20260910 Thursday, September 10, 2026 Hubbard Glacier

20260910 Thursday, September 10, 2026 Hubbard Glacier

The ship made its way at a leisurely pace to Hubbard Glacier.  It remained more than 20 miles offshore so the shops and casino could remain open as long as possible. The rugged Alaskan coastline and mountains appeared quite distant, although Mt. Logan was still impressive poking above the clouds.  As the day progressed, the weather got nicer with clear skies and only a light breeze.  

Mt Logan and Mt Elias from 20 miles off shore

We had breakfast at the buffet and then attended the 10 a.m. morning trivia hosted by activities director Donovan from South Africa.  We managed second place with 19/20, while a team of two gentlemen scored a perfect 20.  Bob and Neil met onboard as the ship sailed from Vancouver to Whittier, and are both Elite Captain’s Circle members.  Both stayed on board to take a round trip back to Vancouver.  Bob turned out to be the most frequent traveler on this cruise with over 1300 days at sea with Princess.  Bob and Neil gave their prizes to us as consolation prizes.  These were fabric eyeglass bags with Princess logos.  

After trivia, Ben went for a run in the fitness center while Janet attended a cultural lecture, which she struggled to remain awake for.  We rendezvoused for lunch at the Bordeaux dining room where we split a calamari, mac and cheese, and Janet had a club sandwich while Ben had a poke bowl.  Oddly, the salmon in the poke bowl was not raw, as is customary for poke.  Instead, it looked a bit like pickled cooked salmon cubes, which was weird.  They did have ice cream for dessert though.  Since we don’t have the plus or premium package for this cruise, the only ice cream otherwise available is the poolside soft serve cones.  

Our Elite status gives us complimentary access to the Grapevine wine tasting, which occurred just as the ship was entering Yakutat Bay.  The sommelier was a real expert from S. Africa who could have gone on and on about every aspect of each wine, but we were eager to get out on the decks to see the Hubbard Glacier.  It was a very small wine tasting group with only about a dozen people, so it did go quickly.  They started with a Château St. Michele WA sparkling wine, followed by a California Chardonnay, which had a distinctly smoky bouquet.  The sommelier attributed this to the oak barrels, but it could also be from wildfires near the grape-growing regions that have become so prevalent with climate change.  The reds were then an Argentina Malbec and Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon.  The tasting finished with a Californian dessert wine.  

The ship paused just outside Disenchantment Bay with Hubbard and Turner Glaciers in view as two passenger catamaran tour boats picked up 200 excursion passengers for a closer look at the glaciers.  

Once those were sent off ahead, the Island Princess then sailed to within about a half mile of the face of Hubbard Glacier.  The two tour boats looked tiny in front of the massive face of Hubbard Glacier.  The weather was perfect for visiting the glaciers.  The sky was clear and there was little wind with a temperature in the 50’s.  It was still necessary to wear a coat and hat to stay outside for any length of time.  

The voice of the naturalist on the bridge was piped to the public areas of the ship, and the narration was quite understandable and clear around the deck above the pool deck where most passengers were gathered to view the glaciers.  The naturalist also suggested that people go to the secret decks at the bow on decks 9 and 10 for the best viewing because she could only see a handful of people on those decks from the bridge, which is on deck 12.   I’ll bet they were jammed with a hundred passengers within minutes because the upper pool deck cleared out pretty shortly after that announcement.

The naturalist did a good job of pointing out things to look out for.  There is a cave on Haenke Island which appears just to the right of the face of Hubbard Glacier that is home to thousands of nesting loons, but there did not appear to be much bird activity currently.  On some rocks below, there was a huge colony of Stellar’s sea lions basking in the sunlight.  

Stellar's Sea Lion colony

Haenke Island Loon Cave

Front of Turner Glacier

Face of Hubbard Glacier

For the duration of the Island Princess visit, there was very little calving activity on the face of Hubbard Glacier, unlike the last time we were here with the Viking Orion in 2024.  With patience and perseverance, Ben was able to spot a few ice falls, but no massive collapses.  We did spend about an hour in front of the Hubbard Glacier and the ship did a complete spin to show all sides of the ship to the glacier faces.  

