Hubbard Glacier & Glacier Bay

It was nice to wake up when we wanted for two days.  Without the anxiety of knowing that we had to be somewhere at a certain time.  On the first full day on the ship we sailed toward Hubbard Glacier.  We slept in and awoke when breakfast was delivered to our room.  (We placed the order the night before.)  It was very cold on this morning.

After breakfast we headed up to the Lotus (indoor) Pool.  There was a Ceramics@Sea enrichment class.  We were able to pick an item to paint- they would fire it Thursday night for pick-up on Friday afternoon.  We enjoyed ourselves for a few hours while the ship made it's way to Hubbard.  We were a little disappointed that it was not offered again until the day we were in Juneau (while we were on our excursion.)  So our pieces were fired unfinished and 1/2 painted.

 

When Ceramics @Sea time was up we headed down to the Bayou Cafe for the traditional Pub Lunch.  Neither of us ordered Fish & Chips (I don't eat fish) and hubby didn't feel like it that day.  We both enjoyed the Curry Chicken.  Very good actually!  Here is the menu:

Next we sailed up to Hubbard Glacier.  Kath Slamp- our Naturalist narrated via the open deck speakers and a channel on the stateroom TV.  I cranked our TV volume all the way up and kept our slider open to we could hear the commentary.  Below are a series of pictures as we approach.  The nearest the captain could get was 5 miles due to the ice flow.

That night we had dinner at Sabatini Specialty restaurant.  It was a 23 course Italian meal.  Okay, maybe not 23 courses, but it was long and a lot of delicious food.  

We went to bed stuffed that night!

We slept in again the following morning and took a walk around deck.  Today's itinerary included sailing through Glacier Bay National Park.  Only two cruise ships a day are allowed to enter the park and Princess has one of the contracts.  As we were sailing in we saw a dolphin swimming toward the ship and then it turned and followed behind us.  I couldn't capture it on my camera because he was just too quick.

Because most of the day was cruising through the park we chose to have lunch on our balcony.  We ordered chili and Moroccan Pot Pie of some sort.  The Moroccan food was good, chili not so much.

At About 1pm Alaska time we pulled up next to Margerie Glacier.  from the ship we seemed to be about 50 yards away- but in actuality we were still a mile and a half!

Directly next to Margerie Glacier is the Grand Pacific Glacier.  Very large.  The U.S./ Canada Line sits right on the edge of the glacier.  I kept looking around for it and could not find it.  I snapped a few shots of the surrounding area and we went on our way to Johns Hopkins Inlet to see more glaciers!  When we arrived home I looked up information on the Grand Pacific... well- I HAD taken a picture of it-

At first I thought- this is just a bunch of dirt!  But then, after reading up on it, I realized that the Grand Pacific has ground up so much mountain that it looks like dirt- but in fact it's a glacier!!

We sailed by a few more glaciers and picturesque mountains on our way back to the ranger station.

Glacier Discovery Train & the Coral Princess

     We planned to walk to the Alaska Railroad from our hotel, but the shuttle driver offered to drop us off. It was literally a 5 minute walk- maybe more with our 3 suitcases. He loaded up our things- drove us across the street and unloaded our belongings. There is a large, permanent, tent to the right of the building. This is where you drop off luggage. There was a rep from Princess there who tagged our bags and loaded them in to a van. We proceeded in to the depot for check-in. We purchased the tickets ahead of time through the Alaska Railroad company website ($30 less per person than the train transfer offered through Princess- same train though). The train leaves Anchorage at 10:00am and arrives in Whittier at 12:05pm. Great way to travel to the ship as there are only two options- bus or train. The buses are timed due to the tunnel in Whittier being one way and shared by cars & train! It was a beautiful two hour ride along the coast, winding around the mountain edges.

Anchorage Alaska Railroad Depot

Rail Car B

Inside the Depot (looking at the check-in desk).

Inside of Car B

Scenery along the Glacier Discovery Route

Emerging from the Whittier tunnel.  The cars were waiting for their turn.

