Just back from Star Princess Alaska Cruise

[photonut4]

First off, this was an incredible cruise. Alaska cannot be beat. This was my 13th cruise, that left on July 13, 2013, and my second one with Princess. Just a few random thoughts about the cruise.

 

We were in cabin C202, which has the larger 9x9 balcony on the port side 4 cabins from the front. Great cabin in a great location. Not the best bed that I have ever had, but not the worst either. We had a wonderful cabin steward. Shower is small. It makes the shower in our 5th wheel rv seem large!

 

We had incredible weather all week. It did get cold sometimes on the balcony, but I packed warm clothes and spent an insane amount of time on the balcony. The one tip that I can offer is to pack hand warmers. I used them daily and it was wonderful to keep my hands warm. I even bought more from the hardware store in Skagway.

 

I saw well over 50 whales from my balcony during the week. The majority of them were humpback whales, but I did see 6 Orcas. The naturalist only announced a couple times when he saw them, but many of us on the balconys saw many many more. When we left Endicott Arm Fjord (more on that in a moment), we saw over 30 whales during a 2 hour period. We even saw a group of whales bubble net feeding, and 1 whale breach. Now the naturalist said to look for the whales from about 4-7 pm, but they were done by 4:00 pm. We saw the most from 1-3:00 pm, so when you leave Tracy Arm I would be on the outer decks keeping an eye out for them, if they interest you.

 

Now for the Fjord day. We were scheduled to go to Tracy Arm, but the captain announced that we would go to Endicott Arm to the Dawes glacier instead due to too many ships being in Tracy Arm. Needless to say, people were not pleased with this news. There was a lot of grumblings. HOWEVER, this was the best thing that could have ever happened to us. First off the water was so calm it was like glass. I got some amazing pictures in here. Next off, we were able to get sooooo close to the glacier. I believe he said it was within 300 yards. It looked much much closer. Now for the incredible part. The naturalist was explaining about glacier shooters. That is when a piece of the glacier that is under water breaks off and shoots up through the water and how rare of an occurence it is. A little while later a shooter actually shot up. It shot up to about 100' in the air. Unbelievable. He no sooner finished explaining how rare it was then a second one shot up 10 minutes after the first one. WOW! He said that neither he or the captain had ever witnessed a shooter before. Not only that, but we also witnessed 5 calvings. Also there were well over 100 harbor seals laying about the icebergs. What an experienced this day was. Needless to say the captain went from zero to hero.

 

We never had trouble finding a table to sit at in the buffet. Ever. I don't really care for the layout of the buffet. I prefer the setups on the RCCL and Carnival cruiselines better.

 

We did the Crown Grill one night. They do the lobster way better than Carnival does in their pay restaurant, but Carnival does a much better job with the filet mignon and French onion soup. I also prefer Carnivals deserts over Princess.

 

My husband won in the casino playing 3 card poker and blackjack, which was great.

 

All in all, we loved this cruise and would have absolutely no problem sailing with Princess again.

 

(I have tried to post some pictures, but I keep getting an error message.)

[photonut4]

Trying to get the photos posted. Here goes another try.

 

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013660.jpg.html?sort=6&o=1

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013512.jpg.html?sort=6&o=2

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[caribill]

Thanks for the report.

 

Glad you had a fantastic time.

[Desert Cruizers]

Photonut I will be on the Star Princess in Sept for the Coastal. I use Photobucket, generally I select the photo I wish to post, when that photo appears, to the right you should see the word BB Forum Code. Highlight this Code ( automatically copies the code) return to this thread, right click on an open reply screen and Paste the BB Forum Code, your picture should appear when you select the Post Quick Reply. You do not need to use the yellow Postcard icon above the reply screen.

[photonut4]

Thank you Desert Cruizers. I will give it a try today.

[I object 2]

Awesome photos! Thanks for sharing.

[shootingstar07]

Trying to get the photos posted. Here goes another try.

 

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013660.jpg.html?sort=6&o=1

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013512.jpg.html?sort=6&o=2

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013479.jpg.html?sort=6&o=4

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013221.jpg.html?sort=6&o=5

Photonut4 - great photos and what a nice review. Seems like Capt. McBain made lemonade out of lemons for you all!!! And I have never heard of a glcier "shooter". What a marvelous phenomenon to witness. And to boot - a nice photo too!!!

 

I met Capt. McBain and he sure is a nice man. When I was introduced to him, he said hi, my name is Todd!!! Have never had that before!! First name basis with a Capt!!

 

Glad you had a nice cruise. We did too the week prior - I loved the Star. BTW - who was your cabin steward? I was in C312 and had Pastor!!

 

Kathleen

[Guest fyree39]

I tried to watch a slideshow of your photos, but Photobucket is being feisty today. What I did see was beautiful!

[Desert Cruizers]

Photonut, your welcome, good luck, will take a look at your photos. :)

 

Gay

[photonut4]

Photonut4 - great photos and what a nice review. Seems like Capt. McBain made lemonade out of lemons for you all!!! And I have never heard of a glcier "shooter". What a marvelous phenomenon to witness. And to boot - a nice photo too!!!

 

I met Capt. McBain and he sure is a nice man. When I was introduced to him, he said hi, my name is Todd!!! Have never had that before!! First name basis with a Capt!!

 

Glad you had a nice cruise. We did too the week prior - I loved the Star. BTW - who was your cabin steward? I was in C312 and had Pastor!!

 

Kathleen

 

Hi Kathleen,

 

I "followed" you when you were on your cruise. It sounded like you had a wonderful time on the cruise also. Our stewards name was Lemana, and he was great. Very pleasant personality and very prompt with service. We ended up giving him one of our "host" cards with a little extra tip in it.

 

I never did meet the captain on this cruise. He absolutely made lemonade out of our glacier day. What an experience. Apparently several people asked him why they don't stop there instead of Tracy Arm on a regular basis, so he made an announcement reading from the regulations for it. You cannot schedule a trip into Endicott Arm, but you can go there if Tracy Arm has too much traffic making it unsafe to enter. That is just one of the reasons. I do know one of the other reasons is if ice prevents the ship from entering Tracy Arm.

 

Hopefully we will be able to revisit Alaska on another cruise in the future.

[photonut4]

I tried to watch a slideshow of your photos, but Photobucket is being feisty today. What I did see was beautiful!

 

Thank you. I only uploaded a couple photos to photobucket, so that is probably the reason. I will have to upload some more today. I was just so exhausted yesterday, I did the bare minimum (sign of a good cruise). :)

[Caribensun]

Thanks for the great review, hope we get Endicott next week. Glad you had a wonderful cruise and appreciate your sharing your photos-wow! Seadeck2

[Woobstr112G]

OP;

 

Thanks for posting your review. Sounds like you had a great cruise. Your glacier pictures are amazing.....:):):)

 

Bob

[photonut4]

Thank you Bob. I am posting a few more pictures here. :)

 

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013251.jpg.html?sort=6&o=12

 

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013221.jpg.html?sort=6&o=13

 

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Mt. Ranier

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http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013741.jpg.html?sort=6&o=3

 

Creek Street Ketchikan, AK

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media/Alaska2013990.jpg.html?sort=6&o=2

 

Balloon drop in Piazza

http://s279.photobucket.com/user/photonut4/media

 

/Alaska20131026.jpg.html?sort=6&o=1