My cruise blog: Island Princess, 5/18/09 (long)

[tetleytea]

Hello,

 

Here's my blog from our Alaska cruise last week. Mostly I just needed something to do as an excuse to hang out on the balcony, so I just took my laptop out. I thought of editing it and posting it as a review, but at the request of a CC'er I just posted it here. It's a little long. Hope it helps someone.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

 

Flight to Anchorage

 

 

The flight was no fun. Oh well, a necessary evil. Cramped quarters, we were on there for around 8 hours total. Landed after midnight—Alaska time—and there was still a little daylight out. And we still had to drive to the B&B, which was about an hour drive away in Palmer. It was a long day.

 

 

Since it was May, we rented a car for a whopping $13/day from National.

 

 

River Crest Manor B&B

 

 

In Palmer. Big rooms, nice host, good breakfast. And a good location for us. Palmer was a good launching point for the fun stuff we did on the independent pre-cruise portion of our trip. We have stayed in Anchorage and Wasilla before, and Palmer was definitely preferable to them. Palmer's location might not be as good if you were planning on going to Denali, but it sure worked out for us.

 

 

The host was a regional officer for the Alaska B&B Association. That B&B Assocation must be the reason why Alaskan B&B's are so much better than the lower-48. They've got these high standards and inspections you have to pass before you can be an accredited B&B. I'm glad—they're doing both the B&B and us a favor.

 

 

 

 

Palmer Church of God

 

 

Our B&B host's church. She thinks of her church as the charismatic, Pentecostal type, but when we went we didn't see any of that at all. They were just a good, humble church with nice people. Since we were visitors, they invited us to lunch afterwards. A good chance to meet the locals—evidently, not a lot of vacationers take time out for church. I didn't consider it “taking time out” from vacation at all! It's a part of it. We got to see what the locals eat—no restaurant food, no cruise ships. Some of it is the same as anything we'd normally eat at home. Other dishes were uniquely Alaska—people caught their own fish, moose chowder, etc..

 

 

Hatcher Pass

 

 

Beautiful. This was the site most recommended in the Palmer area by our B&B host. You basically drive up the side of a hill and take some panoramic shots of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley from up top. A whitewater river runs alongside you the whole way. Looks like it's only navigable by whitewater kayakers in June, when the water reaches its height. We got there in May, when unfortunately the top of Hatcher Pass is closed to motor traffic. They let you hike the rest of the way up if you want, which I did—in knee-deep snow. If you want to experience snow, this is a good way to do it. The reward for my snow trek: some photo shots of Independence Gold Mine.

 

 

Musk Ox Farm

 

 

This is okay. Cheap, $8/adult, takes only an hour to go through, interesting, educational, and you're helping out Alaskan natives living a subsistence lifestyle. On the way to Hatcher Pass or Glenn Highway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glenn Highway

 

 

We drove up the Glenn Highway from Palmer on the way to Matanuska Glacier. This was nice, because we got a small taste of what it would be like to drive the Alaska-Canada highway. An enjoyable, easy drive, lots of scenery, you're in the middle of nowhere a lot. Various outposts dot the road here and there, with gas, camping, and very high-priced food. I've got a better idea of what an RV or car trip down from Alaska to Seattle would be like now. Although...we did get very nice weather the whole way. Let's see what the drive is like in drizzle and fog.

 

 

PWS Tour

 

 

We went with Prince William Sound tours (mostly because they had a Toursaver). This is the same as Kenai Fjords tours. A competing line is the 23 Glacier Cruise, a.k.a. The Klondike Express. I think you want PWS Tours—their boat is 1/3 the size. There is also a third tour operator (which might be smaller still), but their prices are more high-end, and offer nicer food on the ship. On a cruise of this type, who cares about the food. Keep us from going hungry, and we're good.

