looking for the two passengers. Finally the Captain came on and let folks know that we really needed to leave Juneau on time tomorrow so to make sure you were back on Ship at the appropriate time. I had to laugh a bit at that. And then we pulled away. It was a convoy of cruise ships…another Princess ship, a Holland ship and us.

 

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6/5/2013...Trip Day 9, Diamond Princess - Juneau

 

We arrived in Juneau to a cold rain.

 

 

We headed to Sabatini’s and then got layered up for our excursion. Today we were going kayaking. I love to kayak so I was really jazzed for this excursion. DH has no interest but was willing to go along for the ride. I had dreams of orcas and humpbacks up close and personal. I was disappointed across the board. The guides were too young and inexperienced. They weren’t interested in helping us into the gear they gave us, and getting folks settled into the kayaks was awkward for everyone. For DH and me, our lifejackets didn’t fit well and the skirt of the kayak caused the lifejacket to push up when we would try and sit up properly. We saw a ton of eagles which was cool – but we both just wanted the time on the water to be over because we were so uncomfortable. We tried to let the guides know, but there just wasn’t a lot of assistance. In the water, there was only one guide and several kayaks were left behind from the group. One kayak got into trouble on the water as their rudder peddles slipped – and another kayaker had go find the guide to help them out. We were so relieved when this tour ended.

 

We headed back to the ship and decided to enjoy the rest of the day on the ship. We were surprised to find several children in the outdoor pools and adults in hot tubs. I think these were the first kids we’ve seen!!

 

 

6/6/2013...Trip Day 10, Diamond Princess - Ketchikan

 

No excursions today! We just decided to walk around the town and then headed up to the cultural center. We enjoyed Ketchikan. Creek Street was cute and we enjoyed the unique shops. The cultural center was interesting and certainly worth a stop if have interest in totem poles or native history. Today was just about wandering around in the rain and we enjoyed ourselves completely. We were out and about for about 4 hours before we headed back to the ship. We enjoyed being able to look up and see a bald eagle – as common a site as a red tailed hawk back home. This was a delight for us, especially knowing that they had only recently been taken off the endangered species list. We hope someday this site becomes as common in the lower 48.

 

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6/7/2013...Trip Day 11, Diamond Princess – At Sea

 

Our last day on the Diamond and today was the Ultimate Ship Tour. We thoroughly enjoyed this. The Captain spent a ton of time with us, as did everyone else. We started at 9am and went until almost noon. It was great to spend time on the bridge, and to see the behind the scenes of laundry and pastry and bakery and kitchens and on and on. DH and I both agreed we would do this tour on every ship. The chef’s apron, bathrobe, pictures, bag and personalized paper was a great souvenir. Highly recommend this tour!

 

The afternoon was spent on our balcony and while we didn’t see Orcas which was a disappointment, we did see a humongous pod of porpoise playing in the wake. No pictures – but it was so amazing to see. There must have been hundreds of them!

 

DH spent some time in Churchill’s Lounge with a cigar and I stayed on the balcony. DH enjoyed his smoke but he had to hunt down a drink at a different bar because no one was at Churchill’s.

 

We opted to go to Sterling Steakhouse for dinner tonight. I really didn’t want to take my eyes off the water because we were going to be moving through some pretty incredible scenery as we headed into BC. Sterling Steakhouse has some great views and so we made a reservation and headed up there. The food was great, and the scenery was perfect. It was a fabulous dinner.

 

The blue skies were gorgeous and we just thoroughly enjoyed this cruising day. We spent a lot of time talking about our next cruise – we are hooked.

 

 

 

 

It was fun to see our first sunset in 11 days. Until it appeared, we hadn’t realized that we missed them.

 

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6/8/2013...Trip Day 12, Vancouver

 

We arrived in Vancouver today. I got up early because I wanted to see us pull into port.

 

 

 

We headed to the Wheelhouse Bar which was where suite passengers could hang out until our group was called for disembarkation. They don’t check your cruise card when you walk in so anyone could use this lounge. It was quiet. This certainly wasn’t Sabatini’s. The coffee was bad, the OJ wasn’t fresh and the pastries were blah. I had been spoiled at Sabatini’s and was slowly entering back into reality.

 

Collecting our luggage at the port was simple and easy. We walked through Canada Place to our hotel which was located on site – the Pan Pacific. Lovely hotel and very convenient; I think we would stay here again. Our room rate included a buffet breakfast…it was good but we were missing Leo, Jiovannie and Agu – our waiters at Sabatini’s.

