Just Back Island Princess OMG

[Green4me]

:) What a trip..without question our best family cruise of the 5 we have under our belts. Kudos to the team here at CC, which out, this cruise would only been half as good as it was. It still makes me wonder why so many people do not take the time and do the right research. As in the Caribbean, we saw many a Princess booked excursion with cattle car participation while we, who booked on our own with guidance from this board, had near luxurious exursions for the same price or less in many cases.

 

The short review. (part I)

Weather

With exception of our first day of two in Vancouver pre-cruise, the weather was spectacular. No rain, just sunshine 60 - 75 degrees pending the port. I wore short pants each and every day of the cruise.

Ship

Beautiful, very clean, easy to navigate. Our port side aft balcony mini suite was perfectly located on Dolphin deck. My kids ages 13d, 15d, 18s had a wonderful time and met many friends. Both "teens" participated and enjoyed the teen center activities. They had some technical problems with the lotus pool and it was closed several times due to oil slicks. Aparently a heat exchanger had a tube leak they could not quite figure out (they use warm oil from the engine room as a heating medium). But no big deal as I never did put on a bathing suit. My youngest did and enjoyed her time in the outside pool.

Entertainment

Kind of ho-hum for the most part. The comedians were top notch and the musicians very good, but all agreed in our group of 32 very experienced Princess (plantinum) cruisers that the shows and dancers lacked. But hey we were there to see Alaska and did we ever, :) The piano players in the lounges were very good as were the stringed instrumentalists.

Food and service

Very good as we have always found on Princess. One night we had a under cooked steak but that stuff happens. The lobster, lamb, prime rib, pasta dishes etc were all delicious and delivered very timely. Negatives were a lack of flowerless chocolate cake, one of my families favorite. We did the anytime dining and found a rather long 30 minute wait the first night. After that we would book a table of 10 and had no wait times what so ever. One night we did eat at the trough (buffet) and the food was very good as well. For the most part the same food was available in the buffet as in the dining rooms, exceptions would be items like escargot (it was awesome) and certain soups and deserts.

 

more to follow...

[Italy52]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise. We were on the Island last year and had a wonderful time. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Green4me]

Thanks, I'll try and get back to the review as soon as I can. :)

[Happyladi]

Thanks for the review! I have a mini suite on a Princess ship in August and I understand that the dolphin deck on my ship has no roof. Did yours?

 

What extras did you do?

[onemyst]

glad to hear you had a great time and do share all you info as I am alaska bound in August and trying to get all in order...

Misty

[Green4me]

Happyladi, we did have a full roof over our cabin balcony D-724. D-726 which is the last cabin on the port side did not. Their is a link some place to a site that will tell you if you are open or covered. try a search. As to extras I will continue in my review.

[Green4me]

Pre Cruise

We were part of a large family group and most met up in Vancouver the Saturday before our Monday departure. The airport and customs were a breeze with easy signage to get you to bag claim and no lines through customs. We landed Saturday morning at 11:30 AM. We are a family of 5 and had agreed to meet friends of my inlaws who had never cruised before and were in their late 70's - 80's to assist them to our hotel. We all stayed at the Quality Inn on Howe Street in Vancouver. I cannot say enough positives about this hotel. We did not take transfers from Princess and through research on the Canada site learned the local limo was the best way to go. They advertize a 6 person stretch limo for $45 CAD or a 4 person for $35. I was expecting we would need two limos for the 7 of us considering alll the baggage. We waled out to the street and the limos are lined up on the right, taxi stands to the left. We walked up to a waiting stetch and asked about our group. he said if you give me an extra tip I can take all of you! On board we piled. These people are equipped for this and the trunk has built in straps to tie down over the bags. Total cost to the hotel was $80.00 USD for 7, not bad as we would have tipped on two limos and cabs can run a meter up in traffic, which we did have some. Trip to the Quality Inn was about 20 minutes.

Hotel

As mentioned this place was perfect for us. We had a suite that had a full kitchen and room for our family of 5. We paid two rates at the suggestion of the hotel, one night a cruise package for $209 CAD and the second night for $179 CAD. The cruise package got us free taxi vouchers to the Ship and a full hot breakfast for 2 which they graciously extented to all 5. (cost on menu was $12.00pp) The hotel was a stop on the hop on hop off trolley which was our Sunday activity for the day. On Monday when we went to the ship the taxis are small so they gave us two vouchers.

