Wrap Up, So How Was It?

Monday, June 24th, 2019

So, I’m pleased to report that the cruise was better than expected. A friend had done the NCL version of the same cruise and declared it a complete waste of time, so I didn’t have high hopes. I was pleasantly surprised! The stateroom with balcony was nice, the internet functioned well enough, although slowly, the staff was very helpful and pleasant, and most importantly I didn’t spend the whole week waiting in lines. The food was adequate, but generally not great. The one exception was the “Share” restaurant which was a $29/person upgrade. We had an excellent meal there while observing whales off the stern of the boat. What did I not really like? As I said to someone who asked, this is a little like being trapped in a shopping mall and food court with 3,300 other people and occasionally allowed out for a few hours. Overall too little time at the stops do anything involved, particularly in Victoria, BC, but also in Skagway. The daily newsletter was so clogged with manufactured events that it was very difficult to sort out what was worth going to: No I don’t need to go the raffle at the onboard jewelry store or the bingo etc. etc. One thing that worked particularly well for us was that the alcohol policy on Princess allows you to bring onboard as much wine as you want (no hard liquor or beer), and charges a reasonable corkage of $15 after two bottles. While the policy says they charge for all the bottles you bring on, in reality we were only charged corkage twice during the week and never at the upscale restaurants. This allowed us to drink good wine at very reasonable prices and meant that we had virtually no bar tab. By waiting until what by cruising standards is the “last” minute, 2 weeks beforehand, we got an incredible deal on the cruise fare. Arrival in Seattle was easy, we got off the ship about 7:30am and were home at my house before 8:00am. My extras amounted to a few shore excursions, some corkage and a few drinks as well as the daily default gratuity, a total of about $700. For an itemized description of what I liked and didn’t like, click on this: Princess Cruise lines, the Good and the Bad

Should you do this cruise? Places like Glacier Bay are almost impossible to see without going by boat. This is certainly a good way to do it, and relatively economical. Be sure to get a balcony stateroom, and consider carefully which cruise line you use. I was actually surprised that I got more exercise than expected, walking an average of about 12,500 steps per day over the course of the 7 days. If you want to be more active, the smaller boats offer more physical activities, but the price is breathtakingly higher. Have a look here if that sounds interesting: https://www.uncruise.com

One other comment, in a stunning lack of creativity, all of the cruise boats that leave Seattle on Saturday seem to end up in the same ports on every day of the cruise. This means that a small town, like all of those in Alaska will suddenly have 3 boats arrive within an hour and disgorge 10,000 people, and that number is not an exaggeration, if anything it could be an undercount. Because of this great clogging of things, I would strongly suggest avoiding flying in at the last minute for a cruise, get there at lease the night before. (We heard a long tale of woe from a guest whose flight was delayed and missed the boat. Princess left her in a Best Western at SeaTac airport until it was time to fly up to Juneau a few days later. Considering that Princess had booked the flights, it was very poor planning from them, and she should not have accepted that itinerary.)

Should you use a travel agent: Cruises are one of the things where a travel agent can actually get you the same or a better deal. I was referred to Shawn Power, who has been on 60+ cruises himself and was very responsive and on the ball. If you are not experienced with cruises, it would be worth having someone like him help you. Here’s his website: https://www.nancyandshawnpower.com

Day 7, Cruising with stop in Victoria BC.

Friday, June 21st, 2019

After departing Ketchikan, this was mostly at sea time until arrival in Victoria. It was little frustrating because we were clearly very near the dock at 4:30pm and then it took till the 7:00pm arrival time to actually get there and get off the ship. For once our captain didn’t get us right in, but I suspect this was politics, as we took on a ships pilot about half a mile from the dock. Clearly no need for this but probably some kind of requirement. Slightly annoying wait to get off the boat, but no Canadian customs or immigration check. Since you had to be back on the boat by 11:30pm, we went for a good long walk from the boat over to Victoria’s Chinatown. It being Friday night Victoria was very happening, and of course with 3 cruise boats in port, that added 10,000+ people to the mix. It is irritating that every boat seems to be on the exact same schedule as sidewalks are clogged and many stores and restaurants are suddenly overwhelmed. We took a little water taxi back towards the boat and called it a day. During the Sea time, Michael, the naturalist gave a very heartfelt lecture about the eco system and more Alaska stories, he is definitely a treasure and one of the highlights of the cruise.

On board “outlet” shopping

Here is an example of the daily activity sheet, The Princess Patter. I found the choices confusing and almost too many options.

