Northboun AK Cruise with Lots of Photos, Menus and Patters

[MVPinBoynton]

We have just published the review of our recent Northbound Alaska cruise on the Island Princess and seven day land tour. There are lots of photos of the many beautiful ports and inland Alaska; as well as of the ship, including the bar and restaurant menus, food photos and Princess Patters.

You can see the review on our website www.thepreismans.com. We hope it either brings back some fond memories of your Alaska cruise or helps in planning your cruise to see a most beautiful part of the country. Enjoy!

[Glaciers]

Wonderful review! Certainly one of the best that I've seen. Very comprehensive.

[MVPinBoynton]

Wonderful review! Certainly one of the best that I've seen. Very comprehensive.

 

Thanks Glaciers. I sure enjoyed the short time we were in Anchorage. It seems like a very nice city. Wish we could have done some exploring there. Next time we venture to Alaska, we will do it on our own and check it out.

[biojeep]

MVPinBoynton,

 

What was the number of your Princess cruisetour? I did not see any tour that included Seward. Loved your review & great pictures.

[MVPinBoynton]

MVPinBoynton,

 

What was the number of your Princess cruisetour? I did not see any tour that included Seward. Loved your review & great pictures.

 

Thanks. The MA7 cruise tour went to Kenai. The Kenai Fjords excursion from the resort went to Seward.

[pklein9747]

Thank you so much for your in-depth review, pictures, menus and patters...Whew...that is a lot of work and it is greatly appreciated. We have just booked our Alaska Cruisetour with Princess for the end of May 2015 and your review makes us wish it was much sooner. I'm definitely bookmarking this and know we will be rereading this again and again during the next 9 months.

[MVPinBoynton]

Thank you so much for your in-depth review, pictures, menus and patters...Whew...that is a lot of work and it is greatly appreciated. We have just booked our Alaska Cruisetour with Princess for the end of May 2015 and your review makes us wish it was much sooner. I'm definitely bookmarking this and know we will be rereading this again and again during the next 9 months.

 

So glad it will help you out. I know that I retread a lot of CC reviews in the months before our cruise.

[Illyria]

Wow, that's quite a review! Thank you, it was a very interesting read. We'll be doing a southbound sail on the Island Princess in a couple of months, I can't wait!

[brookeinmn]

Very nice review. Looks like you two had a wonderful trip!

[mapleleaves]

great review and photos! Even though I'm camping I always stop at the Lounge at the Kenai Princess. It's such a lovely peaceful spot overlooking that wonderful river. We've even camped at the Princess RV site just below the lodge.

 

Glad everything worked out so well. Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

p.s. Please add this link to the 2014 trip reports. It will be a great resource for people.

[MVPinBoynton]

great review and photos! Even though I'm camping I always stop at the Lounge at the Kenai Princess. It's such a lovely peaceful spot overlooking that wonderful river. We've even camped at the Princess RV site just below the lodge.

 

Glad everything worked out so well. Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

p.s. Please add this link to the 2014 trip reports. It will be a great resource for people.

 

I just loved the Kenai Princess. I could spend a lot of time there. The RV park looked nice too. Thanks for the reminder on the 2014 trip reports. Will do.

[harrodsfan]

I really enjoyed your Alaska review...so much that I then went on to read a lot of your other reviews and then your land tours.

I have now added to Tahiti to my list of future trips.

Your trips also brought up a lot of memories. I even think we stayed in the same hotel room you did in your trip to Bath.

Perhaps our paths will cross on a future trip!

Thanks so much for all your great reviews!

[TonyLon]

Mike,

 

Great Review - many thanks for taking the time to put it together.

 

Just one question:

We are on the identical itinerary next month (but on Coral rather than Island). We too are booked on early sitting for Fixed Dining but my paperwork shows it at 5.45 not 5.15 that you had. Was your time always 5.15 or did you discover it was at the earlier time when you got on board. Very tempted to try and change to 2nd sitting if that is the case.

Tony

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MVPinBoynton]

I really enjoyed your Alaska review...so much that I then went on to read a lot of your other reviews and then your land tours.

I have now added to Tahiti to my list of future trips.

Your trips also brought up a lot of memories. I even think we stayed in the same hotel room you did in your trip to Bath.

Perhaps our paths will cross on a future trip!

Thanks so much for all your great reviews!

 

I am so glad you have enjoyed our website. Your eyes must be very tired this morning. :D Tahiti is quite special, go for it. That was a very nice B&B in bath.

[MVPinBoynton]

Mike,

 

Great Review - many thanks for taking the time to put it together.

 

Just one question:

We are on the identical itinerary next month (but on Coral rather than Island). We too are booked on early sitting for Fixed Dining but my paperwork shows it at 5.45 not 5.15 that you had. Was your time always 5.15 or did you discover it was at the earlier time when you got on board. Very tempted to try and change to 2nd sitting if that is the case.

