Feel Like I was Scammed - Not Inside Passage

Crown Princess Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

michele08

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 4

Overall rating:

3.7 out of 5

7 Night Inside Passage With Glacier Bay National Park (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 20, 2022

Ship: Crown Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

This cruise was "sold" as an "Inside Passage" cruise and we did not travel on the inside passage. It is unclear exactly why the itinerary was changed just weeks before sailing. We did not receive any communication from the cruise line that this was happening, even though it would appear to me that they knew FAR in advance that this was going to be the case. We did not get to visit Ketchikan, which is a favorite port, and stopped in Icy Point as a lame alternative. For the amount of money that we paid for this cruise, Princess DID NOT deliver. Not being notified these changes until the "last minute", made it impossible to to make any alternate plans. We were pretty much "stuck". This trip was a family cruise and possibly the last trip for my elderly parents. They wanted to go on the Alaska Inside Passage trip because it had been one of their favorite cruises that they had done in the past. We were all EXTREMELY disappointed. My Dad was excited about seeing the glaciers and then for some reason (that was not communicated), we did not get the full tour of the glacier park and missed seeing the best part of the park (Johns Hopkins area.) I was celebrating a birthday and indicated as such but the day came and went with nothing special happening except a "Happy Birthday" on my digital door display. My sister ended up saying something to a crew member and I did get a birthday song and special dessert on another night. Had she not said anything though, nothing would have happened. Don't ask if a special occasion is being celebrated if you aren't going to do anything extra because of it. I believe there may have been something wrong with the ship that ultimately resulted in a sub par experience for my family. This is the companies responsibility and I feel some compensation should be given to the guests on this cruise because clearly, Princess DID NOT deliver on the trip that we all paid for. I don't know if I can trust Princess in the future and will likely look at other cruise lines for future cruises. Also, the cruise line APP in not very user friendly and it froze often or didn't work at all. The medallions used for "billing" aren't very accurate and a lot of mistakes are made on what gets charged to who. Also, the billing is not very specific so it is hard to tell what you are really being charged for. (More scam.)

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Some spirits were not available on the first day of the cruise because restocking had not been complete from the last cruise evidently. First night of the cruise my family was seated in the dining room at a table that was EXTREMELY noisy because of overhead engine noise (or something that sounded like that anyway). It was quite a nuisance during our entire meal and it was nearly impossible to carry on a conversation. Another meal I was seated very close to a waiter station and it was quite bothersome as the wait staff are literally inches away from us. We did request a quieter table for dinner from then on and we were accommodated to a much better table for the remainder of our dinners in that dining room. Ate at the Crown Grill for a specialty dinner and it was VERY good.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

The Fitness Center needed updating. Workout mats were well worn. I didn't see anywhere where I could fill up a water bottle. I only saw drinking fountains.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

David Moore was a highlight for us each night in Crooners Bar and I would give him 5 stars. Saw a couple of shows but wasn't wowed.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Shoutout to Jeevan who was our server in Crooners each night. He did an outstanding job of taking care of us! Lokesh at the Adagio Bar was an exceptional server also. Staff was friendly and they took care of business!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Ship was very clean.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was satisfactory and our cabin steward (Ronald) did a great job and took care of any concerns we had right away.

Ship tip

I would not sail on the Crown Princess again unless I knew for certain the ship was running in top shape and itineraries were not being changed. Honestly, I probably won't sail with Princess again because I don't feel they delivered the product that I was sold.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

4 out of 5

I have been to Seattle before so for this trip it was just a starting point and an ending point.

Thumbs Up 0

Juneau, Alaska

4 out of 5

Skagway, Alaska

4 out of 5

Cruise Glacier Bay

1 out of 5

Did not get to see as much of the park as I understand is the normal. Crew member made an excuse about why we didn't get to go up the other "arm" of the park but I believe it was because our ship was not running in top shape.

Thumbs Up 0

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska

1 out of 5

Got to this port right at dinner time and was only in port 3 hours. We did not want to hassle with getting off and on the ship in such a short time, and we did not want to miss or be rushed at dinner. Poor timing.

Thumbs Up 0

Victoria, British Columbia

4 out of 5

Got a pedicab and got a a quick 1 hour tour of the city which was fun but because of the late hour of getting to Victoria, this port seemed rushed and the sun was only up a short time after we arrived. (It was dark after our 1ish hour tour.)

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

8 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise

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OsteoDeb 2 years ago

I try to stick with Celebrity

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RoyalCruzer 2 years ago

They continue to steal their customers $$. They have known for months that they have not invested in their fleet. This propulsion issue has been well documented. This is not a reliable cruise line. I stopped using them years ago due to their deceptive practices.

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AuntPinkie 2 years ago

Sorry for all the disappointments on this cruise. I now know to not expect anything special for my birthday in December (from Princess). You’ve cruised enough to know that ports can be canceled, changed, shortened, etc. without compensation. Just sorry it happened on your special family adventure. Appreciate your feedback.

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RetiredRay 2 years ago

I was planning to do a Crown run, but until I hear they permanently fix those generators, no deal. The Covid shutdown has caused a backlog of maintenance issues on a number of ships and the financial losses have the lines struggling to keep them running.

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jallaway 2 years ago

I'm kinda confused. I thought they've been substituting ports for Skagway because of the dock problems. And Skagway is the most distant if the ship was having engine problems.

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CruzeFan 2 years ago

Thanks for the review. This ship has had issues all year that Princess was aware of. They should have repaired the ship, even if they had to cancel several cruises while doing it. I thought notified everyone who was booked of the issues prior to their sailing and given the option to cancel or move to a different ship. It has been noted on several cruise websites about the problems this year

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javawoody 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing

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Other reviews of this sailing

Very good Alaskan cruise

Won’t travel princess again.