ErLee

We were at the Princess Fairbanks Lodge 10 days after the fire. Most of the lodge was unaffected, but the first day we were there the restaurant was operating on a limited menu, using disposable tableware because their dishwasher wasn't up and running yet, and doing all the cooking outside on grills. We still had a decent meal and the grilled steak was delicious. The second day they went back to the regular full menus in their venues. 

I know this is not one of your options, but in case other people look at your thread for suggestions, we were just on the Coral in June and had a forward mini-suite starboard on Caribe for a northbound Cruise.  For one thing, the mini suites are fantastic, I liked it so much better than our traveling companions' balcony cabin. Secondly forward on Caribe is a great location, because of the little known forward viewing deck, which may be the same situation as that aft deck on dolphin others were mentioning. The only reason I knew about it was from being on Cruise critic, and even at times when it had the best viewing on the ship, there were probably only 20 people out on that forward deck.  It was cold and windy up there on Glacier Bay day, but oh what a view! And the sunsets from that deck...😲

June 15th - Juneau

On Saturday we woke up in Juneau to overcast skies and a forecast for a rainy afternoon. Undeterred, we packed up our rain gear and binoculars and headed off the ship as soon as they let us. I had rented a car for the morning from Avis up the street. My husband is awaiting knee surgery, so I had him wait while I made the half-mile walk up the hill to get the car. It worked out smoothly, and as I drove back down the street I was able to just pick him up right across from the ship. 

The rental process from Avis was quick and easy, and it felt good to be on our own for a few hours able to do whatever we wanted to. We had a whale watch booked for the afternoon at 3, but I wanted to make the most of the six hours we had until then, and renting the car wasn't that much more than paying for the bus to the glacier. 

Although I had carefully mapped out a sensible order to do the things we wanted to do based on proximity, we decided to head for Mendenhall first to try to beat some of the crowds there. I'm glad we did because we had no problem driving up there and parking in the little parking lot. We paid our $5 each at a little machine there by the parking lot and then took the path down to Nugget Falls. it was a bit slow going with my husband's knee, but it was definitely doable and not at all strenuous. Completely worth the effort for the view of the falls and the glacier! 

Rather than walking back on the same path, I recommend that you take the little side path that takes you along the edge of the water. It is much more scenic than the marked path to the falls, and you get a great and uncrowded look at the glacier across the water. We enjoyed watching the Arctic terns swooping around defending their territory from the crows. There were a lot of pretty wildflowers everywhere. After you walk back around the water, there's a place where you can merge back into the main path. It's not marked down there, but it's also very easy to find and you can't get lost! You can see the visitor center up above and just have to keep heading in that direction. 

After we left the glacier, we decided against Glacier gardens and instead drove up to the National Shrine of St Therese.  It is a beautiful and peaceful setting with outstanding views and no crowds in sight!

We had a lot of fun watching the little marmots feeding along the shore of the lake.

Next we drove out to Eagle Beach. This was another beautiful and uncrowded location, but apparently I didn't take any pictures! Despite the name, we only saw one eagle sitting on the beach, but the view is very pretty. We watched a seal swimming around there off the shore.

After Eagle Beach we drove back towards town to visit the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery.  Even though the salmon were not running when we were there so we couldn't watch them on the salmon ladder, it was still a very interesting and inexpensive stop to learn about the life cycle of the salmon and how the hatchery works.  I did not know the difference between a salmon farm and a salmon hatchery, but now I do! We saw their tank where there were over a million salmon hatchlings that would one day be released back into the open water to live their lives before returning to this spot to spawn. It's a fascinating process, and I highly recommend this quick stop if you're interested.

Next, we went to a little dive called The Sandbar for lunch. It's in an out-of-the-way industrial area, but near the marina where we were to meet for our whale watch, and highly rated on TripAdvisor for their fish and chips. The ratings were well deserved! The place is nothing to look at inside or out, but they are hand cutting and hand battering halibut for their fish and chips and it was worth every bit of the $20 they charge for a plate! 

