An Alaskan cruise tour has been on our bucket list forever so when we finally decided to do it we did a lot of research and Princess was always one of the lines mentioned on various boards and by people we knew. After looking at the itineraries available they seemed to offer the most options. We selected 12 days (7 night cruise and 5 night land) and added 2 nights in Vancouver pre-cruise and it was perfect.

The biggest question that seemed to keep coming up in the guides was whether to do land first or cruise first and whether to go northbound or southbound. We chose northbound and cruise first and I think that is absolutely the way to go and here is why. You are going to be doing a lot so expect to be busy and tired whether you are on the cruise or land portion. The excursions tended to be earlier on the cruise so several really early mornings. But the main reason is that while Alaska is awesome every where we went, the scenery just keeps getting more and more magnificent as you travel north. While the totem poles were very interesting in Ketchikan and whale watching was great in Juneau, the White Scenic Pass Railroad in Skagway was beautiful and everywhere you looked was a “Wow” or an “Oh My Gosh”. And when we got to the Mt. McKinley Lodge and Denali Wilderness lodge the ability to see Denali was unsurpassed, I think if we had seen Denali and all the animals first and then traveled south we would have not had the sensation of everything building in anticipation of what was next.

Favorite excursions were the White Scenic Pass Railroad in Skagway, the Jeep ride at Mt, McKinley lodge, the Natural History tour at Denali and the Riverboat Discovery in Fairbanks. Good excursions were the Totem Bight Park, Lumberjack show, Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching in Juneau. Least favorite were the Salmon Bake and Palace Theater show in Fairbanks (total waste of time and money) and the dog sledding in Talkeetna from the Mt, McKinely lodge (would still do a dog sledding excursion but not that one). Read more