Amazing Service and View

Item: Grand Princess
Rating: 4.1
Author: adaggett

Grand Princess Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

adaggett

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5

10 Night Alaska Inside Passage With Glacier Bay (San Francisco Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 25, 2018

Ship: Grand Princess

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 228

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

The staff were mostly amazing! The cruise catered to 50+ year olds, but I was still able to find something to do.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

The dining rooms and specialty restaurants had AMAZING food. It was mostly seafood for the Alaska cruise, so if you don’t like seafood, it was difficult. However, the buffet food was barely eatable. But honestly, I can understand that since they’re cooking in huge batches all day and all night.

Nightclub

3 out of 5

There was hardly anyone ever there and it was hard to find. I went the first night and it was made out to be a huge thing, but when i walked in, I saw 4 people and they were all at least 40.

International Cafe

5 out of 5

The dessert and Cuban sandwich were AMAZING. I had a Cuban sandwich almost every day on the cruise. It never failed me. The hazelnut chocolate mousse were also amazing.

Horizon Court

3 out of 5

Food was sub-par, but was understandable. They need more room to sit though.

Da Vinci (Main Dining Room)

5 out of 5

Staff and food were amazing! Menu a little confusing though.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

There was a few nice heated pools and hot tubs as well as a nice gym and a church. The clubs were okay, but the cruise seems to be designed for much older generations than mine. Most activities included knitting or drinking. I’m 18 and was too old for the teen center but too young for most other things. I was excited when I saw an 18/20 group for 18-20 year olds, but we had one meeting the first night and that was all. There were no activities through the cruise for us. So if we didn’t click with a new friend the first day, we were alone the entire time.

Gymnasium

3 out of 5

I’m 18 and could use the gym. But my brother was told that at 16 he needed 2 parents with him in order to just lift weights without a machine. When I went in there, multiple times I saw a girl that looked around 8 and a boy around 5 lifting weights.

Calypso Reef And Pool

5 out of 5

The food was good and I’m so happy the pool was heated!

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Princess Theater

4 out of 5

The venue was big and they allowed you to bring food in, which was nice. But their sound system needs to be better. It would often cut out or just not be loud enough in general.

Movies Under The Stars

4 out of 5

The movies were often late at night and they didn’t have nearly enough blankets or seats. Plus, people swimming weren’t watching the movie and would often yell or purposely splash at those of us watching the movie.

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

I wish I could give a 4.5. Our waiters at dinner were AMAZING. Ross and Wilbert were ours and we loved them. They made us laugh and made sure we had what we needed. Ross learned our names by the end of the first dinner and was always there to tell a joke or suggest a drink. However, when we went to the sit-down pizza parlor, some of the waiters acted as if we were just inconveniencing them when we wanted to order drinks. They would roll their eyes or practically throw our pizzas at us. The cruise director, Matt, was so funny and really helped out with the crowd below the age of 50. Mighty Maggie was a wonderful addition to the cruise and was a great choir director. Another downside was our room steward. It was sort of disappointing when we were told we couldn’t use both bunk beds in our room because it “gave (her) more work to do”. I was in a room with me and my two little brothers. If they don’t both have top bunks, there’s a fight. I understood where she was coming from, but she made my brothers scared of her. They refused to walk down the hallway if she was there.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

The layout was confusing at times, including while trying to find the botticelli dining room. However, after a few days you’d get the hang of it. The common areas were always clean and well maintained.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

I would wait until any kids you are taking with are old enough to trust to wander about on their own.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Juneau, Alaska

4 out of 5

A lot of this was either shopping or staring at a glacier. Which I don’t mind, but the mosquitoes sucked (literally). But it wasn’t nearly as cold as we expected and we had enough time to look around.

Thumbs Up 4

Skagway, Alaska

5 out of 5

We took the train to Canada and it was AMAZING. There was plenty of time to visit everything. Shopping was nearly all jewelery, but there were some amazing views from the train and some cool buildings.

Thumbs Up 7

Ketchikan, Alaska

3 out of 5

Once again, mostly shopping for jewelery. My family went to the lumberjack show which was very obviously staged. Watching a staged show is really no problem, but they made it REALLY obvious that it was staged. Too much time given to visit this port.

Thumbs Up 0

Victoria, British Columbia

3 out of 5

It was cool, we visited Butchard Gardens and bought plenty of maple syrup. However, we only got 2 hours on an 11 acre garden. We didn’t get nearly enough time to look around.

Thumbs Up 2

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Traveler Photos

4 Comments

Lin7720 4 years ago

Great review and I do sympathize with her, some cruises ARE mostly for us, the 50+ Crowd. Check out Caribbean cruises out if Florida, you will find a younger crowd or Disney cruises where you will find everything to be catered to young folks and not just children!

Thumbs Up 0

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tomkitten 6 years ago

I’m very sorry to hear that the room attendant discouraged your brothers from using the bunks. I hope that you to your folks mentioned it to someone in a supervisory position. The room attendant’s job is to make sure the guests in her charge have a great cruise, not the other way around.

Thumbs Up 0

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jtc1313 6 years ago

Thank you for your intelligent and articulate review. It was great to get the perspective of someone under 21. I hope you get a chance to cruise again in the near future and look forward to your thoughts on that trip as well.

Thumbs Up 0

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IkeDeb 6 years ago

Nice

Thumbs Up 0

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