By now it was raining as we drove to Andrews Marina to meet up with Jayleen from Jayleen's Alaska for our whale watch. She had gone to pick up our traveling companions who were joining us for the whale watch. This is another excursion that I booked in the fall of 2018. The four of us boarded her boat, and headed out to look for whales. And boy did we find them!

We spent the first 30 minutes or so heading out to an area where Jayleen said we should be able to find some humpbacks. I used this time to get to know her and learned all about what it was like to grow up on the island there off the grid. She's a lovely young woman, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with her. 

We passed some sea lions hanging out on a buoy along the way and then got to the place where she thought the whales would be. We started to see some action, and she told us that we had found one of the resident mothers, Flame, and her six month old calf, Bunsen. She was explaining to us that while sometimes people do witness a humpback breaching, it is not common behavior for an adult humpback in Alaska, because it takes a lot of energy and they are not up there to burn excess energy, but rather to feed and put on lots of weight. Lucky for us, Bunsen was in the mood to play, and as a typical youngster, wasn't worried about whether he was burning too much energy 😂. We were lucky enough to follow him around for about 45 minutes while he breached repeatedly - at least 10 or more times. I was standing out on the back of her boat in the rain, enthralled and not even trying to take any pictures. Getting a good shot at a breach with a phone on a small, rocking vessel in the rain is barely worth even trying, and I decided I would rather just live in the moment and enjoy what we were lucky enough to witness. The good news is Jayleen was doing her best with her good camera to capture some shots, which she posted on Facebook the next day so I was able to download them and save them to my trip photos. 

Once he even waved a flipper at us!

We spent the rest of our time following around several other adult humpbacks and another mom and calf and saw a good many backs and tails, but nothing could compare to the show that Bunsen put on for us!  It was unforgettable!

I am a person that likes to books my excursions independently, because I like the personal experience that you get, and this whale watch was case in point. It was just the four of us plus Jayleen witnessing this spectacular event together with no jockeying for position or fighting for a view. She was willing to take us wherever we wanted to go and look for whatever we wanted to look for. She told us that that morning she had some photographers on board that were determined to look for orcas, so they spent their morning going all over the place looking for them without success, but she was willing to do what they wanted her to do. Once again I wholeheartedly recommend Jayleen for your whale watch in Juneau! 

After the whale watch we drove back towards town and stopped off to see the beautiful sculpture of a breaching humpback that is along the river there. It is well worth the stop, even in the rain!

I returnedthe rental car and walked back to the ship without incident, satisfied with the choices we had made for a fantastic day in Juneau!  We didn't really see any of the downtown area, but our day away from the crowds and off the beaten path was just what we needed!

On 7/4/2019 at 9:22 AM, phabric said:

Did they have anybody from the National Forrest talk?

On Glacier Bay day, a park ranger boarded the ship and broadcast commentary throughout the ship as we sailed through the glaciers. There were also other naturalist talks that I saw listed in the daily schedule, but we never made it to any of them. We were mostly outside looking at the scenery all the time that we were on the ship.

June 14th - Ketchikan

We woke up early Friday AM, went out on our balcony to see what we could see of Ketchikan, and right off to the left I saw the Island Wings offices and workers getting the planes ready for the day. Very exciting because we had a flight booked with Michelle at 9am! I watched the 7am flights load up and taxi away for takeoff on the other side of the ship.  It was a beautiful day, and we were so excited!

After breakfast we got off the ship and walked to the meeting point in town. If we had thought this through better, we would have just walked over to Island Wings, as some people did, because it was about the same distance walk, but we had already said we would be at the meeting place so that's where we went, down by the Liquid Sunshine gauge. We met the driver and rode back over to the dock only to find out that Michelle had had a problem with the starter on her plane on her first run of the morning and wasn't able to take us up at 9. She rebooked us and the other two couples on a noon flight with Adam. We were a little disappointed, but understood that these things happen, and certainly didn't want to get stuck somewhere with a plane that wouldn't start!

We decided to go walk around the shops over on Creek Street to pass the time, although probably we should have gotten back on the ship for a while because we had more time than we needed. 

