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We did the dolphin swim last year while we were on the Pride. We wanted to do the open water but it was not available the week we went. The dolphin swim was amazing. You were able to swim around the pool with a dolphin. It was so much fun. We would do it again for sure. Well worth it.

WOW what a great review. I have enjoyed reading it so much day after day. I go back and just look it over and over and hope that you posted something new. Your pictures are amazing. We are sailing on the Coral next July and I can't wait. I hope we see as much wildlife as you saw. Thank you so much for taking the time to post all of this. It has been such a great review. I told my friends who are going on the cruise to look at it as well and they have loved it. Thanks again.

Glacier Smoothie is more of a "order-at-the-counter" type place rather than a full service restaurant. --Didn't want to mislead you.

Thank you - I appreciate that. HAve a great weekend.

Thank you. Both places sound great. Thanks for the information.

I wanted to see if there is a good place to eat while in Skagway at the port. I know they have a lot of shops right around there but I was not sure about restaurants. Any good suggestions? Anything else to do right there in port in Skagway that you can suggest? Thanks.

Yes, it is called Priority Luggage Services and it is in the Canada Place cruise terminal.

Hey thanks again for the information. I really appreciate all of your help.

The Victorian is about a 35 min and $35 cab ride from YVR, if you wish you can walk the 4 blocks down to Waterfront station and catch the Canada Line out to YVR for $4/person and with walk time and wait time I would allow about 45 min. Most of the hotels out near the airport have a free shuttle to the airport, if you want something that is more modest in price then you may care to look at the Best Western-Abercorn, Coast Airport, and the Accent Inn. All of these are showing a mid-July rate of under $125.00 but you are removed from the sights of attractions of Vancouver. However, the way around this is to check your luggage at Priority Luggage Service at Canada Place or go to one of the downtown hotels and give the bell desk a nice tip to hold your luggage, go off and explore the city and then head out to you airport hotel later in the day.

Thank you so much. You have been so helpful. Is there a place at Canada Place to hold luggage? That sounds like the perfect thing to do and then like you said head to a airport hotel after seeing the city. Thanks again.

We just returned from our Alaska cruise and stayed two nights at the Victorian Hotel. We were in the family suite (6 people). We had a wonderful stay, front office was very helpful with Resturant recommendations and getting us a taxi. A continental breakfast is included and free wifi. it's in the Gastown area, close to a number of restaurants and caught the Big Bus just a few blocks up by the library. Taxi from port was $6, a few of the youner ones in the group walked the 1 mile with luggage.

How far is that hotel from the airport? Trying to figure out when we come back from our Alaska cruise and staying the night and flying home the next day but not sure if we should stay in the city or near airport. Any suggestions? Any suggestions on hotels near the airport? Thanks for the help.

May 23 2014 | flew into Anchorage, embarked out of Seward, Hubert Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, and Vancouver.

I loved the pictures. Thank you for sharing. I did have a question. It looks you did the segway tour. Did you enjoy it? We are looking at doing that next summer in Anchorage. We love to do thud segway tours. Thank you for ant information you can give me.

I am loving your review. Thank you for posting. We are sailing on the Coral next July. I also went back and forth about doing the cruise first then tour or touring first and then the cruise. I did decide I didn't want that long flight home from Alaska. it is funny you said you didn't like that at the end so I am glad I picked the tour first. I woudl love to have seen Vancouver some before but we are going to fly in a few days early to see more of Anchorage which will be nice. I can't wait for this trip. I know you said you liked your room as well and I think we are just a few down from where you stayed. I like being two floors down from the buffett. We sailed on the Coral in March and we looked around to see what would be a good room to have. Thanks again for taking the time to write this. Your pictures are wonderful !!!!

One piece of luggage per person plus a backpack size item to keep at your seat if you want (camera, purse, jacket, rain gear, etc.). We always pack our cruise wear in one suitcase and the cruise line has it in our room when we arrive on the ship.

Thank you for the answer. I appreciate it. I was not sure how that worked.

I have a question about the luggage part of the land tour/cruise. I know you have to send part of your luggage that you are taking for just the cruise and you are limited to one piece of luggage. Is this one piece per person or per couple? I don't think I could get both of our stuff in just one bag. Thanks.

Yes we got off the ship after we checked in. We arrived at 4 and grabbed a bite to eat and had plenty of time to walk around Whittier.

Thank you so much for the information. Thank you for the review as well. It had been wonderful.

