Has anyone done this one?
Stops in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan.

My wife's brother called up and asked if we wanted to go with them and we decided to do it. We’re really looking forward to having a week with them but DAMN, thats a lot of people on that ship.

Any tips, ideas or recommendations?
I already know not to go to Cabela's thanks to 2000Z-71.

My wife and I did that cruise with Princess about 10 years ago. It was amazing! Plan your tours ahead of time as they have limited space. We booked all of ours through Princess. You can save money with third-party tours, but if there is a delay, you can miss the ship. When booked through the cruise line, you are insured against that. For example, if the bus breaks down and you miss the ship, the cruise line will cover travel to get you to the next port.

I'm not sure if this still applies, but when we were cruising, you could bring your own beverages on board. You were only limited on alcohol, so we brought an extra suitcase with a case of water and a couple of cases of Monster.

As far as packing goes, it'll depend on your activities. We did multiple forest tours in Ketchican and Skagway. It's a deciduous rain forest, so expect to get wet. Dress in layers with a good, lightweight rain jacket and hat. We were there in May, so temperatures ranged from 50 to 80 degrees during the day throughout the trip. The Tray Arm Fjord was probably in the forties, plus a lot of wind - that was the only time I used anything heavier than my windbreaker.

Have fun!

Princess does a nice job, and Alaska is great! I've not been on that particular Princess ship.

We did similar cruise 25 years ago with Royal Caribbean.
We were not allowed to take any alcohol for consumption while on the cruise. If you bought any in the towns while on the way you had to check when reboarding it would be returned at the end of the cruise. They wanted your bar bill to be as large as possible.
My wife, who has respiratory issues, said she had never breath so clean. You just had to be cautious in ports.

Our family did the inside passage aboard Norwegian last Summer, similar stops to yours. Was an amazing experience. Glacier Bay was beautiful and the park rangers came aboard to narrate over the PA system the whole time we were in the bay.
For excursions (we self booked, not through the cruise)..In Ketchikan we took a tour on on of the boats from Deadliest Catch (It has been retrofitted for tourists) where they take you out and show you how they crab, as well as show you a ton of bald Eagles up close.
In Skagway we took a sailboat charter out in the fjord and saw a ton of wildlife up close.
On board the cruise ship, my youngest parked herself on our balcony and just watched the scenery go by while we sailed.

Yes, do it. We went on the Coral Princes this last Oct. Anchorage to Vancouver. The weather was in the mid high 50s most of the time, I was comfy. I had over planned for rain, wasn't worried about getting cold, I didn't want to get wet. It only rained one day in


favorite things we did were a helicopter ride up to the Glaciers near Juneau and whale watching in Vancouver. We missed our outing in Anchorage to see the Northern Lights because our bus ran late. It was cloudy anyway

The Yukon railway out of Skagway was cool

I would recommend a Balcony room for the cruising days, glacier and wildlife watching


Oh, and have a Duck Fart in Juneau










Glaciers and sea otters from the boat

Did the inside passage a few years back, left out of Vancouver which was good since we hadn't been there, you should get a hotel room downtown and explore the city, take in the sights, get a cuban cigar or two, lots of great places to eat, very clean city.

We got a hotel downtown and a great deal and could walk to many places including the ferry to Granville Island.


https://citycigarcompany.com/

https://www.earthtrekkers.com/...-to-do-in-vancouver/

Granville Island Public Market, The Aquarium, Stanley Park Brewing, Craft Brew Market, Stanley Park are among the few places, City Cigar Company has a great selection, lots of Cubans and you can trust the place.

Plenty of places to grab food from sit down to vendors in the market... You will find the Gay Cake there too!

https://govancity.com/vancouve...ts/granville-island/


Noticed you have 3 days at sea on that cruise, so be sure to take a book, kindle, ipad with something to read. Check on internet access it can be very expensive since you can't connect until you are docked in the city and cell service isn't out there in the ocean, so you might want to download a book or movie.

Frankly I just put the electronic stuff away, stopped with SM and just took pictures/videos with the phone on ship, nice break from the world.

Scenery can be fantastic, when you are in the passage, get down to the level where you are close to the water and can be outside, you'll see dolphins up close running with the ship, whales etc.