Vancouver

 

What a beautiful city, very clean and lots to see. As mentioned we did the hop on hop off trolley. The ticket was good for 2 days, the hotel had a discount coupon and they have senior, student, and child rates. Our driver was the entertainment of the day, Larry. if you go ask if he is working and fing his trolley. Trust me it is worth it :) We spent most of our off trolley time at the famers market on Granvile Island and in gastown. Very enjoyable day for all. FYI Sunday the Liquor store opened at 9am and we walked to stock up on contraband which we had no trouble what so ever bringing on board ;)

[Alaska05]

We did not take transfers from Princess and through research on the Canada site learned the local limo was the best way to go. They advertize a 6 person stretch limo for $45 CAD or a 4 person for $35.

 

Do you have the website for the company you used? Did you book in advance?

 

We're doing northbound on the Island in just a couple of weeks. Thanks for posting your take on the cruise.

 

Thanks.

[LEtue]

I really enjoyed your review! A friend and I sailed on the Island Princess from Vancouver in 2006 and loved it!! This year I sailed on the Oosterdam and it didn't even come close to the great experience on the Island :(

 

So, we're starting to plan for next year and a southbound sailing on the Coral after Denali and can't we can't wait :D

[Green4me]

Alaska 05, sorry I do not, but you can find them doing a search here, or on google. No reservations are necessary, we did not make one and had no wait. I think most people see a limo and think expensive. Too bad as it was less than what we would have paid two cabs for sure with tip. Enjoy your trip, I had been to Alaska on business in the 80's twice to Fairbanks. While I enjoyed the visit then I no idea of the magnitude of what we would see on this cruise.

[Green4me]

Embarkation

This was by far the easiest boarding of a ship we have ever experienced. Once we coordinated about 6 taxis from the hotel, my 15 yr old daughter and I were the last to leave at 10:45 am. I was getting antsy as I wanted to be there but all worked out for the best. The taxi will drop you right at the bag drop point and there were porters standing by as each taxi backed up to unload. Zero wait time. Then we showed our boarding pass and were allowed entry to the building where a line of about 20 people, most my family or relatives, waited for bag srceening followed by customs clearance. This was a breeze. Next to the check in lines, again no waiting. The longet line I saw was maybe two families in each deck category. We walked up to Dolphin and provided our passports and boarding passes we printed at home and they gave us our keys. There were about 100 or so people sitting in a waiting area as they had not opend the ship for boarding. Just as our Princess person handed us our keys and pointed to the waiting area, they opened the ship for boarding and we were on board by 11:20 AM. Get this... SHOCKINGLY THEY MET EVERYONE WITH BIG SMILES AND SAID YOU ROOMS ARE READY :D .

We always try and get on board early but have never seen rooms ready before 1 PM. This was a welcome treat. We checked out our two cabins, D724 a mini suite and E 615 an obstructed ocean view. Note this was billed as a fully obstructed cabin and priced accordingly. In fact it was right between two life boats and hte view was not bad at all. My sister inlaw was to be in D 726 adjacent to us but they were visited by the room fairy and got upgraded to a full suite D 702 (it helps to be platinum) Next up was drink of the day (lame compared to the Caribbean) and lunch.

more to follow...

[NancyIL]

Welcome back, and thanks for your review! What was the date of your cruise? I'm guessing June 11-18, since we were on the NB Coral out of Vancouver on June 4th.

[Green4me]

Yes, Nancy that is correct 6/11-6/18 Northbound. What a trip!:)

[bhammom3]

We took the Island Princess southbound June 4-11, and our family of 5 (children ages 14, 13, and 8) had the same wonderful experience that you had! We still feel like we are on Cloud 9! My husband & kids swam in the outdoor pool every day :)

[Green4me]

OK hopefully I can wrap this up, sorry for the extended delay in the review.

