Alaska Cruise and Land Tour Review

I am just back from my five-week whirlwind vacation to visit family and friends in Alaska, Mexico, and Florida! It was a wonderful trip! Now I am busy documenting all of it before I forget the details!

If you’ve ever dreamed of visiting Alaska, you will want to read this Alaska Cruise and Land Tour Review!

My sister, niece, and many of their friends decided to do this Alaskan cruise in late 2021. As I had planned to see my family in 2022 (after a 3 year gap due to Covid), I was thrilled when they invited me to join them in Alaska!

Our Princess cruise was called the “7-day Voyage Of The Glaciers (northbound)”. It started in Vancouver on September 3 and ended in Anchorage (Whittier, one hour away) on September 10, 2022. I flew to Vancouver a couple of days in advance and stayed with my niece, who rented a very cool floating home in the Vancouver harbor (will detail that experience in an upcoming blog post, stay tuned!).

This was my first time going on a Princess cruise. I was NOT disappointed. The Royal Princess ship was built in 2013 and refurbished in 2018. It has 15 decks and can hold up to 3560 passengers. We did not have that many people on our cruise, perhaps due to the Covid restrictions still in place at the time. Each passenger had to be vaccinated against Covid and had to have a negative test one day before boarding.

It took us two long hours to get through the boarding process, mainly due to customs clearance as we were leaving Canada and entering the USA during the cruise. Once onboard, we quickly began the fun of checking out this enormous floating hotel!

We set sail at 4 pm on the first Saturday and many people were up on the top decks waving and cheering as we departed from Vancouver. The first day was at sea which was just as well since we were all getting acclimated to the interior of the ship and finding the various restaurants, theatres, bars, gym, boutiques, casinos, and more!

I chose the more expensive option of getting an outside cabin with a balcony. Taking an exterior room was the best decision I made, as I was able to see many beautiful views right from my cabin. The air temperature was a bit chilly to sit out on the balcony for any time, but I enjoyed going out to take in the views and get some nice photos. I saw some pretty awesome sunsets as well as some amazing sunrises while sipping my morning coffee.

Our first port stop was in the quaint town of Ketchikan. We had most of the day free here to explore what they call “Alaska’s First City” and “Salmon Capital of the World”.

I did not pre-book an excursion at this location but opted to visit the area myself. I had done some research on what to see in Ketchikan. The highlight was a cute river and buildings called “Creek Street”. It was only a 20-minute walk from our ship dock. Creek Street was a red-light district in the late 1800s.

There were many salmon in the river, some already dead from the recent spawning season. I saw lots of harbor seals frolicking in the water. They were so cute. I enjoyed this colorful town in the Alaska Inner Passage.

Our next port stop was on Day 3 in the town of Juneau. I had booked a kayak trip here but unfortunately, the weather was too windy for us to do it. My plan B was to visit the Mendenhall Glacier on my own.

Instead of paying more for an organized tour, I hopped on a public bus and only paid $2 for the 30-minute ride from town. When I was dropped off at the bus stop, I did have to walk 30 minutes to reach Tongass National Park, but that was fine for me.

I explored the glacier area by doing two different trail walks. It was well worth the walk to see Nugget Falls. It did sprinkle a bit this day, but that didn’t spoil the experience.

Our third and last port stop was in Skagway, a cute western-looking town known for its gold-mining history. I walked around the town initially and then met my group for the Speed Raft excursion.

From our ship’s dock, we were bussed to a nearby smaller dock where we got suited up in bulky orange outfits. I felt like an astronaut walking around in this suit! But the advantage was that it would keep us warm and protect us from the wind and spraying water.

The raft ride was indeed fast and fun to be closer to the water. We went along the edge of the mountains and rocks, spotting many harbor seals. We approached a few waterfalls for some great photo opportunities.

In addition to the fast movement and doing donut spins in the bays, we learned many facts about this area and the animals from our knowledgeable raft guide.

After the rafting, I had more time to enjoy Skagway before the ship left. I decided to do a nearby hike up through a forest to a pretty area called Lower Dewey Lake. I saw hundreds of mushrooms while walking around the scenic lake for 2 hours. It was nice to do some hiking in Alaska and see some different scenery.

The next two days, we were at sea with the itinerary of “Scenic Cruising”. This basically meant that we would be seeing some amazing scenery from the ship without getting off. We started off on the first day in Glacier Bay National Park toward the Margerie Glacier. Glacier Bay National Park has 3.3 million acres and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once we arrived at Margerie Glacier, the ship did a very slow 360-degree turn so that people could observe the glacier from anywhere on the boat. This 21-mile landmark is the most famous glacier in the park with one of the most active glacial faces.

I was lucky to see three different iceberg break-offs, which I later learned was called “glacier calving”. It was pretty remarkable to see that happen and hear the loud sound of the ice falling into the water.

The second “Scenic Cruising” day was to College Fjord. It was cloudier on this day and very chilly. They provided blankets for everyone to sit outside and admire the terrain. We didn’t last long on this day and soon went inside to play card games in the warm cozy bar.

One nice thing I appreciated was how they gave us a daily agenda under our door each night for all the activities the following day. The cruise also provided a television show each day talking about the plans and various events to be held that day. I found it all to be very professional and new-age digital media!

While we were at sea for two days, we spent a lot of time inside as well, playing games in the bar areas. I took the alcohol drink plan which included all drinks priced up to $12. I enjoyed trying all the various cocktails! Other activities during the sea days included shopping at the boutiques, going to the gym for a workout, doing Zumba and line dancing classes, and of course, eating at any hour you wanted to.

