Trip Report - Golden Princess 5/7/19 - Inside Passage

[Easton13A]

I've seen a few others starting trip reports early in order to get some of the planning down for future cruisers to use, and thought I'd follow suit.

 

My wife (41) and I (42) did our first ever cruise back in 2015 on the Carnival Liberty out of San Juan, and an Alaskan cruise has been on both of our bucket lists for a while now.  First step was obviously picking a ship and itinerary.  For this one, a round trip from Seattle or Vancouver made the most sense for us, for a number of factors.  While we'd love to do a NB or SB and do a land tour around Anchorage and Denali, it's just not in the cards for this one.  We quickly made that only Vancouver, since we've never been there, and everything I've read pointed to a better experience when sailing from Vancouver.  We also wanted to be sure to pick an itinerary that included Glacier Bay.

 

With my drill dates (National Guard) and Annual Training Dates, we're limited in what we can select.  Early May is what we found would work best for us timing.  That gave us these options:

 

Nieuw Amsterdam 5/4-5/11

Golden Princess 5/7-5/14

Volendam 5/8-5/15

Coral Princess 5/8-5/15

 

Several factors led to us choosing the Golden Princess.  We have good friends who are big cruisers, so we always seek them out.  They highly recommended going with Princess, and they love both the Golden and the Coral.  What pushed us over the edge for the Golden were price and cabin.  We ended up with an aft balcony cabin, and our friends said jump on it and don't let go.  So, Golden Princess it is.  We booked thought American Airlines cruises for the bonus miles.

 

Speaking of American Airlines miles, we were able to use miles completely for our flights to and from Vancouver, so that helps keep the cost down.  We used hotel points to book our hotel in Downtown Vancouver as well.  We decided to fly into Vancouver on 5/5 to get a full day and two partial days pre-embarkation since neither of us had been before.

 

Now that the cruise, flights, and hotel are booked, it was time to look at excursions.  I got lots of good info off of here and TripAdvisor.  I also looked at what Princess offered in each port to get some ideas. We ended up going with:

 

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier Ice Adventure Tour by Liquid Alaska Tours

Skagway - Yukon Discovery Tour by Frontier Excursions

Ketchikan - Misty Fjords Wilderness Cruise and Flight through Princess

 

We're pretty happy with these, and are eagerly anticipating them.  We went with the glacier tour over whale-watching in Juneau.  It was a very difficult decision, but in the end we went with the opportunity to hike on a glacier.  In Ketchikan, several people told us that a Misty Fjords floatplane was the way to go.  We went with the Princess one for a number of reasons, chief among them the number of ships in port that day.  It might not matter in the end, but it just seemed easier.

 

For Vancouver, we're going with a mix of tours and exploring on our own.  I love me some craft beer, so we're going to do a Craft Brewery and Distillery tour one day, a sunset cruise another, and a city highlights tour in there as well.

 

That's it for now, we fly to Vancouver in just under 3 weeks now, and can't wait.

 

 

[hvbaskey]

13 minutes ago, Easton13A said:

I've seen a few others starting trip reports early in order to get some of the planning down for future cruisers to use, and thought I'd follow suit.

 

My wife (41) and I (42) did our first ever cruise back in 2015 on the Carnival Liberty out of San Juan, and an Alaskan cruise has been on both of our bucket lists for a while now.  First step was obviously picking a ship and itinerary.  For this one, a round trip from Seattle or Vancouver made the most sense for us, for a number of factors.  While we'd love to do a NB or SB and do a land tour around Anchorage and Denali, it's just not in the cards for this one.  We quickly made that only Vancouver, since we've never been there, and everything I've read pointed to a better experience when sailing from Vancouver.  We also wanted to be sure to pick an itinerary that included Glacier Bay.

 

With my drill dates (National Guard) and Annual Training Dates, we're limited in what we can select.  Early May is what we found would work best for us timing.  That gave us these options:

 

Nieuw Amsterdam 5/4-5/11

Golden Princess 5/7-5/14

Volendam 5/8-5/15

Coral Princess 5/8-5/15

 

Several factors led to us choosing the Golden Princess.  We have good friends who are big cruisers, so we always seek them out.  They highly recommended going with Princess, and they love both the Golden and the Coral.  What pushed us over the edge for the Golden were price and cabin.  We ended up with an aft balcony cabin, and our friends said jump on it and don't let go.  So, Golden Princess it is.  We booked thought American Airlines cruises for the bonus miles.

