Crown Princess Alaska Tracy Arm Day by Day 7/4 thru 7/11

[GweninTX]

Welcome aboard! I will be doing a day by day review of our Seattle round trip Tracy Arm Fjord Alaskan cruise aboard the Crown Princess. I have done these before and enjoy sharing our cruise and answering any questions you might have if you are traveling on the Crown on a future cruise. First a little about us. We are loyal Platinum Princess cruisers. My husband is a retired manufacturing engineer of 3 years who is till working part-time as a contractor in his former role till I retire. (One of the hazards of marrying a woman who is 5 years younger- I am 60) I have to work 2 more years and work for AT&T. We got a great casino rate on this cruise in May and decided to come back to Alaska. The airfare thru Princess EZ-Air was a steal from DFW - $340 RT PP. we could not pass this up. When we were in Alaska the first time in August, 2013 for 2 weeks and did a Southbound passage on the Coral, we kept saying, "We have to come back!" So we are fulfilling our wish this week!

 

We decided to fly in on the 4th as it was a lot cheaper than the 3rd and had much better return flights. We have been to Seattle on vacation so did not feel compelled to come early. We had an early flight out of DFW on Alaska Air. We connected in Portland and it was 2 easy calm flights. We arrived in Seattle 15 minutes early - points for Alaska Air. When we got to baggage claim a smiling Princess representative was holding the familiar Princess placard and welcomed us to Seattle. Our one checked bag was already on the turnstile - more points for Alaska Air. We got our bus passes and went outside to find our bus. It was HOT in Seattle- be prepared! We were glad we had on shorts/capris and cool clothing. Jerry had packed our Columbia bugaboo waterproof jackets and binoculars in his backpack so we only had to pay for one checked bag. On our last Alaskan cruise we learned that a waterproof jacket with a hood was essential. We each had a carry on roller board and we had plenty of room. Jerry even brought his suit to wear on formal night. We have learned how to not bring so many clothes. It has taken me years, but I have finally learned what is essential.

 

The bus ride was about 30 minutes and we walked right on the ship. We were in our rooms about 2:00. Our room steward, Angelo was so friendly and asked about any needs we had. I forgot to ask for a top sheet and was sad when I went to bed. I also was banking on a new pillow top mattress in our Caribe deck inside room. WRONG! I am asking for an egg crate this morning. The bed was super hard! The pillows seemed new though. Be forewarned! I did sleep pretty sound as I was exhausted. Our mattress on our motel room in Dallas was rock hard also and I did not sleep well on the third. We booked an IF guarantee and got our assigned room on July 1! We were upgrades to an IA midship inside. A huge upgrade and we were happy with this free upgrade. We were offered a balcony upgrade of $249 per person the first of June and did not bite. We had a balcony for our first Alaska cruise and did not feel we got our money's worth for the huge difference in price. YMMV. We are always out and about on the ship and it was way too cold to stay outside on our balcony last cruise. Our first cruise was in August and the temps were much colder and it rained all but 2 days of our 16 days in Alaska! I am so happy that this cruise is forecasting sunny warm days and little rain.

 

First job was to change to early dining from Anytime. We live to sit at the same table each night and get to know our table mates. This was done quickly in the Michelangelo dining room - 2nd in line and a short wait. I love to go to the spa, so we went for a tour to get tickets for the raffle drawing at 5:00 pm for free services. Of course I won nothing, but a girl has to try! We had already eaten lunch so we looked around a little before muster drill. It was a very young crowd on the ship and we saw lots of large families and kids. My favorite group were all in matching blue shirts that read, "2015 Alaskan cruise with Grandma!" How fun!

 

We went to the 3:00 muster (cluster) drill in Explorers lounge. They had way too many people in there and it was super crowded. We got there early and got 2 chairs by the exit so we could get out quickly. We put away our life jackets and went outside for sail away! I got some gorgeous pictures of Mt. Rainer and the Seattle skyline. A Norwegian ship left right before we did so I imagine we will see them in ports. About ten minutes out to sea the temperature dropped about ten degrees! It felt wonderful and we stayed up on deck 7 for quite a while just relaxing.

