Thread: Did your Alaska cruise(s) meet expectations?

Originally Posted by LuLu

Wonder what the best time of year to see GLACIERS would be?

That varies year to year. Although Tony was not able to get into Tracy Arm in the spring, it was spring time that we once got in very close to the glacier

It was in the Fall we couldn't get into Tracy Arm and it was because of fog.

It was in the Spring, May when we entered Glacier Bay and College Fijord

Last year (May of 2010) we witnessed huge amounts of Hubbard Glacier calving!!

Here are several that calved in less than 2 minutes.

If the video doesn't show below you can click HERE to see it.

YouTube Video

Originally Posted by Blizzard

That varies year to year. Although Tony was not able to get into Tracy Arm in the spring, it was spring time that we once got in very close to the glacier

Great shot of Tracy Arm - and even better shot of you two, Blizz. Super Cute. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Char

Last year (May of 2010) we witnessed huge amounts of Hubbard Glacier calving!!

Here are several that calved in less than 2 minutes.

If the video doesn't show below you can click HERE to see it.

YouTube Video

Great video, Char. Thanks for sharing!

Char, loved seeing the video. Really great!!!

The last cruise we did to Alaska, the Sun Princess couldn't get into Tracy Arm at all because of fog. We had been delayed so arrived a bit after them (passed them leaving) and we were able to get into the area and almost to the Glacier. Even tho we didn't get to see the glacier, the scenery was fantastic. We were there in Sep.

Our next booked cruise includes Glacier Bay, can't wait to finally see Glacier Bay.

We just did one Alaskan cruise, but it was excellent. We did the RT out of Seattle on the Sapphire Princess in its third month of sailing. Had that new ship smell. We had selected the RT rather than an one-way because we felt our daughter wouldn't be interested in seeing more of Alaska. As it turned out, we predicted right as she got burnt out on the scenery we saw on the train trip from Oxnard, CA to Seattle. (she was 7 at the time) She wanted to stay onboard the ships in the ports so except for the first one, Ketchikan, she did as she was having fun doing the arts and crafts, etc. in the kids' program.

We cruised the Tracy Arm Strait and enjoyed the narration given by the naturalist who boards the Princess ships for this purpose.

We had absolutely no complaints about the service onboard (our waiter had been our assistant waiter on the Star Princess the year before and we were thrilled she got promoted). The girl got to try out her manners on the Thai cabin steward (her teacher that year was from Korea and she knew how to bow, etc.).

I've been to Seattle a couple of times before but not hubby or the girl. They really enjoyed the city (we stayed three days post-cruise) and my girl has the U. of Washington on her possible college list.

Hubby had suggested that maybe in the next few years we can do a road trip to visit some colleges on the west coast and then follow that with B-to-B one-ways between Vancouver and Anchorage. That way, he can bring his guitar (hard to do on a plane) and the girl can see Stanford, Berkeley, U of WA, UCSB, and hubby's alma mater, UC-Santa Cruz.

Here's a reluctant 7-yr-old after being bribed with hot chocolate to come up to the deck (note the shoes):



here's the view of Tracy Arm:

Patty, your daughter's shoes are priceless!!!!

What cruise would you take? Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm?

Maybe we could find one that we could do a back to back and take in both?

The only 10 day I see on Princess are all roundtrip from San Fransico.

Any suggestions?