Review of the Island Princess June 22 Trip!

[W5KAP]

Folks, We recently got off the Island Princess after a most wonderful vacation going northbound from Vancouver to Whittier and a follow-on land tour. Here is a very long review that I hope will be of some help. I will break it into three parts.

 

Review: Island Princess Northbound 22 June 2009

Since this is my first review, I beg of you to please bear with me as I figure out how to structure it.

History: My wife and I decided to celebrate our 40th Anniversary by taking our two sons and their families on an Alaskan Cruise. Our group consisted of 6 adults and a small child. We choose Princess based on their reputation and on the advice of the good folks on Cruise Critic (CC). Our itinerary was Vancouver, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord, and Whittier. We chose mini-suites D-717, D-718, and D-721. Dining was the first regular time which was 5:30 in the Provence Dining room. We have cruised three times before but always on Carnival so this was our first time on Princess. A smart move as it turns out.

Vancouver: We flew into Vancouver early to avoid any problems of flying and sailing on the same day. But we also wanted to see Vancouver and all I can say, is what a beautiful city. We arrive at the airport around 2:15 in the afternoon. Customs was as easy as it can get. We didn’t spend one minute in line. I did have one bag lost but the folks at the airport were extremely helpful and got me the bag by late that night. No harm, no foul. We stayed at the Westin Bayshore and it was a marvelous place right on Coal Harbor not more than 5 blocks from Canada Place. The rooms were fantastic and food and entertainment were close by. We especially liked the seawall walkway. There were seaplanes and sculls all within a block of the hotel. On Sunday we took the Hop On Hop Off trolley around the city. Stanley park was an awesome place in particular. This HoHo was great and reasonably priced at $32 for 2 days. We chose to eat in Gastown and all was wonderful. On Monday we took a cab to Canada Place for $8.

Canada Place: Very easy to access. The cab delivered us right under the entrance to Canada Place right to the door. A porter took our luggage immediately. When we walked in, we were basically the only ones there an it was about 11:45 AM. Suffice it to say embarkation was so fast it scared us. We were on board the Island in a matter of 5 to 10 minutes. The Princess folks were wonderful. I can’t imagine a simpler or more easy process.

Island Princess: Wow, what a gorgeous ship. If you are sailing on her or her sister, the Coral, you are in for a wonderful ride. All in all she seems in great shape. For what it is worth I was able to ascertain that she will be going into dry dock next October. Her facilities were clean and in good shape. There was some wear and tear but that’s what one would expect. The ship was clean to a fault. I will discuss some of the other aspects of the Island as we go on.

Rooms: As I mentioned, we had mini-suites on the Dolphin Deck. Fantastic!! The rooms were large and easy to maneuver around in. We had the twin beds pushed together to make a Queen sized bed. Two TV’s and plenty of American coverage throughout the cruise. The bathroom was large and it was a nice touch to have the large bathtub and shower combo. The balcony was approximately 9x9 and completely covered (as we knew beforehand thanks to CC members). At times we had 10 people in the room and we never felt crowded. The balcony easily held 4 or more comfortably. It would be hard to ever do any cruising without a balcony. Despite the cool weather on the Alaskan coast, we sued our balcony a lot. Now I must tell you about one of the two negatives we encountered on the cruise and subsequent land tour. The beds are terribly hard and uncomfortable. Even with egg crates they were not good. It is my understanding that the Alaskan ships are getting a percentage of new mattresses at each stop in Whittier. I wish ours had been done!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks. :)