Returned last week from SB Sapphire Princess Anchorage to Vancouver

[Princess Jessie]

Hi everyone..

 

I thought i would just say a few notes.. as i had so much help from this site before i left, that i would like to maybe help someone in return!!

 

We just did the SB cruise 7 July Anchorage to Vancouver on Sapphire Princess.

 

We had a marvellous time for everyone about to go..

 

I dont think it necessary to go into too much detail re the ship etc as it has had many comments already... the points i would like to raise, are the things that bothered me before we left, that perhaps someone now will have the benefit of my experience.

 

I would like to explain we are from the Uk, have never been to Alaska, and only twice before to West Coast USA so really little or no knowledge of the area. We took a transatlantic flight from London to Seattle.

 

Seattle is a lovely city, and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around it.

 

From Seattle we flew with Alaskan Airlines to Anchorage. The fare was approx $260 per person.

I originally booked an evening flight with Alaskan arriving into Anchorage about 10pm, but i took a gamble and telephoned the airline to find out if there were spaces on the earlier flight, and because they said there were we decided to try our luck and see if we could catch a flight arriving into Anchorage earlier.

 

Alaskan Airlines were very helpful... they put us on standby, but said our chances were excellent and for no extra money we caught a flight leaving at 3pm instead of 7pm!

 

In Anchorage we stayed in the Springhill Suites. The hotel is situated really in the middle of nowhere in Anchorage... certainly nothing much in walking distance... one restaurant ( I cant remember the name) which served burgers / salads etc and that was about it.

 

The Springhill Suites, were clean and comfortable. They have a small swimming pool. No restaurant so if you do want to eat in the evening, you would need to either get a take away / delivery or walk to this one restaurant, or get a taxi and go into the town centre.

 

For breakfast they had fruit , rolls, juices etc.. all self service, all adequate and clean and pleasant.

 

In summary if you need a hotel not too pricey, not too deluxe but clean and comfortable i would highly recommend.

 

It also provides a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

It does NOT have a shuttle from the hotel to the Railroad Depot.!

 

We took a taxi from the hotel to the Railroad Depot, i asked the hotel to book it the night before as we were four adults with 6 large suitcases and we needed a van.

This was done and the van came right on time. The cost from hotel to Railroad was about $30 for all of us inc tip.

 

The Railroad Depot... much has been written and questions asked about the transfer of bags from Anchorage Railroad to Whittier.

I would now like to write about it so it is very clear what happens as i was extremely nervous about the whole system.

The train leaves Anchorage at 10 and you are advised to be there an hour before so we were there at 9.

When you arrive at the Depot, which is a reasonably large building, to the right of it is an enormous marquee / tent. As taxis pull up, and people dismount with there bags, various porters come to assist you... they check that your bags are labelled with the following : details of the ship, passenger name, cabin number and date of departure. The porters then direct you inside this tent / marquee where there are three desks/ counters... the clerks behind the desks, ask to see confirmation of booking on the Alaskan Railroad, confirmation of booking on the ship, recheck that all the bags are labelled correctly and then take your bags from you. They warn you to keep with you any items you might need for the afternoon as you might not see your bags till 7pm that evening.

You then walk the few steps (literally) inside the depot where if you havent already got your tickets (if you book online all you have is a confirmation of the booking)you queue up at the ticket counter (doesnt take long) where they exchange the confirmation for tickets.

 

That is it!!! So simple! It is very very organised and works like a dream.

now we were on Sapphire Princess, and i cannot comment on other cruise ships leaving from Whittier.. but i cannot imagine that it would not be the same for other lines.

 

The train journey takes about 2 1/4 hours. There is food on the train ... they call each car out in turn and for the last 45 minutes anyone can go up to the buffet car.

 

Also, during the train ride the staff give a running commentary and history of the surrounding area and scenery.

Well worth going by train than any other method.

 

Next - Whittier.

We arrived at 12.15pm made our way into the Princess check in area.. staff are there to direct you every few steps...we were given the health form to complete and then we made our way to the check in counters. The queue (lines) were almost non existent. we had to wait maybe 15 minutes and that was because they waited until 12.30 before starting to process everyone.