Day 6, Ketchikan

Thursday, June 20th, 2019

Woke up this morning already at the dock in Ketchikan. Our Captain does seem to have a knack for getting us in to port and tied up before the other 6 ships get there, giving us the primo positioning. Since the stop was from 7:00am till 12:30pm we decided not sign up for any organized activities, and just headed out to walk around town. After a breakfast at one of the local cafes, we headed up to the totem pole museum. This was started to preserve old totem poles that were decaying and no longer being built. Quite interesting. Ketchikan is more of a real city than Skagway, and is a first arrival and departure point for SW Alaska. Unfortunately, back on the boat all too soon and off we steamed. Beautiful scenery. The ship has a very entertaining naturalist on board, Michael Modzelewski, who gives lectures and narrates whale sightings etc. His programs have been really great and he has some books out as well. Before a dinner at the ship’s fancy restaurant, Share, we went to see a broadway type show with lots of magic in it in the ship’s theater. Entertaining but pretty lightweight stuff. It’s now Friday morning as I write this, and we steam all day to reach Victoria, BC at 7:00pm tonight. The visit is very brief, just until midnight, but probably a legal requirement for a foreign flagged vessel per the Jones Act.

Some one in Ketchikan didn’t get the memo and put up chain link fence on both sides of the street all through downtown, Nice going! I’m sure the merchants love that.

Day 5, Glacier Bay

Wednesday, June 19th, 2019

Today we entered Glacier Bay National Park. A beautiful area very far north, that seems only accessible by boat and float plane. There are multiple glaciers that come down to the water, but they have receded quite a lot over the last few hundred years. The park service provides a map showing the recession lines. After a quick breakfast we headed to the aft section of the ship to see the scenery and meet the park rangers who were put on board to provide some context. The captain pulled the boat way up to the end of a fjord and we hung out there for about an hour hoping to see a big piece calve off the glacier. Occasional noises happened, but there wasn’t any big pieces that came off. Nevertheless a beautiful day and the scenery was incredible. While Princess Lines claims to have the fastest internet at sea, speeds of 2 Mbps seem as fast as it goes, and that’s on a good day…. Definitely an area that needs work desperately. At this point photo uploads are failing repeatedly, so I’ll add photos using cellular in port in Ketchikan tomorrow. The area is really quite spectacular!

Day 4, Skagway

Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

We arrived at the dock around 6:30am, and had an excursion booked on the historic White pass Yukon Railway. Our train headed out about 8:00am for the ride up to the top of White Pass. This was the route that the gold prospectors took to get into the Yukon. Fantastic scenery and a slow train ride up and down. We were held for a about half an hour while another train was backed down the line due to engine troubles. Eventually we got back to Skagway and walked around for awhile. After a lunch at a local seafood joint, back on the boat for a few presentations followed by dinner. Our captain seems to have a knack for getting us into these places before the other boats. It’s a little alarming as the day starts with just out boat, 3,300 people and then when we get back from the excursion, there were two other Princess boats, a Celebrity boat and a Holland America boat, for an estimated 9,000 plus people in town for the day. This somewhat overwhelms a small town, but the money is just so good that they can’t say no. The train was running multiple groups and trains all day long and right across from us was a helicopter tour company running 6 A-stars simultaneously all day long, even doing hot refuels.

Day 3, arrival in Juneau.

Monday, June 17th, 2019

The narrative on the ship’s camera channel started at 6:00am this morning and we were in the calm inside passage with whales and other wildlife working our way up to Juneau. Fortunately our arrival around 10:15am beat the other cruise boats, so we were snugged up to the dock. We had signed up for a whale watch and Mendenhall glacier visit. After a certain amount of waiting in line, we got on a bus and headed for the whale watch boat. Cold, grey and drizzly this is typical southern Alaska weather. Our whale watch was nice although we saw whales right off the dock, never particularly close. Some Orcas and a humpback or two, but given the rain showers, it was nice to be inside. Then a bus to the Glacier and quick 1 mile walk to Nugget falls with return in time to walk into the visitor center before heading back to the bus. After a brief walk around Juneau, we stopped for Crab at the famous Tracy’s crab shack and did in a nice king crab leg. Up till today I would have said, not again for a cruise, but today was quite enjoyable and look forward to exploring Skagway tomorrow. Princess does a good job of moving people on and off, so that even I’m not frustrated by it.

Mendenhall glacier and Nugget Falls.

