Review: Golden Princess to Alaska, May 28, 2011

[Terre]

Okay, sorry this is kinda long and there are a lot of pictures...sorry.

 

Dates: May 28, 2011-June 4, 2011

21st Cruise, 3rd with Princess, 2nd on Golden

Ship: Golden Princess

Ports of call: from Seattle…Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Victoria

Captain: Vincenzo Lubrano

Hotel General Manager: Adam Gorst

Cruise Director: Kelvin Joy

Food & Beverage Director: Bernhard Friesacher

Executive Chef: Jeremy Snowden

Maitre d’hôtel: Luigi Moretti

Weather: We had perfect weather for each port…sunny and warm everywhere except Ketchikan which was cloudy and chilly.

 

Wow! What a cruise! Alaska: Words can’t describe it; pictures don’t do it justice.

This was a great itinerary with awesome ports.

 

We started our journey on May 27th arriving in Seattle late in the evening. Got a shuttle to the hotel and went to bed! We had a long flight as we left Charlotte an hour late because of thunderstorms, and were 3 hours ahead of west coast time.

 

May 28, Seattle:

We booked a morning tour of Seattle with Let’s Tour Seattle. Our e-mail confirmation said that we would have a tour of Seattle and would be dropped off at the cruise terminal around 12:30. The tour went on and on and on, and I finally reminded the driver that he needed to take us to the terminal. Another family on the tour needed to get there also. Well, we finally got there around 1:30 – the worst time to check in. It seemed like forever before we got inside, but the line did move rather quickly. It was cold, though and we had left 90+ temps at home, so temps in the 50s was cold to me! It was a sunny day, but windy, so that was good.

 

Finally on board, we went straight to our cabin and our suitcase was already there! That’s never happened on any cruise! We threw our carry-ons in the cabin and headed to the buffet…it was just as we remembered – crowded and congested. They did have up entrance and exit signs, but the layout is just so confusing that everyone is bumping into each other.

 

Cabin:

We had a mini-suite (E719) which has the covered balcony. We chose that cabin because of the covered balcony in case the weather was bad, we could still use the balcony. The layout was nice with two flat screen TVs, a bath tub which made showering a little easier, and a nice sitting area. The beds when pushed together, made a little larger than a queen bed. We had requested feather pillows and the egg crate mattress. We got the egg crate mattress, but I’m not sure about the feather pillows. I also requested robes, but we didn’t get those. Our steward, Savio, was pretty good at keeping the cabin clean and replenishing our little bottles of lotions and shampoos.

 

Dining:

We had the Anytime Dining which we like, especially with this type of itinerary. Most nights we had shared tables, but a couple of nights we did ask for a table for two when we wanted to make a show on time. Service was inconsistent. We were at a large table one evening with excellent service and got out quickly. The first time we had a table for two, the waiter spent most of his time trying sell wine or commemorative glasses. Service was very slow this night.

 

We also loved the International Café. We got some wonderful sandwiches there and the cookies were the best ever! Great place for an in-between-meals snack.

 

Entertainment:

Embarkation Day: On the first night, the show in the Princess Theater was the Welcome Aboard Show, “One Night Only”. It was pretty good and we enjoyed it. A comedian, Carlos Oscar, also had a brief act. He is really funny and we saw his act the second night. He is very funny and does not use any foul language in his acts, which I appreciate.

 

Sea Day: The show was supposed to be the British Invasion, but one of the dancers hurt their ankle so it was later in the week. I really can’t remember what they had in its place, but we enjoyed it. We also went to Carlos Oscar’s act in the Vista Lounge. He is so funny and we enjoyed his act very much.

 

Juneau: Carlos Oscar’s show was in the Princess Theater, but we were so tired from the day that we went to bed after dinner…still on east coast time, too. I was sorry we’d missed him because we heard great comments from others about his show.

 

Skagway: We finally saw the British Invasion. It was a very good show with songs from the ‘60s to present day by all British singers.

 

Glacier Bay: I think we must have gone to bed early again…don’t remember seeing any shows.

 

Ketchikan: The show in the Theatre was Illusionist Alexander. He was pretty good and we liked his show. They also had a 50s sock hop party in the Explorer’s Lounge.

 

Victoria: No production show, just stuff in the lounges. I finished my packing as everything had to be out by 11:00 this night.

 

Now for the good stuff – our excursions!

 

Juneau:

In Juneau we booked a whale watching tour with Harv & Marv on recommendations from other Cruise Critic members. We loved this tour. Our captain was Captain Steve, a really great guy. He used to be a Presbyterian minister, met his wife in college who is from Juneau. They have 7 children, 3 of which they adopted. In the off season he does marriage counseling and works with a heating assistance program. At the end of our excursion, he prayed with us and I thought that was so nice.

