Grand Princess Alaska Family Trip Review - June 2022

[PhotoGal07]

Day 4:  Helicopter Ride, Wildlife Conservation Center, and Boarding the Grand Princess!

I feel like I've been writing up this review for ever, and we are only just now getting to the SHIP!  Oy!

 

We woke up at the cottage at Salted Root in the incredibly early hours of the morning (yet again), and headed out to explore the beach.  It was amazing to be on that beach without another soul around.  There were a few eagles soaring around looking for breakfast, and I took the kids out tidepooling where we spotted a few starfish.  

 

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/PyP31qLJ_d8

 

After that it was helicopter time!  We packed up our suitcases once again, and drove our rental car over to Seward Helicopters for our flight over to Bear Lake Glacier.  

For anyone who has a chance to do this, I highly recommend it.  This was by and far one of the coolest things we did.  The helicopter ride was of course amazing, but Bear Lake Glacier was GORGEOUS.  Getting to hike and play on Matanuska glacier was spectacular and if I could only do one thing it would be that, but this excursion was such a close second (and the scenery was way better).  You get way more of an understanding of the true scope of the glaciers going over them in the helicopter, and flying over the bergy bits along the lake was so so very cool.  

 

 

After that it was time to return our rental car.  We booked with PJ's taxis and tours to take us from Seward to Whittier.  Renee took great care of us as she shuttled us the 2 hours to our cruise terminal.  The words salt of the earth fit her to a tee.  She was even kind enough to take us to a little hidden place right outside of Seward where the salmon were running.  We hopped out, and watched for quite a while as fish after fish threw themselves upstream.  

 

https://youtu.be/vUYdQ_mfL7s

 

We hopped back in the shuttle and headed over to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  

 

The Conservation Center mostly just felt like a bit of a tourist trap, and overpriced for what it was.  Still it was a chance for the kids to see some bears, wolves, and moose up close.  Though the thing they were most excited about were the foxes (which we HAVE AT HOME!!!).   I'm glad we did it because the kids enjoyed it, and it broke up the trip from Seward to Whittier, but I would likely not bother to plan a stop there if it was just us adults.  

 

 

 

 

After that it was back in the shuttle to head to the cruise port!

 

We arrived in Whittier right around 2pm.  There was no wait to hand our suitcases off to the porter, and we headed inside to get our medallions setup and all of our covid vaccinations/tests/boarding info all set up.  We were in a suite for the cruise, but there was no Priority Check-in available, so we had to wait in line with everyone else (the horror). 

It was a fairly short line when we finally arrived, only 8-10 people, so not a big deal, but I did miss having an area away from the hustle and bustle and slightly more dedicated service while getting all our paperwork to board in order.  I don't know how it usually works on Princess or what priority check-in out of the Whittier port usually entails, but on other lines it usually involves a special area with refreshments, and almost zero wait.  It's possible Princess had that earlier in the day when the lines were longer, or that Whittier is just an odd port that's not really set up for that.  But we made it through check-in, and headed up the gangplank to board the ship.

 

We went up to scan our medallions again to enter, but there was of course a glitch with our medallions as we tried to actually board.  I'm not sure what the issue was, but unfortunately we were stuck waiting on the gangplank for about 15 minutes while they sorted whatever the issue was out.  There was a lot of radioing back and forth, a few phone calls.  It was a bit annoying as we were SO VERY close to being on the ship and just wanting to get settled in our cabin, but having it just out of reach.  Finally all was sorted and we were finally allowed on the ship.  So bring your patience.

Our cabin was D736, one of the vista balcony's on the port side.  The cabin was well appointed and suitable for our little group of 4.  I don't think I would want to have 4 adults in there, but for 2 adults and 2 children it worked just fine.  The mini bar was all set up, along with a welcome plate of few desserts and canapes.  Our room steward came in to introduce himself, and asked if there was anything from the mini bar we wanted swapped, and if we wanted our champagne (Of course!  It's a vacation!).  And everyone excitedly poked around the room, marveled at the huge balcony we had to enjoy, and the kids squabbled about who would get the pull out and who would get the upper berth (it was decided that they would compromise and alternate each night).

