Star Princess: SB Voyage of the Glaciers June 11-18, 2016 Review (Patters Inside!)

First off, I will say that this was my first cruise experience, and I absolutely loved it. The Star was beautiful, and the staff were all incredible. Alaska is beautiful! I would definitely go back and see it again. Also, I know how coveted patters are on this forum, so I have included pictures of them all at the bottom of this review (in case that's why you're here)! Enjoy.

Flights/Transfer:

We spent almost 20 hours in transit to the ship. We flew from Toronto and took a connection from Vancouver to Anchorage. A note for any Canadians or those booking with Canadian airlines - Air Canada is much better than WestJet (provided it's not Rouge). We paid for the Princess transfer from the airport to the ship (Whittier). Our driver was absolutely fantastic - I believe her name was Carla. She was bubbly and enthusiastic, asked where we'd all come from and provided a great commentary on the landscape and Alaska in general as we drove to the port. Very interesting and beautiful ride.

Embarking:

Embarking was as expected. We were the only ship in Whittier (I am not sure if there is ever more than 1 in the port at once?), so it was not extremely busy but we still waited about half an hour before getting to the front to grab our room keys/cruise cards. Other than the wait, it was very seamless. It was pouring rain as we got on board, and this proved to be our only rainy day the entire cruise! We got on the ship around 5:00pm, and did not have to wait very long for our luggage to arrive.

Cabin:

We were booked in an oceanview on the Plaza deck - P201. I read some reviews prior to the cruise and felt a little uneasy about our cabin, as others had commented that this was not a great location. It actually turned out to be a good room! Yes, it is directly next to the crew area and below the Princess theatre, but we rarely (if ever) heard any kind of noise intruding into our room. The most we heard was a relatively quiet murmuring from what I assume was the theatre while a performance was on. We had to walk to the very end of the hallway to get to our room, but we didn't mind. I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed. The bed was comfortable, and I found sleeping to be extremely easy (perhaps the slight motion of the boat?). Our steward (Jouard) was fantastic. He remembered our names, and always stopped to chat with us in the hallway when we walked by. He was more than happy to answer all of our first-time cruising questions and accommodated all of our requests.

One comment I will include in this section is that I read comments previously talking about the 'age' of this ship. I can definitely see why people wrote this - you can find traces of age and wear/tear everywhere on the Star, but it did not affect my experience in any way, and it is still a beautiful ship.

Food:

The food was really great. We ate in the MDR the first night, and boy did I feel under dressed! We were one of the first ones to be seated after it opened at 5:30pm. The staff are fantastic, and we noticed this throughout the entire trip. I can't remember what I had throughout the week, but the fettucine alfredo was amazing (a guilty pleasure of mine).

My boyfriend had a coffee card and very much enjoyed the specialty coffees at the International Cafe. I don't think I had anything to eat there, but all of the selection looked very good, and he enjoyed anything he ordered.

The Horizon Court was very good also. We tried to eat in the MDR most nights, but would usually go to the buffet for breakfast (and the occasional lunch/dinner). Was very impressed that the selection changed each evening, very unique foods available. The pizza by the pool was not bad. The burgers from the Trident Grill were very good. I also had ice cream once, which I found to be fairly average.

My only somewhat negative comment regarding the food for the entire cruise was that dessert was highly underwhelming. Maybe because the main courses were so delicious? I found the cheesecake I had to be very lacking in flavour, and any other desserts I tried (such as pecan pie) also felt a little lackluster. Not a huge issue though, because most nights I was too full to indulge anyway! Sometimes we would walk to the Horizon Court later in the evening and grab ourselves dessert.

Entertainment:

In terms of entertainment, we did not do very much from the patter. We didn't have much interest in attending the Voice performances, though they seemed very popular. We did see British Invasion though, which was excellent. I was hoping there would be a story line though, and it seemed to just be a well-done musical. The lighting and effects were good though, and the performers were excellent. It was their last show (contracts ending with Princess), so we listened to a tearful goodbye from one of the leads as she spoke to her co-workers at the end of the show. My boyfriend was very pleased with the performance - I am not sure what he was expecting, but he said his expectations were exceeded and that he enjoyed it very much. The theatre was very busy, it would be a good idea to go a little early (instead of 10 minutes before, like we did).

We missed Puppies in the Piazza due to our Yukon excursion, which was sad. We saw the man who brought them on board carrying them away from the ship, the puppies were all sticking their heads out of a reusable shopping bag (adorable!!) Really wish we'd had the opportunity to meet them, even if it was more of a photo opportunity than anything else.

For other events, we did attend the photography seminar.. but it was a beginner's class, so we did not learn much. We were told there would be an advanced class later in the week, but it was never scheduled.

The musical acts/games in the Piazza were enjoyable to watch/listen to. We thought about attending dance classes, but never got around to it. Next cruise we will definitely get a little more involved!