 

Ketchican

We booked a float plane to Misty Fiords through Ryan and Loren McCue at Alaskaseaplanetours.com They were fantastic! The weather was picture perfect with blue sky and mid 60's temperatures for our 9 am departure. They picked us up at 8:45 in their van with the yellow and red sea plane logo and took us about 3 miles to the plane dock. We saw whales, harbor seals and countless bald eagles on the trip. Landing in the fiord and standing out side on the pontune floats was icing on the cake after a spectaular flight. Don't miss taking a trip like this. We booked before March and received a good discount on the cost, so plan ahead. After the flight we walked the town and the creek street area. We then had lunch at Anabells keg and Chowder House. Don't miss this place. The food and service were excellent. My 18 yr old said he had hte best sandwitch of his life :) he had the red fish hogie melt. I had some local oysters on the half shell and a bread bowl of fish chowder. Oh and the Alaskan Amber beer was cold too ;)

 

This ended our day as we had to be back on board by 1:30.

[Green4me]

Juneau

Another perfect sunny day....

We had booked with Captain Larry for a whale watch way in advance and with our large group we had a boat (the Awesome Orca) to our own family group of 20. We walked to the Orca offices which were easy to find once past the hords of Princess tour bus people waiting near the ship. They are directly across the street from Roberts tram, can't miss it. We waited about 10 miunutes after signing in and they walked us across the street to get on a mini bus/van. If some one can tell me how to post a photo I will try and do so. This was one of the most favorite tours of our trip. We had some in our group that had never cruised before and sadly took bad advise from their neighbors who told them not to waste their money as they would see plenty of whales from the ship :( . Now granted I did see a whale the first sea day out of vancouver but I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and looking in the right direction (my balcony ;) ) It was very far off and you could just make out the tail when it dove. We won the lottery with Captain Larry, because we had whales galore right from the boat dock. Our naturalist Tony and our Captain for the day Scott were just helping us on board when a huge cow and her calf appeared right in the harbor:eek: They were so close in fact the boat could not leave the dock for 20 minutes. I have some spectacular pictures of full breaching jumps, tails and flukes waving to us. While this close up of an encounter does not happen all the time, my point is take the trip, you will not regret it. Just the information from the naturalist was worth the cost. After that show had subsided they took us on an excellent trip where we saw several additonal whales, some with calves. We stopped at a channel marker that was loaded with sea lions. They were fun to watch talk to eahc other and jump on and off the bouy. On the way back the surface of the water was boiling with small fish. The Bald eagles looked like pidgeons there were so many catching fish. I was point and shooting with my old SLR zoom and captured many in flight eagles. You can't typically catch a bird in mid flight with a zoom manual focus, and least not me ;) Our afternoon in Juneau ended up with a late lunch at the Hangar. Definitly a go to place. With our big group we sat in the bar and pulled tables together. You can sit and look out at the cruise ships and watch the sea planes take off and land. We shared a big bucket of Alaskan King crab legs that melted in our mouths (the Alaskan Amber was cold). We had planned to take the tram but by then the weather was getting a bit cloudy and we decided to save it for another time.

[photodoodle]

Thanks for your continuing travelog. I'd love to see somephotos, especially from the whale watch. Many people here have set up photos at webshots; maybe you could try that.

[Green4me]

Thanks Photodoodle I will once I get them organized.

 

B]Skagway[/b]

 

Yet another perfect warm sunny day. We booked our combo train/bus tour with Chilkoot charters. This time the group was fragmented with my family of 5 and only one of my siter inlaws and her husband joining us. The rest had booked through the ship and took the longer full day trip. We met our guide for the day Nancy, right after we left the secured ship dock next to a small coffee gift shop. Along with the 7 of us we had a very nice couple we met from this site also from Florida and a family of 4 from Hawaii. That was it! Can you say comfortable, as in no crowd :) We had a mini bus/van that took us the train depot and Nancy told us what our car # was. Each tour operator is assinged a specific car(s). We had the full car to our small group so every one could sit on the best (left going up) side of the train. The Princess cars were slammed full and they had full size buses for transportation. We had no problems sharing the forward and rear train stoops outside for picture taking along the way. The scenary was nothing short of spectaular. We saw a small black bear, (watch in front of the engines as they often follow the train tracks as a path). We saw lots of mountain sheep/goats and countless waterfalls. The train was very comfortable with a clean restroom and free bottled water provided. Our guide Nancy met us in Frazier with the mini bus and we proceeded to head into the Yukon. We stopped several times for photos, much more than the busses as several passed us by at certain stops. We went to lake Bennett and Emerald lake, had lunch in Carribou Crossing which was a very tasty barbeque chicken with all the fixin's. We ended up meeting all of our other relatives as their busses make the same scheduled lunch stop. (they do sell beer by the way :rolleyes: ). My girls took the sled dog ride and played with some of the dogs. We toured the museum and watched the kids have fun. We visited Carcross and hit the gift shops then started to make our way back to Skagway, stoping many times for pictures. Nancy had us back in town by the advertized 2:30 pm so we had plenty of time to explore.