Here's a quick video tour of the room:   

 

https://youtu.be/q71MUfdcE7g

Here is a picture of the upper birth pulled down for the evening:

 

Since we had the complimentary specialty restaurant the first night we called and made a reservation for the Crown Grill for dinner.  Knowing everyone was tired from all of our previous days, I asked for the earliest reservation we could get.  The woman on the phone said that while Crown Grill officially only takes reservations starting at 5:30pm, we could make our way there at 5pm, and they would likely be able to seat us. 

After that it was time to quickly tour around the ship.  We signed both kids up for the kids club, walked through the casino and art gallery, found Coffee and Cones (the kids were thrilled to discover they could get soft serve here whenever they wanted), and the International Cafe (which my husband was delighted to discover would have amazing hot chocolate and plenty of desserts available).  

Dinner at Crown Grill was very enjoyable, though there was just WAY too much food.  For appetizers H ordered the Black Tiger Prawn and Papaya Salpicon (the standout appetizer of the meal) and the Shrimp Bisque, and I had the Lobster Cake and shrimp bisque.  The kids and I each ordered a filet, and H ordered the Bone in Strip, and we ended up with the creamed spinach, asparagus, fries (for the kids), and mashed potatoes. 

 

The problem was that I'm the only one in the family who eats spinach, but we still ended up with 4 servings of spinach, and 4 full servings of mashed potatoes despite 2 kids who wanted the fries instead, and 4 full servings of fries despite adults that weren't really going to eat them.  I felt awful about the amount of food that went to waste.  We also ran into a small problem where they put parsley on the fries much to the horror of our two picky eaters.  We simply asked for it without the next time we dined at the Crown, and they easily accommodated, but it meant that the fries were considered inedible that first night.

The one thing I will point out was that the meat was not cooked quite right.  We all prefer medium rare, and 3 of the steaks were definitely medium.  It wasn't a big deal, and it wasn't worth sending it back, but if we had been paying the upcharge I would have been a mildly annoyed.   Everyone enjoyed the special salts they provided to season the meal.  We all agreed that the smoked applewood salt was by far the best.  For dessert we had the Triple Chocolate Treasure, the Warm Chocolate Mousse Trifle (without the grapefruit), and the Salted Caramel Creme Brulee Cheesecake (another standout of the meal).  

After that we headed back to the room to unpack, shower, and fall asleep.  The various shows, and ship activities would have to wait.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by PhotoGal07

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you so much for your trip report!  I agree wholeheartedly with others that you are the master of detailed planning and I loved imagining your process!  Only 3 suitcases total for a family of four is totally amazing as is your photo collage of outfits!  You write so well that it makes reading nice and relaxing and I feel like I am there.  Your pictures are amazing too!  One of my favorites is of your two children next to each other with the view!  Beautiful!  They will remember that for sure. You have given lots of helpful ideas for us to use for future trips.  Thank you again!

[alibabacruisers]

Anxiously awaiting more.......dreaming of going to Alaska again.......

[DUCHESSRN]

Loving this review ,Thank You .We sail on Ruby September 7th.

[Italy52]

Duplicate post

Edited July 9, 2022 by Italy52

[Italy52]

Duplicate post

Edited July 9, 2022 by Italy52

[Italy52]

PhotoGal07 Thank you for taking the time to post your beautiful journey, I appreciate it.  If you don't mind, would you also post the link on the Alaska board.  I know there are a lot of Alaska cruisers who would love to read about your trip.  Thanks.

[sasharose]

On 6/26/2022 at 4:45 PM, PhotoGal07 said:

About 1500 on our sailing.  Ship felt VERY empty, but I would assume it will pick up at least a small bit for July sailings.

Are there coin laundries on this ship?

[montgomeryfamily]

There are coin laundries on the Grand.

[montgomeryfamily]

PhotoGal07, I have really enjoyed the review and especially, the photos.  By any chance do you have copies of the Patters and menus?

[futureAG]

@PhotoGal07 I am so grateful for you and this post!! While we are sailing in late August and on a different cruise, reading your review and packing list is so helpful!  My husband and I went to Alaska on our honeymoon 11 years ago but this time  we get to show our two girls (8&5) Alaska! And my brother & SIL have 2 girls (4&1) and they are going too!  