 

 

We went out on a crystal clear day, and our faces got sunburned, big-time. It's just like snowskiing—you never think you would need sunblock, but you do. And chapstick. Also, it got cold. The boat cut through that water pretty good, and we were getting 30mph winds in 40 degree weather. At times, our coats, hats, and gloves were not enough (not to mention your hat can blow off). We needed gloves if we were going to hold up cameras, and you need to get on the bow deck (where the winds are the heaviest) to get the best shots most of the time.

 

 

We saw: a humpback, birds, dalls porpoises, lots of glaciers, lots of icebergs, and some big calving on one of the glaciers in particular. Definitely worth the time, worth the money.

 

 

Embarkation

 

 

I expected checking in to the cruise ship and boarding to be easy this time, but not THAT easy. Literally no line whatsoever. The minute we walked in, we had a band of cruise staff surround us, take our bags, check us in, help us through security, everything. Not even 10 minutes. We walked in the terminal, we were on the ship.

 

 

Princess recommended we arrive several hours after they first opened for boarding in order to avoid the lines, which we did (that's what the Prince William Sound tour was for). However, a couple Princess rail tours were also late to arrive. We ended up beating them on the ship. Crowds were amazingly light that first day because of that.

 

 

In the past, the embarkation process has been a MUCH bigger ordeal than this. We tried boarding Norwegian when they first opened, and we found ourselves in lines like we were at Disney World—except unlike the lines at Disney, we had to keep track of 6 bags, our passports, and our boarding passes. Not pleasant.

 

 

Food

 

 

The food was good. I'm not too picky about food. It was up to the high standards that I would expect on a cruise line. We had sushi on the 3rd day for lunch on the Lido deck. The wasabi was very STRONG, even by wasabi standards. They had some ice sculptures which they carved out of glacial ice (and they held a few demos of ice carvers carving them). They sent out a small boat to go get a slab off the glacier. Most dinners easily could have cost $50 a head, even in the lower-48.

 

 

College Fjord

 

 

The balcony came in REAL handy the day we cruised College Fjord. We sailed it from 6am to 10am. We didn't have to set our alarm clocks, get dressed, etc. to see it on deck. We just got up on our own (Alaska sunrise was at 4:30am), turned on the TV to hear the live narrator, and went out on balcony. We ordered free room service and ate breakfast there on the balc. Since we were in our own room, our cameras, clothes, bathroom, warm room, etc., were all right there.

 

 

 

 

Glacier Bay

 

 

Similar story to College Fjord, but the balcony wasn't quite as handy that day. We were in Glacier Bay much longer. This was more about wildlife viewing, so we needed to be out on deck, where we had access to port and starboard all the time.

 

 

Glacier Bay was definitely better than Hubbard Glacier. The only thing better about Hubbard Glacier was that you got to see a lot more calving. Glacier Bay had more scenery, more wildlife, more glaciers, more icebergs, and far more time doing it. How long was Hubbard—1 ½ hours? We spent 9 hours in Glacier Bay.

 

 

Skagway

 

 

Much too much to write about. Rented a car with Avis, drove to Whitehorse and back. Perfect weather. Murray's advice is to turn around at Emerald Lake, which we did not heed. I can see why—no scenery between Emerald Lake and Whitehorse. That's okay, though—Whitehorse was interesting. The single most interesting thing I remember: all the cars have electric plugs sticking out the hood. Can't say I've ever seen that before—let alone lived in temperatures that require it. Other interesting things: lunch at the Edgewater (one Holland America passenger said that was the best food she's had since the cruise), Walmart (a.k.a. cheap Yukon souvenirs), a steamboat (on what lake? It's frozen 9 months of the year), the Beringea (a.k.a. the “Bering Land Bridge”) Museum, the Yukon Quest headquarters, and getting to drive on a small portion of the Alcan Highway. Whitehorse could have commanded a day on its own.

 

 

White Pass presented plenty of photo opportunities from the car; even got to photograph the White Pass train on a railroad bridge (because we were not on it). Plenty of waterfalls to photograph (although the biggest waterfall by far was at Mendenhall in Juneau). Also saw a fair number of snowmobile tracks in the snow.

