20260915 Tuesday, September 15, 2026; At Sea
The ship’s clocks turned forward an hour from Alaska time to Pacific time, although our smartphones had automatically made that change in the late evening because we had left the cellular on instead of keeping our phones on airplane mode.
Morning trivia yielded a tie between us and Bob’s team. We each had perfect scores of 20/20. The tie breaker was how many cruise ships are there in the world. Ben asked the host if that included river cruise ships and he said ALL cruise ships. We guessed way high at 2000 thinking there were lots of small river and local cruise ships besides the major ocean-going cruise ships, but the answer he was looking for was 350, which is the number of major ocean-going cruise ships. Viking Cruises alone operates 89 river cruise ships, and according to Google, there are more than 1000 currently operating river cruise ships including regional small operators. But we only missed out on eyeglass pouches.
After trivia, we had a leisurely late breakfast/brunch in the buffet.
Ben got in one last fitness center run so we could pack up everything in our suitcases once again.
Instead of lunch, we enjoyed the one afternoon tea that was offered during this itinerary. We were surprised that there wasn’t that big of a turnout for the tea, but the service and scones were very good.
We participated in the 4 p.m. afternoon trivia, which was won again by Bob and Neil with 19/20 and a tie breaker of what was the shortest completion time for the NYC Marathon. They got it to within one minute with the actual time being 2 hrs, 4 minutes and 59 seconds.
The ship has experienced remarkable sunny and calm weather as it cruises down the Queen Charlotte Strait and Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland. There have been a few whale spottings, including one just before the afternoon trivia. It was very scenic sailing past uncountable small islands and rocky outcroppings to either side of the ship. The Holland America Zaandam followed us and behind her was the Coral Princess a couple miles behind.
One significant difference in the scenery between Alaska and these waters between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland is evidence of logging and forestry management. There are clearly areas that have been previously clear-cut and replanted, delineated by geographic patches with different maturity of trees evident. There are also sites on the edge of the water where logs are skidded from the hillsides and rafted up on the water for transport to distant mills.
Night fell as the ship got past Campbell River, and we had dinner, which featured prime rib and shrimp-crusted Alaskan coho salmon. Janet also gave the French onion soup a second try, and this time it was piping hot and to her satisfaction. And of course, they had to have baked Alaska for dessert tonight.
After brushing our teeth one last time with our electric toothbrushes, we put our suitcases out for collection.
There was an evening music trivia that we participated in where the host again played the songs without editing out lyrics that give away the song titles, but it was still challenging enough. We bombed on any songs that are from after the 1980s, and there were quite a few from the 2000s and 2010s that threw us. The team that won pretty much got a perfect score. There are clearly pop music savants on board.
The Princess Theater showtime featured something called the Princess World Orchestra. This is a program where the music director has gathered all the musicians from around the ship onto the stage so in addition to the production show band, there are the club singers and instrumentalists that perform in the lounges and atrium. They did a medley of music supposedly from around the world including Spain, Brazil, Cuba, and Ireland. The lounge singer who was the lead vocal was heavy on Gloria Estefan’s songs, but she had trouble stirring up the audience participation she wanted with the theater being sparcely occupied. We were at the 9:30 p.m. show, which was probably past a lot of people’s bedtimes.
After the show, we popped up to the buffet to grab a snack. The buffet closed down at 10 p.m., so all that is available between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. are some small sandwiches, tortilla chips with bland salsa and guacamole, and small cups with a selection of cheeses and dried fruit. We miss not having an International Cafe on this ship.
On the way back to the room, we dropped in on the comedian AJ Jamal, and enjoyed the last half of his act, which was the adults-only version of his act. He was funny and really connected well with the audience in the packed Explorer’s Lounge.
Tomorrow we disembark at 9 a.m. and head home. This has been a short cruise for us. Although this is our fifth Alaska cruise, we have found each one unique. We were particularly lucky with the weather at this end-of-the-season cruise. It has been unseasonably warm and sunny, and the crew has been constantly remarking how unusual this has been. We were also pleasantly surprised by how scenic the sea day turned out with the ship entering into the Queen Charlotte Strait and narrow Johnstone Strait during the daylight hours. Cruising into Vancouver through the Inside Passage is vastly more interesting than cruises based in Seattle, which stay as much as 20 miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland as soon as they exit the Strait of Juan de Fuca and leave Puget Sound.
There was minimal adjustment to cruising without the Plus or Premier package drinks, and the ocean-view stateroom worked out fine, except for the Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier days when it would have been nice to be on our own balcony for those days, but because we had nice rain-free weather for both of those days, everything worked out fine. And Janet really liked the convenience of being so close to the aft elevator lobby, fitness center, public bathrooms, and Explorer’s Lounge. All were just steps from our doorway.
Having most recently completed a Viking Ocean cruise from Norway to Iceland, we would have to say the food on Viking is definitely better overall. While the majority of the meals we had on this cruise were OK to decent, there was really nothing that wowed us. We really missed the quality cookies and gelato from the Viking cruise, but that was also a much more expensive cruise per day. As an alternative to a business class return flight from Anchorage to Seattle, this cruise was an excellent value and enjoyable.
We especially were impressed by the Captain’s Circle and Most Sailed Passengers receptions, which were very nice, especially after being so terribly disappointed with our experiences on the Sun Princess last Christmas. These smaller Panamax ships still in the Princess fleet do have their advantages when it comes to service and a more personal touch.
We do have another Princess cruise already booked for Christmas 2027 in the Mexican Riviera, but also made a future cruise deposit on this cruise which is fully refundable and good for on-board spending credit of up to $150 per person. We’re sure another Princess cruise itinerary will pop up that will lure us back within the year. We hope they will expand their Africa itineraries, although the Iran war and other conflicts in the Middle East do certainly limit what can be done there.
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