ISLAND PRINCESS Alaskan Cruise and Land Tour July 10-22, 2004 By Mary & Vincent Finelli
We Floridians like to escape the summer heat, so when Vincent saw a July Alaskan Sea/Land Cruise advertised, "North to Alaska" sounded great ---- we just returned from this trip, and it was great. The Sea cruise included the following ports: Vancouver, Canada; then in Alaska: Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord and Whittier. The Land tour included Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Midnight Sun rail tour through Denali National Park (Healy and Talkeetna). We now realize that the expectations that we had for the land tour were unrealistic in terms of wildlife. However, the interior of this largest state in the union is a fascinating geological lesson unfolding, due to the Pacific Plate's movement against the N. American Plate: the vista of the effects of subduction and mountain building is awesome. Geology Professors speak of fault lines and their consequences, but, sailing or railroading past rows on rows of mountains formed by tectonic plate movement is an incredible trip.
We flew from Ft. Lauderdale, had a change over in Los Angeles and arrived in Vancouver on July 9th and embarked on the 10th. Having sailed on the Island Princess' sister ship, the Coral Princess, we will refer you to our review of the Coral Princess (Oct. 2003) for the description of shared characteristics. Suffice it to say that the Island Princess is also Panamax, 964 ft. long, 105 ft. in the beam, a gross tonnage of 91,627 and with a passenger capacity of 2,368 (on this cruise 2,100 passengers, 400 of which were repeaters). The most distinguishing feature of the sister ships is their polished steel gas turbine/diesel enviro engines perched high above decks, adjacent to the stack.