 

Speaking of American Airlines miles, we were able to use miles completely for our flights to and from Vancouver, so that helps keep the cost down.  We used hotel points to book our hotel in Downtown Vancouver as well.  We decided to fly into Vancouver on 5/5 to get a full day and two partial days pre-embarkation since neither of us had been before.

 

Now that the cruise, flights, and hotel are booked, it was time to look at excursions.  I got lots of good info off of here and TripAdvisor.  I also looked at what Princess offered in each port to get some ideas. We ended up going with:

 

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier Ice Adventure Tour by Liquid Alaska Tours

Skagway - Yukon Discovery Tour by Frontier Excursions

Ketchikan - Misty Fjords Wilderness Cruise and Flight through Princess

 

We're pretty happy with these, and are eagerly anticipating them.  We went with the glacier tour over whale-watching in Juneau.  It was a very difficult decision, but in the end we went with the opportunity to hike on a glacier.  In Ketchikan, several people told us that a Misty Fjords floatplane was the way to go.  We went with the Princess one for a number of reasons, chief among them the number of ships in port that day.  It might not matter in the end, but it just seemed easier.

 

For Vancouver, we're going with a mix of tours and exploring on our own.  I love me some craft beer, so we're going to do a Craft Brewery and Distillery tour one day, a sunset cruise another, and a city highlights tour in there as well.

 

That's it for now, we fly to Vancouver in just under 3 weeks now, and can't wait.

 

 

 

We will be in Ketchikan on the same day!  We are also doing the Yukon Discovery Tour with Frontier (different date) 🙂
Looking forward to reading your trip report!

[Anita Latte]

Ooo...looking forward to reading all about your adventure! Aft balcony is on my bucket list...I love to sit and watch the wake. Some of the sail aways are so spectacular...being able to sit on your own balcony in comfort will be such a plus.

 

Really looking forward to hearing about your Mendenhall Ice Hike. I have an ACL-deficient knee and we ended up canceling the one glacier hike that we had originally planned for. I hadn't been working out like I thought I might and just didn't feel confident in my ability to deal. Mendenhall is known for having accessible ice caves, but those are seasonal and ever changing...will your excursion include exploring an ice cave if there is one accessible? 

 

We are also craft brew enthusiasts...I recommend the Steamworks Brew Pub in Vancouver! We made our way through several of their brews between our 4 adult imbibers and all were really good. I don't think you can go wrong there.

[Easton13A]

Yeah, as soon as we saw that we could get the aft corner balcony, we didn't hesitate.  I made sure the TA marked our reservation as DO NOT UPGRADE as well, after reading that advice on here.

 

While they obviously can't make any guarantees on ice caves, if there are any to see, we'll see them.

 

I'll see if we can check out Steamworks, thanks for the recommendation!  Looks like they have a brewpub/tap room right in downtown.

[milolii]

Nice, following,  We cruise in August so will enjoy reading your reports. 

[Easton13A]

All our Vancouver planned activities are booked.  Doing the Vancouver Brewery & Distillery Tour through Canadian Craft Tours after we arrive on 5/5.  On 5/6, we're doing the Vancouver City Highlights Tour with Landsea Tours and the Sunset Dinner Cruise through Harbour Cruises.  Still lots of time in there for exploring/sightseeing on our own.

 

The Brewery and Distillery Tour will visit two of these breweries:  Parallel 49 Brewing, Big Rock Brewing, Postmark Brewing, Off the Rail, Strathcona, and Luppolo; and one of these distilleries:  Long Table Distillery, Odd Society Spirits, The Liberty Distillery, and Deep Cove Brewing & Distilling.  Only a handful of reviews on TA for this tour/company, but they're almost universally excellent, so feeling good about that one for sure.

 

The cruise departs at 4:30pm on 5/7 (Tuesday), so I'm sure we'll also have time that morning to do some adventuring around.  Don't know that we'll get back off the ship once we board, we'll see.

 

Not really much planning left to be done, which is a good feeling.  Just last minute Amazon shopping for stuff we might need, but we're pretty good in that department as well.  Finishing up packing list planning.  Lots of layers, as I've seen suggested just about everywhere.  It's still a bit far out to really trust the forecasts, but it's looking cool and rainy quite a bit as of now (whatever the weather is, we'll just roll with it and enjoy ourselves no matter what, it's Alaska after all!).  I'll keep checking Accuweather and Wunderground as we get closer to sailing.

[Easton13A]

Just a couple more planning notes I realized that I left out...

