Live From the Grand Princess, 22-Day Alaska B2B, Apr 30 - May 22

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Thank you for taking us along on another fabulous journey.  I am right there with you on every excursion.  

 

Malama Pono (take care) on your way home. 

Thank you for coming along! Both my DW and I are hoping to meet you once again on the high seas. But until then, you have safe travels as well! 😁

[DLSHS_Mom]

Ken, 

Many thanks for your live from.  Have a safe trip home and I am looking forward to seeing the Norway "Live".

 

 

[Justpackingmybags]

Ken,

thanks for sharing your trip with us. It always makes me happy when I see you starting a new ‘Live From’ post. Safe home now & looking forward to seeing a new post in July

[aussielozzie18]

I am going to miss your daily updates.  Thanks for taking us along with you.  Safe flight home.

[Leish]

Thank you very much for sharing your travels with us. I look forward to following your upcoming adventure to Norway. I went on a Baltic sea cruise in 2018 but it did not include Norway.

[dickinson]

@Ken the cruiser Thanks for sharing your travels.  Really enjoyed it.  Does your 21 days on the Sky include the August 3 sailing which we will be on?

[PacnGoNow]

Great review!  Love the pics!

Thank you for sharing with us.

[ringers0815]

@Ken the cruiser thank you for your review. It was very interesting (as usual). Looking forward to your July cruise review. 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, dickinson said:

@Ken the cruiser Thanks for sharing your travels.  Really enjoyed it.  Does your 21 days on the Sky include the August 3 sailing which we will be on?

Thanks! That’s actually the day we disembark. 😁

[dickinson]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! That’s actually the day we disembark. 😁

😮 I'll be following along.  Would have been nice to meet. Another time.

[Nattyg1723]

Can't wait for your Baltic live from! That is my absolute dream bucket list cruise 🙂

[treesah]

Thank you for allowing me to sail with you.  Your grateful cyber shadow.😁

[Ken the cruiser]

We finally made it home safe and sound. Thanks again everyone for following along! 

 

[abbydancer2003]

34 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We finally made it home safe and sound. Thanks again everyone for following along! 

 

 

Thanks again.  By the way, we were in Montgomery in February.  The Rosa Parks museum is outstanding and after we had some pretty good pizza.

[MtnSeaGirl]

Ken the Cruiser, WOW !  What beautiful pictures you posted. LOVED this review.  So much good info and easy to follow.   I would like to ask a couple dumb questions please.  My DH and I are trying to plan our first Alaska trip.  We have used the good folks on Cruise Critic to give us tips, thoughts, ideas, etc.  We have explored cruisetours, DIY, and have looked at the 14 day cruise out of Vancoover.  We have even taken sage advice to cruise Princess for this trip over the line we had chosen due to cruising Glacier Bay.  I have a question about the 14 day cruise.  The cruise repeats several of the ports.  Did you find this to be a good thing?  I can see that it allows one to do multiple things.  The downside is repeating the same ports without seeing something different.  I know this is subjective, but please give me your thoughts.    The second question is Do you feel that you saw enough of Alaska by doing the cruise with great shore excursions without going more in country?  PLEASE know I am Alaska ignorant.  I am sincerely asking your thoughts.  Your pics indicate you saw a lot of Alasksa.    I am so torn between a cruisetour that goes to Denali ( which is only seen by 30% of the people who go ) and taking a steamboat in Fairbanks   vs    those beautiful views you have along the water and the excursions you did. Many of your excursions are the ones we had picked out.  We happen to really love waterfalls and really like the 26 Glacier excursion.  Third question:  The pics of Glacier Bay - how close were you to those? Did you take a smaller boat to see those or were you on the ship?   I would appreciate any thoughts you are willing to share. If anyone else has thoughts, please tag onto this if you would.  Thank you..  

 

Edited June 5 by MtnSeaGirl

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

I have a question about the 14 day cruise.  The cruise repeats several of the ports.  Did you find this to be a good thing?  I can see that it allows one to do multiple things.  The downside is repeating the same ports without seeing something different.  I know this is subjective, but please give me your thoughts.   