Shops/Sales:

I was hoping for a couple more stores on-board the ship, but what they had was not bad. Some nice stuff in the souvenir type store, though I did not buy anything. Effy had some nice jewelry, but I had previously read a negative review about their stuff on Cruise Critic and did not end up making any purchases. We attended a raffle for Effy one day, they were raffling a goodie bag and unveiling 'never before seen' jewelry. My boyfriend was very keen on finding a nice ring for himself, so he had a look at the displays. When he asked for a price on one of them, we were told that it would be $1700 (Canadian). I did not feel it was worth that much. Obviously the 60%+ sale was not really much of a discount when everything is marked up so highly to begin with. Beautiful looking products though. If anything had been significantly cheaper, I may have considered it.

We were given a coupon booklet on our Ketchikan port day. We took it without really looking at it much, but it actually came in handy. We first went to the Tanzanite store to grab some free stud earrings they were giving out (which, naturally, had a sticker that said "MADE IN CHINA" on the bag, but it was still free!) and then walked around the shops. I was surprised to learn (though I am sure most people here are fully aware of this) that these boutiques and shops are owned by cruise lines, and once the cruising season ends, they all shut down and the ports become small ghost towns! After this, I was hesitant to buy much as locals say that everything is significantly marked up. I did purchase a t-shirt and a hat though. One of the coupons came in handy later on when I found the store that sells products that change colour under UV rays (sun). I bought a few nail polishes and was able to use one of the cruise coupons to get a free tote bag, which seemed to be a good deal.

Scenic Cruising:

Scenic cruising was very enjoyable. One tip right off the bat - I knew to bring sunscreen to Alaska reading advice before the cruise, but didn't anticipate being on deck for hours on end viewing the glaciers, and ended up with a lovely bright red sunburn on half of my face for the rest of the week! So definitely wear it at all times when you know you'll be outside for long periods of time (I know, it seems like common sense, obviously I was a little too excited and not thinking!)

I very much enjoyed the Hubbard and Margerie glaciers. The commentary from the park rangers was very interesting. I took countless photos and waited with eager anticipation to capture a calve on my camera (which did not happen). The glacier did calve many times as we watched on the deck though. It was a spectacular sight (and almost sounded like thunder!)

The naturalist on board was also very pleasant to speak to, and her presentations were very interesting. Closer to Vancouver on our last sea day, we saw humpback whale out front of the boat while standing on the Promenade deck. Previous to this, I had been sitting by the window in our stateroom trying to check-in for our WestJet flights the day after, and saw three porpoises jump out of the water in unison and jump back in!

Skagway:

This was our first port after a couple days of scenic cruising. We booked an excursion through Princess for the afternoon, so we had a lot of time to kill that morning. We got off the boat early (around 7am), and walked around town taking photos. My boyfriend had read about Reid Falls online, so we decided to attempt to walk there. It turned out to be about 20-30 minutes on foot (one way) to get there, but it was an easy walk and no hills. The falls are behind the Gold Rush cemetery, so we saw that too. Both were very neat. I would recommend seeing them, but not paying for a tour (as it would be very easy to catch a bus in that direction if you didn't want to walk). Reid Falls were especially breathtaking, and since we arrived very early, we were uninterrupted for close to half an hour before tour groups starting coming through. The cemetery is also very cool, with a lot of history to be learned. We had a great experience. As for the town itself, I would not recommend shopping here during peak hours - it was PACKED and you could barely move through the sidewalks with all of the people there. Likely because there were 3 cruise ships in port, including the Ruby Princess and a New Holland ship.

After walking back to the ship and eating, we got ready and headed out for our Princess excursion, the Yukon Jeep Adventure (I cannot remember the actual name). Our guide, Kyle, was really great and very informative and friendly. Each group of 4 was given their own Jeep to drive. My boyfriend and I were placed in a group with two others, and alternated driving. I was slightly disappointed that the windows in the back of the Jeep would not open, and was forced to take photos through the streaked glass window with my DSLR. It was a very scenic and enjoyable excursion though. We drove to a small town in the Yukon and stopped to use the washroom (in a town of 300, I miraculously found 5 bars of service with my Canadian cell provider!). After that, we did some off-roading and headed up a long hill to a beautiful lookout point. My only complaint with this excursion is that it was not tailored for photography. I was hoping for more opportunities to take photos, but due to the length of the drive to the Yukon, there was not much time to stop. Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves and felt it was still worthwhile. I would especially recommend to those who aren't as focused on photography as we were!

Post-excursion, I had our GoPro camera in my pocket as we boarded a bus to head back to the cruise ship. Naturally, it fell out of my pocket and was left on the bus seat as I got off!! I did not realize I had left it until I was already back in our stateroom and my boyfriend asked where it was. In a panic, I rushed to the customer service front desk and asked a very friendly representative if there was any way he could get in touch with the excursion company. I did not expect to be able to get it back, since the ship was scheduled to leave port in 15 minutes. I thought maybe they could mail it back to me somehow, because the GoPro was borrowed from a friend, and not even my own. I was feeling very emotional and embarrassed that I had somehow left it behind without realizing. The CS rep called the shore excursion manager, who looked in the Jeep we had ridden in (I had no idea where I had dropped it). They reported back to me that it was not inside. As a last ditch effort, I asked them to check the bus if they wouldn't mind. They found it! To my absolute disbelief and amazement, they managed to run the GoPro back to the ship before the gangway was disassembled! I was so impressed and absolutely speechless for hours afterward. Princess staff truly go above and beyond!

