Just back from the Star Princess

[LILynn]

Hi -

 

Just back from a 7 day Alaska cruise on the Star. We had a great time. I went with my mom, my brother, and my 10 year old neice and 6 year old nephew. We got to Seattle on Thursday and left on Sunday for the cuise. Seattle is a great place to vacation - there is a ton of stuff to see and do. We did the ducks tour (great), Argosy cruise through the locks (great) and the Savor Seattle tasting tour through the market (great!). We also took the ferry to Bainbridge Island - there was not too much to do in Bainbridge but the ferry ride was really nice and the scenery beautiful - it was a really clear day and the view of Mt. Rainier was awesome.

 

We got to the pier around 1:30 on Sunday. The line was still quite long to check in but we were excited about going on the cruise and did not mind. The ship was in great shape - extremely clean. The cuise director and his staff were fine... but I was a little dissapointed in the lack of activites on one of the sea days. Usually I run from activity to activity but this time I could not find one thing that I wanted to do on the Friday sea day. The next day there was a ton of stuff to do.

 

We had Anytime time dining - we ate most nights in the Capri Dining Room and never had to wait more than a minute or 2 for a table. The service was fine - we never found a waiter that we really connected with so we never asked again for someone but I had no complaints regarding the service. I thought the food was OK - some dishes were way to salty for my taste but there were a lot of items to choose from and some were really good.

 

The food in the Horizon court was OK - lots to choose from for the nights we got back to the ship late, this was a good alternative.

 

We had a mini suite - my 10 year old neice stayed with us. The first night she tried to sleep on the mattress on the pull out couch. I wound up switching with her as she could not sleep on it. It was pretty bad - and the next AM I spoke to the cabin steward about it. He wound up finding another mattress that he put on top of the original mattress and we had no problems after that.

 

I usually do not go to the shows on the ships but my neice really wanted to so we saw all 4 of them. They were suprisingly well done. The singers and dancers were all very talented and I did enjoy them.

 

My neice loved the kids activities - she went all 3 days we were at sea. The activities were varied and she had a blast - they decorated cookies, dissected a squid, made a roller coaster out of tubes, did all kinds of arts and crafts activies. She really liked the staff in the kids club - this was one of the reasons we chose this cruise and we were not dissappointed.

 

We had a great time in the ports we stopped at. We did do one of the Princess tours in Ketchikan - we were supposed to go to Misty Fjords. I was really looking forward to this excursion. Unfortunately the seas were pretty rough that day and the boat we were on turned back. They felt it was too unsafe to go to Misty Fjords and wound up going to another area instead. I was very disappointed but I have to say that by the time we got back to the ship they had credited us back with 70% of the cost of the excursion. I thought that this was more than fair as we did get in a full afternoon of sightseeing. Kudos to the company that ran this excursion for doing the right thing.

 

In Juneau and Skagway we had booked excursions with private companies and we were really glad we did. In Juneau we did a trip that included a whale watch cruise ( we saw so many humpback whales and sea lions) and a trip to Mendenhall Glacier. We were on a small boat - only 10 people and a captain and naturalist. It was the hightlight of our trip. We had over an hour at Mendenhall which was plenty of time as well.

 

In Skagway we did another private tour to the Yukon. Princess had a similar excursion but I was really happy that we chose the company we did - we were in a samll mini van and were able to stop any time we wanted to take pictures. We had lunch and then went to the puppy camp and took a cart ride with the sled dogs. My neice and nephew loved this and cannot stop talking about how much fun they had with the puppies. We were dropped off in Jessup I think and we took the train back to town. There were a lot less people on it going back and we had an enitre car almost to ourselves. I loved the train as did the kids.

 

We also stopped in Victoria - as we were only there from 5PM to 11PM we did not arrange for anything in advance. We wound up taking a pedicab into downtown - it took about 1 1/2 hours as we got a tour on the way. It was fun but I thought the price was too much - $200 for 1 1/2 hours - my brother and the kids loved it so I guess it was worth it. Victoria is a beautiful clean city and the downtown area is touristy but fun. We lucked out as there was a tallships festival - once every 3 years - going on in the harbor.

 

The only real complaint I had was how long it took to get through security and back on the ship in each port. We had a least a 20 minute or longer wait each time - and in Ketchikan it was raining and there was no shelter to wait in.

 

This was my second Princess cruise - my first was on the Grand to the med. I have cruised just about all of the other lines and will only go on HAL or Princess as I think both lines are great.

 

If anyone else is thinking of taking this trip you should just do it. We all had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. :)

 

What time did you usually eat dinner?

[momoftoddler]

We're doing the same one in August.

 

Can you tell us the name of the companies that you did all your excursions through? Thanks.

[momoftoddler]

Also, did you notice if there were younger kids in the kids club? toddlers for eg.

[rdsqrl]

Also, did you notice if there were younger kids in the kids club? toddlers for eg.

 

The kids are segregated by age group -- smaller kids wouldn't be in the same group as a ten year old. Also, a child has to be 3 years old at a minimum to participate (I have no idea how old a toddler is -- is that younger or older than 3?).

[dforeigner]

Thank you for taking time to write a review.

[momoftoddler]

My daughter will be 2 years when we go. The princess site says that she can go to the kids club if accompanied and supervised at all times by an adult.

[momoftoddler]

My daughter will be two when we go. The Princess site says that kids below 3 years of age should be accompanied and supervised by an adult throughout. So I was wondering if you saw many parents with their kids in there.