Discovery Alaska 6/27 Review and random thoughts

[CatsinShow]

I'm inarticulate so my thoughts are all over the place. 

 

Got a good deal for a solo balcony. I chose Dolphin Aft. 705. I wanted to be lower on the ship due to wanting to see wildlife up close.Balcony wasn't deluxe but was large. Had a big table and 2 loungers where they went all the way down. First time getting a balcony and I used it all the time. Did not realize was above AFT smoking area (should have asked on here but smokers get angry). With the exception of 1 time when I was on the balcony, the smoke didn't bother me. I never saw more than 5 people out there at a time smoking. I did see people throw their cigarette butts overboard which was sad to see. 

 

embarkment:

I took the city bus to Pier 91 for $2.75. A few other frugal people did the same lol. The bus I took departs right near Pier 91 however there are 2 flights of stairs to get down the street so not the easiest if you have a lot of luggage. A Pier 91 employee said there is another bus you can take to avoid the stairs but that it's a further walk. Walked and got on line. Had luggage tag printed but no employee seemed to have a stapler when I asked. I used gum because I am classy. I inspired others on line to do the same. They checked my ID, Vax card, and test. I didn't have it printed but showed it on my phone. No problem. Picked up medallion. Waited. Got on ship. Was maybe a little over an hour to get onboard. I don't remember what my check in time was but they don't enforce it. Wanted to go to the pizza place people recommended but it was closed due to their ovens not working so I hit up the buffet which wasn't busy. Went to different bars since I bought drink package. Went to room which was very modern and comfortable. 

 

service:

Mixed experience. I had problems ordering drinks at the buffet and the pizza place 2x. I never had a single employee actually bring me my drink even after waiting over 20 minutes.I got a lot of "it's coming" only they never came. No issue when ordering soda. I definitely would not order booze from the buffet or pizza place again. It was much faster when I just went to any of the bars (all the bartenders were great).  I felt like I was a loser when I would go to the MDR alone. It took awhile to get attention since I guess people figured another person would join me. I deliberately would go very late at night to avoid crowds. When I did get food and wine, it all arrived quickly which was good. Cabin steward was nice guy and good.Never got any towel animal things lol. I made use of the room service a lot. Food was frequently cold, drinks flat, and coffee drinks lukewarm. Morning barista in buffet was obnoxious. The buffet frequently wasn't open when they said it would be in the morning which was annoying. I frequently saw employees just standing around. Didn't look to be a shortage. 

 

 

wifi:

Like many said wifi was terrible. The internet cafe were honoring all refunds. Because my package was a good rate, the refund would have been like $5 a day so I didn't do it because email did work even though it took forever. Don't rely on streaming. Most websites wouldn't load either. Was a bit faster in internet cafe than on my ipad. I had to do something for work with the captcha thing but it never loaded so I missed a deadline. 

 

drink package:

I did the math before the cruise to see if it was good value for me. On some days it was, on others it wasn't. I maybe broke even (didn't keep track). Wouldn't get it again. I realize even if included I'm not that much of a drinker. I found I drank more coffee based drinks that alcohol. I'm better off bringing onboard my own soda and doing coffee drinks and alcohol, a la carte. It was nice however to have everything included rather than seeing separate charges.

 

entertainment:

Not very good compared to NCL, however it may have been due to the pandemic. Most nights were those "game show" events. One night there was a comedian who was funny imo. Thought there would be another comedian at night but there wasn't. There was a magician one night. I went to watch but left early. I never cared for magical acts tbh and find it boring. One night they had rock opera. Left that one early too as it wasn't exactly what I pictured. 

 

food:

Much, much better than NCL. I normally am not a fan of buffets and avoid them. Buffets at all times were uneventful. You did have to order cream cheese rather than get it yourself. Did experience sour muesli at buffet. It should have been thrown out. The food at the 24 cafe was surprisingly good despite a small selection. I loved their sandwiches and chia puddings. I would frequently get the pistachio croissants there (buffet had them at times too) which were delish. Pizza place was okay. At times huge lines to come in and other times empty. Pizza was good but nothing amazing. Calzone was undercooked. MDR food was pretty good. I was pretty happy with everything I had (wish they didn't go cheap on the ice cream/gelato portions though). My favs were french onion soup, tofu, the James Beard French Toast (so so good!), and key lime frozen yogurt. Nothing I had in the MDR was bad except the bread which is not warm and was hard. I do wish they had filet mignon offered or a sirloin, but I never  saw it on the menu. Figured they want people paying for the steakhouse. 

 

spa:

I bought the 7 day pass for $159. When I took the tour the spa was darker and the showers and steam rooms had the aromatherapy on full blast. By the 2nd day the room wasn't as dimmed (I asked them if they could dim the lights and they said no) and they rarely refilled the aromatherapy in the showers and steam rooms until the end of the cruise.I enjoyed the spa but it could have been better. No regrets buying it since I had some arthritic flare ups and the hot tub and steam room felt good. 

