Sailing Alaska with NCL and Princess - a comparison

[shukapaw]

Here is a quick rundown/comparison of a seven-day Alaska cruise on the Star Princess and the Norwegian Sun.

 

We live in Alaska and took an Alaska cruise a few years ago. One of the “ports” is Glacier BayNational Park. The first time we did this route there was very thick fog and we were unable to enter Glacier Bay. I’ve always wanted to go back and give it another try. We decided to do it in the summer of 2017 and also decided we’d cruise south to Vancouver, spend a couple days there and then cruise back home northbound. Both sailings hit the exact same ports so this is a comparison of apples to apples.

 

We booked these sailings back in March of 2016. We selected an inside cabin on both. The price was nearly identical; they were within $50of each other. However, the NCL price included unlimited bottom-shelf adult beverages.

As a shareholder of both NCL and Carnival, I was treated to a $100 OBC on both sailings. Princess also added another $100 because I am a veteran.

 

This is in no way an attempt to characterize one cruise line as better than another. The comparisons/comments made here are specific to ourMay 29th Princess sailing and our June 5 NCL sailing only.

 

Ships: The two ships are very close in size. The StarPrincess can accommodate 2,600 passengers and was built in 2001. It was refurbished in 2011. The NCL Sun can accommodate 1,936 passengers and was also built in 2001. It was last refurbished in 2016.

 

Overall, we were happier with the Star Princess because:

More pools (4 vs 2) and one of them was covered.

Hot tubs that were actually hot. The NCL hot tubs were barely bath temperature.

Ship seemed to be in better shape and cleaner.

Winner:Princess

Food: As always, food is subjective. I’ll touch on a few areas here.

Buffet: I prefer the layout of the buffet on the Star but the food in the buffet on the Sun. The Sun does offer some awesome pretzel rolls on the buffet!The dessert selection was also better on the Sun. Winner:NCL

Pizza: Princess has always been known for their pizza but they failed on this cruise. I tried it 3 different times and did not like it at all. The pizza on the Sun isn’t going to win any awards either. I rate this a tie (equally mediocre)

Dining Rooms: The food in the main dining rooms was better on Princess. It honestly seemed like they spent more on food for the week thanNCL. Examples include shrimp cocktails which were available each evening on theStar and never available on the Sun. Alaskan King crab was offered as an entrée one night on the Star but not on the Sun. Lobster was served one night on theStar but not on the Sun. Princess makes their own ice creams onboard and there were interesting (and tasty) selections each night. NCL offered only the basic three: Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. The bread selection on the Sun was consistently better than on Princess. Princess’ rolls were all hard and crusty (not stale)but NCL had a wide variety of bread textures. Winner: Princess

Around-the-clock-eating: Princess has the International café that, in my experience, has not been equaled. Always something good to eat when the mood strikes. Winner: Princess

Staff and Crew: We didn’t encounter any unpleasant crew on either sailing but the Princess crew seemed happier. Winner: Princess

Fitness Center: Both are stocked with an adequate assortment of cardio equipment and weight machines/ free weights. Like most cruise lines, both have a 7:00 am stretch/exercise class. However, Princess doesn’t advertise this in their daily schedule so it is poorly attended. The Princess instructors will not hold the class unless a minimum number of people show up and so it was cancelled on a few days due to lack of participation. Winner:NCL

Cabin: We have always felt that Princess has the best cabin layout and best utilization of cabin space. That changed on this cruise. The NCL cabin was 20 to 25% larger than the Princess cabin. It had more storage than we could utilize. We had lots of leftover closet and drawer space. Winner:NCL

 

Entertainment: The singers in the production cast onPrincess were as good as we’ve ever encountered on a cruise. The shows were good on both ships but it seemed that Princess had more offerings outside of the main showroom (guitarists, pianists, string trios, etc.) Winner:Princess

Adult beverages: Since the NCL cruise included the package, they are the clear winner here. That being said, their drinks are ridiculously priced and the cutoff point between the brands that are included and those that incur additional charges is ridiculously low.

 

As you can see from my signature, I am not loyal to any cruise line. I understand that each line has its strengths and weaknesses. If I were not a fan of either of these companies I wouldn’t have sailed with them again. I’m not sure how to state this next bit of business so I’ll just type and see how it looks…. The Alaska cruise on NCL was pretty much your typical NCL cruise that happened to have Alaska as its destination. Princess, on the other hand, provided an Alaskan experience Cruise. Some examples of this include:

The ship being decorated in an Alaska motif. There were tapestries depicting the gold rush era hung in the piazza.

On numerous occasions the Cruise director and his minions were dressed in lumberjack attire (red checkered flannel shirts, suspenders, boots, etc).

In Skagway, they brought sled dog puppies into the piazza for people to pet and have their pictures taken with.

