Star Princess Coastal Hits and small misses

[gnatz007]

Since taking our first couple of cruises, we have been dreaming of taking our kids on a cruise. Due to their school schedules, the cost, etc it has always been prohibitive. When a spring break cruise with the right itinerary, and at a price that felt right to us came along, we had to jump on it. To put the icing on the cake, it would be aboard the Star Princess, a ship that we sailed on in its inaugural year. Our first cruise with princess, would also be our kids first cruise. From booking to boarding, the months seemed to crawl by!

 

It’s hard, if not impossible, not to compare ships while writing a review. In fact, I think it’s almost necessary. Since our viewpoints are always through the glasses of experience. This review will be through “my” glasses. So the viewpoints I share, are mine only. Yours will undoubtedly vary from my own. So, always take what I say (or what anyone says) with a grain of salt.

 

I also took quite a few pictures. If you want more, just ask. I will gladly post more, but I certainly want to be sensitive to getting boring for anyone.

 

Embarkation:

With all the of the horror stories surrounding Pier 27, and boarding at San Francisco, we were a little nervous that our luggage would end up in the “drink”. Those stories of the past, were thankfully, left in the past. Since we were traveling with family members from the bay area, we decided to take a tour of the city before boarding. We visited Lombard street, the Mrs Doubtfire home, Coit Tower along with other cool city sites. The kids were very excited by seeing the Star Princess sitting in the bay from the various streets in SF.

 

By 12:45, we decided that it was time to head down to the ship. I dropped our luggage and my family off at the pier, and drove to the 55 Francisco parking garage. A short walk and I rejoined my party at the pier. It took us about 15 minutes to board and get to our room. I have to say, a MUCH more pleasant experience than our long wait last year in Fort Lauderdale when boarding the Royal. In all fairness, we were about an hour later in SF than in Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

[gnatz007]

We went to the horizon court / pizza for lunch and to start our real cruising experience. Our kids were in awe of the ship, the food, and the pools. As a note, we were in D701 (mini suite), my SIL and BIL were in D633 (we opened the balcony doors between balconies), My two sons were in D711, and MIL was in E633.

 

When we returned to collect our life vests for muster, we were blown away that our luggage was already at our door. We were able to unpack and settle in before muster. Another thumbs up to the porters on the docks, and the princess crew members who move all the luggage. Very Fast!

 

For us Muster was in the Vista lounge, making muster very comfortable. My kids were digging on the whole experience. After which we took our life vests back and got ready to head up for sail away.

 

[gnatz007]

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your comments. :)

[pegpowell]

...

[gnatz007]

Sail Away:

 

I think its fair to say that on every cruisers bucket list has to be to sail under the Golden Gate bridge. Besides having family in the bay area that invited us along to this cruise, we certainly had the Golden Gate as a top priority in our cruising wish list.

 

Lets say it didn't disappoint.

 

Alcatraz always has a certain mystique to me...

 

San Francisco slipping away...

 

My BIL had his brother standing on the Golden Gate taking pictures of us as we went under the bridge. Pretty cool to be getting pictures "the other way around"...

 

[gnatz007]

Just some more pictures... nothing more to really say here...:)

 

Video of the Star slipping under the Golden Gate... (sorry dunno if you can embed video, so just giving the link)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2015 by gnatz007

[gnatz007]

One last picture, and I will move on to more of a review... and then a few more pictures... The Sunsets on this cruise were amazing... We are usually early eaters, but because this cruise is a little more port intensive, we really wanted to be part of the sail aways. One of the other perks of late dining is catching the sunsets from the balcony as everyone is getting ready for dinner.

 

[BarbinMich]

I'm enjoying your review, as we sailed out of SF on the Star last May. I, too, take lots of photos and stood on the small deck above the bridge the entire time. While that was thrilling (and ultimately very windy!), I now wished I'd roamed around to get the shots you did of the mid-ship area as it passed under the GG Bridge. Also, how cool to have real-time photos of the ship from the GG Bridge itself! Thanks for doing this!!

 

Barb

[shredie]

Great pictures! Going under the bridge is a major thrill.

[cougaraz]

WOW!! What a spectacular day for sailing out of San Francisco!!!

[Tweedy]

Looking forward to reading more of your adventure. We are sailing on the Star to Hawaii in September.

[2pbears]

What a beautiful, clear day you had for sail away from San Francisco. That makes the trip under the Golden Gate even more thrilling!

[triple7tahoe]

...

I agree.

