Days: 15
Month: July/August
Alaska has a reputation for being tricky to navigate — vast distances, remote parks, and logistics that can overwhelm even experienced travelers. So we let Princess Cruises do the heavy lifting. Their 15-day Cruisetour combined 7 days at sea with 8 days on land, taking us to 4 National Parks: Glacier Bay National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and Denali National Park. Additionally, we made it to 1 National Historical Park: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. It wasn’t perfect — we ran into a few hiccups — but overall, this trip delivered the kind of adventure we were hoping for.
Day 0
Our flight to Vancouver (the day before our cruise) was long but uneventful — though we did a lot of walking through that airport! While we were about to purchase our tram tickets, someone handed us their extra ones so it didn’t cost us anything to get from the airport to Downtown Vancouver!
After dropping off our bags, we headed to Tap & Barrel for a really good lunch, then made our way to Waterfront Station to catch the SeaBus (a ferry, basically) over to North Vancouver.
We wandered through Lonsdale Quay Market — everything smelled amazing, and in hindsight, we should have timed this for when we were actually hungry again. From there we walked to the Shipyard and stopped at Main Street Honey Shoppe for a honey raspberry lemonade, which totally hit the spot since it was hot out. We took the SeaBus back across the water and checked into our hotel: the EXchange Hotel Vancouver, which sits on the original site of Vancouver’s Stock Exchange and has been beautifully rebuilt. After that, we relaxed in our room for a bit.
Later, we walked over to see the Gastown Steam Clock and explored the area on foot. We ended the day at Chronic Tacos, sharing a “threesome” (three tacos) along with some chips and queso. So good.
Day 1 – Cruise Embarkation Day
The next morning, we headed to Lucky Donuts, and it did not disappoint. We tried their famous PB&J donut, a berry Berliner, and a triple chocolate — all delicious, but the PB&J was the clear winner. There was a yellow flag heat warning in effect, though honestly the weather was still much better than back home.
From there, we grabbed our bags and walked the few blocks to the port. We spent some time exploring the ship and finding our muster station before heading to the Bordeaux Dining Room for lunch. We had to try the orange soufflé since it’s only available that one day — worth trying, but not the best dessert we had on the ship.
After lunch, we explored a bit more and checked out our room once it was ready. We’d heard the rooms were tiny, so we were pleasantly surprised to find ours was bigger than expected (the shower was tiny).
Next up was the sailaway party, complete with music and high energy.
Colleen stuck with her lanyard the whole trip, but mine kept getting in the way — especially when washing my hands — so once we were out of port, I switched to a wristband to hold my medallion instead.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the art gallery, grabbing our free bingo tickets, heading back to the Bordeaux Dining Room for dinner and catching the Jeff Taveggia “Hilarious Show Off” event. All in all, a fun first day at sea.
Day 2 – Sea Day
We woke up and headed to the balcony to watch the sunrise over the ocean — absolutely beautiful. Throughout the trip, we typically had breakfast at the buffet (Horizon Court), lunch varied depending on the day, and dinner at the Bordeaux Dining Room.
We went to a talk about Alaska where we met our Princess Insider, Megan, who gave us a great overview of what to expect at each of the ports.
Next up was bingo — we’d never played with a big group like this before, and it was a lot of fun. It was a bit pricey though; the cheapest option was $29 for 3 boards across each of the 3 rounds.
Then we had a quick lunch at the buffet.
We’d also never been to an art auction before, and it turned out to be a really fun experience — we ended up ordering some amazing pieces. Just be prepared to spend some money if you go. A little research ahead of time on what pieces should actually cost can help you snag a good deal.
Then we headed to a talk covering what to expect in Ketchikan, our next port, so we’d be ready for tomorrow morning.
The famous Captain’s Champagne Waterfall was up next — a fun Princess tradition.
It was formal night, so we dressed up a bit for dinner and enjoyed some excellent dishes.
We closed out the night with the theatrical show Encore, followed by comedian Wali Collins at the Laugh Lounge.
Day 3 – Ketchikan Port
Ketchikan was our first stop in Alaska, and we docked at 6am. We were ready to go and headed off the boat as soon as we could. We walked to Creek Street to check out the salmon swimming upstream and keep an eye out for bears — we even saw a seal catch a salmon, which was such a cool moment to witness.
We wandered around and got a few free pendants for our bracelets, though that ended up being more of a sales pitch than anything, so it wasn’t really worth the time. Colleen did end up getting a whale tail ring at one of the stores. Next up was the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, which was a lot of fun — lumberjacks competing in log rolling, axe throwing, and more. We’d recommend it.
After the show, we walked around and checked out the shops before heading to the Alaska Fish House for lunch, which was really good. I had the Alaskan Sampler — fish and chips with cod, plus fresh local salmon and halibut. Colleen had salmon and halibut tacos. We did a bit more shopping, then made our way back to Creek Street.
We also spotted several ravens along the way — they’re everywhere in Ketchikan.
We got back to the boat around 1:15.
That afternoon, we wanted to be both entertained and prepared for our next stop, so we split up: Colleen went to see Jeff Taveggia’s new show, and I headed to the “Discover Juneau” talk. Colleen also caught an onboard game show — Top, Middle, or Bottom — and had a great time.
We had another excellent dinner at the Bordeaux Dining Room and finished the night at the Cruise Control concert, which was a great way to close out the day.
Day 4 – Juneau Port
We were told that around 4:30am we might be able to spot wildlife, so we got up at 4:15am and headed to our balcony. No wildlife sightings, but we were treated to some beautiful views regardless.