It can be hit or miss if you have a good view of the landscape once out in the ocean depending on the weather, it can be clear and sunny or foggy and raining.

It's a great trip, have a good time

Good stuff.
We booked a balcony suite and bought the premium package that includes all the drinks and the specialty restaurants. This is probably the only times we'll do this particular cruise so why not go all in,

HRK - good point about loading up the kindle in advance.

BigSwede - I saw the Yukon railway tour out of Skagway, it looks really interesting.

IT WILL RAIN.

We've been twice. Bring binoculars. If you're married, bring two. If you don't heed my advice, you'll be sorry.

The balcony cabin; low/middle of the ship - it's worth it. Once you go balcony you never go back. And as HRK says, don't connect to the Internet except when close to/or are in port. Sometimes I could hook up to a land tower coming thru Johnstone Strait and the Strait of Georgia (from my balcony). Sailing thru Johnstone Strait in the late afternoon on the way back to Vancouver was a sight!

We stayed a couple of nights before the second cruise at the Fairmont Waterfront - found a good deal at the time. Right across the street from Canada Place. Get up early and watch your ship come in. Lots of places to eat - we had a nice dinner at the Steamworks Brewpub. It's easy to use Vancouver's subway to go from the airport to Canada Place (and return).

If you are into photography, bring a long lens.

IT WILL RAIN. Plan for it. SE Alaska is a temperate rain forest. On our last cruise, the day up and the day back were sunny; all in-between had rain.

If you plan ahead, you can get to Mendenhall glacier by city bus and a 1-mile walk. Cheap.

We took a private kayaking excursion in Ketchikan our first trip; much better than the mass excursion from the ship.

While in Skagway, give my regards to Soapy Smith.

Oh, and also in Skagway, we took the free city walking tour from the National Park Service vs. the ships $$ tour.

IT WILL RAIN. Did I mention that?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 229DAK,

quote:

Star Princess

Check the itinerary of shows on the ship, get registered right away for any shows you'd like to see, especially on the long days at sea.

Otherwise it's eat, drink, gamble, sleep....., that ship has a lot of options but you want to get in early to get the shows you want, as well as reservations for top notch restaurants so you're not in the buffet line daily...

If you don't have a passport, apply sooner and not later.

If you have one, verify how many months will be left before it expires. Not sure what Canada requires, typically it's six. And check on how many blank pages you will need.

https://www.thetravel.com/us-s...port-renewal-needed/

And...

When you depart for the US from the Vancouver airport after your cruise, you clear US immigration and customs there at the airport. You arrive in the US just like a domestic flight.

We did an Alaskan sea and shore cruise last year, and we had a great time. If I went to Alaska without my wife, I wouldn’t go on a cruise. I’d fly or boat into places I want to go, and I would probably rent a car.

I really don’t need fine dining, stage shows, casinos, etc, cruises provide. While I loved sharing that with my wife, it just isn’t personally desired.

Lastly, we were the first cruise of the season on the Caribbean Princess last year, which we started from Vancouver. We flew out at the end of our land(train/bus) portion from Fairbanks. I liked that time of the year because I wanted winter conditions, but many animals weren’t as out and about as they would have been a little later.

Passports are not an issue.

Princess runs a motor coach service from Vancouver to SeaTac. I'm sure they have customs figured out. We’re only taking it back to SeaTac to save my son the drive up to Vancouver to pick us up. We’ll spend the night and fly home the next day.

We’re going in late Sept and we have already started booking restaurants and such. Looking at the available time slots, booking early is an absolute must. We don't intend to plan out every moment, but I expect to have booked everything we are going to book by this weekend. Its hard with the other couple in OR.

We did a variant of that cruise in 2010. Stopped in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. Alaska Knife Works and Twisted Fish restaurant are 2 of many places I'd recommend in Juneau.

I’m doing a trip on Holland America in Alaska this July. Leaves from and returns to Seattle. This will be my first cruise. Some great information here. Thanks.

Duplicate. Please delete.

I did the inside passage round trip from Seattle in June of last year on the Royal Princess. It was my second time doing the inside passage. The first was with Holland America.

