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My detailed Alaska trip report

CruisingGoddess

By CruisingGoddess,
in Alaska

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CruisingGoddess

CruisingGoddess

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We leaving for our Hawaii cruise in 9 days and I'm determined to write my detailed review of my Alaska cruise before then!! So here goes!! Feel free to post any questions in the meantime or send me an e-mail!

 

About Our Trip

Dates: July 1-12, 2010

Pre-cruise portion: 2 nights in Anchorage, 2 nights in Denali

Ship: Island Princess (July 5, 2010 sailing)

Cruise Itinerary: Whittier, Hubbard Glacier, Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, Vancouver

 

About Us

Chris and I are a married couple of DINKS (Double Income No Kids) in our early 30's. We live near Dallas, Texas but are originally from Los Angeles, California. This was our 4th cruise but 1st cruise on Princess. We have sailed Disney twice and Royal Caribbean once.

 

Trip Photos

+ All of my Alaska photos

+ My Alaska photo book

 

Trip Report

Below are links by day to my DETAILED trip report with photos:

 

+ Day 1: Anchorage, Alaska

+ Day 2: Anchorage to Denali National Park

+ Day 3: Denali National Park

+ Day 4: Denali National Park to Anchorage

 

More coming soon...

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JAKcruiser

JAKcruiser

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Really enjoying your trip report and photos. You've done an excellent job so far. Now, I'm anxiously awaiting the cruise report.

 

We'll probably be in Anchorage next July 4 so it's nice to know what they do to celebrate. I hadn't thought about the lack of fireworks since its so light out.

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CruisingGoddess

CruisingGoddess

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Which Glacier Day did you prefer, Hubbard or Glacier Bay?

 

Hi, vbmom87!!!!

 

I'd have to say Glacier Bay because it was longer, more glaciers, better weather, and more wildlife. However, I was happy to see the gorgeous blue ice in Hubbard Glacier and the calving there! We barely saw any calving in Glacier Bay.

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ruespal

ruespal

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Many of your photos are stunning- what kind of camera were you using? We're doing the Island Princess northbound in May. Never cruised, never been to Alaska and I have several cameras- trying to narrow down my choices as to which cameras to take. Thanks for all your commentaries and pictures- they not only help a great deal- they are Great for getting excited about our vacation!

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CruisingGoddess

CruisingGoddess

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Many of your photos are stunning- what kind of camera were you using? We're doing the Island Princess northbound in May. Never cruised, never been to Alaska and I have several cameras- trying to narrow down my choices as to which cameras to take. Thanks for all your commentaries and pictures- they not only help a great deal- they are Great for getting excited about our vacation!

 

We used 2 cameras on this trip: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1, which we bought for this cruise because it has 12x optical zoom, and the Canon PowerShot SD790 IS. We definitely prefer the Lumix over the PowerShot because of the zoom. I highly recommend you bring the camera with the most optical zoom to Alaska because often the things you'll be taking photos of (glaciers, wildlife, etc.) will be far away. We're really happy with the Lumix because it has such a high optical zoom but isn't a bulky SLR. It still easily fits in my husband's pocket or my purse and I can carry it around with a wrist strap. It was also very affordable. We bought it for $180 at Costco but I see that it's $170 on Amazon! It's 10 MP, which is good enough for us. They also have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, which is 12 MP, but with the same optical zoom and $100 more.

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jody

jody

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Thanks for sharing! Your review was very helpful and I thought your photos were great, especially being taken on a small, portable camera. I figured you must have had a huge DSLR, due to the nice quality of your pics.

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4_Leaf_Clover

4_Leaf_Clover

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If you dont mind, could you please give me an estimate of how much the Mendenhall Glacier Dog Sled Tour through TEMSCO Helicopters and the Anan Creek Bear Viewing through Family Air Tours costs per person? Feel free to email me at ashliecrowson@yahoo.com if you dont want to reply on here. Thanks and thank you for the review! I really enjoyed reading it and looking at the photos!!

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CruisingGoddess

CruisingGoddess

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If you dont mind, could you please give me an estimate of how much the Mendenhall Glacier Dog Sled Tour through TEMSCO Helicopters and the Anan Creek Bear Viewing through Family Air Tours costs per person? Feel free to email me at ashliecrowson@yahoo.com if you dont want to reply on here. Thanks and thank you for the review! I really enjoyed reading it and looking at the photos!!

 

TEMSCO's prices may change for 2011 but they charged us $479 per person.

 

Family Air Tours has their prices on their web site here:

 

http://www.familyairtours.com/page2_Anan.html

 

It's $475 for Anan Creek + $110 if you want to add Misty Fjords. However, if you book before Jan. 15th (which we did), you get 15% off.

 

Glad my review has been helpful!! Keep any questions coming!

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CruisingGoddess

CruisingGoddess

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Gee, you spent hours on all of this review! Thanks alot. We are going on the 12 day Princess northbound cruisetour in May. Can't wait. I learned alot from you. You are great to have done this.

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed the review and it was helpful! You're very welcome!! It's the least I could do since the people on this site helped so much in planning my trip!!

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