Island Princess Alaska Cruise (2003)
In the late summer of 2003 I had the opportunity to take the trip I had been dreaming about for years – a 7 night Alaska Cruise. I had been to the interior of Alaska in 2002; my 2002 trip made me want to take a Alaska cruise even more.
I cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed this cruise – it exceeded my already high expectations. The ship, the itinerary, the shore excursions, the food, and other 
parts of the cruise were all wonderful. In this report I will describe the different aspects of the cruise that I enjoyed so much. I will include some suggestions (preceded by the word TIP) that perhaps will help you in planning your Alaska cruise.
By Tim Larison, Master Cruise Counselor (MCC)
Itinerary
I took this cruise as part of a travel agent training group – sailing with other agents from around the country. Though it cost more in airfare I really wanted to do a one way northbound (Vancouver to Seward) or southbound (Seward to Vancouver) cruise because there were some areas to the north that the roundtrip Seattle or Vancouver cruises just don’t get to.
The 7 night itinerary of my southbound cruise is listed to the left. I did something different on this trip – for the first time I booked all my shore excursions with independent, local operators rather than take the cruise line excursions. I had spent quite a bit of time researching the different shore excursion options before the trip, and I was to discover these independent shore excursions were just as good if not better than the ones offered by the cruise line. Often the independent excursions were cheaper in price, too!
Saturday (Anchorage, depart from Seward)
I awoke at 2 am Denver time for the long day of travel to Anchorage. My Alaska Air flight would leave Denver at 7 am, I made a connecting stop in Seattle, and arrived in Anchorage at noon. The Alaska Air flights were on time and efficient.
The Princess cruise terminal in Seward is a 3 hour bus ride from Anchorage. Upon my arrival in Anchorage I found the Princess representatives waiting for me in the baggage claim area. Before leaving home I had tagged my bags with the “Island Princess” tags provided by Princess, and Alaska Air automatically transferred my bags to Princess without me having to claim them at the baggage terminal. TIP: Princess will provide baggage tags with your trip documents. Put these on your bags before you leave home and you will not have to claim your bags in Anchorage. After checking your bags at the airport the next time you will see them is in your stateroom on the ship!
The bus ride to Seward was long but pleasant. We traveled along the Kenai Fjord where I got my first taste of Alaska scenery. The mountains towered out of the sea next to the roadway. We made one stop at a nature preserve about 45 minutes from Seward – this stop gave us a break from the long bus ride and allowed us to see some Alaska wildlife in captivity (a grizzly bear, bison, native birds, etc)
Starting in 2004 Princess will depart from Whittier instead of Seward. This will make the bus trip shorter as Whitter is only 1 1/2 hours from Anchorage. TIP: If you are planning a 2004 or later Princess Alaska cruise, consider a pre-night stay or two in Princess’ Copper River Lodge. This is one of the most beautiful Princess Alaska Lodges according to one Princess representative I talked to, and it is fairly close to Whittier.
Once we arrived in Seward, embarkation was quick and efficient. The Island Princess would depart at 10 pm this night and it opened for boarding at noon. Passengers arrived throughout the day and night for boarding so the lines at any one time were minimal.
Sunday (College Fjord cruising)
I awoke early to see our first glaciers of the trip – the spectacular glaciers of the College Fjord. We were to cruise this area from 6:30 to 8:30 am – I made sure I was on deck right at 6:30 am to enjoy the sights. The College Fjord is a series of glaciers named after several Ivy League colleges. We sailed quite close to the glaciers and the wall of ice descending from the mountains was impressive. TIP: It really doesn’t matter which side of the ship you are on to see the College Fjords – our ship cruised into the Fjord at 6:30 am, turned around after about an hour and cruised back, giving both sides of the boat a chance to see the glaciers close up. If you can’t get up right at 6:30 am for the entry into the fjord, you can see the same glaciers on the other side of the boat as your ship sails out of the fjord later.
Monday (Glacier Bay cruising)
I was impressed with the glaciers in College Fjord, but I was to see bigger and even more impressive glaciers this day in Glacier Bay. We sailed into Glacier Bay in the morning and we experienced the coldest temperatures on the trip – it was very cold and rainy outside so I watched the scenery from the inside of one of the upper decks.