By 1pm we were in our cabin and 1.20pm in the buffet - Horizon Court having lunch!!

 

We looked out the window, and saw that between 2 and 4pm all the Princess Coaches arrived and the queues were horrendous!! Be warned if you take the Princess transfer... do it on your own with the ARR... much better.

 

Port stops.. Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan

 

Skagway we hired a car... followed Murrays route and it was great.

Juneau we booked a helicopter ride to the glacier with dogsledding in the morning and zip lining in the afternoon.

Ketchikan we booked the seaplane misty fjords tour

 

Juneau.. the weather first thing was not good and in spite of us phoning from 7am onwards they could not tell me if the helicopter was operating..

Our scheduled pick up time was 8.30 and only then at the pick up stop were we told it was cancelled. - very disappointing.

We booked through Temsco.. although they were very pleasant they were not highly efficient as the girl answering the phone did not give me confidence initially that she knew exactly what was going on.

It was the pick up driver who turned up who said " oh yeah its been cancelled!" not very good PR!

So my word of advice, is if you want to go on the helicopter trip... whether through the ship or arrange it on your own, try to book it for late morning or the afternoon. The weather apparently is always dodgy first thing in the morning.

i would still recommend Temsco, but be aware that they are not super efficient when it comes to advising you of cancellations etc..

 

The ziplining was with Alaska Zipline Adventures... we thoroughly enjoyed it... my only critiscism.. is that it was only four zips .. and one crossing across a wooden suspension bridge.. so by the time you are accostomed to it and have conquered your fear it is almost over!!

Much has been written about how it works so i wont dwell on it, but if anyone has any specific questions i will gladly answer them.

 

Ketchikan - the seaplane Misty Fjords... booked through Alaska Seaplane Tours - Marty.

 

Again, very pleasant to deal with... however once again our flight booked in the morning was cancelled due to the weather.. but as we were free in the afternoon we rescheduled it to 1pm.

 

Marty met us at the pier and suggested that to kill time we might like to visit the Salmon Hatchery and Totem Pole Museum. He took us there, and we found it very interesting. We then walked back to the pier slowly along the creek.. to wait for Marty to meet us again to take us to the seaplane.

 

He was there virtually at the agreed time, we went to the dock / pier for the plane to find that again we had to wait for about 30 minutes for a pilot to be flown in!! They did not stop apologising to us for messing us around.. we didnt mind too much, but of course if you are tight for time it will or can cause problems.

The trip was amazing... spectacular scenery!

 

Vancouver - Canada Place - answered someone else's query about this... but you have a few options on leaving the ship... We left our luggage at the left baggage counter immediately after immigration.. it is an excellent service for people who do not have to go straight to the airport. the company will also transfer all your bags to the airport for a fee of $35.

They are then collected from their counter on the arrivals level.. it takes a matter of minutes to collect the bags and then go up to the departures level.

 

We then purchased from the Information desk tickets for the "hop on hop off" bus. I dont recall the exact price but i think it was about $32 per person for the day.

 

We used the bus to do one complete circular tour - it takes 90 minutes. Then we got off in Gastown, and started walking to explore on our own.

vancouver is lovely!

Highly walkable... very easy, pretty and pleasant!

At the end of the day we caught a taxi to the airport ... the journey took about 40 minutes and cost $35.

 

I hope these few points help, and if anyone has specific queries then i will gladly assist as it is literally 9 days ago that we returned.

:)

[ladyhoneybee]

This is all so very helpful! We're doing the same route summer 2008 on the Sapphire. We haven't booked our transfers from Anchorage yet but now I am curious about getting to Whittier by rail rather than bus transfer. I don't fare well with big crowds :eek: (silly me going on a cruise, right?!)

 

Can you tell me more about the rail transfer? Is there a website, I mean? I didn't see it in your post but I will go back and check. We're doing the Amtrak Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle when the cruise is done and I've never been on a 'real' train... only a couple of little wobbly ones in France :p

 

And thank you for the tidbit about the Springhill Suites, too. I'm currently looking into where to stay for our two nights in Anchorage that is clean, comfy but not pricey. Wasn't sure if that existed anymore. Also the zipline info... I have looked into doing that excursion. I've ziplined before in Cancun and LOVED it... no fear here... I think I would want more than 4 zips so I'll have to investigate to see what other zipline excursions are available.

