Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers Trip Report - May 27th - June 3rd, 2017

Northbound Voyage of the Glaciers Trip Report

Departed May 27th, 2017 from Vancouver, sailing the Inside Passage (5/28), Ketchikan (5/29), Juneau (5/30), Skagway (5/31), Glacier Bay cruising (6/1), College Fjord - Harvard Glacier cruising (6/2), Whittier (6/3). With an extra day before in Vancouver and an extra day after in Anchorage.

Background:

DW and I are both mid-30’s, we’re from Western NY (though we lived in Manhattan for a few years), and have been cruising reasonably regularly now for the last few years. Our two most recent trips were a Mediterranean cruise last summer on Celebrity Equinox in a suite and Western Caribbean on Celebrity Silhouette in an Aqua Class Balcony in February. Our last cruise with Princess was 2012 on Ruby and we thoroughly enjoyed it but wanted to sail from San Juan and ended up trying RCL and Celebrity for our next several sailings.

We eat out regularly and aren’t terribly picky eaters or high maintenance, although we have eaten at enough restaurants, seen enough shows on Broadway, and been in nice resorts and hotels to be informed consumers. We are also reasonably outdoorsy and active, but our idea of a dream vacation would not include a multi-day backpacking trek through the mountains fwiw.

Trip Planning:

We had a changeup in our travel plans and ended up canceling a booking for later in the summer and moving to this Memorial Day sailing on relatively late notice. We originally booked this trip on or about Feb 28th, and ended up canceling (and forfeiting our deposit) to rebook under a substantially cheaper “drop and go” fare after final payment deadline at the end of March. I won’t say outright numbers, but even after losing my ~$700 OBC (between Princess promos and my TA’s promos) and the $100 pp deposit we still came out saving money. For people not yet at final payment I’d recommend researching prices of the year before and for a few departure dates before and after your cruise to get a sense of pricing. I know cruise fares are dynamic, but IMHO fares are becoming more volatile and I’ve snagged some substantial savings over the last few years by just regularly checking rates (even after final payment as long as you read the fine print).

Pre-Cruise:

We flew into Vancouver (YVR) the day before, and took a cab from the airport to the hotel. We opted to stay at the Pan Pacific because they offer the option of checking your luggage straight from the hotel room to your ship. I got an unpublished rate by calling the hotel and speaking directly with a rep at the hotel (cheaper than both their website AND beating the third-party “discount” sites too). Taxi from hotel to Pan Pacific (which is physically connected with the Canada Place Pier, so a good reference for taxi from airport to pier too) was $47 CAD which was $35 USD and paid for using a credit card (which has a foreign exchange fee waiver). Pan Pacific was a beautiful hotel with service that lived up to it’s claimed 4-star rating. It’s not cheap, but IMHO it’s worth consideration for the luggage service, the views, and the luxury experience.

We spent the remainder of Friday afternoon doing a hop on/off bus tour of YVR. It picked up directly in front of the hotel and we got off in Gastown district for dinner and an easy walk from there back to the hotel. We ate at the Flying Pig - a casual but tasty place that goes for the “rustic” appearance and advertises seasonal - local ingredients. We turned in early, but were up early due to the time change from NY to BC.

Day 1 - Vancouver Embarkation:

We got the bags checked from the hotel room to the cruise ship, and then did the FlyOver Canada ride at something like 10:30am, then went back to our room to collect our hand luggage and check out. We then walked around the harbor area and did a light lunch at Mahoney & Sons to pass some time. We decided to head to the check-in at ~1p to see how it looked. When we got there there were absolutely NO lines at the Hall C where you do the Princess check-in where you get your cruise card. Next you then walk to the middle of Canada Place bldg where you do the US CBP lines. They were dividing pax into 2 groups (1) US/Canadian passport holders and (2) Other. The US/Can line took about 3-5 mins to get to a computer kiosk where you plug in some info, scan your passport, get a photo taken and get a printed receipt. From there we got in another line that took about 5 mins to hand said slip to a US border patrol agent who confirmed the IDs matched us and waived us through. From there you follow the signs towards the ship and go through the standard security screen and board. The Other line was much longer and did not seem to be moving much at all… a rumor I heard from some of the shoreside staff was that last time the some Foreign passport holders took 4-5 hours to clear CBP. I think if I were a Foreign visitor I’d plan to get there ASAP and plan for the worst (and hope for the best). From leaving restaurant to looking at a watch ON the ship was something like 50 minutes? I think my first time check onboard was 1:51p.