 

We went to our room to check for luggage about 4:30 - not there yet! I really did not expect it yet, but it was worth checking. It broke Jerry's heart to wear shorts to the dining room (not!) and now one said a word to us! Word of warning - even though early dining is listed online at 6:00 - it is at 5:30 pm. This was our third cruise on the Crown, so this had happened before so we were not surprised. We were seated at a table for 6 and the other two couples had never cruised Princess. We answered lots of questions and got to know our table mates. We really enjoyed their company and are looking forward to spending our meals with them. The embarkation dinner was the one we recognized from prior Princess cruises. They did add some special Alaskan dishes and I tried them all. The salmon gravlax appetizer was really good. The artichoke bisque was amazing! I decided to try the Alaskan cod over a warm lentil salad with a baked potato. Thumbs down for this one. No seasoning on the fish and the lentils were bland. Thank goodness for the baked potato. Plus I knew I wanted dessert, so it was ok to not eat my main entree, I am on vacation. I was shocked that our server did not ask why or if I wanted anything else, but I would have asked for something else if I did. All the others had prime rib and it looked great. For dessert I had the flourless chocolate cake- oh my --- like eating a piece of baked fudge! It was beautifully presented and tasted amazing! I highly recommend! Others had crime brûlée or ice cream. They had a sugar free mango cheesecake, but no one at our table ordered it. All in all, dinner was a success.

 

We decided to go to the welcome aboard show. I worried we would not get seats as we got there about 7:35, but there were still lots of seats available and very few seat savers. I was delighted to see they had saved 3 rows of seats for handicapped in the back. Some apparently could not read the signs and sat down in them anyway, but there was room for all. Kelvin Joy is the cruise director and he seemed to be high energy and friendly. I have not had him before, so I will keep an open mind. I was impressed with the Princess singers and dancers. They have both a strong male and female soloist and I am picky! The comedian, Derrick Cameron was OK - predictable jokes about cruising. He has his solo show later in the week. There was lots of dancing going on if you like to dance. I Karaoke in Club Fusion. Yankee Doodle Dandy was on Muts. A slot tournament at 10:00. DJ Jammin hosted a welcome aboard party at 10:00 in Club Fusion. 11:00 to midnight BOGO drinks in Skywalkers. We went back to our room to unpack and I was exhausted so we went to bed and read till we fell asleep. Sea day on Sunday so we can sleep in. I will post daily. Tomorrow night is our first formal night. Our last cruise was on the Royal so I can't help comparing. I miss a lot of things that the Royal had, but the Crown is in fine shape after her dry dock in May. We feel very at home and know where everything is at. The ship is doing a little bit of rocking, but not too bad. I hope we have nice clear sunny days with calm seas. Rough seas do not bother us, but they bother so many others.

 

 

If you have specific questions, I will try to answer them!

[Colo Cruiser]

Bon Voyage!!! Enjoy your cruise and thanks for doing the live!! :D

[Goinc2c]

Do they have a sail away party on Alaskan cruises?

[GweninTX]

Do they have a sail away party on Alaskan cruises?

 

 

No, they did not have a Sail away party on deck like Caribbean cruises.

[dickinson]

Thanks for posting. I'll be following along.

[Astro Flyer]

Thanks Gwen & Buon Viaggio! :)

 

I'd suggest requesting a pillowtop mattress pad & not an old broken down eggcrate. I recently took a better look at our pillowtop mattress on the Regal & it was actually a pillowtop mattress pad.

 

Here's a photo of a queen size pillowtop mattress pad we had on the Golden (quad room & split bed into twins) which is folded in half. Even in the queen configuration the pillowtop mattress pad is much better than an eggcrate pad.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[GweninTX]

Thanks, Astro Flyer! I got my top sheet and an egg crate and slept the sleep of the dead last night!

[GweninTX]

Good morning! So much for sleeping in! My CST body was up at 4:00 AM! I read in bed for a while and decided to get dressed and go to the International cafe and use my coffee card for a latte. There were 4 other people awake with me. The barista was friendly and did not even take a punch for my latte. He said this one's on me! I splurged and had a chocolate donut with almonds on top. Yum! Jerry showed up at 6:45 - his body had not changed time zones either. We love eating in the dining room and had breakfast at 7:00 AM. I had the special - poached eggs Florentine. It was way too rich for me and I could not eat it, but the bacon was yummy! Fresh fruit was excellent.

 

They packed the morning with shopping - $10 specials - I bought 2 Alaska t-shirts. We watched the fruit and vegetable carving - fun to see what they can do! I bought my Princess 50 years charm for my Pandora bracelet. They had lots of other things to commemorate the event. We got one of the free blue shopping bags last night on our bed. It had the Sea Witch logo with a 50 blended in. I will add it to my collection. The Piazza was bustling all morning. Jerry parked there and read his book all morning except for a brief stint in the casino. He hit a machine for $128.00 and so is up for now. At noon they are having a slot tourney. They also now have posted exactly how many points to get you a free cruise. I love transparency. 10,000 points get you a free cruise for 2. Doubt if we make that!