 

ship layout:

Where my cabin was it wasn't the most convenient to go to mid ship (I could see why people pay more $$$ for that location) or the front. I believe I had to go down 2 levels and then go to the other floor, walk, and go down each time. The spa and gym are also nowhere near each other which I found odd. The buffet layout was bad imo. Lots of blind spots! Not open concept. 

 

disembarkment:

My flight was before noon on southwest. They don't do the luggage valet thing for my time which was a little annoying but not a big deal.I just picked the time I wanted, and left my 1 piece of luggage out with the colored tag. I went to my departing meeting spot and apparently my group was able to leave earlier than expected (went very fast). Walked to port where luggage was all lined up by color. Took maybe 20 minutes total to leave the ship and walk to get the airport shuttle. I paid for Seattle express one way. Used AAA discount and was just under $20. Very short wait. Uber and Lyft line was really long. Had plenty of time at the airport to check in luggage and go through security despite it being July 3 (bad time to fly!). Airport was packed. The security line was very long! I probably would have missed my flight but I have precheck which had no wait. I think I hate seatec more than lax, dfw, and ewr! Lots of escalators were out of service and when I first arrived, I couldn't figure out how to get the hotel shuttle or even how to get out of the airport.

 

ports:

Been to AK before. Took a cruise more to relax and look at centenary from my balcony. Just walked around. We were supposed to do Skagway where I did plan on taking the Haines ferry but it was canceled due to the rock slide. Was hoping it would get replaced by Haines but we got Icy Point. Was extremely touristy (like all the ports I've been to) but very pretty. Took the gondola back and forth. Victoria was from 7 PM-12. I was hoping we would arrive earlier but we didn't. Paid $15 roundtrip for the ride to downtown on the bus.Was hoping to catch a ghost tour at 7:30 but I didn't make it to the meeting spot until 7:45 or 7:50. The 9:00 PM was sold out. Just walked around and headed back to the ship. 

 

Feel free to ask questions or comment. :)

[shirlsss]

Thanks for sharing!

[caribill]

10 hours ago, CatsinShow said:

 Cabin steward was nice guy and good.Never got any towel animal things lol.

 

Towel animals are not a Princess thing.(

 

Now and then a cabin steward may do them, but it is very rare.)

 

 

10 hours ago, CatsinShow said:

ship layout:

Where my cabin was it wasn't the most convenient to go to mid ship (I could see why people pay more $$$ for that location) or the front. I believe I had to go down 2 levels and then go to the other floor, walk, and go down each time.

 

Did you try to just go from your cabin to the middle set of elevators and then just take one all the way down to the level you wanted?

[cruisequeen4ever]

That’s great they have you full lounging capability on your balcony; that’s so rare these days.
 

You’d think the ship would be functioning and flowing better with it being the newest ship in the fleet. 

 

I’m glad you experienced Princess’s awesome food!

[CatsinShow]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Towel animals are not a Princess thing.(

 

Now and then a cabin steward may do them, but it is very rare.)

 

 

Did you try to just go from your cabin to the middle set of elevators and then just take one all the way down to the level you wanted?

Yeah I try to avoid the elevators though due to Covid so when it's just 2 flights down I'll just skip it. 

[CatsinShow]

Forgot to mention other stuff:

 

Masks were encouraged but not required. I wore one in the elevator and anywhere crowded or in close contact. Didn't get Covid. I never went on any excursions which I think may be how people are getting it. 

 

I did 2 of the solo cruiser unhosted get togethers. There were maybe 10-12 people who were around my parents' age and I was the youngest. All were very nice, but I did feel out of place. I think NCL does a better job with hosting stuff for solos and singles with a bigger turnout, and the ages I've encountered were 20s-60s.

[Italy52]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Towel animals are not a Princess thing.(

 

Now and then a cabin steward may do them, but it is very rare.)

 

We considered ourselves VERY lucky as our cabin steward on the Majestic last month was kind enough to make towel animals for us on 4 nights --- never asked for them --- just found them in our cabin 4 times during our 14-day cruise. 

[azbirdmom]

42 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

We considered ourselves VERY lucky as our cabin steward on the Majestic last month was kind enough to make towel animals for us on 4 nights --- never asked for them --- just found them in our cabin 4 times during our 14-day cruise. 

Us too on the Caribbean Princess last month. And he asked for requests. When I mentioned giraffe he went out to the web on his own time and figured out to do it!  He was a fantastic steward. 

[Italy52]

azbirdmom -- Love your towel animals.  We had an Eskimo, mouse, bird and dog.  Our room steward was so sweet.  Besides the towel animals, he would always refresh our room in the evening even when we said it wasn't necessary.  We know the stewards are very busy so we only asked for a morning refresh.  We appreciated his thoughtfulness very much.