Juneau:

In Juneau, we chose a long excursion with Princess called the Mendenhall Glacier Paddle & Trek, offered by Above and Beyond Alaska (ABAK). This turned out to be an extremely physical excursion! We anticipated a long walk/hike on the glacier, but did not expect a two hour long paddle! Our guides claimed that the fastest way to get to the glacier (other than helicopter) was to paddle across the lake beside it. Unfortunately, our group contained some fairly weak paddlers (including myself!!) and our trip was slow. Needless to say, I am out of shape and my arms were very sore when the day was finished. We were suited up before starting, and given jackets/waterproof pants/boots/backpacks/rappelling gear/spikes for our boots. They also provided a fairly large pack of snacks in each of our backpacks, including carrots & hummus, chocolate bars, a cheese string, a babybel cheese, and a granola bar. We were also given souvenir water bottles to keep. The hike was fantastic, I feel that walking on the glacier was a once in a lifetime experience ,and am very glad we chose to do it. The guides were very informative and always offering to take photos. We drank glacier water (delicious!) and were able to repel over a large hole for a photo later on. Unfortunately there were no easily accessible (or safe) ice caves to visit, which was disappointing because my boyfriend and I specifically booked this excursion in hopes of visiting one. That was okay though, because the excursion itself was very much worth the money. We certainly worked off the buffet from that morning!

The town itself we did not get a chance to see - the Star was docked at the furthest possible location, and we did not feel like walking to town (I realize we could have taken the shuttle, but we also did not see a point with our long excursion taking up almost the entire day).

Ketchikan:

For the Ketchikan day, we stood on the Promenade deck and watched as the ship came into port, which was neat. We waited in line to disembark, and browsed through shops in town before heading to our excursion.

This is the only excursion we did not book through Princess. It was by a company called Ketchikan Helicopters, and absolutely worth every penny. It was much longer than any helicopter tour we saw Princess providing (a full hour in the air), and was also a private tour. I cannot recommend this experience enough! For those reading who are going to Alaska, definitely look into this company! The man who runs it (Ryan), was an absolute pleasure to deal with and very friendly. He constantly asked for our opinions, told us we could point anywhere and he would go closer for a better look, and tried to find us animals from the air to see (which we did! we saw some black bears and cubs, as well as mountain goats). We landed once and he gave us a guided hiking tour through a small forest and showed us the best spots for photography. He does not advertise through the cruise lines because he is a one-man show, and is also a very personable guy.

Here's a photo of the brochure, if you're interested in booking this fantastic excursion: https://www.dropbox.com/s/idzepvoyo1zgrs1/IMG_0475.jpg?dl=0

After our helicopter tour, we shopped around again, but didn't buy too much. We walked over to Creek street, which was very pretty. Noticed quite a few signs around the local shops there saying that they don't pay for kickbacks from cruise lines and don't mark up their prices like the cruise shops do.

Disembarking:

Disembarking was very easy. We signed up for a walk-off group because we had some plans in Vancouver for the day and wanted to get to them as soon as possible. We were assigned group B, and were off the ship by 8:30am. Customs was also easy, she barely looked at our declaration forms before saying, "Welcome back!" and waved us through.

For our day in British Columbia, we booked a car rental through a company called Pacific Rentals (which offered to drop the car off for us at the port, but since we disembarked so early, they were not open and we walked the ten minutes to meet them there instead). Our civic was a nice car and brand new. We drove up the Sea to Sky highway and did the Sea to Sky Gondola. It was absolutely beautiful, and we were there early enough that no tour groups had arrived. We were able to get pictures of the suspension bridge and other areas without anyone around, which was very nice. The walking trails are also gorgeous. I highly recommend this place! Afterward, we went to Porteau Cove in hopes of getting some more nice photos, but by then it had started to pour rain. We decided to continue on and try to go to Lynn Canyon anyway (our original plan). We got a few photos there. It was also a beautiful place, with the rainforest and some waterfalls and a suspension bridge. I would recommend it over Capilano, because Lynn was free and not overly busy. After that, we headed to the airport for our WestJet flights home!

Other Thoughts:

We took advantage of the photo sessions on the ship. The first formal night, we got our photos taken at the stairwells in the Piazza. We liked the photos but didn't love them, so vowed to try again on the next formal night. Thankfully I had enough make-up to cover my red nose from my sunburn after scenic cruising, our photos turned out fantastic the second time around! We had photos taken on a white background and then headed upstairs and got them taken again at another photographer, just so we'd have more choices. We ended up buying a photo package, which was admittedly overpriced, but we loved the photos so much that we didn't care. We got the $99 package with the USB, and are very pleased with the pictures. We attended two raffles for the free $100 credit, but unfortunately did not win and decided to purchase regardless.

