Dawn Princess - Alaska 24-30 June Review (long)

[catsdinner]

Here's a review I just submitted for our Alaska cruise. HOpe it helps someone.

 

Cruise Review – Dawn Princess – 24 June -1 Jul 06

 

Round Trip Seattle

 

This was our fourth cruise, third with Princess all on Sun Class Ships. We were a group of 8 adults all in our 50s with 4 adjoining BB cabins on Baja Deck. They were Cabins 501, 503, 507 and 511. Upon arrival we asked the steward to open the balcony dividers so we had one long balcony. We stopped in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria with a day in Tracy Arm.

 

We arrived at the port at approximately 12 noon and were in our cabin by 1 pm. The line-up at check-in was very short and we were through very quickly. The hold up was getting through security, getting pictures taken, etc. Still it didn’t seem that long as we were talking to people we met on the gangway. Our friends arriving shortly after we did and we all met up in our cabins.

 

The cabin was spotless as usual. Our room steward, Alex from The Philippines, introduced himself to us as soon as we arrived. We were going to ask for wine glasses but they were already there. We asked for robes and they arrived in the afternoon. Our bags were in our cabin before we went for muster drill at 3:15. Our muster station was in the casino and was very well run. This was the only time we were in the casino as we are not gamblers.

 

After meeting up with our friends, we went to lunch at the Horizon Court. I am not a fan of the Horizon Court for lunch, much preferring the dining room. The food was normal Horizon Court type food but the salads are good and so is the bread and it is plentiful.

 

After lunch, we went to the dining room to check out our table. We had second seating traditional. We had used a different TA than our friends used and they were supposed to be linked but weren’t. The Maitre D’ was there making changes so he changed things around so we were all together at a table for eight. Still, when we arrived for dinner that first night there was a mix-up and they had to find another table for us as someone was sitting at our table. For this one night, we sat at a table where the assistant waiter was exceptional and we asked if we could stay there for the entire cruise. Unfortunately the table was booked so we couldn’t stay there. However, after that first night on our way out of the dining room each evening we stopped by to say hello to Carlos (from Mexico City). The waiters at our own table were good but much more reserved, they were Alex (from Romania) and Jordan (from The Philippines).

 

The food in the dining room was excellent. Everything was done to perfection every evening. The soufflés are exceptional and if they are on the menu I don’t look any further for my desserts. I can’t remember what I ate each night but I enjoyed it all and usually had all the courses. We ordered a bottle of wine each night and if we didn’t finish it, Jordan would bring it the following night.

 

 

We ate at Sterling Steakhouse one evening as well. We made our reservation for 7 pm. The service was excellent and the waiters could not do enough for us. However, I am for the second time not overly impressed with the food. I think the dining room food is much better. We had tried the steakhouse for the first time on the Sea Princess in February with much the same impression, and if our friends hadn’t been going there, we would not have bothered to go.

 

For entertainment, we like the comedy and music shows rather than the production shows. We missed the first night show due to the mix up in the dining room. Sunday night we saw Dan Bennett. He is a comedian and a juggler. He was funny; not that great a juggler, but it could have been part of his act. The next night we missed because we were in Juneau and didn’t get back to the ship until late. On Tuesday we saw Martin Lewis, a magician. He was good and quite funny. We saw Carl Strong the next two nights as we loved his act so much. He is hilarious. We were in Victoria the last night so we were ashore so didn’t see the show.

 

We booked Princess shore excursions at all three Alaska ports. We arrived in Juneau at 1 pm and left at 10 pm. We booked “Guide’s Choice Adventure Hike” which left at 4:30 so we had time to do a bit of shopping before we met our tour. There are quite a few stores in Juneau with the usual Diamonds International and the sort. We were more interested in buying more traditional Alaskan things, like sweatshirts and Ulu knives so we bypassed all the jewelry stores. We found all the things we were looking for and headed back to the ship to drop off our goods before hitting the trails. We had a very knowledgeable young girl as our guide for our hike, a recent graduate from the University of Oregon. We got on the mini bus which she drove and went for about one half hour to near the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center where we picked up the trail. The hike lasted about 3 hours and we had several different views of the glacier plus she gave us a lot of information about the flora and fauna of the area. We arrived back at the ship at 9:25 just in time for 9:30 all aboard. Since we had missed dinner, we went to La Scala Pizzeria for pizza. I decided on pasta and unfortunately they didn’t have any lasagna left and I had some other type of pasta. I should have had the pizza! My husband really enjoyed the one he had.