 

 

Fraser was not too bad. The border agents were no problem, going either direction. Saw the White Pass trains disembark--I could not BELIEVE how early the train ends. Train passengers haven't even seen a third of it.

 

 

The Yukon Suspension Bridge was a good stop, with some nice history of the Klondike, and some nice intimidating class III-V whitewater rapids below the bridge. I wish the whitewater outfitter would put on tours for the cruise ships—the put-in for the Tutshi River is close by, in Fraser. Only problem is, they do an all-day trip (source: one of the guides working for the Bridge).

 

 

 

 

Emerald Lake was pretty, but actually it was not my favorite. I liked Spirit Lake better (which is right next door to Emerald Lake). But our favorite was this huge frozen lake right by the abandoned silver mines. We just don't see frozen lakes you can walk on where we come from—let alone in May (obviously a little common sense is required walking on frozen lakes in May...).

 

 

Carcross was okay. A welcome break from driving. A good place for lunch, depending on when you time it. Tried to eat at Cinnamon Cache, but she didn't have enough food (?). Carcross Desert was interesting, but from reading the interpretive signs, it looks like technically it is not a desert at all. It gets the precipitation, it's just the sand looks like “desert” (or beach) sand. The sand came from glaciers. It's still a unique place nonetheless, though.

 

 

Caribou Crossing was a good stop, and also a decent place for lunch. Did not end up doing either the dog carts or the ATV tour, but did do the museum, which was okay. The most memorable thing about the museum was the life-size taxidermy of the biggest bear (polar bear) ever mounted. Yeah, that was big. The puppies were fun to play with, but the huskies were not very playful, electing to sleep instead. If you stop at Caribou Crossing, it looks like 100% chance you will spot mountain goats high up on the mountain overhead. They don't move. Ever. They're fake goats.

 

 

Did not site ANY bears the whole way, and believe me we looked. Found lots of mountain goats and porcupines, though. I would stop right in the middle of the highway whenever we found a porcupine, so my passengers could photograph it without it scurrying off (yes, the highway was that empty...). Porcupines there were the road critters like possums, skunks, and armadillos are in the South.

 

 

Traffic was fairly busy in the morning (not traffic-jam busy, though), but once we reached Fraser and in the afternoon, it died down quite a bit. It picked up again on the Alcan Highway. The whole trip altogether took all 11 hours of our port stop. Did not see Skagway at all, and don't regret it.

 

 

 

 

Juneau

 

 

Juneau was good. Skagway and Ketchikan were spectacular, but Juneau was just good. We did whale watching on a small boat (3 other couples) first thing in the morning. We did see a lot of humpback whale activity, along with sea lions, otters, and eagles. Okay, that was fun, but not the best (the best whale watching we saw was out of Seward). We got the operator to drop us off at Mendenhall Glacier, which was on the way anyway—that saved us a nice chunk of time. Time in port is at a premium.

 

 

Mendenhall Glacier was big, and it had a big waterfall. What caught me off guard were all the helicopters. That should have come as no surprise, though—lots of tourists take the glacial landing/dog mushing tour. That didn't detract from the touring too much. There's a huge waterfall on the right of the glacier. I wish we could have gone canoeing amidst all the icebergs, but alas, no time (I don't think it was offered yet anyway). The public bus to the glacier is looking like not a good idea—a black bear crossed the road you walk to the bus stop, just an hour after someone I knew walked that road (by himself [?!] ). Besides, precious port time—your time is probably worth more than $7.

 

 

Finally got to go on Mount Roberts! Every time we visited Juneau in the past, it was too foggy. I sited a black bear while riding the tram up Mt. Roberts. The top offers some nice photo shots of Juneau and Douglas (the neighboring town), and you really should bring along your best binoculars as well. The hiking trails all around there were challenging—steep, and you had to hike in snow. Wish I could do them, but...no time.

