First, thanks to this website and all the folks who provided me with great ideas and advice. Our all girl group consisted of me (49), my sister (43), my daughter (23), and 2 friends (50's). We flew into Vancouver a day early. Used the airport limo service and we and all our bags squeezed into a limo. At our request the driver stopped at a grocery store so we could pick up a few items before getting to Hampton Inn in downtown Vancouver. Limo was $65 plus tip. Hampton Inn was clean, convenient and reasonably priced. Beds were extremely comfortable. We walked to Rosie's on Robson for dinner just a couple of minutes away. Dinner was excellent. Purchased some wine for the ship at a nearby liquor store (open on Sunday, how convenient!)

Next morning took tour of Vancouver with LandSea tours. Dirk, our guide was very informative and entertaining. The tour dropped us at Canada Place about 2:30. No lines, no waiting, we were on the ship in about 10 minutes. The Island Princess is beautiful. Everything was sparkling clean. Never felt crowded despite almost 2000 passengers on board. We had a mini-suite with balcony. Quite roomy. We requested an eggcrate mattress for the sofa bed which was delivered right away. Bath robes arrived the next morning. The food was plentiful and very good at both the buffet and the dining room. We did anytime dining which worked well for our group. I didn't sign up for the thermal suite but the rest of my group did. It was $115 per couple and they all loved it. I had the aroma stone therapy session later in the week which was wonderful. Never used the pools or the hot tubs. Saw 1 show the 1st nite and it was ok. Didn't attend any other shows. Did attend the shopping seminar, total waste of time. The naturalist on board was excellent and found his seminars very interesting. First port was Ketchikan. The weather was perfect and stayed that way for most of the rest of our trip. Visited the SeaStar from the show "The Deadliest Catch". What a treat it was to meet some of the crew and tour their boat. This was the highlight of my time in Ketchikan. Also visited Creek St. Took the funicular up to Fox Lodge. Walked back to town and shopped a bit. The got back on board for 1:30 departure. Next stop Juneau. Met up with the van for NorthStar Trekking and headed to the airport. This was the 1st trip in a helicopter for all of us. The views were spectacular. We landed on Mendenhall glacier and walked around with our guide for about an hour. Back to Juneau we walked up to the Russian Orthodox church. Saw a black bear jump the picket fence in someone's yard and then run off. Did some more shopping. Ate lunch at The Twisted Fish, it was excellent. Rode the Mt Roberts Tram and wandered about the top of Mt Roberts. Skagway was the next port. I love Skagway. It's so quaint. We met our tourbus driver with Frontier Excursions at 10:30. Only 9 people on board going to Carcross. What a spectacular drive into the Yukon. We stopped numerous times for photos. Outside of Carcross we met our guide for our Hike with Huskies. I loved this hike. Beautiful views and our guide Coreen? had a wealth of information about the area and the native culture since her husband was the High Chief of the First Nation. Glacier Bay was awesome. Saw calving glaciers, bears, eagles and puffins. The sky was so blue and the sun was so bright we got sunburnt! College Fjord was very pretty also, though the day was overcast. Disembarkation was a breeze. Our next stop with our Princess landtour was Cooper Landing on the Kenai peninsula about a 1.5 hour trip from Whittier. Our tour bus driver, Penny was lots of fun. The Kenai Princess is beautiful. This was my favorite place on the trip. The cabins are roomy. There's a woodstove in each room. We did a guided nature hike to Russian Falls. Saw salmon jumping. My daughter and I kayaked on Kenai Lake later in the day while the rest of our group took the river float trip. They were able to see a moose on the river. Next stop was McKinley Princess. I was thrilled that we could see Mt McKinley. We did a horseback riding trip, kind of dusty but another fantastic view of Denali. Next stop was Denali Princess via the train. The train was very relaxing with lots of great views. No more views of Denali, though due to the smoke from forest fires south of Denali. We had the Natural History tour which was ok. Wish we had more time here. Last stop was Fairbanks. Kind of an anticlimax after all we had seen. The Riverboat Discovery tour was interesting and the Alaska Salmonbake was delicious. This trip was fabulous. Can't wait to go back. Thanks again to all the cruise critics for helping to make our trip so memorable.