This is VERY LONG. I apologize if your eyes explode.

Embarkation: We had arrived in Anchorage very late the night before, so no worries about making it to the ship on time for a 9 pm departure. We left our bags at the hotel (Ramada on 3rd - very nice and affordable, GREAT breakfast buffet) after checking out, and wandered around downtown for a while seeing the sights, including the Saturday market and statues of Balto and Cook. If you go to the statue of Balto, don't do anything embarrassing - there's a 24 hour web cam trained on the statue. We called our family back home and they could see us "live"!

We noticed a Princess bus in front of the Captain Cook Hotel, so we asked about times for our own bus transfer from the Egan Center, as we'd been told by Princess 800 number reps that the buses would start at 1 pm and run until 5:30 p.m. Turns out the Egan had been switched to the Marriott, and the Princess representatives said that we had to check in by noon. It was already past 11, so we hightailed it to the Marriott and spoke to another rep outside who said the first bus left at 1:30, but that we should have our luggage there by noon. A rep inside gave us conflicting information - as long as the bus wasn't full, we could check in up until the time it left without having to rush to get our luggage, however, if there weren't enough people for another bus, then that would be it for the day. (By the way, the reason we left our luggage at the hotel in the first place was because a customer service person at the Princess 800 number told us we WOULD NOT be able to check it in and had to accompany our luggage to the pier. So that wasn't true.) We decided not to take any chances, and made our way back to the hotel, stopping at the Oomingmak Qiviut (musk ox hair) shop, near the bus station. The Ramada graciously gave us a lift to the Marriott, and after handing over our bags and checking in, we were given a pass for the second and last bus of the day from downtown, the 2 p.m. bus. We went to a nearby restaurant for lunch, The Teriyaki Box (I have a feeling that the food from this place is what made both of us sick later that night). After lunch, we waited inside the Marriott. The bus was ¾ full and left promptly at 2 in order to make the 3:30 opening of the Whittier tunnel. Hint: Sit on the right-hand side of the bus in order to see the best scenery and possibly belugas along Turnagain Arm. Read more