Patters! To those who read this entire review, thank you! For those who scrolled down to find these, totally understand that too! I know how desperate I was to find some Star Princess patters before my trip, so I made sure to save them for others to benefit. These are all uploaded to DropBox, and not the best quality because I took photos of them (I don't have a scanner!) but they should be still okay to read!

Click here to view the folder of patter photos!

Note: I took close to 4000 photos on this trip, so if anyone has any specific photo requests or would like further details on anything written above, please let me know and I would be more than happy to accommodate! :)

I am sold on cruising! We put a future cruise deposit down and I am already looking at itineraries for Asia as I wait for the patter photos shown above to upload.

Thanks for a thorough report.

Nice, detailed review. I was on the same cruise, and happened to be watching when the jeep hurriedly pulled up just before the gangway was pulled back and saw the "handoff" of what turns out to have been your camera. Was curious what the issue was, mystery solved, glad it was retrieved for you!

Wonderful Review. Thank you for sharing.

We are doing the Southbound cruise next May... You have added to the excitement by this summary. :)

Thanks for posting the review. It is always great to hear from first time cruisers, especially when they say that they are now hooked. :D

As far as pictures, not really interested in 4000 photos under any circumstance. Maybe post up 30, 40 or even 100 of the best of the bunch? That would be nice to see. BTW, Shutterfly (shutterfly.com) or some other free photo hosting site may work for that.

Thanks for posting the review. It is always great to hear from first time cruisers, especially when they say that they are now hooked. :D

 

As far as pictures, not really interested in 4000 photos under any circumstance. Maybe post up 30, 40 or even 100 of the best of the bunch? That would be nice to see. BTW, Shutterfly (shutterfly.com) or some other free photo hosting site may work for that.

Haha, no I definitely don't intend on posting even 20 of them! I just meant that if anyone wanted to see any single one-off photos from any of the things I mentioned, I could post a couple :)

Nice, detailed review. I was on the same cruise, and happened to be watching when the jeep hurriedly pulled up just before the gangway was pulled back and saw the "handoff" of what turns out to have been your camera. Was curious what the issue was, mystery solved, glad it was retrieved for you!

Thanks! I was so relieved! Glad I could give you some clarity on the mystery Jeep ;)

Excellent report!

If possible, please post some photos of the Juneau excursion. How much did it cost? How long was the entire excursion?

If possible, please post some photos of the Juneau excursion. How much did it cost? How long was the entire excursion?

Will do! I am at work currently, but will be sure to post a few later when I have access to my laptop. The entire excursion went from about 8:30am until 3:00pm. The total cost was 659.90 USD for the two of us, which was expensive but like I mentioned above, well worth it. There were 9 of us total on the excursion, divided into two groups to canoe over to the glacier.

Great review! Thank you sharing and letting me 'revisit' one of our favorite places to go! I must admit, however, you EXHAUSTED me just reading about your activities! Oh, to be young again! Haha!:rolleyes:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are right: Patters are definitely coveted here and I'm delighted to finally be able to get a taste of what might be in store for me when I sail on the Star in September. This will give me hours of pleasure as I go over each line in detail! I'm sure I'll have more questions for you, but I did want to express my gratitude right away - you have certainly made my day!

I was thrilled to read every word of your review and your patters. I'll be on the Island southbound in 58 days and am starting to think I'll never see a patter. But your itinerary and port times was very similar so I have a good idea now.

A few questions: I've been on cruises before where they played the previous evening's programs on the tv. Did you notice if that happened? I don't want to miss 2 hours at each port to catch a speaker but would love to see it recorded later.

And how did your all aboard time compare to your announced port times? I'm hearing, for example that when my cruise says 6:30 - 4pm at Juneau, that we have to be actually be back on board by 3pm. Was that true?

These 58 days are harder than waiting for Christmas when I was a kid!!! And I've been counting down since OCTOBER!!!

Oh, but back to you - thank you very much for taking the time to share. You made my top 5 favorite things of the day list.

If possible, please post some photos of the Juneau excursion. How much did it cost? How long was the entire excursion?

I'm back! Here are 5 photos from the excursion (see previous post for answers to your other questions here). Click on the photo number to see more!

Photo #1

This photo shows you just how long the paddle really is to the glacier! It's about an hour one way (see that green island in front of the glacier, blocking it from view? yeah, you have to paddle around it!)

Photo #2

About halfway through the paddle there, the actual glacier became visible!

Photo #3

Here are the canoes we took across the lake, taken as we arrived at the beach in front of the glacier.

Photo #4

Here's a closer look at the glacier details. This, I think, was what made the entire excursion so incredible. These are details that you just can't see from a distance.

Photo #5

One of the 'activities' we did during the excursion - there was a hole in the glacier (cave, I guess), that went down hundreds of feet into the ground. One of the tour guides drilled his spike into the ground and let people repel over the hole for some neat photos. I was too scared to get very close!

Hope that gives you a good idea of what the excursion is like!