Coral Princess

Makeshift Tent Train Station in Whittier

Caution- Whittier is rainy and foggy more frequently than not! We emerged from the tunnel in Whittier and could barely see the ship even though it wasn't far in front of us. We came prepared with good rain coats. It never poured, just a constantly heavy drizzle ALL DAY. Some people on the train were headed to Prince William Sound for a 4-5 hour Glacier Boat Tour. We chose to go on the ship immediately to get photos of each room with no passengers :)

Whittier

Whittier

Atrium

Coral Princess- I'd have to say it was a great ship but certain things are in desperate need of dry-docking! The material paneling inside the stateroom just above the bed/headboard was worn and yellow. I have a picture with my husband and it's almost embarrassing to show... The carpets were worn as well. I could feel that there was no padding left, they were all rather flat and hard under my feet. This made the children who ran down the hall multiple times per day even louder than normal cruise-ship-running-children. Our balcony was rusty- but that's hard to combat being on the water constantly. Otherwise all else was in great shape. The size of the ship was perfect- not too big and not too small. There is a smaller passenger capacity on this ship than most others of the same size. It never felt crowded unless you were looking for a table in Horizon Court at breakfast. Nobody ever sat outside on the Lido deck area due to constant rain throughout this trip and colder than usual temperatures.

View from our Balcony

A Spacious Closet!

This was my first Princess experience. People always talk about Princess Pizza and I always brushed it off and thought- ugh how good can cruise ship pizza really be?!? Okay, I will admit- I was addicted to it. It's real thin crust NY style pizza! We had it many times on this trip. Always hot and delicious!

mmm, Princess Pizza!

Alaskan Adventure- Flights & Anchorage

This may end up being a very lengthy review of my Alaskan Adventure!  I will post it in segments :)

One week's worth of luggage for an Alaskan cruise.

My husband and I left Fort Lauderdale on June 24th. We changed planes in Philadelphia and flew straight on to Anchorage via U.S.Air departing at 4pm and landing in Anchorage at 7:45pm usually... This was the only way we could get a flight with least amount of layovers (only 1) coming from the East Coast.

The flight is treated as international in many ways much to our surprise. It even leaves from the International Departure terminal in Philly. When purchasing the flight it indicated that there was no in-flight entertainment and only snacks for purchase. We brought food on with us as well as a portable DVD player. After about an hour and a half, in-flight dinners were served. They weren't bad actually- BBQ chicken and Pasta. We had one of each just in case one was terrible. Every meal came with a small roll, side salad, and yummy little brownie. They played two full length movies and there were some TV shows mixed in. The flight took over 8 hours once we left the gate (we were delayed 5 minutes leaving Philly and therefore were stuck behind all the Transatlantic flights making us land nearly 30 minutes later than expected).

     We arrived in Anchorage and proceeded to call the Comfort Inn Ship Creek to pick us up at the airport (complimentary shuttle). They came within 20 minutes and drove us to the downtown area. The driver explained everything along the way which was nice. The hotel is at the bottom of the hill in downtown Anchorage. The Alaska Railroad is literally right in front of the hotel. We chose it for this reason. We wanted quick and easy access for the following morning. We ate dinner/late night snack (11pm Anchorage or 3am Ft Lauderdale) at Snow Goose Restaurant & Brewery just up the hill in town. 10 minute walk if you don't take the scenic route as we did. I recommend it as they make everything on site and both our meals were very tasty. Quick, friendly, efficient service.

Snow Goose Restaurant (W 3rd Ave)

Snow Goose Deck

Midnight Sun from the deck of the Snow Goose

Returned to the hotel for the night. Their curtains are great- keep out that midnight sun!! Based on reviews of the hotel some people said they heard trains coming through at night. We heard nothing and our room faced the train tracks. Either we were so tired that nothing would have woken us or the trains kept the noise down that night ;) They have a full breakfast- waffles, pancakes, yogurt, oatmeal, cereal, muffins, hard boiled eggs, etc all self-serve. Seating is limited so we took it back to our room with us. There is a small indoor pool and an exercise room.

Comfort Inn- Ship Creek

Hotel Lobby

Ship Creek- behind the hotel.

The Alaskan Railroad (picture taken from hotel front steps).

Tune in tomorrow for our train trip down to Whittier and first day on the Coral Princess :)