We were notified of a delayed departure due to engine repairs (turns out there was a loose tube that had one of the propellers off-line). We were told we might not leave until as late as midnight, although as we got closer in the Capt. gave a status report over the PA and informed us that we were hoping to sail by ~8:30p. Biggest downside of the delayed departure was that the sun was setting as we were clearing the YVR harbor so navigating the passage out was less scenic that sailing out under full sun.

Day 2: Inside Passage - happened partly at night and we’d basically cleared Johnstone Strait by sunrise, and were to Pine Island by about noon. Once you clear Pine Island you enter Queen Charlotte Sound and the water feels more like open ocean (and the coastlines are no longer close enough to be scenic). This was the first Formal Night, and also the first production show. We ended up checking out the MDR menu and then comparing with the buffet and decided to skip 2nd seating and eat at the buffet so we could catch the first show (shows were set to start after the respective dinners, so 2nd dinner had a 9:45p show start time) and could go to bed early in prep for our Ketchikan excursion. Food at the buffet was not as good as the MDR, but it was fine and they did generally include at least a few dishes that overlapped with the MDR menu and some local seafood.

Day 3: Ketchikan - We arrived pretty early and were docked before breakfast. Departure was something like 2p, so not much time in port. The Lumberjack show is entertaining (but feels pretty scripted) and is an easy walk from the ship. We did the Totem Bight tour combined with the show through the ship and it felt pretty pricey… however the guide was nice and a cab driver at the park said the taxi from port to park runs about $35 one-way; so the shore excursion route wasn’t as badly overpriced as it first seemed. Note: there’s public transit in Ketchikan, so you supposedly can get from port to park for a very modest fee if that’s your cup of tea. The Princess tour did include a narrated drive through town though too… so it checked a number of the sightseeing boxes in a single go.

There’s a restaurant right on the pier, Alaska Fish House, that served very good local fish - we opted for fish tacos and a mixed platter of fried fish to taste the local fish. Turns out though that Princess had a lot of Alaskan seafood both in the dining room and at the buffet, so one doesn’t _have_ to buy it ashore to experience it.

After we sailed they did some various things that felt more like a sea day - for example they had a wine tasting ($25pp) in one of the dining rooms. They served 3 reds and 3 whites, roughly a 2-2.5oz pour of each, and gave some details about the wine style and/or the specific wine as they walked everyone through the tasting. The top red was Overture by Opus One Winery, which looks to retail around $100 so they were serving some solid juice as part of the tasting.

Day 4: Juneau - we arrived a little later in the morning, but still early. There’s a number of restaurants and shops around port, including a prominently placed crab house at the pier. Turns out Princess had king crab in the MDR that evening though, so even though I didn’t buy any in port I still got to try some Alaskan king crab that day. We did the 11:15a Mendenhall helicopter tour and salmon bake through Princess. The flight tour was AMAZING but was definitely pricey and not everyone’s cup of tea. The salmon bake was fine… good food though not the best salmon of the trip and the advertised gold panning there was pretty simple. I did take a pan down to the river and found some gold though, so I really can’t complain (just a few flakes, but it was exciting and I got to scratch another item off the tour to-do list). They offered regular shuttles back to port, so we headed back and changed to cooler clothes (I wore thermal underwear and layers for the glacier visit, which was appropriate there; but was overheating in port where it was mid-60’s that day). We then walked through the port shopping area again to buy our souvenirs and then headed back to the ship for dinner and sleep.

Day 5: Skagway - We did the Princess' "Yukon Expedition & White Pass Scenic Railway" which took a bus up to Caribou Crossing and Carcross, and then connected with the White Pass train back to port. The order of these will vary based on times. Bus portion was pretty, chicken bbq was a little basic, Caribou Crossing was a generally interesting tourist spot (shops, dogs, dog cart ride, mini-museum on Yukon and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in region, and stuffed animal exhibit). The train ride back was beautiful. Suggestion is to be seated on the right side for the bus tour if going UP, and the right side on the train is a little better views on the ride DOWN. We were able to stand on the platforms between train cars for pictures, but we lucked out with unseasonably warm weather that day so it was temperate enough to be out there the whole ride without gloves. I also was able to get a Princess (Shore Excursion) Best Price Guarantee refund on this excursion. I’m going to link to my separate post on that though in case that info ends up being deemed too racy to stay on the boards ;)

Back in Skagway we got a snack and drinks at the Skagway Brewery, which is about as far from the ship as you can be and still be in town - still an very doable walk for us (or there’s a public shuttle for a few bucks). It ended up raining during our walk back (the only rain for this trip!) and we were sort of shopped out at that point regardless.