[Green4me]

Glacier Bay & College Fiords

 

Simply spectacular is all I can say about Glacier bay. Another sunny day, my wife and I were having coffee in our travel mugs (a must take item for us) standing on the public stern viewing area of Dolphin deck. We were still underway and it was cold on our balcony. The sun was so warm on the stern I took my sweatshirt off. A nice couple with binoculars spoted two large grizzly bears walking along the shore in search of food. I grabed by binoculars and called the kids and we watched the bears for aboiut 10 minutes or so until they were too small to see. Once we parked infront of the Margeri Glacier we all assembled on the balcony for what seemed like a dream. With out the breeze from the ships movement it was very comfortable outside. We saw tons of sea birds, Bald Eagles floating on ice chunks and a large flock of Puffins. Listening to the cracks (like a shot gun sound) in the ice and watching the calving was breathtaking. The day and time in Glacier bay ended way too soon.

 

College Fiords was nice but a bit of a let down after the day before. The weather was overcast and much of the scenary was in the clouds in contrast to Glacier bay where we had views of 15,000 + foot snow covered peaks and hanging glaciers everywhere. I am sure it is just as magnificent given an equally nice weather day.

[Green4me]

Disembarking and Post Cruise Adventures

The cruise sadly came to an end as they all eventually do. We packed up the bags and set them all but a few carry-ons out side before dinner. This time, as we had a post cruise plan, it was almost like the trip never ended. We had independent status which means you can leave the ship anytime after it clears customs. The instructions said 7 am but I have heard you could have got off sooner if you wished. This is where I did not follow some good advice learned here at CC, If your renting a car get off early as the line is long and it is a painful process. We had breakfast in the buffet which was odd as there was no lines at all at 8am. On a typical Caribbean cruise our experience has been the buffet area is a mob scene with people eating and waiting to get off. I think because lots of people take the train to Denali (and it leaves early) it lessons the congestion. They started calling bag tag colors at 6:20 am, can you say wake up call. :) Getting off the ship and collecting our bags was a breeze. By far the most efficient operation experienced of getting on and off a ship in my 7 cruises.

 

Once off they suggested my wife and girls wait in the terminal with the bags and my son and I walk to get the car. That was easy, it just took about an hour of waiting to get it. They do all the paper work manually , no computers, so it takes awhile. No worries as they had a nice TV with a show on Alaska wildlife to pass the time. They had a van for us as requested so we loaded up our family of 5 complete with 12 bags and we were off to catch the 10 am tunnel. So in reality we only lost an hour.

The two and one-half mile tunnel was really cool, although my wife didn't think so (too long and dark for her). I was told until the year 2000, the only way to get in or out of Whittier was to put you car on a flat bed rail car. They have since modified it to share trains and vehicular traffic. One way on the hour out, half hour back in for 15 minutes each. The other 15 minutes are train traffic in each direction. A bus just about fills up the tunnel width. Not much room for mistakes. The weather was very overcast and kind of grim looking in Whittier. I thought our good luck had run out, but I was wrong. Once we exited the tunnel it was like a new day. Blue sky and sunshine! We stopped at the first Tesccano sp? gas station which was a hit with clean restrooms and plently of road trip goodies to stock up on. We are big on beef jerky for these family events:) Our destination was Sheeps Mountain Lodge and a white water rafting trip with NOVA in Chickaloon. There are many side stops we could have made on the way to Chikaloon but with the end of the cruise and everyone being tired we choose to drive straight there. The scenary was beautiful along the way, after the 10 am tunnel we had made it through Palmer intothe Matanuska Valley and to the NOVA HQ in Chickaloon by 1:00. We stopped in and preregisterd for our raft trip which was at 7pm that night. We had booked the Lions head midnight raft trip well in advance and my wife and the kids were getting a bit anxious about how rough the white water would be. They assured us we would be safe and that relaxed the troops so we went on to the lodge and checked into our cabin #3 and took a nap :)

