Star Princes 6/13-6/25 12 day Alaska/Denali northbound review- TONS of pics...

[Cruisin_Greg]

For your time and efforts of putting this trip report together. Excellent job so far. You are really, REALLY whetting our appetite for our upcoming trip to Hawaii on the Star in September.

 

Looking forward to more.

[saxgirl84]

Agree, your pictures are great. Thanks for posting them.

 

Two questions: 1. What are the two tall drinks in the happy hour photo? 2. Where did you get your maps?

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review. :cool:

 

 

Thanks! I found a ton of useful info here, so I like to try and "give back" when I can.

 

The tall drinks were "Alaskan Mudslides" not sure what made them "Alaskan" other than the cruise we were on, but they were tasty. And for a 2 for 1 deal, they were good.

 

The maps I had were from Amazon. One was just a map of SE Alaska, and the other came with a book I bought about cruising Alaska. princess also gives you a map of Glacier Bay the night before, which was helpful. I will see if I can find the links for Amazon for you when I get back home.

 

 

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[saxgirl84]

Excellent review. Outstanding photos. Can't wait for more.

 

 

Thank You! I love sharing my pictures as much as I love taking them!

 

 

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[saxgirl84]

Thank you for posting your review. If you have the patters from the trip, please also post them. Appreciate the efforts to share your experience.

 

 

I did bring them home, however Parents of one of my friends is going on the same cruise in a few weeks (I keep threatening to stow away in their luggage!) so I gave them all of my papers and maps for their trip. If I'm able to get them back, I'll be sure to post them!

 

 

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[saxgirl84]

For your time and efforts of putting this trip report together. Excellent job so far. You are really, REALLY whetting our appetite for our upcoming trip to Hawaii on the Star in September.

 

 

 

Looking forward to more.

 

 

Thank you! I have this ship ranked as #2 out of my 5 cruises, coming in just behind the Brand new (when I sailed her...) Norwegian Getaway as my favorite cruise so far. She's older and definitely needs a few touch ups here and there, but the entire crew seemed to love their jobs, and were so pleasant and went out of their way to make sure everyone was having a great time (from what I could see...) I would bet you'll have an amazing time in Hawaii, I'm jealous!!! :-)

 

 

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[Bimmer09]

Saxgirl- keep it coming!

 

Thanks for being so generous with the photos-the more the merrier is my motto.

 

Alaska is such a memorable cruise destination and Vancouver a great city to start it from, providing a memorable sail away .

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your first Princess cruise-but what's not to enjoy?

 

Norris

[MJSailors]

I realize that a photo review of a cruise requires time and effort and sometimes life's responsibilities can get in the way.

Since I am curious about the land tour to Denali after a cruise, I was looking forward to your input about such a trip.

Please continue to post when you have the time.

[RobertoF]

Loving the review so far. Looking forward to more.

[caribill]

Since I am curious about the land tour to Denali after a cruise, I was looking forward to your input about such a trip.

Please continue to post when you have the time.

 

If you want to read about a pre-cruise land tour, you can see one at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[LEtue]

Really enjoying your review since we are sailing SB on the Star in a few weeks :D

 

Thanks for taking the time to post about your trip!

[saxgirl84]

Saxgirl- keep it coming!

 

Thanks for being so generous with the photos-the more the merrier is my motto.

 

Alaska is such a memorable cruise destination and Vancouver a great city to start it from, providing a memorable sail away .

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your first Princess cruise-but what's not to enjoy?

 

Norris

 

Sorry for the delay! Yesterday's activities took a lot longer than I thought they would, so I didn't even touch my computer... I'll try and get through a big chunk of the cruise today, as I'm free for the next several hours... thanks for your patience! and you're right, Princess and Alaska were both amazing!

[saxgirl84]

I realize that a photo review of a cruise requires time and effort and sometimes life's responsibilities can get in the way.

Since I am curious about the land tour to Denali after a cruise, I was looking forward to your input about such a trip.

Please continue to post when you have the time.

 

 

I'm back at it now. Sorry for the delay! I've got a few more days of the cruise to get through, but I do have quite a few pictures from our land tour as well! Stay tuned :)

[saxgirl84]

Loving the review so far. Looking forward to more.

 

Thanks! I hope you enjoy the rest!!

[saxgirl84]

Really enjoying your review since we are sailing SB on the Star in a few weeks :D

 

Thanks for taking the time to post about your trip!

 

Lucky!!! I wish I could go back and just stay! :) I hope you enjoy the rest of the review!