 

Yes. Even though we went to some ports 2-3 times, our visits along with the weather in many cases allowed for different experiences each time. In our case Juneau, which we visited 3 times, was the only stop where we only went on one ship excursion, which of course included going to the Mendenhall Glacier. The 2nd visit allowed us to take our time and walk to the Whale Statue Park at the other end of town, which was very enjoyable. The 3rd time it rained and also very chilly, so we stayed onboard. We thought about taking the tram to the top of the mountain on the 2nd visit. But the line was always very long, and we didn't want to waste our time standing in it. But we've taken an excursion to the top before, and it was a pretty cool experience as well. But our 1st visit, which included an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier and the Botanical Gardens (which offered similar mountain-top views) checked that vista viewpoint box.

 

Skagway, you can take the train ride on one stop and then book one of the Haines wildlife excursions on the other stop. However, since we've taken the train ride before, we opted for Haines wildlife excursions on both our 1st and 3rd stops. On the 2nd stop, where we actually docked in Haines because of bad weather in Skagway, we just walked around the town looking for totem poles and what other interesting things we could find.

 

Ketchikan, you can book the Misty Fjords on one stop and the Crab Boat excursion on the other stop. Both were pretty awesome excursions for different reasons as my pictures hopefully reflected.

 

2 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

The second question is Do you feel that you saw enough of Alaska by doing the cruise with great shore excursions without going more in country?  PLEASE know I am Alaska ignorant.  I am sincerely asking your thoughts.  Your pics indicate you saw a lot of Alaska.    I am so torn between a cruisetour that goes to Denali (which is only seen by 30% of the people who go) and taking a steamboat in Fairbanks   vs    those beautiful views you have along the water and the excursions you did. Many of your excursions are the ones we had picked out.  We happen to really love waterfalls and really like the 26 Glacier excursion.  

 

 

Yes, but I was stationed in Alaska for 3 years back in the early 70s. So there is that. But you do spend a lot of time commuting between Anchorage and Fairbanks and hanging around hotels and Mount McKinley. Now, if you were going to do the 2-week cruise AND a pre-cruise visit to Mount McKinley, I'd say go for it. But if we would be sacrificing 7 days of cruising for the land portion, we would definitely opt for the 14-day cruise and pass on the land portion, especially if you were going to book wildlife excursions on the 2nd leg as well. But like I said, we've been here before.

 

2 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

Third question:  The pics of Glacier Bay - how close were you to those? Did you take a smaller boat to see those or were you on the ship?   I would appreciate any thoughts you are willing to share. If anyone else has thoughts, please tag onto this if you would.  Thank you..  

 

 

There were no small boat excursion options in Glacier Bay, as it was an all-day adventure just to see the park and get back to those glaciers. But we were close enough to the glaciers to definitely appreciate them. In the case of the Johns Hopkins Glacier, May is the month the harbor seals raise their pups near the glacier, so the ship wasn't allowed to get as close as it normally does. But I will also mention pre-booking the 26 Glacier excursion through Princess on our transition day in Whittier definitely checked the box for an up-close glacier experience!

 

Hope this helps. In any event, you're going to have an awesome 14 days up in Alaska, which ever options you choose!

Edited June 5 by Ken the cruiser

[wallyj]

@MtnSeaGirl, if your sailing will visit Hubbard Glacier, there is usually a ship tour offered to take smaller boat to get closer to the glacier. It is quite expensive $300+/person. Depending on the ice conditions, you may or may not get much closer than the ship.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, wallyj said:

@MtnSeaGirl, if your sailing will visit Hubbard Glacier, there is usually a ship tour offered to take smaller boat to get closer to the glacier. It is quite expensive $300+/person. Depending on the ice conditions, you may or may not get much closer than the ship.

I’m not seeing the Princess excursion you’re referring to.
 

https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/

 

All I see is this “drive close by” one.

 
https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/hubbard-glacier-scenic-cruising-alaska-excursions

[wallyj]

Hi @Ken the cruiser, yes that is the excursion that says you take a smaller boat to hopefully get ‘close’ to the glacier. What are you thinking is not as I have described as ship tour offered to take smaller boat to see glacier? On my Sapphire sailing last  July, ice conditions in the water prevented the excursion boat from getting much closer than the ship to the glacier, but it does go closer to the coastline. You use the words ‘drive close by’, it is not in a land vehicle, it is a special excursion boat.

