renaissancewoman101

Loved reading your review. I was on the Crown Princess last year in early Sept for their Alaskan cruise. I miss it and hope to do another one maybe next year.

When I went on my Alaskan cruise last year, I saw that there were kiosks right out by the ships, where you could purchase last minute tours for whale watching, Mendenhall Glacier, and even helicopter tours. Since I already signed up for my helicopter tour in advance, I didn;t need to deal with that.

There is a blue bus that does trips to and from Mendenhall. I think a round trip is $20 IIRC. ( I don't think they do stops, just from pickup point and to the Glacier). I think the last return trip from Mendenhall is 6 PM. Not completely sure. You can purchase the bus tickets at one of the kiosks. Out by where the bus picks up for the tours, there are cabs waiting around for people. You can ask them to take you on a tour around the city (They do advertise that they do city tours). Not sure how much that is though.

Depending on what time you get into port, there might not be a line. If your ship is one of the first in port, there shouldn't be a line. It does get busier later in the afternoon.

I went on my first cruise ever and to Alaska, last year. I did it as a solo, so my experiences might be different than most who do it as a couple or with a family. I enjoyed my cruise and had a great time (especially on my helicopter ride and glacier walk). I did find cruising as a solo extremely expensive. It seems also, that most activities on large cruises are geared towards couples. Not sure. Although I had a good time on my cruise, when I first got back, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another cruise. After a while, when looking back at my pics and videos of Alaska (made me miss there and want to see it again). I might just save up and do a cruise on one of those Discovery Voyages cruise ships. They are smaller and more rugged where you go on smaller ships and get more in tune with nature. I did something similar of that nature (5 day cruise to the Channel Islands on a reproduction old time sailing schooner) and had a great time.

I do plan on someday traveling to Alaska again and maybe doing an inland tour. We'll see.

I recently did a helicopter tour in Juneau (through Crown Princess). I did the "4 glacier" tour. I really enjoyed it, especially when the pilot landed on one of the glaciers and we got to go out and walk around a bit. Our tour was through Era Helicopters. The pilot was very knowledgeable about Juneau and the glaciers (he had piloted for Era for 3 seasons). Also, after our landing, we got to trade seats, so other people could share in the good views.

Since I am small and light, I ended up sitting in the middle for our flight up to the glacier. On the way back, I was able to sit next to the door (in the back). It did help that the other passengers in the helicopter were nice and helped me with my pictures (we also exchanged emails and were able to exchange pictures after the cruise).

I had originally signed up for the Pilot's Choice helicopter tour (which entailed 2 glacier landings and a longer flight time), but the day before we got into Juneau, I was informed that my tour was cancelled and that I would be able to take this tour instead. I was happy with the substitution.

On my Alaskan cruise (which was also my first cruise), I didn't want to wear the lanyard, so would toss the cruise card into my bag with my DSLR. Cell phone was in my pocket. I still had to go to the desk to have the card reprogrammed 4 times. By the 4th time, they gave me a new card and it worked fine for rest of cruise.

I wonder if cruise cards are a bit more sensitive than hotel room cards? Have stayed in many hotels in different parts of the world and rarely had hotel cards demagnetize.

Overall, I had a great cruise. It was a bit overwhelming for me the first two days. It didn't help that I would get lost all the time (in the beginning) and that I locked my key card in my room.

I want to go back to Alaska again, but the next time I do it, I probably will go in the middle of the season (like in June or July). The weather was not that great for our cruise. It rained in Juneau (for a bit) and all day in Ketchikan. I didn't get to see much wildlife (which was kinda disappointing) and there wasn't much glacier calving.

I think Princess Cruises does an excellent job with the Alaska cruises, and I hope to take another Princess cruise when I go back to Alaska. Besides the buffet, which I didn't really care for (except for the breakfast buffet), the food on the ship was pretty good. I really enjoyed eating at Sabatini's and wished I had gone there more than once. You do get some really good food for $25 cover charge.

I loved my helicopter tour. It was exciting to see glaciers up close and be able to walk on them.

I know this cruise report is kinda long and I tend to ramble. I hope I was able to give the readers a taste of what cruising to Alaska is like, and what you can see there.

For those who read my cruise trip report, if you have questions, just ask away and I will try to answer as best I can

I didn't have any issues with being able to catch a cab. There were tons around the area. It cost me $10 USD to get back to the ship. I got back about 1/2 hr before all aboard time. We sailed away headed back to Seattle, a little bit after midnight.

We got back to Seattle the wee hours of the morning. When I woke up around 7 AM, we were already moored. This was how the dock looked early in the morning. The Westerdam was moored on the berth across from us.

I was scheduled in the 4th group for "self-debarkation". It was very simple. We met at Club Fusion with our luggage, and then got our cruise cards scanned for the last time, and walked off the boat.

Before I debarked, I made sure to give my room steward an extra tip (besides the autotips), since he did a good job.

I had originally planned to store my luggage and then head to Pike Market for breakfast and some shopping before my afternoon flight home. Since my leg was acting up, I decided to just catch a cab to the airport and hang out there.

Thus ends my trip.