 

Back to the whale watching – awesome is the only word I can find to describe this tour. We saw Orcas and Humpbacks. We also HEARD some whales making the sounds they make and there are no words to describe that, but awesome! I’ve heard it on TV shows and on musical CDs, but my gosh, to actually hear them in the wild with my own ears is just amazing. I tried to get pictures, but it was so hard and I finally gave up and just watched these amazing creatures.

 

After we finished the whale watching part, we were taken up to Mendenhall Glacier. OMG! Another one of those indescribable places. You cannot imagine the majestic beauty of this place. The ice and snow, the mountain, the clear water, you just have to experience it, I can’t describe it. You have to be there and “feel” it. My pictures won’t do that for you.

 

Mendenhall Glacier:

 

Skagway:

Weather was sunny and quite warm. We were told Skagway’s temps got into the 60’s, but on our trip, we had to be close to 80…it was so hot.

 

We booked Dyea Dave in Skagway. We chose Dyea Dave because he came highly recommended from others on Cruise Critic. We met his rep at the Visitor’s Center and boarded Dave’s bus. His sister also drives a bus. The buses are small so you are not packed in with 30 people or so, only around 18. When we started out, someone wanted to buy water so Dave stopped at a store which didn’t open until 8:30 and it was only 8:15. He drove a block or so and stopped at his house, ran in and filled up a cooler with water. As we drove on through town, he told us little tid-bits about the town, the school, etc. It’s the cutest little place you’ll ever see.

 

We continued on and again, the scenery is so beautiful you just can’t describe it. We stopped at an overlook and waited for the train to come by. We got pictures as it crossed a bridge with a beautiful waterfall above and below it. We went on and stopped at several more overlooks on the way to Emerald Lake. Just before we got to Emerald Lake, we stopped at Carcross and took pictures, got our passports stamped and some in our group did some shopping. After leaving there we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant and had sandwiches. We had taken some snacks with us and I’m glad we did because we got hungry before the lunch stop.

 

After leaving there, we made our way to Emerald Lake, and yes, I’m saying the same thing…words can’t describe it. It is so beautiful and the water is so clear. we took some pictures and headed back. We did see a brown bear and a black bear on the way up and back, and also a bald eagle and a caribou  at least Dave saw the caribou! We saw something run across the road!

 

Unless you just want the train experience, a bus will give you more photo opportunities.

 

Back in the town of Skagway, we went to the Gold Rush Cemetery. Some of the graves date back to the 1800s and it’s a neat place to walk through and read the headstones. We climbed the mountain to a beautiful waterfall that is hidden from the cemetery. I would take this tour again. Dave is a very funny, knowledgeable guy who made our trip very enjoyable.

 

On our Skagway trip:

 

Glacier Bay:

Well, you guessed it  words cannot describe the majestic beauty of the park. OMG  we saw the glacier calf approximately five times while we were watching. All around you are glaciers and the huge chunks of ice are floating all around the ship. We had a naturalist board the ship and she talked about the glaciers and gave great information pretty much of the day. The ice is so blue in some places and it’s so neat to see it calf! The ice looks blue when the light hits highly compacted ice and long wavelength colors (reds) are absorbed and short wavelength colors (blues) reflect back through the ice to your eyes. This was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen and will never forget.

 

Glacier Bay:

 

Ketchikan:

Here we had booked a float plane tour with Family Air. The weather was cloudy and a little drizzly when we docked. We were a little concerned that our tour would be canceled, and also that if we did go up, it would be to cloudy to get good shots. We did go up. The plane was big enough for four people including the pilot; however, it was the two of us. As we got farther out of Ketchikan, it wasn’t as cloudy. We saw some awesome sites and we eventually landed in the water and climbed up a hill to a little cabin. From there you could see some beautiful sites. We took more pictures and then headed back. After we landed back in Ketchikan, we took a few more pictures of the town and then we went shopping at the Tongass Trading Company. They have a lot of stuff, clothes, coats, souvenirs, etc. I got a very nice reversible coat for $20!

 

Ketchikan:

 

Victoria:

Our next stop was Victoria, BC. We just walked around this quaint little town. We started the evening just walking through the Water Front to down town. Our walk took us approximately two hours and that was stopping often to take pictures. The Legislative Building is very nice architecturally. All of the houses and buildings are actually. The other interesting building is of course the hotel, the Embassy. Very neat with ivy growing all over it. Just about everywhere you go, there is a beautiful little garden…almost every home has a neat flower garden in the front yard and all around the Water Front walk are flowers. There was a bike race in the downtown area the day we were there and that was fun to watch. As we headed back to the ship, a gentleman walked up and asked if we were on the cruise ship. I told him yes, and he gave us a Victoria pin. That was neat because I collect pins and buttons from the places we visit. He walked with us and we talked and discovered he has a daughter who lives in our hometown, Charlotte, NC. Small world!

