Alaska medallion class cruise
Royal Princess Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 85
7 Night Voyage Of The Glaciers Northbound (Vancouver To Anchorage)
Sail date: June 22, 2019
Ship: Royal Princess
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: B604
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Amazing! When doing the same cruise again would definitely make sure to book excursions in Juneau and Skagway as there really isn’t much to explore within walking distance of the ship when docked. If your taking a cruise on this ship or any other royal class, the enclave is a must do for the extra level of relaxing Without the crowds.Embarkation
Embarkation was smooth expect that because my wife has a “foreign” passport we had to wait in an extremely long line to get through customs, only because less then 30% of the customs booths were allotted for “foreign” passports and there was a large population of foreign passports to process. We waited for over two hours to get TO the check in area, after we were through customs and back to Princess check in the process was smooth as silk, we picked up our medallions and walked straight onto the ship to start relaxing.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food on the royal was amazing! My wife and I had an awesome time during our cruise and we were more then pleasantly surprised by the international dishes available in addition to typical American cuisine in horizons Buffett. For breakfast she could have traditional Indian dishes while I could enjoy made to order omelettes with bacon and French toast, couldn’t have been happier with that. The only negative we had food wise, was in the crown grill, we may have just had an “off” night or just become far too accustomed to the steaks I cook at. Home, but that experience could have been better, a break steak on a plate with just special salt feels like what I would get at home not in an upscale restaurant, still amazing dining experience, just don’t think I would spend EXTRA to eat there again.
Onboard Activities
Lots of available activities to enjoy, plenty of planed activities and events such as trivia contests to enjoy through out
Entertainment
We didn’t end up going to any of the stage shows as there was so many other activities that kept us busy and we kept missing the shows, we heard from other guests that the stage show was well worth the time to watch and was a well executed show.
Service and Staff
Absolutely fantastic! We still talk about the service we received during our vacation from the staff on board the royal!! We recently completed another coastal cruise with princess and were delighted to meet again one of the servers we befriended on our trip on the royal, she had been transferred to another ship and she remembered us as well as our drink order, this went a long way to making us feel the personal over and above experience we have come to expect whe vacationing with Princess!
Ship Quality
Excellent design and very well maintained, I am a picky person when it comes to design details, and I was very pleased with the decor and aesthetics of the ship, overall made for a relaxing and positive vacation experience!
Cabin / Stateroom
Very clean a Nd in good condition, our cabin Stewart was amazing we felt very happy leaving him a tip in addition to the regular gratuity, he really went above and beyond to help us feel comfortable, and relaxed.
Ports of call
Disembarked here didn’t spent really any time in Whittier this trip, in the past during visits Whittier has been an amazing place to visit coastal glaciers and learn about the history of how and why Whittier became what it is today from a top secrete military base to a highly popular cruise port. Also can’t say enough about how awesome the Anton Anderson Tunnel is, straight underneath a whole mountain in a driving space barely larger then the motor-coach your being driven in and built so long ago!
Thumbs Up
2
Princess does an amazing job with glacier bay!! They brought naturalists onboard to narrate our entire trip through the park and provide informative stories about the histories of the glaciers, how they form, who discovered them and so much more, all was available through the ships TV/PA and love on deck, we choose to tune in on our stateroom tv and watch the glaciers from the comfort of our own stateroom balcony to avoid the crowds on the upper decks.
The small town of Skagway is beautiful and interesting to explore but not for more then two hours, when going to this port it is best to do the Yukon route train excursion, you will get a better opportunity to really explore the location, and get a good feel for what Skagway/Yukon is like now and way back then!
We got really lucky weather wise and had an unprecedented view of the glaciers and mountain range surrounding, even the onboard naturalists commented that they don’t know the names of all the mountain peaks we were seeing because they are just so unused to seeking them that clearly! Definitely best time to cruise Alaska is late June!
Probably would have enjoyed this port more had we book an excursion, not much to see just around the breath. We did enjoy the crab shack, even though we didn’t go to Tracy’s another close location had competitive pricing and equally good crab.
Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia
Disembarkation
Went smooth, we had a pre planned excursion through Princess that was intended to take us from wittier to the Anchorage airport after a brief tour. We did end up at the airport however it would have been helpful if the tour description had informed us that the tour ended at the tourism centre and then shuttled to the airport. Princess in the ended up setting us up with complimentary taxi vouchers to get to the airport ahead of the regular hourly shuttle departure as we were concerned about customs delays, so all in all a great experience disembarking.