Day 6: Glacier Bay - The day started pretty early as we picked up rangers between 6 and 7a as we entered the region. The rangers had a table set up with info and small items for purchase at the lotus pool starting by about 7:15a, commentary started ~8:15, Jaw Point ~10:30, ~11 to 1ish was Margarie Glacier and ~2:30p was 2nd pass of South Marble Island (animal viewing spot, also passed in the AM maybe 7:30ish?). These glaciers are almost indescribable with words. I didn’t see significant calving at Margerie though. Also of note, the ship rotated so both sides were presented to the glacier - being on deck would allow longer viewing time, but you can stay on your balcony and get a good view for 1/2 the time if you so choose.

Evening was the 2nd Formal Night (and also the Captain’s Circle Reception at 6:45p where they gave out free cocktails and fancy hors d'oeuvres.

Day 7: College Fjord - first (and sadly the only) morning where I could sleep in because there wasn’t anything major happening first thing in the AM. Getting from Glacier Bay to College Fjord involves crossing open ocean so the ship had a little movement again. There were some various lectures that morning, including a talk by a local native culture Tlingit expert and a scheduled talk by the onboard naturalist (unfortunately cancelled due to her experiencing sudden illness). We got to College Fjord about 5:30 or 6ish, and spent a lot of time (and got close!) to Harvard Glacier. We were lucky and the glacier was pretty active, including a very impressive calving event towards the end of our time there. Like in Glacier Bay, the ship rotated so both sides got time facing the glacier. It was tough to balance packing (which I’d procrastinated on until later in the afternoon), glacier viewing, and MDR dinner. I’m not sure why we didn’t put on a little more steam and get there a little earlier, unless there was another ship in the channel earlier in the day perhaps?

Day 8: Whittier - we got to Whittier before midnight (so technically on day 7). Disembarkation was smooth and quick since there’s no CBP check at the port (remember that we cleared US CBP at YVR before departure). We did a ship excursion w/transfer, so our luggage left the night before and we didn’t see it again until we reached the hospitality center in Anchorage. Of note, Princess rents out a convention center (Eggan Ctr) in Anchorage until 6p and if you do a Princess Transfer or ShoreEx your luggage can be sent directly to the airport (luggage stored and available until 7p) or the hospitality center. They also run free shuttles from the hospitality center to the airport up until 6p. I’m a little fuzzy on whether this luggage service is offered to all guests or only to those who buy a Princess transfer / Shore Ex.

We did the Wildlife Center and Turnagain Tram ShoreEx. Both were interesting and with the included transfers were a reasonable price for what we got. Turnagain tram is at the Alyeska Resort in case anyone wants to look up more details. We were there about an hour and fifteen or maybe hour and a half?

We got to the Anchorage Hospitality Center (Eggan Ctr) about 3ish, collected our stuff, then got a taxi to our hotel. In And you generally call a taxi co for them to dispatch a cab to your location, though you can often find a few empty cabs near a big hotel, and I also hailed a cab on the street when an empty was sort of meandering around waiting between fares. Of note, Home2Suites, Homewood Inn, Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton Inn are NOWHERE near the hospitality center. Home2Suites also does not offer free shuttle service between hotel and anything downtown. Taxi rates were pretty cheap, something like $2.75 at meter start and then <$3/mile. A ride from Home2Suites to most anything in the historic downtown area was <$15 (plus tip), but a lot of back and forth does add up. Between Saturday and Sunday we did 5 cab rides so for the roughly $100 we probably would have had a similar expense to just stay at the Hilton downtown. YMMV

Day 8 & 9: Anchorage

Sat: After checking into the hotel we cabbed back downtown and did a trolley tour (was worth the $20 imho to get a good view of the town and helps one get their bearings). We then did dinner (which pushed us past the 6p closure of the hospitality center and why we needed to schlep luggage to hotel and then come back to downtown to sightsee). We tried to eat at 49th State Brewery but the wait was 45+ mins and the supposed view looked like it was mostly shipping containers at the active port. We ended up hiking down the hill to the Bridge Seafood Restaurant for dinner. It was pricey (I think entrees started at ~$25 and quickly went up) but some of the best fish of the trip, and the scenery was unique (it is built over a river where people were actively catching salmon). The bread pudding dessert was also glorious.

Sun: We checked out of our rooms about 11:30, cabbed downtown to catch a noon aurora borealis show (it was pretty, but DW got bored of it quickly - it’s basically high res photos of the northern lights set to classical music). We then walked and shopped our way over to the local weekend public market where we got some light lunch and shopped some more. We then cabbed back and headed to the airport to catch our 7:40p flight home.