There were some interesting things in some of the shops, but we didn't buy much as it was our first stop and we were going to have to carry it around with us. As it got a little later into the morning it started to get very crowded there, so if you're planning on shopping in Ketchikan, maybe earlier in the day is better depending on what other ships are in port. Just as we were leaving to go back to Island Wings, the Westerdam had arrived and all her passengers were flowing down the gangplank. 

We went back to Island Wings, and were soon on board Adam's plane. It was Adam and six passengers total. I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful the flight was! Adam was engaging, an expert pilot, and enjoyable to talk to and listen to. He answered all of our questions and provided information about what we were seeing as we flew along. The flight was completely smooth, no turbulence whatsoever and not scary in the least to me! He made a beautiful smooth landing in a gorgeous lake high in the mountains. We were able to get out of the plane and walk around and take pictures there for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then we re boarded for the flight back. 

I can't recommend this excursion highly enough! I booked with Island Wings way back in the fall of 2018, and they were communicative and easy to work with all along. 

Despite hearing all about the unfortunate incidents with the float planes in the beginning of the season, we decided that we were going to go forward with our booking and would not let fear keep us from an amazing experience. I'm so happy we made that decision. It could not have been a more perfect day, and I would not have wanted to miss it for anything!

On 7/5/2019 at 10:57 AM, Paul Bradley said:

We were on the Mariner that week - we were in the same ports as the Coral for a lot of the cruise...! 

I remember seeing the Mariner in Port - I hope you enjoyed your trip as much as we did!

June 13th - Sea Day

We woke up to fog and cool temps, but as the morning progressed things improved, and by afternoon the sun was shining brightly. It was chilly and windy on deck, so we spent much of it up in the buffet by a window as we sailed up the Canadian inside passage. While sitting by the window we saw some lovely dolphins jumping in unison alongside the ship and a little seal popping his head up!  We were excited at the wildlife sightings yet to come! I walked the promenade in the afternoon to enjoy the sun, but the wind was brisk so I only  managed to get in 1 mile.  I enjoyed the view of the wake when I came around the rear, and it made me wonder if I might like to try an aft balcony some time.  I know they're very popular with some cruisers! 

When the sun was finally setting at 10:30pm, I put to use my cruise-critic-gained knowledge of the "secret" forward viewing deck on Caribe.  This tip was one of the main reasons that I picked a forward minisuite on Caribe, and I was not disappointed!  I went through the "emergency exit" marked doorway and out onto the deck where I stood all by myself in complete silence and took in the beauty of a sunset at sea.  It was a moment of utter perfection!

As I turned to go back in, I looked up at the bridge and got a friendly wave from an officer up there 😊

Can't seem to delete or edit those photos to try a different way of attaching them, so I'm going to repost the first one to see if it works.  Can someone tell me if the pics show up this time?  It's so strange since it was working fine in the earlier ones!

The scenery at Sail Away was beautiful!  I had no idea how much better it was going to get!!

We spent the sail away on our balcony with a glass of wine....it was perfect!

6 hours ago, Paul Bradley said:

Not sure if it's just me, but I can't see the photos in your last couple of posts. 

Hmmm...are they not showing up at all or is there anyone that can see them?

June 13th - Sea Day

We woke up to fog and cool temps, but as the morning progressed things improved, and by afternoon the sun was shining brightly. It was chilly and windy on deck, so we spent much of it up in the buffet by a window as we sailed up the Canadian inside passage. While sitting by the window we saw some lovely dolphins jumping in unison alongside the ship and a little seal popping his head up!  We were excited at the wildlife sightings yet to come! I walked the promenade in the afternoon to enjoy the sun, but the wind was brisk so I only  managed to get in 1 mile.  I enjoyed the view of the wake when I came around the rear, and it made me wonder if I might like to try an aft balcony some time.  I know they're very popular with some cruisers! 

When the sun was finally setting at 10:30pm, I put to use my cruise-critic-gained knowledge of the "secret" forward viewing deck on Caribe.  This tip was one of the main reasons that I picked a forward minisuite on Caribe, and I was not disappointed!  I went through the "emergency exit" marked doorway and out onto the deck where I stood all by myself in complete silence and took in the beauty of a sunset at sea.  It was a moment of utter perfection!