 

They also handed out a limited number of books for book club. Huge book to read in this short week. I passed. They had the instruction for the egg drop. Find Sasquatch game. Scavenger hunt. I saw lots of kids and families signing up! Fun activities to keep them occupied. Slot tournament at noon.

 

Lunch in the buffet. Big mistake. Long lines and the Mexican fiesta foods did not excite this Texan. But had some guacamole and chips. Some pork with mole sauce. The rest was just not very good. We should have gone to the British pub lunch or the dining room. We then spent the afternoon in the Princess theatre. First was a great talk by the naturalist, Michael Modzelewski entitled Alaska- the Final Frontier. He is a great speaker and I highly recommend going. He said it was a series of 4 so we will go to the next 3. Then we watched a video called - North to Alaska. Gorgeous scenery and was available for purchase of course. You could have also gone to an art collecting seminar. Joined Princess pop choir. Ballroom blitz dance class, Swim with sharks gameshow, attended a future cruise presentation, origami craft class, penny whistle class, played bingo, wine tasted or opted for a nap like we did. We are starting to see some islands and it is VERY cold and windy outside.

 

Tonight in the dining room it was a special menu that featured items thru the 5 decades of Princess. I had the risotto cake with sun dried tomatoes, cream of wild mushroom soup, osso buco ravioli, beef tournadoes with onion tart and for dessert a special Norman Love chocolate dessert. It was all very good. The Norman Love dessert was a beautiful heart shape in red with chocolate trimmings.

 

Tonight was formal night so we watched the champagne waterfall and enjoyed some free mimosas. We went early to get a good seat for the production show - Destination Anywhere. It was a very full house for the first seating. After the show was the fun Majority Rules game. There was music and dancing in all the bars. The casino was a ghost town as it was "No Smoking Night"! It was happy hour BOGO from 11-12 in Skywalkers bar. We set our clocks back an hour so we got an extra hour to sleep tonight. We went to bed about 10:00 so we could be out on deck at 6:00 AM to watch for whales! Stay tuned for Juneau tomorrow!

[gotta cruise again]

Thank you for your posts, Gwen!! We'll be aboard the Crown in August--yay!

[AF-1]

Wow, thanks for posting this review. I am considering a Princess Cruise to Alaska. Have only sailed on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. I appreciate the time you took for posting.

[RickEk]

Do they have a sail away party on Alaskan cruises?

 

No, they did not have a Sail away party on deck like Caribbean cruises.

 

Seattle has an ordinance prohibiting sail away parties... :(

[big_schots]

Thanks for posting a "live" review. We are going on the same cruise in two weeks, July 18th. Really looking forward to hearing about the MDR offerings and daily entertainment. Thanks for being so detailed. Eric

[mrsstefedwards]

Thanks for posting a "live" review. We are going on the same cruise in two weeks, July 18th. Really looking forward to hearing about the MDR offerings and daily entertainment. Thanks for being so detailed. Eric

 

 

We are sailing on the Crown on the 18th too! Can't wait to start! Really enjoying getting a sneak peak on this post.

[brekat1]

Thinking of trying the Crown Princess next May so thank you for the live review: ) are you paying to use the Santuary at all?

[phabric]

enjoyed reading about your cruise. Looking forward to more.

[peachykiehn]

Thanks so much for posting! We are also doing this itinerary on July 18th so will be looking forward to your posts and counting the days.

[Molly Cooper]

I was on the Crown 2 weeks ago, and had a wonderful time. Kelvin is a great CD - check out his Wake Show! Do be sure to do the Pub Lunch (I think it's Thursday?) delicious fish and chips, and mushy peas! Have fun!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like a great day. :)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[GweninTX]

Thinking of trying the Crown Princess next May so thank you for the live review: ) are you paying to use the Santuary at all?

 

 

No, I am not paying fo the sanctuary. It is a beautiful area on the ship, but on this cruise there is not much of a chance to use it!

[1925USA]

We so appreciate your daily review! We sail Sept 12th & our first cruise with Princess.

If you could post the patters/menus when you return it would help so much in planning. But if not we are thrilled to find this thread.

