Part I-Review of Coral Princess Alaskan Cruise (8/14/13---thru 8/21/13) with kids.

Let me start by introducing myself. DH & I are in our 40's & we have 11 year old twin boys. We went on the cruise with another family with kids of similar ages. We are from CT. This was our 4th cruise ( first with Princess)

August 10, 2013-Aug. 14 Vancouver

We spent 5 nights in Vancouver prior to the cruise. We stayed at the Vancouver Fairmont. After checking into the hotel we walked to the ferry to Granville Island. The next morning we walked a block from our hotel to the free shuttle to take us to the Capiliano suspension bridge. It was drizzling when we first arrived But it cleared up as we spent time at the bridge. Had a lot of fun walking on the bridge, in the tree tops, & cliffs. From there we took the city bus to Grouse Mountain. We had lunch at Grouse Mountain. Took the gondola and the sky ride to the top of the mountain. From Grouse mountain we took the free shuttle back to Vancouver. The next day we felt we wasted going to Victoria Island. It was 4 hours each way & in our opinion not much to see or do in a day trip. On day 4 we went to Gastown for coffee at revolver and breakfast (waffles ) at a French restaurant called Medina . We were only a couple blocks from Chinatown so we walked through it, but it was dead. We walked back to the hotel and then prepared for an afternoon riding bicycles through Stanley Park. We rented bicycles from spokes. We rode around the park for about four hours. We stopped at the totem pole, the girl with the wetsuit, rode past the lighthouse. Passed gorgeous mountain views. We rode/walked our bikes to a restaurant called the lookout grill at the level of the Lions gate bridge. After lunch, with the help of a local bicyclist, we found the route to ride around the rest of the park. It was gorgeous, because we pass beaches, the park with trees. Had a great afternoon, the weather was good & one of the highlights of our visit to Vancouver.

While in Vancouver we also saw the flight over Canada show at Canada Place. The Vancouver weather was in the 70's & sunny most days.*

The Vancouver Fairmont was a nice hotel to stay at. It was centrally located & the room was great size for our family of 4. There was a walk-in closet which helped in storing bags. The pool was not heated so felt a little cold when you first got in. But we still used it 3 days.*

Wednesday, August 14.

Cruise day! We relaxed in the hotel that morning, and at about 1230 took a taxi to the cruise terminal. We were in-line by about 1 o'clock, the line was short & check-in was easy and we were on the ship (Coral Princess) within 15 minutes. Our check in time was scheduled between one and three, our friends who also had the same check-in time did arrive earlier due to needing to return a rental car to Canada Place and were able to check in early & get on the ship around 1230.*

Once on board we first found our cabin. We were on deck 11 (Baja) cabin 409. Mid forward on starboard with a balcony. We found this to be a good location on the ship. The cabins were quite spacious with plenty of room to store our luggage for 4 people (on a two week trip). We went to Horizons buffet for lunch and there we found our friends finishing their lunch. It wasn't crowded. During the week long cruise we never found it crowded for breakfast or lunch.*

After lunch the kids participated in the scavenger hunt around the ship to enter us in the drawing for prizes. The prizes which I can remember included a flower arrangement, dinner at one of the restaurants, a free picture/portrait , & services of the spas thermal suite for the week. My husband won this service.*

We were on the deck when the ship left the port & enjoyed a final look at Stanley Park & the Lions Gate bridge as we cruised away. Vancouver is a great city & that I would definitely like to visit again.*

Dinner at Provence seating 2 at 8:00. Our head waiter, Cesar S., from Mexico was wonderful. He took good care of us at every dinner& learned our preferences by the end of the week. Even gave us an option for an ethnic Indian (our culture) each night.*

Day 2 Aug 15 was a sea day.*

Worked out in the gym. Was quite busy around 7:30 a.m. I worked out 3 days. Nice number of machines. Classes, except for Zumba (which I don't do) cost $$. Had a good sit down lunch at Bordeaux dining room.

Day 3 Aug 16--Ketchikan*

No excursion planned. Short port day. Raining heavily when we got off the ship. Spent a little time under shelter then proceeded to walk into town. Inadvertently entered a tourist store when we followed a sign that said "shortcut to downtown." I asked one of the sales girls about the weather forecast & she replied "This is Ketchikan. It can stop raining anytime." Well it did! A little while later as we went to see the salmon in the creek the rain stopped & the sun came out. We walked around town for a couple hours then went back to the ship for lunch.

Coral has an indoor & outdoor pool. The outdoor is heated well. Enjoyed the outside pool this afternoon in the sunshine & watched a movie (Devil wears Prada) on the big outdoor screen. They played a number of movies all week, indoors & out including 42, Iron man 3, Now you see me, sky fall, princess bride, the croods, Dirty dancing, & ferris beuler's day off.*

There was a naturalist on the ship & in the late afternoon he alerted us to whales near the ship bubble feeding. They swam past the ship.*

Day 4---Aug 17 Juneau*

Got off the ship to good weather. We had booked a Mendenhall glacier & whale watch tour with Juneau Whale Watch. Great tour. Just wish we were able to spend more time at the glacier. The tour we booked only allowed for about 45 minutes which wasn't enough time to hike the trails (especially with the good weather we had in the a.m). We saw a bear and her cub near the creek which had salmon! The glacier was spectacular.*

We got picked up from the glacier & took the short ride to the dock. We boarded the boat. About 40 people were on our tour & their was inside seating & viewing spots in the front, back & on top. Very comfortable & not crowded at all. Our naturalist was good & the captain took us to an area that probably had about a dozen whales. We spent a lot of time near the whales & got alot of good photos. We also saw sea lions & porpoise. We were on the boat just over 2 hours.*