[Green4me]

The Raft Trip

Sheeps Mountain Lodge was picture perfect. Small log cabins sitting an a beautiful back drop off the mountain range. The redish and yellow colors in the rocks were a new site also making it exciting. After we checked in we had a fantastic lunch at the lodge and we all took a nap.

 

Because we had preregisterd earlier in the day NOVA instructed us to meet them at 7:15 at the identified base camp along the Matanuska river where we would be leaving our cars and ending the trip. This is where it got interesting, my youngest at 13 was the most aprehensive about this trip and kind of did not want to go. At one point before the cruise my wife had asked me to cancel the raft trip and substitue another event. Nothing doing, as I assured them we would be fine and everyone would love it:rolleyes: So at the river bank the guides that tell us we will get absolutely drenched and that there was no way around it :eek: Ok so now I am wondering what did I get us signed up for? The guides were fantastic about insuring our safety and they had us all get fitted into our dry suits. It is like a wet suit but you stay completely dry from the neck down with exception of your hands and your head/hair. There were a total of 11 people and two rafts. They put us in one boat with the guide rigged for rowing from the center of the raft. The other raft was a paddle raft where every one on board had to participate in paddling. This worked out very well as my wife and 13yr old would sit in the back of the raft and my 18 yr son and and I sat in the front with paddles and my 15 yr old in between us. They took us by van pulling there rafts up river to Carribou Creek where we finshed suiting up complete with helmets and life vests. The safey instructions were excellent, but listening to the manoverboard recovery didn't help with the anxiety but we all hung in there. Following teh instructions the guide asked if anyone wanted to change there minds as this was the last chance before the van left. Everyone was a go so into the rafts we went. The firsts 2-3 miles was shallow and we did not paddle much as the guide manuvered us along the way. The creek merged with the Matanuska river and things began to pick up! We praticed the paddle strokes and as we closed in on Lions Head you could hear the water in front of us. It had been a warm day and along with rain earlier in the day the river was higher than they had seen for a while. My wife and I had rafted the Colorado river and I was a big canoe enthusiast in New England so we had seen rough water before. This was like taking natures roller coaster ride. For the most part the guide said the water was class three with a few spots near four, but because the class three water lasted about 2-3 miles non stop he said it was more like doing class four. We had an absoulte blast. Non stop laughter, with a few screams thrown in for stress relief everyone had smiles as big as Alaska once the water slowed down. They pulled us off at a river bank in a calm section for a scheduled dinner stop. We had a huge cooler on board and they had a camp set up with a fire ring and a barbeque grill. We started a fire which helped us warm up a bit (did I mention this river is fed by a glacier? The water temp was 35-40 degrees) Everyone had a cheeseburger and fixin's then we went back on the water to finish the run. No big water left but plenty of pockets that we hit causing a wave over your head. The guide asked my son if he wanted to "ride the bull"? He jumped at the chance and they had him sit on the very bow of the raft holding on the rope lines like a horse saddle with his feet hanging over the bow. We then proceeded to run him into the rough spots and he held on until we hit a big one that knocked him back into the boat on his rearend. :D That was absolutely priceless. Once we were totally out of the fast water and just gliding quitely along the guide spotted a cow moose. She was a giant and standing there along the bank looking at us inquisitively. She watched us float past then started trotting along to keep us with us. She would stop and watch us pass again and trot down stream some more. This went on for about 100 yards and was simply breath taking. My only regret was not having some type of a disposable water camera. The memories of this and the whole cruise though will last a life time. The trip ended back at the base camp about 11:30PM and it was still day light. Everyone agreed this was a perfect way to wrap up the trip.

[kehlx2]

The Raft Trip

Sheeps Mountain Lodge was picture perfect. Small log cabins sitting an a beautiful back drop off the mountain range. The redish and yellow colors in the rocks were a new site also making it exciting. After we checked in we had a fantastic lunch at the lodge and we all took a nap.