I was thrilled to read every word of your review and your patters. I'll be on the Island southbound in 58 days and am starting to think I'll never see a patter. But your itinerary and port times was very similar so I have a good idea now.

 

A few questions: I've been on cruises before where they played the previous evening's programs on the tv. Did you notice if that happened? I don't want to miss 2 hours at each port to catch a speaker but would love to see it recorded later.

And how did your all aboard time compare to your announced port times? I'm hearing, for example that when my cruise says 6:30 - 4pm at Juneau, that we have to be actually be back on board by 3pm. Was that true?

 

These 58 days are harder than waiting for Christmas when I was a kid!!! And I've been counting down since OCTOBER!!!

 

Oh, but back to you - thank you very much for taking the time to share. You made my top 5 favorite things of the day list.

You're very welcome!

I do believe they played some of the talks on tv afterward, but I did not see any of it to confirm for sure. Mostly we would just leave the channel on with the camera at the front of the boat to see where we were, or we'd have the preview channel on that scrolled through footage from the DVD Princess was selling of the cruise (which included some cool history and facts, some interviews with the naturalist, etc.) we did not end up buying one though.

As for the port times, I did notice that occasionally the patter would claim we were setting sail from a port at a different time than the brochures we received the day before arriving at each port (including details like a map, times we would be there, and town history to read over). Usually the difference was only about a half hour though, and I'd just listen for the captain's announcement in the morning regarding what time to be back. Nothing as drastic as an hour off.

First off, I will say that this was my first cruise experience, and I absolutely loved it. The Star was beautiful, and the staff were all incredible. Alaska is beautiful! I would definitely go back and see it again. Also, I know how coveted patters are on this forum, so I have included pictures of them all at the bottom of this review (in case that's why you're here)! Enjoy.

 

Flights/Transfer:

We spent almost 20 hours in transit to the ship. We flew from Toronto and took a connection from Vancouver to Anchorage. A note for any Canadians or those booking with Canadian airlines - Air Canada is much better than WestJet (provided it's not Rouge). We paid for the Princess transfer from the airport to the ship (Whittier). Our driver was absolutely fantastic - I believe her name was Carla. She was bubbly and enthusiastic, asked where we'd all come from and provided a great commentary on the landscape and Alaska in general as we drove to the port. Very interesting and beautiful ride.

 

Embarking:

Embarking was as expected. We were the only ship in Whittier (I am not sure if there is ever more than 1 in the port at once?), so it was not extremely busy but we still waited about half an hour before getting to the front to grab our room keys/cruise cards. Other than the wait, it was very seamless. It was pouring rain as we got on board, and this proved to be our only rainy day the entire cruise! We got on the ship around 5:00pm, and did not have to wait very long for our luggage to arrive.

 

Cabin:

We were booked in an oceanview on the Plaza deck - P201. I read some reviews prior to the cruise and felt a little uneasy about our cabin, as others had commented that this was not a great location. It actually turned out to be a good room! Yes, it is directly next to the crew area and below the Princess theatre, but we rarely (if ever) heard any kind of noise intruding into our room. The most we heard was a relatively quiet murmuring from what I assume was the theatre while a performance was on. We had to walk to the very end of the hallway to get to our room, but we didn't mind. I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed. The bed was comfortable, and I found sleeping to be extremely easy (perhaps the slight motion of the boat?). Our steward (Jouard) was fantastic. He remembered our names, and always stopped to chat with us in the hallway when we walked by. He was more than happy to answer all of our first-time cruising questions and accommodated all of our requests.

 

One comment I will include in this section is that I read comments previously talking about the 'age' of this ship. I can definitely see why people wrote this - you can find traces of age and wear/tear everywhere on the Star, but it did not affect my experience in any way, and it is still a beautiful ship.

 

Food:

The food was really great. We ate in the MDR the first night, and boy did I feel under dressed! We were one of the first ones to be seated after it opened at 5:30pm. The staff are fantastic, and we noticed this throughout the entire trip. I can't remember what I had throughout the week, but the fettucine alfredo was amazing (a guilty pleasure of mine).

 

My boyfriend had a coffee card and very much enjoyed the specialty coffees at the International Cafe. I don't think I had anything to eat there, but all of the selection looked very good, and he enjoyed anything he ordered.

 

The Horizon Court was very good also. We tried to eat in the MDR most nights, but would usually go to the buffet for breakfast (and the occasional lunch/dinner). Was very impressed that the selection changed each evening, very unique foods available. The pizza by the pool was not bad. The burgers from the Trident Grill were very good. I also had ice cream once, which I found to be fairly average.

 

My only somewhat negative comment regarding the food for the entire cruise was that dessert was highly underwhelming. Maybe because the main courses were so delicious? I found the cheesecake I had to be very lacking in flavour, and any other desserts I tried (such as pecan pie) also felt a little lackluster. Not a huge issue though, because most nights I was too full to indulge anyway! Sometimes we would walk to the Horizon Court later in the evening and grab ourselves dessert.

