Foxy the Traveler: Alaska Cruising Part I (Seattle & Vancouver)

In 2009, we took on the challenge of planning a two week adventure all over France and England (read about that trip here: France/England). As fun as that trip was, it was also pretty exhausting. Every teensy tiny detail had been meticulously planned which takes a lot of time and research. For our next trip, I was happy to let someone else take on that burden for me, while I just sat back and enjoyed the ride (or should I say, the boat ride). Alaska cruises have become wildly popular. Having never been on a cruise before, we decided that there was no better way to experience our first cruise than while checking another destination off of our bucket list.

Before I get into the specifics, I should mention several things right off the bat. Alaska cruising is expensive. It is far more expensive than any other cruise destination out there. The cruise ship companies have really cornered the Alaska cruising market driving up the prices (especially for shore excursions) to the point of ridiculousness. In some cases we were able to circumvent the cruise line and get better deals, but other times we couldn't. To just give you an idea of the cost (which I'll break down into more detail throughout the four part Alaska blog series), our 15 day trip to France/England cost us around $8.5k (or about $560/day). For only 10 days on this vacation, which included 7 days on the boat, we spent about $7.4k (or $740/day). I'm not saying that it's not worth doing, but it is very important to have a full understanding of the cost before signing up. We originally had the idea to do a cruise to Alaska because it would be less expensive than planning another trip abroad. And while, yes, overall the trip was over $1,000 cheaper than most of our trips abroad, the daily value was, in our opinion, excessive.

I think our experience also had to do with our choice of cruise line. We chose Princess Cruise Line mostly because it had the itinerary we liked the best on the dates that worked for us. We soon came to realize that we were some of the youngest people on the ship, and that the entire experience caters to an older crowd. And while we avoided "party" cruise lines (yet cheaper) like Carnival (because we often behave like senior citizens when we travel), we should have looked for something with at least a few more exciting things to do on the ship itself instead of bingo, art auctions, and precious gem seminars. In conclusion, cruising probably isn't for us, but we left Alaska with a ton of memories and experiences to share. I hope you enjoy reading about my Alaskan adventures!

Our 7-day cruise went from Monday to Monday in August 2010. The Island Princess cruise ship departed from Vancouver, BC and arrived a week later in Anchorage, Alaska with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. We've heard so many horror stories about people not getting to the ship in time due to flight delays or other problems, so we wanted to make sure we got there with plenty of time. We also saw this as an opportunity to see Vancouver for more than a minute. Upon closer examination of flights, however, we were sticker shocked by the cost of a multi-city flight from Washington, DC to Vancouver and then from Anchorage back to Washington. Instead of just accepting our plight and paying the overpriced airfare (which you should NEVER do unless you're booking last minute), we started looking at alternate dates and alternate options. (Quick note: some cruise packages included a small airfare credit or gave you the option of purchasing airfare through the cruise line with the guarantee that if you get delayed, they'll hold the cruise ship for you. They offered us airfare for the bargain price of $1,000/pp, so we said thanks but no thanks.)

Since we had until Monday to get there, we started looking at other major airports that were within driving distance of Vancouver. Seattle is just a short 2.5 hour drive from Vancouver. We'd have to rent a car to get from Seattle to Vancouver, but getting there a full day early would allow us some time to see both cities before embarking on our cruise. For just under $500/pp we were able to book nonstop flights from Washington DC to Seattle, and then from Anchorage back to Washington. I considered this a WIN!

We flew United to Seattle on Sunday morning. Thanks to a 3 hour time difference, after a 5-6 hour flight, it was still Sunday morning when we arrived. We had precious few hours in Seattle before driving up to Vancouver, so we didn't waste any time. We hopped over to the "budget" car rental counter, picked up our Hyundai Sonata (pretty nice for a cheap-o rental car) and parked in the Westin parking garage, a pretty central location in the city.

Our first stop was a little pizza place called Bambino's pizza. We shared a meat lovers pizza pie and kept going on our way to the famous Seattle Space Needle. We got tickets for this ahead of time online. What we didn't realize is that the needle is not actually the tallest structure in the city. Many postcards and city views show the city skyline from a vantage point that makes it seem like the space needle is taller, but they're deceiving. I still enjoyed the visit and the views from the top. The guide was very informative and my pictures turned out great!

Space Needle, Seattle

View from the Space Needle

After the space needle, we took a stroll through Pike Place market. We got there in the afternoon, so we didn't catch any fish mongers tossing seafood around, but it was still a neat place to walk around. I wish we could stay longer because the bouquets of flowers were so ridiculously cheap. If I lived there (and didn't have 2 furry kitty cats who think plants are their own personal chew toys), I would always buy fresh flowers from there.

