Bear in Alaksa Photographed from the Island Spirit
We wanted to book a cruise to Alaska, so we called USA River Cruises and talked to Cindy who told us about their small ships that did the Alaska itineraries. We had only been on large ships and a European river cruise, so we found this fascinating as we loved our river cruise and we had decided we did not want a cruise with thousands of folks on it; we were tired of the lines and crowds and waiting to get on and off all the time, and all the extra costs that come with the larger ships. When Cindy explained to us about the Island Spirit, we were really impressed…
We took a Cruise on the Island Spirit late summer of 2009 to Alaska. It was an experience we will always treasure., from first landing in Sitka the shuttle picked us up and took us to the ship, the driver was friendly and informative. Once we reached the ship we were greeted by the crew and given our room accommodations, we never picked up a bag. The ship was beautiful, relaxing and it felt like home after a few minutes, everyone was so nice and helpful. The meals were so scrumptious and having wine with dinner and an evening cocktail hour every night was unbelievable, nothing like this on the big ships!! On our 8 night 9 day cruise we went to places in Eastern Alaska that no ships go to, a village of 97 residents called Tenakee Springs, where we visited the store founded in 1899 and tried their fantastic bakery, was one of our favorites. It was an amazing place. Captain Jeff and his crew really know what service is and they are passionate about Alaska and all its wilderness, they made every day truly a great experience. The whole cruise was amazing, we were so close to glaciers we could touch them and once we even saw a Bear catching fish in a stream, not on a picture but in real life and how many folks can say that??? There were so many wonderful things to see, that we have decided to go back and do the repositioning cruise in May so we experience even more, and of course we will call USA River Cruises, they know their cruises and their customers and that is refreshing nowadays!!
– Herbert and Ruth Chandler, AZ