[disgirlsx3]

You are a true Goddess and Hero. Thank you so much for time and effort for all of the info. Looking forward to more.

[Pluto_fan]

I too am enjoying your wonderful report!  The pre-cruise information is very helpful as I am trying to figure out what to do before our southbound one-way next year.

[nini]

I am so amazed that you only needed the 3 pieces of luggage! That is an inspiration.

[Cbtours]

On 6/27/2022 at 8:39 AM, PhotoGal07 said:

We recently returned from our cruise on the Grand Princess, so I wanted to do a detailed review for everyone, since I know how helpful reading the reviews were when I was initially planning!  

 

Summary: 

Our family of 4 originally planned on heading out for an Alaskan cruise in June of 2020.  Obviously that was a no go.  We cancelled, and hoped to try for June of 2021, or September of 2021.  Since neither of them materialized, we once again tried for June of 2022, and held our breathe.  Luckily we managed to make it!  Trip was myself, my husband, and our two kiddos ages 9 and 11.  We also planned a short land tour for a few days pre-cruise in Anchorage and Seward (no Denaili this trip).  This was our first venture out with Princess, and I will say that despite a lot of the complaints I've been seeing, we did have a very nice time.  It definitely helped that we did not have to put up with the itinerary changes occurring on the Crown.

Packing:

This seems to spark a lot of conversation specifically for Alaska.  After going, I can see why it is so confusing, as the weather tends to fluctuate wildly, it can feel like low 80s to low 60s just based on if you are standing in the sun or shade.  There were times in the sun when we stripped down to t-shirts, and then the moment a cloud came over and us, it went back to feeling chilly, and we were putting our fleece jackets back on.  

 

In order to figure out what to pack for myself and the kids (H packs for himself), I made a rough guess of what we would be wearing each day, and made sure that everything mixed and matched well.  We may not wear the exact outfit on the day planned, but at least we have a relative idea of what is available.  We also planned on having laundry done once while on the ship, which helped a bit. 

For my daughter that looked like this:

For my son, that looked like this:

And for myself that looked like this:

I also made myself a packing list since I was packing for both myself and the kids, and it becomes easy to forget things:  

 

Packing list for us ended up like this:
Kids:

Adults:

 

Extras:

  

Notes about Packing and What I Included: 

I packed a bit differently for each person.  For my daughter who is ALWAYS cold and will happily wear a sweatshirt and pants in 90 degree weather, I packed her winter coat, and more sweaters/sweatshirts.  For my son who runs warmer, we skewed a bit more towards t-shirts.  For both of them I purchased waterproof sneakers (we really like the Merrel Moab sneakers), and one extra pair of shoes that could work for running around the ship if their sneakers got all wet or muddy.  Neither of my children pay attention to things like puddles, and will walk right into them unaware, so it made sense for them to have them.  My husband only packed his regular sneakers (we didn't even bother with the waterproofing spray), and was just fine.  For myself, I packed hiking boots, primarily for our glacier hike on Matanuska Glacier, as I tend to roll my ankle if I'm not careful.  If I had not had hiking excursions, I would have been just fine with sneakers, though I would have probably wanted something waterproof so I could step where I wanted to get certain shots with my camera.

 

Layers:

As anyone who reads up on what to pack for Alaska knows, layers are key, and we definitely benefited from adhering to that advise.  Our base layers  got quite a bit of use, as did our fleeces.  We lucked out and rarely needed our rain jackets, but did use them one of the days when it was raining on and off.  For all of us, I preferred to have zip fleeces vs. pullovers because it's generally easier to put on and take off.  A lot of days we'd end up looking outside, and then deciding if we wanted a t-shirt, or a sweater, or a base layer and sweater.  Fleece's were almost always brought with us when going on excursions, and rain jackets were added to the backpack when the weather was overcast. 

