Long Review of B2B on Sun Princess 5/9 Alaska cruise (with pictures)

[Coral]

Sun Princess May 9th and May 16th

 

This review is very long - sorry about that. I did cover the fact that we had Norovirus on our ship the first week and how the ship handled the situation. I tried to organize it but am not sure I did a good job. If you have any questions - let me know.

 

Link to Pictures

 

This is going to be a difficult review for me to write. This is probably the first cruise with Princess that I wasn’t pleased with a lot of the service on the ship and this is the first cruise I have been on where the ship has acknowledged that there was norovirus on the ship. I know I have been on sailings before with a few cases of norovirus but on the first week’s sailing, there was approx 6% of the passengers with norovirus (121 out of 2000 passengers) and .04% of crew (4 out of 852 crew).

 

Quick background of me – I am 35; I have sailed many times with Princess along twice with RCCL, once with Carnival and once with Celebrity. This was cruise #5 and #6 to Alaska (back to back). I like back to backs in Alaska because if the weather doesn’t cooperate one week, there is always the following week. Overall the weather was OK. There were many days in which I thought it was going to rain and it may have rained for the first hour but was nice the rest of the time.

 

Before I get into the ports and what I did each day – I wanted to cover a few things.

 

Appearance of the ship – The ship is in pretty good condition. It did show some wear but it would be similar to a new ship that has had passengers on the ship non-stop for 9 months. There was nothing obvious that I thought needed to be replaced or anything that I thought was unclean. This is my 2nd time on the Sun Princess and while I think the Coral class ships are my favorite, the Sun class ships are my 2nd favorite.

 

Entertainment on the ship was excellent! The best I have seen on Princess. Trevor Bradford was CD and Brett Siborne was Sr. Asst CD – both were excellent. The singers Joe Sackenheim and LJ Smith were excellent and Piano Man was my favorite Show. There was also Tribute and Curtain Up.

 

My cabin was an obstructed outside cabin on Dolphin Deck – D607. It turned out to be a good location. It was close to the atrium and atrium elevators, it was also close to the aft stairs and elevators and one deck away from the Promenade deck. Right below me was the photo gallery (which was quiet at night) and nearby was the Internet café, which I frequented often.

 

I ended up with my least favorite room steward on this trip. My mail showed up (if it did at all) about 5 hours later from the time my friend got his mail. A lot of my mail did not show up at all including my information for my free excursion in Whittier, my passenger survey/elevation form, etc. .

 

I sent several items to laundry through my room steward “she kept forgetting to pick it up”. It was difficult to keep track when it would come back. On the last day, I realized she hadn’t returned all of my laundry that day (a sweater was missing) and she didn’t want me to report it to the Purser’s Desk and when I did, she got very upset with me. My sweater never showed up and I suggested to her in the future when she picks up laundry, that she double check everything is there and she then got upset that I reported this to the Purser’s Desk. I was given a “statement of loss” from the Purser’s Desk and I need to follow up with Princess and/or my insurance company to have this covered. This room steward walked into my room 2x with out knocking, which I found unacceptable. I had also requested an egg crate mattress pad and there was no way I could explain this to her and she was unwilling to ask about this. I have never had problems on other ships with this.

 

My service in the dining room the first week was not very good (I had anytime dining). Strangely enough, it was pretty good the following week. The first week, our waiters were not taking the soufflés out of the pans they were baked in, it was just given to us. On lobster night, the waiters did not take the lobster out of the tails (I don’t eat lobster – not sure if this is the right terminology). I remember sitting at the table and everyone was waiting for this to happen and for the waiters to return to do this and they never did.

 

I met and got to know several people from CC on this cruise and they were all wonderful people. Some also had issues with this ship but they were different issues then what I had (they had great waiters but no luck with Purser’s Desk with issues), etc. I like Princess and consider the problems I encountered to be “not the norm” and it will not prevent me from sailing again with Princess.

