Golden Princess Alaska Cruise Review
September 3, 2011 – September 10, 2011Golden Princess Photos
Ship Photos
Ports
Itinerary:
• Seattle – Smart Casual
• Sea Day – Formal Night
• Juneau– Smart Casual
• Skagway – Smart Casual
• Glacier Bay – Smart Casual
• Ketchikan – Smart Casual
• Victoria – Smart Casual
• Seattle
This was our eight cruise on Princess and our third on the Golden Princess.
Embarkation: We were very impressed with Pier 91. We arrived at the pier at approximately 10:45 and were checked in no more than 15 minutes after being dropped off.
After checking in we were taken to the waiting area and sat there for about 20 minutes before boarding began. We were on the ship by 11:30AM and our cabin was ready at that time.
On a scale of 1 – 10, embarkation was a 10.
Golden Princess: This was our first post dry-dock cruise on Golden. The improvements Princess made (Piazza, International Café, Vines, etc) were 95% successful. The 5% not successful being the addition of MUTS – we know a lot of folks like it, but we just don’t. It was too loud and always seemed to be on.
We had previously sailed with the Captain’s Circle Hostess (Debi) and Future Cruise Consultant (Sandy) so it was really nice to see them both again. They really made us feel special throughout the course of the cruise.
We had cabin E-721 (Cat AD), a covered mini-suite, on the starboard side aft. The cabin is above the Vista Lounge. We heard no noise at all from the lounge during the course of the cruise. The balcony was great and kept us protected from the rain. We also loved having a balcony because on the evening of our first sea day, a humpback whale came up twice by the ship, not far from our balcony – what a great experience!
We were assigned second sitting for dinner in the Canaletto dining room and ate there four of the seven nights. Food was good as was service. We had really nice dining companions who were on their first cruise. They were very nice and quite a bit of fun as well. We enjoyed spending time with them both at dinner and around the ship too.
We had dinner in Sabatini’s one evening and the food was excellent, as was our service. Our waiter, Ricardo, never left us wanting for anything.
We had breakfast & lunch in the International Café most days and it was always good.
The Trident Grill had awesome hot dogs and hamburgers, and you gotta love the pizza by the slice at Prego as well.
We tried the buffet for dinner one night but it really wasn’t that good. Thankfully, there isn’t a lack of food on board – we had pizza and hamburgers by the pool.
Our bar of choice was the Promenade Bar. It’s a great place to have pre & post-dinner cocktails. Paulette and Red were the bartenders and Mark and Jaypee were bar servers. The four of them were so much fun and really helped make our cruise special. Paulette, Mark & Jaypee all participated in the Martini Demo in the Piazza on the 1st sea day and I was able to participate by shaking a Milky Way martini. The best part is you get to drink the martini you shake. Delish!
Overall, the ship is in really good shape with little sign of wear and tear. The conversion of the Atrium into The Piazza was very well executed. We also like that Golden still has the Vista Lounge versus Club Confusion (um, Fusion) like on the newer ships.
Ports:
Juneau:
On the way into Juneau, we saw another humpback whale just off of the port side of the ship and got a few good pictures of it.
We did the Whale Watching & Mendenhall Glacier Photo Safari, booked through Princess. The trip was run through Gastineau Guiding and was very well done. The excursion started with 2 ½ hours of whale watching with our tour guide Jim and boat captain Jim (2 different Jims). The guide instructs you on the best settings to use on your camera in order to capture the whale pictures. The tour is great for any type of camera use, from point and shoot to DSLR. We saw many whales and got some great pictures as well. After the whale watching, we boarded a small bus to a short hike through the rain forest and up to Mendenhall Glacier. The forest and glacier were spectacular and offered many wonderful opportunities for pictures. The total length of the excursion was about 5½ hours.
After our excursion, we walked around town for a while and then took the Mt. Roberts Tram up to the viewing station (approx 1800 feet up Mt. Roberts). What a view! They had a nice gift shop at the top with some unique art pieces. They also had a bald eagle being recuperated back to health too.
Skagway:
We booked our own tour in Skagway (Yukon Rail & Bus Excursion With 15-Minute Dogcart Ride) through Chilkoot Charters. We were met at the dock @ 7:30 by our tour guide and driven over to the train (which was about 2 blocks – could have walked). Chilkoot had the last two trains of the car reserved for them.
Once the train started, we could go stand on the platform outside. We stayed out for almost the entire 1½ hour ride. It did get wet and cold, but it was so worth it. The scenery was spectacular.
Once we got to Fraser, BC, we showed our passports to Canadian Immigration and then boarded a small tour bus and proceeded to the Yukon. Our tour guide, James (every guide we had on this trip was named Jim or James), provided great information about the area and stopped at many places along the way for pictures.
We proceeded to Caribou Crossing where a barbeque lunch was provided and an opportunity to play with the sled-dog puppies is also offered. We had booked a 15 minute dog-cart ride as part of our excursion as well, and that was amazing. We highly recommend it!
After lunch, we boarded the bus and headed back toward Skagway. We stopped at Emerald Lake (amazing!) and then into the town of Carcross which is very quant and picturesque. We really enjoyed wandering through town and getting pictures.
The tour ended back in Skagway where we were dropped off in town (at our request) and explored for a bit.
Glacier Bay:
What can we say about Glacier Bay other than spectacular! We sailed in around 6:30 AM and made our way through the bay until we reached Margerie Glacier. We stayed alongside there for about an hour or so. It was incredible. We even saw a small bit of ice break off (very small, but still interest to see).
From there we moved out to John Hopkins Glacier and then out into the bay again. As we left Glacier Bay, there was ample opportunity for more whale watching.
Ketchikan:
It was raining pretty heavy in Ketchikan. We rented a 1966 Ford Mustang for two hours and did a self tour. We drove both north and south of town just taking in the scenery.
After we returned the car at the dock, we walked around town for a couple of hours. We really enjoyed Creek Street – very quaint.
Victoria: We didn’t arrive until 6:30PM so we only had about 4½ hours here. We went into town with some friends we made on board and had Chinese food for dinner. We enjoyed dinner and the town. We were back on-board by 9:30 or 10. We did bring a big bag of Chinese food back for Paulette, our bartender at Promenade Bar, which was pretty funny bringing back onto the ship. Our friend had to be “wanded” as she carried it on. It was worth it as Paulette seemed to enjoy it.
Disembarkation:
Simple. We hung out at the Promenade Bar with our new found friends (including Paulette) until it was near our disembarkation time. We then made our way back to the Platinum disembarkation lounge in Sabatini’s and waited about 3 minutes before our color was called.
Once off the ship, we found our bags in about 2 minutes and were off to meet the car service we had booked.
Overall, this was a wonderful cruise. Our only real issue would be that the volume of MUTS and of the band in the Piazza was too loud. Other than that, all was very nice. The itinerary is amazing and we will definitely come back to Alaska again. We met so many people on the cruise that made it even more special. Thanks to all who made this such a great time!!!
Craig
[ 09-20-2011: Message edited by: cljw ]
[ 09-20-2011: Message edited by: cljw ]
[ 09-20-2011: Message edited by: cljw ]