 

Formal Night Wear:

We did not worry overly much about dressing for dinners.  Most of what I had read regarding Alaska cruises indicated that the dining room was very casual, and that held true for us.  Often times we went directly to dinner wearing what we had worn on the excursion that day.  If we were a bit dirty, then it was back to the room for  showers, and we'd all throw on something like a nice sweater and some pants for dinner.  For "dress to impress" night or whatever they're calling it nowadays we kept it pretty simple, my daughter wore a long sleeve dress, some leggings, and sequined high top sneakers.  My son had a button down, a blazer, and then his regular khaki pants (not dress slacks), and some grey sneakers.  I had a simple cocktail length dress that you can basically ball up and not have to worry about it wrinkling and some flats, and my husband brought a button down shirt, dress slacks, and dress shoes.  We saw a mix of people glamming it up in dark suits and sparkley formal dresses, and saw a few people in jeans in the main dining room.  We were pretty comfortable being in the middle as far as formality goes.  

Packed But Did Not Use: 

I feel like we were largely right on the mark as far as what we packed.  I didn't feel like any of us had too many clothes or too few options.  We wore just about everything.  However there were a few items we packed that we never bothered using.  One was the HDMI cable, since we never bothered to hook our computer up to the tv to watch a movie.  We were generally too tired in the evening, and there was plenty of stuff on demand.  The second was hand warmers and extra ponchos.  We were plenty warm with our base layer, sweater, fleece, and jacket, and gloves/hats, and all our rain jackets were perfectly suitable for keeping us dry when it did rain.  We also lucked out and never needed the meds/supplies we packed in case we got covid.  Though I should note that our two kiddos (vaccinated and boosted) did manage to test positive two days after coming home (we're calling it a souvenir).  I would definitely advise packing the meds anyway, as it's no fun to be sick away from home, and there was A TON of coughing and hacking from fellow passengers.  
 

For Camera Equipment:

For the kids, they each had a a little off brand go-pro style action camera and then my youngest had a Nikon Coolpix100 camera, and my oldest had a hand me down beginner Canon Rebel DSLR.  

For myself my camera equipment and lenses took up my entire carry-on.  I use a Canon R6, and then packed a 16-35, a 70-200, and the BIG 100-500 lens.  I also used my phone for a lot of the quick snapshots around the ship and so on.  I honestly could have easily gotten away with out my 70-200, and just grabbed a nifty fifty to toss in, or even done without.  I think I pulled out the 70-200 maybe twice during the whole trip.  I was either wanting pictures of landscapes, or far off wildlife.  I could have also happily had an additional 1.4 teleconverter to the kit.  Looking back if I was packing all over, I would have done, the 16-35, the 100-500, and the teleconverter.  A fun addition I also packed was a 360 camera.  I'm hoping I got some fun video with that, but I still have to cull through everything.  

I'll try to come back over the coming days and keep updating this thread with details about the rest of the trip!

Wow that is one impressive post! Just beginning the research for May 6-20 2023 RT Vancouver on Grand Princess, so it is very helpful.

[Cbtours]

On 7/7/2022 at 8:55 AM, alibabacruisers said:

Thank you so much for your trip report!  I agree wholeheartedly with others that you are the master of detailed planning and I loved imagining your process!  Only 3 suitcases total for a family of four is totally amazing as is your photo collage of outfits!  You write so well that it makes reading nice and relaxing and I feel like I am there.  Your pictures are amazing too!  One of my favorites is of your two children next to each other with the view!  Beautiful!  They will remember that for sure. You have given lots of helpful ideas for us to use for future trips.  Thank you again!

Definitely agree with these comments

[vaborn2cruise]

We will be cruising 7/18/23 on Grand Princess. Enjoying your review. 

[LuckiePuris]

Thanks for the great review!

[msvca]

@PhotoGal07I just found your post today and read it.  Thank you.  I really enjoyed your detailed posts and photos.  We will be sailing on the Grand Princess June 24, 2023.  Like you, ours is a postponed trip due to the pandemic.  I would love to read more about your trip if life has not gotten to busy for you.

[Tennant]

I just found this review today.  Do you by chance have any information on the family activities offered or copies of any of the kids club programming information?

[Sand&Sea]

Thank you for this post!  We just booked an Alaskan cruise for our family of 4 (boys will be 7 & 11) fort his summer and this post is amazing. I feel you for packing for three and how easy it is to forget something. 🙂