7-Night Cruise on the Royal Princess & Train Ride to Talkeetna
My family and I returned about a week ago from our Alaskan Adventure!! My son and I arrived in Anchorage a few days before the rest of the family flew in. We took the Princess train up to Talkeetna and stayed overnight in the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge and then took the train back to Anchorage the next day. My youngest son, Aaron loves trains and has been fascinated with them since we was young, so I wanted to give him this experience and also get a glimpse of what a Princess cruise tour would be like.
We loved the Princess train, which is glass-domed train where you have seating at the top for the majority of the train ride. You also have the option of eating either breakfast, lunch or dinner (depending on the timing of your ride). The meals are served on the main level of the train with picture windows, so you can still see outside.
Over the next few weeks/months, I will be going over the train ride, the stay at the Princess lodge and seeing Mt. Denali in person. This will only be posted in my Whispering Willow Travel VIP FaceBook group. You can join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whisperingwillowtravelvips. I will be giving me honest opinions on this adventure (and the following cruise), and our hotels that we stayed at in Anchorage and Vancouver. I also talk about other locations such as Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and places we have traveled in the US in this FaceBook group.
The Royal Princess 7 Night Voyage of the Glaciers Cruise
On Saturday, September 14th, we boarded the Royal Princess in Whittier, Alaska to start our seven day journey. Princess has an option where they will shuttle you from the Anchorage airport to Whittier to board your ship. It is a reasonably priced way to get to the port since it is about an hour away from Anchorage and their is a long, one-way tunnel that according to our driver is very scary to drive through. This is the only way in and out of the port (other than the train), so your options are limited. We did not have a very smooth transfer, but two of the other parties that traveled with us did not have any issues with their shuttles and had a good experience. If you are going to take the shuttle, I would recommend getting to the airport earlier and taking one of the first few shuttles.
Once we got to the port, the check-in and getting on board the ship was rather quick and easy. This was even with us not ordering our medallion ahead of time. My husband and I stayed in a mini-suite on the Royal Princess, so I could see what that level of service would be like. My father-in-law and son stayed in an interior cabin, which gave me a good idea of what it would be like to stay in that category.
For an Alaskan cruise, I would recommend a balcony as the lowest cabin type that I would consider. For a splurge, I would highly recommend a mini-suite or one of the regular suites. I will be posting pictures and a video of our mini-suite. It was very nice to sit in our room while we were at Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay National Park. We were able to get amazing pictures and videos right from our balcony in our room.
Ports of Call for the Cruise
The ship also stopped in Icy Strait Point (Hoonah town), Juneau, Ketchikan, and disembarked in Vancouver. We had a lovely day exploring Icy Strait Point and Hoonah. They were cute little towns right on the water.
The next day was Juneau. Unfortunately, we had a rainy, cold day and did not enjoy this town as much. I wish we would have scheduled an excursion this day. It might have enjoyed it a little more this way. We did take a quick walk around the town and went in a few of the stores and art galleries.
Our last actual port of the cruise was Ketchikan. It is a cute little town that has a lot of great stores and you can watch the salmon swim down the creek. We also saw a couple of sea otters that were playing the creek. They were really cute! We then had a sea day for the following day. We were able to just relax and enjoy the ship this day. We disembarked on the following Saturday in Vancouver in the morning.
Exploring Vancouver
If you are taking a cruise that disembarks in Vancouver, I would highly recommend taking a taxi from the port. They said that the ride sharing options were several blocks away from the port. Our hotel was suppose to only be a few blocks from the port, so we decided to walk to our hotel. That was a major mistake and I would not recommend doing the same.
Vancouver was a really cool city. We explored it a little the few days that we had there. We walked around the first day and found a local hamburger place for lunch. We stayed two nights at the Hyatt Regency, which I would highly recommend. They have a pretty good buffet breakfast and a nice heated pool and hot tub, which we were still able to enjoy at the end of September. It is also in a great location right downtown and really close to the cruise ship port.
Aaron and I took a horse-drawn carriage ride through Stanley Park on Sunday. It was a really cool experience and the guide did a great job of introducing the park to us and telling the history of the area. I would recommend purchasing this tour from Viator. The prices at the window were much higher than what I paid on Viator.
Final thoughts on our Alaskan Adventure
Overall, we had a really good experience cruising on the Royal Princess and would recommend this cruise itinerary. Glacier Bay National Park is a must see! It is absolutely stunning and a highlight of the cruise. The park only allows two cruise ships to sail into the area a day and only three cruise lines have the rights to be able to sail into Glacier Bay National Park and Princess is one of them.
As I mentioned above, I will be posting a lot more detail on our experiences aboard the Royal Princess and my thoughts on each of the ports we visited. These will all be shared in my Whispering Willow Travel VIP FaceBook Group, please join today: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whisperingwillowtravelvips
As a travel advisor, I can help you decide the best cruise itinerary, cruise line and ship for what you are looking to experience. I can also discuss what cruise tour options are available to see the interior of Alaska. Are you looking to cruise to Alaska in 2025 or 2026??? Most cruise lines are booking through the 2026 cruise schedule right now.
Are you also ready to have your own Alaskan Adventure??? I would love to help you plan it! Please schedule a consult today at: http://www.whisperingwillowtravel.com.
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