After sailing out of Disenchantment Bay, we headed to dinner, hoping for a sit-down before the 7:30 p.m. Princess Theater show, but there was a half-hour wait for seating, so we ended up eating at the buffet.  They had an Asian theme with a Mongolian BBQ bar where you selected your veggies, meats, and noodles, and the chefs would stir-fry them for you.  They handed out pagers so you didn’t have to stand around and wait.  This worked pretty well because the pagers went off just about the time we had found a table and gotten settled in with our other food items and drinks.  The food in the buffet has not been bad, but also not particularly notable.  The food on the Viking Ocean Cruise Ship buffets is a significant step up.  The buffet dining area is a bit crowded, and finding a table is still a bit of a problem during peak meal times.  And table service is not what it used to be.  On prior Princess cruises, the waiters would always be prompt with requests and deliveries of drinks, but on this ship, it’s pretty much all self-service.  

We did make it to the show on time.  The show was “The Soul of Broadway” with Terron Brooks, whose Broadway credits include Simba in Disney’s Lion King, Seaweed in Hairspray, and appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and American Idol.  He sang backed by the Princess Band and did a medley of arrangements from Motown and Broadway with some creative reimagining of classic tunes that made them more pop diva-ish.  He did put on a very energetic and entertaining show.  

Tomorrow we arrive at Glacier Bay National Park and embark park rangers onto the boat in the morning.  

20260909 Wednesday, September 9, 2026- Princess Denali to Whittier Train Ride, Embarkation Island Princess

20260909 Wednesday, September 9, 2026- Princess Denali to Whittier Train Ride, Embarkation Island Princess

We were up at 5 a.m. today to put away our toothbrush bag and chargers into our suitcases and had them outside the door for pick-up at 6 a.m.  Then it was off to Fannie Q’s for breakfast.  

Breakfast at Fannie Q’s was a pleasant experience.  The quality of the food was typical of a diner like the Black Bear Diner or Totem Diner.  We split a Carnivore Scramble which was scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and chunks of reindeer sausage, served with country potatoes and a biscuit with a side of a split reindeer sausage.  We also split a fruit bowl.  

The reindeer sausage tasted like venison sausage with a hint of spiciness.  In retrospect, having the split reindeer sausage along side the cut up chunks inside the scramble was perhaps a bit more reindeer than necessary, but that’s why they called it the Carnivore.  Although Janet felt that the food wasn’t hot enough when it came out, it was tasty and well prepared. The fruit was at peak freshness and ripeness.  And the coffee was bottomless.  With a tip, the bill was $37.  

There were 500 Princess Denali Lodge guests scheduled to board the Princess Denali Wilderness Train for the ride from the Princess Denali Lodge to the Island Princess, which was docked at Whittier.  The train ride is about 10 hours long, but we have been assured that the Island Princess will not leave without us.  

Princess was pretty efficient about transferring guests from the lodge to the Denali Rail Depot, just inside the National Park, by nice tour coaches.  We all had assigned cars and seats within the train, and each car had a designated holding area for its passengers clearly marked with huge flags.  

The Princess Denali Wilderness Train is equipped with dome observation cars just like those used by the Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf service.  The decor was a little more upscale, but the seats were a little simpler, without power leg rests or reclining.  There was a small airplane-style drop-down seatback tray table and a small net pocket below that.  There were two 120V AC outlets and 2 USB-A charger outlets between the seats in front of us.  

Service was similar to the Rocky Mountaineer with an in-car bar tender and tour guide/hostess for the car.  Drinks, snacks, and meals were all available for a charge, and they did multiple seatings for breakfast and lunch service.  They did seat people 4 to a table whether they were traveling together or not to make the most efficient use of the dining space.  Table service was fast casual rather than fine dining, but cloth napkins were provided.  We ended up having a late lunch with a Cuban sandwich on sourdough with fries and Salmon Chowder.  Both were fast casual quality.  That lunch was $40 without drinks other than tap water.  

The views from the car were nice, but the day started off with rain and dense low-level clouds.  The route the train takes does afford decent views of the countryside for the most part, but there are plenty of areas where trees growing up alongside the tracks do obscure the views.  These trees flying by in front of distant objects or potential animal sightings made focusing camera lenses difficult, and glare from the inside of the dome car glass also hampered photography.  The UV-blocking film at the top of the car also degraded image quality severely, like shooting through ground glass.  This trip is best appreciated through live human eyes, and can't be captured with photos or video.  It's best simply to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

There is an observation platform just like on the Rocky Mountaineer, but it is not an ideal photographic platform because of the severe motion of the train and also because brush and trees along the track very often obscure the scenery more than from the dome car windows which are situated about 10’ higher in elevation. But it does offer a way to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of being on the rails.

Hurricane Gulch Trestle

We did actually get a glimpse of the base and summit of Denali in the far distance (about 100 miles from the track) when the clouds opened very briefly in the track section where a view is possible.  The middle portion of the mountain between the summit and lower slopes was covered by a band of clouds, but our guide said only about 30% of guests who come to Denali National Park actually get to see the mountain itself, especially this late in the season due to weather conditions and a distinct propensity of the mountain to generate its own weather systems.  