In the early afternoon the weather had improved (the rain had stopped) and I went on an outside deck to view the glaciers we were sailing by close up. It was amazing how close our ship got to these huge glaciers (you can see this in my pictures – link at the bottom of this report)
A special treat we had today for the travel agent group I was traveling with was a tour of the bridge. Our Princess rep said only one or two captains in the fleet would allow this, so we were very fortunate to have this opportunity. I saw the captain steering the ship from only a few feet away. The Island Princess is a technical marvel – steering the ship seemed little more than operating a joystick on a video game. I am sure the job is much more difficult than that but the latest in satellite guidance and electronic wizardry surely makes the job easier than the captains of long ago sailing through these same waters.
Overall I was really glad to have cruised through College Fjord and Glacier Bay as the sights there were awe inspiring. I think it is worth it to add this part to your Alaska cruise itinerary.
Tuesday (Skagway)
After two days of cruising I was ready to visit a port! At Skagway I had booked a independent “Photo Safari” van tour. I debated on whether to take the famous “White Pass Railway” trip and many of my fellow passengers did take that trip. Instead I decided on the Southeast tour Photo Safari. The Southeast rep said “you go three times farther on our tour at half the price when compared to the train”. I found this to be true, as on the Photo Safari we went much farther than the train – into the wilds of the Yukon in Canada.
I really liked the Photo Safari. We were in a small van (7 people and the driver). Our driver was very knowledgeable about the area and made frequent stops for photo opportunities. As an amateur photographer I appreciated this very much! She also made one or two unscheduled stops when someone in the van asked if they could take a picture at a particular stop.
Overall the tour was a smaller, more personal one than the train. TIP: the White Pass Railway is very popular and a fine tour in its own right, but unless you are a train buff consider the Photo Safari as an alternative. You take a similar route as the train, you go further into the wilderness, and the price is much less!
Wednesday (Juneau)
At our second port I again opted for a small independent tour – a whale watching tour with Captain Larry of Orca Enterprises. The Orca office was a short walk away from the cruise ship dock. We were transported to Captain Larry’s boat by bus.
Captain Larry had a smaller whale watch boat than most of the other tour operators I saw here. Like my experience with Southeast Tours in Skagway, I found this smaller independent tour more personal where I could talk to a local who really knew his craft well.
Captain Larry took us on a 2 hour whale watching expedition. At first we saw very few whales. I have been on a whale watching tour before and I find them to be a “hit or miss” affair – you just have to be lucky that the whales will be surfacing that day in an area where you can see them. I was confident if there were whales to be found, Captain Larry was the man to find them for us.
After about 45 minutes we experienced a rare treat – a pod of four or five Killer Whales (or Orcas) surfaced not too far from our boat! For the next 30 to 45 minutes we watched the Orcas repeatedly come out of the water. To our amazement one was even doing flips – like Shamu at Sea World! Though we could not see the Orca’s prey, Captain Larry reported that the Orcas were hunting a seal. Those that chose to use the binoculars onboard could see this sight. I chose instead to use my camera to get as many shots of the whales as I could. It was fun to focus on the water with my camera and try to get a perfect shot of a Orca surfacing – you never knew exactly when or where the whales would appear next.
We saw other sights this day on our tour – including harbor seals, bald eagles, and hump back whales. The Orcas were the highlight of the tour. Captain Larry said they were a migratory pod of Orcas and that usually Orcas are not seen in that area.
Thursday (Ketchikan)
After two exhilarating days of shore tours at Skagway and Juneau I wondered “can the tours get any better?” The answer was a resounding YES! At Ketchikan I experienced my best tour of the whole trip – a Misty Fjords flight seeing tour on a float plane with Island Wings.
Again I found booking with a local independent operator a better experience than taking the cruise line’s tour. Island Wings owner and pilot Michelle was very knowledgeable and they claimed to be the only tour that provided headsets to the passengers so that they could ask questions in flight.
We took off from the water right next to the Island Princess – seeing our cruise ship and the other ships in port that day from the air was an amazing sight. Soon we were flying over the majestic peaks and valleys of the Misty Fjords. The huge walls of granite towered out of the sea. On the top of some of the peaks we could see white mountain goats.
The highlight of the float plane trip was a landing at a remote mountain lake (“Nooya Lake”) in the heart of the Misty Fjords. While we saw two other float planes in this lake from other companies before our arrival, Island Wings was the only company that claimed to allow its passengers to exit the float plane and go onshore at this spot. I later talked to a passenger on one of the other planes and he did say they were allowed to stand outside of their plane on the floats, but not exit the plane on the shore like we did.