Again, thank you for the wonderful info. Super helpful!

[rigs32]

Was there a fee to just leave your luggage without the airport transfer? Also, do you recall the name of the company who runs the on-off bus around Vancouver? Thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a wonderful review.

[AkSusan]

This is all so very helpful! We're doing the same route summer 2008 on the Sapphire. We haven't booked our transfers from Anchorage yet but now I am curious about getting to Whittier by rail rather than bus transfer. I don't fare well with big crowds :eek: (silly me going on a cruise, right?!)

 

Assuming it isn't sold out (they do it quite often in the summer) here's the link to the Alaska Railroad passenger section - http://www.akrr.com/arrc8.html

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

[newbie2468]

Hi,

 

We just got back from the same cruise on the Sapphire. Wonderful is all I can say. It was our second cruise and certainly faired as the favorite so far !

 

We,too, took the train from Anchorage... wise move... great way to sit back and watch the beautiful scenery.. I would agree that embarkation was a breeze..and those Princess transfers with gazillions of people...wow ..

 

Our shore excursions were:

 

Skagway: The train to the Yukon with a small "airport type" bus coming back. Great excursion.. booked independently.

We had enough time to also do the Dog Summer Camp (through Princess) and that was quite an experience.. 400 dogs in one camp.. YIKES... but excellent commentary and the puppies.. need I say more ;)

 

Juneau: Yes, it was drizzly and rainy.. but we had had good weather so far, so this wasn't too bad. We booked the "photo safari land and sea" through Princess and BOY was that worth it... We saw Orca's (20 feet from the boat) and humpback's, eagles and of course seals...We then went to Mendenhall Glacier and walked a trail taking pictures and getting advice from the guide. Again a great experience.

 

Ketchikan: My "out of the box" experience (well one of them.. the other one was in Vancouver).. we booked the Anan Bear viewing excursion with Family Air... I just have to say...WOW WOW WOW.... we took a float plane to Anan Observatory (about 35 min).. were dropped off and walked a wooden trail (about 1/4 mile or so) to an observation deck. There we stood across the river (about 50 feet) where black bears AND a grizzly came down from the woods to fish.. they caught Salmon, would go back and eat them and come back for more. In the meantime, Eagles were flying overhead... truly unspoiled nature !

 

Vancouver: We stayed over and flew home the next day. The only mistake we did was to book a 7 hour independent tour right off of the ship. The tour was great, but the guy was late and if we had known all of the walking (hiking) that it entailed, we would have saved it for another time. It was the Capilano Suspension Bridge (Out of the box!) and Grouse Mountain. Both were great.. the bridge being very scary !!! and the Mountain offering gorgeous views.. but we didn't realize how tired and over-stimulated from all of the gorgeous wilderness we had just come from.. so I don't think we enjoyed it to it fullest. We will definitely try to stay an extra couple of days next time to re-coup and enjoy Vancouver.

 

If you have any questions... I would be glad to answer them.. sorry this is so long...

 

Tory

[Maddle]

This is the most informative post about the Alaska Railroad transfer I have seen yet - thank you so much, Jessie. I too have been quite anxious about the luggage. We will be on the Island Princess next week, but I am confident the system will be the same since it is on the same cruise line.

 

We will be staying at Springhill Suites, too. Can you tell me about your cab fare? was it a little more because of the number of people? or do you think the fare for two people will be about the same? (on an aside, does anyone know what the fare from the Marriot would be, from the hotel to the train depot? )

 

Could you give more details about your time in Van Couver - do you recall the name of the company that held your luggage? - assuming that is what you did while you were hopping on and off the tour bus?

 

Thank you again for an informative description of your experiences.

 

Maddle

[ladyhoneybee]

Yay! Thank you for posting the rail website-- I checked it out and they don't seem to have any 2008 info posted as of yet. I am going to inform my TA that we might like to take the train instead of the bus transfer. It sounds much more peaceful, not to mention perhaps easier.

