Alaska 2022

Cruise on the Discovery Princess

In our experience, all cruises are good cruises. This was a very good cruise.

Our Cabin

Since the Discovery Princess is a Royal Class ship, our very favorite cabin is available. I call this cabin “the big, fat mini-suite.” There are only four of these on the ships that have them, and they on decks 15 and 16 at the forward corners of the ship. We like to be up high and far forward, since we enjoy the motion of the ocean. We also like the fact that these cabins have good separation of bedroom and living room areas, they’re Club Class cabins so we get a better dining experience, they’re cheaper than the other Club Class cabins, and they’re way cheaper than full suites. The separation of bedroom and living room areas allows Bob to get up and prowl around when he gets up way too early in the morning. The giant balcony on these cabins is also really nice, and I spent a lot of time out there on this trip.

Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier

You never know what you’re going to get when it comes to glacier viewing on a cruise. That’s just a fact, and there’s no good in getting unhappy if it’s a total dud. This one was pretty much a total dud.

The fjord itself was very pretty, and we enjoyed standing on our forward-facing balcony to admire it as we moved down it. We got out there shortly after daybreak. We watched for bears on the shore on both sides and for seals and otters in the water. We saw no bears or otters but did see some seals on an iceberg. We never got what I’d call reasonably close to the Dawes Glacier, and my definition of “reasonably close” is pretty elastic and forgiving. What was actually funny was that by the time we got as close as we were going to get, the sun was just peaking up over the mountains behind the glacier and we couldn’t see the glacier at all due to the glare! Ah well. Maybe next time.

Juneau and Ketchikan

In Ketchikan, we had probably the best weather we’ve ever seen there. It rains a lot there. A lot a lot. But this year our day in Ketchikan was sunny and bright. Very comfortable temperature as well. Can’t beat that with a stick! We’ve always done the standard walk – up Creek Street and the Married Man’s trail then back down via some metal stairs and side streets. This time, just to be wild and wacky, we did it in reverse. That involved actually finding the metal stairs!

Weather in Juneau was just as good. We walked down to the whale fountain and then just went back to the ship.

Icy Straight Point

We were originally supposed to go to Skagway, which is always good but we’ve been there several times, but due to a rockslide in the Skagway pier area, we were rerouted to Icy Straight Point. This was a real winner! It’s a small port of call, so it doesn’t have much to do. But the things that we did there were very nice.

We got off the ship and immediately took off on a short hiking trail through the temperate rain forest. We passed some pretty things, as below.

When we came out of the forest, we ambled through the gift shop and cannery museum. Then we went and bought tickets for the mountain top gondola. Tickets for this are sold through the cruise line, but we waited and just bought them on the spot since it could easily have been raining cats and dogs and/or totally fogged in. There was some slight drizzle going on from time to time, but not enough to worry us. We went up on the gondola, passing through a cloud layer enroute and came out to a mostly sunny mountain top.

On that mountain top, there’s a zipline that’s billed as the longest one in the world. We have done a zipline once before and really enjoyed it, but we didn’t do this one. There are some hiking trails up there too. All of them were marked as being closed due to bear activity, which was disappointing. After were wandered around a bit, we saw people congregating at one of the trailheads and went over to see what the deal was. There was an armed “bear guard” with a rifle, and he was leading groups of people around a loop. We happily tacked onto that group and did a nice little circle around a well-maintained trail.

The gondola’s a lot of fun. It’s one price for unlimited rides, so we went around several times. As you can see below, the cars run continuously on a double track. It runs slowly and doesn’t stop for loading and unloading. You can easily step on or step off. That’s our ship on the left.

The Food

We agreed that, overall, the food was above Princess average. Hover over the images below to see a description.

The Ship

The Discovery was a new ship for 2022, and it’s gorgeous inside and out.