Princess Star Alaska SB 9/8-9/15 Review - Ship Focused

Consider ages, itinerary, time of year in some of myobservations. Similar review focusing onAlaska and ports posted on the Alaska page. This focuses on Princess.

Starting structured followed by randomness. About us... I (53) and wife (48) travellingwith her parents (early 70s). 1sttime Princess for us. We have previouslytravelled HAL 1x with kids and family, NCL 1x just the 2 of us, and 7x Carnivalwith kids and family. Any comparisonwill be to Carnival only. We liked ourcruise on NCL as a couple only. The HALwas a Christmas cruise and we did not like it for a number of reasons, none ofwhich matter here. We are simple folkswho don’t like pretense.

We travelled Alaska DIY Land for 5 days, then Whittier to Vancouveron the Star Princess 9/8-9/15 (Whittier, Hubbard Glacier, Glacier Bay, Skagway,Juneau, Ketchikan, Sea Day, Vancouver), preceded by a DIY land tour. We had previously done a Seattle RT to Alaskaon CCL about 10 years ago.

We had an interior room, Level 10 Caribe deck starboardforward. Room was nice and the beds verycomfortable. Large mirror behind the bedand in front of the bed made the room look bigger. We like it cool and the room never got tothat sleeping cool level. Lots of spacefor clothes and stuff – we had 18 nice sturdy hangers in our closet area whichwere plenty. Still had lots ofroom. Bathrooms are smaller than CCL asis the shower. As long as you aren’tfat not an issue.

Embarkation was simple. We arrived by coach, watched our bags get loaded, and proceeded throughsecurity. Probably 30 minutestotal. We went straight to our cabin anddropped our stuff. We settled in for afew and decided to go to the MDR – on your own dining the first night, dressedas we were, no issues.

First impression was….WOW – this is a nice ship!! Not near as kitschy as Carnival, and seemedmore elegant than the HAL ship we were on. Differences were subtle yetnoticeable. Will go into more detaillater.

MDR Dress – as expected the first night, people came as theywere. Second night was formal. I saw a few tuxes, also saw polo shirts,outdoorsey cargo pants even, tennis shoes (even saw that on a woman in a decentdress). I wore a dress shirt, slacks,and a tie. Most were some combo of slacks,coat, shirt, and tie, although both coat and tie were minimal. Went for both formal nights. On other nights there were lots of jeans andvarious non business casual type pants on the men and various levels of casualto nice on the ladies. I wore slacks andLS dress shirts on the two regular nights. First night covered already, last night suitcases were packed , so worejeans and a LS dress shirt (Clarks semi-casual shoes on all nights doubled ondaily wear shoes to save space/weight). Skagway night was later to the boat and we went straight to dinner – injeans and same shoes and LS dress shirt. Formal nights were much more subdued across the board than on all othercruises by far – fewer pictures, fewer people dressed to the nines, etc. Not all tables were full either. We dined at the 7:45 seating in the Alforno?MDR 6 Forward.

Wine – we brought 3 bottles on board, one of which wascorkaged for $15 and stamped , which we took to the MDR. As we proceeded, the security screenersidentified the bottles and pointed us to “The Table” which was some relativedistance away. Security is run by theport, and the table was manned by PCL employees, and the first cared not aboutthe second, and the second was too busy managing cruisers - they had no ideawho coming towards them had bottles or not. I could have carried a case on. Being honest we proceeded to “The Table” and paid our $15. I brought an opener but I do know our stewardhad one. As an aside – every day I hadto go fetch wine glasses. Wine was keptopenly in the cabin, and steward saw us leave for dinner with wine - stewardnever did the math. He did for ourin-laws 2 doors down. On-board wineoptions seemed off base for the brand – advice is to bring however much youplan to drink on board and pay the $15 per bottle. I ended up with very good $30 cruise shipwine that way.

Coffee – coffee on this boat is horrible. They use syrup and the flavor is notsatisfying. I had some ground cups atthe coffee bar/International café and even that was just OK. Princess can step up this game as it issubstandard to other lines we have been on.

Pizza – had one half piece the second day. Crust was flavorful which counts. Overall was fine pizza. My wife ate it as a snack several times. On par with other lines.

Ice cream – machine dispensed, nothing special.

We did not eat from the hamburger/hot dog bar. We had comped Crowne reservations but we eatsteak at home from a pastured cow, no need for the special, plus we like theoptions at the MDR. Never saw it full.

MDR Food – Food was great. I am not a dessert person but found interesting desserts in the MDRevery night that were all very, very good. I never ordered from the static menu, although the others did (crèmebrulee, shrimp cocktail). The sorbetsseem to be home made and are very good – especially the Mandarin. I never had any issue finding something Iliked, and tried a couple of new things as well. The salads (greens) were a little boring butthe balsamic dressing was good. They aretrying out some new items on the menu -those we tried were good. Our service was excellent. Our head waitress and her partner werefriendly, knowledgeable, efficient, prompt, accommodating, andprofessional. Can’t say enough goodthings – best on any cruise. Shout outto Jovana and Alberto!!! Only misses forme 1.) Veal on Italian night was tough. I ate it like a champ though. 2.)Steak on last night was cooked perfectly but the plate was cool overall. Still ate itJ. Our wait staff asked us to check ours asthere had been complaints about hitting the right level of doneness byothers. We saw one of the head waiterstaking a clearly raw steak back while wearing a face of someone who was nothappy while looking at it. 3) The brown sauces used on some of the dishes wereever so slightly salty.

