Princess Cruise Line and Alaska Questions

I am looking to book an Alaskan cruise in May. I have only been on Carnival cruises in the past, but am looking to try another cruise line. I noticed Princess is offering an Alaskan cruise on the Ruby Princess on May 3rd for a significantly lower price then even Carnival. Princess, in my opinion, is one of the forgotten mainstream cruise lines. So that makes me question the quality of the ship and services. I'm sure many have cruised on both Carnival and Princess and can give me their opinion as to if this is a step up or down from Carnival.

Any tips on an Alaskan cruise? I've been told to splurge on a balcony since it is a sight seeing trip more than anything. We have also been told this is usually a trip for the older crowd so there isn't as much partying, which is right up my wife and I's ally. I don't live anywhere near Alaska/Seattle so this is going to probably be my one and only opportunity to do this. Any excursions (I saw something about snorkeling, which is something we are very interested in) or port of calls I should look for in particular? I notice a lot of cruises are either one way (which makes it a headache and much more costly for airfare) or start in Seattle and end in Vancouver (or vice versa). Anyone know why this is? Any tips on how to avoid the extra airfare costs? Anyone ever use the third party websites to book their trip? Princess is offering $50 per person on board spending but I know some third party sites offer more.

Thanks for all the help and opinions!

For all the Princess info you will ever need, the Princess board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197

For all the Alaska tips and info, the Alaska board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

I have done Alaska twice with Princess. Both times, inside cabins. Noone HAS to have a balcony. It is going to be cool, you wil be bundled up sitting out there. And the views are not just one side...You never know when the naturalist or captain will come on the intercom and say there is wildlife at X location. It will probably be on he other side of the ship.

If possible, look at other Princess ships for Alaska, or perhaps I should say look at other itineraries. Ruby from Seattle does not visit Glacier Bay, really a must. that early in the season, they often can't get into Tracy Arm to see the glacier due to ice.

I recommend doing a B2B, Vancouver - Whittier - Vancouver. the first time I did a B2B out of Whittier. The flight into Anchorage was brutal. I am also from GA, and flew through Houston/Seattle. Flight was two hours late into Anchorage due to repairs to the plane, and I was checking into my very expensive hotel at 3:30am. So, I don't recommend starting your cruise in Anchorage/Whittier.

The second time, we did the B2B out of Vancouver on Coral Princess. We flew into Vancouver and out of Seattle (Princess transfer). We flew in two days early to give time to see Vancouver. On turnaround day in Whittier, we did a ships tour to Anchorage. Alaska is easy to DIY, but many tours are quite expensive.

Go to the Princess website and sign up for email notifications of specials. You can get some amazing deals. And if prices fall before final payment, you can get refared.

Princess will give you less glitz, different menus, less frenetic entertainment. Beds are harder than Carnival, ask for an eggcrate for the mattress. EM

I am looking to book an Alaskan cruise in May. I have only been on Carnival cruises in the past, but am looking to try another cruise line. I noticed Princess is offering an Alaskan cruise on the Ruby Princess on May 3rd for a significantly lower price then even Carnival. Princess, in my opinion, is one of the forgotten mainstream cruise lines. So that makes me question the quality of the ship and services. I'm sure many have cruised on both Carnival and Princess and can give me their opinion as to if this is a step up or down from Carnival.

 

Any tips on an Alaskan cruise? I've been told to splurge on a balcony since it is a sight seeing trip more than anything. We have also been told this is usually a trip for the older crowd so there isn't as much partying, which is right up my wife and I's ally. I don't live anywhere near Alaska/Seattle so this is going to probably be my one and only opportunity to do this. Any excursions (I saw something about snorkeling, which is something we are very interested in) or port of calls I should look for in particular? I notice a lot of cruises are either one way (which makes it a headache and much more costly for airfare) or start in Seattle and end in Vancouver (or vice versa). Anyone know why this is? Any tips on how to avoid the extra airfare costs? Anyone ever use the third party websites to book their trip? Princess is offering $50 per person on board spending but I know some third party sites offer more.

 

Thanks for all the help and opinions!

Please don't make negative assumptions about the Princess ships or the quality of their product just because they don't seem to advertise a lot. Really, they don't need to because their ships almost always sail completely full. Princess is a class act with beautiful ships, plenty of good food, and plenty of entertainment and activity options. No hairiest chest or other goofy contests though, if that's your thing.

From personal experience, after having taken 26 Princess cruises and currently have 2 more booked, I can say that Princess offers great service from crew and staff of all levels. I have also been on one Carnival cruise, and it was just OK, but not so bad that I would not do another one if the price and timing were right.

I have done 2 AK cruises ... both round-trip out of Seattle and exactly the same itinerary ..... and had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of Alaska.

Since most of the AK cruise season is during the time of year when kids are out of school, there are lots of families doing these itineraries. But you will also see folks of all ages on them. Early in the AK cruise season, such as early May, you might see more older folks because most kids are still in school. But most of those older folks are pretty active and social.