As I turned to go back in, I looked up at the bridge and got a friendly wave from an officer up there ☺️

Now for the day to day....

The scenery at Sail Away was beautiful!  I had no idea how much better it was going to get!!

We spent the sail away on our balcony with a glass of wine....it was perfect!  

I forgot that I had already written about Vancouver, embarkation, and our cabin - yay!  

 I am not one to take food pictures and go into detail about everything we ordered, but I thought before I get into the day by day review, I'd just mention the things on the menu that we ordered that were really good and give some general impressions about eating on the ship.  We were on Anytime Dining. It worked very smoothly for us.  The first night the line was long but moved quickly.  On the formal nights I made reservations which worked well because the lines were pretty long if you didn't.  One comment about formal nights - I had read that in Alaska formal nights are a bit more casual than you might see in the Caribbean.  That's not what we experienced on Princess - the majority of people were very dressed up on formal nights, way more than I've seen on my most recent cruises on other cruise lines!

On College Fjord night I also made a reservation because I wanted to eat and be done before we got there. The other nights we just walked up and only once were we given a pager, but it was only about a 10 minute wait.  We ate dinner in the dining room every night, and breakfast and lunch up at the buffet on the days we were on the ship.  We ate some pizza from up by the pool for lunch on embarkation day, and it wasn't too good; pizza is my favorite food, and I didn't go back for more the rest of the time on the ship!  I had read that some people think the buffet is small and limited on the Coral.  I thought it was fine - lots of choices of decent buffet food.  I'm not a big fan of buffets, but it makes eating quickly easy so I do it on a cruise at least sometimes, but never for dinner.  We never ate at the grill, the International Cafe, the specialty restaurants or room service, although I thought we would do some of those things at least once!

The foods I can remember that were really good - beef tenderloin on the first formal night, lobster and risotto on the second formal night, goat cheese souffle, crab quiche, a fruit salad they made with lime juice and coconut, the chocolate journeys desserts that were on the menu on formal nights, the warm chocolate chip cookies on the buffet, the smoked salmon on the buffet for lox and bagels at breakfast. I didn't take menu pics or anything like that, but I'm sure someone else has put them up! Just know that overall I thought the food was decent. It's not 5 star dining, but I didn't go into it thinking that's what I was getting.  The service was always good and faster than I remember from some cruises in the past.  We brought a bottle of wine with us to dinner every night that we had carried on board, and they opened and served it very professionally for us.  It was well worth the $15 corkage to be able to have it served at dinner and to carry it into other venues which we did once or twice.

Some other general impressions of the ship activities - for one thing everyone was right - this is very different from a Caribbean cruise.  This cruise is not at all about the activities, it's about Alaska and all the beautiful scenery and wildlife.  For us it wasn't about staying up really late drinking and listening to music like we do on some cruises because we were getting up early every day to see the sights.  We didn't do many of the activities in the Patter, just a few.  We played trivia a few times and went to the evening shows most nights.  The two comedians on board were very funny, we enjoyed them a lot!  We only saw two of the three production shows.  The Bayou show was much better than Secret Silk.  We attended all 3 nights of the Voice of the Ocean and thought it was fun.  A nice twist on Karaoke.  We caught part of the marriage game show, and it was pretty funny.  We never used the pools or the spa, didn't play in the casino, and never used the game room or library.  We spent this week outside or by a window watching the beauty go by!

It was our first cruise on Princess, and we really liked it!  The Coral Princess is a nice ship and she's in good shape.  Our room was very nice and the bed was comfortable.  The outside viewing areas and the view from the buffet are outstanding for this itinerary.  I highly recommend her for an Alaskan cruise!

WiFi - the Coral now has medallion net.  We purchased two of the $59.99 packages that gave us each unlimited access for one device at a time. The WiFi worked great for us most of the week.  We had one morning when it didn't work, but we were off the ship early for an excursion anyway and it worked that afternoon.  We didn't use it for streaming anything but it was quick for uploading pictures to social media and general surfing, email, downloads, etc.