Buffet – good selection daily for breakfast and lunch. Misses include the salad dressings – nothingspecial, seemed on the lower quality. Other miss was the pancake syrup – it’s not heated.

Food Overall – food was more refined, nuanced, andinternational than some of the other lines. I was not left dissatisfied at any point.

Butter – we just asked for more and were always quicklyaccommodated in the MDR. In the buffet Ifinally found it tucked by the cheese of all places. Not by - say - the pancakes? The bread…?

Casino – was never full and often almost empty.

Smoking – only saw a couple of smokers in the casino. Port side by the pool is leper’s corner. Not many smokers overall.

Entertainment – never saw the main shows because honestly wewere wiped every night after dinner. Themusical groups in the various venues playing jazz, etc. were properlymood-setting. We saw the comedian one night(Steve White) and he was funny. Hisdirty show was during dinner one night L The naturalist was very informational.

Disembarkation in Vancouver was a breeze. We opted for the Princess transfer for $29PP. The buses picked us up right off theship and delivered us directly to the terminal. After a long trip and originally planning on winging it via train to theairport, this was a no-brainer call by my wife.

General – Not going to bag on the room décor since we don’tspend much time there. Really didn’tnotice. The boat seemed uncrowded eventhough there were 2400 of us from 63 countries. There were probably a few couples in their 20’s and 30’s, maybe 5% intheir 40s, 10% in their 50’s, the balance older. I saw fewer than 10 juveniles on theboat. I didn’t get the pretentious feelwe got on HAL, and there were no pool party animals or loud drinkers that wesaw – maybe a few Dean Martin type barflies, but that was it. It was very sedate and calm, which was nicefor us. It seemed everybody was there torelax and see the sights, and the interactions we had with other passengers wasvery open and not stuffy or awkward. There were very few PA announcements and that was nice. The Sanctuary was never occupied the fewtimes we went by – it looked nice but…why? Fitness room was fine – a little small but only one morning wasfull. Princess App helped keep track ofactivities – but messages sent did not provide an audible on the receiver’sphone. With kids at home we paid ourcell provider for the texting and call option and never had any texting issueson board.

Overall, there lots of little touches that I can’t enumeratethat make Princess a nicer line than the others that we’ve experienced. It was also nice not having an overcrowded,loud, smokey, noisy boat full of juveniles of all ages who act like...well, youknow. We’ve had a great time in thepast on Carnival, but maybe we are getting old ourselves.

Sorry for the merged words:o. Cut and paste reformatted it and I saw it as I hit "submit". I fixed the Alaska one in the preview mode.:D

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review.

Portofino..........

Thanks, sailing on the Star in January

Thanks for the review. We did the Star NB in June and of all our Princess cruises, well cruises period, the food was hands down the best on this ship as well as the wait staff. We’re giving RCI a shot in a couple weeks, we’ll see how they stack up.

Thanks for the review!:)

Thanx for posting, T

Ira

We were on the Star SB 8/24-9/01. I can agree with all except the food. Maybe they improved it in the last few weeks. Hope so, I like Princess for a lot of reasons but the food this time was even worse than the prior time on the Emerald.

Thanks for your review. We'll be on her to Hawaii on 10/20 and I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks very much for your detailed review ! Glad to hear that you mostly liked the food. Sounds like a fun vacation ! - EBC

Thanks for your review. We'll be on her to Hawaii on 10/20 and I'm looking forward to it.

We board the Star when you bring her back to LA on the Sunday you return. Hope you have a great time!!!:D

Thank you for the review, really enjoyed it.

Thank you for the review! I will board Star on Saturday for my first Princess cruise after 25 on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean so I'm hoping my experience is as good as yours!

Thanks for posting. I'll go check out your Alaska post.

Thanks for the review. We've been on the Star 3 times in the last 5 years. Always found most everything just fine as you did. Too bad the ship is leaving the fleet in a couple of years.

Thanks for posting. I'll go check out your Alaska post.

I'll be posting pics soon once I go through all 1500;p

Thanks nice review of your cruise :):D

We will sail on Star Dec 2019 Hawaii .this will be our 2nd on Star .We sailed her when she was new . :Dshe is a fine vessel

The Hawaii cruise will be our 84th cruise .We have sailed Celebrity ,Royal Caribbean ,Princess ,holland America & Carnival ships . More of our cruise were on Celebrity

Thanks for your detailed review.

I like you, like to sleep cold and find the bed coverings too hot even with the temperature turned all the way down.

We ask our room steward for a blanket which works just fine.

Interesting that the AC wasn’t working well. There is a report from the Star in Cabo that they had no AC.

OP;

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. We board the Star on Nov 4th.....:):):)

Bob

I bring my own Starbucks instant coffee to help with the poor coffee onboard. It is sold in little envelopes at my grocery store. Bring it!

All my pictures of Alaska are up on my review on the Alaska board.