 

Have a wonderful time 😊

[GweninTX]

Day 3 - Juneau

 

We slept well with the new egg crate on the rock hard mattress. I had set the alarm for 5:45 so we could go out on deck and watch for whales. When we got there a few minutes after 6:00 they were already seeing blows and a few tails. Between 6 and 7:25 we saw LOTS of whales. One breached which was exciting. They were all humpbacks. It was VERY windy up on deck - it blew my coffee right out of my hand! It was also chilly and you definitely needed a good jacket and a hood! Be prepared! Since we were going to go whale watching all afternoon we decided to go eat breakfast in the dining room. Today the special was the "Traditional English Breakfast complete with baked beans" the fruit special was sliced papaya with ricotta cheese. For some reason they were in a complete meltdown stage as no one had made the coffee this morning. We laughed - surprise - it's breakfast and you mean people are going to want some coffee? I am sure someone got written up for this, but we were in no hurry, so we just enjoyed talking to our table mates.

 

Our tour did not start till 12:30 - we booked a private tour with Harv and Marv. So we enjoyed the time coming into Juneau and took lots of pics. It is really pretty. We decided to eat a light lunch before we went whale watching so I had pizza and Jerry got a burger. In the burger line they were also serving Crab Cakes made with the recipe from Tracie's Crab Shack. I asked Jerry to get me some to try. I think something got twisted in the recipe translation. These were bright orange with cayenne pepper and were way too spicy. Now I am from TX and I really like spicy, but these were bitter with cayenne - maybe they use Tablespoons instead of teaspoons? They also did not have much crab evident - epic fail.

 

I am glad we waited till after the herds of people got off the ship. At dinner I heard there were long lines and a lot of confusion. Be prepared! When we got off about 11:30 there were no lines. I wanted to shop in the nice store by our ship. I had found a cute shirt there in 2013 and was hoping for another. If you need a good rain jacket they have a great waterproof fleece lined one for $20 - what a steal! We found Harv & Marv rep and checked in. We had Captain Liz as our boat captain. There were 6 guests and her boat was spotless and a perfect size. She was very safety conscious and explained everything as we motored out of the harbor. Once we got out to the open water she had talked by cell to other boat captains and knew where they had been spotting some Orcas. When we got there we were delighted to see a pod of 4 and 2 pods of 3. We got great pics and after we stayed about 30 minutes we went up to the lighthouse where there were reports of humpbacks playing. My husband and I are both avid birdwatchers and have keen eyes and we were able to spot the spouts for Liz and she got us on a group of 8 that were following herring up the shoreline. One did an aerial display and I caught the huge splash on my camera. We stayed there a long time and followed them down the shore line. They would come up for air about every 3-5 minutes.we finally had to head back to the harbor, but we all agreed it was a great afternoon! Liz said it was the best trip she had taken out so far this summer. We wanted to see bubble net feeding, but did not. Another reason for us to book another Alaskan cruise!

 

We went to Mendenhall glacier for about 20 minutes. It was really hot and we took pictures and saw the falls and then returned to the ship. I would highly recommend Harv & Marv and you will be lucky if you get Captain Liz.

 

We changed for dinner - tonight was all open seating and we wanted to catch Libby Riddles presentation in the Princess theatre. I had King Crab legs and filet mignon, Jerry had Cioppini. We both had a great seafood soup as an appetizer. They also had halibut that looked good too! Dessert was cheesecake with strawberries. In honor of my brother-in-law George, I suggested the volcano for dessert to a gentleman that wanted chocolate sundae for dessert. He had no idea what it was, but I told him to trust me. The volcano is on the kids menu and is a large bowl of ice cream with logs of banana going down the sides, covered with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top. He was in heaven and thanked me for suggesting it. If you need a sugar rush, it fills the bill!

 

We watched Libby and her presentation on being the first woman to win the Iditarod. It is really inspirational, funny and worth going to! I highly recommend it. Afterwards was a family band that was called the Alaska String band. They started immediately after Libby. We were tired and ready for bed. In the Piazza was a Klondike festival. The movie Focus was in the Princess theatre after our show. The blankety blank game show in Explorers. Crab shack dinner for $20 from 6-9:30.

 

 

Tomorrow is Skagway!

[GweninTX]

We so appreciate your daily review! We sail Sept 12th & our first cruise with Princess.

 

If you could post the patters/menus when you return it would help so much in planning. But if not we are thrilled to find this thread.

 

 

 

Have a wonderful time [emoji4]

 

 

I am saving all the patters and can do that when I return. Thanks.

[msmoger]

Do you know if the Crab Shack is being offered on more than one night?

 

Thanks for the reports. We board on the 25th.

[caribill]

I would highly recommend Harv & Marv

 

Agree.

 

Costs about the same as a Princess excursion, but with only six passengers on the boat every passenger gets to easily see the whales.