Due to a fire at the port of Vancouver, we could not board the ship. We were given three options: stay at airport, go on bus tour without exiting the bus (we had already gone thru customs) or go on bus tour and get out of the bus and then go thru customs again. We chose to go on a bus tour and get off the bus for lunch. Our bus driver gave us a few options and we agreed to go to Granville Island. Other people went to Stanley Park. We had a nice two hours at Granville Island and tour of the City. Phil, our driver was fantastic!!! He periodically called Princess to see when we might head on down to the ship.

Once we entered the customs area, there were plenty of chairs, sandwiches and water for us. There were plenty of Princess people around helping out also. Considering they were working on limited power, we went thru security fairly quickly and all of the customs lane were open so we got all checked in, x-rayed and thru customs in 45 mins. Luckily we were the only ship in port. Due to the problem the ship left about 2 hours late. No big deal. Princess did a great job under the circumstances!!! I am sure others will complain but the fire was out of Princess' control and they handled it perfectly.

We had OK weather - rain in Skagway and Glacier Bay. Cloudy the rest of the time. Ketchican, Juneau and Skagway are all cute towns. Our favorite shore excursions were: Ketchican - Kayaking in the Tatoosh Islands. We kayaked for about 1 1/2 hours and saw tons of bald eagles. The little boat ride over to the beach to get the kayaks was neat too. In Juneau we did the Rainforest zipline. It was soooo fun. We did nine ziplines and two suspension bridges. The staff were great and we felt very safe in their hands. The longest zip was 785 feet and we could go 35 miles an hour. I highly suggest that shore ex. Also the people that did the whale watching in Juneau got a wonderful treat. Bubbling which is when several whales corral fish and then they each take turns eating. In Skagway we did a 2 mile hike and float down a river. It was just OK. After that we did the White Pass train. We had to book that directly with the train people because Princess would not let us do it, due to limited time between our morning shore ex and the departure for the train. It is only $4 more to book it with the train directly and you could cancel for any reason and only lose 10% of the fare. Read more