Star Princess Alaska Review 7/15/17 to 7/22/17 - Amazing Trip

We had a fabulous time on our Star Princess Alaska cruise this month. I found other reviews very helpful so I wanted to leave mine. It was DH and I (both age 42) and our 8 year old daughter. We've only been on one cruise before which was Disney out of Galveston to Key West/Bahamas. I will say that the Princess crowd on average was older than the average on Disney, but there were a lot of families on our Alaska cruise and we all had a great time.

We flew into Vancouver on 7/12 and spent two days in Whistler at Glacier's Reach condo (loved it and definitely plan to go back to Whistler again), then Friday we drove back and rode around Stanley Park by bike (loved it), stayed at Delta by Marriott Suites (perfect for what we needed and were able to walk to Canada Place with luggage) and boarded Saturday around 12pm. Embarcation was not good because US CBP computers went down but that was not the fault of Princess or Canada Place as it was apparently a nationwide issue. We finally got on the ship around 2:30pm when computers came back up.

We were in an Aft balcony cabin (D734) and thought it was perfect. Balcony was large and we loved watching the wake. We saw around a dozen humpbacks and several orcas from just sitting out on our balcony. No issues with seasickness or too much movement or anything but we both wore the patch and our daughter wore seabands. The ship was in excellent and very clean condition, all the staff we met were very nice and friendly, loved the captain (Michele Tuvo) and I didn't notice anything about rust or worn out carpets or anything that I've seen others on this board complain about. I thought the beds were comfortable (not sure if they were the new ones or not). Our daughter went to the kids club once (to be fair she never likes kids clubs, hated Disney's, and this was no exception - only child syndrome) and spent most of her time playing in the covered pool with a variety of other kids she met which she really liked. Hot tubs were very warm which was good. We didn't make it to any of the princess shows at night. We had sip and sale and it was really nice not having to worry about how much our drink bill would be at the end of the cruise although I'm sure Princess made out on the deal better than we did because I just don't drink very much. I worked out at the gym once and it was fine - nothing special. As a working person, I really wish they offered unlimited internet to everyone - when will cruise ships get smart about this! I feel like more working people would cruise if they had regular internet which there is just no excuse for these days. That's my only gripe. I did buy an internet package so I could stay connected for work a little bit while gone and we also had great internet access at all the ports.

We had anytime dining and ate in the main dining room the first night and one other night, we ate in Crown Grill and Sabatinis once each, and the rest of the nights we ate in the buffet. We ate around 6:30 or 7 and never had a wait longer than 5 minutes. We ate at Crown Grill one night and Sabatini another night and really liked both - food at both was excellent. Food was consistently very good at all the restaurants and the buffet - better perhaps in the MDR (and definitely the best at Crown and Sabatinis) but the convenience made us like the buffet particularly with a kiddo.

In Ketchikan, we privately booked a 2 hour kayak tour around the city with Southeast Sea Kayaks and that worked out great and then we did a walking tour with a walking tour brochure we picked up as we exited the ship. Very fun although I worked muscles in my arms I didn't know I had while kayaking. In Juneau, we took the Fins and Grins fishing excursion through Princess and went salmon fishing. We were trolling for salmon and caught about 15 salmon and a dozen other fish. Saw a bunch of eagles which was very cool. We intended to go to Mendenhall but the kiddo got tired so we just walked around downtown and then went back to the ship. In Skagway, we rented a car from Avis (walking distance from ship) and drove to Emerald Lake, Carcross, and Carcross Desert. Loved the DIY car trip so it was perfect. Favorite day was the days cruising the glaciers. We did get cold both on those days and also in Skagway so I was happy to have the fleeces, raincoats, hats, and gloves and we used all of them.

Disembarcation was without issue. We took the Princess shuttle from Whitter to downtown and then rented a car at the Anchorage airport and stayed in Wasilla for the night. We did another DIY lake fishing trip with Alaska Lakes Guide Service LLC (veteran owned business) in Wasilla and caught a bunch of Northern Pike, which was fun. Then flew back on a red-eye Sunday night.