[Coral]

Part II

 

Once norovirus hit, everything had to be served so we had to ask for butter, rolls, salt and pepper. I once asked for a roll and it took about 10 minutes to come and then another 10 or 15 minutes before I could get butter. I was not pleased with the service at all. At one point I thought it was because of norovirus on the ship but I spoke with others and they had good service, and their soufflé was taken out of the pan, their lobster tails were removed for them, etc .. . So, I don’t think it was due to Norovirus or entirely to Norovirus. The second week – I didn’t encounter any of these problems and the same precautions were still in place (bread and butter served, salt and pepper served).

 

During the first week – on the 2rd day (May 11)– we were in Ketchikan. Right before I left the ship I saw some crew people wearing masks and with a bag of laundry. I knew that was a sign of norovirus on the ship but I had seen it previously on ships with out a huge breakout so I wasn’t overly concerned. By the time we returned to the ship that day – things had changed drastically on the ship.

 

At meals in the dining room – hand sanitizers appeared before the entrance to the dining room and it was mandatory to use them. Salt and pepper shakers had been removed and butter and roles were served by the waiters. In the Horizon Court – hand sanitizers were also present and mandatory and all food was served directly to the passenger by crew. Hand sanitizers were also in the pizzeria and at the gangway when one left the ship and re-entered the ship. All of the public bathroom doors were propped open so that people who did choose to use public bathrooms would not touch the door handles.

 

The Captain had come aboard at some point and informed us of the precautions the ship was taken and encouraged us all to use our own bathrooms in our cabin.

 

We received a letter in our cabin on the evening of the 11th saying “today we have noticed that there has been an increased incidence of gastrointestinal illness onboard the Sun Princess. The pattern of illness strongly suggests the cause to be the common virus called Norovirus; which as you are now aware is extremely contagious and easily transmitted from person-to-person, especially if meticulous attention is not paid to personal hygiene. Person infected with the illness usually remain contagious for 48 hours after they have recovered. Norovirus is so widespread that only the common cold is reported more frequently……..”

 

We were also told to wash our hands frequently with soap for at least 20 seconds, contact the Medical Center if we had symptoms and to “attempt to always use your own cabin’s bathroom facilities”. The letter was signed “Dr. Grant Tarling, Vice President, Fleet Medical Officer”.

 

On the 13th we received another letter from Dr. Grant Tarling saying that lab tests confirmed that it was norovirus and that the number of cases had drastically decreased over the past few days.

 

The ship continued to use “precautions” until the last day or so on the 2nd week of my B2B cruise. I had been told by the Captain Circle Host that the ship was considered “Code Red for precautions” until Juneau of the 2nd week of our cruise where they would reelvaluate the status. In Juneau on May 20th – “Code Red” was lifted but precautions were still taken for most of that week. There were disinfectant wipes in the computer lab for people to use.

 

There is no question in my mind that Princess took this very serious and did everything that they could to prevent the spread of norovirus. I spoke with several people during the 2nd week (Capt Circle Host, etc. . ) who I had met the first week and they all indicated that there were no cases of Norvirus the second week. So, the precautions they took, paid off.

 

Some strange things that happened on the ship that week – it was not uncommon to see “Caution tape” on the ship. One day when I had lunch in the dining room, someone 2 tables behind me had thrown up. The ship quickly evacuated the tables around them and put caution tape around the table. Next, people in what looked like space uniforms and masks came to “disinfect the area”. Later, others were not seated on our side of the dining room. It was a strange thing to view in a dining room. If someone got sick in a public area, people were told to leave and they would “fog” the public area.

 

There were 100 people on our sailing who were going to be on the ship the following week – in order to properly sanitize the ship, Princess planned to “fog” all the public rooms during turn around day. This is covered later, but Princess offered us all a full day excursion to get us off the ship so that they could sanitize the whole ship. Before we left for our excursion, Princess had already closed some of the public bars and started this process. In my pictures – you can see the caution tape over some of the bars.

 

We were invited 2x (during each week) to the Most traveled passenger party. It felt sort of like a dud because it was in the library, which is a very small room and it was very crowded. Due to norovirus on the ship, no hordourves (sp?) were served. Only drinks. What I had no realized is that the Sun Princess was considered an Italian ship with Italian crew and it did not have a “Ward Room” similar to the Dawn Princess which is considered an English ship. So, we were all very crowded in the Library.