Anchorage Airport: They do have a (poorly advertised) frequent traveler/premium cabin line at TSA (separate from TSA PreCheck line). Check-in and security was pretty routine, We got there about 5:30 and lines were pretty minimal, security waits did trend up starting around 6p that day (Sunday, 6/4) so something to consider if you fly out on a Sunday. We then did dinner in the airport to pass time. There’s a Norton’s that had very good seafood and has seating both inside and outside the secure area. Further down B gate there was also a Humpy’s, although I didn’t look at their menu. Airport food is never cheap, but the fish seemed fresh and tasty at Norton’s fwiw.

Onboard Experience:

Entertainment:

We did the one production show, and were unimpressed by the acoustics in the Princess Theater. Simple songs (fewer singers/instruments) sounded fine, but I felt the sound system was being overwhelmed when it was too many singers or especially when the full band was playing and I couldn’t understand the words anymore (basically the sound was becoming “muddy”). Music is all very personal, so just my opinion. We were so busy with other things though that we didn’t make any other evening shows.

Crew:

Service was universally great across the ship. Our specific waiter and assistant waiter were some of the best we’ve experienced across our now 10 cruises that DW and I have taken. Hard to explain why… the combination of very attentive service, very friendly and personable, very efficient, and a certain je ne sais quoi. Officers, especially Captain Michele, were very visible and making sure to circulate amongst passengers.

Cabin & Ship:

Balcony room (Cat. BE) on Starboard side aft, deck 8 (Emerald), room E703. Theres a patch of fully covered balconies there that are the larger balcony like what you find on Caribe deck. We never noticed noise from the lounge below, though being opposite a service door was a little loud the final evening (but not bad). Coral seemed a little… worn. DW commented that it just seemed to feel well loved but getting tired. Also the small size of the ship created some constraints on buffet offerings and seating, but walking from bow to stern was definitely faster and easier than on the giant ships now being launched. All other things being equal, Coral wouldn’t be my first pick of a ship, but I certainly would be willing to sail her again.

Dining:

We did the 2nd seating in the MDR and were able to get a table for 2 (this was requested in advance, and took no extra steps on the ship, YMMV). Service was *great*, food was all quite good in the MDR. Some Alaskan seafood was available at every dinner both in the MDR and the buffet. Buffet food was fine, hot was served hot and cold served cold… breakfasts got a little repetitive though, and seating during peak times could be hard to come by. Sit down lunches in the MDR often had a wait during the sea and scenic cruising days.

Final Thoughts:

Alaska was beautiful!!! I wish we had the time to be able to add the land portion on to get to Denali though. Glaciers are cool - both literally and figuratively (temps ranged from high 30’s on/near glacier to high 60’s in port so pack layers & hat and gloves are strongly recommended). Princess service was great, and I will definitely consider them as a strong contender for my next cruise vacation.

I’m 99% sure I got pictures of the MDR menus for every dinner, and 99% sure I saved the Patters too. Only downside is that all of the menu pics are pretty big, and the Patters aren’t digitized yet. If there’s sufficient interest, I’ll see about getting them uploaded over the weekend.

Separate but related thread documenting my successful Princess shore excursion price match on the Skagway tour.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2508236

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

Awesome review thank you. I would certainly be interested in the patters!

Julie

Awesome review thank you. I would certainly be interested in the patters!

Julie

Hi Julie - Thanks, glad you liked it. I'll see about trying to get the Patters together this weekend. When do you sail?

Not until 1st September so no rush! Previous cruises have taught me the daily 'Patters' holds a lot of valuable information like when you need to be back on board at Skagway (so I know what ferry I have to catch back from Haines!)

Thank you for the TR. Made me super excited for our trip. Ill be doing the helicopter tour and lumberjack show just like you did. Definetly would love the patters and menus. We arent sailing until early august but this trip will be different for me because i am pregnant. So ill be dreaming of those MDR menus 😄😄😄

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Yay, so excited to see a NB review! We sail 2 weeks from Saturday and I would love to see the Patters if possible. Thanks for all the great details!

Thank you for your detailed review.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

Thank you for the great review. We are sailing the NB passage in July and have the 4 day land tour after. I am beyond excited and this just amped me up even more!

We leave on the Coral at the end of June and would really appreciate the menus and patters! We're traveling with our fifteen month old daughter and our parents so we'd like to be able to get an idea of planning what dinners and activities we may want to do on our own and enlist the grandparents for some free babysitting.

Thanks for the report.