 

 

 

 

Ketchikan

 

 

I have visited Ketchikan before, and I have always felt Ketchikan had the best shopping. This visit confirmed my thoughts: Ketchikan still has the best shopping. Lots of shops on Creek Street (the first street parallelling the cruise dock) have good stuff. And I still like Tongass Trading Co. the best. Be sure to pick up the coupon books at the cruise ship terminal when you first embark—those saved us over $100. Well okay, it didn't save us—more like it let us buy more stuff with that same $100. Which required us to buy an extra luggage bag, which in turn required us to pay an extra $25 at the airport to check that bag in...okay, that coupon book cost us more than $100, but I digress.... Just remember: when you overspend, you're not being reckless—you're “contributing to Alaska's economy”. Worth a try, at least....

 

 

 

 

At Sea

 

 

Not a great day. Cooped up on a ship, ate all day, entertainment was just okay. The balcony was nice, though. Got to watch Vancouver Island go by from the ship.

 

 

 

 

Vancouver

 

 

Disembarkation itself was very easy (we used express checkout), but breakfast in the main dining room was slower than ever. And on just the day we needed it least. Not much else to say here—we went straight to Seattle.

 

 

 

 

Seattle

 

 

This was not our first time to Seattle, but it only confirmed what we thought of Seattle last time we went: it's got some beautiful sites to see, but overall it's just not that great. We went to the Northwest Folk Life festival on Memorial Day by the Space Needle. It reminded us of 6th Street in Austin. Since we've been to 6th Street several times, we just walked in and out. Right next to the Space Needle are the Duck Tours. Okay, that was fun, and great for kids—not because they show you any incredible sites, but because the operators are entertaining and goofy. They could have driven on any random lake in Oklahoma and had just as much fun—actually, driving into a random lake in Oklahoma would have been pretty awesome.

 

 

The walk along Alaskan Way (the piers) and dining along the sound is pretty, but that part of town is pricey. And the buildings downtown are all run-down, plus the roads are difficult to drive and navigate (frankly, I don't know how the Ducks did it). We decided to look down south around Tukwila, WA (that is near the airport); that is where we found Kubota Gardens. Eventually, though, we started to figure out we may not be driving in the best part of town. It's not the run-down buildings and the bars on the windows that tipped us off—even downtown had that. I think our first clue was when we heard about a hundred gun shots, followed by a bunch of sirens and about six squad cars with their lights on down the road.

 

 

All that said: Seattle did have some pretty good dining. Good oysters/clams/mussels, good chowder, plenty of salmon and halibut; and it's not just at the nice restaurants. The hole-in-the-wall places even had good stuff. But like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of dining.

 

 

Secret Decks

 

 

Supposedly there is a “secret deck” on Caribe deck. Okay, there are decks on the bow and aft of Caribe deck, and not a lot of people are there most of the time (Glacier Bay excepted). But I didn't think they were particularly secret, and we didn't particularly prefer it to our balcony, except when we were trying to spot wildlife. The bow let you spot wildlife on both port and starboard side, and the aft had virtually NO wind—you could light a candle on it (it wasn't as good for spotting wildlife, though). Another advantage over Lido deck was that it was an open-air deck—you were not looking over the side through a panel of plexiglass. That plexiglass may break the wind, but the aft didn't have any wind anyway.

 

 

 

 

Balcony vs. Interior

 

 

We have sailed both with and without a balcony. I am sailing this moment, as I write this, on the balcony. IMO, the balcony is very good, but not a must-have. I have heard people say, “I am never in my stateroom anyway; I don't need the balcony.” Not entirely true. The balcony makes you hang out in your stateroom much more. During the College Fjord and Glacier Bay sections of our cruise, we could turn on the TV and listen to the live naturalist narrate the sights off of the balcony as we sailed. We also got (free) room service and ate breakfast off of the balcony during College Fjord. Very nice. Other people will say, “save the money and use it on shore excursions instead”. Except, excursions can be ridiculously-priced, too. $600 for a shore excursion that's over in 3 hours, or $600 for a balcony for 7 days? For $600, I say get the balcony. For $1200, though...? You just have to decide based on your budget.