Edited June 5 by wallyj

[Paula_MacFan]

1 hour ago, wallyj said:

@MtnSeaGirl, if your sailing will visit Hubbard Glacier, there is usually a ship tour offered to take smaller boat to get closer to the glacier. It is quite expensive $300+/person. Depending on the ice conditions, you may or may not get much closer than the ship.

We are on the Sapphire now and did the Hubbard Glacier tour on Sunday. We had fabulous weather that day. Our excursion boat picked us up from the ship around 4 and returned us around 6:30. We got within half a mile which was very close. We heard lots of thunderous cracking and saw calving. The Sapphire got pretty close too but obviously not as close as we did. 

 

We booked the excursion months ago at $299. It immediately sold out and there was a wait list with prices as high as $429. 

 

If you search the Alaska board here on CC there are some threads where this excursion is discussed more.

[memoak]

6 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

Ken the Cruiser, WOW !  What beautiful pictures you posted. LOVED this review.  So much good info and easy to follow.   I would like to ask a couple dumb questions please.  My DH and I are trying to plan our first Alaska trip.  We have used the good folks on Cruise Critic to give us tips, thoughts, ideas, etc.  We have explored cruisetours, DIY, and have looked at the 14 day cruise out of Vancoover.  We have even taken sage advice to cruise Princess for this trip over the line we had chosen due to cruising Glacier Bay.  I have a question about the 14 day cruise.  The cruise repeats several of the ports.  Did you find this to be a good thing?  I can see that it allows one to do multiple things.  The downside is repeating the same ports without seeing something different.  I know this is subjective, but please give me your thoughts.    The second question is Do you feel that you saw enough of Alaska by doing the cruise with great shore excursions without going more in country?  PLEASE know I am Alaska ignorant.  I am sincerely asking your thoughts.  Your pics indicate you saw a lot of Alasksa.    I am so torn between a cruisetour that goes to Denali ( which is only seen by 30% of the people who go ) and taking a steamboat in Fairbanks   vs    those beautiful views you have along the water and the excursions you did. Many of your excursions are the ones we had picked out.  We happen to really love waterfalls and really like the 26 Glacier excursion.  Third question:  The pics of Glacier Bay - how close were you to those? Did you take a smaller boat to see those or were you on the ship?   I would appreciate any thoughts you are willing to share. If anyone else has thoughts, please tag onto this if you would.  Thank you..  

 

If you have never been to Alaska there are many things to do in the main ports. We often do the b2b out of Vancouver and usually you hit Glacier Bay and Hubbard on one direction and Glacier Bay  and College Fjord in the other.  

[latebloomer56]

On 5/24/2024 at 12:56 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

We finally made it home safe and sound. Thanks again everyone for following along! 

 

Thank you for sharing.

[memoak]

4 hours ago, wallyj said:

@MtnSeaGirl, if your sailing will visit Hubbard Glacier, there is usually a ship tour offered to take smaller boat to get closer to the glacier. It is quite expensive $300+/person. Depending on the ice conditions, you may or may not get much closer than the ship.

Also they really pack people on board and the upper deck is shoulder to shoulder people 

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

We are on the Sapphire now and did the Hubbard Glacier tour on Sunday. We had fabulous weather that day. Our excursion boat picked us up from the ship around 4 and returned us around 6:30. We got within half a mile which was very close. We heard lots of thunderous cracking and saw calving. The Sapphire got pretty close too but obviously not as close as we did. 

 

We booked the excursion months ago at $299. It immediately sold out and there was a wait list with prices as high as $429. 

 

If you search the Alaska board here on CC there are some threads where this excursion is discussed more.

Thanks for the details. I take it this was a Princess excursion you either pre-book on the Princess website or once onboard. The reason I ask is because this excursion was never made available to us on the Grand. But then it was early May, so maybe that had something to do with it.

[Paula_MacFan]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for the details. I take it this was a Princess excursion you either pre-book on the Princess website or once onboard. The reason I ask is because this excursion was never made available to us on the Grand. But then it was early May, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Yes it's a Princess excursion bookable in the Personalizer. I've heard ice can be a problem but it wasn't for our trip at all. It's run by Allen Marine and they did a great job. The boat was sold out but not crowded at all. There was plenty of room for seating and pictures on the open decks. It's been a highlight of our cruise!

 

Right now we're in the Princess Theatre to see Libby Riddles' presentation.