Island Princess Review
Island Princess Alaska Southbound with Land tour (early Sept)
Rating by category
Additional details
I chose this land/sea tour because it gave me 2 full days at Denali. It began in Anchorage with a Princess rep. meeting me at the airport and taking me to the hotel. I had the afternoon free to explore Anchorage on my own.
The 1st Princess excursion I was supposed to have was Gold Panning in the Wilderness at the McKinley Lodge. When I arrived I was informed it was cancelled, no explanation given. This left me wandering around with no options to fill the void since we would be there only that afternoon.
The next morning we traveled by bus to Denali Lodge. I had cancelled the Princess canned History tour (received $100 refund) at Denali and through the Denali National Park Service (NPS) on line, bought a green shuttle bus ticket to the interior of the park.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Cabin was one of the new cabins added during the last dry dock. It is an aft balcony cabin on the Lido (14th) deck. The good - they were quiet, very quiet. It was roomy and the balcony was open to the deck above, not covered. The bad - for the most part there was very little vibration in the cabin. However when entering or leaving port the side stabilizers are directly below the cabin (on the hull) and would create lots of vibration. Also, if the seas became rough and they turned on the stabilizers, you definitely felt them.
The bathroom is a little step up closet. You can not turn around in the bathroom without opening the door to give yourself room for turning. Everything worked, lights, fridge, TV, outlets, etc.
Port Reviews
Juneau
Bought a bus ticket from M&M Tours in order to get to Mendenhall Glacier and back. Spent the time hiking at Mendenhall Glacier on my own. Greatly enjoyed the quiet time and being in control of when I arrived and left.