Alaska - Gulf of Alaska Cruise Reviews

My favorite part of the cruise was the fact the cruise ship could actually get very close to the glaciers. This made for great photo ops.  The tour guide was very informative about the entire area.  

The least part I liked was the entertainment.  It really needs to be better.  It's the worse entertainment of all the other cruise ships I have been on (5). Also, while trying to navigate my way around the casino with a walker became very frustrating as stools were blocking your way to go down the aisles. This led to my saying forget it and leaving because I could not get past people sitting at machines.  Beverage service in casino was slow. Most of the time the servers were at the bar talking to each other and not roaming the floor.  All I wanted was a bottle of water and it took 15 to 20 minutes before I could flag down a server.

Please put better signage out by all elevators - some of us are a little visually impaired with cataracts and the gold backing which is pretty and the black letters were just too small for us to see from a short distance, you had to walk up to the wall and read carefully to see what deck you should be going to.  Letters need to be larger. Better signage should also be in the cabin hallways, hanging up directing you to aft, starboard, elevators (under the exit signs) would be most helpful.  

All in all the trip was good.

Over all the trip was good. Except for the following

Princess Lodge in Fairbanks dinning room was not up to my standards either in food or service.

Princess Denali was beautiful, upon returning from tour we had 1 hr to find something to eat. Impossible not enough places to get food and they were all slammed.

As for the ship. Very clean and nice. Showers were the smallest I have ever seen.

The entertainment was poor. Only the first comedian and the last show were worth going to.

The food was not good. As was expressed by more than one other person not in our group. Selection in buffet was poor. And dinning room selection was so, so.

Asked for drawn butter and was told only on lobster night. We had a hard time getting seating for our group. We never really understood their system. First we were told no then another gentleman steeped in and told them to seat us a certain table. Perhaps they were just an untrained crew. While they were pleasant we fould the waiters on Royal Caribbean heads above them. Never been on ship where some sort of food was not available 24hrs.

We enjoyed all the excursions . The sea plane, riverboat in Fairbanks, the White Pass train ride were our favorites. Really not sure I would recommend Princess would tell them to look at other options.

This cruise is worth it for the views.  Alaska is breathtaking and the inside passage was the best choice.  Island Princess is a beautiful ship.  While other reviews complained about the addition of passengers after the dry dock, but our group did not notice any overcrowding.  In fact, I've sailed on much larger ships and felt very overcrowded.  The staff went out of their way to provide great service.  I did have a couple of issues with food safety and handling, but once the issues were brought to the attention of the staff, they were addressed immediately.

We had a terrific time on this cruise. Alaska was absolutely breathtaking and the Southbound/Northbound one-way trip allows you to see more places in less time. 

We booked an outer cabin with window, choosing to forego the balcony to spend more on top notch excursions. And they certainly were! While we certainly wouldn't have turned down a balcony, to enjoy the spectacular views from our own rooms even better, it was completely unnecessary. We noticed the balconies were often empty and the top decks were full, but still provided plenty of room to comfortably watch the glaciers and experiences the views and wildlife. 

Our favorite part of the cruise was the spending the day in the adults-only Sanctuary while in Glacier Bay National Park. An affordable price for reserved, spacious private seating and lounge, with blankets to keep you warm and meals and drinks served by your side all day long. We couldn't have felt more special and taken care of, and the other ~25 people who bought day passes were all wonderful to get to know, too. Be sure to visit the Sanctuary immediately upon boarding as the best seats and days will be quickly taken.

Our favorite excursion was the Heli, Hike & Rail combo in Skagway, AK. The company leading this expedition was top notch: professional, friendly, and informative. From the dock a quick shuttle bus drops your small group (we had 4 of us + guides) to the helicopter base. After your briefings you'll fly above the glaciers and mountain tops for 15 minutes before landing in the Tongass National Forest for a 4-5 mile round-trip hike along the raging Skagway River to a viewpoint of the Laughton glacier.

Recommendations on improvements to the cruise ship include that the buffet food could have been more interesting, and offered better options, or even changing options. Instead we found it lacking. Additionally, the nightly entertainment seemed to be missing any main performance. Maybe they hadn't yet finished rehearsals, as we were the first of the season, but the only entertainment seemed to be comedians, sales pitches, and bar/lounge singers.  Would have been great to have seen bigger and better performances.