 

We get to Vancouver at 11:30am on Sunday 5/5.  Figure an hour or so to go through customs, claim bags, etc.  Can't check in until 3:00pm, so we'll drop our bags off and do some walking around after taking a taxi to the hotel.  We also looked at doing the Canada Line, but the extra $$$ for the fixed fare cab seems worth it to not have to lug our bags from the station to the hotel, especially since we'll have to do that the couple of blocks to the port on Tuesday.

 

We opted for Anytime Dining since the port schedules are so varied.  10:15pm departure from Juneau, 8:30pm departure from Skagway, and 5:45pm departure from Ketchikan.  There's a good chance that for 2 out of the 3 ports, we'll be having dinner in town, and if not, than probably later than normal.  Didn't want to do a set dining time with that.

 

I did some analysis on the Premier Beverage Package, and I have no idea how people make it worth it.  I'm not a big liquor drinking, I generally stick to beer, and I'd have to drink 10+ a day to get to $70.79 to make it worth it.  One day of that and I'd be miserable the next 3 days!  Maybe 20 years ago. 🙂  We are both going with the Unlimited Soda & More Package, just for the hot chocolate alone.  Neither of us are coffee drinkers, so the hot chocolate will be nice to cut the chill in the mornings/evenings, I'm sure.  At $3 (plus gratuity) each for a large, 3 a day each will cover the price of the package.  We're also doing a few of the bottled water packages, since we both drink lots of water.

[Gaudry]

Hi  Your trip report is great.   Cant believe its getting so close now.  My daughter will be on the Mendenhall Glacier Ice adventure Tour by Liquid Alaska tours with you if its the one leaving at 2pm.   I do hope you all get to see a ice cave.  We have only booked the White Pass Railroad trip with Chilkoot Tours in Skagway and are happy to do our own sightseeing in the other towns on our own.  All your tours sound exciting.  Will have to meet up with you all at the Meet and Greet.  

[HoneymoonCruiser5]

Thank you for posting this. We leave on our Alaska cruise on 5/12/19. Can't wait!

[Easton13A]

Today was thinking about where we should try to eat in ports when we're not on our excursions.  Thanks to several recommendations on here, and to the reviews on TA, we're going to eat lunch at Hangar on the Wharf in Juneau right after arriving.  I'm going to go for 12:30pm reservations so we have time to get to our 2:00pm meetup for the Liquid Alaska Mendenhall tour.  We dock at 12:00pm, so that's probably pushing it, but I want to make sure we don't miss our tour.  Dinner either in town somewhere else, or right back on the ship after our excursion ends at 7:30pm for a later dinner in the MDR.  We'll see.

 

Skagway, I'm thinking we'll most likely hit the Skagway Brewing Company.  I've read nothing but good things.  We have all afternoon after our Yukon Discovery Tour is over at 3:30pm.  We don't leave until 8:30pm.  Probably won't do a full meal, but snacks and beer sounds good.  Then MDR that evening back on the ship.

 

I'm still looking into Ketchikan to see where might be a good place.  Our Misty Fjords tour gets back at 1:30pm and we don't depart until 5:45pm.  Might just do the snack in town somewhere plan again and eat dinner on board.  Probably play it by ear.

[ErLee]

Have a great trip!  Our Alaska adventure is 55 days away.....but who’s counting 😃

[Easton13A]

Under a week to sailing, and just 4 days until we fly to Vancouver!

 

Packing is well underway.  We've been following all the advice I've read over the last several months when it comes to what to take and what not to take.  The keyword, like everything I've read on here and elsewhere, is "layers!"  Being in Texas, having cooler weather in May will be a nice change of pace, even if it comes with some rain.  I've been checking forecasts every other day, but they're still changing, sometimes dramatically, day to day, so we're just going to prepare for all conditions.

 

We drive to Austin on Saturday to drop off the kiddo and the dog with my in-laws, then fly on to Vancouver from there on Sunday.  Stay tuned for more updates, most likely after we get home.  I'm not going to update during the cruise, most likely, preferring to vacation during vacation. 🙂

[HoneymoonCruiser5]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip! We sail the following week on Star Princess and we're so excited!

[Anita Latte]

Our forecast was also all over the place for our cruise last summer. Like you, we ultimately decided that it didn't matter, we would be prepared for whatever...I realized that knowing what the weather would be wouldn't really change what I planned to bring. Hope you have a great vacation!

[Easton13A]

Got back home late last night, and working on getting pictures downloaded, etc.  I'll try to start on the review/log this weekend.  Bottom line, what an amazing experience!

[Beachfrog]

Can't wait to hear more!!

[scsagh]

On 5/15/2019 at 8:33 AM, Easton13A said:

Got back home late last night, and working on getting pictures downloaded, etc.  I'll try to start on the review/log this weekend.  Bottom line, what an amazing experience!