 

Victoria:

 

Miscellaneous Stuff:

New Friends: We met a wonderful couple on the first day who are from Juneau, Keil and Moretta. They were so nice and we met them for dinner on another night. We really enjoyed talking with them about Juneau and Alaska in general.

 

Disembarking and Embarking in Ports:

We didn’t have the problems that we read about on Cruise Critic with this. They actually had two gangways that you could use when returning to the ship.

 

Disembarkation Day:

Well, it’s time to say good bye and head home. It’s always sad to leave the ship, but it’s always good to get home, too. This cruise is one that I will never forget and will look at my pictures for many years to come.

 

If you get the opportunity to do this cruise, don’t hesitate  go!

 

The Entire Album:

[tootsie7]

Great review, we leave on the Golden in Sept. I was interested in your thoughts on the tour you did with Let's Tour Seattle other than running late getting you to the ship. Was it a good tour and did you feel like you got your money's worth? We have a group of 14 so I thought this might be a good idea since we have such a large group. Thanks

[sunsetbeachgal]

Great review and lovely pictures...thank you!!

[itzmered]

Great review! We leave friday for Seattle I cant wait!

[Cruizer Bill]

Thanks for the nice review Terre! Glad you enjoyed your cruise!:)

[Coolmama_1]

Great review. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[Terre]

Great review, we leave on the Golden in Sept. I was interested in your thoughts on the tour you did with Let's Tour Seattle other than running late getting you to the ship. Was it a good tour and did you feel like you got your money's worth? We have a group of 14 so I thought this might be a good idea since we have such a large group. Thanks

Thanks everyone!

 

Tootsie: I have to say that it started out pretty good. He picked us up before 8:00. We went through town after picking everyone up at the other hotels. After a couple of hours, though I began to get board. I guess it's my ADD, but he seemed to ramble after a while. Very knowledgable gentleman, but he would start out talking about people and history, go to another story, come back to the first story, etc. I just got board after a while. He was going to take us somewhere for lunch and then I don't know how long after that the tour lasted. He dropped us off before they went to lunch. He just kept talking and driving and I knew we were quite a distance from the terminal so I reminded him that we needed to get there. I think we may have gotten to the terminal by 1:00 even though I said 1:30 in my review. The other couple was from Hawaii and they said they needed a nap and wanted to get to the terminal, too. Hope this answers your question. I would say if you had the whole day before the cruise, to do it then.

[azdmelani]

Grest review, thanks for posting!

[PrincessNancy]

Loved your review! You gave me a couple of things to check out when we go in September (ex: The Goldrush Cemetary and hike to the waterfall). I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed report of your vacation.

[Mike1435]

My wife and I were on the same cruise. We did our own tour of Seattle on Friday and used the Sound Transit Light Rail to and from SeaTac airport to downtown Seattle. After finding the monorail and riding it to the end of the line we went up the Space Needle for some terrific views of the city. We took the monorail back to the mall and had a nice supper at a couple of the restaurants (a liitle here and a little there).

 

There was some kind of protest on Friday evening by high school kids dressed as Zombies that rode the same train we did back to SeaTac Airport station.)

 

The next morning we just rested at our motel and waited for the Shuttle to take us to the dock.

 

We got through the lines and boarded the ship around 2 pm and then we went up to watch as we left Seattle.

 

The only real excursion we did together was the White Pass train in Skagway, and my wife did a city tour of Ketchikan on Friday. We made the mistake of dressing for cold weather when we left the ship, but luckily we had one of those carry on bags on wheels to stuff the coats and gloves and sweaters into.

 

We enjoyed listening to the Midnight Cafe Quartet in the Piazza, and listening to Daniel Oliver who performed in the Vista Lounge one night and at the Promanade Bar.

 

Since we didn't get to see Pike's Place Market the week before we took advantage of the program where Princess took our bags to the airport and we found our own transportation to downtown Seattle. By using that EZ program (the name escapes me) we were one of the early groups to get off the ship.

 

We left the ship just before eight a.m. and were out of customs several minutes later. We caught a taxi fairly fast and he took us downtown to Pike's Place. We must've gotten there somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45.

 

We missed the fish throwing, but saw lots of vendors and the other shops in the complex. We rode the light rail down to SeaTac station again and was able to get to our gate in plenty of time for our flight.

 

We had a most spectacular vacation. It was our first cruise and our first time in the Pacific Northwest. I only wish our first cruise had been several years ago, that way we could've had several more cruises to brag about.

