REVIEW! Sea Princess to Alaska - 10 day rt from SFO 7/22-8/1

[The J Project]

I lurked on cc for months leading up to our cruise and my favorite were the reviews so I thought I’d pay it back with a review of our trip as well.

 

We were on the Sea Princess leaving from SFO on Sunday 7/22 on a 10 day cruise to Alaska arriving back at SFO on Wednesday 8/1.

 

Background: my husband’s grandparents had purchased the cruise for themselves, but his grandma got too ill to travel and gifted it to us. She, sadly, passed away about a month before the cruise so we felt very sad to have not gotten the chance to show her pictures and tell her what a wonderful time we had. Both my husband and I are 35, we have two children (11 & 7) who were left at home in the care of family. We’ve never left them for that long of a period and I went through the normal mom anxiety while preparing for our departure.

 

TIP: Some advice for other mom’s dealing with the leaving your kids anxiety situation is to be sure and write a letter authorizing the individuals taking care of your children to make medical decisions in your behalf including doctor office visits. My son got a raging ear infection and without the letter I’d left they would have had to go to the emergency room to get treatment. Also I was glad our phones were off and I was floating blissfully unaware in the middle of the ocean because there was really nothing I could do to help the situation except end up feeling guilty that I was gone while he was sick. He got antibiotics, they worked quickly, he felt fine. End of that story.

 

Embarkation: We live about an hour north from San Francisco so we hitched a ride to a ferry from my brother which enabled us to avoid crossing the bridge and battling with city traffic and parking. The ferry dropped us off at the Ferry Building Marketplace and we walked to where the ship was at Pier 35 which was about a mile away. It was a warm and beautiful day so the walk was pleasant even though we both were pulling our suitcases. When we got closer to the pier we could see a long line of people waiting – this was at about 11am and when we asked at the door we were told that we could begin embarking in about 20-30 minutes. We opted to leave our luggage with a porter (there were many on the street, we found an available one within 2 minutes) tipped him appropriately and went on our way to walk around for a bit before boarding the ship. We both dislike lines and crowds and the mayhem that was unfolding around us with people milling around, oodles of taxis unloading people and their piles of luggage, porters running here and there with luggage carts was more than we could handle so we were happy to meander elsewhere.

 

TIP: If you leave your luggage with a porter be sure to bring along a sweater or jacket. I got so warm from walking and dealing with the crowds that I didn’t, and I was then cold for sailaway.

 

My husband in front of Pier 35. The crowds look so mild in this picture, but it was truly a messy sight up close.

 

 

 

View of the ship in port at SFO.

 

 

We came back at about 1:00pm and found the line gone, still quite a few people milling about but no wait to go inside. Inside was like a large warehouse and we just followed the signs that directed us to the area to fill out our health questionnaire (healthy!), get in line for our Princess cards (waited about 2 minutes) and then off through a maze of signs to…finally…the ramp on to the Sea Princess! We ooohed and aaahed our way up to our room and then went off the explore every deck of the ship.

 

A quick pic of the line to get your Princess card. Easy and painless though we were within earshot of what sounded like a messy immigrant/passport issue. Someone had kept their passport and then they wouldn't return it? Something like that. I would have stood and eavesdropped longer, but my husband pulled me away.

 

More coming soon!

[cellyml12]

Love it already! REALLY looking forward to the rest! Great pics too!

[The J Project]

Our luggage came quick to our cabin. When? I can’t remember exactly. I said in my previous post that it was after sailaway as I didn’t think I had my coat….but now that I think of it I think our luggage DID come before we sailed. Anyhow, it was quickly that our luggage arrived and we spent some time looking out our completely 100% obstructed view window (it really was a sad sight of an entire lifeboat, but regardless of that fact, we were happy to have a window where we could see the sky and see if it was cloudy/rainy/sunny etc) and bumping into each other opening drawers and jumping on the bed.

 

Dolphin Deck - D602

 

Cabin & Cabin Steward – There’s no doubt about it, the cabin is small. But not smaller than I expected and not horribly, uncomfortably cramped. We had enough closet and drawer space that we were both able to put away all our clothes and shoes with no need to ask for extra hangers, etc. I was pleasantly surprised with the size of the shower, (it’s not THAT small!) and I thought the water pressure and temperature was fantastic! The shower curtain IS annoying and I found that if you kept the door open it was totally blowing in so my TIP: is to keep the door closed while you shower. I don’t think that for me packing weighted shower curtain clips is necessary.

 

There was plenty of room on the bathroom shelves for my toiletries. Did you read that sentence? Plenty of room for MY toiletries. My poor husband kept all his stuff in a bag and just brought it in and out as needed. I think he just didn’t want to deal with sharing space with my stuff and he’s pretty minimal so he didn’t have much stuff to store anyhow. There are NO shelves in the shower except for a small ledge for your bar soap. I ended up keeping the stuff I use in the shower on the vanity which I could reach while showering, but I remember reading somewhere that someone brought something inside the shower to store that stuff – I think that would be nice if you cruise a lot.

