I can answer some of your questions. The Princess price is per person.
Princess hotel packages always include all transfers in the price. That means airport to hotel to cruise dock or cruise dock to hotel to airport. Sometimes Princess hotel deals aren't so bad if you include the price of transfers and city tours which are usually part of the package. Of course if you do your own thing you can still buy Princess transfers from Princess via your travel agent and sometimes directly from the Princess lollypop girl at the airport or from the excursion desk on the ship.
We stayed at Sutton Place the first time in Vancouver on a Princess post cruise package with city tour and everything went very well. The Sutton Place ballroom was used by Princess as a holding pen for folks with delayed flights. Sutton Place is perfectly located. The Princess hotel package includes all needed transfers from the ship to the hotel to the airport. The second time we stayed on our own at a Marriott Renaissance just up the street from Canada Place, the cruise dock. It was also perfectly located. I bought my own city tour based on a tip from the bell man. This was a much better tour than the tour offered in the hotel lobby. In Vancouver you must stroll for a while on Robson Street. It's a happening place. For lunch or dinner we really liked Earls On Top, 1185 Robson Street Telephone: 604.669.0020. It's located upstairs overlooking Robson Street. It's where the Vancouver yuppies hang out. Great food, large dining area, fair prices.
In Anchorage, on our very first cruise we stayed at one of the downtown hotels on a Princess package, which included transfers and hated every minute of it. The reason was that it was almost 90 degrees with 200% humidity day in and day out (there is no night in the summer.) I think a sauna would have been more comfortable. It was horrible. We thought we were in Houston, Texas in July. The ritzy downtown Princess hotel did not have any air conditioning and the hotel window would only open a smidge. If I had only known I would have never bought the Princess package but it wasn't the fault of Princess. To make matters worse the entire city, about the size of Bartlesville, OK, was blanketed in smoke from a Fairbanks forest fire.
Being forewarned, the second time we cruised out of Anchorage on Princess I booked the Marriott Courtyard on my own. Flew in a day early. The Courtyard is right next to the airport with wonderful air conditioning. We rented a car at the airport and had a great time driving around. Checked the car back in at the airport the next morning and caught the Princess transfer bus that ran directly from the airport to the dock.
In Anchorage it is MANDATORY that you eat dinner the night before your cruise at Simon and Seaforts
http://www.simonandseaforts.com/ It is located on the first floor in an office building at the north end of the downtown main drag. The salmon is so flavorful and tender you'll die for it. Fresh catch straight to the grill. Slightly pricey but hey, you're on vacation. Do Not Miss Simon and Seaforts.
As far as glacier tours go forget the Anchorage one. If want a glacier tour that you'll be talking about for years to come book your own 2 stop pilots choice helicopter tour in Juneau with Era. Buy your tickets in advance via telephone or over the Internet. They offer sort of the same thing on the ship but you'll save a bunch of money doing it yourself. Here's the link.
http://www.flightseeingtours.com/content/index_eng.htmlThey will pick you up at the ship, take you to their airport location, give you some rubber boots to wear and land you on top of a huge glacier, twice. You won't ever forget the fun of riding in a very smooth gliding helicopter, walking or sort of slightly slipping and sliding around on the ice on top of the glacier and looking down into deep Tidy bowl blue crevices in the ice. After giving you a flight tour of the entire Juneau area they'll land and then take you back to the ship in plenty of time for a nap.