The entertainment program was not good, too little good events.  The "show" are mostly concentrate in dining time, that need to rush to finish the meal.  The theater used to talk about the shopping & play wild life movies, just like watching discovery channel in TV at home. Boring . . .

The best aspect of this trip was Princess' logistic management transporting passengers and luggage to each location of the land portion of this trip.  In every instance, in every city, our luggage was in our hotel room BEFORE we arrived...and our hotel check in was pre-arranged by the tour with our keys presented to us in advance.

It had been suggested to us prior to reserving, that this type of land package should not be arranged privately, but rather to incorporate with the Princess cruise.  After taking the trip, I understand.  The "resorts" by and large are far away from "cities" and trains and buses are necessary to go anywhere.  There are large expanses of land without cell service and being stranded anywhere evokes eerie feeling of becoming bear sushi.  Oh Wait! We never saw any bears!

The scenery is beautiful everywhere, but there are far fewer animals to be seen than the chamber of commerce would have you believe.  The resorts are  lovely, but the rooms are rustic, 'think' motel 6 with a 30" flat screen tv.  Being the first cruise of the season, staffing and kinks had not been worked out fully.  Not all of the staff had arrived at the properties yet, nor had the food supplies!  The hot tubs were not turned on yet!  With a few exceptions,  the staff everywhere were very polite and helpful.

As for the ship, it is a basic Princess.  Having cruised with them numerous times, the rooms look the same from boat to boat.  I believe the room amenities have been dumbed down, forcing several requests for robes, for instance.  Despite having pre-requested them online, our cabinet steward said they were no long available unless we were in a full size suite.  By the first evening, he was able to acquire some.

Sadly the steak restaurant is gone, and Sabitinis was marginal at best.  We have always enjoyed going there but despite the excellent service, the food did not make the grade.  We heard this from several others onboard as well.  I am not deterred, and am looking forward to another Princess cruise later this year.

HIghlights included the piano bar entertainer, Jerre Ring, whom we watched every night and a magic show.  Both were excellent.

We were lucky to have incredible weather at our three Alaska port visits. Blue skies and warm allowed us to enjoy our excursions and shopping without foul-weather gear. The smaller ship size (2000 passengers) allows for a more personal experience without long lines and crowding. Being an Alaskan cruise it is colder, so layong by the pool in your Speedo is very questionable.  The food was fantastic and we had fun in the casino. The only downside would be the constant selling of photos, drinks and other items. You wamt to relax, but the push was exhausting. Offer one free shipboard photo and move on. Otherwise, we had a great time on the Island Princess and then we continued onto the 5-day land tour to Denali and Fairbanks. 

Land and sea is the way to go to see as much as you can. Fall was great with all the color and no black flies or mosquitoes. All the attention to detail with luggage being in rooms ahead of us, room steward assistance, food was great, side tours were excellent, Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage was awesome. In talking to many other passengers Princess is top of the line. 

Generally, it is a good cruise trip for families, very comfortable and relax. The Embarkation Scenic Cruise Train from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to the Seward cruise ship dock is wonderful. It is very convenient for people arriving the Anchorage International Airport.  But the food in "Garden Café" is not as good as other NCL cruise ships. The service in pay restaurant is not good because they know 18% tip would been automatically taken from your account, I think.  Unfortunately, we missed Cruise Sawyer Glacier due to bad weather. Alaska does not look like 10 years ago due to global warm weather.

this was the 2nd yr. in a row on the norweigan sun/ this year was even better then the first trip/ Re: more ports with the addition of icy strait pt./ the staff did more this year to make the trip fantastic(which it was) we had an issue w/ our room a.c. they immediately sent up a tech to fix it/checked back w/ us 5 times to see if it was o.k. and sent some cho covered strawberries and bottle of wine for our inconvenience.wow! we had a great time,great food,nice port visits,and great excursions.  we will cruise with norweigan sun again in a new adventure. would like to add that the embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze!

This was the 2nd part of round trip Vanc. to Seward and back. We had to change rooms and we carried our luggage from deck 4 to 10. The entertainers weren't as good as the up trip. The room across the hall from us had the sprinkler in the ceiling go off and flooded their room, the hall was wet for a couple of days until they got it dried off. We were supposed to go to Sawyer glacier but it was raining and the captain decided not to go up the fjord to the glacier and instead just sat out in the main channel until it was time to go to the next port. Hubbard glacier was the first stop and the captain didn't get as close to the glacier as he did on the way up even though there wasn't much ice in the way.

