Star Princess Alaska Southbound June 10-17

[newdestination]

Great review and photos! Thanks for doing it. I have been dreaming of going back to Alaska since our Star Princess cruise and visit to Denali NP last June.

[azbirdmom]

Thanks for the review! We are in Alaska withdrawal from our trip that returned earlier this month and I'm enjoying your pictures and commentary.

 

The last two years we had gone in August but this year we chose late May. In August you can get much closer to Hubbard Glacier as much of the ice has melted. Beautiful nonetheless but I do like to get a bit closer to Hubbard. Glacier Bay on the other hand is spectacular in any season.

[olesiabr]

Okay I'm going to try to finish this even though real life has intervened!

 

I have now counted and have come home with 141 photos from the all inclusive package...

 

I will say a few words about entertainment on the ship:

 

The movies playing were Beauty and the Beast, Sing, Passengers, The Magnificent Seven and a few others.

 

The production shows were so so in my opinion, although we all truly enjoyed the comedian and saw all three of his shows. We caught quite a few of the naturalist presentations including the story about Romeo the wolf. My daughter even bought the book and we made a point of visiting the wolf at the Mendenhall Glacier exhibit.

 

We enjoyed listening to the Amethyst Trio both on the 5th floor and at Crooners Lounge. They are a very talented group of people!

 

My husband and I both enjoyed the spa and I took advantage of several of the specials. The gym was a little tight, and it was hard to get at the hand weights because there always seemed to be a program going on in the exercise room.

 

My 15 year old seemed to get bored at times. He spent quite a bit of time in the library reading books. Even though I officially signed him up, he was in no way interested in the teen club. My daughter attended a few of the programs for the 12 year old group in the kids club.

We ate most of our meals and attended all of the shows together.

 

Skagway:

We rented a Jeep for the day with Alaska Green Jeep Tours and travelled as far as Emerald Lake. We made the usual stops including Carcross, the desert and all the scenic turn outs. We spent about an hour at the Tutshi Dog Mushing Camp and spent time with Michelle and her 2 week old puppies. This was the highlight of the trip for my daughter!

 

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[olesiabr]

Juneau:

We did a combo whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier tour with Dolphin Jet Boat. I thought we would be bored of glaciers by this time but Mendenhall was beautiful! My husband and son walked to the falls while my daughter and I explored some trails and went to the visitors center. Keep in mind we had only a little over an hour with this tour and could easily have spent 3 hours at Mendenhall, especially if it was your first glacier on a north-bound cruise.

 

The whale watching was incredible. We probably saw about 20 humpback whales, and at times it was tough to decide in which direction to look! This is definitely not to be missed in Juneau.

 

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[olesiabr]

Ketchikan:

 

Our tour at this port was with Southeast Sea Kayaks to Orcas Cove. The weather was truly miserable: cool and raining. Kayaking was great, and again the scenery was gorgeous. However I just couldn't feel my toes by the end of it I was so cold and damp! I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to bother reaching into my dry bag, I am waiting on pur guide to email me some pictures that he took with his personal camera. I'm sure this would have been much more enjoyable if the weather had not been so unpleasant!

 

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[olesiabr]

Our last day at sea was very welcome, a chance to do a little bit of packing and a few loads of laundry. It is not advertised as such, but the cruising was extremely scenic as we neared British Columbia. My husband and I spent some time just watching the wake, enjoying the mountains on either side, the occasional wildlife sightings including whales. The weather was lovely, and we finally stayed up late enough to see a sunset!

 

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[olesiabr]

I will conclude here and I'm happy to answer any questions. I need to figure out how to post this on the sticky in the Alaska boards.

 

Happy sailing to all!

 

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[Working 2 Cruise]

Thank you for your wonderful review. Alaska is fantastic!

[JBeaty0507]

Thanks so much for the review! We are taking this same cruise later this summer and are very excited about it!

[stocks]

Thanks for the review.We will be on the star on july 22nd.We sailed the 1st cruise on the star 2002.We have sailed over 100 days since on her.

 

Don&Joan

[RoperDK]

Thank you for the great review! We are headed southbound on the Coral in August. Can you tell me about The Inn at Whittier? We are staying there before our cruise. There is so little information about The Inn out there! Did you eat at the restaurant or have drinks at the lounge? Was there some kind of transportation option from The Inn to the port? I know it is within walking distance of the port, but getting our luggage there may be an issue. Can you check luggage at the port before 12:30 even though you can't actually check in? I hate to admit it, but we might need to make a couple of trips to roll it over there if they don't have any transportation! :o

 

Thanks in advance,

Dawn

[olesiabr]

We wheeled our luggage over to the port about 11:30am and checked it in with the porters. It was about a 500 yard walk. See the attached image. The square area is the port.