 

Entertainment:

In terms of entertainment, we did not do very much from the patter. We didn't have much interest in attending the Voice performances, though they seemed very popular. We did see British Invasion though, which was excellent. I was hoping there would be a story line though, and it seemed to just be a well-done musical. The lighting and effects were good though, and the performers were excellent. It was their last show (contracts ending with Princess), so we listened to a tearful goodbye from one of the leads as she spoke to her co-workers at the end of the show. My boyfriend was very pleased with the performance - I am not sure what he was expecting, but he said his expectations were exceeded and that he enjoyed it very much. The theatre was very busy, it would be a good idea to go a little early (instead of 10 minutes before, like we did).

 

We missed Puppies in the Piazza due to our Yukon excursion, which was sad. We saw the man who brought them on board carrying them away from the ship, the puppies were all sticking their heads out of a reusable shopping bag (adorable!!) Really wish we'd had the opportunity to meet them, even if it was more of a photo opportunity than anything else.

 

For other events, we did attend the photography seminar.. but it was a beginner's class, so we did not learn much. We were told there would be an advanced class later in the week, but it was never scheduled.

 

The musical acts/games in the Piazza were enjoyable to watch/listen to. We thought about attending dance classes, but never got around to it. Next cruise we will definitely get a little more involved!

 

Shops/Sales:

I was hoping for a couple more stores on-board the ship, but what they had was not bad. Some nice stuff in the souvenir type store, though I did not buy anything. Effy had some nice jewelry, but I had previously read a negative review about their stuff on Cruise Critic and did not end up making any purchases. We attended a raffle for Effy one day, they were raffling a goodie bag and unveiling 'never before seen' jewelry. My boyfriend was very keen on finding a nice ring for himself, so he had a look at the displays. When he asked for a price on one of them, we were told that it would be $1700 (Canadian). I did not feel it was worth that much. Obviously the 60%+ sale was not really much of a discount when everything is marked up so highly to begin with. Beautiful looking products though. If anything had been significantly cheaper, I may have considered it.

 

We were given a coupon booklet on our Ketchikan port day. We took it without really looking at it much, but it actually came in handy. We first went to the Tanzanite store to grab some free stud earrings they were giving out (which, naturally, had a sticker that said "MADE IN CHINA" on the bag, but it was still free!) and then walked around the shops. I was surprised to learn (though I am sure most people here are fully aware of this) that these boutiques and shops are owned by cruise lines, and once the cruising season ends, they all shut down and the ports become small ghost towns! After this, I was hesitant to buy much as locals say that everything is significantly marked up. I did purchase a t-shirt and a hat though. One of the coupons came in handy later on when I found the store that sells products that change colour under UV rays (sun). I bought a few nail polishes and was able to use one of the cruise coupons to get a free tote bag, which seemed to be a good deal.

 

Scenic Cruising:

Scenic cruising was very enjoyable. One tip right off the bat - I knew to bring sunscreen to Alaska reading advice before the cruise, but didn't anticipate being on deck for hours on end viewing the glaciers, and ended up with a lovely bright red sunburn on half of my face for the rest of the week! So definitely wear it at all times when you know you'll be outside for long periods of time (I know, it seems like common sense, obviously I was a little too excited and not thinking!)

 

I very much enjoyed the Hubbard and Margerie glaciers. The commentary from the park rangers was very interesting. I took countless photos and waited with eager anticipation to capture a calve on my camera (which did not happen). The glacier did calve many times as we watched on the deck though. It was a spectacular sight (and almost sounded like thunder!)

 

The naturalist on board was also very pleasant to speak to, and her presentations were very interesting. Closer to Vancouver on our last sea day, we saw humpback whale out front of the boat while standing on the Promenade deck. Previous to this, I had been sitting by the window in our stateroom trying to check-in for our WestJet flights the day after, and saw three porpoises jump out of the water in unison and jump back in!

 

Skagway:

This was our first port after a couple days of scenic cruising. We booked an excursion through Princess for the afternoon, so we had a lot of time to kill that morning. We got off the boat early (around 7am), and walked around town taking photos. My boyfriend had read about Reid Falls online, so we decided to attempt to walk there. It turned out to be about 20-30 minutes on foot (one way) to get there, but it was an easy walk and no hills. The falls are behind the Gold Rush cemetery, so we saw that too. Both were very neat. I would recommend seeing them, but not paying for a tour (as it would be very easy to catch a bus in that direction if you didn't want to walk). Reid Falls were especially breathtaking, and since we arrived very early, we were uninterrupted for close to half an hour before tour groups starting coming through. The cemetery is also very cool, with a lot of history to be learned. We had a great experience. As for the town itself, I would not recommend shopping here during peak hours - it was PACKED and you could barely move through the sidewalks with all of the people there. Likely because there were 3 cruise ships in port, including the Ruby Princess and a New Holland ship.