 

The Captain of the ship was Captain David Calabrese. I have never sailed with him and liked him quite a bit – he had a very thick accent but was very personable and liked talking with passengers.

[Coral]

Part III

 

Day by Day account

 

I am not going to cover Glacier Bay and College Fiords in depth because I have been there many times and it wasn't really new to me.

 

-----------------------------

 

Flew into Vancouver on May 7th and stayed at Hyatt Regency. I bid on Priceline and received this hotel for $70 per night (plus taxes). The hotel is clean, in a good location and close to Canada Place. I ended up with a corner room and it was very large. We spent May 8th on the “Hop on Hop off bus” and spent the majority of the day at Stanley Park and Granville Island. The weather was pretty gray that day with a few sprinkles.

 

On May 9th (Monday) – we left the hotel around 11:00 and made it to Canada Place within minutes. There were only 2 ships at Canada Place – the Sun Princess and the Crystal Harmony. The order of checking in this year was different than last year. This year, you and your carry-ons went through security first, you went through immigration next and then the passengers from the 2 different ships then went separate directions and we checked in with Princess while Crystal people checked in with Crystal. Our check in went very quickly and we sat and waited until they let people on the ship. We were told they would around noon. At approx 11:30, we were allowed on the ship and were the first people on the ship (sort of a tradition). For those who are curious about the coupon books – they were available when you first walked into the terminal and then right before the gangway.

 

 

Monday – boarding and sail away.

Tuesday – day at sea. This turned out to be a very warm day. I found a deck chair, read a book and looked for whales in the water.

 

Wednesday – Ketchikan. On previous trips, I had toyed with going to Misty Fiords. My desire was not necessarily a floatplane but a boat ride since I like viewing scenery from a small boat. I ended up compromising on a float plane/boat ride back combination tour through Princess. This tour was pricey (appox $280 I believe) but I figured it would give me the best of both worlds. Our plane was a 6 person Beaver plane – 5 passengers and 1 pilot. Everyone had a window seat. While I thought the scenery was pretty – I would not repeat this part of the excursion. I should say that it didn’t live up to the expectations I had. I thought the pilot did a good job. I do have to say I felt queasy on the flight – not enough to get sick but I could definitely feel my stomach turning when changing elevations and I didn’t like the feeling. When we landed, I asked the others on my plane and they agreed with me that they also felt queasy at times. I had no problems with the pilot and I don’t think another pilot would have changed how I felt. Of the 5 people on our flight, 3 were from the Sun Princess and 2 were from the Regal Princess.

 

When we landed – we walked off our plane and got on a boat ran by Goldbelt tours. The boat was pretty large, 2 decks with comfortable seating, plenty of outdoor area for viewing and a galley area with chips and salsa, crackers and cheese, clam chowder, hot chocolate, coffee, tea, etc .. There were probably 20 other people on this boat – most were from Crystal and had done a RT boat ride to Misty Fiords. The weather cooperated for this trip – it was sort of gray out with some fog at the top of the mountains but no rain. I thought the Misty Fiords part of the boat ride was pretty, after we left Misty Fiords – the scenery wasn’t nearly as great and that part of the boat ride seemed long. In short – I am glad I cured my curiosity by going on this trip but I wouldn’t repeat it again. I am mixed if I would recommend this tour. We arrived late back to Ketchikan and we were the last people to board the ship. I had heard that Princess was calling my name over the intercom on the ship to see if I was onboard. The ship waited for us (since we were on a Princess excursion) and I was extremely happy. We had an elderly gentleman on our trip and Princess employees went to the GoldBelt boat to go get him so that our ship could sail.