The peacefulness and calm of this remote mountain lake is something I will always remember. The scenery was breathtaking and our pilot Michelle was there to answer any questions we had about the area. We learned that Michelle had been running her own business for over 12 years. I felt I made a good choice going with her company as the owner of the company herself is the one who takes you on your flight, and she has the highest standards of maintenance on her plane.
If a float plane trip sounds a bit adventurous for you, don’t worry. I had never been in a small plane in my life and I found the ride to be a very smooth one. I sat in the co-pilot’s seat for part of the flight and it was very interesting watching all the flight gadgets and the pilot do her work.
A float plane trip is a bit costly (over $180) but I found it was worth every penny. Michelle’s Island Wings tour was less expensive than the similar tours you could book through the cruise line. TIP: If you are interested in the float plane tour, I recommend booking it in advance.
Island Wings has a weather cancellation policy so that you get a refund if the weather is bad that day. Michelle told me that they cancelled less than 5% of their flights because of weather in the summer of 2003. Ketchikan is one of the rainiest spots in the U.S. (with over 150 inches of rain each year) but often if it is rainy in town it is not raining where the seaplanes fly over the Misty Fjords.
TIP: Should you book independent tours like I did or book tours through the cruise line? While I had a very positive experience with independent tours, I think it depends on your particular situation. The ship’s tours are very well organized and often all you have to do is show up at a theatre or a lounge onboard and all the transportation is taken care of for you. For my tours I had to walk into each town to where the tour operator was located – this wasn’t a problem for me but could be for guests with mobility issues (wheelchairs, etc). Also I did some homework on each of the tours I took – exchanging email and getting positive comments about each tour from past passengers before I booked the tours. I would be more hesitant to book a independent tour without doing some checking into the operator beforehand. All my tours ended several hours before the ship was to depart – I would not schedule an independent tour if it ended close to the ship’s departure time (the ship won’t wait for you if you book an independent tour – they will if you book a tour organized by the cruise line). Overall I think Alaska independent tours take a little more work to plan and schedule, but you can save some $$$ and have really good experiences if you pick the right ones.
Friday (Inside passage cruising to Vancouver)
Today was a relaxing day at sea. After three thrilling days of shore excursions, I was ready for a more laid back day at sea to get ready for the trip home on Saturday. I found the scenery this day to not be as impressive as our first two “at sea” days in College Fjord and Glacier Bay, but still beautiful. We sailed the Inside Passage with mountains and lots of greenery on the shoreline on both sides of the ship.
The ship seemed to sail at a slower speed today, and I could not feel any movement of the ship at all. One person in our travel agent group reported seeing a pod of Orca Whales swimming near the ship.
Saturday – disembark in Vancouver (am)
See my description of the disembarkation process further down in this report. The Ship (The Island Princess) Our ship, the Island Princess, was a brand new ship that just started sailing in the summer of 2003. I had sailed on the Star Princess on the Mexican Riviera earlier this year. The Island Princess had many of the same features as the Star Princess but was a slightly smaller ship. The Island was built so it could sail through the Panama Canal and also through some of the tight spaces of Glacier Bay and College Fjord.
Princess is one of my favorite cruise lines and I found this cruise to be just as good if not better than the earlier Princess cruises I had taken. I had an outside stateroom on deck 5. Despite being on a lower deck I thought this location was great. I had good access to the restaurants, library, shops, and other amenities in the center ship area.
The ride on this cruise was the smoothest I have ever experienced on a cruise.90% of the time I barely could feel the ship moving. I was fortunate in that we did not encounter any rough seas during this cruise but the smooth ride was also partly due to the advanced engineering of the Island Princess.
The dining on the cruise was superb. One of my fellow travel agents commented that eating dinner in the Princess dining room was like dining at a first class restaurant. I found the food to be excellent all week. I particularly liked the “cooked to order” breakfast I had at the Bordeaux dining room and the dinners. The buffet on this Princess cruise was open 24 hours -a fact I really appreciated as I had to eat at some odd times to accommodate my shore excursions. On most days I had a light lunch in the buffet – I found the salads here to be particularly good. One feature I found different and enjoyable on this cruise was the number of special talks, classes, and seminars offered. Princess had a Naturalist onboard who would provide commentary on the natural wonders we saw (such as a narrated commentary as we were sailing through Glacier Bay). In the ship’s theatres there were many other talks throughout the cruise, including a talk by a Iditarod winner (Libby Riddles, the first woman who won the race), a stroke survivor, a chef, National Park Service rangers, and a variety of “Scholarship at Sea” classes. At one class I got some good tips on how to better use Microsoft Word.
