7-day Alaskan Cruise on the Princess Royal, it was a beautiful day in Seattle on our “bon voyage” day.  Most of our group arrived at the ship before us and boarded the ship.  We quickly caught up with them after lunch and made our way to the pool deck to enjoy the Sail Away Party.

We had a little hiccup on the cruise with some miscommunication with Princess for our dinner reservations but it all worked out in the end.  The ship was very big compared to other cruises we’ve been on.  The majority of the outside cabins were balcony, everyone in our party opted for the balcony cabins for the amazing views.

The first 2 days were at sea days arriving in Juneau on the third morning.  We had an excursion scheduled for the day of whale watching as well as Mendenhall Glacier National Forest.  Our whale watching tour was about 3 hours and saw quit a few humpback whales.  There were many whales bubble netting together to trap fish and force them to the surface for feeding.  There were also some younger whales slapping their tales out of water to communicate and play with other whales.    After the whale watching tour our charter bus made its way to Mendenhall Glacier National Forest, which is where we saw our first glacier of our cruise.  Every glacier we saw was different with many colors of blue, grey, white and even black.

The third day we arrived at Skagway for another excursion on the White Pass-Yukon Klondike Train.  Our train ride was about 1.5 hours around the mountains up and into Fraser, Canada.  Many beautiful views from the train with amazing history of the Yukon Route.  Once we arrived into Fraser we then left the train and boarded a smaller tour bus back to Skagway with a few photo stops on the way.  After the excursion we walked the town for a bit and enjoyed a light lunch at a brewery in town.

The fourth day was a cruising day of Glacier Bay National Park.  Only 2 cruise ships per day are allowed in the bay and only 3 cruise lines are allowed access.  The views from our balcony were amazing.  We were able to cruise by a few different glaciers the Grand Pacific, Margerie, Lamplugh, and Johns Hopkins from a distance.  We were also lucky enough to see one of glacier calving.  It was very loud even though we were some distance from it, unfortunately we couldn’t get a camera ready because it happened so fast and we wanted to make sure we saw it. 

Day 5 – port of Ketchikan.  Most of the men went salmon fishing and the rest of us opted for a totem pole and town trolley tour.  The guys caught 12 salmon in all, 2 were sent back to the ship for dinner the following night and rest were shipped home.  Ketchikan was beautiful little town with many things to see and do, however we were docked for a short time so we could not experience it all.

Day 6 – Last full day at sea.  Most of us just enjoyed the day from our balconies and even saw some more whales, we also saw an orca from a distance too!  That evening the ship stopped in Victoria, BC for a few hours in the evening but none of our group left the ship instead we enjoyed a nice dinner and the salmon was prepared for all of us to enjoy too.

We weren’t sure how it would be traveling with a large group of 16 people but we all had an amazing time.  It was a good amount of time spent together as well as time spent doing our own thing, it was great!  Most nights we enjoyed time together drinking and watching some entertainment.  The Alaskan Cruise was amazing experience the excursions were great, the views were beautiful and the time spent with family and friends…Priceless!!!