Island Princess Review SB 7/17 & Land Tour

[fourdarlings]

Who: DH (38) and myself ( 37)

 

July 14

 

Depart Toronto at 8 am, but flight is 35 minutes late departing. Arrive in Chicago at 9:15 am, with time to grab a sandwich on the run and catch the connecting flight, which was leaving at 9:55 am. Arrive in Anchorage at 1:15 pm-the flight was about 6 hours and 20 minutes, but very smooth flying. We were mey by a Princess Rep. and were at the Anchorage Hilton by 2:30 pm. Our room was nice, in the West Wing, but the hallways are quite dingy looking and the shower knob fell of in my hand. It definitely needs to be updated. We dined at the Glacier Brewhouse for dinner-the cheese pot and chowder are excellent. My dh had the salmon and it was good, but I had the halibut and it was tasteless. It rained off and on all day.

 

July 15

 

Luggage had to be outside your door by 6 am. We went around the corner for breakfast at the Downtown Deli and it was very good. We left the Hilton at 10 amd and arrived at McKinley Princess lodge at 1:15 pm after a short break in Sheep Creek to stretch. It was rainy and overcast so we never did see the mountain. (those on our tour joked that there really is no mountain, but it is merely a marketing ploy!) We walked the walking trails and it is very nice scenery. The lodge is secluded and we had a beautiful room-#529 which had a king bed and a separate sitting are with vaulted ceiling. In the afternoon we curled up by the massive stone fireplace in the main lodge and read. We also saw a movie there which was a photography show set to music-it was very good. At dinner and breakfast the next morning at their new restaurant 20320-the food was great and reasonably priced.

 

July 16

 

Luggage had to be out by 8 am. The bus left for Denali Princess Lodge at 9 am. Again it rained off and on and the temps were in the low 50’s to low 60’s. Once we arrived the weather had cleared and we were able to take our whitewater rafting trip with Denali Raft Co. It was AWESOME! There were 5 of us on our paddle raft plus a guide and we did 9 rapids-7 Class III and 2 Class IV. At the end she let us jump off the raft (still holding to side rope) and go for a swim! There were 4 rafts from the same company going at the same time-2 paddle and 2 oar (float). The scenery is great.

 

We went to the Muisc of Denali dinner show and it was ok. Ribs were good, corn way over cooked, salmon so-so. It is like a highschool musical, but you do learn a bit about the history. Not worth the $$ in my opinion.

 

July 17

 

Our luggage had to be out by 6:45 am and we were to depart for the train station at 7:45 am. The train had an engine problem and was 1 hour late arriving, so we didn’t leave the lodge until 8:40 am and the train left at 9:30 am. We didn’t arrive in Whittier until 8 pm-so it was a long day. There were only 5 Princess Dome cars on our train. Weather was mostly sunny that day so we had some great views. The best part of the train for us though was the stretch from Anchorage to Whittier around Turnagain Arm. We left sunshine on one side of the tunnel and as soon as we went through the tunnel and emerged in Whittier it was pouring rain! Took about ½ hour for embarkation and then we arrived to our room A529.

 

We watched to comedy show that evening of Rollin’ Jay Moore and he was very funny!

 

July 18

 

College Fjord-you are only in College Fjord from 6:30-8:30 am or so, so make sure you get a wake up call or you will miss it. The scenery is so pretty. We went to a golf seminar and played trivia. The evening shows were a juggler, Charlie Brown, and a show titled Piano Man, which was good.

 

July 19

 

Glacier Bay was awesome. We had a sunny day. We didn’t see calving but heard a few cracks.

 

We had dinner at The Bayou restaurant, which was fantastic. Again the evening shows were good.

 

July 20

 

Skagway-We had rain/sun/clouds during the day and cool temps. We had booked an independent tour with Frontier Excursions up to Emerald Lake in the Yukon with a stop at Caribou Crossing for lunch and Carcross to walk around. There were only 7 people on out minibus and we had a good guide. The scenery is amazing up along the White Pass. On the way back we actually descended it through a cloud, which was a little scary!

