Category: Cruise Ships

Cruising though Wells Passage, we met the Alaska State ferry Aurora, which was sailing from Whittier to Valdez. Prince William Sound is spectacular, but that doesn’t really look like summer, does it? Whittier has about the worst weather in Alaska outside the Aleutians. Directly ahead in the darkest part...

Today is the final full day of this voyage – tomorrow we dock at Whittier. It’s now 03:15, 1 hour and 8 minutes before sunrise, but it’s fairly bright outside. We’re just north of Yakutat, sailing on calm seas for Prince William Sound and College Fjord. We had an...

It’s a few minutes after 04:00 am, and we’re about 2½ hours away from picking up the NPS rangers at the mouth of Glacier Bay. It’s looking like a decent day, with a cloud ceiling at about 3,000 feet but no rain. I had a ball yesterday. I think...

As I start writing this, it’s 03:15 am and the Coral Princess is in Stephens Passage, 44 nautical miles south of Juneau at the mouth of Tracy and Endicott Arms. Sunday was so busy that I didn’t have anything to eat until after my second presentation, which ended at...

It’s Day 2 of my first Princess cruise to Alaska, and my first job as ship naturalist. I was up early this morning as always, and the Horizon Court was the source of coffee to get it started and to greet the sun just after 05:00. As I start...

Last night was the roughest ride we’ve ever had at sea. I really love storms at sea – I find the whole experience to be very invigorating – but I know that many people are much less enthusiastic about it! Yesterday morning at 06:05 from the aft of Deck...

Yesterday was our ship’s day in Sitka, our favourite port. It was unfortunately a very short visit, from 7:00 am until 2:00 pm – we’d love to spend 12 hours there (or a week!). I awoke to fog and a light rain, with the Zaandam off to starboard. This...

It’s 05:00 and we’re sailing into Sitka harbor in a cold moderate rain. It was foggy a half-hour ago but that’s now clearing so we may yet get a decent day for our tour with Captain Davey. Regardless of weather, we have high hopes for sea otters and grey...

After a bit of rain and lot of cold wind at Skagway, the incredible weather is back with us. I’m still a day behind on the blog but hope to catch up tonight, as we’re now at sea en route to Sitka following a superb day at the Hubbard...

Yesterday we spent all day in Juneau, and today it was Skagway. Our weather so far has been good – very good until we reached Skagway and even today was far from being bad. Just south of Juneau (at 09:15) we spotted the first land wildlife of the cruise,...