 

We opted for the trolley hop-on-hop-off tour in Vancouver given our short time here. The concierge at the hotel sold us a two day pass for $40 – a great deal! However –the concierge here was not friendly and seemed put out by our questions.

 

We spent today at Stanley Park, and then enjoyed dinner at Steamworks Brew Pub.

 

 

 

We waved goodbye to the Diamond Princess as she sailed away. We caught a glimpse of the folks who had moved into our suite and wished them as wonderful a cruise as we had just had. We knew they were in good hands.

 

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6/9/2013...Trip Day 13, Vancouver

 

It’s our final full day of vacation before the long trip home. We planned on spending it wandering Vancouver. And as with the rest of our trip, the weather cooperated and we had sun and blue skies.

 

The trolley tour was a great way to quickly see some sites like the 2010 Olympic Cauldron

 

 

Our goal for the day was to hang out on Granville Island. We aren’t souvenir shoppers but we love a local working market! Granville was right up our alley! We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with all the locals running the various shops. The folks at ChocolaTas were so very friendly – we felt like we walked away with new friends. And their gourmet chocolates are worth the price. We’ve had chocolates in Belgium at the best shops and this chocolate was easily on par.

 

 

We enjoyed our view of Grouse mountain from the hotel room but could have passed on being so close to the pool.

 

 

 

We were able to catch a Holland ship leave Vancouver and pass under Lion’s Gate Bridge.

 

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Final Thoughts

 

- Doing a CruiseTour was a truly easy way to travel. Everything was well coordinated and we enjoyed never having to move our luggage from place to place. Did it cost more than doing it ourselves, yes. Was it worth every penny to not have to do all the planning? For us, yes.

- Diamond Princess was unbelievably clean. I didn’t think the room looked worn or tired. I enjoyed the decorations of the room and thought everything looked well kept.

- The food wasn’t 5 star but I’d put it between 3 and 4 star depending on location in the ship.

- Was the suite worth it? For us, yes! I suppose it’s the perk of not having children  We’ll never do anything but an aft suite. We loved the perks of the suite especially the laundry service which we used daily, and being able to order from the MDR. We loved the extra large balcony with the table. We loved watching the wake of the ship. We loved the extra space in our room.

- Ultimate Ship tour is so worth the $150/pp!

- We are so glad we kept our excursion schedule light. We were able to enjoy a few things but still had a very relaxed vacation.

- If you are worried about motion sickness but aren’t prone to it, you’ll be fine. DH gets sick riding in the back of a car but that’s it – he never took anything and never had an issue. If you battle with motion sickness like I do, get the patch from your doctor. I’ll never travel without them again and I feel like an idiot for not having used them before.

- Packing…

o We packed enough clothes and used almost everything even with having a free laundry service.

o Layering our clothes saved the day in the heat but Alaska delivered it’s cool rainy weather too and we were prepared!

o Binder clips saved the day…errrr….night…in the lodges but weren’t needed on the ship.

o The small power strip we brought with the USB connections was really convenient but in a suite, not really needed. However, as with the binder clips, I travel a lot so it will become part of my standard travel gear.

o Blow dryer – I’ll leave mine at home next time but I’m not fussy about my hair, either.

o I never used my bug spray but I’d probably bring it again. Alaska mosquitos are so big the FAA should govern their flight patterns!

o I brought my own shampoo and conditioner and I’m so glad I did. Alaska is dry even with all that rain and I felt it every time I styled my hair.

o I picked up some heavy duty facial moisturizer for DH as his face tends to get dry easily. He’s not much for skin care where I’m a spa kind of girl. We both ended up using it twice a day!

- We loved having the cruise map on our wall and we’ll to keep that traditional as we cruise. It was fun to find our coordinates on the map, and read about the area we were in.

- We both brought iPads, cell phones and bose headsets. We only used the iPads and headsets on the flights. Cell phones were only used for texting home on very rare occasions but it was nice to have them just in case home needed to reach us.

o I have Sprint and had service everywhere (except Denali National Park) including Canada and the ship.

o Both Canada and the Ship are at additional cost but not much to add the service while we were gone and receiving texts in these locations was nominal.

o Making phones calls, however, was pricey if we weren’t on the Sprint network (ie on Alaska soil) so we told our loved ones at home to communicate via text when needed.

o Wifi was not readily available, and very expensive on the ship. We just turned our data off and enjoyed the electronic disconnect.

