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Showing posts with the label mountiains

Royal Princess Sails Through Glacier Bay National Park

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  The main reason I chose this Inside Passage cruise with Princess was the full day exploring Glacier Bay National Park by ship. Glacier Bay is one of the least accessible national parks in the United States. With this itinerary, I would be able to see a lot of it from the Royal Princess. Only a few cruise lines are able to spend a day going through Glacier Bay. It starts in the early morning when a boat arrives with park rangers. They stay on board until late in the afternoon, telling us about the park and everything we are seeing. Brittany and I got up at 5:00 am. We had decided to start out with as much as we could see from our balcony. We pre-ordered breakfast and coffee delivered to our cabin, so we didn’t need to get out of our pajamas, but we did need to bundle up. We put on our sweatshirts and the warm blankets Princess Cruises supplies to take outside. After enjoying 70+ degree temperatures in Alaska the previous days, we were starting this day in the 40s. It was also a

Discovering Skagway with Princess Cruises

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Our first day in Alaska was special, but I thought about the one we were going to have as the Royal Princess pulled into the waters of Skagway early in the morning. We had coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries at the International Café. Brittany was heading out early for her Animal Planet Exclusive Kroschel Wildlife Refuge excursion. I had a few hours and was anxiously waiting to see if my scooter could be repaired in time for me to go. The one the ship had let me borrow was too big to go on the tender. I did use the loaner to take a ride in the scooter to the upper deck pool area.  It gave me a stunning view of  Skagway despite the cloudy day. I was told the scooter was ready and I took the tender to town. I knew it would be close and I did just miss my bus tour, however, a contingency plan was worked out. I would drive the scooter into town and spend the time looking around—and shopping for souvenirs—while I waited to catch up with my tour group. Skagway is picturesque, wit