We had the van drop us in Juneau. We walked around for about an hour & went back to the ship for lunch. It rained that afternoon.*

Day 5--Aug 18 Skagway*

At this port we booked an excursion privately thru M&M tours. They are a third party who booked the helicopter/glacier tour with TEMSCO. I could have booked directly with TEMSCO but he me a better deal to book thru them. When we got off the ship there was a building with M&M tours sign & we got picked up by Temsco a short while later. It was not raining but slightly cooler day (not sunny).*

The helicopter pad was only 5 minutes away. We had dressed in layers & had hats & gloves. They geared us up with spikes shoes that fit over our sneakers & a life vest.*

We took a 20 minute flight to Mead Glacier. We spent about 45 minutes hiking the glacier with our helicopter pilot as our guide. Their were 6 passengers in the helicopter & 3 helicopters landed on the glacier together. This was one of the highlights of the trip for us all. Landing on the glacier, you felt like you were on a different planet. The sun was peeping out of the clouds & it was quite comfortable (temperature wise).*

It got quite cooler on the ship that afternoon.*

Day 6-Glacier bay August 19

The ship picked up Park rangers in the a.m. & by mid-morning we reached the glaciers. The sun was shining so it was not too cold. The ship stopped in front of Marjorie glacier first. We saw & heard the glacier calving. After a half hour the captain turned the ship so the starboard side had a turn in front of the glacier. Then we proceeded onto Johns Hopkins glacier.

Day 7 August 20-college fjord (reached late afternoon)*

In the morning we went to do a galley tour. Very interesting how they can feed so many people day in & day out. Swam outside & inside in the afternnon. Quite cold & windy today. Went out on the deck (7) to view the fjords. Quite overcast & grey so not a good day for viewing. On deck 7 there is a walking track around the ship.*

Aug. 21---disembarkation & Denali

Arrived in Whittier which is about 90 min from Anchorage. We had booked a transfer to Anchorage airport thru Alaska cruise transfers & was renting a car to drive to Denali. We had correctly filled out the forms on the ship saying we had independent plans to get to the airport to pick-up our rental car. Somehow we got tags which gave us instructions to get on a princess transfer to the airport. We realized the error & found out that our luggage had already been sent to the airport. We boarded our bus which (luckily was taking us to the airport anyway). The ride was good (around 90 minutes) with recorded commentary about Whittier & Alaska. When we got to the airport we located the office where the luggage was being held & went to the rental car counter. In Anchorage this is connected to the airport thru a short underground tunnel.

I spent a lot of time prior to the cruise, reading reviews & posts here & so wanted to give back. I want to give our overall impressions of the ship & cruise:

We thought the ship was great! It had lots of open space. You never felt crowded anywhere you went. The pools were nice. The kids went to the kids club almost daily but did not feel the need to spend much time there due to being 3 boys together. The service on the ship was superb in all areas.

We went to all the production shows. Didn't think they were as good as the Caribbean cruises we had taken. "On the Bayou" was ok. We enjoyed "Dance" more. They had a magician named Garry Carson who was entertaining.

What to pack---- I will be first to acknowledge that I am not a minimalist packer. However, I did a pretty good job on this trip to not over pack. Layers, layers, layers!! Rain jackets are important. We were blessed with good weather over the entire trip.

First I want to apologize if part I is hard to read. I transferred notes from my i-Phone.

We drove from Anchorage to Healy where we were staying for 2 nights. The drive was long (6 hours) due in part to construction. The weather was lousy (raining most of the way). Thankfully it cleared up as we were approaching Denali & the scenery was amazing.

We stayed at the Earthsong Lodge in Healy. They have about 12 small cabins. We had one bedroom cabin which comfortably slept our family.

On Thurs. 8/22/13 we had booked the 11 hour bus to Wonder Lake. Our bus left at 6:15 a.m. (yikes!) & it was about a twenty minute drive from the lodge. We picked up breakfast & lunch at the bus terminal ($$$). Within about 30 minutes we saw our first moose. Over the course of the day we saw about 10 moose, 10 bears (mamas & cubs), 15 caribou, & countless sheep in the distance. All along the way the scenery was amazing. Even though Mt McKinley was not visible, we decided to take the bus all the way to Wonder Lake. It was worth it.

On Fri. 8/23/13 we headed back to Anchorage for our flight home. On the way we stopped in Talkeetna for lunch. It was a nice lunch & a quaint town to walk around in.

Overall, DH & I both felt that we should have spent more days on land in Alaska. We were happy we took the 2 additional nights we did. The cruise alone does not give you the Alaska we saw in our short trip to Denali.

Thank you for taking time to write a review.

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Very nice.

Glad you all enjoyed Alaska.

Thanks for the great trip report. my family will be on the Coral Princess, Southbound next summer. Glad to hear you enjoyed the ship. I can't wait...next summer seems so far away!

I was in Juneau with the Coral a week later. It left at 3pm which was REALLY early! I was on Rhapsody and we stayed until 7pm. That was much better. I was able to shop a lot after my glacier tour by helicopter.

thanks for taking the time to post this review!

Thanks for the review. I'll be on the Coral next May - can't wait.

Thanks for the review. We will be going next Aug. We are thinking of booking with Alaska Cruise Transportation. Are there buses as good as they say on their website? They are offering a special if we book with them before Jan. Thanks again for a great review.

Thanks for the review. We will be going next Aug. We are thinking of booking with Alaska Cruise Transportation. Are there buses as good as they say on their website? They are offering a special if we book with them before Jan. Thanks again for a great review.

The buses were comfortable. We didn't use the bathroom so I can't report on the cleanliness.