Pictorial review of the Coral Princess 5/24/14

[Eileen G]

Our last port of call was Ketchikan. We were in port from 10 until 6. Normally we do not do ship's excursions but we had a lot of on board credit so we decided on the Wilderness Cruise and Crab Feast. We

rode a bus from the dock to the lodge. The driver gave a tour the whole way. At the lodge you walk down 70 steps to the lodge and board the boat. Your guide tells all about crabbing and the crabs. We had a delightful guide. She pulled up two crab traps and you could hold a crab if you wanted. On the way back to the lodge the captain searched for wildlife but we only saw an eagle.

The crab feast was delicious and we could eat as much as we wanted. We were in a room overlooking the water.

[Eileen G]

We returned from the Crab feast about three so we walked around Ketchikan a little.

 

The famous Creek street.

 

 

 

This was my 4th stop in Ketchikan and I am always impress by the flowers.

 

Many of the houses sit on the hillside and the roads are on pilings. This road looked like it went strait uphill.

[Eileen G]

Our last day was a sea day. Most of the day we were in Queen Charlotte Bay. After lunch we picked up the pilot and entered the inner passage between BC and Vancouver Island. For the rest of the day we sailed the inner passage. We spotted some proposes swimming by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we got closer to Vancouver we started to see some towns along the shore.

 

[Eileen G]

All too soon it was time to get off the ship in Vancouver. We were spending one day in Vancouver so we rented a car near the pier and drove to Stanley Park.

 

 

I wanted to see the rose gardens. It was a little early for most of the roses but there were a few blooming. There were also a lot of other plants blooming that I was not familiar with.

 

 

 

 

 

[Eileen G]

We drove around the park stopping at a lot of the view points.

 

 

 

[Eileen G]

We spent three hours at Stanley park. When we left we kept following the water to N.W. Marine Dr. which eventually took us to Spanish Banks Beach. Since it was a Saturday and a beautiful warm sunny day we had a lot of trouble finding a place to park. This was a very nice beach if you weren't planning on going swimming.

 

 

 

 

[Eileen G]

We continued on N.W. Marine Dr. towards the airport where we were staying at the Hampton Inn. After we checked in at the hotel we drove to Stevenson. Again we had trouble finding a place to park but we eventually did. We had halibut fish and chips at PaJo's and strolled along the water.

 

 

 

 

We returned to our hotel only to find the traffic all backed up. It seems our hotel was very close to the night market. I read the reviews for the night market and decided it wasn't for us. Lots of traffic, difficult to find parking, cheep items for sale and crowds. The best thing was the different food vendors and we really aren't into that. But since we were so close we decided to walk from our hotel to see what it was all about. It was about a ten minute walk. The traffic was all over, the parking was crazy and the crowds were everywhere. We got to the fence and it was packed like a can of sardines. So we decided to give it a pass and walked back to our hotel. It was a lovely day otherwise so we went to bed happy.

[paddingtonbear]

Hi Eileen,

 

So pleased you had a great cruise and came back with such fantastic photos.

 

Did you keep one of the Princess Patters for your cruise? When you get a chance could you please post it on the forum or email me a copy?

 

Thank you so much.

Edited June 10, 2014 by paddingtonbear

[marysb]

I enjoyed your trip! Thanks so much for sharing your fantastic photos.

Mary

[Eileen G]

Hi Eileen,

 

So pleased you had a great cruise and came back with such fantastic photos.

 

Did you keep one of the Princess Patters for your cruise? When you get a chance could you please post it on the forum or email me a copy?

 

Thank you so much.

 

I always keep all the Patters from my cruises so I do have them all. It really takes a lot of time to copy all of them but if you want one or two I'll try to get them copied. Do you have a specific day you would like to see? Or maybe I could copy just the daily schedules. Let me know.

[shipfriend_max]

Hi,

 

what a great review with superb pictures!

Since we plan to do Alaska in 2015, your review is very helpful and worth to read.

What did you like more? Hubbard Glacier or Glacier Bay?

 

The aft deck of Coral Princess lokks very good.

[Eileen G]

Hi,

 

what a great review with superb pictures!

Since we plan to do Alaska in 2015, your review is very helpful and worth to read.

What did you like more? Hubbard Glacier or Glacier Bay?

 

The aft deck of Coral Princess lokks very good.

 

Unfortunately we didn't get very close to really enjoy Hubbard. We have been in the past and gotten real close and that is very different from Glacier Bay. Hubbard is a very huge glacier and sailing in through the ice field is amazing. You can hear the snap crackle and pop from the glacial ice melting. If you get close the glacier towers over the ship. Glacier Bay is an entire day of scenic cruising. You can see many glaciers. The ship will stop in front of Marjorie Glacier for a while to be able to see it calve. It calves quite often so you should have the opportunity to see it.

 

The reason given for not getting close to Hubbard was too much ice. However the time we did get close on HAL there was much more ice. When we turned around this time there wasn't even any touching the ship. We could see an ice flow off to the side where we saw seals with binoculars. I suspect the captain may have though that we would be in Glacier Bay tomorrow so why bother getting close to Hubbard. I am just guessing of course maybe he had a good reason.

[paddingtonbear]

I always keep all the Patters from my cruises so I do have them all. It really takes a lot of time to copy all of them but if you want one or two I'll try to get them copied. Do you have a specific day you would like to see? Or maybe I could copy just the daily schedules. Let me know.

 

Can you do a few daily schedules please?

You can send to my email below if that's easier . And take a photo rather than scan if that's quicker? I would just be grateful for whatever you have the time/patience/tech know-how to do : )

Edited June 12, 2014 by paddingtonbear

[paddingtonbear]

The reason given for not getting close to Hubbard was too much ice. However the time we did get close on HAL there was much more ice. When we turned around this time there wasn't even any touching the ship. We could see an ice flow off to the side where we saw seals with binoculars. I suspect the captain may have though that we would be in Glacier Bay tomorrow so why bother getting close to Hubbard. I am just guessing of course maybe he had a good reason.

 

Three big ships got caught in an ice flow in the Antarctic recently. It refrozen and the first one got trapped the other two got trapped coming to the rescue. Experienced captains said they'd never seen anything like it before.

 

Might have something to do with the princess captain's behaviour???

[Eileen G]

Three big ships got caught in an ice flow in the Antarctic recently. It refrozen and the first one got trapped the other two got trapped coming to the rescue. Experienced captains said they'd never seen anything like it before.

 

Might have something to do with the princess captain's behaviour???

 

I did read about those ships. Our naturalist said captains were being more careful since the Concordia but other ships this season have been getting close. We were not anywhere near close enough to see the glacier calve.

[Eileen G]

OK I got 4 days scanned, just the daily schedule.

 

Day 1 (leaving Whittier)

 

 

 

Day 2 Hubbard Glacier and formal night

 

 

[Eileen G]

Day 3 Glacier Bay

 

 

 

Day 5 Juneau

 

[paddingtonbear]

Wonderful! Thank you so much.

I am going to have a great night looking at them all : )