Star Princess Alaska Southbound June 10-17

Thanks to all those that post their experiences here on cruise critic! Between Trip Advisor and this site I felt very comfortable planning a DIY week on the Kenai Peninsula prior to our cruise.

In summary, my family of 4 (DH 49, DS 15 and DD 12) had a wonderful time!

We arrived at Anchorage airport in the early afternoon on Saturday, June 3 and DH grabbed a cab to the downtown Avis location while the rest of us waited on our checked bag. The one way ANC to Whittier car rental was significantly cheaper from the downtown location.

We made a quick pit stop at Fred Meyer for supplies and soon were driving by views like this:

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Our first 2 nights were spent at the Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood. Our rate included a trip on the tram as well as a $50 food credit. I'm glad we took advantage of this our first evening because the weather was lovely! DH was posing near a 3 foot wall of snow in his shorts!

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Once my snow deprived kids had their fill of the cold white stuff we had a light dinner at the cafe at the top of the tram which was probably our most uninspired meal in Alaska, but still not half bad!

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I will pause here to say a few words about weather and packing. It was generally cool to cold for us coming from the south. Every day (except for Ketchikan) there was some rain and some sun. There were times that we used sunglasses and sunscreen and other days that we were bundled up with hats, scarfs and gloves. The boys did wear shorts multiple times. Bottom line: be prepared for everything.

We all had a wheeled carry on for our Kenai week that contained active, quick dry clothing and casual jeans and tops.

Our one checked bag that contained our cruise clothes pretty much lived in the trunk of the rental car for the first week.

We all had Columbia tri climate jackets. My daughter and I had an extra warm layer (packable down) each and there were times we swapped the fleece layer for the down.

I would be happy to elaborate if anyone has additional questions.

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On our first full day in Girdwood we set out for the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We knew we were not in (Ar)Kansas anymore when the valet pointed out the bear tracks on the hood of the rental!

We spent close to 3 hours at the center. They had a wonderful gift shop and even though it was pretty cold we walked to all the exhibits.

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On the recommendation of staff at the hotel we then hiked to Byron Glacier, an easy .8mile each way

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Dinner that night was wonderful at Jack Sprat. Every dish was excellent.

We were turning in early most of those first nights even though it never truly got dark at night. It was actually a relief to have inside cabins on the ship in order to have some darkness.

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The next day we managed to sleep until 8am, had breakfast and got on the road for Homer, Alaska. We stopped in Soldotna for an excellent halibut fish and chips lunch. We saw gorgeous scenery, moose and countless eagles. We stopped at the Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik. The view coming into Homer is stunning.

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Looking forward to the rest of your review. Your pictures are great!

The next two nights we stayed at the Homer Inn and Spa.... wonderful! The view from the deck was incredible. We enjoyed the hot tub and even managed side by side massages for mom and dad after picking up some Thai take out for the kids.

Homer is a wonderful quirky town with great restaurants and warm people. The thing to do here is fish and take a plane tour to view bears. We did neither, though! The next day we puttered around the beach and spit, ate at The Little Mermaid (wonderful) and caught Wonder Woman at the restored Homer Theater

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And of course keeping with tradition sampled the local beer

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Nice photos! Enjoying your review and sounds like you are having a wonderful time.

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Beautiful...makes me wish our Alaska cruise was this year instead of next year.:*

Outstanding pictures......:):):)

Bob

Thanks! This is the first trip I didn't drag an extra camera. All photos were taken using my Samsung Galaxy 7. I didn't attempt any wildlife images but glaciers and sunsets were fair game!

We did have a great time and it's fun reviewing the photos as I spend 3 hours at DFW!

Speaking of wildlife we encountered some adolescent moose in a parking lot after the movie, no doubt up to no good!

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The next morning we decided to take every scenic route available on our way to Seward, including a 30 mile gravel cut off around Lake Spilak. That's when this dude cut in front of us and loped along for five hundred yards or so, occasionally turning around to see if we were still there

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After driving through more amazing scenery, we entered Seward. We made a stop at the local Safeway and then located the Driftwood Suites, which I reserved through VRBO. The rate was cheaper than the four of us staying in one room at the Harbour 360, and this was a two bedroom apartment with room for six, including a washer and dryer. Wonderful brand new facility on Madison and 4th which is roughly midway between the Marina and the Sea Life Center. The kids spend a few hours here while we, you guessed it, enjoyed the local beer

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The next morning we were on the 8 a.m. Kenai fjords National Park tour. This was freezing cold but amazing! We saw puffins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, pods of orcas, a few shy humpbacks and an amazing calving glacier. The water was a bit rough and I did see a few folks turn a little green.

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After a few loads of laundry and warming up we had dinner at Ray's. It wasn't as special as Jack Sprat or The Little Mermaid, but solid old-fashioned seafood/steakhouse vibe with a gorgeous view of the marina. I forgot to mention that the night before we ate at the Seward Brewery and it was a step above typical bar food.