 

After walking back to the ship and eating, we got ready and headed out for our Princess excursion, the Yukon Jeep Adventure (I cannot remember the actual name). Our guide, Kyle, was really great and very informative and friendly. Each group of 4 was given their own Jeep to drive. My boyfriend and I were placed in a group with two others, and alternated driving. I was slightly disappointed that the windows in the back of the Jeep would not open, and was forced to take photos through the streaked glass window with my DSLR. It was a very scenic and enjoyable excursion though. We drove to a small town in the Yukon and stopped to use the washroom (in a town of 300, I miraculously found 5 bars of service with my Canadian cell provider!). After that, we did some off-roading and headed up a long hill to a beautiful lookout point. My only complaint with this excursion is that it was not tailored for photography. I was hoping for more opportunities to take photos, but due to the length of the drive to the Yukon, there was not much time to stop. Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves and felt it was still worthwhile. I would especially recommend to those who aren't as focused on photography as we were!

 

Post-excursion, I had our GoPro camera in my pocket as we boarded a bus to head back to the cruise ship. Naturally, it fell out of my pocket and was left on the bus seat as I got off!! I did not realize I had left it until I was already back in our stateroom and my boyfriend asked where it was. In a panic, I rushed to the customer service front desk and asked a very friendly representative if there was any way he could get in touch with the excursion company. I did not expect to be able to get it back, since the ship was scheduled to leave port in 15 minutes. I thought maybe they could mail it back to me somehow, because the GoPro was borrowed from a friend, and not even my own. I was feeling very emotional and embarrassed that I had somehow left it behind without realizing. The CS rep called the shore excursion manager, who looked in the Jeep we had ridden in (I had no idea where I had dropped it). They reported back to me that it was not inside. As a last ditch effort, I asked them to check the bus if they wouldn't mind. They found it! To my absolute disbelief and amazement, they managed to run the GoPro back to the ship before the gangway was disassembled! I was so impressed and absolutely speechless for hours afterward. Princess staff truly go above and beyond!

 

Juneau:

In Juneau, we chose a long excursion with Princess called the Mendenhall Glacier Paddle & Trek, offered by Above and Beyond Alaska (ABAK). This turned out to be an extremely physical excursion! We anticipated a long walk/hike on the glacier, but did not expect a two hour long paddle! Our guides claimed that the fastest way to get to the glacier (other than helicopter) was to paddle across the lake beside it. Unfortunately, our group contained some fairly weak paddlers (including myself!!) and our trip was slow. Needless to say, I am out of shape and my arms were very sore when the day was finished. We were suited up before starting, and given jackets/waterproof pants/boots/backpacks/rappelling gear/spikes for our boots. They also provided a fairly large pack of snacks in each of our backpacks, including carrots & hummus, chocolate bars, a cheese string, a babybel cheese, and a granola bar. We were also given souvenir water bottles to keep. The hike was fantastic, I feel that walking on the glacier was a once in a lifetime experience ,and am very glad we chose to do it. The guides were very informative and always offering to take photos. We drank glacier water (delicious!) and were able to repel over a large hole for a photo later on. Unfortunately there were no easily accessible (or safe) ice caves to visit, which was disappointing because my boyfriend and I specifically booked this excursion in hopes of visiting one. That was okay though, because the excursion itself was very much worth the money. We certainly worked off the buffet from that morning!

 

The town itself we did not get a chance to see - the Star was docked at the furthest possible location, and we did not feel like walking to town (I realize we could have taken the shuttle, but we also did not see a point with our long excursion taking up almost the entire day).

 

Ketchikan:

For the Ketchikan day, we stood on the Promenade deck and watched as the ship came into port, which was neat. We waited in line to disembark, and browsed through shops in town before heading to our excursion.

 

This is the only excursion we did not book through Princess. It was by a company called Ketchikan Helicopters, and absolutely worth every penny. It was much longer than any helicopter tour we saw Princess providing (a full hour in the air), and was also a private tour. I cannot recommend this experience enough! For those reading who are going to Alaska, definitely look into this company! The man who runs it (Ryan), was an absolute pleasure to deal with and very friendly. He constantly asked for our opinions, told us we could point anywhere and he would go closer for a better look, and tried to find us animals from the air to see (which we did! we saw some black bears and cubs, as well as mountain goats). We landed once and he gave us a guided hiking tour through a small forest and showed us the best spots for photography. He does not advertise through the cruise lines because he is a one-man show, and is also a very personable guy.

 

Here's a photo of the brochure, if you're interested in booking this fantastic excursion: https://www.dropbox.com/s/idzepvoyo1zgrs1/IMG_0475.jpg?dl=0

 

After our helicopter tour, we shopped around again, but didn't buy too much. We walked over to Creek street, which was very pretty. Noticed quite a few signs around the local shops there saying that they don't pay for kickbacks from cruise lines and don't mark up their prices like the cruise shops do.

 

Disembarking:

Disembarking was very easy. We signed up for a walk-off group because we had some plans in Vancouver for the day and wanted to get to them as soon as possible. We were assigned group B, and were off the ship by 8:30am. Customs was also easy, she barely looked at our declaration forms before saying, "Welcome back!" and waved us through.