I had the meal plan included in my package which meant that I could eat at many of the nicer restaurants every day. I am not a fan of buffet-type cruise eating (only did this a few times for breakfast), so I enjoyed the fine dining experience in the elegant restaurants. I could order from a menu what I wanted for an entree, main dish, and dessert. The servers were excellent and the food was divine.

After one week on the ship, I was ready for the second part of this adventure – the Land Tour! Some of our group members did not do this tour and instead returned home after the cruise. I was glad I spent the extra time and money to see a whole other side of Alaska.

Our first stop on the way to Anchorage was at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center. We had an hour to freely walk around this huge park area and see many animals. It did resemble a zoo but it was still nice to get up close to the native animals. I saw buffalo, muskox, moose, bears, elks, owls, wolves, porcupines, bald eagles, lynxes, and reindeer!

We spent the first night in Anchorage in a very nice hotel called Hotel Captain Cook. We went to a local restaurant called Humpy’s to sample the specialty of halibut burger. I loved eating all the seafood while in Alaska!

Our first real day of the land tour was a 2.5-hour bus ride up to Denali State Park where we stayed in the Mt. Mckinley Princess Lodge. The weather was cloudy and drizzly, so we didn’t get to see much scenery on the way.

The lodge was nice with many different two-level buildings for the rooms and a big lodge with restaurants, a lounge area, and a gift shop. It was nestled in the middle of nowhere and gave me a peaceful feeling.

The following day, our program was a 1-hour bus ride from our lodge to the small town of Talkeetna where we boarded a panoramic train north to Denali National Park. The Autumn scenery was amazing with so many golden trees.

We crossed over many rivers and climbed from 350ft to 1600ft during the 5-hour journey. We sat in the comfortable glass-top second level where we were served drinks and then had a nice lunch in the same car downstairs.

We had several opportunities on the train ride to see Denali Mountain (called “The Great One”), but it was always covered with clouds. Denali (Mount McKinley was its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America at its summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6190 meters). The Denali dominates the landscape of the Alaska Range, rising above Alaska’s two largest cities, Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Interesting fact: The tallest mountain is measured from base to summit. Using that measurement, Denali is taller than Mount Everest. Denali rises approx 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) from its base, which is a greater vertical rise than Everest’s 12,000-foot rise (3,700 meters) from its base at 17,000 feet (5,200 meters). Pretty cool, huh?

Because I couldn’t get my own picture of “the Great One”, I’m including one here from the internet. It would have been so cool to have seen it in person. Maybe next time!

I really enjoyed this train ride with our huge panoramic windows and a very entertaining guide. He made it quite amusing for all of us while sharing the history of Alaska and the surrounding area.

After the train ride, we were taken to our next accommodations (Denali Princess Lodge) where we would stay two nights. We were in a mountainous area located next to the Denali National Park. The lodge had several restaurants and many gift shops. We spent our first evening sitting outside by an open fire and having cocktails before dinner.

The next day we had a prebooked excursion to visit Denali park. We were taken via bus on the main road through the park. We couldn’t go all the way due to a continuous landslide that has worsened since 2021. They are building a bridge to resolve this problem but it may not be finished until 2023.

We would stop each time someone spotted an animal. The tour guide would share his knowledge of the animal while showing us a zoomed-in camera view his bus was equipped with. During the 5-hour ride, we saw two grizzly bears, two ground squirrels, a golden eagle, lots of Dall sheep, and a wolverine! I had hoped to see a moose but it just didn’t happen.

We stopped and got off the bus a few different times to get a better view. They provided a small lunch pack for us to snack on during the ride. Unfortunately, most of my pictures were taken behind the bus windows with some glare. It was still beautiful though.

This day was one of my favorites as the weather was clear and the Autumn colors were gorgeous. Once again, we didn’t see “the great one” as it was covered with clouds. They say that clear visibility of the Denali is only 30% of the time.

After a long but interesting day in the park, we had a yummy pizza at one of the lodge restaurants. We then did a little souvenir shopping and packed our bags for departure to Fairbanks the following day.

The itinerary on our last day of the land tour was to take the Riverboat Discovery tour on an authentic Alaskan sternwheeler along the Chena and Tanana rivers for 3.5 hours.

I initially thought it would be just a normal boat ride but that was not the case! The boat stopped at different spots along the river to learn how the locals lived.

The shows included seeing a bush pilot land and take off from the river, watching Iditarod sled dogs in training, and different presentations showing typical native village life from the early 1900s. We were able to get off the boat to freely walk around the Chena Indian Village to learn about the Athabascan heritage.

The only disappointment of the Alaska land tour portion was that we had to cancel our Northern Light tour due to weather and no visibility. I have seen the Northern Lights twice, in Norway and Iceland. Many of the others in our group were looking forward to that experience. As you may know, the weather in Alaska at this time of year is variable and unpredictable. September is supposed to be the rainiest month of the year, so I feel lucky that we had some nice days mixed in with the clouds and rain.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Alaska Cruise and Land Tour Review! It was a true bucket list trip which I highly recommend! I had the pleasure of celebrating my 60th birthday during the Alaska trip. I had my cruise cabin decorated with banners and balloons (by my sister) and many birthday songs and cakes throughout the trip! What a great way to celebrate my milestone birthday!

If you are looking for assistance to plan your next trip, I am here for YOU! I love to plan travel itineraries for myself and others. For more details on how I provide this service, please check out my Itinerary Planning page and drop me a quick email at jan@janadventures.com to get started!