[saxgirl84]

Sorry for the delay! Real life got in the way a bit yesterday, and I didn't even touch my computer... Hopefully I can get through a big chunk of the review in the next few hours and there won't be any more delays. Thanks so much for the feedback and I'm glad you're all enjoying the review thus far!

 

 

Back to Ketchikan.

 

Since we hadn't really made any plans for the day, we just kind of wandered around a bit, stopping into some stores. One of the people that was with me did want to go to the christmas shop to see if he could find some reindeer poop ornaments for his nieces and nephews back home, so we headed there, and he found his trinkets. We saw a lot of shops with totem poles displayed, calling you inside!

 

 

 

 

 

we joked that we didn't have to take the totem pole tour because we saw enough of them outside of these stores! however, we were talked into doing a tour to see some totems, eagles and possibly some bears... while waiting for our tour to start, we just kind of hung out and did some window shopping... then we caught the tour bus and headed to the eagles.

 

 

a pretty scenic area not to far from the port, so I took some "scenic" pictures too..

 

[saxgirl84]

we saw quite a few eagles, however to be honest, I think we see just as many bald eagles around this area of the country throughout the year as well, so I guess I was just a bit disappointed. however they are still quite majestic, and it was pretty cool to see them in their natural habitat! here are a few more shots I got.

 

 

 

An Eagle and an Owl living in harmony...

 

 

 

coming in for a landing

 

 

eagle in flight!

 

Perched atop the tree

[saxgirl84]

After spending about 30 minutes watching the eagles, we were back in the bus heading towards a stream to hope for a bear viewing. According to our driver, there were a couple of bear spotted earlier in the day, but since there was a lack of rain in the area over the past few weeks (great for us tourists, not great for their environment) the salmon weren't swimming upstream yet, so the bear sightings were less frequent.

 

 

 

 

 

unfortunately for us, no bears were spotted, but we did get to see some salmon swimming upstream (the picture didn't turn out that great.. sorry)

 

 

I did get to see some more pretty flowers though

 

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

after striking out at the bear viewing area, we headed over too Saxman Village to see some totem poles.

 

we started off our "tour" in the "rain forest" where our guide talked a bit about the climate, etc. it was very lush and green and beautiful there as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

some of the totems at Saxman:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

and some of the "discarded" totems found on the grounds...

 

 

 

 

 

and someone making a new totem to be displayed...

 

[saxgirl84]

we were watching the clock closely, since we had an early sail away today, and it was getting closer and closer to that time. I had wanted to make it to Creek Street before we left, to check that out, but when we got down to the dock, the line to get aboard the ship was already quite long, and we only had about 45 minutes until all aboard, so we decided to just get in line to get back on the ship. I guess I have a list of things I need to do when I get back to Ketchikan!

 

We got back onboard, 3 of the 4 of us got through the metal detectors before they malfunctioned... so we were "stuck" waiting on them to fix it... luckily we were actually on the ship, and they realized that our 4th was with us, so they got out a hand held wand and "scanned" him and we were on our way. I'm not sure how long the scanners were down, but hopefully not too long, and it didn't seem to affect our leaving on time.

 

we headed to Portofino for lunch, and made it there just before closing. Enjoyed a nice lunch and then wandered around the ship a bit. found the last pool we hadn't seen on our previous days, and enjoyed some drinks while dipping our feet. (I believe this was the "adults only" pool, but there was never anyone actually using it when I was nearby, so I'm not sure. it was in the far aft of the ship, and had a beautiful view of the wake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

after spending a couple of hours dipping our feet in the water and enjoying a few beverages, we headed back to our rooms to relax a bit and then headed to dinner. We decided to try a different restaurant tonight, just to see what the ship had to offer... we made reservations for dinner at Capri-

 

We headed down about 15 minutes before our reservation, just in case there was a line, like the previous 2 nights. when we got there, there was no line, so we were seated immediately. Our Jr. Waiter stopped by the table asking us if we wanted to purchase a bottle of wine with diner, since it was "Italian night". we thanked him but said that we were not interested in the wine, (3 times before he seemed to really understand that we did NOT want the bottle of wine)... we were expecting him to ask us what we would like to drink, but he just walked away, seemingly insulted that we didn't want the wine. about 10 minutes later, our waiter stopped by with the menus and introduced himself, however he spoke so softly, none of us caught his name, and he didn't stop moving long enough for us to read his nametag, so we never did get his name! he gave us about 2 minutes to look over the menu, and was back asking us for our order. we each placed our orders, and tried to put in our drink order with him, but he just shook his head and pointed to the Jr waiter, since apparently that was HIS job... the rest of the meal kind of went like this, the waiter or Jr waiter would stop by to drop something off at the table, but never really asked if everything was ok, or if we needed refills etc. not a huge deal, we just all decided that we would just eat at Portofino from now on, as our wait staff the night before, and earlier that day for lunch, were phenomenal.