 

Because we had preregisterd earlier in the day NOVA instructed us to meet them at 7:15 at the identified base camp along the Matanuska river where we would be leaving our cars and ending the trip. This is where it got interesting, my youngest at 13 was the most aprehensive about this trip and kind of did not want to go. At one point before the cruise my wife had asked me to cancel the raft trip and substitue another event. Nothing doing, as I assured them we would be fine and everyone would love it:rolleyes: So at the river bank the guides that tell us we will get absolutely drenched and that there was no way around it :eek: Ok so now I am wondering what did I get us signed up for? The guides were fantastic about insuring our safety and they had us all get fitted into our dry suits. It is like a wet suit but you stay completely dry from the neck down with exception of your hands and your head/hair. There were a total of 11 people and two rafts. They put us in one boat with the guide rigged for rowing from the center of the raft. The other raft was a paddle raft where every one on board had to participate in paddling. This worked out very well as my wife and 13yr old would sit in the back of the raft and my 18 yr son and and I sat in the front with paddles and my 15 yr old in between us. They took us by van pulling there rafts up river to Carribou Creek where we finshed suiting up complete with helmets and life vests. The safey instructions were excellent, but listening to the manoverboard recovery didn't help with the anxiety but we all hung in there. Following teh instructions the guide asked if anyone wanted to change there minds as this was the last chance before the van left. Everyone was a go so into the rafts we went. The firsts 2-3 miles was shallow and we did not paddle much as the guide manuvered us along the way. The creek merged with the Matanuska river and things began to pick up! We praticed the paddle strokes and as we closed in on Lions Head you could hear the water in front of us. It had been a warm day and along with rain earlier in the day the river was higher than they had seen for a while. My wife and I had rafted the Colorado river and I was a big canoe enthusiast in New England so we had seen rough water before. This was like taking natures roller coaster ride. For the most part the guide said the water was class three with a few spots near four, but because the class three water lasted about 2-3 miles non stop he said it was more like doing class four. We had an absoulte blast. Non stop laughter, with a few screams thrown in for stress relief everyone had smiles as big as Alaska once the water slowed down. They pulled us off at a river bank in a calm section for a scheduled dinner stop. We had a huge cooler on board and they had a camp set up with a fire ring and a barbeque grill. We started a fire which helped us warm up a bit (did I mention this river is fed by a glacier? The water temp was 35-40 degrees) Everyone had a cheeseburger and fixin's then we went back on the water to finish the run. No big water left but plenty of pockets that we hit causing a wave over your head. The guide asked my son if he wanted to "ride the bull"? He jumped at the chance and they had him sit on the very bow of the raft holding on the rope lines like a horse saddle with his feet hanging over the bow. We then proceeded to run him into the rough spots and he held on until we hit a big one that knocked him back into the boat on his rearend. :D That was absolutely priceless. Once we were totally out of the fast water and just gliding quitely along the guide spotted a cow moose. She was a giant and standing there along the bank looking at us inquisitively. She watched us float past then started trotting along to keep us with us. She would stop and watch us pass again and trot down stream some more. This went on for about 100 yards and was simply breath taking. My only regret was not having some type of a disposable water camera. The memories of this and the whole cruise though will last a life time. The trip ended back at the base camp about 11:30PM and it was still day light. Everyone agreed this was a perfect way to wrap up the trip.

 

WOW now that for sure IS the way to end a trip & hope the one that really didn't want to go had FUN & glad he/she went?? AND....what a story once back in school in fall!! thanks you for your reviews of your trip.

[Green4me]

Most welcome Kehlx2

 

Yes my 13yr daughter had a blast, while it did take here to her edge on adventure she said she really enjoyed it and was glad she went. She has always been our last to try things. Like roller coasters, once she tried one she was hooked.

[Alaska05]

Green4me,

 

Does the Island have the "new" menus in place? In reading another thread, I believe the new menus divide the items into little plates and big plates rather than Appetizer, Soup, Salad, Main Entree, etc.

 

Our cruise on the Island is just 3 weeks from today and I'm really getting excited.

 

Thanks.