 

We will be on the June 29th sailing of the Golden Princess, so looking forward to hearing all about your cruise!

 

One question for you Easton13A, was there a certain area of the ship that was good for hanging out on the Glacier Bay day, if you don't have a balcony? Since we're not familiar with the ship, we don't know where good places to be are.

 

Thanks in advance! 

[card61]

We stood on deck 7 in the front of the ship had great views both days. The naturalist is also in that area pointing out things to see. It is beautiful! 

[Easton13A]

Sorry for the delay, I was in Pennsylvania the last month for some training.  Back home now, so should be able to get started on the review this week.  Stay tuned!

[Easton13A]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:42 PM, scsagh said:

 

We will be on the June 29th sailing of the Golden Princess, so looking forward to hearing all about your cruise!

 

One question for you Easton13A, was there a certain area of the ship that was good for hanging out on the Glacier Bay day, if you don't have a balcony? Since we're not familiar with the ship, we don't know where good places to be are.

 

Thanks in advance! 

We had an aft balcony, which we found to be perfect for Glacier Bay viewing.  We did spend some time up on deck, but it was pretty crowded, so we headed back down to the balcony.  I would just pick a spot on an open deck and stay there.  The ship will spin around, so all sides will get good views.

[CruiseTravel2019]

Hi. Thank you for your post and for all the replies. We are going to be on the Golden in a few weeks.

 

I know it’s too late now, but we came across several posts from a while ago complaining about the Golden - water dripping from ceiling, etc. I thought I had also read though Princess updated the ship since those complaints. For those that just sailed on the Golden the last few months, can you please let me know so we can know what to expect? 

 

Also, for those that did the Misty Fjord seaplane, if you did not have a clear, sunny day, are you still glad you did it? 

 

Lastly, we are planning to do the Mendenhall Glacier with the dog sledding. We are definitely planning to layer, but trying to figure out if layers of fleece-lined leggings, a tank, a long sleeve shirt and ski jacket are enough or too much?

 

Thank you you so much for any insight you may have. 

[Easton13A]

Ok, so here we go with the first couple of days.  I'll try to add pics shortly, and I have the Patters, I'll just need to get them scanned in.

Some quick opening details:
Cabin: C753
Dining: Any Time Dining
Drink Packages: we both got the Unlimited Soda & More

 

DAY 1 - May 5th, 2019
We left Austin at 7:15am, connecting through DFW, and arrived at YVR around 11:30.  Cleared customs, got our bags, and caught a cab to the Days Inn downtown.  We were early for check in, but they had a room ready for us, so we dropped our bags and walked over to the Steamworks Brewpub for a late lunch.  Food was good, beer was really good.  At 4:45pm, we walked down to Canada Place to meet our guide for our Craft Brewery and Distillery Tour with Scott from Canadian Craft.  The tour was excellent.  We visited Odd Society Spirits, Bomber Brewing, and Strathcona Brewing.  The distillery was a bit disappointing, as it seemed they weren't expecting us.  We each got a mixed drink, but no other samplers, and only a token tour of the production area.  The breweries were both great, though, and we got 4 or 5 tasters at each.  We also ordered pizza at Strathcona, and it was really good.  After Scott dropped us back at Canada Place, it was close to 10pm, and we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

DAY 2 - May 6th, 2019
First up for the day was a Vancouver City Highlights tour with Landsea Tours.  Rene picked us up at the hotel at 10am, so we had time to sleep in a bit and have a decent breakfast at the hotel.  First stop on the tour was Stanley Park at the totems.  Very cool to see, and the park itself is beautiful.  Next stop was Prospect Point in Stanley Park.  We walked up the hill to take a picture down the Lion's Gate Bridge, then walked around the area.  After leaving Stanley Park, we headed to Granville Island.  We had a good group on the tour with us, and everyone was timely getting back to the bus at the first two stops, so we had a good hour and a half at the Granville Island Public Market.  What a cool place!  We easily could have spent the day there.  As it was, we got some lunch, then just wandered around for a while.  From there, we drove through Chinatown and Gastown and drove by English Bay and Canada Place before stopping at the Vancouver Lookout Tower and heading up to the top (admission included in the tour).  Atop the Tower, we were greeted with great views of Vancouver.  It was a beautiful day (a theme that would repeat throughout the cruise, as well), so we could see far off in the distance as well.  After, we had Rene drop us at Canada Place so we could walk over to Bella's for gelato on his recommendation.  All in all, it was a fantastic tour.  After gelato, we headed back to the hotel for some rest before walking over to Harbour Cruises for our sunset dinner cruise.  We set sail on the MV Harbour Princess at 7:00pm and headed out into the harbor.  We cruised out under the Lions Gate Bridge, but unfortunately it was a bit too rough in the Burrard Inlet, and we had to head back into the harbor.  Dinner was good, but not spectacular, but the scenery more than made up for it.  We docked back at the marina at around 9:30 and walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