Now at this point I will say that I gave my husband the job of asking a few locals how long it would take us to travel from Seward to the Whittier tunnel. Two people told him 45 minutes to an hour. One person told him to be safe he should give it an hour and a half. So we left at 9 to make the 10:30 tunnel time.

Now of course I had printed out MapQuest maps for our entire route because as I figured we had Sprint voice but absolutely no data. After we slowly drove through the port oogling the Radiance of the Seas that had arrived that morning, I happened to glance down at the mileage for the Seward to Whittier trip... 88 miles!

Yikes! Apparently two of the people he had asked were speed demons! Suffice it to say that trip was a nail-biter but we made it to the Whittier tunnel with about five minutes to spare. There is a 15 minute window so you need to be lined up by 10:45 to make the 10:30 tunnel time. Thank goodness because we had to return the car, drop our bags at the Inn at Whittier and board the Major Marine Surprise Glacier tour.

This Glacier tour was night and day to the one the day before in Seward. My boys were not happy that I made them take long underwear underneath their waterproof pants. It was warm and sunny and the bay was like a lake... smooth as glass. Now honestly we did not see much wildlife except for stellar sea lions and some marine birds but the glaciers wers amazing and we saw calving every 5 minutes. They fished a chunk of glacier ice out of the water and made margaritas (yes please! ).

It is definitely worth taking both tours as Kenai fjords and Prince William sound are very different and have much to offer. We are boat and water people and this is why we chose to tour the Kenai Peninsula for a week instead of trying to do Denali and Fairbanks.

For dinner we enjoyed Swiftwater Seafood and again... local beer!

The Inn at Whittier looked like a haunted house. Again the views were amazing and I think we were starting to get immune to beauty.

My husband saw the Star Princess arrive around midnight, lights blazing. We were looking forward to finally unpacking and staying put for a week!

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Whittier embarkation:

We had to check out of our hotel at 11 a.m. so basically just walked over to the port. They were absolutely, positively not starting check in until 12:30. My son meandered back to the hotel lobby to use their Wi-Fi and we just kind of hung out after dropping our one checked bag, 4 carry-ons and our two cases of seltzer water. By 1 p.m. we were eating lunch in the dining room. By the time we were finished our luggage had hit our rooms. We had two inside cabins next to each other which worked out just fine. At times I wish we had a balcony for the fresh air and the availability to see what was going on outside, but I finally had a few good night's sleep with total darkness. Even a little light seeping around the curtains tends to wake me up in the morning. Unlike the day before which was sunny and relatively warm, today was drizzly and cold all day, so we enjoyed exploring the ship.

For those keeping track:

1. We received the blue bags

2. We had a full dish of butter during our embarkation lunch but after that they were doled out one at a time

3. We had anytime dining and there was a line up between 6:15 and 7:15 every day. We had the best luck in Portofino dining room which had 5:15 early traditional dining and after 7 opened up for anytime.

4. We had the $99 photo package and I'm pretty sure I came home with over a hundred photos. My kids may never forgive me for this!

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Hubbard Glacier

This day was cold and rainy. There were definitely some moderate seas in the early morning and afternoon. Hubbard Glacier was amazingly long however we did not get very close.

I think today was the first formal night. Both my boys had suits with ties. For the second formal night they wore their suit without a tie and then I think they wore the pants one more evening. The smart casual evenings they wore their dark jeans with collared shirts. I honestly didn't notice what anybody else wore, but you could definitely get away with the guys not having a suit. We ate in the dining room every night. My daughter and I had dresses for the two formal nights, and wore tunic tops with black leggings and/or flared black pants the other five nights. We got away with one pair of dress shoes for the entire week. I am proud of the fact that we all wore everything that we brought and I feel that I packed effectively for this trip, thanks to all the help I received on these boards!

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Glacier Bay

Definitely the highlight of the cruise! The day started out cold and cloudy but ended up beautiful and sunny! I'll let the photos speak for themselves

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After driving through more amazing scenery, we entered Seward. We made a stop at the local Safeway and then located the Driftwood Suites, which I reserved through VRBO. The rate was cheaper than the four of us staying in one room at the Harbour 360, and this was a two bedroom apartment with room for six, including a washer and dryer. Wonderful brand new facility on Madison and 4th which is roughly midway between the Marina and the Sea Life Center. The kids spend a few hours here while we, you guessed it, enjoyed the local beer

 

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May I ask where the second photo was taken in Seward? What a beautiful shot!

That was just to the left of the Aquarium... really, gorgeous views everywhere!

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Excellent review. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and your photos were amazing. We are going in June of 2018 and reading your review really makes me anxious for our trip. Thank you!:)