Thanks again for reading! I'll work on menus and patters this weekend. Still haven't finished unpacking and working on finding my desk at the office underneath all the papers on top ;p

Excellent review. Thanks for taking the time to post it.....:):):)

Bob

We are on the Coral in July so I would love to see the menus/patters as well. Thank you for your post, I took notes!

I started with the easier of the two requests and collected the menu pictures off my phone and got them collected in one file. The pictures are messy, sorry for the glare and reflections, but they got the job done for us on the ship (I'd usually snap a pic earlier in the day, and then we'd refer to it later as we were deciding between different options for the evening). Also remember that the buffet dinners were carrying some Alaskan seafood, so don't prematurely rule that out as a dinner option if a long meal in the MDR isn't quite what you're looking for one evening...

I made them into a single zip file (~50 mb) and hosted them to FileDropper.com cloud hosting site. The shortened personal link is http: //bit. ly/27MayMenusCOPrincess (disclosure: I'm running the link through my bit. ly account so I can see how many clicks the menus get; NOTE that there's 2 extra spaces in the address that need to be removed to actually navigate to the file). The file will be automatically deleted 30 days after the last download occurs so I can only promise the file will be available until early July '17, after that demand will keep the file hosting link alive so to speak.

Thank you for the review! Really enjoyed it!

Did you talk to anyone that did a salmon fishing excursion? We are about to book but there's surprisingly little about them on CC.

Thank again! We are going to follow your footsteps in six weeks.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for the review! Really enjoyed it!

 

Did you talk to anyone that did a salmon fishing excursion? We are about to book but there's surprisingly little about them on CC.

 

Thank again! We are going to follow your footsteps in six weeks.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks - glad you liked it! Unfortunately i didn't talk with anyone who did the salmon fishing excursion though. We were early for salmon to be running so we didn't see them in the streams either really (although someone got a nice one from the stream in Anchorage while we are at Bridge Seafood).

So my bad news is that after a visit to immediate care for a foot laceration (and tetanus booster shot) I'm supposed to be non-weight bearing for the next few days. I decided to make lemonade out of lemons (not that the foot cut is that bad... just awkwardly placed such that stepping will cause it to reopen and bleed) and digitized all the Patters (plus port maps for Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway) and got them online.

I made them into a single zip file (~25 mb) and hosted them to FileDropper.com cloud hosting site. The shortened personal link is http: //bit. ly/27MayPattersCoPrincess(disclosure: I'm running the link through my bit. ly account so I can see how many clicks the menus get; NOTE that there's 2 extra spaces in the address that need to be removed to actually navigate to the file). To get to the files, copy everything in bold above and paste it into your web browser address bar, then delete the two extra spaces before hitting enter/go; once on the filedropper site you'll need to click the gray 'Download This File' button to start your download. The file will be automatically deleted 30 days after the last download occurs so I can only promise the file will be available until early July '17, after that demand will keep the file hosting link alive so to speak.

The daily handouts make a cheap souvenir and they often end up being useful in surprising ways. My in-laws did an Alaska cruise a few years ago and we had Patters from a recent (non-Alaska) cruise they could look at to get an idea how stuff works. And now my parents are looking into Alaska next summer and these patters will be a useful data point for them. I hope other find the digital copies useful! :)

Awesome work jb008 - followed your instructions (took two attempts as I didn't follow them very carefully at first) but now have the patters on my computer :D Thank you. Better than any bedtime reading material I've ever found :)

Awesome work jb008 - followed your instructions (took two attempts as I didn't follow them very carefully at first) but now have the patters on my computer :D Thank you. Better than any bedtime reading material I've ever found :)

Thanks, glad you're finding the info fun! I also posted MDR menus earlier in the thread if you want to start craving a midnight snack from your bedtime reading :)

I have tried 4 times and it tells me it can't be found

Thank you for the review! Really enjoyed it!

 

Did you talk to anyone that did a salmon fishing excursion? We are about to book but there's surprisingly little about them on CC.

 

We were on the same cruise and did speak to someone that went salmon fishing, though I don't know if it was through Princess or not. They caught a massive salmon that they had processed and sent home. They also had a smaller one that the chef prepared for their dinner All pictures were quite impressive!

Perfect!! Thank you WDWDVC!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I have tried 4 times and it tells me it can't be found

http:@//bit.@ly/27MayPattersCoPrincess

Try the above: copy it into your web browser address bar get everything from the h in http to the 2nd s in Princess, delete the @ symbols out, and then hit enter/go/navigate to send your browser to the web address. It should take you to filedropper which is the file hosting site, there should be a gray download button part way down the screen to start the download. Sorry to be obtuse about this but the board strips some links