DAY 3 - May 7th, 2019 - SAIL DAY!
We got up and got packed, ate breakfast, and walked down to Canada Place around 10:30 to drop off our bags.  We did that, got checked in with Princess, and were back out on the street by 11:00.  I thought it would take us quite a bit longer, so I had made reservations at Rogue Kitchen and Wetbar for noon (also thinking it would be busy with about-to-board passengers).  They easily accommodated us early (it was practically empty).  We had lunch and a couple of drinks, then figured we'd go ahead and see if we could board.  We breezed through customs (thank you US and Canadian citizens line) and were on board by 1:00.  We headed straight up to our cabin to drop off our carry-ons and met our cabin attendant, Francesca, on the way.  I'm guessing that they get our check-in pictures sent to them, because she immediately greeted us by name, before we even got to our cabin door.  She was great all cruise.  Found our cabin, our bags were already there, and got everything into the room and took a look at our view.  We got really lucky at booking with an aft balcony, C753.  Granted, this is only our second cruise, so we don't have much basis for comparison, but what an amazing cabin to have.  After settling in, we headed out to explore our home for the next week, and try to orient ourselves to the major areas.  DW was interested in the spa services, so we did the open house and got a tour.  We entered the drawing for $500 worth of vouchers.  At 3:45 we headed to the Vista Lounge for the Muster drill.  It was quick and painless.  After, we headed back up to the spa for the raffle drawing.  Our run of luck winning things would start here, as I was the first name drawn for a $100 certificate for the spa, which I promptly handed to DW.  She booked a massage after the raffle was over, and we headed back up to our cabin to change for dinner.  We got to the Bernini Dining Room around 5:30 or so and were sat almost immediately after telling the maitre d' that we were happy to share a table.  That ended up being fortuitous, as we ended up sharing a table with two other couples-one from New Orleans, and one from Vancouver-who we ended up hanging out with while on the ship during most of the rest of the cruise.  The Vancouver couple split before dessert so they could get to Movie Poster Trivia at 7:00 (which they won).  We had that marked down as something we wanted to do as well, but we wanted dessert more, so we stayed.  After dinner, we changed back into casual clothes and headed to the Princess Theater for the Welcome Aboard Show.  It was ok, probably would skip it next time, but it did let us meet the Cruise Director (Benny Yau).  We were pretty wiped out by that time, so we headed up to bed.

 

More to come....

[Easton13A]

4 minutes ago, CruiseTravel2019 said:

Hi. Thank you for your post and for all the replies. We are going to be on the Golden in a few weeks.

 

I know it’s too late now, but we came across several posts from a while ago complaining about the Golden - water dripping from ceiling, etc. I thought I had also read though Princess updated the ship since those complaints. For those that just sailed on the Golden the last few months, can you please let me know so we can know what to expect? 

 

Also, for those that did the Misty Fjord seaplane, if you did not have a clear, sunny day, are you still glad you did it? 

 

Lastly, we are planning to do the Mendenhall Glacier with the dog sledding. We are definitely planning to layer, but trying to figure out if layers of fleece-lined leggings, a tank, a long sleeve shirt and ski jacket are enough or too much?

 

Thank you you so much for any insight you may have. 

We didn't notice any water dripping anywhere, and thought the ship was in great shape.  Would sail on her again, for sure.

 

We did a Misty Ford seaplane through Princess, which uses Taquan Air.  We never felt unsafe, as our pilot was clearing looking out for other traffic constantly.  We had a clear, sunny day, so the views were fantastic.

 

We did a canoe across the lake and a hike on Mendenall Glacier.  I think what you've got will be plenty, maybe a bit much.  If it is too much, the beauty of layers is that you can always take a layer off.

[CruiseTravel2019]

Thank you so much for the info. We too are spending a day in Vancouver so the info about the tour was also so helpful as we’ve never been there. I look forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

[Kellie in Texas]

@Easton13A we are cruising Alaska from Vancouver in June 2020 (on RCCL) so I'm reading your posts for ideas on Vancouver, etc.  Just through I'd throw in that my hometown is Lewisville and I remember when Highland Village really was a little village.  :D