My transfers and our Amtrak trip from Vancouver to Seattle are the last things, aside from any land excursions (which we're still trying to figure out), that we need to book. This site is very helpful in directing me down the right path and offering ideas that I might not have been aware of otherwise :cool:

[lthomas]

We also did the zip in Juneau. WE booked through Princess so it may have been a different excursion but our zip was wonderful and we did 8 if not 9 zips and two suspension bridges. We took a speed boat over to the excursion. It was very nice. We had snacks at the end and received a medal.

 

The restaurant across from Springhill Suites is Outback. It seems like there were a couple of more on down the street but I truly can't remember. We ate at Outback and it was very good.

[Princess Jessie]

Hi Everyone... I will try to answer all your questions as best i can...

 

LadyHoneybee.. yes there is a website re: the train ..it is

http://www.akrr.com/

 

The cost per person was $58 .. I booked it online without any problems at all. They allocate the seats - you dont choose them and they are all good seats.

 

I would definitely recommend the train over a tour bus or organised transfer...

 

I would really recommend the Springhill Suites.. the rooms are as the name suggests .. Suites! So large and spacious... you could if you had young children fit 4 into one room!

There is a small kitchenette area with microwave and kettle and sink.

 

Re : the ziplining, it was a nice company... they were pleasant fun and very safety conscious. I think that there are other companies mentioned on this site... but if you come unstuck i would still recommend this company.

 

Rigs32 - Hi .. yes there is a fee to leave your luggage at Canada Place - it is $4.50 for small bags and $7.50 for large ones... they are reasonably relaxed over small vs large... in other words they dont get a tape measure out... but it is fairly obvious what is large and what is small!!!

The name of the company is : CDS Luggage - their telephone no is : 604-303-4500 and the web site to look up is http://www.britishcolumbia.com/information/cruiseships.html

 

The name of the hop on hop off bus was : literally that - The Vancouver hop on hop off Double Decker bus tour!!! http://www.vancouvertours.net/tours/tourDetail.cfm?tour_id=1519

 

dont buy the tickets in advance, you can buy them from the Information Desk in Canada Place which is literally next door to the left luggage desk!

They give you a discount too! Armed with your vouchers you go up the elevator and then outside where you find the bus / tour staff who will exchange your voucher for tickets.. (takes seconds) The bus comes round every 10 - 15 mins.. there is a single decker partially open top and a double decker...

 

ADSusan - regarding selling out... you might be interested to know that i booked the Sapphire Princess first last week May and the ARR mid June for a 7 July departure...I got the cabins i wanted on the side i wanted etc etc... lucky maybe but shows you dont always have to book months and months in advance!!

 

Maddle - i know you were / are anxious about the transfer of the luggage it was your post that made me nervous! but all i can say is it works like a dream and you have absolutely no need to worry at all!!

 

I cant tell you what the cab fare would be if it were only two people, but it was $30 inc tip for a large 8 seater minivan AND included about a 10 minute wait as my sons were not ready!!! So if you are 2 persons you know it will definitely be less!!!

Ask the hotel to order the cab for you the night before... thats what we did! We ordered for 8.30am for a 10 minute journey to the Depot.

Anchorage is not huge so whether it is the Marriott or any other hotel.. give or take a few dollars it is not expensive!!

 

About the luggage, see above... we left all our bags with them... paid for the transfer to the airport... which was an additional $35 and then had the whole day free .. we had no worries about our bags ..we were told exactly where to collect them from in the airport .. which is 5 minutes from departures.. it is just on the lower level..

 

Re Vancouver and sightseeing... we did the hop on hop off round trip for 90 mins .. then once we had seen the main sights.. armed with a map they gave us.. walked the streets .. decided what we wanted to go back to (having seen it briefly from the bus) and walked there! We could have taken the bus - again but we all enjoy walking and Vancouver is really very walkable... no steep hills.. very pleasant... found a nice place for lunch... there are so so many to choose from.. and when it was time to go to the airport..(allow 45 minutes) just waved down a taxi! Simple!

 

lthomas yes you are right .. it was called Outback... and it was good food , efficient service and reasonably priced!

 

The Springhill Suites can give a list of all restaurants in the area and all that do take out and delivery!!!

 

Hope this helps!!!!:)