 

Thursday – Juneau. We had booked an excursion privately for AdventureBound Alaska to take a small boat to Tracy Arm from Juneau. The times of the excursion were 8:30 – 6:00. Here is their website: http://www.adventureboundalaska.com/ We had booked this through Captain Larry/Orca Enterprises – I had tried to book directly but when I was calling in April, the company was in the process of moving their operations from Seattle to Juneau (they do boat trips in Seattle over the summer and relocate to Juneau for the summer). Captain Steve owns the company and also is the Captain of his boat. He is also probably one of the best experts on Tracy Arm (I saw his name referenced in several books after our trip) – because he does this trip every day. I can only praise everything about this company and this trip. I had wanted to see Tracy Arm and wanted to do so in a small boat and this was exactly what I wanted. The company pretty much caters to locals and tourists staying in Juneau. Due to the fact that very few cruise ships are in Juneau during their excursion time, they get very few cruise passengers.

 

Captain Steve would take us right up to icebergs and circle the boat around them and let us touch them (see pictures listed on review), he would take the boat right up to waterfalls so that our boat would get wet. He literally put the boat right up against the mountain, right next to the waterfall. It was definitely an up close and personal view of Tracy Arm. He also was very informative and friendly and invited us all to go up and visit with him when he was driving the boat. I did this various times. The bad news is that we did not make it to Sawyer Glacier – there was way too much ice in the water and Captain Steve told us he could get us there, but it would take another 3 hours and since we had to get back on the ship, we had to turn around. This is very rare for him (usually he can get there on the small boats when the large boats can not) and he told us if we return, he would give us a break on our next trip. We made it much farther then the large cruise ships that were up there that week, with the exception of a small Cruise West ship that did make it all the way. Surprisingly, none of us seemed disappointed because the tour up until that point had been incredible. I wasn’t expecting to see any whales on this excursion but we probably saw 6 or so humpback whales. This ranks as the best Alaska excursion I have ever gone on.

 

This is also an example of weather in Alaska – both weather.com and accuweather had predicted rain all day. When we boarded, we were thinking it would be a long rainy day. I was talking to another passenger on the boat and she said “it won’t rain until later this afternoon” and I sort of questioned her telling her what I had found on the internet. She then proceeded to say “they are not local, they are not that accurate”. She worked locally at the National Weather Service and said it wouldn’t rain until later that afternoon or evening. Well – late in the afternoon, we had some sprinkles on the boat.

[Coral]

Part IV

 

Friday – Skagway. We had reserved a car for this week and the following week through Avis. We were hoping if the weather wasn’t good one week, we could go the following week. We ventured out right at 8:00 and went to the National Park Service – they had current weather reports. They indicated that we probably would have rain up until the boarder and then it would be clear. It has been pouring in Skaway and we proceeded to the Avis office and decided to take our chances and go the following week. We spoke with Lori at the Avis office and told us our plans and cancelled the car. She was very friendly and helpful. I saw that they had Camry’s to rent and asked her to reserve one for the following week.

 

Well, by 10:00 am, the weather had cleared up and we had the bluest sky in Skagway that day. I had wished that I had had kept the car but we always had next week (rain or shine). I ended up just walking around Skagway and taking the National Park Service walking tour. I had always taken an excursion here and it was nice to relax. For the NPS tour – I had Connie as a tour guide and she was incredible. I commented that she must have been a teacher in her former life and she said yes, she had been. Her husband also does tours. I had previously avoided this tour thinking it would not be that good but she was excellent – we gained 2x as many people along the way who joined our tour.

 

Saturday – Glacier Bay. This was a very gray day and it did rain some while at Glacier Bay. Ironically, after we left, the sun came out and it was gorgeous. I am usually up on the front deck on the Sun Princess but did hang out on the covered promenade deck while at GB. There was only a few calvings that day.

 

Sunday – College Fiords. The weather was much better during College Fiords and I spent the time leading up to CF and after out on the front decks. Sort of a gray day but no rain.

 

Monday – disembarkment day for most. Our turnaround day. Princess had scheduled all of us who were doing B2Bs on a complimentary shore excursion. The letter said, “We will need to conduct a full sanitization of the ship in Whittier and as a result this will cause a disruption in our facilities and our services. To ensure that this procedure is thorough, we are pleased to offer a complimentary tour in Whittier from 9 am to 5 pm”. The tour that they had offered was the “Wilderness Explorer Glacier Cruise” through Princess William Sound, which included Ester Passage, Harriman Fiord, Barry Arm, Surprise Glacier and a visit (cruise by) a working fish hatchery. This is the tour they offered us: http://www.alaskaheritagetours.com/579.cfm

 

The cost was $115 per person if we had booked it ourselves. I spoke with the shore excursion desk and the person indicated that they paid this company $115 per person. I would assume they would get a deal but it didn’t sound like it.

