Review of Dawn Princess, Part 1, long

[lavdh]

After lurking on this website for about 5 months, I guess the least I can do in return is write a review of my cruise. First of all, a big "Thank You!!" to everyone, especially Budget Queen and Murray)!

We just returned from a fantastic cruise on the Dawn Princess. Alaska is breathtaking. Before the cruise, I prayed to God for good weather, and we didn't have one rainy day the entire cruise. On June 11, we flew in to Vancouver around 9 P.M. Going through customs was a breeze(5 min.) As a matter of fact, we thought all the airline employees had gone home, because we didn't see anyone until we got to customs.

We spent a day in Vancouver walking through Gastown and touring Stanley Park. We took the carriage ride (two for one coupon in the Entertainment book). We ate at The Fish House in Stanley Park (very good and a two for one coupon). The next morning, we took the bus to Granville Island. There is a great fresh market there. After that, we had planned to go to the IMAX to see the Alaska film as a preview for our trip (another two for one coupon), but they had changed the show for that day so we decided to get on the boat instead. Embarkation was quick. It took only about 10-15 minutes. The Dawn was a beautiful ship. We thought the food was great. I especially enjoyed the Alaskan King Crab, the lobster, and the baked Alaska. We saw about three shows which we all enjoyed-there were ten of us. While on board, we saw humpback whales, dall porpoises, sea otters, bald eagles, and harbor seals. My cousin was out on deck late at night when a whole pod of whales passed by, but it was too dark to take a picture.

Our first port was Skagway. Tendering was a real pain. We had scheduled independent tours at 6:30 and 7:30, but the only people they were letting off the boat at that time were people scheduled for Princess tours. They really didn't give us a hard time about it, but you could tell they weren't overly pleased either. My advice is to tell them that your tour is scheduled for earlier than it really is so you can get there in time. My husband went fishing with Ketchikan Charters. He loved it. There were only three of them on the boat, and they all caught one king salmon. Apparently, you can only catch one each. My husband was especially pleased when he returned and found out that all those who'd taken the Princess tour had been shut out. While he, my father, and my cousin were fishing, my mother and I took the Misty Fjords flight with Island Wings. I thought it was fantastic. The scenery was amazing. I couldn't snap pictures fast enough. Michelle, our pilot, did a great job of providing us with information about the area.

The next day we pulled in to Juneau. First we went whale watching with Captain Larry. I loved this as I've always wanted to go whale watching. We saw several whales, but unfortunately none of them breached; however, we did get some good pictures of the tail.

Later, we went on a helicopter ride to land on a glacier. My cousins loved this. I enjoyed seeing the crevices and walking around. I just wish that our guide had been a little more talkative. Unless you asked questions, he wasn't very forthcoming with information.

In Skagway, the ten of us rented two cars and followed Murray's guide mile by mile. Everyone agreed that it was an awesome ride. The same tour through Princess was $109 per person. For us, it was $22 per person when we split the cost of the car. We stopped for lunch at the Cinnamon Cache. The cinnamon buns were okay, but we all loved the homemade sandwiches. They were so big that we split them. Later in the day, a few of us went to the hotel that claimed to have the world's best apple pie. To me, it was just apple pie-nothing special.

 

more on Glacier Bay and the land tour later...

[Traveller Mal]

Fantastic Lavdh glad you had a fantastic trip. I cannot wait to see the second part or any photos, for us just a little under two months to go for the Dawn.

[tee_wrecks]

We were on the same ship. Glad to see someone felt the same way about tendering as us. It was a pain...

 

Upon reflection, I wish we'd done some kind of tour in Skagway because I felt it was by far the weakest of all the port cities.

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your review and your pics. I already posted a condensed report of the cruise on this board in 3 parts and will have a full report and pics on my website in about 10 days. (Got a couple thousand photos to edit down to a hundred for the site)

[garycarla]

We tied up on our recent visit to Skagway on the Dawn. Seeing the town takes very little time. We did a glacier tour with TEMSCO helicopters there. It was great and with the chopper based only about 10 minutes from the ship, it was even better. We did an early afternnon trip, then had them drop us off in town and we walked back.

[GrannyMouse]

Great review!! We leave on August 8. Did they have the lobster and crab legs on the regular menu or was that a special dinner?

[lavdh]

The lobster and crab legs were in the dining room, I believe on formal nights.

[MichTraveler]

The lobster and crab legs were in the dining room, I believe on formal nights.

And if the same as Sun Princess this year, they are on different nights. So you can load up on lobster one night and Alaskan King crab legs another.

[Poodlesnoot]

I think the OP made a mistake and meant tendering somewhere other than Skagway since she said it twice and Skagway would be the last stop northbound not the first.

 

Lobster was on formal night for us (last week) and king crab the night before.

[tee_wrecks]

Good catch. I was on this cruise and we tendered in Ketchikan, not Skagway. Personally I would have preferred it the other way around.

[lavdh]

Oops! Your right! The first port was Ketchikan not Skagway. I wrote this late at night.