 

They do have a shuttle at the Inn, and when I inquired (because it WAS raining) I was told the shuttle could drop off our luggage, but apparently not take passengers. Weird.

 

We ate dinner at Swiftwater Seafood, which I highly recommend. The service at the bar of the Inn was a little begrudging, maybe we caught the bartender at a bad time.

 

We had breakfast at the Inn and it was just ok. The egg scramble was good but the waffle was terrible. We showed up at 8 a.m., which was opening time, and they looked like they were all barely awake.

 

Our room was fantastic, we had one of the townhouses.

 

I still think it was the best choice to be made in Whittier. Make sure you take a Prince William Sound Cruise!

 

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[olesiabr]

Oops

 

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[RoperDK]

Thank you olesiabr! That's exactly the information that I was looking for! We are looking forward to our stay in Whittier. It sounds both beautiful and quirky. We can handle the walk to the ship as long as our luggage is transported for us. Seems odd that they can't take passengers. We will try Swiftwater Seafood. We are taking the 26 Glacier Cruise during the day.

 

Thanks again!

Dawn

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[Clarea]

Excellent review and great photos, thanks!

[Sea Hag]

Of all your wonderful photos, I like the moose ones best. Not surprising since I like moose the best. Thanks for the pics.

[olesiabr]

Loved the entire trip! After spending a week back in the sweltering heat I'd love to be back. I'm jealous of all of you that are still in the planning phase!

 

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[JanetAlice]

We wheeled our luggage over to the port about 11:30am and checked it in with the porters. It was about a 500 yard walk. See the attached image. The square area is the port.

 

They do have a shuttle at the Inn, and when I inquired (because it WAS raining) I was told the shuttle could drop off our luggage, but apparently not take passengers. Weird.

 

We ate dinner at Swiftwater Seafood, which I highly recommend. The service at the bar of the Inn was a little begrudging, maybe we caught the bartender at a bad time.

 

We had breakfast at the Inn and it was just ok. The egg scramble was good but the waffle was terrible. We showed up at 8 a.m., which was opening time, and they looked like they were all barely awake.

 

Our room was fantastic, we had one of the townhouses.

 

I still think it was the best choice to be made in Whittier. Make sure you take a Prince William Sound Cruise!

 

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Thanks for your great review. We are doing the same itinerary on the Coral next month. I would like to do the 26 Glacier cruise as well. We are coming down by train from Anchorage that morning via a non-princess transfer. I was just double checking that there are Princess porters right at the dock to take your luggage so we can take the glacier cruise. From you review it sounded like you did the boat ride the day before you embarked.

[olesiabr]

We did, and left our luggage at the Inn on Friday afternoon.

 

On Saturday, we were able to give our luggage to the Princess porter at 11:30am, even though check in did not start till 12:30. Plenty of folks were getting on the glacier cruise just before we were able to get on the Star

 

You should be fine!

 

 

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[samandlibby]

For your cold and rainy day in Ketchikan, would you have recommended rain pants? What clothing would have made it more bearable?

 

 

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[RoperDK]

Where do you drop off luggage in Whittier? It looks like there are covered walkways all the way to the train. Are the porters there or are they at the building where you check in?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dawn

[olesiabr]

For your cold and rainy day in Ketchikan, would you have recommended rain pants? What clothing would have made it more bearable?

 

I WAS wearing quick dry pants and a waterproof top layer jacket. The kayak company also gave us pants and a top and then we had an apron that pretty much sealed us into the kayak.

 

It's just that there was already water in the kayak, my shoes were kind of wet to begin with. I wasn't comfortable with my vision when I had the hood pulled up, so I just used one of those wide-brimmed waterproof hats. It was pretty much a light steady rain and after a while you just get wet no matter what you're wearing!

 

I think some of the locals in Juno were joking that Ketchikan weather is fit only for a duck!

 

 

 

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[olesiabr]

Where do you drop off luggage in Whittier? It looks like there are covered walkways all the way to the train. Are the porters there or are they at the building where you check in?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dawn

We were there so early that the porters were in the center of the parking lot which is outside of the covered walkway. I just had my 15 year-old wheel all of our luggage over to the porters and then they took care of it. It was maybe a 15-foot distance.

 

If you are coming off the train, perhaps there are porters that meet you at the train. We were walking from the hotel...

 

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[loretde]

What a great review! Thank you so much. I am getting more excited by the day. 60 and counting!