Coral Princess to Alaska's Inner Passage

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.