 

I hope the original poster doesn't mind me adding my comments here, but I just wanted to verify that the cruise that person was on was the same wonderful cruise my wife and I enjoyed.

[srpilo]

Thanks for sharing

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed the read.

Srpilo

[tootsie7]

Thanks Terre for the info.

[Wipammy]

Thanks for posting and I love the pics. Reviews with pics are so wonderful! We leave in 2 months and it's great to see these coming in now! :)

[kaseyoz]

What a wonderful review to read. We leave in 2 weeks time for our cruise on july 16th on the Golden Princess. We have a couple of weeks in the Rockies first.

 

Lots of good information there. Now off to check out more of your photos.

[themerle]

Thanks for sharing your review and photos! I can tell you really enjoy Alaska.....I do too! It's not possible to fully describe the sites and sounds of beautiful Alaska!

[2010_cruisers]

Terre.

Nice review, amazing photos and thank you for posting!

[Terre]

Thanks everyone! I hope all of you who have upcoming cruises to Alaska have weather as beautiful as ours.

[Christmas cookie]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We leave on our Golden adventure the first week of August and now can't wait for it to come. Would never have thought to visit the cemetary which is now on my list of must do's. Also, we have two nights in Seattle so on our list of things to do will be the Marketplace and Space Needle.

[Terre]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We leave on our Golden adventure the first week of August and now can't wait for it to come. Would never have thought to visit the cemetary which is now on my list of must do's. Also, we have two nights in Seattle so on our list of things to do will be the Marketplace and Space Needle.

 

I would loved to have time to visit the Space Needle and Pike's Fishmarket. Those are two things in Seattle that I really wanted to go to, but didn't have the time. Maybe one day we can go back with more time.

Enjoy your cruise.

[Tralynn]

Fantastic review! We were on the Golden in Alaska the week before you and loved it as well.

 

I miss it already.....Guess I just have to go back again!

[love2cruisegal]

Thanks for the review - I loved reading about it and seeing your pictures. Brings back memories of our cruise 3 years ago this month. You had fantastic weather, so did we but not as warm. It's definitely a cruise of a lifetime! As you said, "you just can't describe it"!!

[flashdog_1]

Thanks for your review and photos!

 

Perhaps you can answer these questions about Golden. 1) Are there many places (like in staterooms) where you can access internet and use your own laptop?

 

My daughter is in grad school and the cruise is during her regular school week. We know she won't be able to access computer at Skagway, possibly at Ketchikan, and not at Glacier Bay, so she's got to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

 

2) Is there a hair dryer in all cabins, and if so does a woman who styles her hair with one find it adequate?

 

3) We have a 7 a.m. flight back to the east coast the Sunday after the cruise, so wondered if you knew what was the very closest hotel to the airport!!

 

4) Also, I just read that there is a concierge desk in the port where you may check your bags for $3 each. I wondered if you knew how long you may leave them there.

 

Thanks!

[erewhon]

Thank you for your great review and photos.

[Terre]

Thanks for your review and photos!

 

Perhaps you can answer these questions about Golden. 1) Are there many places (like in staterooms) where you can access internet and use your own laptop? Sorry, can't answer about the cabins, but they do have an Internet Cafe where you use their computers. There is a fee for this and I'm not sure what it is. You can probably do a search on the Princess board and get your answer very quickly as I know many passengers use the Cafe.

 

My daughter is in grad school and the cruise is during her regular school week. We know she won't be able to access computer at Skagway, possibly at Ketchikan, and not at Glacier Bay, so she's got to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

 

2) Is there a hair dryer in all cabins, and if so does a woman who styles her hair with one find it adequate?Yes, I believe so; however, if she has long or thick hair, it may take a while for her hair to dry. I usually take mine because it is a little faster and hotter than those in the cabins.

 

3) We have a 7 a.m. flight back to the east coast the Sunday after the cruise, so wondered if you knew what was the very closest hotel to the airport!! We stayed at the Coastal Gateway Hotel...it's within walking distance of the airport, but they do have a shuttle and we used that.

 

4) Also, I just read that there is a concierge desk in the port where you may check your bags for $3 each. I wondered if you knew how long you may leave them there. Which port -- Seattle? I don't know, sorry.

 

Thanks!

 

Hope I answered some of your questions.

[flashdog_1]

With a noon arrival in Juneau, how did it work out timewise for whale watching and getting to Mendenhall Glacier before closing? In reading Harv and Marv's website they state that depending on the time factor, they may just drop you there, for you to take the blue bus back, or they can call a taxi for you. Please tell me more details of the combined excursions. Did your H&M fee include entrance to Mendenhall? What WAS the cost, BTW? Thanks