 

For our day in British Columbia, we booked a car rental through a company called Pacific Rentals (which offered to drop the car off for us at the port, but since we disembarked so early, they were not open and we walked the ten minutes to meet them there instead). Our civic was a nice car and brand new. We drove up the Sea to Sky highway and did the Sea to Sky Gondola. It was absolutely beautiful, and we were there early enough that no tour groups had arrived. We were able to get pictures of the suspension bridge and other areas without anyone around, which was very nice. The walking trails are also gorgeous. I highly recommend this place! Afterward, we went to Porteau Cove in hopes of getting some more nice photos, but by then it had started to pour rain. We decided to continue on and try to go to Lynn Canyon anyway (our original plan). We got a few photos there. It was also a beautiful place, with the rainforest and some waterfalls and a suspension bridge. I would recommend it over Capilano, because Lynn was free and not overly busy. After that, we headed to the airport for our WestJet flights home!

 

Other Thoughts:

We took advantage of the photo sessions on the ship. The first formal night, we got our photos taken at the stairwells in the Piazza. We liked the photos but didn't love them, so vowed to try again on the next formal night. Thankfully I had enough make-up to cover my red nose from my sunburn after scenic cruising, our photos turned out fantastic the second time around! We had photos taken on a white background and then headed upstairs and got them taken again at another photographer, just so we'd have more choices. We ended up buying a photo package, which was admittedly overpriced, but we loved the photos so much that we didn't care. We got the $99 package with the USB, and are very pleased with the pictures. We attended two raffles for the free $100 credit, but unfortunately did not win and decided to purchase regardless.

 

Patters! To those who read this entire review, thank you! For those who scrolled down to find these, totally understand that too! I know how desperate I was to find some Star Princess patters before my trip, so I made sure to save them for others to benefit. These are all uploaded to DropBox, and not the best quality because I took photos of them (I don't have a scanner!) but they should be still okay to read!

 

Click here to view the folder of patter photos!

 

Note: I took close to 4000 photos on this trip, so if anyone has any specific photo requests or would like further details on anything written above, please let me know and I would be more than happy to accommodate! :)

 

I am sold on cruising! We put a future cruise deposit down and I am already looking at itineraries for Asia as I wait for the patter photos shown above to upload.

I would love to see photos of the ship - I've been to alaska before and will be on the Star next May - my email is askforgiveness@aol.com or you can post them here if you want/can :)

I would love to see photos of the ship - I've been to alaska before and will be on the Star next May - my email is askforgiveness@aol.com or you can post them here if you want/can :)

Absolutely! Unfortunately the majority of my photos are nature shots, but I can post some pictures of the back of the boat (we spent a lot of time there), as well as some of the upper decks and Promenade. I don't have any ship interiors though. If that's okay, I'll post some after work later tonight!

Absolutely! Unfortunately the majority of my photos are nature shots, but I can post some pictures of the back of the boat (we spent a lot of time there), as well as some of the upper decks and Promenade. I don't have any ship interiors though. If that's okay, I'll post some after work later tonight!

Anything is appreciated! :) Thanks so much for posting this review b/c we haven't heard hardly anything from the Star/Alaskan year :)

'kirenne'....thanks for your well organized & easy to read review! :)

I'm not big on desserts & agree that the poolside soft serve ice cream (or frozen yogurt?) isn't great but I'd recommend trying their freshly made ice creams in the MDR. They have several rotating flavors of ice cream, sorbet & gelato at lunch & dinner and those are very difficult for me to resist! :p

Newer ships such as the Crown & Ruby have several flavors of gelato at the International Café ($1.50/3 scoops) and the Royal & Regal have Gelato's for a nice variety of tasty treats ($3.50 or 1 coffee card punch).

It's been 6 years since we last sailed on the Star & we're looking forward to sailing on the Star again early next year. :)

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review.

Seems like they were banking on everyone getting worn out during the day because that patter is a snoozer after 9PM

Anything is appreciated! :) Thanks so much for posting this review b/c we haven't heard hardly anything from the Star/Alaskan year :)

No problem! I had noticed previous to my cruise that not much was posted about the Star either.

Here are some photos!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2h3mvptex32h3ay/AABebwb-74ZmAWUSAYYjftrja?dl=0

Sorry I couldn't give you a better idea of the interior of the ship!

So glad you posted your review quickly. We were on the same cruise --our second to Alaska. It was a terrific cruise --our fifth on Princess. My review, that includes our land tour, will take a while as lots to do after being away from home for two weeks.

So glad you posted your review quickly. We were on the same cruise --our second to Alaska. It was a terrific cruise --our fifth on Princess. My review, that includes our land tour, will take a while as lots to do after being away from home for two weeks.

Looking forward to reading yours! Really wish we had done the land tour as well.

Kirenne or Alaskanb,

Do either of you remember whether they served Baked Alaska on the final night? If so, was it a big deal or just another dessert option? I'm trying to figure out when to schedule our anniversary celebration and it seems silly to plan it on a night when there is already a special dessert. Thanks!