Tony

 

I am so glad you asked that. In fact I am going to modify the review to mention that the booking did in fact say 5:45 PM and they did the old switcheroo. I highly recommend that you go for late or open seating.

[Snook]

Enjoyed your review very much. You really covered everything well. We were there two weeks earlier and had a wonderful time. My camera broke within minutes after we boarded the bus into Denali Park. Luckily we had our cell phones which took fairly good photos. We had the same bus driver to Seward. She was very cute, entertaining and 'young'. We had a lot of fun with her.

[TonyLon]

Thanks for prompt reply.

Re dinner sitting times.

Interesting to hear you say that you too thought that you were on 5.45 and in fact ended up on 5.15.

Have just logged into the Princess Cruise Personalizer and it shows a choice of 3 sittings for Fixed times of 5.15, 5.45 & 8.00. Was there any evidence of 3 sittings on your trip?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MVPinBoynton]

Enjoyed your review very much. You really covered everything well. We were there two weeks earlier and had a wonderful time. My camera broke within minutes after we boarded the bus into Denali Park. Luckily we had our cell phones which took fairly good photos. We had the same bus driver to Seward. She was very cute, entertaining and 'young'. We had a lot of fun with her.

 

Tina was a gem. She sure didn't look old enough to be driving a big bus; but she was good at it. I hope some of our pics covered some you missed.

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks for prompt reply.

Re dinner sitting times.

Interesting to hear you say that you too thought that you were on 5.45 and in fact ended up on 5.15.

Have just logged into the Princess Cruise Personalizer and it shows a choice of 3 sittings for Fixed times of 5.15, 5.45 & 8.00. Was there any evidence of 3 sittings on your trip?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Only 2. If you look at the Dailies tab in the review, you will see dining room seating times. No 5:45.

[TheInnocentAge]

We have just published the review of our recent Northbound Alaska cruise on the Island Princess and seven day land tour.

 

Wow, great review as always from you guys!

 

We've only done the Caribbean so far, but are beginning to research the Alaska options, and this review will certainly help that along.

 

Thanks!

Bill

[biojeep]

MVPinBoynton,

 

Was there any seasickness on the Kenai Fjord tour? I know a lot of people say that occurs in that region.

 

Do you have copies of the extra tours/excursions that are available at each land stop? Did you book your extra land excursions independently or did you only use Princess activities to fill in the free time you had on land? If so I would love to know what they are.

 

I know many people say that DIY land tours are better & less expensive than cruisetours. How would you rate the MA7 tour in terms of value & expense. This is the tour that we are looking into for 2015 because it includes Seward.

 

Thanks again for the great review!!

[MVPinBoynton]

MVPinBoynton,

 

Was there any seasickness on the Kenai Fjord tour? I know a lot of people say that occurs in that region.

 

Do you have copies of the extra tours/excursions that are available at each land stop? Did you book your extra land excursions independently or did you only use Princess activities to fill in the free time you had on land? If so I would love to know what they are.

 

I know many people say that DIY land tours are better & less expensive than cruisetours. How would you rate the MA7 tour in terms of value & expense. This is the tour that we are looking into for 2015 because it includes Seward.

 

Thanks again for the great review!!

 

I didn't keep copies of the excursions available from the Princess hotels, since they appeared to be the same ones that were available online. All land excursions were ones available through Princess. It was too much ofa challenge to try to find land tours that would be able to come to the Princess properties. Especially for Kenai, which is where I would have booked a private tour. Glad I didn't, since the Princess one was very good.

 

I thought the MA7 tour was very good. It allowed me to enjoy the scenery much more than had I been driving. Next time I would do it on my own. The only problem with the MA7 and most of the Princess tours is that you have to go to the McKinley Lodge; which to me was a waste of time.

[MVPinBoynton]

MVPinBoynton,

 

Was there any seasickness on the Kenai Fjord tour? I know a lot of people say that occurs in that region.

 

I forgot to reply to the seasickness question. I didn't think it was that bad; but we took our ginger pills. There was movement, more so when we were stopped looking at things than when we were moving. I didn't see anyone that appeared to be real sick; but I was outside most of the time.

[MVPinBoynton]

MVPinBoynton,

 

Was there any seasickness on the Kenai Fjord tour? I know a lot of people say that occurs in that region.

 

Do you have copies of the extra tours/excursions that are available at each land stop? Did you book your extra land excursions independently or did you only use Princess activities to fill in the free time you had on land? If so I would love to know what they are.

 

I know many people say that DIY land tours are better & less expensive than cruisetours. How would you rate the MA7 tour in terms of value & expense. This is the tour that we are looking into for 2015 because it includes Seward.

 

Thanks again for the great review!!

 

I was incorrect in the previous post. The Eielson Shuttle was not through Princess. It had to be booked through the National Park website.

[mapleleaves]

just giving this a bump since there are few Princess cruisetour questions.

Excellent trip report!