Review - Diamond Princess (Alaska) - 5/20/06

[zarleydog]

For what it’s worth, here are some random thoughts on our recent (5/20/06) southbound Alaska cruise on the Diamond Princess. By way of a disclaimer, let us state that we are incredibly non-fussy people and have never had a bad cruise. (We believe that a cruise is, to a large degree, what you make it). This was our second cruise with Princess and our eighth cruise overall. Final grade for Princess on this cruise: A-.

 

Embarkation: For us, it was a breeze. We were on the ship and in our cabin within 15 minutes. We had rented a car in Anchorage and driven to Whittier, though, so we didn’t have to wait endlessly on a bus like many reported was the case. (If you’re interested, you can read a synopsis of our independent Kenai Peninsula land tour on the Alaska board).

 

Cabin: Since we were doing five days on land pre-cruise, we decided to economize and book an inside cabin (our first ever). We had no problem with it at all. It was located on the Lido deck (fore) very near the exit to the Trident Grill and the great outdoors.

 

Weather: Blue skies and sunshine, except for embarkation day in Whittier and the first part of the day in Ketchikan. This was a stark contrast to our first Alaskan cruise in August of 2001, where we had rain and gloom all seven days.

 

Entertainment: There were some winners on this cruise - - specifically comedians Jim McDonald and Scott Wyler, ventriloquist Dan Horn and comedian/magician Gary Carson. I would recommend all of them, especially Dan Horn. We were pleased that they all kept their shows to a PG-13. (On our Grand Princess cruise, the comedians tended to be a lot more raunchy). Note: If the performance is taking place in the Princess Theatre, get there very early (like 20 minutes before the show starts) or you may not get a seat.

 

The crew talent show was also quite entertaining. In one memorable performance, a crew member did a one-man duet of “Endless Love” by dressing one half of his body as a man and the other half as a woman and turning the appropriate side of his body to the audience when he did the male and female voices. A must see.

 

We also enjoyed the numerous trivia games that were played in the evenings and even won one of them. Quite a few teams participated, so apparently we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed them. The cruise staff’s “Liar’s Club” game was also interesting. Regarding the musicians or the stage revue type shows, we can’t comment, as they’re not our cup of tea.

 

Food: Again, we’re easy to please, but we thought it was good. We ate in the various any-time dining rooms each night for dinner, at the Trident Grill or the buffet for lunch, and rotated between the buffet and the dining room for breakfast. My husband particularly liked the pizza. We didn’t try any of the surcharged dining venues. If I had to name a weakness in the cuisine, I think it would be in the salads, as there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of creativity there. I thought Princess did a nice job of appealing to all the diverse groups on board. One afternoon they set up a massive sushi bar by the outdoor pool and it seemed to be very well received, especially by the large Asian population onboard.

 

Passengers: One thing we really enjoy on our cruises is meeting people from all over the country and the world. We had passengers from as far away as Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and virtually everyone was happy to chat. Despite the cruise being sold out, we didn’t feel at all crowded and didn’t have to wait in line more than five minutes for anything. (The five-minute wait came when exiting the ship on port days).

 

Security/Cleanliness: Both, we felt, were excellent. We hadn’t sailed since 9/11/01, so we were pleased to see the extra measures being taken, such as checking cruise cards before you even get to the gangplank on re-entering the ship. We also appreciated the continuous hand-sanitizing that Princess demanded and the seemingly 24-hour security guard rounds that took place.

 

Service: Close to impeccable. Smiles and hellos were plentiful and, if they weren’t genuine, they had us fooled. Our room steward couldn’t have done any better.

 

Shore excursions: We only took one tour through Princess and that was the Glacier Gardens Rainforest in Juneau. Our last time in Juneau we did the helicopter onto the glacier tour, so this time we decided to low-key it. We figured we had seen a fair amount of wildlife at this point, so we decided to take in some plant life. It was a nicely scenic, short and inexpensive excursion that left us plenty of time to also do some shopping and take the tram to Mt. Roberts. In Skagway, we rented a car (Avis) and drove to Emerald Lake and back. The scenery on the way was incredible and we got within a few feet of a black bear who was more than happy to pose for a few pictures. In Ketchikan, we just walked around the town and shopped. Of the three, it’s our least favorite port.

 

Annoyances: Just a few . . . the internet café was down for half of our cruise, there was a heavy push for after-dinner cordials a few nights which we thought was unnecessary, there was a slight delay at disembarkation, i.e., according to their list, our color group was scheduled to disembark at 10:00 a.m. and we didn’t actually get off the ship until 11:00 a.m.

 

Overall, we had a blast and would be more than willing to sail Princess again.

[alwalaska]

Thank you for the review. It sounds like you had a great cruise.

We don't have anywhere to be after the cruise, so I assume we will be in one of the later groups. What did you do to entertain yourselves for all that time?I heard you are supposed to be out of your roooms by like 6am. Breakfast would take some time, but not 5 hours.