 

 

A couple other notes: I am typing this write-up right now off of my balcony. Gives me something to do while I sightsee. Right now I've got ice-covered mountains, a bay, and lots of birds off to the side of the ship. Also, some of the uncovered balconies—actually, they are partially covered.

 

 

Favorite Tour

 

 

Bering Sea Crab in Ketchikan. When I first saw pictures of the ship, initially I thought this was going to be a big show, but in actuality it was more like a demo. The most amazing part of this tour wasn't about the sea life at all—it was the eagles! The “tour operators” (they were adamant that they were not tour operators—they were fishermen) sailed us to the one place in the U.S. where it is legal to feed wild bald eagles, and that they did. They started tossing herring off the side of the ship. Like clockwork, that immediately attracted some 20 bald eagles. You could see some take off out of their eagles' nest, swoop down onto the water about 20 feet away from you, and swipe the fish off the water with their claws. I've never seen anything like it. It's like, you spend the whole cruise trying to spot lone bald eagles perching 2 miles away, and then...this.

 

 

Oh yeah, and then we started fishing. The professional fishermen did a fishing demonstration using all the equipment they would use on the Bering Sea. They would drop baited netting and crab traps various places, and pull up real sea life. It was catch-and-release—they would hold up their catch for us to see & photograph, throw it in an aquarium, and at the end return them to their respective habitats. I think in all we caught king crab, red crab, boxer, crab, dungeness crab, a ratfish, humongous prawns, and a 65-pound octopus. They had a hard time holding up the octopus high enough for us to see—good thing the guy holding it was a real fisherman, used to hauling around 100-pound crab traps.

 

 

A nice tour for kids. Not a nice tour for moms. Guess why? Because the kids will enjoy it so much, they will want to become Alaskan fishermen.

 

 

 

 

Most Underrated Tour

 

 

ATV tour to Knik Glacier in Palmer, AK. This is probably overlooked mostly because it is not really a cruise ship tour. Palmer is near Anchorage (and not on the way to Denali); this is something you would have to do during an independent land portion of your tour.

 

 

We went with Alaska Backcountry Adventures in Palmer. They offered a 9-hour ATV trip to Knik Glacier (ended up being 10) for a good price. You need some good physical stamina (and good knees) to do this tour, simply because it's so long. We slept really well that “night”. “Night” in quotes, because the tour ended around 11:30pm in broad daylight, and even after midnight it was only dusky. Normally when I think of ATV'ing I think of back country dirt roads, maybe in mud, the desert, or in the woods. We were ATV'ing on glacial morraine. In other words, you are ATV'ing on turf where a glacier used to be and receded. You're basically on glacial silt, crossing lots of shallow streams flowing with ice-cold water. Surrounded on either side of you are snow-covered mountains, and directly ahead of you the whole time is your destination: this humongous glacier. So after 5 hours of ATV'ing in a glacier valley, you take a break in front of the glacier, where the tour guide fixes a campfire-style dinner while you get to go out and play on the glacier. If you're early enough in the season (we were), there are ice floes in front of Knik Glacier, which you might be able to hop around iceberg to iceberg. If the ice cracks beneath you, no big deal—the water's only 6 inches deep. Your shoes will probably be wet anyway, from crossing all those streams.

 

 

There's riding an ATV for the sake of riding an ATV, and then there's ATV'ing in Alaska. This was ATV'ing in Alaska. For 10 hours.

 

 

 

 

Most Overrrated Tour

 

 

Totem Native Heritage Center in Ketchikan. I got lots of recommendations to do the totem poles in Ketchikan. That may be true, but not this one. There are three totem parks in Ketchikan: Totem Bight, Saxman Village, and the Totem Native Heritage Center. The latter is the only one we did (due to time limitations). Maybe when salmon spawning is in season this would be good (in July and early August) because the salmon hatchery and eagle center is next door, but for us in May, this was not very good. It was a museum with a few genuine, unpainted totem poles and a few exhibits on native heritage, and that was it. Very disappointing. July is supposed to be rainy season anyway, so even in season if you wanted to see the salmon spawning, you may likely get wet. The locals I talked to like Totem Bight the best. Try to visit that.

