Overall a good experience

Island Princess Cruise Review to Alaska - Gulf of Alaska

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 6

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Island Princess

7 Night Voyage Of The Glaciers Northbound (Vancouver To Anchorage)

Sail date: June 07, 2017

Ship: Island Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: C230

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Princess does an excellent job with logistics; you never feel like you're spending all of your vacation standing in line.  The crew is generally very friendly and helpful.  The food is very good.  We enjoyed all of our excursions and felt that Princess made good choices in the companies they worked with, even though we felt that some were more expensive than was warranted.  We were celebrating a special birthday and we didn't really expect much so we weren't disappointed. The credit for the spa could only be used on a port day, and who stays on the ship on a port day?!  We had a family member buy us a special breakfast in our room for the occasion; this included a coffee card for 15 free premium coffees.  The problem was that we didn't get this until the day before disembarkation!  These things were little, as was the "prize" we won of a crystal paperweight that had a koala bear and Australia etched on it - we were in Alaska!  The only real complaint we had though was the bathroom in our stateroom.  We paid the extra money for a mini-suite so that we would have a real bathtub/shower combo instead of the tiny shower in the regular rooms, and the tub was very narrow and had a low ceiling and for some reason the shower curtain was constantly blowing in against our bodies.  The tub area was also moldy and rusty.  My husband is not inclined to use Princess again because of the bathroom situation, but other than that we were mostly pleased.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ship tip

We chose anytime dining, thinking we could make reservations for our group of 7 each night. As it turned out there were 2 nights that they would not take reservations and the other nights they would only take them for certain times (I believe these were 5:30, 5:45, 7:30 and 7:45).

Ports of call

Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia

3 out of 5

Ketchikan, Alaska

3 out of 5

Juneau, Alaska

3 out of 5

Skagway, Alaska

3 out of 5

Whittier (Anchorage), Alaska

3 out of 5
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5 Comments

floridagirl3    7 years ago

Priorities. For some people it's the food, for some the beds, for others it's the entertainment. Just personal preferences and some can make or break one's experience.

cruisingrhoda    7 years ago

I find it interesting that a bathroom makes or breaks your going with princess again when all else was good. we had in inside cabin and loved the bathroom. small but adequate with short and nice storage. it's not the Ritz or the Hyatt but hey it's a ship. now if it malfunctioned, I'd not be impressed. lol

Summerholiday    7 years ago

Goodness you were lucky to get an etched crystal with Australia koala bear on it ... we live in Sydney Australia and everything says MADE IN CHINA LOL go figure ......

nursejuls2002    7 years ago

What ship were you on?? Was it one of the older ones? I am so sorry that parts of your cruise were not good.

floridagirl3    7 years ago

Did the Island Princess through the Panama Canal. We will likely not do Princess again either for the same reason. WORST bathroom I have ever been in on a ship. At least you had a tub, imagine what a regular shower was like, couldn't even turn around. I thought My Time Dining was a mess too, talk about long lines. Regardless, the Canal was awesome, just do it on a different cruise line.

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