 

We had met several people who were on the B2B cruise from Vancouver to Whittier and then back to Vancouver and everyone I had spoken to was thrilled that Princess did this for us. We had actually considered booking this tour or the 26 glacier tour but we were going to wait and see how the weather cooperated before we called and booked. We are very glad we had not done that because we got the tour for free. On a side note, those individuals (40 or so) who had done the Cooper River land tour through Princess were supposed to arrive to the ship at 1:00 pm. Princess gave them a complimentary tour on Philips 26 glacier tour (http://www.26glaciers.com/) because the ship was not ready for them.

 

The Wilderness Explorer cruise had approx 40 people booked on it before Princess added an additional 100 people. The boat felt very full in the beginning but once the boat ride started and people went outside, it didn’t seem that crowded. Since most of the people on the boat were doing a B2B on the Sun Princess – it gave us an opportunity to meet a lot of people we would be cruising again with the following week. We had a great group of people doing this B2B and it was nice to get to know them on this excursion.

 

The boat ride was pretty good. I was leaning towards booking the 26 glacier tour and I am still curious which I would have preferred but this was a good trip. We spent a lot of time at Surprise glacier, which had to have one of the best calving days the day we were there. At one point, the calving produced a huge wave and we all had to hold on to the boat so that we didn’t lose our balance. We also saw Cox, Serpentine and Cascade glacier. The boat ride served us a lunch of halibut, chicken or a vegetarian selection along with a pasta salad and roll. No one raved about the lunch but it served its purpose.

 

We arrived back at the ship around 6:15 or so and Princess was handing our dining cards/times that was good for that night only. One of the employees had told me that only one dining room was open (the other still being fogged/sanitized) and that dining times were assigned. Our time given was 8:45 – I asked for an earlier time and the person indicated that early dining had already started. We decided that we would go to the sit down pizzeria that night which turned out to be nice - and not crowded because very few of the new passengers knew about this restaurant.

 

Tuesday – College Fiords. A much nicer day then previous week and the skies were blue.

 

Wednesday – Glacier Bay. Again, the weather was much better. Very few calvings that day but we had been very spoiled at Surprise glacier so that was fine.

 

Thursday – Skagway. Our day to drive to the Yukon and we had Murray’s guide with us. If you do this drive – you must have this guide: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/sklondike-photos1.html

 

We got to the rental office at approx 8:05 or so and there were about 3 groups in front of us renting cars. We got out Camry and were on the road by 8:30 or so. The drive up was incredible, the water in the lakes was very smooth and we got some fantastic shots. We stopped at Cinnamon Cache and met Bobo and Gail and had lunch. Very nice people. Our sandwiches were huge, made on very fresh thick bread with huge chunks of ham. I couldn’t finish the sandwich (consider sharing). We also tasted a Danish – it was a toss up between Apple and Cherry and the cherry one turned out to be great. We had met some people at one of the stops when taking pictures and told them about this place and we later met up with them at the restaurant. It was wonderful having our own car and stopping when we wanted. We didn’t see any wildlife on our drive L but still had a great time. Some of the best pics I have taken were from this drive. We returned to Skagway and stopped by the cemetery where Soapie Smith is buried and then gassed up the car (gas was $2.87 gallon) and returned the car around 3:30. I then walked around Skagway for an hour or so and returned back to the ship.