 

 

 

Most Value for the Money

 

 

Kubota Gardens, in Seattle. FREE. Very nice place. Butchart Gardens is still better in every way (except price), but I thought it did rival the gardens at Duke University (although I thought Duke was slightly better—Duke had fish. Kubota Gardens didn't have any fish). This place is a hidden gem in Seattle—probably just because it's not downtown.

 

 

Gaining Weight

 

 

I didn't gain any weight on the cruise—much to my surprise! How did I manage that—my amazing willpower and self-discipline? No. I ate all I wanted. I think my biggest trick was, I packed Hoodia capsules for my times off the ship. It's a natural appetite suppressant you can get at any GNC store or the herbal section at any grocery store. During the land portions of the tour, pre-cruise, post-cruise, shore excursions, etc.--any time we were away from the ship for an extended period of time—I plopped down 4 hoodia tablets. We were on a lot of active excursions, and I was having so much fun I forgot I was hungry. That saved a pretty penny eating at Alaska restaurants (at Alaska prices). We hiked, took a 10-hour ATV trip, walked around the ports, etc.. So much more to enjoy when you don't have to take time out to eat! The hoodia makes you not care if you don't. Save it for when you're cooped up on a big boat.

 

 

I didn't eat any hamburgers or pizza at the grill. Instead I took full advantage of all the seafood on board—3 plates of king crab, 2 plates of lobster tail, shrimp, salmon, sushi, and some Australian fish I never heard of. I just passed up all the french fries, mashed potatoes, or the bread rolls you start out with in the MDR. Did not get the soda pass. Sliced fruit for breakfast on the balcony via room service.

 

 

In short, I think it was just the Hoodia I took for the land tours (which also saves money and time eating), and lots and lots of AWESOME Alaska fish. I didn't really go out of my way to lose weight, though. I didn't expect to return the same weight that I started.

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

 

Late May, and ZERO rain the whole trip. Not on the cruise, not in Anchorage, not in Seattle, nothing. Money and vacation was well-spent; no regrets. Strangely, the trip seemed longer than it was, even though we were having a good time. I guess that's because we were just so active—chock-full of excursions, lots of photos and video to take home, full of memories. A few hiccups here-and-there, but nothing went seriously wrong. A lot of that was good planning (and experience travelling), but a lot of it was just pure dumb luck—or God's blessing, if you believe there's no such thing as luck.

[Tazzycat]

Thanks so much for your blog! I am going in two weeks!

[ggarlene]

We'll be on the Island Princess on the 15th. Thanks so much for posting - I especially appreciate the viewing tips.

 

What scholarship at sea programs did they have?

[judynorth]

Thanks for posting your blog. I really enjoyed it. See, I said that I would read it! :rolleyes:

 

Are you planning to post pictures somewhere? I'd love to see them.

[Disneyworld]

I really enjoyed reading your blog and your reasoning for a balcony was exactly why we got a balcony where we always get an inside. We decided that the 400 each that we'd be spending for the balcony for 7 days could easily be "eaten" up by one 3 hr. land excursion if we did heli, etc. so decided 7 days of balcony was worth morethan just 1 excursion. Thanks for solidifying our decision.

I also appreciated your honesty in you posts.

We are doing b2b in July and can't wait!

[GrannyGail]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post. You have given me great ideas for our July Island Princess cruise.

[Grannycb]

Hello,

 

Here's my blog from our Alaska cruise last week. Mostly I just needed something to do as an excuse to hang out on the balcony, so I just took my laptop out. I thought of editing it and posting it as a review, but at the request of a CC'er I just posted it here. It's a little long. Hope it helps someone.

 

 

Hi Tetleytea

 

Sorry I missed you at the CC meeting. It would have been nice to meet.

 

I posted a review of our b2b experience covering May 11 & May 18 cruises at http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=55223

 

It's fun to compare notes! :)

[vbmom87]

Great review. Just one comment. Kenai Fjords tours and PWS tours are not the same. PWS tours are about Glaciers, Kenai Fjords tours area about wildlife with a stop at a glacier.