 

They had a tribute to big bands in the evening. The Tom Fox Orchestra on the ship is very good.

 

July 21

 

Juneau-it poured rain ALL DAY but that didn’t stop us from going whale watching with Captain Larry. It was great! We saw 11 humpback whales and saw bubble feeding. It was very cool. The ship tour actually saw Orca’s along with the humpbacks which we didn’t, but it was nice to be on a smaller boat and Captain Larry and Captain John kept us entertained.

 

July 22

 

Ketchikan-We went flight seeing with Michelle of Island Wings and it was so amazing. We had great weather and to see the fjords and to be able to land on the secluded lake was great. Michelle is very knowledgeable and loves what she does.

 

There was a comedian on, Glenn Hirsch, and we did not care for him at all.

 

July 23

 

We had a perfect day to sail on to Vancouver. There was not a cloud in the sky and many folks took advantage of the pools and hot tubs. The scenery is very pretty for the entire day. We played 1 hour of virtual golf, which was fun and went to the cooking show and tour of the galley.

 

July 24

 

We were among the first to disembark as we had a 12 noon flight. We were off the ship by 8 am and at Vancouver airport by 9 am.

 

General Observations

 

I wish we could have done a longer land tour. I would have loved to have 2 days at Denali and would like to see Fairbanks. The train ride was very long and although we sat across from terrific people I don’t think I would do it again.

 

The ship was great. The food was very tasty and we had great service everywhere. We did the buffet for breakfast and lunch and had personal choice dining. We really liked it-we never had to wait. We dined between 6:30-7:30 pm every night and loved meeting new people.

 

We would definitely return to Alaska!

[NancyIL]

Welcome back, and thanks for your trip report. Was the Natural History Tour part of your cruisetour, and did you drop it in favor of rafting?

[fourdarlings]

Nancy,

 

We cancelled the Natural History Tour and are awaiting our refunds of $69 each and opted for the rafting. Others on the NHT did see 3 grizzly bears and a moose.

 

Keri

[apeller]

Thanks for the review. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the ship. We are on the Island SB on 8/14 and I hope we are as lucky as you with the wait time for dinner. I also hope we are a little luckier than you with the weather, but from what I hear it is awfully hard to completely avoid rain in Alaska.

[petrus]

fourdarlings,

 

you mentioned cancelling the natural history tour and rebooking something else. We are planning to do a princess cruisetour to alaska in 07 but the only itinerary on the land portion that works for us includes a nat history tour. we would really want to do a tundra wilderness tour. is that something that can normally be done? Thanks

 

PK

[mike35]

PK

 

We're on the 7/31 Southbound Island Princess with CruiseTour 6S on 7/27. Based on the recommendations on this board, we canceled the NHT with Princess and received $69 credit within a few days. We booked direct with the TWT directly with Denali. We arrive Denali at around noon and will be picked up around 1 - 1:30 for the TWT. This will make a rather long day, but we'll have the next morning free until 1 p.m., while other go with the originally scheduled NHT.

 

Mike

[MsMissislippi]

Juneau-it poured rain ALL DAY but that didn’t stop us from going whale watching with Captain Larry. It was great! We saw 11 humpback whales and saw bubble feeding. It was very cool. The ship tour actually saw Orca’s along with the humpbacks which we didn’t, but it was nice to be on a smaller boat and Captain Larry and Captain John kept us entertained.

Thanks for great review - we'll be doing very similiar SB on Island 8/28. I'm very excited about Capt Larry - my question is: with the rainy day, what would you recommend as far as clothing. My husband and I will be whale watching with him after a flightsee to the glacier. I'm going to be surprised if this day is not the best>

[fourdarlings]

His boat is beautiful and fully enclosed so you can wear anything and stay dry, but if you choose you can go on the back or top observation platforms and make sure to wear rain gear. There are many windows inside that open so I stayed nice and dry taking photos while my dh got soaked taking video at the back but loved it!

 

Keri

[MsMissislippi]

Can't wait!