Island Princess Alaskan Cruisetour-Northbound

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We went on a twelve-day cruise-tour to Alaska on the Island Princess. This is the fourth cruise that my wife Cindy and I have gone on since 1999, and by far, the best. This is our first Princess cruise after cruising once with Royal Caribbean and twice with Carnival. We both felt that Princess was the best of all of them. Here is my review:

Travel

Going home, we had the exact same problem. We flew from Fairbanks to Seattle and had only one hour to get to our connecting flight. Since we didn’t have to go thru customs, our luggage had to be delivered right to our connecting flight by the airlines (Alaska Air). Our bags never made it, and when we got to Philadelphia, they were not there. USAir delivered them that night so that was only a minor hassle.

Embarkation & Debarkation:

Debarkation went very smoothly. It wasn’t very different from all of our other cruises, except that we still had our land tour of Alaska to do.

Room:

Food:

The wait staff was one of the best that we have had as yet. The Maitre’D was very accommodating when we requested a table change because friends who booked late were not at our table. Everyone was very friendly.

Itinerary: Ketchikan

Ketchikan can be very rainy, but all we had was a short drizzle. Most of the day was overcast and in the 60’s

Next was Juneau

Juneau also has some good shopping. The weather there was like Ketchikan, 60’s and overcast.

The last stop was Skagway

Skagway also has lots of shopping (just like any cruise destination). No change in the weather here.

We next sailed thru Glacier Bay

The weather in this area was quite different. The sky was partly cloudy, but the temperature was in the low 50’s. The temp went up quickly when we left the bay.

After leaving the bay, you get out into more open water, but still in sight of land. The mountains get much taller here, and you can see some glaciers coming down right into the ocean. The ddays are noticably longer now, and going to bed when it is twilight outside feels strange.

The next day we were in College Fjord

The next day we disembarked in WhittierAnchorage

Next, we took the Alaskan Railroad Princess McKinley Lodge

Next, we took the train to the Princess Denali Lodge

The final rail trip was to Fairbanks.

If we had it to do over again, we would have done the land tour first and the cruise second. It would have been much more relaxing that way. The biggest problem that we encountered was that as we went further north, the days became increasing long. We knew that would happen, but, nonetheless, it was disconcerting. Going to bed at midnight and it looked like 6 o’clock outside was not too easy. Considering everything, the trip was great and I would recommend it to everyone. Princess really has this Alaska business down to a science.