 

We arrived in Skagway at 6 am and left at 8:15. We booked Yukon Expedition and White Pass Railway. This is an excellent excursion. Our guide and driver was a very nice young man. We met a bus at the ship which took us up to Carcross Yukon. The scenery along the way is absolutely beautiful. Just outside of Carcross we had lunch and visited the Taxidermy exhibit there. The animals are so lifelike you’d swear they are real. Also at Carcross you can get a ride on a dogsled (on wheels). We didn’t get a ride but watched the dogs for awhile and they are so eager to pull the sled they’d get really excited when one of the handlers came near them. You can go into the dogsled areas and pet the dogs if you wish. There are also baby puppies there that you can handle if you wish and a gold panning exhibition. It is a very interesting place. After this, our driver took us to the town of Carcross which is next to Lake Bennett. This is also an interesting place with a museum and other interesting things to visit. We then took the bus back to the top of the mountain and the US border and caught the train back down the mountain. We saw a bear on the side of the road on the way back. The train is quite an experience as the trail from the gold rush is still visible and you have to wonder how those men were able to make it up the mountain with all their supplies. Again the scenery was spectacular. At the station we could have taken the bus back to the ship but we opted to walk back and on the way stopped at a small museum where they went into more detail about the gold rush.

 

The next day we were in Tracy Arm. I cannot count the number of times the word “Amazing” was said while we were there. This is where we really appreciated the opened up balcony doors because we spent the entire time from 9 am to 1 pm on the balcony. The onboard naturalist, Michael Modzelewski, kept a running commentary the entire trip into the fjiord. I had attended all of his lectures on board the ship and had gotten used to his sense of humor by this time. We didn’t see much wildlife but lots of ice. Michael said that this is the first time in 19 cruises that he had been able to get so close to the Sawyer Glacier. We were within ½ mile from it and the previous cruises they could only get about 4 miles from the glacier. There was no calving while we were in there but the scenery is so spectacular we forgot that we hoped to see that. The mountains, the ice, the waterfalls, the glaciers: it is all so beautiful; I don’t think anyone can be the same after seeing it.

 

We arrived in Ketchikan at approximately 5:30 am. This was a tender port for us though some ships can dock there as there was one in port while we were there. We had booked Eagles, Totems and Lighthouses tour and we met at 8:00 at the Vista Lounge. We got on a bus at the pier which gave us a little tour of the town and to our boat that we would take us on the tour. This was my least favorite tour but it was interesting nonetheless. We saw about 20 eagles, the totem park, a lighthouse and a couple seals. The commentary was interesting. I guess after all of the other beautiful scenery this one was somewhat disappointing. We got back to the dock just in time to get the last tender back to the ship. This port stop was not long enough as I would like to have seen more of the town. Maybe a different tour would have given us the time to explore more.

 

We arrived in Victoria at 7:30 pm on Friday and left again at midnight. This is definitely not long enough for this port. We have family there and they were meeting us at the ship so as soon as we were able to get off the ship we found them and headed downtown. We went to an Irish Pub called the Irish Times. The food was good and the beer even better. We headed back to the ship and had the last of our wine on our large balcony for the final sail-away party. After the cruise we went to Victoria to spend a week with our family, and I can definitely recommend a visit to Butchart Gardens.

 

We arrived in Seattle and the announcement was made for express disembarkation at 7:30. Since we had gotten rid of our luggage in Victoria, we took advantage of this and we were on the Victoria Clipper on our way back to Victoria at 8:30 am.

 

This was a great cruise and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was enough to give a good taste for Alaska and I would love to go back sometime and see other areas that we didn’t get to see this time. Maybe next time we will do a one way and then take a train back from Alaska to Vancouver, if there is such a thing, so we can see some of the interior. We took tons of pictures and I will be posting them soon on my Yahoo Photos site.

 

As usual, Princess was wonderful. They did a great job and even on sea days I managed to keep busy while being relaxed at the same time. The Cruise Director, Kelvin, was very good and he and his staff kept up a good mixture of activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the horse races a couple of afternoons and we joined one of the trivia contests as well. I would like to have been able to see the talk by Libby Riddles about her adventure in the Iditarod. Unfortunately, we were on our adventure hike at the same time as she was doing her presentation. Maybe it is a good excuse to go back!

[EmieT]

Thanks for the great review! This will be our first sail (9/9) and we are so anxious to know more about it. Your review was very helpful! Would love to see your pictures. Question, when you say you tender in to shore, how big are the boats? We too were thinking about doing the bus up and train back, I must see if I can find that particular excursion. It is amazing how many cruises everyone on the website has taken! Do you get some kind of discount by taking more cruises? This is a pretty big vacation for us! We will celebrate our 40th anniversary and I will turn 60 in January, so it is a double celebration. Can't wait, thanks again for the info!