This was a special treat for us to celebrate 2 milestone birthdays together on something we've never experienced. It's a lot of homework preparation, reading of fine print documents, and uploading to the Princess Medallion app. So be prepared to invest several hours, especially due to covid restrictions and if it your 1st cruise. Alaska cruises are expensive if you want to take a excursion off the ship, and the food prices will give you menu sticker shock.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Chaotic confusing 3 hr standing in line 12 noon to 4pm
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining was very good, speciality dining was a waste of extra cruise dollars, difficult to get a res, menus are interesting but the food was nothing special. Service was a bit snobby when we told them the entire was too salty to eat and was cold. They also charge $1 for a bottled water even if you purchase the beverage plus upgrade for your cabin. Lol!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Entertainment everywhere! Game show type venues, bingo, etc. The best is the talent of the performers, singers, musicians. We made it a point to sit, listen and some dancing after dinner. The casino allows smoking so we couldn't go in and play.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Excellent as mentioned!
Children's Programs
We did not travel with our grandchildren.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The Discovery Princess is new and it shows well! The entire cruise team is well trained in customer service, professional, polite, friendly. Our assigned room steward, the dining staff, the bar tenders, waiters, servers are Excellent!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Discovery Princess is beautiful ship, launched in 2022, so very modern, easy to get directions with the latest technology of large interactive displays at the elevators to help with location. Of course the cruise staff is very happy to help with directions!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
A balcony with a nice layout for 2 people for a 7 day cruise. The light color wood and excellent lighting made it easy to enjoy staying in and taking in the scenery of the inside passage.
Ship tip
It's a really large ship! Find the places you want to be your comfort zones for exploring, eating, drinking, and relaxing and enjoy being there without worrying you need to stay up on all the activities offered daily every hour.
We arrived the evening before the cruise and just checked into the hotel to get some sleep since we came from the East coast time zone. But after disembarking at the end we spent the morning and afternoon at Pike Place Market and had good grazing food, coffees, teas, and an overall fun day before taking Uber to the airport.
It was 5am just before daybreak but the scenery is magnificent if you're into nature and will set your alarm to enjoy it. The ship passes very slowly through so sit back get a large cappuccino from the International Cafe at 6am when the open and enjoy!
Juneau was nice, but kind of light industrial. We did the Mendenhall glacier and whale watching tour and although a bit pricey at around $400 for 2 with tips, it was an Alaska experience you should try to plan and budget for. Lunch for 2 grilled halibut sandwiches and 2 Alaska beers was over $100.
Sitka was interesting as an alternative to Skagway Puente the rock slide, but it was fun to walk around and see the salmon swimming at the maritime hatchery.
Loved Victoria! Beautiful with their 12,000 hanging floral baskets lining the streets. Extremely clean, safe, and excellent restaurants and menus and customer service! We plan to go back on a long weekend and enjoy this gem of Canada!
Very well organized and smooth assuming you follow procedures for luggage and like getting up extra early 6am on you final day of a 7 day vacation. The Princess team made sure everyone knew where to go and pick up their luggage and go through US Customs.
First cruise? First cruise with Princess? Newer cruisers have a longer wait to board, which is normal for all cruiselines. As the old saying goes, rank has its privileges. I rarely spend more than 30 minutes to board once arriving at cruise terminal, especially if all your info has been inputed into the app. I have eaten in the specialty restaurants, and found it not to be overly salty, but everyone has different degrees of taste. It's also known that Alaskan cruises are pricey due to short season, unlike the Caribbean that is year round. If you haven't done all the research, you can't blame anyone but yourself.
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