Day 2 at Sea on the Ruby Princess

Sunday, June 16th, 2019

Today was spent chugging north at a rapid rate through fog towards Juneau. The ship cruises at 22kts, just under 25mph, a pretty rapid clip for such a large ship. We had a good dinner at the Crown Room last night, went to sleep relatively early and woke up fairly early this morning. Turned out to be a good idea that I brought my own coffee dripper and Philz coffee. The buffet coffee is the classic American sock water. Barely strong enough to be called coffee. So far the seas have been gently rolling which results in a mildly nausea inducing, slow period side to side roll. Nothing terrible but not pleasant either. After a run at the buffet for breakfast we went to a presentation in the theater by a naturalist inspiring to be a comedian. He talked about his life on a small island and making it through the winter. We made a couple excursions out on the promenade deck, deck 7, and were rewarded by spotting whales and porpoises. The whales were breaching occasionally, but at a distance. This afternoon there was a wine tasting, with each of the ships sommeliers taking time to introduce themselves and try out their Schtick. A decent Priorat was involved, as were some tasty paired canapés. So far, I’ve found the whole thing a little stressful as an enormous schedule of events is given to you daily, and then we are trying to decide on which outings to do, most of which are quite expensive. Today we booked a whale watch and glacier combo for Juneau, then when we land in Skagway we have the train booked to White Pass and so it goes. For someone who prefers a general level of improvisation, all of these planning choices are consuming a lot of bandwidth. Typical excursions are from $100-$200 each, so with two of us these are major investments. Ship staff is very pleasant, lots of bars and lounges that all seem pretty similar but have different names. At least 4 pools. A champagne fountain is being constructed and tonight is a “formal” night with lots of wedding couples around including a group of 10 or so Koreans wearing formal traditional Korean costumes.

Day 1, leaving Seattle.

Our cabin area was asked to show up at 2:30pm to board for the 4:00pm departure, so that suited us fine. The ship was at the dock in Magnolia at Pier 91, so an easy ride from home. We showed up and got through the formalities and security remarkably fast. Amazingly, there was no one interested in charging the corkage for bringing the wine aboard, so fine with me. We put our stuff in the cabin and went off to explore the ship. Many restaurant and lounge spaces, 3 different swimming pools, many shopping mall type places. Then time for the life jacket drill. I will say that they seem to know how to handle crowds very well. We booked ourselves for dinner at the steak house so that we could have a quiet meal, and it was very decent. Had a few oysters, salads, a piece of halibut and a ribeye, all of good quality. There are so many things on the schedule everyday, that they put out a daily newspaper with activity schedule, I’ll run a picture of an example. The ship moves remarkably fast, and generally doesn’t pitch much although at the moment we are outside of Vancouver island and feeling some motion. Stateroom is compact but bigger than many of the hotel rooms I’ve stayed in in Europe. We booked on the Skagway train up to the pass, an activity I was told not to miss. Will add photos tomorrow.

Looking across at a neighboring ship.

Preparing for a cruise to Alaska on the Ruby Princess.

Friday, June 14th 2019.

I’m preparing, with some trepidation, for my first cruise experience.  It going to be just 3,080 people and 1,200 crew.  As someone who travels solo and avoids crowds and lines at all costs, I’m really not sure that this will be my cup of tea.  The basic itinerary is to leave Seattle and head up to Juneau, then to Skagway, Ketchikan and then a brief stop in Victoria before returning to Seattle, all in 7 days.  Here’s a link to the ship:  Ruby Princess  Here is the itinerary for this cruise:  Itinerary  Weather forecast is for chilly and rainy in pretty much every place for the full week.  Luckily you can bring wine with you for $15/bottle corkage with the first two bottles free.  There also seem to be multiple dining options on the boat.  I waited until a few weeks ago to book and got us a balcony cabin at a high discount.

So, I have to confess a high degree of disdain for cruise passengers.  I once ran into a whole bunch of the them in the Cinque Terre in Italy and it was not a pleasant sight.  Literally hundreds of people waddling down the steps towards Vernazza and clogging the formerly quiet streets.  In San Francisco and in Seattle, I’ve frequently observed cruise passengers with enormous suitcases and enormous numbers of them trying to get to or from the airport.  They caused such congestion at Seatac airport, that the airport finally set up a separate check in area to deal with these customers.  As a devoted independent traveler, this will definitely be a challenge for me.  I’m hoping that I won’t spend the whole cruise in line, waiting to get on or off the ship, or waiting to belly up to the buffet.  Well…. at least I’ll have good wine with me, oh and good coffee, bringing Philz with me.