On 6/22/2019 at 7:13 PM, elainmir said:

I have my own personal summer. Seriously.  Sweat city right here...so I'm taking my waterproof rain poncho and layering ..will bring my jacket but it says our 10 day forecast has a few days that are 57 but mostly high 60's.  So I don't have a ton of long pants ..mostly capris...and normally am in minimal clothing in those temps...I'll bring the long pants but have a feeling I'm wasting luggage space

I'm like you and I'm normally warm natured. As you're checking temperatures for Port days, you can probably rely on your knowledge of how you like to dress at that temperature. For sea days, especially if you're going into Glacier Bay, that wind is cold!!! In order to stand outside most of the day on Glacier Bay day, I had on every layer I brought with me except for one fleece long sleeve shirt. 

I'm the one that originally started this thread, and I'm thankful for everyone's input! I've just returned from two weeks in Alaska, and the one big thing that I forgot that I really needed was some lip balm!  I'm sure someone on here said it, but I overlooked it, and in the wind up on deck and on the outside platform on the White Pass railroad, I really wished I had it 😂

Things I took that I didn't need? Rain pants, because we did not have a lot of rain on our trip, but I did use my  raincoat a number of times in the occasional rain we did have plus as a windbreaker.  I had also brought cuddl duds fleece leggings and long sleeve crew neck shirt. I used the leggings on Glacier Bay Day and one other day under yoga pants, never wore the shirt because I had enough layers without it. 

Feel free to ask any questions! I'm working on my review as well. 

4 hours ago, ute_fan said:

I'm jealous!  We had a Mom and calf (Flame and Bunsen ??), but they weren't breaching.  Isn't it wonderful when they do?

 

Yes it was the same pair we watched, and that baby was feeling playful!

We are in the Seattle airport on our way home from the trip. We had an amazing trip from start to finish! I'll get working on my review this weekend 😉

We went out with Jayleen on June 15th, and I second the recommendation! It was fabulous! Such a personal experience, and Jayleen is a delightful young woman with all kinds of mad skills and knowledge of those waters. We were lucky enough to find a mother with her 6 month old calf who was feeling playful. That baby breached repeatedly for at least 45 minutes....it was unforgettable!

We did the flightseeing with Island Wings on June 13th. We flew with Adam on a gorgeous day, and it was spectacular!  An incredible experience!

We also did a flight around Denali with K2 Aviation in Talkeetna and had another amazing day. 

Both of these flights were worth every penny!!

Medallion Net was great on the Coral June 12 - 19. There was one morning when it didn't work but by the time we got back from our excursion it was back on. It was fast for regular surfing and uploading of photos to social media. I didn't try to stream anything. We had no phone service in any of the Alaska ports, so we were glad to have it available on board. It was well worth the $59.99 we paid for each of us to have unlimited service.

We are in the Seattle airport on our way home from a 13 day Connoisseur tour, and we loved it! I started my review before we left, and I'll be working on it over the next week. One reason I'm doing it is that there aren't enough reviews of these tours, although there are a couple very thorough ones. It'll be linked in the Alaska board in 2019 trip reports and has connoisseur in the title.

For the record, I booked all of our excursions myself with independent operators except the Tundra Wilderness Tour at Denali (which had 4 bathroom stops in the 8 hours so don't worry about that part!) and the Fairbanks riverboat/gold dredge day. Those two were included but otherwise we were free to do what we wanted about excursions. 

We had great views and service at the lodges and liked having most of the meals included. However, we did get an amazingly good deal on our trip, so for us it was a no brainer to take the one that included food!

Feel free to ask me any specific questions you have!

Plenty of green tea available on Coral a couple weeks ago!

1 hour ago, Iamom75 said:

We are doing a connoisseur tour on the Coral in July, 2020 for our 45th Anniversary.  We are taking our 2 grown daughters to help celebrate.  We have booked 2 club class mini suites for us.  I will be anxiously reading your trip for suggestions and ideas.  We went to Alaska land/cruise in 2012 with friends. We are taking a different route on land this time to change things up 

So far we are having an amazing trip, stay tuned for all my details! We love the minisuite on Coral, you've made a great choice! Our traveling companions have a regular balcony, and I'm so thankful we're in the minisuite.