We loved Alaska and the scenery was just the most amazing aspect of the trip. I do wish I would have purchased the unlimited photo package prior to going. We ended up buying some photos right as we were leaving but we were limited to 5 with the package we bought (which was more than the offer I saw before we went) and I regretted not buying the photo package - that and not going to Mendenhall are my only regrets but they're pretty small ones. I can't wait to go back. Hope this review is helpful. Happy to answer any questions.

Glad you went to Whistler! I loved it there.

Overall, all Alaska cruises have an older demographic compared to the Caribbean. Though - not sure how this relates with Disney.

Sounds like a great week!

Sounds awesome. Might have to go back to Alaska again!

Thank You for reporting back

Srpilo

Thanks for the review. :)

Concerning unlimited internet, it's not cheap to access satellite systems while at sea & someone has to pay for it. I only use it a couple of minutes per day mostly to download email, reply off line & reconnect to the internet to send them.

I don't want my cruise fare to increase to subsidize passengers who want unlimited internet access particularly those who use a lot of bandwidth. To me that's a valid excuse to not have unlimited internet & that those who want it should pay for it & not me.

We had a fabulous time on our Star Princess Alaska cruise this month. I found other reviews very helpful so I wanted to leave mine. It was DH and I (both age 42) and our 8 year old daughter. We've only been on one cruise before which was Disney out of Galveston to Key West/Bahamas. I will say that the Princess crowd on average was older than the average on Disney, but there were a lot of families on our Alaska cruise and we all had a great time.

 

 

 

We flew into Vancouver on 7/12 and spent two days in Whistler at Glacier's Reach condo (loved it and definitely plan to go back to Whistler again), then Friday we drove back and rode around Stanley Park by bike (loved it), stayed at Delta by Marriott Suites (perfect for what we needed and were able to walk to Canada Place with luggage) and boarded Saturday around 12pm. Embarcation was not good because US CBP computers went down but that was not the fault of Princess or Canada Place as it was apparently a nationwide issue. We finally got on the ship around 2:30pm when computers came back up.

 

 

 

We were in an Aft balcony cabin (D734) and thought it was perfect. Balcony was large and we loved watching the wake. We saw around a dozen humpbacks and several orcas from just sitting out on our balcony. No issues with seasickness or too much movement or anything but we both wore the patch and our daughter wore seabands. The ship was in excellent and very clean condition, all the staff we met were very nice and friendly, loved the captain (Michele Tuvo) and I didn't notice anything about rust or worn out carpets or anything that I've seen others on this board complain about. I thought the beds were comfortable (not sure if they were the new ones or not). Our daughter went to the kids club once (to be fair she never likes kids clubs, hated Disney's, and this was no exception - only child syndrome) and spent most of her time playing in the covered pool with a variety of other kids she met which she really liked. Hot tubs were very warm which was good. We didn't make it to any of the princess shows at night. We had sip and sale and it was really nice not having to worry about how much our drink bill would be at the end of the cruise although I'm sure Princess made out on the deal better than we did because I just don't drink very much. I worked out at the gym once and it was fine - nothing special. As a working person, I really wish they offered unlimited internet to everyone - when will cruise ships get smart about this! I feel like more working people would cruise if they had regular internet which there is just no excuse for these days. That's my only gripe. I did buy an internet package so I could stay connected for work a little bit while gone and we also had great internet access at all the ports.

 

 

 

We had anytime dining and ate in the main dining room the first night and one other night, we ate in Crown Grill and Sabatinis once each, and the rest of the nights we ate in the buffet. We ate around 6:30 or 7 and never had a wait longer than 5 minutes. We ate at Crown Grill one night and Sabatini another night and really liked both - food at both was excellent. Food was consistently very good at all the restaurants and the buffet - better perhaps in the MDR (and definitely the best at Crown and Sabatinis) but the convenience made us like the buffet particularly with a kiddo.