Juneau is the only U.S. state capital that isn’t accessible by road — you can only get there by air or water. Once our ship arrived, we walked down the boardwalk and watched a fishing boat offloading its catch.
We headed out on our Juneau tour with our guide, Abby, and took a bus to get started. We’d originally booked the Mendenhall Glacier and Goldbelt Tram excursion, but the tram was closed, so that portion ended up being cancelled. Unfortunately, Princess Cruises never notified us ahead of time so it was a shock when we arrived and it wasn’t available.
Along the way we spotted plenty of bald eagles — the area is home to more than 100 eagle nests.
We hiked out to Nugget Falls in the Tongass National Forest, an easy 2-mile round trip. The weather cooperated beautifully, around 55 degrees and partly sunny. On the way back we stopped at Photo Point for some great views of Mendenhall Glacier, then continued on to the visitor center. From there, we took the scenic path down to the parking lot and capped off the adventure with the Steep Creek Trail before heading back to the bus.
We also saw quite a few ravens around Juneau.
Back in town, we grabbed a quick ice cream at Glacier Scoops — so good. We also stopped by Monarch Jewels to get a custom cross necklace made in white gold with tanzanite (huge thanks to Megan, our Princess Insider, who called around to help track down someone who could make it).
For lunch, we hit Tracy’s King Crab Shack, and I had the Amazing Golden King Crab Shack Combo — a small bisque, four mini crab cakes, and your choice of crab (I went with golden king crab), plus rolls and butter. Hands down the best crab I’ve ever had — tons of meat and easy to get it out.
We wandered a bit more, stopping by Tahku, the giant bronze breaching whale sculpture on the waterfront, and did some shopping (including picking up the necklace) before heading back to the ship. We even squeezed in some laundry — a kind fellow passenger offered us the last 40 minutes on her dryer.
After dinner, we caught the Marriage Match game show, which was hilarious and a lot of fun to watch. We wrapped up the night with Duo Gravity, an acrobatics act with some seriously impressive feats of strength.
Day 5 – Skagway Port
We grabbed a quick breakfast in the buffet before heading to shore. Then we met in the theater for our White Pass Scenic Railway excursion and took the water tender from the ship to shore.
The train ride was fantastic. We spotted a couple of smaller glaciers along the route, plus lots of water from melting snow feeding rivers and waterfalls near the top. It was a very cool ride, though a little tricky to photograph given the train’s speed and some rockiness along the tracks. The weather was perfect — partly sunny and 55 degrees — so we had great visibility and took turns out on the open-air platform.
For lunch, we headed to Skagway Fish Company. A word of advice: pay close attention when they call your name. We were standing right by the desk and somehow never heard mine called, and the lady at the counter gave us some attitude for not responding. That aside, the food more than made up for it. I had the king crab roll with fries, and Colleen had the big salad topped with king crab salad. We both loved our meals.
After lunch, we walked into town and stopped by the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Learn more about that adventure here.
We stopped at Kone Kompany for ice cream, which hit the spot.
On our way back to the ship, the wind picked up dramatically. They ended up halting the water tenders and switched everyone over to buses instead, which added a lot of time to our return — over 75 minutes total. While we waited for the buses, though, we got a fun consolation prize: a seal swimming nearby.
Once back on the ship, we joined in guessing the price of some artwork, then headed to dinner. Afterward, we caught the game show Survey Says, stuck around for the Laugh Lounge with Steve Soelberg, and finished the night with the theatrical show Do You Wanna Dance?
Day 6 – Glacier Bay
After breakfast, national park rangers came aboard early in the morning and gave us a quick overview of the park. They even brought a park store onto the ship, so we were able to pick up National Park souvenirs just like we would on land. More on Glacier Bay National Park can be found here!
Once we were done with Glacier Bay, we headed to an art auction, then made our way to the Bordeaux Dining Room for dinner.
The evening’s entertainment included the game show Do You Wanna Dance?, the theatrical show On The Bayou, and one more game show to finish the night: Majority Rules.
Day 7 – College Fjord
The scenery from the ship was stunning all day long. College Fjord is famous for its dramatic concentration of tidewater glaciers — many named after prestigious East Coast colleges by an 1899 scientific expedition — all flowing down from snow-capped peaks into the icy blue water below. Watching the glaciers, mountains, and occasional icebergs drift by from the deck felt like sailing through a postcard, and it was the perfect, peaceful way to soak in Alaska’s wild beauty one more time before heading for land.
We also went to the culinary demonstration and galley tour, which was a really cool experience. The demonstration featured the ship’s executive chef showing off some behind-the-scenes cooking techniques on stage, followed by a walk through the actual galley — a rare peek at how the crew manages to prepare thousands of meals a day. It was fascinating to see the sheer scale of the operation: massive walk-in coolers, an assembly-line style setup for plating, and the level of organization it takes to keep everything running smoothly and on schedule for every meal, every day.
We grabbed lunch at the buffet.
Then we headed to the final art auction of the cruise, and it was a lot of fun. By this point we’d gotten more comfortable with how the auctions worked, so we felt confident bidding and were able to walk away with a couple more pieces we loved to add to our collection from earlier in the trip.
After that, we went to the final Jackpot Bingo session, which was just as fun as our first round earlier in the cruise. We won one of the rounds, which added to the excitement! Then we relaxed for a bit before heading to dinner on our final night at sea.
Day 8 – Disembarkation Day
Since we were in one of the later disembarkation groups, we headed to breakfast at a normal time — our group wasn’t called until around 10am. Once it was finally our turn, we said our goodbyes to the ship and headed for shore, ready for the next portion of our Alaska Cruisetour – Land.