 

Friday – Juneau. This was a short day for us in Juneau compared to the week before. We had to be back on ship at 3:30. I had a 9:30 whale watching excursion with Capt Larry/Orca Enterprises and as always – it was a great time (http://orcaenterprises.com/)

There were no orcas that day but we saw plenty of whales. After whale watching, I walked around Juneau and saw the Patsy Ann dog statue. Not sure how, but I had always missed this and decided to go in search of it. If you haven’t read the story – I strongly recommend it: (http://www.patsyann.com/story/) I did some shopping and made it back to hear Libby Riddles (first female to win Iditarod in 1985) at 2:00 pm. If you have not heard her speak – I recommend her presentation. She has contracted with Princess for the last 5 or 6 years to come aboard every Princess ship that docks in Juneau. The weather turned out to be pretty nice.

 

Saturday – Ketchikan. I had planned to take a tour with Sourdough to Totem Bight State Park. I had spoken to them the week before and signed up for this. I had been to Saxmen and wanted to try Totem Bight on this trip. When I showed up, they indicated that they were not doing Totem Bight that day. I told them I had signed up and they tried to sell me Saxman and I wasn’t interested. This was the 2nd negative experience I had with Sourdough Tours. A few years ago, I tried (unsuccessfully) to sign up for their combo tour and they didn’t respond to my emails or phone calls for weeks and then finally responded and said they were full. I wasn’t impressed with them in this situation either. They said there was roadwork and didn’t want to drive through it?? I wish I had booked it through Princess because the Princess tour went. I ended up using a free ticket I had the previous week for the Southeast Alaska Discovery Museum and was quite pleased and I ventured along Creek Street. Ketchikan is always the port I struggle with what to do and this time seemed to be very similar. The weather was a nice day.

 

Sunday – this was a very rocky day back to Vancouver. It probably ranks as my worst sea day ever as far as the ship rocking. There were 15 – 20’ waves (which I hear isn’t that large) but the ship rocked and several people got sick. The fog was pretty strong outside and it was difficult to see outside.

 

Monday – disembarkment. This was close to chaos. The cruise lines, airlines (most) and airport had setup a new way of disembarking in Vancouver which is supposed to benefit cruise line passengers. Half way through this cruise; we had received a letter explaining the process and a form to fill out if we wanted to participate in the process. There are several requirements that need to be met in order to participate (which I no longer have the sheet) but you must be a US Citizen or US Permanent Resident, must leave the day the ship disembarked, must be on a participating airline, must be flying back to the US, etc. . . You pay $15 and this is what you get:

1. You receive special white tags, which you put on your luggage. The tags are somehow coded with your flight info.

2. You can pick up your boarding pass in Vista Lounge before you leave the ship

3. If you also purchase a cruise line transfer, you are sent through a special Cruise Ship facility at the airport, which should expedite your Customs/Immigration process. If you do not purchase a transfer through Princess or if you do a tour through Princess of Vancouver before going through the airport, you will need to go through the regular Customs/Immigration line but you don’t have to deal with your luggage or stand in airline lines.

 

It was the first time our ship had been in Vancouver for this process and it was confusing and pretty chaotic. We had all been given white tags (with numbers and no ends to pull off which is different then other Princess tags) and another color tags. We later learned we were supposed to ignore the other colored tags and they were sent by mistake. Princess started calling people to get boarding passes by the tag number and no one knew it – so then they started by saying “everyone with flights before this time”. Since we had a late flight, it didn’t make much difference. We were put on a bus that was supposed to go to the Cruise Ship Facility at the airport for Customs/Immigration and for unknown reasons – they sent us to the main terminal and we ended up in line for Customs/Immigration behind people who did not pay the $15.

 

My flight home was delayed in Denver due to storms and I got home about 3 hours later then planned (midnight) and worked the following morning. It was a long week.

 

===========

 

Overall, I consider it a very good cruise. Alaska is incredible and nothing can take away from the beauty there. Some things didn't go as planned on the ship (bad service in dining room first week, bad room steward, norovirus) but that didn't keep us from having a good time on the cruise. Due to some of the excursions I did - I do rank this trip as one of my favorites and I do really like the Sun Princess as a ship.

[LARGIN]

thanks for the great review and pictures.