[Quenby]

Hi Gary & Cheryl! I enjoyed your review - I would give it an A- too. My only snafu was that Princess misplaced my onboard airline check-in, but all-in-all it was a fantastic cruise! I boarded at 1:00 in Whittier - it was strange with so few people on board. We sure lucked out with the weather! And how about Shari & Greg's family suite - incredible! :D

 

I enjoyed the comedians too. Piano Man was great, but Undercover Man only so-so.

[Quenby]

Someone from our cruise started a thread about how rude people were. I did NOT encounter that. :cool:

[TwelveKitties]

We too were on the Diamond for the 5/20 sailing following a land tour. Loved every minute of the cruise and the ports except for disembarking. We chose the express option, were in the first group to leave, and it took well over an hour to get just our group through. We still arrived at the airport with plenty of time before our flight, so this alone wouldn't cause me to downgrade the experience.

 

We did not encounter rude people - except for the wait staff in the Pacific Moon dining room - so we ate the remaining nights in the Santa Fe and had wonderful service and friendly staff - and never had to wait for a table. Our favorite thing, though, was going up to the Horizon Court about 5 PM, filling up a plate or two with meat, cheese, crackers, fruit and desserts, and having our own "tea time" on our balconies (the four of us had adjoining cabins and we opened the partition on the balconies between the two). Then about 8 PM we'd go to dinner and eat one more time.

 

Thanks again for your review. It seems to me that you covered it all.

 

TwelveKitties

[ladysheri]

Zarley....thanks for posting the review....you really did sum it all up so well. I still can't get over how FABULOUS that cruise was. (I know, I know, getting bumped into the family suite helped, but still it was sensational in many other ways as well!) I too would give it an A to an A-. Only issue for us was disembarking. Disembarkation seemed to take forever. Even when we got into the busses for the transfer to Seattle, there was confusion and we had to wait for a long time to get out of Vancouver. But I wonder if disembarking ever has the possibility of being "fun". Haha.

 

I still can't believe how lucky we were with the weather. Some of our pictures from the day in Glacier Bay and sunsets are incredible.

 

Chris...I too was flabbergasted at the "rude" thread. It was actually the friendliest group of travelers (& staff too) I have encountered in a long time. So many people were having such a good time that conversations just happened all the time. So fun to meet people from all over.

 

So, I am already ready to go back. If I had any more vacation time this year, I believe I would hop on the last RT out of Seattle in September. But alas, the boss thinks I should work. :eek: I do believe we are going to do a 1-day from Seattle to Vancouver in September just to check out the Dawn. We love Vancouver as a weekend destination and this will just be a cool way to get there!

 

Sheri

[Mike A]

I am thrilled to hear that it appears that many have been happy this Alaska season with the DI since we will be on the 9/9 southbound. Just one question, Who was the Cruise Director?

[zarleydog]

Re: rudeness. I agree with you, Sheri & Chris, no one we encountered struck me as being rude. Everyone seemed truly friendly. We met a lot of really nice people on this cruise - - including you and yours. :)

 

Re: disembarkation. Not sure what the hold up was. We vacated our room at about 7:30a.m. and went to the Horizon for breakfast. After that we just sat in deck chairs by the indoor pool, read a book, and chatted with a very kindly British couple. Our flight from Seattle wasn't scheduled 'til midnight and theirs wasn't until the next day, so we were in no serious hurry.

 

Disembarkation is a real bummer anyway - - especially when they take your name off your cabin door and replace it with the new occupants' names before the bed is even cold :(

 

Re: pictures. My DH took more than 1,200, and I'm sure yours did too, Sheri. We were amazed at some of the glacier pictures with the glacier reflecting into the water - - so different from the gloomy pics we brought home from our rain-soaked Alaskan cruise of 2001.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

I am thrilled to hear that it appears that many have been happy this Alaska season with the DI since we will be on the 9/9 southbound. Just one question, Who was the Cruise Director?

 

We are alos on the 9/9 Southbound which is the 2nd week of our First B2B and first Alaska so this was great to read - see you onboard, we will be the friendly ones:D :D

[Lynda90]

Thanks for the review. I will be on the 9/9 sailing as well as some of the others who have commented. So glad to hear you had a great time. The crew talent show sounds like fun. I don't remember seeing one before. Other than Princess Star, I don't think they had any other talent show. Wonder if this is something new.

[Mike A]

Hi Lynda. Look forward to seeing you on the second leg of your b2b. When we were on the CB in January 05 they had the crew talent show. The finale performed by the Cruise Director Graham Seymour and his assistants was the not to be missed old time shipboard favorite "If I Was Not Upon A Seas". I laughed until I cried when Graham came out in drag in the ballarina outfit.

[zarleydog]

Mike: the CD's name was Dan (something); I can't find my Patters and he wasn't that memorable. (I realize that we all perceive things differently, but he and the assistant CD were a little too corny for our tastes).

 

They did do that "If I were not upon the sea. . . " song at the end of the talent show and it was a hoot (if not a tad naughty).

 

The women on the cruise staff, Em, Emma and Kat, were quite entertaining though and, I thought, were more personable than the CD and assistant CD.