We still had a little bit of time before we had to get on the road, so we took a stroll and found ourselves in a unique sculpture garden. It was rather pleasant at first until we found ourselves smack in the middle of a hemp festival. Yes, that's right. A hemp festival. (For any who doesn't know what hemp is...it's pot, marijuana, weed, etc.) Now keep in mind, this was back in 2010 before marijuana became legalized in Washington, though that didn't seem matter. You could buy anything from pot leaf mardi gras beads (nevermind that it was August), all manner of "food" items, bongs, etc. We just had to throw up our hands and laugh. How could two of the most "goody goody" kids in the world find themselves in the middle of hempfest, I'll never know. But it's certainly one of those things you never forget.

So, after getting a good chuckle, we found our car, and drove 2.5 hours up to Canada. Crossing the border was no problem. There was a bit of a line, but after a quick passport check and a peek in our trunk (glad we didn't do any shopping at hempfest), we were on our way again.

Our hotel/motel for the evening, North Vancouver Hotel, was kind of a dive, but it was very clean and suited our needs just fine for one night. I wouldn't recommend it for a week long holiday, but we slept their comfortably and the $120/night price was right! We booked it through Travelocity and had no issues.

We arrived at our hotel in time for dinner and were please to find a Denny's right across the street. Neither of us could remember the last time we ate at a Denny's. The whole area was a bit run down and slightly lower class, so the Denny's was a hot spot for Sunday dinner. The hotel had breakfast in the morning, so luckily we didn't have to worry about a breakfast rush at Denny's the next morning. :)

We picked this hotel in particular because we wanted to be close to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. (The bridge is featured in the TV show Psych which is a comedy crime show. It's on netflix now and is super hilarious!) Anyway, the bridge isn't far from Vancouver, so we planned on seeing that in the morning and then spending a few hours in Vancouver before embarking on our cruise in mid-afternoon.

When we got our cruise documents a few days/weeks before the trip, they said that we could board the ship within a certain time frame, but encouraged us to wait until the afternoon to avoid crowds. So, our plan was to do just that.

Entrance to the Capilano Suspension Bridge

At the bridge, there are a few options for how to spend your time. The admission price gets you access to the entire park. You can cross the bridge and be done or you can cross the bridge and hike along one of the many paths. From the paths, you also get better views of the bridge.

Just before crossing the suspension bridge

After a healthy mix of woods hiking and urban street hiking, we returned our rental car, and found our way to the Canada Place port. We actually scoped it out earlier in the day to make sure we knew where we were going, but it was finally time to get this party started.

That's our ship!

My husband accused me a being a little too camera happy while we were walking through the giant terminal to get to the ship. It was a weird place. I wasn't sure what to expect. Imagine an airport terminal, but then make the whole thing very industrial. Or take an airport terminal and put it in a parking garage; that's what it was like. (How are those mental pictures?)

Following the signs!

It was very straightforward, and we had no trouble. Since we waited until the afternoon to get on the ship, we had no lines at all. It was almost weird how empty it was. We walked right up, walked right through, went right on, etc. It was a little weird to go through customs. The cruise ship is considered US soil, so we had to cross from Canada back into the US. There was also a place where we could have dropped off our luggage to be delivered to our cabin, but since we each only had a suitcase and backpack, we didn't bother. The staff looked at how little luggage we had and laughed us through. Should we have been offended by that? Did we not pack enough? As cruise virgins, we had a lot to learn apparently.

I wasn't sure what our accommodations would look like. We decided to "splurge" for a balcony room because 3 full days of the cruise (out of 7) were on the boat either at sea or doing "scenic" cruising. Sure, there were decks with chairs for that sort of thing, but I was glad we opted for the balcony (minus all of our smoking neighbors). One nice thing happened when we booked our cabin; we chose the absolute cheapest balcony room we could find. Of course we were offered to pay for an upgraded deck at every step of the way, but we kept refusing. About a week after we booked our cruise, we got an email from Princess Cruise congratulating us that we had been selected for a complimentary upgrade. After calling Princess to confirm, sure enough, we had just been bumped from the cheapest balcony room to a more expensive balcony room on a much higher deck.

See how <<insert sarcasm>> luxurious our accommodations were!? You had a bed, a small desk, and just enough room for one person to walk around. When my husband wanted to move, he had to crawl across the bed. It wouldn't be until our trip to Japan two years later that we would see rooms this small again. It's not even worth showing you the bathroom. Talk about claustrophobic.