Embarkation in Vancouver was a breeze! We took a cab to the port at 10, dropped our bags, went to a very short check in line, and then left to walk around a bit. Spent some time shopping around in Gastown, then decided to head back because our backpacks were heavy and it was pretty hot today. On the way back we stopped at BC liquor store and used the wine bags we brought to buy some wine to carry on board the ship. When we got back to the terminal, we went through customs, took a seat in the waiting area, and within 10 or 15 minutes were on board and in our cabin. We were on board by noon.

We booked C217, which is a mini suite, and I love the room! It has a nice size sitting area with a three seater couch and chair, a big bathtub, a spacious closet and plenty of storage. It also has a good size balcony with three chairs and Ottomans and a smallish dining height table. I took pictures before we messied it up!

We toured the whole ship. It’s our first time on the coral princess, and I love the look of the public spaces. Lots of cozy lounges and seating areas. The outside viewing areas are nice open and should be perfect for Alaska! I think we’re gonna have a great week!

Back in our room, our steward came in to introduce himself and brought two glasses of champagne.  Great way to start the Cruise!

17 minutes ago, phabric said:

I will be following. I have done 4 roundtrips to Alaska.  I have been thinking of a Connoisseur Cruisetour. 

This is one reason I want to write this review. There were a few great reviews of the Connoisseur tours, but not many and not super recent. The overwhelming majority of regular posters on this board talk about how doing land DIY is better. I just want to offer a different perspective and report back whether it was great or whether it was not!

The day finally arrived this week, and our trip began on Monday the 10th.  We flew from Atlanta to Vancouver Monday night with one stop in Seattle. One piece of advice I have about booking airfare....I booked mine directly with Delta last August just after the flights were open for our dates. I got a decent price and the price was never cheaper, BUT it was also not significantly more expensive either as the months passed. I know because I watched it weekly. The one miscalculation I made was that I should have waited another month till all flights were showing. When I booked there were no nonstops showing from Atlanta to Vancouver...a month later there was one at the same price I had paid, but the change fee was $200 each. This almost cost us our first morning in Vancouver because we nearly missed the connection in Seattle.  Thankfully Delta held the flight and we made it! We arrived at our hotel at 1am which felt like 4am to our tired bodies!

We are staying at the YWCA Hotel in downtown Vancouver, and it was a great recommendation over on the Canada board. Coming from the US, I would never think to stay at the Y, but here it’s a regular full service hotel in a good location with a lower price in what is a very expensive city.  It doesn’t have a restaurant or room service, but who wants to eat at the hotel in a city with so many great restaurants? Very clean, comfortable beds, and the friendliest staff I’ve ever encountered!  We have a double double with private bath. Check it out on TripAdvisor if you’re staying overnight in Vancouver - 5 star reviews abound!  

Yesterday we used the LandSea Hop on Hop Off to tour this lovely city on a spectacularly gorgeous day.  It worked out great! We were able too see all the different neighborhoods that make up downtown, Stanley Park, and took the ferry to Granville Island which was included with our ticket. It was such a clear day we could see Mt Baker in distant Washington State from Prospect Point at Stanley Park.

 At 4pm we hit up Happy Hour at Fanny Bay Oysters for a bottle of wine, oysters, truffle fries, and fish tacos. That served as our dinner which was perfect for our Eastern time zone inner clocks. 

We we do not have cell service here so it’s been interesting having to navigate the old fashioned way with a map!l

After waking up on and off from 4:30am, I’m up early ready to start embarkation day!  We’re hoping to drop our bags around 10 at the port, walk to Gastown for some more sightseeing and lunch, then stop by the liquor store on the way back to the ship to get wine. Hoping to avoid the huge crush of people boarding at lunchtime on this 3 ship day in Vancouver. Our friends will be arriving today so we’ll see them on the ship.

So excited to get to Alaska! A bit of a dreary forecast up there, but I won’t let that dampen my enthusiasm! Bob Voyage to us!