A peek at Denali's Peak and base behind horizontal cloud.

For much of the trip, there were high hopes for spotting moose with the vast stretches of forest and tundra dotted with innumerable lakes in the canyon, but alas, no moose were spotted.  All of the wildlife spotting occurred in the last hour of the ride as the train ran alongside the Chugach mountains.  There was a spotting of a black bear walking up a hillside away from the train as it sped past, and then very shortly after that, we could see several Dall’s sheep way up high on a rocky cliff face at least a half mile away.  

With the train speeding along, and with the limitations imposed by the glass viewing dome, it was nearly impossible to get photos.  Then as the train went alongside Turnagain Arm, we saw several Beluga whales feeding at the delta of a creek draining into the sound.  These are seen as flashes of grey and white on the water’s surface with minimal splashing or spouts because Beluga whales don’t have dorsal fins, and don’t often breach or do other behaviors that make their presence conspicuous like with humpback or orca whales.  We did see a couple of separate pairs of trumpeter swans on a couple of the lakes we passed, and some sandhill cranes on the mudflats a quite a distance, again at Turnagain Arm.

The train made a couple of very brief limited stops to allow trains to pass and to change some of the train staff.  There doesn’t seem to be much commercial freight traffic on this rail line and our particular train seemed to get preferential right of way because it had a tight schedule to maintain to get us boarded on the ship before too late.  

The train did go through two long tunnels.  The tunnel heading into Whittier also doubles as a tunnel for vehicular traffic, which is only a single lane.  A signal system separates vehicle and train traffic and there are designated openings about every half hour for traffic going either into or out of Whittier.  

Traffic into Whittier waits for the train to pass through tunnel first.

Traffic lane merges into the tunnel with the rail road tracks.

It is interesting that the train goes literally right up to the dock where the Island Princess was docked.  There is also a second dock on the opposite side of the bay.  This new dock was built by Norwegian Cruise lines in conjunction with Hoonah Totem Corporation.  Six days after we departed from Whittier, this dock was destroyed by a fire.  

View of the Island Princess in Whittier from the train.

Disembarkation from the train and embarkation onto the boat was pretty smooth, but did involve a long, snaking, but moving line through TSA-styled security.  Dock agents had boarded the train in Anchorage and worked through all the passengers on the train to collect scans of their passports and distribute medallions, which are the boarding passes and stateroom keys on the ship.  

Our luggage was already in our room.  We booked an obstructed-view stateroom but were pleasantly surprised to find we had a nice, non-obstructed window.  This was the first time we have booked a stateroom on the Fiesta deck, which on the Island Princess is on the same deck as the Explorer’s Lounge, casino, and some of the shops.  The fitness center is aft, and our stateroom is situated in a hallway immediately adjacent to the entrance to the fitness center, public restrooms, Explorer's lounge secret back entry and aft elevator lobby.

Our unobstructed Obstructed view stateroom window.

Fitness Center is literally just steps from our door.

F702 is the first door in the corridor past the fire door.

The Island Princess was remodeled at some point, replacing the aft Vista Lounge with additional staterooms, so the Explorer’s Lounge is the only entertainment venue in the aft part of the ship.  The Lotus Spa is also located on the Lido deck between the enclosed pool and the aft elevator banks.

Our stateroom location should be very convenient for activities in the Explorer’s Lounge, but at least some of the trivia events are at the Wheelhouse bar one deck up and all the way forward on the ship.  One downside is the back door to the Explorer’s Lounge opens into the aft elevator lobby, so sounds of music from the Explorer’s Lounge do make it into our hallway and room, although faintly.  The buffet is also situated in the bow of this ship.

After doing our mandatory muster station check-in, we looked in at the Princess theater where an illusionist was doing one of those mentalist shows where he seems to be able to read people’s minds.  It is baffling to see one of these shows for the first time, and you can never figure out how it is they do what they do, but we’ve seen these acts enough to move onto the buffet to get dinner.  Fortunately, he was just starting a bit where a volunteer was taping poker chips over his eyes so he could not see what she was about to write on a piece of paper.  Once his eyes were covered, we bolted out of the theater.  

The Island Princess has a much smaller buffet than the Royal Class ships, but there was plenty of variety of dishes and cuisines to choose from.  We weren’t particularly hungry because we had a late lunch on the train, but grabbed dinner and finished unpacking and getting laundry ready to go out first thing in the morning before calling it an early night.  

