Wasn't the trip I expected because we weren't forewarned about the onboard mask policy. Visit to Hubbard Glacier was a HUGE disappointment since we didn't get closer than 10 miles from the face.
Grand Princess Cruise Review to Alaska - Gulf of Alaska
Overall the trip was enjoyable and with the cruise through Prince William Sound and stop in Whittier, we got to see some beautiful parts of Alaska that aren't on most of the Alaskan cruise agendas. As mentioned, we were hugely disappointed in the Hubbard Glacier visit and the lack of communication from the captain on this ship. The entertainment staff were all very friendly and approachable by the passengers. Their presence before and after the shows was a pleasant surprise and something we had not witnessed on most of our previous cruises.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Went relatively smooth
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Service in the dining room and specialty restaurant was excellent, however they need more staff in the buffet without self service available.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Enjoyed the trivia and other activities that the entertainment staff presented around the ship
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Stage shows were great as we have come to expect from Princess. Also enjoyed many of the other bands that performed around the ship
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
All of the waiters that we interacted with, as well as our room steward, were always willing to please and seemed generally happy to be on board
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was adequate for our needs and we enjoyed the outside space for viewing the wildlife and scenery of Alaska. Our room steward was always very thorough and we never had to ask for additional items throughout the cruise.
We drove our vehicle to and parked in the Canada Place parking lot, which allowed for easy embarkation and disembarkation at this port. They do a great job of handling multiple ships on a daily basis
Since we visited Ketchikan twice, we got to see both rain and sunshine on the trip and we took the totem pole park tour on the sunny day, and we learned several new bits of information we did not know from our other previous visits to this port.
We also visited Juneau twice during this cruise and took the whale watching tour on the first stop, which was again a great experience since the whales are around the waters for their summer feeding and put on a great showing.
As we also visited Glacier Bay twice on this trip, we got both a very cloudy, foggy day on the first visit, but we were treated to a close up view of the glaciers. On our second visit a few days later, the skies cleared and we were treated to some wonderful views of the glaciers and towering snowcapped mountains in the background that were not viewable on our first visit.
We visited this port in 1994 on an Alaska State Ferry when the only method for driving out of Whittier was to load our vehicle onto a flatbed train car and be transferred through the then rail only tunnel to drive off of the railcar in Portage. We took the 160 mile jet boat tour in Whittier and very much enjoyed the views and proximity to the glaciers we were treated to.
We have visited Hubbard Glacier multiple times on other cruise lines and were looking forward to this visit as sort of our trip highlight. We were totally disappointed when the Grand Princess stayed away at least 10 miles from the face of the glacier. Not sure of the reasons for not going closer to the Hubbard glacier because the captain did not inform us of much during this cruise. Communication was not what we have been used to in our past trips.
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