 

 

 

 

Our steward was in our room morning and night and did a great job. When we first arrived in the room we pulled back the sheets and found 3 hairs. We chose to believe it was the hair of the person making up the beds and not the hairs of a previous sleeper. But then we met our room steward and he had very short hair, so that blew our theory…but when we came later in the evening the bed was made up again and my husband swears the sheets were new so we’re thinking he didn’t have time to change the sheets til later? We don’t know and we decided to not dwell on that issue any longer.

 

TIP: Bring a small pack of Clorox wipes and wipe down the cabin. I’m not uber germ phobic by any means but it did make me feel better. And though the room is clean – I would say it’s not eat off the floor clean if you know what I mean so the swiping of the wipes just makes it smell and feel fresher. I didn’t think about it again the rest of the trip.

[SJSU Dale]

Thanks for the review! Nice start -- look forward to reading the rest. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is an item on our bucket list and we hope to do it someday.

[iceleven]

This review is perfect timing for us as we leave on the 11th for this same cruise. This is our first time on Princess but third time to Alaska. We are familiar with all of the ports, except for Haines but that might not have been on your itinerary anyway.

 

May I ask what is supplied as for soap/shampoo in the bathroom? Is the quality something you would use or do you suggest bringing our own. Also, is their a line in the shower that can be used for drying clothes. And how was your mattress? Did you need to ask for an egg crate or topper? Silly little things, yes I admit.

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us.

[The J Project]

@SJSU Dale - yes, it was amazing to go under the GG Bridge!

 

@iceeleven - Haines was not one of our stops.

 

Okay the soap/shampoo conditioner situation is this. There is Lotus Spa Eucalyptus shower gel in the shower (along with a loofah poof which I didn't use as it worried me that maybe it wasn't a new one) which I only used to shave my legs and it worked fine for that purpose. The soap was fine for washing our hands, but I have sensitive skin so we brought our own bar soap for showering. They had travel size Lotus Spa eucalyptus scented shampoo, conditioner and lotion which I did not use (except once I used the lotion and it worked fine.) I have difficult hair, so I always bring and use my own stuff. I did remember on the last day of the cruise to put one set away so he would replenish them so I could give an equal number of soap/shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles to my kids as they think it's the greatest gift ever :)

 

Yes, there is a line in the shower to hang clothes and it is long enough to hang 2-3 shirts. We had to hang a whole load of laundry in our room though because we had dryer difficulties and we used the hooks and towel racks in the bathroom, emptied out some of our stuff hanging in the closet and hung stuff, turned up the heat and everything dried overnight.

 

The mattress: it's definitely two twins pushed together so you feel the seam in the middle. We prefer a very firm mattress and that's what this is, so we did not request an egg crate. I thought it was fine. I mean I was happy to get into my own bed at the end of the trip, but I also didn't have a problem sleeping while on the ship either.

 

Let me know if you've got any other questions, I'm happy to answer them to get you prepared for your trip that's coming up soon! Woo hoo :)

[srpilo]

Good stuff :)

 

 

 

Looking forward to the conclusion

Srpilo

[Whoo]

 

Yes, there is a line in the shower to hang clothes and it is long enough to hang 2-3 shirts. We had to hang a whole load of laundry in our room though because we had dryer difficulties and we used the hooks and towel racks in the bathroom, emptied out some of our stuff hanging in the closet and hung stuff, turned up the heat and everything dried overnight.

 

 

Wow - that happened to us too, on the Sea Princess in 2010. The dryer just would not work - after 1 1/2 hours, DH brought an entire load of soaking wet laundry back to our cabin. We asked the cabin steward if the wet laundry could be taken to the ship's laundry facilities to be dried. George got it done!! There was a charge to our room for that, but I complained to the purser's office and had it removed. You would think the ship would make sure to have driers that worked in the self-serve laundry room!

 

Anyway - great review, please continue!!

[The J Project]

@Whoo - I can't believe there are only 6 washers & dryers for the entire ship and not only that, but yes - we heard that the dryers are painfully painfully inadequate and slow. We actually never got to use the dryers because when we finally found an empty washer, we waited in what seemed to be the appropriate queue to get to a dryer (the dryers were in use, but the washer that had ended before us was next in line and then we were after Washer #1 person. Common sense right?) So right when the 2nd dryer was done being used and we got ready to put our wet laundry into it, a pushy lady came in with 6 loads of wet laundry and claimed she'd been "waiting and was next". It wasn't worth the argument (and you could tell she was ready to argue) so we decided to abandon the dryer idea and hang dry. Besides that, the woman who was in dryer #1 said she'd been in there for 2 hours waiting for one load to dry and it was still really damp. Lame dryers!!!

