Alaskan cruise

Took an Alaskan Princess cruise several years ago. Enjoyed it immensely.

Princess offers an after-cruise extension in their Denali location. I recommend taking it and seeing Alaska. That is if seeing the vistas and wildlife of Alaska interests you.

Vancouver/Victoria are great places to visit with their vibrant city/gardens are more attractive to you.

Whatever floats your boat better, choose. You will not be disappointed either way.

1- Good job on picking Princess. They’re one of the best at Alaska cruises.

2- Definitely stay at their Denali lodge. It’s a very unique experience no other line offers.

Took my mom on one to see the whales breach, having lived on a ship in Bahrain for a year, my mother was the one thing I did it for. Spending 80% or your time on a ship when you could spend 100% exploring is not for me.

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Don't waste your time on whale watching. The excursions often overbook, and it isn't worth it to see the back of one whale for a split second.

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Sort of not worth it...but I would never go on a big excursion like the ones the cruise lines sell. In Alaska, it's super easy and safe to book Whale Watching, Sea Planes, Skagway White Horse RR with small bus back, etc. on your own. Quite often, you are on the excursion with other people who bought from the ship and paid $25+ pp more.

Just took this exact cruise on Princess except opposite direction. We flew to Anchorage and cruised to Vancouver. Did it first week of September. Flew into Anchorage a day early so we could take a northern light excursion. This was also our reason for going in September as you have a better chance of seeing them than in summer. Unfortunately our excursion was canceled due to heavy cloud coverage.

First and foremost, get a room with a balcony. Not a big deal on Caribbean cruises but a must on Alaskan cruise. You will spend a whole day going sailing thru Glacier National Park and another day going past Hubbard Glacier.There are plenty of places on deck to watch but being able to just sit on your balcony and relax and watch is worth the extra expense.

Second, make sure you have at least the Princess Plus Package to cover all meals and drinks. It also covers WiFi on one device for each person and covers tips. Well worth it.

Make sure to go and check out all the different entertainment options on ship in the evenings. There was a piano player that we really enjoyed. Played a lot of Billy Joel, Elton John etc. But they have various musicians playing at different times and bars all around ship. They also have game shows which were hit or miss. Saw a couple comedians etc.

Ketchikan- We did the Wilderness Zodiac Adventure excursion. Starts with a short walk thru a beautiful stretch of rain forest. Then a pretty neat tour of a closed down Salmon cannery turned museum. Then they set you up with a rigid bottom inflatable zodiac. Every pair or group of 4 get their own. You follow the guide out across George’s Inlet and then follow the shoreline around taking in the beautiful scenery and looking for whatever wildlife is around. See tons of eagles and had a huge sea lion swim right up to our boat. Sometimes if tide is low you can catch bears coming down to shoreline to get fish caught in tide pools. Ride was high when we went confident see any. Guide told us that in the summer time especially when salmon are spawning that it is very common to see orca in George’s inlet and he has had them swim right up to boats as well. When you get back to cannery they treat you to snack and a round of locally brewed beer. The town itself was alright. Mostly tourist type t shirt and gift shops and tons of jewelry stores. This is pretty much the case with all the ports of call.

Juneau- We were supposed to take a helicopter sight seeing tour that would have landed on Mendenhall Glacier. It was cancel due to again, extreme cloud cover and rain. We ended up doing a whale watching tour and loved it. Most people will see whales but only see them barely break water to blow and then maybe catch their fluke (tail) as they dive again. We were fortunate enough to see to different sets of mother and calf and both sets repeatedly had full body breaches. The naturalist on board was going nuts and saying that while the calves will often have full body breaches, the adults rarely do. After that we went to Mendenhall Glacier. Then the hike down the trail to Nugget Falls. About two miles each way but worth it.

Skagway- Took the train ride. It was ok. Very scenic. Spoke with another couple that evening on ship and they rented a jeep and drove to Whitepass and back. Pretty much saw what we saw from train but at their own pace and were able to stop whenever they wanted to take pics or hike trails down to rivers etc. if I were doing trip again I think I would do that.

At each town there are numerous rest and bars that are supposed to be pretty good. Honestly I was so put off by how freaking touristy all the towns were that once we were done with our excursions we went back to ship. Why pay to drink at a tourist traps bar when I can go drink on ship with money already spent.

If you can stay a few extra days in Anchorage, rent a car and go see Denali State park and the kenoji peninsula.

This was our first cruise as well. We enjoyed the ship but I don’t really see becoming cruise fanatics that take them every year. Towns were nothing but big tourist traps and was a little disappointing. Alaska itself is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. The size of the mountains and the beauty of the glaciers as the suns glimmers off them is very impressive. Don’t know that we would ever go back but very glad we went once. Definitely was not disappointed.

Won’t be cold at all if you are going in summer. Heck we went in September and it never fell below 55. We had three days of beautiful sunshine and 3 more of light to moderate rain.

If you have any specific questions let me know. I would also be curious to hear back how your trip goes.

We enjoyed HAL. I have been on three of their cruises, two in Alaska and one in the Mediterranean. The food is good in the dining room but much better in the specialty restaurants.

We went from south to north both times. One time we took the post cruise extension to the Denali Park . We were lucky enough to be there on one of the rare days when Mt. McKinley could be seen clearly.

In Skagway we took the all day excursion into the Yukon Territory which included a ride on the White Pass Railroad. That was scenic and fun.

In Juneau, we went whale watching on a boat that circled Shelter Island. We were seeing whales constantly.
And there is Mendenhall Glacier. It may not be the most spectacular glacier around, but it may be the most spectacular one you can drive to. We saw it twice, 10 yeas apart. It receded quite a bit in 10 years. See it while you can.

In Ketchikan we just walked the trails and hung around the boardwalk and the quaint little town.
There is a brothel on the boardwalk, but don't pay good money to go in because you may be surprised to find that it is now just a museum.

You will enjoy the trip. The scenery is incredible.

That Skagway tour is a good one.
One thing I remember about it was that we had to sit on the bus at the train station for a good while because a big black bear was strolling around the parking lot.