12 Day Alaska round trip from San Francisco. August, 2014 on Star Princess. Something a little bit different. Instead of Cuz coming down from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles, we decided to go up to San Francisco to join Jerry and the ship. So did our pals from Hawaii, “Paul” and “Jody”.

Us two So Cal couples drove up independently the day before the cruise. P & J booked a hotel closer to San Jose while Suzi and I stayed with Cuz. As usual, we got to the port in plenty of time and good thing… The new cruise terminal in San Francisco was about a month shy of opening, so the ship was moored at one of the old pier buildings. I dropped Suzi and Cuz off with the luggage and made my way to the 55 Francisco parking lot which I had reserved months ago. I met them at the terminal to find out that due to limited space, we weren’t scheduled to board for three hours. Well, if you’re going to get stuck waiting at a port, none better than San Francisco.

It was finally time to board so as we were making our way to the ship, we ran into Paul and Jody.

Although the three of us had booked Lido 210 and Lido 214, Princess upgraded us to Premium Balcony staterooms. We were Caribe 320 and Cuz was Caribe 604. Nice upgrade but one of the main reasons we like the Lido Deck? Why it’s the same Deck as the Buffet… Now we actually have to take stairs or elevators. HAH!

We were right at home on Star Princess and looking forward to our departure taking us under the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, it was as spectacular as imagined.

After two relaxing days at sea, we pulled into Ketchikan. Thankfully, it was not 82 degrees this time. The three of us did our normal trek to Creek Street.

Next port was Juneau. The three of us booked an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier. It was a gray day with a light mist. Suzi and Cuz stayed in the dry, warm observation building and I decided to take a hike to Nugget Falls. Yes, I saw the sign that says “Bears. Travel in parties of two or more!”, however, I’m a fairly big guy so went for it. I thought I’d run into other hikers. I got involved looking at the scenery so missed the fork in the road for the falls.

I continued the hike that kept going and going. I checked the time and decided it was time to turnaround. It was about 5 minutes back, then I saw the sign for the falls. Oh well, excuse to go back.

Next stop, Skagway. All three of us booked the White Pass Rail and Klondike Highway excursion. This is our third cruise to Alaska and have always wanted to do this excursion but opted not to because of the price. Well, this ended up being free… Free you say? Tell me more? Once Suzi and I decided to make Princess our “Cruise line of Choice”, I began researching ways to get more On Board Credits.

Going off topic a bit but here is what I came up with:

Check to see if your preferred cruise line offers a credit card. Princess offers one we’ve been using for all regular monthly purchases (What we can pay off in full every month). Purchases on Princess get 2 Points per dollar, all other purchases get 1 Point.

Check to see if your cruise line offers a Shareholder Benefit for owning stock. Since Princess is part of Carnival, I purchased enough to receive the benefit. By the time we step on the ship, we have at least $600.00 in OBC’s.

Now, where were we… Ah yes, the “free” excursion. Rather than take the train both ways, we opted to take the bus up the Klondike Highway that parallels the train up to Fraser, British Columbia where we transferred to the train. The weather was not great. Quite foggy in the middle section of both ways but it did add an interesting element.

As we got further down the mountain, things cleared nicely.

The next day was cruising up Tracy Arm Fjord up to South Sawyer Glacier. Folks, this is truly an amazing experience. The fjord was created by glacier. As you are going through the narrow passage, for what seemed like hours, all of the sudden, you can see the glacier peeking through.

Once you pass through to the end of the fjord, you see the South Sawyer Glacier in all its glory.

After a beautiful day cruising the Inside Passage, we ended in Victoria, BC. No excursions other than the shuttle into town where we walked up and down Government Street.

Two more sea days and back to San Francisco.