In Juneau, Libby Riddles, the first female winner of theIditarod, came onboard with a sled dog and gave a talk and answered questions.

Throughout the week there were special Alaska-themed menu items.

Princess has a naturalist onboard for the whole week with various presentations about Alaska.

Princess had an author onboard who has lived and travelled extensively in the Alaska backcountry. He gave numerous talks and slide presentations.

 

Overall, I’d have to give the nod to Princess for this itinerary. If, however, your Liver weighs heavily in your travel-planning decisions, you might prefer NCL. :')

 

As I said in the beginning, I'm not loyal to any cruise line and these are my observations specific to these two ships.

Hopefully, you found this mildly amusing. I wanted to offer something to the CC community for all the help I've received here

 

 

~Brian

[sunsetbeachgal]

Great review! Thanks !

 

 

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[Tyskie]

Thanks for a great comparison! We too like both cruise lines. Princess is booked for June 2018 [emoji4]

 

 

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[Essiesmom]

Just one tiny nitpick: Star Princess may have been 'built' in 2001, but she was launched in 2002. I know this because I was on the Inaugural cruise Feb - Mar 2002, 26 nights Singapore to LA. EM

[frugaltravel]

Just one tiny nitpick: Star Princess may have been 'built' in 2001, but she was launched in 2002. I know this because I was on the Inaugural cruise Feb - Mar 2002, 26 nights Singapore to LA. EM

 

Seems like Brian was totally accurate in saying "built." I don't think a cruise line could build a ship starting in January and have its inaugural sailing in February :D

[Iamcruzin]

Thank you for taking the time to write a well balanced review. From what you wrote I gather that the over all on board experience would be similar on a Caribbean itinerary. However the drink package from NCL would weigh a lot more in a decision when considering both lines. Princess would be my first choice in Alaska over all other lines.

[tomsawyer]

Interesting comparison thanks for posting!

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it.

[gatorguy56]

Thanks for your unbiased review. We have never sailed NCL but have friends that are vey loyal to them. We like Princess for the total package. Plenty to do or not to do. We've always received excellent service. Since we only drink an occasional beer or glass of wine the drink package is of no interest to us. I must admit we do like to spoil ourselves and get a balcony room. Even if the itinerary isn't exactly scenic, we like to sit on our balcony. But the thing that clinches it for us is the IC on Princess. We visit it often and all times of the day or night!

[Thrak]

I like it! We have only cruised Princess and really have no plans to "jump ship" to another line. Of course one can't foresee the future. I like it that your review and comparison seems fair and unbiased. While, like I said above, I don't plan to sail another line it's good to hear comparisons with what I know. I realize that I tend to come off as a Princess fanboi (no, it's not a typo ;p) and that is somewhat true as Princess is what I know and what makes me happy. That doesn't mean I think every other cruise line out there is "bad". It just means that the line we started with seemed to fit us and falls in the financial area we can manage to pay. I'm certain there are other lines that offer much (much!) more but I simply can't afford to even think about them. (Heck, I'd probably need to invest a ton of cash in a new wardrobe just to consider some of those lines!) I am extremely grateful and continually shocked that we are able to cruise at all.

 

Thanks again for what seems to me to be a very fair and impartial comparison.

[AF-1]

Very nice comparison of ships and cruiselines. Thanks for posting

[huskerdan25]

I like it! We have only cruised Princess and really have no plans to "jump ship" to another line. Of course one can't foresee the future. I like it that your review and comparison seems fair and unbiased. While, like I said above, I don't plan to sail another line it's good to hear comparisons with what I know. I realize that I tend to come off as a Princess fanboi (no, it's not a typo ;p) and that is somewhat true as Princess is what I know and what makes me happy. That doesn't mean I think every other cruise line out there is "bad". It just means that the line we started with seemed to fit us and falls in the financial area we can manage to pay. I'm certain there are other lines that offer much (much!) more but I simply can't afford to even think about them. (Heck, I'd probably need to invest a ton of cash in a new wardrobe just to consider some of those lines!) I am extremely grateful and continually shocked that we are able to cruise at all.

 

Thanks again for what seems to me to be a very fair and impartial comparison.

 

I'm with Thrak here as far as Princess is the line we started with and fell in love with cruising with and has always provided us what we want in a cruise vacation. We haven't tried NCL but have had two cruises with Celebrity and I probably should have done a similar review to compare our experiences. It is helpful to get an insight into the experience on multiple cruise lines. We loved Celebrity for many things but Princess is our first love and we have never been disappointed with our Princess cruises.

 

Thanks for your excellent review and for sharing your experiences.

[DaKa2002]

Thank you very much for the comparison - nicely done! We have sailed Princess but not yet on NCL.

 

We have sailed multiple lines and ships to Alaska so far. Another Southbound Alaskan cruise this August. Can hardly wait as everything is done: flights, pre-cruise hotel, rental car, excursions, etc.