Here are excerpts
from a great article about Alaska and Coral
Princess
Alaska has a brawny beauty. With terrain beyond
rugged, words like stunning, gorgeous, massive
and wild, fall short of capturing the essence of
America's last frontier.
Approaching
Glacier Bay aboard the Coral Princess,
Pratheepan Selvaratnam -- a junior officer of
the watch -- scans the mirror-smooth surface of
the water and surmises that words fail to define
Alaska because it is ever-changing.
"I was here four
days ago and it's not the same. There's always
something different to see," says Selvaratnam ,
who as a kid growing up in Don Mills dreamed
about a life at sea. The former Toronto Sun
delivery boy saved money from his paper route to
help pay for a course in marine navigation at
Georgian College and later landed a job with
Princess Cruises.
We watch from
the bridge as the ship continues to glide slowly
through the narrow passage into the
milky-turquoise bay. Fragments of blue-white ice
-- which has "calved" off the glaciers that ring
the bay -- float lazily past.
In these waters,
officers on the bridge and at the stern "keep a
constant watch," Selvaratnam says. "These
glaciers are stable but the ice you see above
the water is only one-tenth of the glacier's
size. The rest is beneath the surface.
"The weather has
been pretty good lately but conditions can
change quickly. You can never let your guard
down," Selvaratnam says. "It's Alaska, expect
the unexpected."
I have been
meeting the unexpected head on all week. Before
boarding Coral Princess in Whittier, our small
group of journalists had been touring the
interior of Alaska, experiencing a lifetime
worth of adventures in six days.
Our group has
travelled many hundreds of kilometres -- by
luxury coach and Princess railcars, on kayaks
and dogsleds -- through mountain ranges, over
canyons, braided rivers and lakes, past boreal
forest, tundra and muskeg.
There has been
flightseeing over impossibly high peaks and
craggy glaciers, whitewater rafting on fast
flowing rivers still frigid even in August,
helihiking and sightings of bears, bald eagles
and King Salmon.
The base for these adventures has been three of
five Princess Lodges -- Fairbanks, Denali and
Mt. McKinley. The land-based excursions are part
of Princess' cruise tours.
Before flying to
Fairbanks, I had imagined this part of the trip
as a relaxed affair -- like a long weekend at a
luxury cottage in the woods before the main
event, the cruise from Whittier to Vancouver.
Instead, what I learned is the land tours are as
thrilling as the cruise. And the lodges --
although as well appointed as any good hotel --
take a backseat to Alaska itself, serving as
very comfortable staging points from which to
embark on amazing wilderness adventures.
At the end of
the day's exploration, the lodges are a place to
swap stories, unwind over a fine meal and a few
drinks, have a dip in the hot tub, and get a
good night's sleep before the next day's
discoveries.
Princess Cruises
Tour Director Guy Glaeser says most people don't
realize that the company's five lodges see
almost 100,000 guests in a season that runs only
from mid- May to mid-September.
There are many
pre-and post-cruise options, each with its own
merits, Glaeser says. He believes the escorted
tours, which are only offered pre-cruise and
include the services of a tour director, are a
"tremendous value."
One of his favorites is an escorted package that
includes most meals, eight nights' accommodation
at Princess lodges in Fairbanks, Denali, Copper
River and the Kenai Peninsula, a tundra tour, a
Catamaran cruise and Princess Rail
transportation followed by the seven-night
Voyage of the Glaciers cruise from Whittier to
Vancouver.
In general,
Glaeser says, the land tours are the best way
for visitors to come face to face with Alaskan
culture, Gold Rush history, and remote
wilderness areas "few people ever get to
experience." These include Denali National Park,
Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, which
straddles the U. S.-Canada border, and Kenai
Fjords National Park.
Glaeser says
while deciding to take a tour before or after a
cruise is a personal decision, he recommends
pre-cruise tours. That way you can relax on the
ship after -- in between shore excursions and
shipboard diversions that is.
This is
certainly true in our case. After almost a week
of high adventure -- a jet-boat ride and
wilderness hike along the Talkeetna River, a
tour of Denali National Park, and flightseeing
over glaciers and Denali-- aka Mt. McKinley,
Alaska's highest mountain -- some of us are
ready for some lower key activities.
These come in
the form of soothing body treatments in the
Balinese-inspired Lotus Spa. After our
high-energy time on land, I pass on the fitness
centre and go directly for a massage and a dip
in the Lotus pool.
The next day
some of us don plastic aprons and get our hands
really dirty during the popular shipboard
pottery class led by Russ McKeel. It isn't clear
who has the most fun -- the students or McKeel.
The retired U.
S. Air Force pilot obviously loves sharing his
passion for pottery-making with passengers and
makes it an enjoyable and productive experience
-- even for complete beginners at the wheel.
In mere minutes
he has us shaping clay into vessels that will
later be fired and glazed.
McKeel says
before joining the Air Force, he studied fine
arts but couldn't earn a living as a potter so
he also studied electrical engineering and later
joined the Air Force.
But he didn't
forget his first love. His career as a pilot
often took him to major European cities and he
seized the opportunity to visit some of the
world's great museums and art galleries. Now
that he's retired, McKeel can do what he loves
year-round.
Another day, we
take a galley tour and meet Paolo Merio, the
ship's ebullient executive chef.
Merio shares his passion for his kitchen, food
-- particularly Italian food -- and Princess
Cruises. Like Selvaratnam, as a boy Merio also
dreamed of a life at sea. His dreams were
fuelled by reruns of The Love Boat, which was
set aboard Princess ships. At 17, Merio joined
Princess as a galley helper and worked his way
up to executive chef.
"Now I spend
more time here on the ship than at home in
Como," Merio remarks.
As the Coral
Princess nears Vancouver, I long for more time
on board and start to daydream about my own life
at sea. Of course, I don't want to work on board
Coral Princess. I simply want to stow away and
relive the nonstop adrenaline rush that is
Alaska.
End of Article
More
information
Princess Cruises offers a wide variety of Alaska
cruises and cruise tours. Prices vary depending
on options selected such as length of cruise
tour, type of stateroom, etc.
For details,
visit
www.cruisedirectonline.com/princesscruisesonline/cruises_and_cruise_tours.htm
Alaska marks the
big 5-0 Alaska celebrates 50 years of statehood
in 2009, making this year a particularly good
time to visit. Anniversary events take place
throughout the year and commemorative stamps and
coins will make great, easily transportable
souvenirs. For more on the celebrations, see
Alaska's 50th Year of Statehood Celebration
website at
www.gov.state.ak.us/ASCC
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