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Review Sapphire Princess and 7 Day Independent Land Tour


LarryF

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Thanks for your replies. We'll probably book the shuttle and tour with Prince William Sound tours.

 

I saw that Major Marine is cheaper...can anyone tell me the difference in the two tours??

 

Thanks

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Larry,

 

If you do write another review, I really hope that you post it here. I enjoyed your last reveiw and totally share your thoughts on Alaska. It is my most favorite place to go in the summer. Perhaps I will try to go again next year more toward August or September after the Panama Canal in the spring.

 

Ann:cool:

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Hello everyone,

 

Well, it wasn't in our plans to go back to Alaska this year, but I just came across a deal yesterday that I just couldn't resist and we have booked the May 26 Island Princess SB from Whittier to Vancouver!

 

We'll only be doing the cruise this time, but I am so excited as Alaska is the most remarkable place I've ever been! I doubt that I will write another 70 page journal, but who knows? I didn't plan on doing the first time!

 

We will be traveling to Anchorage the day before the cruise and staying overnight. We'd like to go to Whittier early the next day to take the PWC cruise tour. Can anyone point me to a reputalble shuttle service to get us from Anchorage to Whittier by 10am or so that Monday morning?

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

 

Way to go, Larry! Enjoy your trip.

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Larry,

What kind of camera are you using? The picturers are wonderful. We are going in July and I am now camera shopping! Thanks

Michelle

 

Thanks Dave and Ann for you comments!

 

Michelle,

 

I used a Canon XTi SLR Camera with the 18mm-55mm and 75mm- 300mm zoom lens. I shot most pictures in the auto mode, but am looking foward to trying using a lot of the manual modes this time around as I have become more familiar with those settings.

 

Larry

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Larry,

I am another of your fans! We are going the Coral southbound on 6/2 and this is our first Alaska trip.

As I am a newbie, this is not advice, just a report. We are taking the train to Whittier and I am told that it arrives early enough for the PWS cruises. I am not pre-booking the PWS trip because I don’t think I will want to do it if it is raining. Our ship is the only big one in Whittier on that Monday so hopefully I will be able to buy a last minute ticket. http://www.alaskarailroad.com/arrc18.html#12

One word of caution. I don’t know if this was a problem for you last year but this year there have been airline time changes making departure out of Vancouver somewhat of a challenge. We originally booked on Frontier and they moved their flight to a time too early to catch the plane, and now I hear that they are pulling out of Vancouver all together. That makes the other flights out all the more crowded. We are booked now on United to Atlanta via O’Hare so that even if we get delayed there should be lots of options changing in Chicago.

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Larry,

I am another of your fans! We are going the Coral southbound on 6/2 and this is our first Alaska trip.

As I am a newbie, this is not advice, just a report. We are taking the train to Whittier and I am told that it arrives early enough for the PWS cruises. I am not pre-booking the PWS trip because I don’t think I will want to do it if it is raining. Our ship is the only big one in Whittier on that Monday so hopefully I will be able to buy a last minute ticket. http://www.alaskarailroad.com/arrc18.html#12

One word of caution. I don’t know if this was a problem for you last year but this year there have been airline time changes making departure out of Vancouver somewhat of a challenge. We originally booked on Frontier and they moved their flight to a time too early to catch the plane, and now I hear that they are pulling out of Vancouver all together. That makes the other flights out all the more crowded. We are booked now on United to Atlanta via O’Hare so that even if we get delayed there should be lots of options changing in Chicago.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

Yes, there is a PWC cruise tour from about 1pm to 6pm which is after the train arrives. We did the Kenai Fjords cruise tour last year in light rain and very dark cloudy skies, but the tour was still incredible. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on rain as a determining factor on your decision. Also, as I understand it, the PWC tour is in very protected water (calm) whereas the Kenai tour has more time in the open waters of the Pacific.

 

We are staying overnight in Vancouver after the cruise with some friends we made on our cruise in February in the Caribbean that we met through this board! This board really rocks! We will be flying Delta back and hopefully we won't have any issues, although we have multi stops in Minneapolis and Memphis before we get back to Orlando!

 

Take care,

 

Larry

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hello everyone,

 

Well, it wasn't in our plans to go back to Alaska this year, but I just came across a deal yesterday that I just couldn't resist and we have booked the May 26 Island Princess SB from Whittier to Vancouver!

 

We'll only be doing the cruise this time, but I am so excited as Alaska is the most remarkable place I've ever been! I doubt that I will write another 70 page journal, but who knows? I didn't plan on doing the first time!

 

We will be traveling to Anchorage the day before the cruise and staying overnight. We'd like to go to Whittier early the next day to take the PWC cruise tour. Can anyone point me to a reputalble shuttle service to get us from Anchorage to Whittier by 10am or so that Monday morning?

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

Larry,

 

Glad to hear you're headed back to Alaska.

 

I just spend most of the night reading over your journal from your trip last year. Incredible! I got alot of great ideas from your discussions.

 

My wife and I are taking the Sapphire Princess out of Vancouver on May 31st next month with a 5 day land tour to follow. So, your journals of your trip are very similar to our plans for next month. In fact, we have reservations at the Denali Lakeview Inn as well.