You’ll be on the newest ship in the Princess fleet. I haven’t been on it, but a friend said she loved it. Princess does a great job with the layouts of their ships.

I loved Ketchikan. It’s a beautiful little city that gets crowded when the ships come into port. When we went in 2018, we did a snorkeling adventure in Ketchikan. It was quite the experience, but visibility wasn’t great. I could see about 8 feet in front of me. I also was overheating in my wetsuit and had to keep drawing cold water in to cool myself down.

In Juneau, we did the helicopter tour, glacier walk and salmon bake. It was my first time in a helicopter and was a life changing moment in a positive way. The salmon bake was fun, but crowded. They had some decent bands playing and there was more than just salmon being served. The previous time, we did the bicycle and brews tour. The bicycling part was fun, but there were some strenuous parts. An older couple had to stop and ride in the chaser van. The brews part was lackluster. The beers were okay, but nothing to write home about.

In Skagway, we didn’t have much planned, but ended up finding the Elk’s Lodge. We spent an afternoon meeting locals, bowling in the lodge and enjoying some drinks. I’d done the haunted brothel tour. It was campy, but fun.

The thing that I enjoyed the most was Glacier Bay. It really made a lasting impression on me. I keep trying to convince my girlfriend and our friends to go back because I want to be there.

Good luck with your trip! I hope you have an amazing time!

quote:

If I went to Alaska without my wife, I wouldn’t go on a cruise. I’d fly or boat into places I want to go, and I would probably rent a car. I really don’t need fine dining, stage shows, casinos, etc, cruises provide.

We don't either. I might suggest you try a small, expedition-type cruise (pax <150). We're heading out on our second Lindblad-National Geographic Cruise in August. No stage shows. No water slides. No mini-golf. No rock climbing wall. No swimming pool. One main dining room; no specialty restaurants. No casino. The lounge is there for the day's wrap-up and lectures. Zodiacs to get to shore or close to sights. Go out and touch glacial ice floating in the water. On one cruise we were out on sea ice with 900 feet of water beneath us (east Greenland). One time we were on a zodiac within about 200 yards from Hubbard glacier - the smaller expedition cruise ships can get in closer. Also, we sailed well into Behm Canal; we left the larger cruise ships way behind us (their size only allows them to go so far). Since it had been raining, the sides of the canal were full of waterfalls. Kayaking, too. Downside - more expensive than a 3,000-5,000 pax cruise ship.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 229DAK,

Did 2 Alaskan cruises prior to moving here. Sounds like you may have booked already. I always recommend taking the one way cruise between Seattle or Vancouver to Seward or Whittier rather than a round trip cruises. The further north you go, the cooler things get and the bigger the glaciers get.

I also suggest if time and money allows due an extension to Denali. Coastal and interior Alaska are very different. We did the extension on our second cruise and wondered why we didn’t do it the first time.

For the ports you mentioned I can make some recommendations;

In Skagway definitely do the White Pass Railroad, it’s a making trip. I spent the whole time on the platform in between the cars. Be careful when booking through the cruise line. A lot of the trips may be the railroad in one direction and a tour bus in the other rather than round trip on the railroad. The tour bus sucks! Walking around town is fun and there’s a lot of history there. There’s a museum in town with a really interesting display; a mannequin as a miner with all of the supplies required by the Canadian’s to cross the border into the Yukon.

Ketchikan, Misty Fjords cruise is on my bucket list of things to do up here. Then there’s Tsongas Trading Company in town. Two story hardware store with the touristy stuff on the first level and then fishing, mining ,outdoor gear and guns on the second floor. It was hilarious watching the entire crew of the cruise ship bail after all the passengers disembarked and make a beeline for the Tsongas.

Juneau, get out to the Mendenhall Glacier. All kinds of ways to do it, helicopter, hike, tour bus. We did a canoe trip out to it and it was fantastic. Red Dog Saloon is touristy, but they do have Wyatt Earp’s gun hanging on the wall behind the bar.

Enjoy it. Pack rain gear, it rains. Invest in a good quality GoreTex jacket. Did I mention that it rains? Comfortable water proof boots. It gets cold on deck, especially when glacier cruising; pack some light weight or medium weight gloves and a knit beanie.