[zachnlucy]

Thursday – Juneau. We had booked an excursion privately for AdventureBound Alaska to take a small boat to Tracy Arm from Juneau. The times of the excursion were 8:30 – 6:00. Here is their website: http://www.adventureboundalaska.com/ We had booked this through Captain Larry/Orca Enterprises – I had tried to book directly but when I was calling in April, the company was in the process of moving their operations from Seattle to Juneau (they do boat trips in Seattle over the summer and relocate to Juneau for the summer). Captain Steve owns the company and also is the Captain of his boat. He is also probably one of the best experts on Tracy Arm (I saw his name referenced in several books after our trip) – because he does this trip every day. I can only praise everything about this company and this trip. I had wanted to see Tracy Arm and wanted to do so in a small boat and this was exactly what I wanted. The company pretty much caters to locals and tourists staying in Juneau. Due to the fact that very few cruise ships are in Juneau during their excursion time, they get very few cruise passengers.

 

Captain Steve would take us right up to icebergs and circle the boat around them and let us touch them (see pictures listed on review), he would take the boat right up to waterfalls so that our boat would get wet. He literally put the boat right up against the mountain, right next to the waterfall. It was definitely an up close and personal view of Tracy Arm. He also was very informative and friendly and invited us all to go up and visit with him when he was driving the boat. I did this various times. The bad news is that we did not make it to Sawyer Glacier – there was way too much ice in the water and Captain Steve told us he could get us there, but it would take another 3 hours and since we had to get back on the ship, we had to turn around. This is very rare for him (usually he can get there on the small boats when the large boats can not) and he told us if we return, he would give us a break on our next trip. We made it much farther then the large cruise ships that were up there that week, with the exception of a small Cruise West ship that did make it all the way. Surprisingly, none of us seemed disappointed because the tour up until that point had been incredible. I wasn’t expecting to see any whales on this excursion but we probably saw 6 or so humpback whales. This ranks as the best Alaska excursion I have ever gone on.

 

This sounds great. I just got off the phone with them and it sounds just like what we want. The only thing I'm concerned about is the amount of time on the boat. 10 hours! Were you ever bored?

[BigTimeCruiser]

We were on these B2B with Coral as well as the 2 short cruises just prior. Coral has done a excellent and very object review of the Sun. Although we were not happy with many of the same things that Coral mentions, we still enjoyed the cruise/itinerary and will continue to sail on Princess as well.

[zachnlucy]

Thanks for an informative review. We're looking forward to our Sun cruise in August and just hope we don't get your steward. :eek:

[Coral]

This sounds great. I just got off the phone with them and it sounds just like what we want. The only thing I'm concerned about is the amount of time on the boat. 10 hours! Were you ever bored?

 

We found very little info about them before we booked this and we figured it would be 9-10 miserable hours (due to rain) or 9-10 great hours. It turned out to be all great.

 

I have to say the first hour out and the last hour back (getting to and coming back) were not as great as the hours inbetween. The locals all expected this and brought reading material, walkman's etc . They served bagels and rolls in the morning.

 

For lunch, the locals all brought a picnic basket of such (and this is encouraged). They did have someone making sandwiches (fresh hoagies) for $4.50 or so and chips for .75 or something like that for lunch. I would definitely bring some snacks/drinks with you for the day if you can. If not, it is quite reasonable onboard.

 

The Captain is very good about getting you back to Juneau on time. He told us the day before he was an hour late getting back (and that was ok with everyone onboard) and he wanted to know right away if anyone had a ship or plane to catch and had to be back by a specific time. We told him we had to be back on the ship at 7:30 and he had us back at the dock right at 6:00. We were the only 2 who had to catch a cruise ship.

 

I would do this tour again in a heart beat.

 

I hope you have a blast when you go!

[mii]

Thanks Coral for the review. I just got home from Alaska too and it is just a beautiful place. We had absolutely the best weather we have ever had in Alaska and this was my third trip. Just one day in Juneau was rainy but you deal with it. Again thanks for the review. By the way I tried Celebrity for the first time because of its itiniery and with any cruiselines there is always pros and cons with each cruiseline but Celebrity does have some good features but Princess is still "home" to me.

 

Marilyn

[zachnlucy]

Coral, thanks again for getting back to me. We're sold!

