Island Princess Alaska in August

[WendyandPeter]

We are first time cruisers and are booked on an Island Princess cruise Vancouver to Whittier in August. Any advice on shore excursions? Have minisusite near the laundry at rear of ship on Dolphin deck- has anyone found this noisy? Does anyone know if the balcony is covered?

[rnjoel]

Hi WendyandPeter!

We were on the Island last month and loved it! You're gonna have a great time!

In Juneau, we booked Capt. Larry's whale watching tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can find many references to his tour on both this forum and the Alaska forum. I think the website is [url]www.alaskawhalewatching.com[/url]. The company is Orca Enterprises. In Skagway, we did the requisite White Pass & Yukon Railroad booked thru the ship. Finally, in Ketchikan, we booked the Misty Fjords Flightseeing/Cruise tour thru the ship. Normally, I rarely book shore excursions thru the cruiseline, but I was unable to find this one offered anywhere else. And it was absolutely wonderful. The flight into the Misty Fjords was breathtaking, and the cruise back out was out of this world. We were able to see orca pods, eagles, bears, etc. that we probably couldn't have seen from the air. I cannot recommend this tour highly enough! (Book it online in advance, since it was sold out way before our sailing date!)

As far as the minisuite question....we too had a minisuite on the Dolphin and had no problems. Our traveling friend had an inside room right beside the laundry (D720 I think), and he said he didn't hear a thing!

If you have any more questions, just let me know.

Happy Sailings!

[kkorman]

I had a room right next to the laundry room on the Coral and heard absolutely nothing. And had the nice smell of fabric softener ourside my room.