 

I'm having picture uploading technical difficulties but will get to the next portion of my review soon!

[pkt1976]

Great start. I enjoyed the same trip on the Sea Princess in May. I can't wait to see your pics. I hope you had a wonderful time!

[cardqb]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a great review with pics! We're take the SFO 10 day to Alaska next June, so are studying up!

[vivavegas]

Nice review! Love the pictures too! Thanks for taking the time to write a review and share your experiences with us!:)

[The J Project]

Sorry for the long delay! I had photo problems and had to have my younger brother come help me troubleshoot the issue. It would have been a boring review without pics!

 

Okay, so where did I leave off? Yes. We were jumping on beds in our cabin.

 

Shortly after that, we went up top to enjoy sailaway – and look at that picture…I do indeed have my coat, so that answers that – our luggage was in our room before sailaway.

 

 

Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge is fun. TIP: keep your eyes out for porpoises – I saw a whole bunch right before, and after we sailed underneath the bridge.

 

 

We watched until we couldn’t see land anymore and then we were off to find ourselves a snack. So began our food fest which required us to eat at 2 hour intervals.

 

Here’s what I’ve got to say about the food and dining locations.

 

Horizon Court – we didn’t like it. I’m going to sound spoiled or bratty but it’s my honest opinion. I thought that it smelled like a hospital cafeteria and I just couldn’t get over it. With that said, we did eat there several times and everything I had I enjoyed. I made a veggie platter a couple of times with a little side of ranch which was good. I thought their fruit was always fresh and ripe especially the pineapple and watermelon. The only thing I ate from the hot side of the buffet was an egg roll and an English sausage – both of which were good! {I know, I can’t believe I didn’t eat more food in the buffet – but BELIEVE ME when I tell you I did not lack in the food or eating department} We went down for breakfast a few times and I had some smoked fish & salmon, cream cheese, capers, onion & tomato and I thought it was the perfect little plate of deliciousness.

 

At around our 7th day of the cruise we stumbled in there around 9pm and I couldn’t believe the whole dessert and cheese spread they had set out! We made a cheese plate {blue cheese, sliced gouda & swiss, rolls, dried fruit, candied nuts} and put it in our fridge for a late night snack while watching a movie. I was kind of bummed I hadn’t seen this before – but also glad because how much cheese should one be eating in bed at midnight?

 

 

There were many complaints about the lack of seating in the Horizon and I have to agree it was pretty crowded in there. I thought that the wood tables directly outside of the Horizon Court were so much more pleasant to sit in than inside – not only were the tables/chairs more aesthetically pleasing, but it was also OUTSIDE allowing for fresh air {I thought the inside dining room was so stuffy!}. It was warmer at those spots than further out on to the deck and protected from the wind. That’s where we liked to sit.

 

Café Cornichon – This is the pizza place right outside the casino which was open only from {I think} 11:30-3:30 and 5:30-10:30 or something close to those time periods. The lunch menu was pretty much pizza only and they had a margarita, Hawaiian, Veggie, Pepperoni, or Cheese pizza to choose from – additionally you could choose your own topping to create whatever pizza you liked. I think they might have had the foccacia’s during lunch too. Dinner offered the same pizza and focaccia choices as well as Caesar salad, antipasti plate, a soup of the day and some pasta dishes – lasagna I think? We ate there twice. Once for pizza {margarita for my husband which is basically cheese and a California pizza which was sundried tomatoes and avocado slices} which we both enjoyed but needed the extra parmesan, seasoning, peppers sprinkled liberally. We also went for salad and soup – soup was great – salad was WAY overdressed so ask for light dressing if you don’t like soggy lettuce.

 

Main Dining Room – We opted for Anytime Dining which worked well for us. The first two nights seemed to be when the kinks were being worked out and we learned that if we wanted to walk just in and not have to wait we would either need to go at 5:30 when the dining room opened or after 6:30. We went at 6pm the first two nights and we had to wait in line to get a pager, then wait about 20 minutes to be seated. Thankfully our 2 hour eating plan allowed us flexibility and we weren’t starving to death when the pager finally buzzed. There were a lot of people in line with us who unfortunately had not adopted the every 2 hour eating plan and apparently the low blood sugar they got from the lack of food resulted in crankiness and the loss of patience.

We were in the Rigoletto Dining Room and chose to sit by ourselves about 75% of the time. The times we did spend sitting with others was enjoyable, but dinner did take quite a bit longer than if we ate by ourselves.

 

The waitstaff was all friendly and accommodating, but I’m thinking that the traditional dining experience offers a more intimate relationship with your waiter than we ever achieved. I kept reading people gush about their waitstaff and though we had nothing but pleasant experiences, I wouldn’t say I bonded with any of them. I also kept reading about people who said you could order this special, or order something appetizer sized, or ask them to hold the starch and double the veggies – the only time I asked for something special {I wanted two entrees one night BUT I knew I couldn’t eat both if they were full size so asked if I could have them be appetizer portions} the request was immediately rebuked with a “nope, those are both entrée size portions” which was fine, but I didn’t feel the desire to ask for any more special requests.