 

After dinner was over, we wandered around the ship and I believe we ended up in a lounge listening to someone sing, or play piano for a bit. we made it an early night because we had a long day in Juneau the next day, and wanted to be rested up! While I was getting ready for bed, I heard a fog horn outside.. went out on the balcony to see the Norwegian ship that had been following us coming out of a fog bank!

 

 

[saxgirl84]

Sat out on the balcony for a bit and watched the fog rolling in and out. it was pretty cool to see how quickly the scenery changed. one minute, we could see land on both sides, the next minute, you couldn't see the edge of the balcony 2 floors down because the fog was so thick.

 

 

this one kind of looks like a big wave rolling in

 

 

I also heard an animal outside in the water and looked down to see a whale!

 

 

 

Next up- Juneau--- here's the "sunrise" we got to see that morning---

 

 

 

and heading into port-

 

[saxgirl84]

 

 

 

While doing my months of research prior to the cruise, I knew that we wanted to do a whale watch and visit Mendenhal Glacier and hike down to Nugget Falls. Since the 3 people I was with are sailors, they wanted to do a whale watch on a smaller boat, to avoid the crowds. I did some research online and booked an 11am trip with Rum Runners tours- they had a smaller boat that held a max of 6, and seemed to have a good price for the tour. I booked with Chris, and was told to call him when we get to port for finalizing the pick up plans, etc. Our initial thought was that we would wait to see what the weather was like, and if it was clear enough, we would get off the ship ASAP and head up the Mt. Roberts tram and spend a bit of time up there, before heading out on the whale watch, then heading to Mendenhal...

Sitting at breakfast, I called Chris to find out where and when he would be picking us up... He told me that he was just getting ready to call me because he was having an issue with his boat, and wasn't sure if he'd be able to get it fixed in time to get us out at 11am, so he could either reschedule us to a 4pm trip (plenty of time for us b/c we were in port until 9), or he could refund us our deposit. We decided the 4pm trip would be ok, and we would just change our plans around a bit...

 

When we got off the ship, and started walking towards the tram to go up the mountain, we saw a sign for whale watch tours, and decided to try and check into it, as we were double thinking going out so late in the day (we were told the whales were typically more "active" in the morning hours and then later (like 6pm or after) in the day, so we didn't want to take the chance of not seeing anything. The tour also included a trip to the glacier, so we decided to buy from them instead, and I called Chris back to let him know. He said he was glad we decided to go with another company because it was looking like he might not have the right parts to get his boat fixed in time to get us out at 4! He was very professional with the entire issue, and the refund was on my credit card the very next day, so I was very impressed with him, and was kind of disappointed we didn't get to go out on his boat... on my next trip to Juneau, I will be booking with him again!

 

with our reservation with the new company (Dolphin tours) completed, we headed towards the Mt. Roberts tram to head up and enjoy the views since the sun was shining.

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

a few more from the tram/ top of Mt. Roberts---

 

 

 

 

 

 

they also had someone carving a totem up there... it was cedar and smelled fabulous!

 

my cousin made a comment about how great the wood smelled and the guy that was carving it grabbed a baggie and put a bunch of wood chips in it and handed it to her. our cabin smelled great the rest of the cruise!

[saxgirl84]

we didn't have a ton of time up top because we had to catch the bus for our whale watch tour, so we looked around a bit, and I bought a magnet for my collection, and then we headed back down. The tours all seemed to meet in the parking lot out front of the tram building, so we didn't have too hard of a time finding where to go.

 

after a short ride over to the marina, we were boarding the boat (a little bigger than the one we had planned on going on, but still not too big, and there seemed to be enough room for everyone to see the whales...)

 

we headed out to the bay hoping to get lucky and catch a glimpse of some humpback whales. the guides did a great job of talking about the area, and the whales and their usual behavior etc. I think she was trying to prepare us for possibly only seeing 1 or 2 random whales... which would have been fine with us... little did they know, we were in for a treat! we got to see a whole lot of whale action! (we were trying to count how many we saw, and think we may have seen 7 total, but it was so hard to tell)... We saw some bubble net feeding action, and it was INCREDIBLE! I luckily had set my camera to "continuous shot" and just held my finger on the shutter button and ended up with some shots I am very happy with. the next few entries will just be shots of the whales...

 

 

Enjoy!

 

the first sign of whales--- the blow

 

 

 

whale tail!!

 

 

 

look at how CROWDED that boat is! I'm glad we weren't on that boat!