Alaska

We recently went on the Princess Cruise line (PCL) to Alaska with the fam bam. My parents, sister, aunt, uncle and 3 cousins accompanied us on our Alaskan adventure. I booked the cruise for the gang through Costco.com which was a great and convenient way to do it. We ended up getting a Costco cash card for each booking we did and the princess phone line was impossible to get through on. Our boat left on Saturday August 18^th from Seattle and returned 7 days later. We were on board by 2 pm just in case of any mishaps, but all was easy and went well, make sure you have ID and visas as needed. The ship itself had plenty of activities, lots of food (we even had the head waiter make our family the needed Indian food each night). Booze is definitely the most expensive item on all cruise lines, but conveniently PCL allowed 1 bottle of wine or champagne per passenger, and you can restock at all ports! The pools were heated, plenty of hot tubs on deck and a huge movie screen to pass time, my dad took advantage of it all. There were 2 restaurants on the ship, Sabitinis and Crown Grill, which were an extra fee to go to, but apparently Crown Grill was free on the last day, we did not eat at either so do not have any recommendations. The other restaurants and grills were included in the ship cost, they had burgers, pizza and buffets open most hours of the day. Each evening the ship would drop off the “princess patter” which included the activities for the next day, which I definitely recommend reading as it had good tips.

All the port stops were right near the dock, except in Victoria, BC we had too either take a taxi cab or walk 40 minutes into downtown which was a beautiful path into the city. Also, excursions were very straight forward, you get off the ship and look for the correct sign listed on your shore excursion tickets. The tickets were in our room the day we arrived, and if there are any issues there are help desks and phone numbers you can call to answer any questions. One thing to remember is an $11 gratuity tip/day/person is added onto your tab so tip extra accordingly. We had an amazing waiting staff for dinner, Rodel, Ronald and his beautiful wife Theresa. Our stateroom steward Jimmie was always on top of things! Each room was fairly a decent size, we had an inside cabin (cheapest), with a fully functioning bathroom, safe and tv. Bring a clock or watch, but there was a clock on one of the tv channels.

Saturday and Sunday were days of getting a feel for the ship and relaxing on deck, hitting up the gym and enjoying a zumba class. Our first stop was Monday in Juneau. Right off the boat, there are people holding signs up for your excursions of choice. Half our party did the zip lining/Mendenhall Glacier Tour. We first headed to the zip lining Adventures site, and zipped ~6 courses. We had very competent and helpful guides, drank blueberry tea at the 5^th course platform and got to throw axes after zip lining was over. The site also gave us a free aluminum water bottle and snack while we got to enjoy the zip lining photo slideshow the guides do while we are going through the courses. We then headed to the Mendelhall glacier visitor center. We unfortunately had very limited time at this spot, so decided to skip out on the visitor center but instead due the 1 mile signed path to get closer to the glacier and right near Nugget Falls. The glacier was about a 20 minute ride from the port, and on our way back to the ship we asked to be dropped off in the town of Jueanu to do some souvenir shopping. This is the largest shopping area compared to all the other stops and some popular Alaskan souvenirs include fudge, American Indian artwork and simple things like magnets and totem poles. We were able to walk to the ship from town in a mere 15 minutes and our boat took off by 9 pm that evening.

Tuesday, we arrived into Skagway fairly early in the morning. We did the Yukon White Pass train ride, also another excursion through Princess cruises. The Train “station” is literally outside the port and it was a beautiful 4 hour train ride which went even briefly into Canada. After the train ride we meandered into the town of Skagway and enjoyed a nice local beer sample at the Skagway Brewing Company. Again the town was a 15 minute walk to and from the ship, and if one cannot walk they have a bus you can take for a small few. Below are a few photographs from Skagway!

We spent the entire day on ship on Wednesday and sailed through Glacier Bay. We all bundled up, ate breakfast and made our way to a spot on deck by 9 am to enjoy glaciers, humpback whales and sea otters. We even saw a few glacial avalanches into the freezing waters! This was the only day that we had rain and temperatures were pretty cold. I would recommend warm water proof shoes and jackets!

 

Our last two stops were Ketchikan, Alaska and Victoria, BC, we did not do any excursions in these locations and spent ~5 hours at each port. Ketchikan is apparently Alaskas first city and we just walked around town, visiting shops and the Salmon Ladder. Once there we did see folks offering tours which maybe cheaper than excursions offered by cruise lines. We arrived in Victoria Friday evening, this is the furthest port from downtown. Victoria overall is fairly large area and hard to just walk around, but the main sites beside Butchart Gardens is in the same vicinity. We ate dinner before getting off ship that evening and had a snack when we got back, you do have the option of eating in Victoria as well, we did not have a formal dining night Friday. Keyur and I have been to Victoria in the past where we stayed in a B & B, went to the gardens which are a 20 minute car ride from the city center and took a free tour of the beautiful capitol building which you can just show up for.

 

Below are a few pictures from the two formal evenings on the cruise ship along with a few from the day we got to bask in the sun on deck.

 

We had a great vacation with our family and recommend an Alaskan cruise for especially big groups. I know we did not even see half of the Alaskan wilderness or the wildlife present but I am glad we got to see a bit of the beauty.