Tina's Coral Princess Alaska Cruise -  September 6-13 2003   

Thought I'd write and let you guys know how my trip went on the Coral
Princess Sep 6- Sep 13.

I read Tim's report and everything was similar to his report with a
few exceptions or I have just added commentary.

The weather was great - no rain all week but foggy, which is
wonderful against the mountains! For you insomniacs (like me) here's
a tip: If you are lucky enough to have a clear sky at night go out
and watch the stars. I watched a meteor shower from my balcony and it
was fantastic!

I really recommend getting a room with a balcony. My husband and I
used it everday and evening. Plus it was sheltered from the cold
wind. I got a book from the library and read outside on my balcony,
taking in the scenery. It was worth the extra money!

Tip: This was the last Alaska trip for the season on the Coral
Princess and ALL the Alaskan merchandise onboard was 50% off!

College Fjord: Loved the ice floating around the ship!

Glacier Bay: Great view of glaciers. We had a clear day do we watched
the glacier from outside and the sounds have to be experienced!. Each
time the ice cracks from the inside is sounds just like thunder and
we watched a HUGE piece of ice fall into the water and the sight was
amazing! I loved this day!

Skagway:
We went on the eagle preserve float. A gentle ride on large rubber
rafts through the eagle preserve. We saw so many bald eagles! I liked
the ride but wasn't crazy about it. My husband loved it!

We also did the White pass train. I love scenery so I enjoyed it but
there were others who were bored. TIP: Sit on the left side going up
for a better experience and don't sit in the first or last car! We
made the mistake of sitting in the last car which was fine going up
but at the top they move the engine from the front to the back so we
were sitting on the first car going back. The exhaust from the engine
made everybody sick.

Juneau:
We did the Orca Point whalewatching. We were lucky enough to see a
pod of Orca's! They came up about 50 ft from the boat! We also saw
humpbacks, bald eagles, and sea lion. With this tour they stopped at
their day lodge and was given a nice hot lunch before we boarded the
boat back to Juneau. Hightlight of our trip.

Ketchikan:
My husband did the bike tour which he says was okay and I went on the
Orca Beach RAin Forest adventure. I loved this. We were taken to an
island and hiked through a path in the rainforest. I think many
people might be bored with this tour but I loved the lush green of
the rainforest. The hike was easy and I very much enjoyed it.

The only thing I did NOT like about this trip was, after we
disembarked in Vancouver we were transported to the Seattle airport.
A 4 hour trip! Next time I think I'll make my own flight arrangements
because we got to the Seattle airport at 12:00pm and our flight to
Salt Lake City wasn't until 5:00pm. From Salt Lake we had to take
another flight to Denver. There were direct flights on different
airlines from Vancouver to Denver and instead of traveling for 15
hours it could have been done in 4!

Tina from Denver

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