Tomorrow, we will be arriving at Hubbard Glacier.  We hope to see some glacier calving again, like we did 2 years ago when we visited it on the Viking Orion.  

20260908 Tuesday, September 8, 2026; Denali ATV Adventure

20260908 Tuesday, September 8, 2026; Denali ATV Adventure

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse with wind and rain for much of the day.  For the most part, the rain has been light and intermittent, but the low cloud level has obscured views of any mountain tops, and it is looking highly likely that we will not catch a glimpse of the tallest mountain in North America despite having spent several days near its base.  

We did have an ATV adventure booked for this morning, so at 10 a.m. we were picked up at the lodge and driven about 9 miles north to just outside the National Park border, where it can be legal to operate an ATV.  This ATV adventure was probably the most extensive and challenging of all the ATV excursions we have done.  

Fortunately, the Yamaha 4 x 4 side-by-side UTVs were up to the task.  We drove on some pretty bad 2-tracks with moguls and through potholes and ruts that would have easily stopped less capable vehicles dead in their tracks.  We will certainly be a bit sore tomorrow from all the bouncing and will probably discover new bruises over the next day or so.  

This adventure took us about 15 miles through narrow trails winding through woods, alongside cliff faces, up and down steep hills, through and across several creek beds and streams.  We did each take turns behind the wheel.  Janet is much more comfortable with blasting at top speed over the worst terrain, and she did a great job of setting the pace for all the other side-by-sides as we were in the lead vehicle behind our guide and one very experienced single rider on straddle-style ATVs.  

The river valley we descended into was very similar to the Savage River valley inside the park, and some of what we drove on were the remnants of coal mining roads.  The town of Healy is just north of Denali National Park, and it was a coal mining town.  We made a couple of stops to take in the view and change drivers while our guides talked about the history of Healy and some of the geology and natural history of the area.  There were bits of coal on the ground around where the ATV's had parked because this was at one point in time a transfer station for the coal.

The scenery was beautiful with the foliage turning fall colors.  Entire hillsides looked like impressionist paintings.  We did come across some fresh moose prints in mud at one stop along the riverbank to learn about some of the interesting mineral specimens that can be found in the riverbeds.  

We had worn our Gortex coats and pants, which helped keep us dry and warm, but it was easy to feel the chill when we got out at viewpoints.  The Yamaha UTVs did have a roof, windshield, and doors, although there were no wipers for the windshield, so when it rained, it got difficult to see very well through the windshield.  The guides did hop out twice to wipe down the windshields, which was very helpful.  

Over the course of the tour, we had covered over 1600’ of elevation and had hit a top speed of nearly 30 mph.  

It was certainly a good thing we did our Horseshoe Lake hike and Denali Natural History Park tours while the weather was better.  Doing the ATV adventure in the rain just helped keep the dust down and add more mud to the puddles.  

After returning from the ATV adventure, we took a stroll to check out the neighboring Holland America Denali Lodge.  On the face of it, it appears to be a much older facility with more of a rustic character.  We did not get to see the inside of any of the rooms, but the lodge lobby and public areas were a bit run down compared with the Princess Denali Lodge.  They did have two sled dog puppies on display behind the Holland America Lodge.  These were very cute and rambunctious puppies, and a big draw for all the dog lovers.  

We had dined last night at one of the main dining venues in the Holland America Denali Lodge complex and saw the menus for the complex.  There were fewer restaurant choices and things seemed to be 2 or 3 dollars more expensive than at the similar Princess venues, so after wandering through the gift shop, we headed back home.  

We decided to have an early dinner at Fannie Q’s, which is a sit-down restaurant and bar.  No children are allowed in Fannie Q’s because of the bar.  The ambiance and decor were upscale and welcoming.  

It was a significant step up from the Grizzly Grill where we had lunch yesterday.  We had Cobb Salad ($16) and 3-Piece Fish and Chips ($22), along with a Spruce Tip IPA ($9).  The service and food were excellent.  The fish and chips were served with a big pile of tater tots, and the Cobb Salad was huge and had really fresh and high-quality greens and tomatoes that were delicious.  The Spruce Tip IPA was a unique local beer that combines herbal tones like you find in gin with the citrus notes from the hops to create an interesting and refreshing beer.  

Janet has unfortunately started to come down with a cold, so we called it an early night.  We will have to repack our suitcases and have them out for pick-up outside our doors at 6 a.m.  Tomorrow we board the Princess Denali train, which will take us to Seward where we will embark onto the Island Princess.  It will be a bit of a homecoming for us since we spent 60 days on the Island Princess going around South America in January 2018.