The room attendant cane in once in the afternoon and again late at night. He said they only work certain hours and not all day. We met several rude workers on this trip. They seem like they didn't want to be on the ship. The buffet on deck 11 was only so-so. Breakfast was better than lunch. The bacon however was always under cooked for my taste. The way the buffet is laid out leaves some very tight spaces for passage when many people are eating. They have soft and hard serve ice cream. They have 2 pools and 4 hot tub with only one with working jets.

The room was an inside and seemed bigger than most ships that I have been on. A queen bed with a separate sofa area. The TV was small. It had a fridge and hair dryer. The shower water temp kept fluctuating from hot to cool and back.. Overall the room was good.

The cruise staff seemed to have more activities on board and for the most part very friendly. 

The Norwegian Staff took such good care of us! We were fed and pampered and entertained. We were to busy having fun to even just sit and relax on the deck.

We have cruised a fair amount, 3 times with Norwegian. Although there was nothing blatantly bad, there just wasn't the atmosphere that we usually see on a cruise. We put it down to lack of enthusiasm of the crew, where they are just doing a job. There is a difference. We would probably consider your line again, in the hope that what we saw was not normal with your cruises. The one bright spot was the 7 seas dining room staff, who did care and showed it. They were very personable.

The ship and staff were great for the cruise.  We took the land portion of the trip was taken before we boarded the ship and was very enjoyable.  Because we got to see so much on the land portion the ship's stops seemed to be redundant and a little forced.  The ports did not add much to the overall trip.

Had sailed on the Norwegian Sun a few years ago for 10 days and

loved the ship.  Not so much this time! Food was so so, seemed to be

a lot of redone left overs, soups 9 out of 10 times was pureed (was quite

chilly out and really wanted a nice hearty soup), omelets were over done even

after asking that it not be.  Had a balcony stateroom, outside deck area was

dirty and rusty, flat screen T.V. was put between a shelve that it did not fit in

so watching it was difficult as the screen was directed towards the floor.  

Not pleased with the added service charge for room service (other then coffee in am), the gratuities increased as well.  Between the cruise and the inland tour

this vacation cost over $6,000, and that did not include the airfare.  I do not feel we got our money's worth on this vacation.  We had a lot of free time on the inland tour and no transportation to go anywhere.  The restaurants at the

hotels were so costly that I think the consumer should  be aware of that.  It cost

over $100.00 for dinner, and that was nothing fancy. 

The Norwegian Sun is a small ship, however we had about the same experience as on other NCL ships, which is generally good. Of note: Breakfast dining room service always falls short and the Sun is no exception. Coffee not refilled, slow service, forgotten items, staff reluctant to handle special requests, we have just come to expect it, but the buffet is worse so.....one previous available smoking areas has been eliminated, annoying. VERY friendly ship staff, steward, bar and dining generally everyone is pleasant. The entertainment: ship staff good and bad, as usual, the guests were great! We will avoid the Sun...just too small for us, but for Alaska you need small ships.

Great cruise is a bit old ship but still nice, very kind people and the best is a free style that means you don't have do dress up for dinner, we missed some things because of the weather and regulations. Great app on board! 

Generally a good trip. a few people in the party including me caught a cold that appeared to be going around the ship. noticed some not paying attention to health warnings.

Stateroom seemed smaller than what was pictured but did like the balcony.

Many good memories made

Transfer from port to Seattle bus was very poorly handled. other party on same cruise require transfer on same bus was handled as direct to bus without an issue our transfer direct to bus only took place after razing issues which should have been taken care off before the cruise began. After 3 days on board we were first told need to change our flight reservations, when advised that was not possible we were told we could have a refund and make a reservation with another transfer agent which was told impractical. When we advised Princes Cruise that was told unacceptable they final arranged for us to be included the direct to bus group which is how it should have been handled in the first place. This debarkation processing allowed us to make our flight without incident and we should been handled that way from the beginning rather taking two addition days to process this action.   

Very pleasant trip amazing scenery, a lot of excursions to choose from (although they were all very expensive. I was not a fan of the food on this cruise. The times that meals were offered was very limited and the selection in the Oceanview Cafe was the same, day after day - Rather boring. 

Icy Straits was a questionable stop. Not much to do or see