- I am so glad we passed on the ship entertainment, activities (except the UST), and MDR. This trip was about enjoying scenery and wildlife – Alaska delivered every day. However, we were both interested in several activities and presentations the ship had to offer and we’ll look forward to that on perhaps our next cruise.

- Anytime Dining was the right choice because over half the cruise we ordered to our room and ate on the balcony.

- Not doing formal dining was a great decision for us and I know that any cruise we are on, we’ll skip the formal nights. But, I can also see how it might add a special night for folks too.

- The Nikon P520 was the best decision – so easy to use and the optical zoom was priceless. DH isn’t gadget oriented like me and he was able to pick up the camera and use it without ever reading the manual – most of our best pictures he took! We made a conscious decision to not live this vacation through the lens of a camera but having a good camera to capture some of our memories was well worth it.

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I’m sure there is tons more to say, but this journal is far too long already. I hope you enjoyed pieces of it and skipped over the items that bored you. I hope newbies find a few nuggets in here that help them along the way.

 

Alaska, you gave us everything and more – a true trip of a lifetime. In all of our vacations, this was by far our favorite. I’d like to say we’ll be back but we like to experience new places and there are so many we haven’t seen. We’ll treasure our memories and encourage others to visit you.

 

Princess…you’ve hooked us. I can’t say we’ll only sail on your ships but we’ll certainly look at your itineraries first. We will recommend you to anyone who listens. Your staff, both on land and at sea, made us feel welcome and cared for. Captain Dino Sagani, thank you for taking the time to share your passion and profession with us on the UST – and thank you and your crew for an amazing cruise.

 

DH gets to choose our next bucket list trip – and he has already decided it’s a CruiseTour of South American to include Machu Picchu. I better start researching…

[emeltee]

Thanks for posting this informative review. I really liked your conclusions. Very helpful.

 

Okay, now back to packing, lol (we leave on Tuesday!)

[Cap'n Jack]

This is a fantastic review, just the kind of review I have been looking for as a newbie to Alaska and the land tour thing. You certainly had great weather inland. We have never tried a suite, but your pictures and review makes me think we should consider it. Thanks.

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This is a fantastic review' date=' just the kind of review I have been looking for as a newbie to Alaska and the land tour thing. You certainly had great weather inland. We have never tried a suite, but your pictures and review makes me think we should consider it. Thanks.[/quote']

 

Enjoy Alaska! For us, the extra room was perfect. And we are fairly private folks so we knew we would be on our balcony a lot...for as much time as we spent there, the suite and aft location were ideal.

 

I grew up in north Milwaukee and still have family there - Alaska climate will feel normal to you. :)

[ucfalli]

Enjoyed reading the review! You guys look like you had a fabulous time.

[KCI]

Thanks for such a great review..outstanding job! We leave on July 4th for the land and cruise tour, starting in Fairbanks. We are really excited and after reading your review I am even more psyched. Hope we have good weather like you did.

[mom2sage]

Thanks for the review! I leave next week (!!!!) on NCL. Can't wait!!!

[Clairescurtains]

I am so glad I found it, you have convince me that this is the trip I want to take next year and with Princess.

Two questions, did you do the tour part as "on your own", "off the beaten path", "Denali Explorer" or "Connoisseur"?

 

If you did Denali Explorer was it a problem to take the longer Denali Park excursion instead of the shorter one?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[L-in-CLT]

I am so glad I found it, you have convince me that this is the trip I want to take next year and with Princess.

Two questions, did you do the tour part as "on your own", "off the beaten path", "Denali Explorer" or "Connoisseur"?

 

If you did Denali Explorer was it a problem to take the longer Denali Park excursion instead of the shorter one?

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

I'm so glad you found the review helpful. Look up Bimmer09's review too - he has videos posted on u-tube that really helped me out.

 

We did the land tour as the Denali Explorer. It seemed to offer us the most flexibility. It wasn't a problem to extend the Denali Park excursion. I called Princess directly (I didn't use a TA) - it was obviously a common request because she didn't skip a beat. The short tour is included in the price of the Denali Explorer so upgrading has an additional cost but it is simply the difference between the two - in other words, they don't up-charge you for making the change. It was easily handled.

 

Enjoy the trip - and have fun planning!

 

L

[1012daisy]

This is the best review I have read in a long time. Thank you for posting.