Conference abbott::cruise_travel

307.0. "LONG trip report - Dawn Princess to Alaska" by NODEX::BERNSTEIN () Tue Aug 20 1991 18:24

Hi,

Just getting back to reality.  I took the July 20th sailing on Princess
Cruises' Dawn Princess to Alaska.  It was a GREAT time.  We started in
Vancouver and stopped at Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway.  Cruised Glacier Bay
and College Fjord/Columbia Galcier.  Ended at Whittier and took a train 
from there to Anchorage.  We were amazingly lucky with the weather, as it
only really rained one day - in Ketchikan, the wettest town in Alaska.
There were 4 really sunny and warm (around 80 degree) days.

I really liked the order of the stops.  The ship also does the cruise in
reverse, from Anchorage to Vancouver.  I liked the way we did it - sort of
saved the best for last, as Columbia Glacier was the most beautiful
(in both my opinion, and that of all the people I was with).

Ketchikan was a neat little town.  We went to Totem Bight park, a State
Park of totem poles.  It was interesting.  Also went to Creek St, the old
red-light district.  The whole street is elevated on wooden pillars.  Also
saw a salmon hatchery.  

Juneau was my favorite town.  We did a self-guided walking tour of the area.
Then took a helicopter tour to Norris Glacier - this was awesome.  The weather
was great for it, views beautiful.  We stopped and walked on the glacier for
a little while.  Flew over ice fields on the way back.  An incredible
experience.  Also went to a Salmon Bake.  Great salmon in a cute area.  There
was a place to pan for gold after eating.  Lots of fun.  We then were able
to see the Juneau nightlife as we were in port till midnight.  We went to
the famous Red Dog Saloon, and a few other bars in town.  A great town - I
could live there.

Skagway was another really cute town.  Basically one street.  The street is
a National Historic sight, so all the buildings have to conform and "look
old".  From here we took an excursion into the Yukon.  We rode along a 
road near the White Pass and Yukon railroad.  It was a long tour - about
6 hours - gorgeous scenery.  It was a clear warm day, so all the mountains
and lakes looked great with the blue sky in the background.  It was nice to
get inland a bit - but unfortunately we did not see any wildlife.

Thursday was spent cruising Glacier Bay.  It was a cloudy and cool day, and
the breeze from the top deck (with the best view) made it quite cold.  But
it was worth it.  The glaciers were gorgeous - we even saw a little bit of
calving (where a chunk of ice falls off the glacier and forms an iceberg).
The clouds made the blue color of the glaciers and icebergs really show up.

Friday was spent at Columbia Glacier and College Fjord.  Columbia Glacier
was incredible - huge - gorgeous.  I think I used a whole roll of film on
just this.  College Fjord was also quite scenic, with lots of smaller
glaciers all bunched together.  On both Thursday and Friday, we saw a lot
of seals laying out on the icebergs, floating by.  It was quite impressive.

Late Friday night we docked at Whittier and stayed in port all night.  Well,
actually we went ashore and saw some more Alaskan nightlife.  Saturday
morning we disembarked (unfortunately) and took a train into Anchorage.
Our flight wasn't until that night, so we took a tour of the city.  Anchorage
is a real, big city - nothing at all like the other towns we stopped in.  
Couldn't even tell we were in Alaska.  After the tour we just walked around
and hung out until our flight.  They had a room reserved for us so we could
check out bags and also had a shuttle bus to get us to the airport.  After
a LONG flight, the vacation was over.

I have taken one other cruise before - on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.  There
was a noticible difference in quality.  The service on Princess wasn't nearly
as top-notch.  Mostly little things.  Our cabin wasn't kept as clean - had 
to ask for more towels - toilet broken when we arrived. The waiters/busboys 
on Princess were not nearly as efficient.  We had to wait much longer to be
served, they had a hard time understanding our questions and orders (a big
language problem), and many times got orders wrong.  All of the crew 
was very friendly though, and it was lots of fun talking to them.  We even
learned some Italian and Portuguese.  I guess we were spoiled
on RCCL.  Still, these things were not that terrible, and had we not taken
RCCL, we probably wouldn't have noticed.

We also took a pre-cruise package for 2 nights in Vancouver.  That is a
gorgeous city.  It included a day-trip to Victoria and tours of both cities.
Again, Princess' organization was not impressive.  The package was supposed
to include transportation and baggage handling.  The way they did this was
to meet us at the airport and give us a cab voucher and said "get your bags
and take a cab and give the driver this coupon".  Nothing else.  They said
they would have a full itinerary for us waiting at the hotel.  It consisted
of a letter saying "meet at 8:30 for your tour".  No details at all.  No
rep to ask quesions to because we got in after 5.  It turned out that the
Victoria trip was a 12 hour trip - we were not planning for that.  We had
wanted to do some touring of our own - it would have been nice to know what
was planned for us.  They didn't even have enough room on the bus for this
tour - when we left, 4 people were still standing on the sidewalk while they
were working out what to do.  Getting to the ship was also unorganized.  
None of the reps seemed to answer questions the same way.  We were told by
one that we could board the ship right away - the other told us we had to
wait at the dock for a couple hours first, or tour on our own.  They
even told us we were leaving from the wrong dock.