[Colo Cruiser]

Love the pictures. :)

[RetiredNTraveling]

Thanks for the review so far and keep it coming! Great Pics also!

[gnatz007]

Going to shift gears a little. Now that the embarkation, sail away, and Golden Gate bridge are out of the way. I don’t want to go over every day, or bore you with things our family did. I just want to concentrate on the things we loved, and the things that we didn’t love so much (and there were very few).

 

As a point of reference we haven’t cruised a ton. We are just getting into it more. Our first cruise, however, was during the inaugural season of the Star Princess. So we have very fond memories of her. That was a Mexican Riviera cruise out of LA.

 

Let me start of saying, that we LOVED this cruise. Overall it was very pleasant. For those that don’t know our itinerary was San Francisco, Day at Sea, Ensenada, Long Beach, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Day at Sea, San Francisco.

 

Here is a list of things that we just loved – and not so much:

 

Food:

Hits:

• We ate in the Amalfi dining room and were waited on by Rommel and his assistant Andolfo (probably just slayed his name… sorry… ) and both were absolutely amazing! We were at tables 250 and 251, if anyone wants to tell them we said Hi it would be appreciated. They were both hilarious, at one point the assistant (I don’t want to slay his name again) while wiping away our crumbs, laughed and said, we need these for our breakfast tomorrow morning. We all have a very sarcastic, and funny sense of humor, and these two could have easily fit right into our group.

• The Food at dinner was fantastic. I would say a cut above what we had last year on the Royal. Everything was cooked to perfection. Sure there were dishes we liked more than others, but that had nothing to do with preparation or presentation. Only our own tastes.

 

 

 

• The desserts were also amazing. Our favorite being the Pistachio Chocolate dome on the last formal night.. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!

 

 

• 3 of us have birthdays at the end of march. The waiters came over and sang happy birthday to us… their singing was horrible! Which made it all the better! We loved it, and the effort was greatly appreciated. Along with the birthday cake they presented. Made it a ton of fun for all us at our two tables. I wish I would have recorded it.

 

(Sorry, picture is a little blurry, I didn't take it)

 

• The Pizza at the pool was Fantastic! Again, slightly better than what we had on the Royal.

 

(Best Hawaiian pizza ever!)

 

• Along with the pizza the Hamburgers were amazing, and the fries perfection. (just need to add a little salt for my taste).

• The Lunch in the Horizon was hit and miss. There were items we enjoyed, and some that well… weren’t so great. Problem with the horizon court was that food just wasn’t warm enough. It was often just luke warm or cold… which made some of it yuck… more on that later….

• The International Café donuts. OH MY. I know I know, I am not a cronut fan, and that sticks a dagger right in the heart of many of you… but the chocolate donuts were off the charts! Simply amazing. I had to really struggle to only have one each day…

 

(Notice all the chocolate donuts are gone... wasn't me! I Promise!)

Edited April 14, 2015 by gnatz007

[gnatz007]

I’m not sure how much food porn everyone wants. Just holler if you want more, and I will gladly post more pictures. We took pictures of everything!

 

Misses:

• Breakfast in the Horizon Court… this was a huge miss for us. The food was cold with the exception of oatmeal. Sorry I just don't like cold eggs of any sort. Oh wait... I did like the smoked salmon, and some of the fruit. The bananas were pretty mushy unfortunately.

• There was no variety to breakfast. Everyday was the exact same food. They didn’t mix it up at all.

• International café egg sandwiches were also cold. Even after being placed in the Panini for a bit. Kind of a bummer. The egg sandwiches on the Royal were to die for and something we had been really looking forward to.

[shredie]

You can't post enough food pictures for this crowd! Keep 'em coming!:D

[Working 2 Cruise]

Thanks, your review is a lot of fun! We want as much food porn as possible!

[SilverLining4Me]

Enjoying the review ... photos are always great to see.

[lovevacadays]

I am enjoying your review. I vote for more pictures.:):):)

[gnatz007]

When we boarded the ship, it was on Easter Sunday. The ship was decked out in Easter fun.

 

In the Horizon Court

 

 

 

In the Atrium

 

[gnatz007]

Our room was on Dolphin 701 (mini suite), Dolphin 711(inside), BIL and SIL in Dolphin 633, and MIL in Emerald 633. Overall we all loved our rooms. The Balcony of course was considerably bigger than the standard micro balcony on the Royal of last year. It was difficult to find pictures of the mini suite on the star with the pull down made up into a bed. So I took some for future cruisers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mackenzie1]

Wonderful review! I vote for more pictures, too!