[bdjam]

Thanks for the great review -

[Hulagirl]

Excellent review. I think you definitely hit on all the points you needed to. So glad you wrote the reveiw and clarified what you did and didn't like about the cruise. Knowing how much you love Alaska, I know you still had a wonderful time.

[Coral]

With all I wrote - it is difficult to believe I forgot anything......here are a few more comments.

 

1. The food was pretty good in the dining room. Similiar to any other Princess ship with the exception of the "tornados of beef" that is new to the anytime menu. It definitely was not the same piece of meat or cooked the same way as it is on formal night. I like the one on formal night and did not like this - it had a tan/gray color to it and had no flavor. I would be interested in anyone else who has tried this to see if it was just a fluke the night I oredered it.

 

2. I usually avoid the buffet anyway because I am not fond of people touching serving spoons but I heard they had some fried shrimp up there on the last day of the cruise and I couldn't resist. It was excellent fried shrimp - the best I have ever had.

 

3. There were 4 souffles in the dining room - chocolate hazelnut, lemon/orange with pistachio sauce, harlequin (my favorite) and passion fruit. The Love Boat dream was only served one night - the last night I believe.

 

4. There were blueberry pancakes in the dining room one morning to die for. There were 2 days of eggs benedict and the infamous french toast in the dining room is served midweek (not the day of disembarkation).

 

5. There was an Alaskan themed menu one night with King Crab legs.

 

Also - the pizzeria was excellent as usual and the service was very good in there. We found out on this cruise that they deliver pizza to the room. IF you order it during the time in which the pizzeria is open, they will deliver it. You can not walk up and order it and take it with you (they don't want the pizza elsewhere on the ship) but they will deliver it to your room (even though the menu says they won't).

 

--------

 

Also - the internet cafe is now in the former card room and cards are now played in Shooting Stars during the day. I am surprised they were able to put as many computers in the new internet cafe. Internet had been pretty slow (or non-existant) for most of our trip (apparently since the ship left the Caribbean) but we did log on a few times when it was pretty quick.

[Coral]

We were on these B2B with Coral as well as the 2 short cruises just prior. Coral has done a excellent and very object review of the Sun..

 

Hey Curt - I have been meaning to email you guys. I have your business card at my desk at work and I keep forgetting to bring it home.

 

I sure hope you had a great weekend following the cruise! Hope everything went perfect! It was great having you 2 (or should I say 4) on the cruise. Hopefully we will cruise again soon!

 

I am still envious of your future cruise schedule :)

 

Theresa

[Cruizer_J]

Thanks Theresa for the great review! Glad that, over all, it was a good cruise for you!

[Lynda90]

Thanks for the great review. As you know, I had to live my cruise through you. Overall, I guess I had a great time.:) :D

[Coral]

Thanks Theresa for the great review! Glad that, over all, it was a good cruise for you!

 

Mike - it was great to meet you and Shari!

 

In retrospect - the week we sailed with you two (first week), was not the onboard experience I am used to with Princess but my memories of this cruise will be of Alaska and that part was very good. I would have preferred a few more sunny days but I will definitely treasure my memories of Alaska that week.

 

And I am ever so thankful that I didn't get sick! I swear, my hands felt raw from washing them so much while on the Sun Princess.

[Coral]

Thanks for the great review. As you know, I had to live my cruise through you. Overall, I guess I had a great time.:) :D

 

Lynda - something tells me your April cruise will be one of the best cruises out there :)

[BigTimeCruiser]

Theresa,

 

Yes, we hope to see you on plenty of cruises in the future. Really would like to do more Alaska cruising like you have done, but just not enought time to do it all!!! We had a great time in Vancouver after departing the ship. Friends of ours that we sailed around South America with were kind enough to spend the day with us and show us the sights in their city. Drop us a line when you get a chance.

 

Curt :)

[GloriaF]

Great Review! I thought you did a perfect job and I enjoyed all the details.

[shipcafe]

Hi Coral : How come there was caution tape over the doors to Shooting Stars?

[spongerob]

Great photos!

[bdjam]

By the way, great pictures too!!!

[bdjam]

By the way, great pictures too!!!