After we were done with the tea, we had a little bit of time to shop in the gift shop before we had to meet back at the bus. When I got back to the bus, I asked the bus driver if I could go back to the boat separately since "all aboard" time was still an hour away. He said it was safe to walk around and that I could catch a cab back, and that the cab would cost me about $10 USD. He also told me that cabs were plentiful around Government St. (which was where we were)

I decided to check out the city a little more and also go to Roger's Chocolates (which I had heard from here, was an excellent chocolate shop). The shop was only a few blocks from the Empress.

Things I saw:

a night market

Roger's Chocolates:

Tea at the Empress is well worth the money. The food (finger sandwiches, scones, little cakes, etc) were delicious and the tea was wonderful too. Also, as part of the tour, we each got a box of 10 teabags of their signature tea to take home as a souvenir. Since I liked the tea so much, I ended up buying a few more boxes at the gift shop, to give as gifts to friends and family.

the Empress Hotel all lit up at night:

entrance to the Empress tea room:

the tea and crumpets and other goodies:

the gift shop:

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that this was our last day on the cruise. I was amazed at how quickly time flew. Just yesterday, we got our debarkation and CBP forms to fill out.

I didn't have much planned for today since it was mostly a sea day until we got into Victoria. I also wanted to rest up my leg so I could do some walking in Victoria. We were scheduled to arrive around 7 PM. Just last night, we had to put our clocks forward one hour to match local time (Alaska is one hour behind Pacific time).

I went to Bob Leininger's (the CD) talk about his 29 years at sea working for the cruise ship industry.

They also had a preview of the Glacier Bay Experience DVD that was part of the Reflections package that I had purchased in the first few days of the cruise. That was fun to watch.

Since it was the last day of the cruise, they had an onboard outlet sale in the Michaelangelo Dining Room. All Alaska t-shirts, jackets, etc., were deeply discounted. I ended up buying 2 shirts (one for myself, and one for a friend). A lot of people were in the dining room looking over all the stuff that was on sale, so it was a bit crowded.

We sailed into Victoria about an hour late :(. It was a mad rush to get off the ship.

The Princess tour that I signed up for, was a bus tour around the city and tea at the Empress Hotel. Even though it was dark already, it was nice to see some of the highlights of Victoria

Sights around Victoria:

Chinatown:

quaint neighborhoods:

Before the end of the night, I had decided that I would sign up for a bus tour of Victoria that included high tea at the Empress Hotel. Originally, I had planned to just explore Victoria on foot, for the few hours we were ported there. Since my leg was acting up, I knew that if I wanted to see Victoria, it would be better done on a bus tour.

Other than that, I watched the Marriage Match Game Show in the Explorers Lounge. Matias, the deputy cruise director hosted the show and the contestants were quite entertaining.

The cruise was quickly approaching to an end. I felt kind of sad. I had had a good time and loved seeing Alaska in all its glory. This cruise had gone by quickly.

It also didn't help that my leg was starting to act up painfully. A few years ago, I had a compound tib/fib accident and consequently, I have some plates and a number of screws in my leg. This past week (with all the walking I did, especially in Seattle), did a number on my leg. I took it easy the rest of the day and took a nap. I also ate in the buffet (since it was formal night). This was the night they were doing the balloon drop to celebrate Princess Cruises' 50th anniversary.

all ready for the balloon drop:

We left about a half hour later than we were supposed to, because another tour was late in returning (a tour with about 40 people), so the ship waited for them. We finally set sail around 12:30 PM, headed for Victoria, Canada.

Alaska has so much scenery, and it is so green and lush. This is what we saw sailing out of Ketchikan:

The air is so crisp and clean.

Since the rain wasn't letting up anytime soon, I went back to the ship around 10:30 AM. It was hard to really do anything since it was cold and rainy.

totems around the city:

Looking at the city from the ship:

watching the Alutian Ballard sail out on its Bering Sea Crab Tour:

the other 3 ships in town besides the Crown Princess:

After touring Dolly's House, I did a bit of shopping and bought a ulu blade with chopping block for my mom and a t-shirt from Fish Creek Company. I also went and had lunch at Ketchikan Fish Market. I had some crab cakes and they were pretty good:

After lunch, I walked around some more. It is amazing to see that even with 4 ships in town, you don't see that many tourists walking around, or even in the restaurants.

cute wooden carvings outside of Fish Creek Co:

the famous sunshine gauge:

Ketchikan's iconic sign:

Besides going to the Ketchicandies store, I also toured "Dolly's House" Museum, which focused on the brothel trade in Ketchikan during the Gold Rush days. It cost $10 for the self-guided tour. Before going on the self guided tour, one of the guides would give a speech detailing the background of Dolly Arthur, Creek Street's famous madam.

I found the house to be quite interesting especially the bathroom where they had "condoms" as part of the bath curtain decoration. It was also interesting to see what a 19th century vibrator looked like.

Dolly's House:

the bathroom inside Dolly's House (if you look closely you can see that the flower decorations on the bath curtain are made from condoms):eek:

example of what a 19th century vibrator looked like:eek:

The next day (which was Thurs 9/10), we were scheduled to get into Skagway around 6 AM. It was also the 2nd formal night of the cruise. This time I didn't get dressed up and just ate in the buffet.