We already booked our Sept 2015 Alaska cruise on the Radiance. For one thing, I'm picky about what cabin I want. We did take advantage of the buy one get one half off....but to me, it seems like this sale just brings the price down where it ought to be. Anyway, we are locked in on that price. I'm going to keep watch in case it goes down. RCCL will do a price adjustment up until final payment....and as another said, be sure that your agent won't charge you to do the adjustment. We booked ours ourselves.

 

Now we wait. Plenty of time to consider tours and pre-hotel stay....that keeps my mind busy for awhile. Ha!

I am with you. My mind has already started with the pre-hotel stay, the excurstions, etc. I find myself looking at that stuff every free minute I get.

Hi everyone!

Its been a while since DH and I have cruised. We found these boards super helpful for our first Alaskan cruise so I started lurking again recently. We are hoping to return to Alaska in 2015 for our 10th anniversary.

 

I wasn't planning on booking yet but our TA informed us that through the end of the month Royal Caribbean has a special on their Jewel of the Seas sailing from Seattle (we plan on leaving from Seattle as its closest to us). The special is that the second fair is half off. She swears this is a great sale and we should put our deposit down now. To me it just seems a bit early to be booking. Wont rates go down or at least stay about the same? To give you an idea, we're going in June and the rates for this cruise once you figure in this special rate start at $674 inside/$824 ocean view/$1226 balcony per person.

 

I'd appreciate any advice you could give. The one time we cruised Alaska we only booked about 5 months in advance, basically as soon as we started planning it. So I never really watched the fares to see what they did.

 

TIA!

Kirsten

I feel it is never to early to book. If the rates are up then I book. WE already booked our Alaska cruise for July 2015. We did that back in March. Now we just still back and wait and wait and wait LOL. WE are booked with Princess and the good thing if the price drops we get the new price. We have already had a small rate decrease. I like to book early to get the cabin I want as well.

Good luck in deciding. Alaska is so much fun - this will be our second time.

We just boarded the Coral Princess yesterday in Whittier after 3 wonderful days near Anchorage. The weather has been pretty good. My DH and I are in our early 60s and this is my 4th cruise to Alaska. We have also done two RV trips around the interior.

 

We arrived in Anchorage on Tuesday at 8:30 PM, rented a car and spent the night at the Microtel near the airport. On Wednesday we drove to Independence Mine. We took the old Glen Highway to Palmer which follows the Knik River. The Mine was not open for the season yet but the drive and views are beautiful. We walked up the Hatcher pass road about a mile until the road was completely covered in snow. There was blue sky and the views were incredible. On the way down we took the road to Wasilla. Wasilla has grown so much since we were last there. On the way back to Anchorage we stopped at the fish hatchery.

 

Thursday we headed to Seward. First we stopped at the new Cabellas in Anchorage. This is a huge sporting goods store that has over 300 mounted animals from Alaska. The displays are spectacular. We continued down the Turnagain Arm Highway. We saw two moose near Potter Marsh. Unfortunately even though the sun was out there was a forest fire in Soldotna that caused a thick haze over the mountains. This is one of the most beautiful drives in the U.S. We took the road to Portage Glacier and hiked to Byron Glacier. The Portage Glacier visitors center was not yet open for the season during the week. After our hike we continued to Seward being surrounded by mountains the whole way. In Seward we stayed at the Breeze Inn which is right across the street from the harbor. Seward is my favorite Alaska town. It has a quaint harbor and old historic downtown.

 

Friday we went to Exit Glacier. We were shocked to see how it had retreated since we were last there in 2006. In 2006 you could easily walk up to the front of the glacier which stood about 20 feet high. Today you could not get to the front but had to hike up a trail to overlook it. It has receded up the glacial valley and now slopes down to the floor. After visiting Exit Glacier we drove back to Anchorage. The haze was mostly gone and the views were beautiful. We saw 5 Dahl sheep on the mountain side. When we got back to Anchorage we drove up to the overlook at the Flat Top Mountain parking lot. It was clear enough for a great view of Anchorage. We spent the night at Moose Garden B&B.

 

Saturday after a nice breakfast at the B&B we drove to the Saturday Market in downtown Anchorage. I bought some neat jewelry and enjoyed walking around. We also stopped at the Ulu Factory. I spent a lot of time deciding how we were going to get to Whittier; train, private transfer or ship transfer. In the end I decided on a ship transfer so we had a choice of times to take the transfer. I didn’t have to worry about timing the day to catch a transfer at a specific time. With the Princess transfer we could take any shuttle between 12 and 4. The shuttles left on the hour. We were very happy with the Princess transfer. My DH dropped me off at the transfer meeting point with the luggage and then returned the car. The bus left promptly at 2 and we were able to make the 3:30 tunnel opening. We also had time to stop at Portage Glacier overlook for pictures right before the tunnel.