 

You mentioned that you were driving 85 MPH on the highway from Denali. Is that typical speeds in Alaska? Do they have posted speed limits? Do you see many cops along the roads? Also, how is cell phone reception in Alaska?

 

My wife says she'll wave as our ships pass each other next month.

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You mentioned that you were driving 85 MPH on the highway from Denali. Is that typical speeds in Alaska? Do they have posted speed limits? Do you see many cops along the roads? Also, how is cell phone reception in Alaska?

 

IME, the 85 mph is very atypical. The roads are often 1 lane each direction. Summer construction is common, as are RVs, which slow traffic. Certain areas, say between Girdwood and Anchorage, have more cars than others. Then factor in the weather (rain, fog, etc). Plus, you can't see much at 85 mph...;)

 

There are posted speed limits.

 

My ATT cell reception across the exceeded my expectations. It was spotty, but more available than not.

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It is stupid to drive 85 in Alaska. People get killed when their vehicle hits a moose. Also you have no time to prepare if you come up on a slow moving vehicle (read that RV and tour bus) after coming around a curve.

 

Yes, you can get a ticket for speeding in Alaska!

 

The typical speeds you can do during the summer vary as you have to allow for traffic, weather, construction, road accidents and more traffic. Remember you are often very, very far from medical attention when driving the roads of Alaska.

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Ok everybody don't start getting mad!:D

 

First of all, you do not want to go 85 mph through Alaska because there is so much to see you don't want to miss it. Second, as Penny noted, wildlife can be seen on the roads at anytime.

 

I don't why, but when we did our land trip there was not much traffic on the road for the entire 7 days. Distances that I was told would take X number of hours only took me sometimes half the time to get there, and no I was not doing 85mph! We very rarely if at all got behind slow traffic, RV's or contruction. I was wrong to be going that fast and after we came across the incredible moose sighting near Talkeetna, I slowed it down the rest of the way. We still made it from Denali to Anchorage in 4 hours. I am not stretching the truth when I say that we did not have any traffic at all the entire way.

 

You will find it hard to 85mph because it hard to get up to that speed when you pull your car off the road every hundred yards or so just to see view the incredible scenery!

 

Cell phone coverage was hit or miss throughout the trip for us.

 

Stormcrow8, we will be waving to you when our ships pass!

 

Take care,

 

Larry

 

 

 

Larry

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  • 4 weeks later...

Larry

Like you, we did not plan to go back to Alaska this summer. I definitely wanted to go back 2009 but the middle of April my husband booked us another cruise and this time we are doing 6 days land travel. Your report on independent travel really encourged me to make my own arrangements. It took us until last weekend to get all of our arrangements finalized. That's really not bad! But I knew things I wanted to do and what company I wanted to use. It was just a matter of calling. One thing I can say is the people in Alaska get back with confirmations really quickly. So thanks again for all of the information you included in your review.

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Larry

Like you, we did not plan to go back to Alaska this summer. I definitely wanted to go back 2009 but the middle of April my husband booked us another cruise and this time we are doing 6 days land travel. Your report on independent travel really encourged me to make my own arrangements. It took us until last weekend to get all of our arrangements finalized. That's really not bad! But I knew things I wanted to do and what company I wanted to use. It was just a matter of calling. One thing I can say is the people in Alaska get back with confirmations really quickly. So thanks again for all of the information you included in your review.

 

Have a great time! I wish we could do the land portion again. I'm hoping to spend 2 weeks next year just doing our own land tour!

 

Take care,

 

Larry

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I hope you will write a detailed report on that. We would like to do just land in 2009 or 2010. If we don't do the trip next year then I would be able to use more of your info I'm sure!!

Enjoy your cruise this year and get to planning for next year. Maybe you could post your land tour "itinerary"(?) when you get some of your planning done. We're like us have an intinerary but go with the flow!!!!!!!

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I just changed our travel arrangements to fly to Anchorage a week from today rather than a week from tomorrow. :) This will give us almost two and a half days on our own before we cruise SB on the Island Princess. We arrive in Anchorage at 2pm next Saturday and we plan to rent a car and go directly to the Downtown Market in Anchorage. I've been craving a salmon Quesadia (sp) since we had one there last year! :) If we're too tired from the jet lag, I'd like to drive along Turnagain Arm before we go check in to our Hotel. On Sunday I'm going to try to get an accurate weather forecast and either drive south to Seward or NE to Hatcher Pass and then Matanuska, whichever way the weather looks the best! On Monday we are taking the 6 hr. PWS Cruise Tour and then we will board the ship after the tour!

 

I can't believe it's only a week away! I am sure I will write another review to help all those future Alaska cruisers!

 

Larry

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Larry,

 

What did you decide on for your transportation to Whittier? I think that we are driving, but I always want options, it not for this time, for the next.

 

We are going on the Prince Williams Sound Wilderness Glacial Tour and are using the tour to pick us up at the Holiday Inn in Anchorage. I could have gone with a cheaper way to get to Whittier, but decided this was more convenient.

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

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  • 4 months later...

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