[tetleytea]

Kenai Fjords tours and PWS tours are not the same.

 

I forget (I wrote that in Whittier...). I think I meant they were the same company and/or at least the same office? When we navigated the map in Whittier, we were told to go to the Kenai Fjords office. If they were different tours but they interchanged the boats, guides, etc., that wouldn't surprise me.

 

Also, it looks like Major Marine is the third PWS tour company. Their dinner looks better than what we had, but they don't look all that much more expensive. I got my information from our boat captain.

 

 

Are you planning to post pictures somewhere? I'd love to see them.

 

I have some, but mostly we have video. We are still editing/mixing that. I asked my wife what our best video was, and without hesitation she said, "eagles".

[Manzy154]

Thank you for taking the time to share your opinions and experiences. I got more out of your writing than most of what I have read on CC.

[tetleytea]

Sorry I missed you at the CC meeting. It would have been nice to meet.

 

I posted a review of our b2b experience covering May 11 & May 18 cruises at http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...?EntryID=55223

 

It's fun to compare notes!

 

Hello there,

 

Yeah, we had around 12 show up at the CC.

 

Do you happen to remember more about our scholarship@sea, for the person who asked earlier? We threw away all our patter programs. I remember the naturalist spoke on the port stops (not the shopping part of it), glacial geology, and native culture (totem poles, canoes, etc.). And I remember the lady who won Iditarod was on board, but it was during our Juneau port-of-call.

 

We got to listen to the Park Ranger and naturalist from our own balcony. You could turn to channel 42 on the TV and listen to them live at times.

 

If I had to find one negative thing to say, it's that the naturalist was a high school teacher, and his lectures leaned toward the high school level. You can't please everybody (and I'm probably in the minority), but I would have kind of preferred if he spoke more on the college senior level.

[FabFam]

Thanks Tetley, very thorough and very well done!

 

Best,

[Grannycb]

We didn't bring our Patters home so can't answer the Scholarship@sea question either. I recall seeing something about digital cameras listed. The park rangers had some presentations in the theater and the Wheelhouse. I thought Ken William's did a good job of keeping the talks entertaining. He was also the naturalist on the Emerald Sea for our Prince William Sound tour.

 

On another note: The food might have been healthier on this cruise than in the past. Everything was delicious but I lost two pounds over the two weeks. All the extra activity in cool weather might have had something to do with it too.

[ggarlene]

Thanks tetleytea and Grannycb. I suppose that between the scenery and the naturalists' programs, and the food and entertainment, there probably isn't much time for scholarship-at-sea. It's too bad that the Iditerod program is held while in port. Wouldn't it be nice if they filmed that for viewing later on TV?

[tetleytea]

I thought there was plenty of time for scholarship@sea; we more-or-less had two at-sea days (the first full day, and the last day). The better part of the day during Glacier Bay was narrated on the PA system, so anyone out on deck (or on their balcony like us) could see & hear that.

 

Yeah, it is too bad about the Iditarod being offered only at-port in Juneau. I'm sure that's so the speaker/winner could just drive to the ship in Juneau, speak, and get off. But yeah, that would have been nice to replay it on TV after we launched. I would have watched it. Maybe Princess wanted to give the A/V team shore leave?

[kas37]

Ive looked at rental car web sites but either the price includes an unreal one way charge, or they dont have a mini van avaialbe..(5 adults and luggage)

thanks for any info!!!

[tetleytea]

We took quickcoach, but later realized my mistake and should have taken a one-way rental car. I found pretty good one-way drops in May--after purchasing nonrefundable tickets. :( I think it was going to run around $60 for a sedan (forget the rental car agencies, but it was more than one).

 

Wish I could have done the car for multiple reasons, but one was so we could do the Boeing plant tour in Everett along the way.

[lawahoo2001]

Hi, there. Great post. We will also be doing the Island Princess southbound. Do you remember which days of the cruise were formal nights?