 

 

 

In Ketchikan, we privately booked a 2 hour kayak tour around the city with Southeast Sea Kayaks and that worked out great and then we did a walking tour with a walking tour brochure we picked up as we exited the ship. Very fun although I worked muscles in my arms I didn't know I had while kayaking. In Juneau, we took the Fins and Grins fishing excursion through Princess and went salmon fishing. We were trolling for salmon and caught about 15 salmon and a dozen other fish. Saw a bunch of eagles which was very cool. We intended to go to Mendenhall but the kiddo got tired so we just walked around downtown and then went back to the ship. In Skagway, we rented a car from Avis (walking distance from ship) and drove to Emerald Lake, Carcross, and Carcross Desert. Loved the DIY car trip so it was perfect. Favorite day was the days cruising the glaciers. We did get cold both on those days and also in Skagway so I was happy to have the fleeces, raincoats, hats, and gloves and we used all of them.

 

 

 

Disembarcation was without issue. We took the Princess shuttle from Whitter to downtown and then rented a car at the Anchorage airport and stayed in Wasilla for the night. We did another DIY lake fishing trip with Alaska Lakes Guide Service LLC (veteran owned business) in Wasilla and caught a bunch of Northern Pike, which was fun. Then flew back on a red-eye Sunday night.

 

 

 

We loved Alaska and the scenery was just the most amazing aspect of the trip. I do wish I would have purchased the unlimited photo package prior to going. We ended up buying some photos right as we were leaving but we were limited to 5 with the package we bought (which was more than the offer I saw before we went) and I regretted not buying the photo package - that and not going to Mendenhall are my only regrets but they're pretty small ones. I can't wait to go back. Hope this review is helpful. Happy to answer any questions.

Capt Tuvo left our ship the Coral to join the Star the week before you sailed. He was fabulous. I sat next to his son on the steps of the atrium during the meet the Captain Coffee. Wonderful outlook on life.

Bye bye!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the review. :)

 

Concerning unlimited internet, it's not cheap to access satellite systems while at sea & someone has to pay for it. I only use it a couple of minutes per day mostly to download email, reply off line & reconnect to the internet to send them.

Other cruise lines are able to provide faster internet for reasonable prices. Princess is just behind in this technology.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback.

Other cruise lines are able to provide faster internet for reasonable prices. Princess is just behind in this technology.

I agree that Princess needs to upgrade their technology but charging reasonable prices for faster service is not what the OP wished to happen & instead she wished "they offered unlimited internet to everyone".

Thanks for the review.

I agree that Princess needs to upgrade their technology but charging reasonable prices for faster service is not what the OP wished to happen & instead she wished "they offered unlimited internet to everyone".

Viking Ocean offers free wi-fi to everyone.....and it was great service the entire cruise

Thank you for the review. :):)

Thanks for posting your review. Now you'll have something to look forward to--going back to see what you missed.

Thanks for the review. Always nice to hear from "new-to-Princess" cruisers. Happy to hear that you had such a good time. As someone else said missing those couple of things on this cruise is a great excuse to book another Alaska cruise in the future (that's our excuse to keep going....lol).

..................................... As a working person, I really wish they offered unlimited internet to everyone - when will cruise ships get smart about this!...................................

I think they already have gotten smart about the internet. Nice profit add-on and I don't think they have much of a problem filling the Alaska (or any other for that matter) itineraries.

Again, thanks for posting your review. :D

Thanks for sharing nice review!

Tony

We went to Alaska in early June, 2017. We had a wonderful time. I just wish Capt. Tuvo had been our captain. Our captain didn't show up much around the ship. It's probably the norm for captains not to be too visible. However, I love Capt. Tuvo's personality. I once got into an elevator with him and his young son. Oh my how he loves that son. And you could see them hand in hand often around the ship. We got some nice photos with him--a silly and serious one on formal night. We're hoping he'll be the captain of the Star Princess in spring of 2018 as we're going on a cruise starting in Vancouver in the spring.