Thinking of Alaska on Pacific Princess - thoughts please

[Netta7]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of taking the Inside Passage with Glacier Bay on Pacific Princess. The dates work particularly well for us. This particular cruise is soon and not at all popular - lots of empty cabins and no roll call for our date. Thoughts everyone? Is this a bad cruise? Anything we should know?

 

By way of background - we are a married couple (40s/50s) and will be traveling without our kids. We have been on several cruises before - Disney, Princess (CP), HAL (Caribbean and Med).

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Netta7

[shredie]

Go! Best Alaska cruise I ever did was on PP.

[Northender]

We had a wonderful cruise out of Vancouver on the Sapphire Princess.:):)

[iceleven]

We're not doing Alaska this year but after crusing out of Seattle twice and San Francisco once to Alaska, we are very much interested in trying the Inside Passage with the Pacific Princess next year. We like the idea of trying a smaller ship and being able to see more of the scenery that the Pacific Princess offers going out of Vancouver.

 

I think that having to pay the extra cost of flying into Vancouver is somewhat of a deterrent for some people from the states. Vancouver is a beautiful city and worth visiting, making that sailing even more inviting and interesting.

[caribill]

Go for it.

 

Alaska on a smaller ship is always better than on a ship with three to five times the number of passengers.

 

Easier to disembark in a port. Easier to return to the ship. And less of a crowd in the ports (which may still be crowded due to other ships being there).

[dorisis]

We loved the Pacific Princess for our last Alaska trip.

[OnVacation11]

We really enjoyed our Alaska cruise on the Pacific Princess in 2009 when she did an extended 14 day itinerary.

I am not sure if there will be as many kids sailing on her as there will be on larger ships.

[This is feeding what I am]

My wife & I (also 45/50) returned on May 20th from this exact cruise & ship. We loved it. Everything from the scenery,ports, all the ships entertainment & the food. We can't wait to do it again.:)

[Jim Avery]

Netta, just bumped up my review on Pacific Princess, Alaska, 5/13-5/20. Lots of info there.:D

[AE_Collector]

I think that mid week departures are another reason for some people to overlook these trips. Last year Princess had a little too much capacity in Vancouver which led to some fantastic deals on north/south bound B2B's with the mid week departures. This year they slightly reduced capacity by substituting in the smaller Pacific Princess.

 

In my opinion Vancouver is the best place scenery wise to do Alaska from (but I do live here) whether you do a 7 day return, a 7 day N or S bound or both for a 14 day.

 

We just got off of Pacific Princess on May 3 after 32 days onboard and loved everything about the ship and crew. We are now one week away from boarding sister ship Ocean Princess for 30 days.

 

Terry

Edited May 29, 2014 by AE_Collector

[Jim Avery]

Terry, we agree 100% for both Vancouver and Pacific Princess. Vancouver is a beautiful city and sailaway is perfect. Pacific exceeded our expectations as well. We are looking forward to returning to her.:D

[DentoAlaska]

I am happy to read the positive comments on The Pacific Princess. We booked on her for July, 2015 (Southbound with a 7 day land tour prior to the cruise). I was excited about this ship because of it's size. We were skeptical of doing an Alaskan cruise because we did not want to be on a massive ship with a huge amount of other people. A 670 passenger ship was a perfect fit for us. We don't care that much about entertainment, specialty dining, etc. We want to take in the scenery and enjoy the trip.

[Kinkacruiser]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of taking the Inside Passage with Glacier Bay on Pacific Princess. The dates work particularly well for us. This particular cruise is soon and not at all popular - lots of empty cabins and no roll call for our date. Thoughts everyone? Is this a bad cruise? Anything we should know?

 

By way of background - we are a married couple (40s/50s) and will be traveling without our kids. We have been on several cruises before - Disney, Princess (CP), HAL (Caribbean and Med).

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

There's nobody on our PP 2015 rollcall yet and I understand they are very quiet.

[Bimmer09]

Terry, we agree 100% for both Vancouver and Pacific Princess. Vancouver is a beautiful city and sailaway is perfect. Pacific exceeded our expectations as well. We are looking forward to returning to her.:D

 

I haven't sailed on a small ship yet Jim but agree Vancouver is a great city and a wonderful place to start the cruise from.

 

Norris, holding a ticket for the Ocean Princess

[HeartCrwnPrin]

Princess does a great cruise to Alaska, we ere on the Grand. The staff told us to always try and go on their smaller ships because they employ the same number of people as their large ships and therefore staff is less stressed and service is better.

 

 

Elizabeth Lynne

[AE_Collector]

Nowhere near the same number of staff as a large Princess ship. About 370 I think as compared to about 1000 but the "ratio" is a little higher on the small ships.

 

Terry

[I_r_a]

>I think that having to pay the extra cost of flying into Vancouver is somewhat of a deterrent for some people from the states. <

 

For our in-the-planning-stage Vancouver --> Anchorage cruise, we are thinking of flying nonstop to Portland and taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver.

 

We've been told that it is a very scenic ride -- only $48 pp.

 

For the return, we shall take the Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle ($41 pp) for a nonstop flt home.

 

The train is $140 less than the RT ATL--> YVR.

 

Ira

Edited June 1, 2014 by I_r_a

[Jim Avery]

>I think that having to pay the extra cost of flying into Vancouver is somewhat of a deterrent for some people from the states. <

 

For our in-the-planning-stage Vancouver --> Anchorage cruise, we are thinking of flying nonstop to Portland and taking the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver.

 

We've been told that it is a very scenic ride -- only $48 pp.

 

For the return, we shall take the Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle ($41 pp) for a nonstop flt home.

 

The train is $140 less than the RT ATL--> YVR.

 

Ira

When we lived in Florida we had the same issues flying to Vancouver or, even worse, Anchorage. We just had a great Alaska cruise out of YVR and, since we now live in the Phoenix area, we had excellent Non Stop connections from PHX. Possibly you might fly to PHX on one airline then check US Air for a non stop PHX/YVR. The price was actually less than for us to fly Delta which went PHX/LAX/YVR!. Who can figure airlines these days?:eek:

[Love.II.Cruise]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of taking the Inside Passage with Glacier Bay on Pacific Princess. The dates work particularly well for us. This particular cruise is soon and not at all popular - lots of empty cabins and no roll call for our date. Thoughts everyone? Is this a bad cruise? Anything we should know?

 

By way of background - we are a married couple (40s/50s) and will be traveling without our kids. We have been on several cruises before - Disney, Princess (CP), HAL (Caribbean and Med).

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

I would do the cruise, just not on Pacific Princess. We didn't care for the ship. JMHO

[AE_Collector]

The only problem with the train is that you will have to book at least one hotel for Vancouver as apparently the passenger train schedule can very easily get way behind. If doing that book a couple of nights for Vancouver up front so you can do some good site seeing as well.

 

Terry

[esmo]

We are currently booked on the Golden Princess RT out of Seattle, but due to unforeseen circumstances are having to seriously consider canceling this cruise. The alternative would be to book a mini-suite either mid-aft on deck 8 on the Pacific Princess or an aft mini deck 8 on the Golden. The September date we had booked is looking unworkable for us and both these itineraries are in early August. We have not sailed on the smaller Princess ships, only the Golden and the Sapphire. As long as we have a balcony, good waiters in the dining room, a cozy bar with conniveal bar tenders, room service and some place for my husband to smoke we would be happy. Any thoughts on doing the Pacific Princess vs. the Golden? The website won't let me pick a cabin so I am not sure exactly what we are looking at...

 

It really is coming down to change and give up our aft full suite or cancel and hope for next year.

 

Thanks for any thoughts....