 

It only took a few minutes to reach the ship after we left the tunnel. We were at our room by 4. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went into Whittier to look around. It was cloudy and cool and we were told it rains 300 days a year. There a few neat gift shops and a nice harbor. After taking many pictures of the town and the Coral we returned to the ship. So far we really love the Coral. The Horizon Court was redone and it’s a great setup . It’s so much better than the Grand class of ships. There are so many places to sit inside and look out a window. We sailed out at 8 and our naturalist Sue gave a commentary on the way out. There were many very tired passengers so I don’t many people heard her.

 

Sunday morning we went to the nondenominational service in the Wheelhouse Bar which was well attended. Our M&G was at 11:30 and we had several ship officers show up and the CD. We went to the Glacier talk by Sue at 1. At about 3 we started into Hubbard Glacier. It was a bit cloudy but the sun came out once in a while. The ship only sailed about 5 miles from the glacier. We did not get close enough to see any calving or hear any of the ice popping. They said there was too much ice but there wasn’t near as much as the last time we sailed to Hubbard on HAL and we went right up to the glacier that time. Sue did mention at the glacier talk that since the Costa Concordia they are much more careful. We saw lots of seals on the little ice burgs. We viewed the glacier from the front of deck 10 and there were very few people there. Right now deck 11 front is blocked off and you can’t get out there. Tonight is formal night with the champagne waterfall. Tomorrow is Glacier Bay so we will see how close we get to the glacier.

Did you get to get on the ship and off again in Whittier? I was wondering about that since the ship leaves so late.

We were on the Coral in March. We loved the ship. We are doing an Alaska cruise next July - can't wait. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Does anyone know if the Pride is going to Freeport now or still stopping in Charleston? Last few reviews still show the are skipping Freeport.

Just off the Pride yesterday. Had a good trip. Weather was great, smoothest sailing I have ever experienced on the Pride and all in all very happy.

 

Food was good. Did not enjoy the pizza at all. Glory has the same pizza but it was much better. Casino seemed to pay out the most I've ever seen. Shows were as always good,,,,much better then our last cruise on the Glory. Comedy was good.

 

Not a fan of the cruise director or the assistant. Of course that is personal preference as we are all different.

 

We booked 5150 and did not like it. Our fault. I knew it was obstructed but forgot that the first 3 life boats were much larger. We were directly between two which we chose the the size of the boats was awful. We did not unpack and after we sailed we went to Guess Services and they were kind enough to relocate us to a non-obstructed balcony in 5225 and we loved the room.

 

We normally board 12ish everytime we have gone on the trip. We didn't board til 1:30pm. However our return was as it has always been when we have sailed the Pride. Hit the bay bridge at 6am, key bridge 7am and not to much longer docked. We checked our luggage due to my husbands knee. Bringing all our luggage down that ramp exiting the ship is a bit too much for him. We were in our car by 10 (we are platinum). Home shortly after as we only live in Middle River.

 

All is all good trip. Husband won Texas Holdem tournament $500 and came in 2nd on the slot tournament. We both did well in the casino and came home a little ahead.

Who was the cruise director? When we sailed on the Pride in September he was the best one we ever had and was hoping he would be there for are next cruise in August.

Bummer...won't happen this time. We really want to get the Kenai Peninsula in, we have friends that live there. will friend Frank on FB and maybe we can hook up on other vacations/trips.

Sounds great. Sorry it didn't work out this time. Have a great day

Chris: Which trip in July...just in case we can maybe swing changing ours. Got to love the Coral! Talk to you soon.

That would be awesome. We are doing the land tour starting July 10th and then sailing on the Coral on July 15th.

Hope all is well. Have a great week.

We just booked today in July 2015. Very excited. :)

What ship are you sailing on?

We booked Coral land/cruise starting in Fairbanks for 7 days on June 10, 2015. Just got off Coral in the Canal and really loved the ship.

Hey Mike and Cathy,

Hope all is well. We booked the Coral as well for July 2015. We can't wait. We are trying to talk Ron and Marion to doing the cruise with us. We had a blast on the Coral in March. Take care.

Chris and Frank

I would like to know the same thing. Also how much a taxi is to get there.

We did that tour in 2009 with teens. So much fun to learn segways and great way to cover a lot of ground! It went very well!

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it.

We are booked on the Coral as well for July. We just came back from a cruise on The Coral. Very nice ship.