The Entertainment on board was also very good. The Island Princess has two big entertainment venues – the large Princess theatre and a smaller more intimate Universe Lounge. The Princess dancers gave a variety of shows. The best show in my opinion was the Tribute show in the Universe Lounge – a tribute to great singers of the past. This show was a multimedia extravaganza that took advantage of the high tech wizardry of the theatre. For example there were film clips of the Beatles behind the singers as the dancers and singers performed a medley of Beatles hits. Also featured were the Beach Boys, the Rat Pack, Whitney Houston songs, and others. TIP: If you see one show with the Princess dancers – don’t miss the Tribute show. There were several in our party who didn’t care for the earlier shows with the dancers but everyone I talked to loved the Tributes show. The music presented is from different eras so there is something for everyone.
Princess also had a comedy show every night – the best comedian was Sarge (a comic I had also seen on my Mexican Riviera Princess Cruise) and a comedy magician.
There were a variety of activities offered. I enjoyed the onboard trivia contests on Thursday and Friday. I was on two victorious trivia teams and won a Princess pen and key chain. I did not do as well in my hour visit to the casino one night, playing blackjack and video poker. Other passengers on our cruise enjoyed the usual Bingo sessions, wooden horse races, aerobics classes, ping pong tournaments, and art auctions. A well stocked library on the ship was a favorite place of many (my roommate checked out a book the first day, the DaVinci Code, and finished it by Friday).
You may be thinking, “OK, was there anything this guy didn’t like about the cruise?” Well there was one thing. A minor annoyance was that the internet cafe on board frequently did not work. I was told the satellite signal was blocked by the mountains at times making internet access impossible. But even at times on the open seas the internet access was either not working or was very slow. I like to use the internet to stay connected with my family and clients back home so this was an inconvenience. Fortunately at each port we stopped at I was able to find an internet cafe in town, at rates cheaper than the ship’s internet rates (the ship’s rates were 35 cents a minute). TIP: If you need to check the internet during your cruise, try to save it for the port visits. In each town we visited the internet cafes were easy to find and easy to use (I had never been in an internet cafe before this trip)
Another part of the ship I didn’t like as well as the Star Princess was the Ping Pong area. On the Star Princess there is a large covered ping pong area by one of the pools on deck 12. On the Island Princess the ping pong tables are instead located in the aft of the ship, outside behind the aerobics studio. With the rain and wind we experienced on this cruise it was not the best setup for ping pong I have seen.
Kids Club
The Island Princess had a dedicated area for kids with a well run program for kids of all ages. Like my cruise on the Star Princess, I found the Island Princess had lots of activities for the kids. The kids clubs were closed for two hours around lunch time and dinner time, and closed for the night at 10 pm. After hours kids activities could be arranged for a fee (until 1 am) and on the port days it was possible to leave your children in the kids club if you signed up for this option in advance. Weather Being from Colorado, the cold weather at times did not bother me. This was more of a cruise for wearing jeans and sweaters rather than the shorts and t-shirts of my past Caribbean cruises. Don’t forget the raincoat!
Disembarkation
Disembarkation was a breeze – Princess is very organized in the way they get people off the ship and onto the airport or other destinations. Passengers were given baggage tags to secure to their luggage the night before – luggage had to be outside the stateroom by 12 midnight. Passengers were free to eat breakfast at one of the dining rooms or at the buffet anytime before their estimated disembarkation time. Disembarkation time was based on the color and number of your baggage tags.
Princess would announce on the ship’s loudsystem when it was time for each group to disembark. I found the groups to be small – maybe 10 to 15 people in each group at most – so there were no crowds when it was time to depart the ship.
Once off the ship the processing through Canadian customs was quick and efficient. I was on the Princess bus in no time headed for the airport.
Our bus driver took us on a brief tour of Vancouver as we headed towards the airport, providing commentary along the way.
Everything was smooth UNTIL we arrived at the airport. Here we checked in for our flight, went in another line to pay the Vancouver airport fee ($7 US Dollars) and went in another long line for US Customs. The whole process took 70 to 90 minutes – much longer than I expected. TIP: Be sure to arrive at the Vancouver airport at least 3 hours before your flight in case you encounter long lines at customs like I did.
Summary
I loved this cruise! I would not hesitate to recommend a Princess Alaska cruise as they do an excellent job on their Alaska cruises and cruise tours. The shore excursions were among the best I have ever experienced on any cruise with breathtaking scenery and wildlife viewing.