 

Our favorite items were the soups and the ice cream {who thought cantaloupe ice cream could be so delicious!}. My favorite dessert of choice was one of their ice creams with caramel & whip cream. So much so that I think I had it for lunch and dinner almost every day!

 

 

Riviera Grill – we ate here once for lunch, both of us had the cheeseburgers and french fries. They were good, not great but good. I didn’t like the french fries as much as my husband, they are kind of thick cut and also kind of on the cold side.

 

Room Service – I kept saying I wanted room service just to experience all aspects of the dining available but my husband is a far wimpier eater than I and wasn’t going for it. It would have made our room smell “foody” though and I’m not a huge fan of that as well so I obliged his refusal kindly.

 

My favorite find was the virgin strawberry daiquiri. I enjoy a good cocktail but I felt the daiquiri was a rip off as I didn't taste any alcohol and at $7 it was disappointing. So when I found out that the virgin daiquiri was only $2.50 I was ordering them up like crazy. I think I drank 3 in one day once ha ha! They kept calling whip cream "spray cream" so now that's what we call it at home - "please a little spray cream on my coffee".

 

 

There will never be a time that you're going to be hungry. One day we ate breakfast in the main dining room, snack from the buffet, lunch in the main dining room, high tea, dinner in the dining room and then found ourselves eating pizza at 11pm. It really was too much.

 

[TracieABD]

Great review so far! :)

[The J Project]

Our first night and sea day were ROUGH. Many people told us to not worry about seasickness meds as they never felt the boat move but we were SO HAPPY we started taking our bonine before we left and it was in our system by the time we sailed away. Our cruise left on a Sunday and we started taking the bonine Friday evening. I’m so glad we started early because we could gauge how our body reacted to it and adjusted accordingly. I took one entire pill Friday night and I was KNOCKED OUT the entire next day. I thought I was going to spend Saturday packing and spending time with my kids, but instead I became narcoleptic and fell asleep randomly throughout the day. Very groggy. Not good. So I started taking half a pill and then dropped down to quarter pill on port days. I should have ramped it back up to another half pill when we left Victoria as it was slightly rocky once again and I didn’t feel so hot.

 

Anyhow, we ran into some weather on our way out from SF and the ship was MOVING and the wind was BLOWING. The pools were emptied, many of the outside decks were closed because it was too dangerous to go outside and we also heard there were many people in the infirmary with seasickness. Also we noticed barf bags hanging on the rails of the staircases and also noticed hardly any people roaming around the first night. I imagined people whopping it up dancing in the disco and in reality we couldn't find a crowd anywhere the first night!

 

So my TIP is: if in doubt about your seasickness possibility – take meds!!!

 

Because of the weather, we stayed inside for much of the two days out to our first port which was ok with us – we spent much time reading in both the Crooner’s Bar and the Explorer’s Bar, eating, taking naps and eavesdropping. We enjoyed every minute of it. We’re not much of activity type people but I’d peek my head into various seminars or classes just to see what was going on.

 

Our second night at sea was formal night. I was happy to have packed a black pashmina shawl to cover my shoulders during dinner – it’s cold in the dining room!

 

Also, if this is helpful for anyone - here is the list of shoes that I brought - and I was happy to have each and every one of these.

Flip flops

Boots (warm, like Uggs)

Workout shoes (for working out & walking)

Dressy Heels (worn almost every night for dinner)

Black flats

Hiking Boots (needed for Juneau excursion)

 

[improvman]

Nice review. Too bad we never met. I was on your cruise in D608. I was the one with a 20 month old running back and forth through the casino. :-)

[The J Project]

@improvman - wow, we were practically next door to each other. hmmm, we must have walked through the casino a million times, I bet i saw you at some point :)

[FishinChris]

One of our favorite cruises.

[UpcountryTravelers]

Nice review. We saw your ship in Juneau, Ketchican and Skagway. We were on the Coral Princess at the same time.

[timetravler]

Great review and enjoyed the pics a lot. Here is one tip for those that take the Vallejo ferry into the city before you cruise. Take the 10am ferry and then stay on after it leaves the ferry building. This is the only ferry(10am) that also procedes down to pier 41 after dropping off people at the ferry building. The walk from pier 41 to the ship takes less then 10 minutes and is about 1/4 of a mile. Also check ahead of time to see if the SF Giants are playing that day as this could load up the 10am ferry very early and you might miss out. We got at the Vallejo ferry about 9:15am because of the Giants playing. We were glad we did. Its a great way to start a cruise and get to the city.