Our time in Skagway was pretty short. Our "all-aboard" time was 11:30. When I woke up, we were already docked in Skagway. The weather was cold and rainy. Since we had such a short dock time, I did not have any excursions scheduled. I planned to just explore the city.

The rain made it hard to take pictures and explore the city. It was a bit windy and rain was coming down pretty hard. I had hoped to go on the Funicular (but it was out of order). Also, the blowing rain made it hard to wanted to walk around too much.

Besides our ship, there were three other ships in port too (Noordam, Westerdam, and the Grand Princess).

I picked up some chocolate covered Oreos from Ketchicandies. People from here have recommended them. I found them to be quite delicious, but a bit on the expensive side. The ladies there were quite friendly and helpful. I was able to get a nice sample of the chocolate covered cherries before I decided to buy.

Ketchicandies store:

Entrance to Creek Street:

more Creek Street:

Besides doing narration and having a booth up in Skywalkers, the Park Rangers also had a presentation in the Princess Theater about Alaska's National Parks. After the Rangers were done with their presentation, they were dropped off at the entrance to Glacier Bay.

Since I had woken up so early to get out on deck and watch the ship enter Glacier Bay, I took a nap in the afternoon.

I did manage to catch the martini show in the Piazza around 7 PM, where the bartenders did a show about making different martinis. It was fun to watch.

Amazing to see how big Glacier National Park is and how still and quiet it can be:

After staying for a while, probably 40 minutes, to see if we could see bigger glacier calving, it was time to sail on. Apparently, each cruise ship has a certain amount of time to stay in the area before they had to move on.

This is the view I saw of both the Grand Pacific Glacier and Margerie Glacier, as we sailed away from it:

We could also see that the MS Noordam was waiting for us to leave so it could cruise into the inlet to see Margerie Glacier.

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After visiting Margerie Glacier, on our way out of Glacier Bay National Park, we stopped to see Lamplugh Glacier:

Margerie Glacier:

ship turning to allow people from other side to see the glacier:

Grand Pacific Glacier:

the glacial waters mixing with the heavier ocean water:

The Park Rangers were scheduled to start narrating around 9:30 AM. They had an area sectioned off in Skywalkers, where they had books and other Park memorabilia out for sale. They also had hands-on exhibits (such as glacial silt), that one could touch and see. People were also invited to hang out in Skywalkers so they could have a panoramic glacial viewing, out of the cold.

This was the schedule for our Glacier Bay day:

This was an approximate schedule because we ended up spending a little more time at Margerie Glacier, hoping to see some glacial calving. There was some calving but it was only tiny pieces. Nothing dramatic.

Just seeing the glacier itself was amazing. The captain did turn the ship around a few times so people from both sides could see the glacier. The glacier was majestic. It was a cloudy, cold day, but we didn't see much wildlife around. We saw some birds, but no eagles, whales or seals :( .

Here are some pics of the some of the things we saw upon entering Glacier Bay:

water still as glass

first views of Margerie Glacier:

I just got back from an Alaskan cruise with Princess.

This was my first cruise but I must say that Princess does a darn good job with Alaskan cruises. They incorporated Alaskan seafood into their menus, they had an excellent naturalist speaker (Michael Modzelewski) who also narrated on the day we were in Glacier Bay.

Whatever cruise line you choose, do choose the one that goes into Glacier Bay. Glacier Bay offers the best chance to see glaciers calving. I know Princess has cruises that go there and so does Holland America.

The next day, Wed (9/9) was Glacier Bay scenic cruising. I was up early that morning because I knew we would be sailing into Glacier Bay around 6 AM. On our way into Glacier Bay, it was a bit cloudy (so could NOT see the sun rise). We did see another cruise ship in the area. We were scheduled to pick up the park rangers around 7 AM in the morning.

Early morning (sun trying to peek out):

Park rangers being dropped off:

two cruise ships in the distance:

lovely foggy background:

"All aboard" time was 7:30 but we didn't leave till almost 9 PM because they were waiting for a Princess excursion that was late in coming back. I always like to watch "sail-away" when they toss the lines and pull away from dock.

Some pics from when we finally "sailed away". Nice to see the other two ships lit up (one of the other ships pulled away not too long after us).

At the end of our train excursion when we got to the Skagway train station, we had to again take out our passports and hold it out to be checked by CBP agents who boarded the train. That was a quick and simple process.

By the time we got back to Skagway, it was around 4:15 and our "all aboard" time was at 7:30. Chilkoot Charters picked us up at the train station and we could either take the charter bus back to the pier, or be dropped off in town. Most of the people chose to be dropped off in town.

With only a few hours left to check out Skagway, I did a fast walk around town. Skagway isn't that big. I was kinda tired from the excursion so I mostly just took pictures.

View towards the mountains from the main street

Red Onion Saloon:

you can see down the main street to where the ships are docked:

some of the "graffitti" on the rocks right next to the ship (telling of what ship was there when)