[LovetheSea]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us 🙂

[rj59]

I was on the same cruise. Embarkation was fairly awful, because everyone had to drop their luggage off at scanning machines, instead of with porters, which is their way of keeping some crowd control for 3,400 people. Closing Gigi's at embarkation was also part of crowd control. Icy Strait Point is non-touristy if you walk to Hoonah--I saw a family of eagles swooping down to the water to try to catch salmon, and a sea lion wrestling a salmon catch. It's about a 10-15 minute walk to downtown Victoria if you walk through the lovely neighborhoods, and there was free entertainment down by the harbor, like a street magician. If you want a good Victoria experience, I'd recommend a coastal cruise that spends much of a day there, or there are high-speed boats that do day trips to Victoria from Seattle or Vancouver. I loved the comedian, since it worked the room and got the audience involved. Every production show was completely full of people, so I should have skipped the rock opera show, since with a half-hour of people looking for seats and then people all around me for an hour is the most likely place that I picked up Covid. The highlight of the cruise was seeing a whale show of 20 or so humpbacks flapping fins and tails and playing in the wake, on perfectly calm water as we neared the WA coast on the final sea day. 

[Italy52]

7 hours ago, rj59 said:

I was on the same cruise. Embarkation was fairly awful, because everyone had to drop their luggage off at scanning machines, instead of with porters, which is their way of keeping some crowd control for 3,400 people.

 

Dropping off luggage at scanning machines?  Is this something new, have never had to do this when taking various other cruises.  How did you find out about the scanning machines?  We will be embarking on the Discovery on August 14th.  Thanks.

[ccqueenanne]

4 hours ago, Italy52 said:

Dropping off luggage at scanning machines?  Is this something new, have never had to do this when taking various other cruises.  How did you find out about the scanning machines?  We will be embarking on the Discovery on August 14th.  Thanks.

When you arrive, you can either give your luggage to a porter, if you see one and have your bags already tagged, or you can take them through the line with you. First stop in the line is dropping your big bags at the bag scanner (you don't scan them yourself, you just drop them there). Then you'll continue through the line with everyone else through passport control, then carryon bag scanning, then check-in. Nothing to worry about - just get in line with or without your bags.

[Italy52]

1 hour ago, ccqueenanne said:

When you arrive, you can either give your luggage to a porter, if you see one and have your bags already tagged, or you can take them through the line with you. First stop in the line is dropping your big bags at the bag scanner (you don't scan them yourself, you just drop them there). Then you'll continue through the line with everyone else through passport control, then carryon bag scanning, then check-in. Nothing to worry about - just get in line with or without your bags.

So, same old routine.  Unless told to take bags directly to scanner you can still just use the porter and be done with it.

[nini]

Unfortunately, the aft location is being used as a staff smoking area on the ships. This is a covid thing and has not gone away. Many people have complained as they consciously choose aft cabins for many different reasons and now that is spoiled.

[Eaglecw]

On Sunday June 26th we sailed on the Discovery Princess. We decided to have our DIL drop us off at Sea-Tac and catch the Princess transfer from Sea-Tac to Pier 91. HUGE MISTAKE!!!! Our DIL dropped us off at Sea-Tac at 9:40 am. We found the line to hand off our bags to the Princess rep. That line had about 150 people in it. After we dropped our bags off we got a slip of paper that told us where to go to get a ticket to get on the bus to the Pier. So we meander into the dark recesses of the parking garage. We find the line to get a ticket to get on the bus to the pier, it only had about 250 people in this line. After we got our ticket to get on the bus we got into a large group of people, probably 300 or so and increasing by the minute. There was no directions, no bathrooms, no water, not very many places to sit and it was hotter than hell there. Everyone was getting a little pissed off by now. I asked a staffer where the nearest bathroom was and she looked at me and said “I don’t know I think there is one in the terminal”. Every once and awhile a bus would come and take away 52 people and 75 more would show up. After 2-1/2 hours we got on the bus to Pier 91. When we arrived at Pier 91 at 12:50 pm after getting off the bus there was no direction from anyone from Princess. There was a line from the front of the terminal back out to the end of the covered walk way and back to the terminal, this covered walkway is about 100 yards long. So we walk into the terminal looking for the Elite line and get in a line, I didn’t know if it was the right line, no one said anything. The line moved along rather slowly and we got up to one of the 4 or 5 persons who were checking passports and COVID tests. Once we got upstairs and went through security there was another line to check our medallions. By now it’s 1:50 pm and I’m tired and hungry, I tell my wife let’s get a pizza at GiGi’s, nope it’s not open. Internet is a joke, it barley works. No Crown Royal whiskey, no Kahlua and no Baileys Irish cream, it seems each bar only get 2 bottles a week of Kahlua and Baileys. We went to GiGi’s once for lunch, we weren’t impressed. The ice cream that they make on the ship they use shelf stable UHT milk and it has an off taste. A cold glass of milk is nasty. We enjoyed the shows and the piano guy at Crooners Bar. We were very careful about who we were around but I still came down with a mild case of COVID on the last day of the cruise. The dine my way thing worked out really well. The key is to have reservations, if don't have reservations you might have to wait for a while to get a table. We had a 5:20 dinner time in the Ketchikan MDR, same table and wait staff every  night.The crew and staff work really hard to make it a good cruise. They were 2285 first time cruisers on this cruise, I wonder how many will ever return for another cruise. Cruising is certainly different now than it was pre-COVID. It seems like the flash in the pan is gone.