There were some plusses for Princess over RCCL.  They seemed to have a more 
relaxed atmosphere.  They gave out champaign at a lot of functions. Passengers 
seemed friendlier and more laid back.  And the big plus was that they had
a "singles/people sailing alone" party on the second night out.  We went
to this and met 5 or 6 people close to our age, travelling alone.  This
was great.  We did things together for the rest of the week and became
good friends with them.  It was fun to have a bigger bunch of people to
do things with.  It really made the cruise fun.

The ship was older, about the same size as RCCL's Song of Norway, probably
the same age too.  It was well-kept (except out toilet) and very clean.
A really neat feature was there was a pizzeria on board.  It was opened a few
hours in the afternoon, and at night till 1.  We got back from Ketchikan
after lunch and before the afternoon snack, and the pizza really hit the
spot.  I had pineapple pizza for the first time - pretty good.

It was a GREAT vacation.  None of these little problems with Princess
affected the great time we had.  In fact, we had more fun on this ship than
on RCCL, probably because of the great people we met.  I'd go again in a
second!
    

    About 4 years ago, my mom and I took our first cruise ever to Alaska. 
    We chose the World Explorer Line and sailed from Vancouver on the SS
    Universe.  This is a small ship that for 9 months out of the year is 
    used as a floating university in the Caribbean.  They sail commercially
    to Alaska on a 14 day cruise from late May to early September.  We
    chose this line because of the itinerary.  
    
    The accommodations on board were very different from those on the other
    ships I'd seen .. spartan cabins at best, but the service was
    wonderful, as was the food and activities.
    
    The itinerary for this cruise included stops at:
    	Wrangel
    	Juneau - definitely take an air trip back over the glacier.  We took
    		 seaplanes back to the Taku Lodge/Glacier for a salmon BBQ -
    		 fantastic sidetrip
    	Skagway - didn't see much of this town as we took day-long bus ride
    		 into Yukon.  Beautiful scenery but too long of a ride.
    	Glacier Bay - spent several hours at the glaciers.  Lots of
  		 wonderful pictures of calving of the glaciers.  Coming out
    		 we discovered pod of whales.  Captain "parked" the ship
    		 so we could watch.  There was a zoologist on board who
    		 talked about what we were seeing.
    	Valdez
    	Whittier - took bus ride on train thru mountains to Turn-Again Arm,
    		 then bus into Anchorage.
    	Sitka - absolutely gorgeous - lots of history here
    	Ketchican - Loved the town
    	Victoria - not enough time here to really see much.  Rained the day
    		we were there.  Visited Buschart Gardens, but didn't see
    		much of the city itself.
    
    There was fantastic entertainment every night on board -- including a
    bush music teacher who wrote her own songs about life in Alaska for the
    eskimo children, the Iditerod, etc.  Her pilot is a photographer and
    there was a slide show to accompany her songs -- really memorable. 
    Also a concert pianist, two women who played hammer dulcimer and Irish
    Harp, a comedian, a singer and the highlight of the cruise -- Shirley
    JOnes joined the cruise in Anchorage for the return trip and spent an
    afternoon talking about her career, etc., then entertained at the
    Captain's Farewell party.  In addition, the cruise staff organized real
    live wooden horse racing, talent shows, dance classes, bingo, etc. 
    There was also arrangements made to have a zoologist, anthropologist,
    sociologist and geologist on board to lecture (you could get college
    credits if you wanted).  I didn't sit in on any of the lectures, but
    while we sailed, they were all available to answer questions about what
    we were seeing in the Inland Passage, while at the glaciers, the
    cultural things to see in ports, etc.  It was great.
    
    There was a band every night that played wonderful dance music, I made
    some wonderful friends with whom I still correspond.  Again, the ship
    is small and doesn't have all the "extras" of the larger ships - one
    bar, no casino, etc., but when you sail the inland passage and visit
    ports everyday, and have lots of additional activities on board, you
    don't miss these things because you want to be on deck watching to make
    sure you didn't miss some of the scenery.  We went on the first sailing
    of the summer season - last week of May, first of June.  It rained the
    day we sailed and when we were in Victoria, and sprinkled when we 
    landed in Wrangel, but other than that, I wore short sleeved blouses 
    most of the time - only really needed a jacket for Glacier Bay.  Even 
    got a sunburn in Anchorage where it was in the low 80's.
    
    I have since taken a Caribbean Cruise on Carnival's Celebration. 
    Although there were lots more amenities on this ship, and the cabins 
    were nicer (bath bigger), if I had to choose between the two, I'd 
    go back to World Explorer in a minute.  Just wish they cruised other
    places besides Alaska.  If I remember correctly, the ship holds about
    250-300 passengers -- got to know everyone, trip felt like you were 
    traveling with one big family!
    
    
    Pat