We did an Alaskan cruise in May on Princess in 2012! It was an amazing trip. We had an inside state room because we traveled with our daughter and mother-in-law and it was an anniversary trip ;). So we stayed inside state rooms because they were more cost-effective. Looking back I wish we would've splurged on the balcony. We did a round trip from Seattle. Therefore during the trip our balcony would've seen the sites either coming or going. Because of the great price that we got the trip for we did Tracy arm instead of glacier Bay and we're really quite happy with our trip. The way I see it if you're going to Alaska and you miss glacier Bay you don't really know what you're missing but you're still in Alaska!

As for the partying my husband and I had a few late nights which were quite fun. The martini bar has delicious choices and usually a fun crowd. However with all of the sightseeing in the early mornings we usually headed to bed pretty early.

One thing that is really nice about Princess cruises to Alaska is that they have been in the area for a long time. Therefore they're shore excursions around quite well. If you do the round-trip from Seattle you will most likely visit Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, and Victoria. The shore excursions can get quite pricey. Honestly that's where you will spend most of your money for the entire cruise. But they are well worth the money.

As stated above if you go in early May you will most likely run into an older crowd because schools are still in session however you will be in beautiful Alaska on a cruise. Really what could be better than that. :)

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Sailed many times on Carnival and four Princess cruises.

Alaska cruises are early to bed, early to rise. Different that other itins. Alaska is all about the itin.

Princess doesn't have the same energy level as Carnival. Food is overall good, just some quirks when compared to Carnival.

Expect the cabins to be a bit smaller. Be careful when booking online. For two pax it might show all cabins as being for two, when really they can hold triples or quads. This is important for IS and OV cabins. The bunks are attached to, and stick out from, the walls.

Princess also has a habit of upgraded pax. Not good if you chose a specific cabin for a specific reason.

Also consider Holland America. We've had wonderful Alaska cruises with them.

I do not find this to be true

Expect the cabins to be a bit smaller. Be careful when booking online. For two pax it might show all cabins as being for two, when really they can hold triples or quads. This is important for IS and OV cabins. The bunks are attached to, and stick out from, the walls.

I find the deck plans well marked for cabin occupancy, and while Grand class ships have bunks on the side walls, the Island and Coral do not. On those two, all bunks are in the ceiling. EM

One thing I liked about sailing on Princess to Alaska was their atrium pools. It was so great to be able to take a swim or sit in the hot tub and be relatively warm when you get out. However, the Ruby doesn't have an atrium pool. I've done two Alaska cruises and I've been on the Diamond and the Star. Both of these have Atrium pools. I don't know why Princess doesn't build atrium pools on their newer ships or use ships with atrium pools when going to colder climes. It's one of the reasons I've switched to Celebrity on certain itineraries.

Arlene

When someone wears their biases so openly on their sleeves it is pointless to convince them otherwise. The OP should just go with what they know. The fact that they even dare to contemplate whether or not Princess is a downgrade from Carnival would undoubtedly be a self-fulfilling prophecy should they choose Princess; I can picture them onboard picking at every nit and thinking to themselves "they did this better on Carnival"

And the OP has also implied they would only take this "one and only opportunity" to see Alaska if they can do it the very cheapest way. Again it is probably pointless to try to convince someone whose mind is already made up--but if you choose to undertake the time and expense you should not rule out an open-jaw Vancouver-to-Whitter/Seward sailing. Yes the flights will be longer, but not necessarily significantly more expensive. You will have two days of Glacier cruising rather than one, plus the last day will not be redundant to the first, sailing the dreary open waters of the Pacific. (Note that for round-trip Seattle cruises even though the description may say "inside passage cruising" most of them no longer sail the true inside passage in between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia). But again, the rule of self-fulfilling prophecy applies; if the OP would be spending the entire cruise kicking themselves for not taking the cheaper itinerary, why bother at all?

I do not find this to be true

Expect the cabins to be a bit smaller. Be careful when booking online. For two pax it might show all cabins as being for two, when really they can hold triples or quads. This is important for IS and OV cabins. The bunks are attached to, and stick out from, the walls.

I find the deck plans well marked for cabin occupancy, and while Grand class ships have bunks on the side walls, the Island and Coral do not. On those two, all bunks are in the ceiling. EM

I've found the opposite to be true. When looking with two pax indicated I get all cabins, three pax less and even less with quads. Double occupant cabins are included in the triples and quads. Triples included in the quads.

Thought I got a good upgrade from 2 pax obstructed OV to an regular window OV. Discovered too late in the game that my upgrade was to a quad.

On Carnival the cabins are marked with dots, squares etc for higher occupancy cabins. Not so in my experience with booking on Princess.

I am looking to book an Alaskan cruise in May. I have only been on Carnival cruises in the past, but am looking to try another cruise line. I noticed Princess is offering an Alaskan cruise on the Ruby Princess on May 3rd for a significantly lower price then even Carnival. Princess, in my opinion, is one of the forgotten mainstream cruise lines. So that makes me question the quality of the ship and services. I'm sure many have cruised on both Carnival and Princess and can give me their opinion as to if this is a step up or down from Carnival.

 

My first six cruises were on Carnival and then my hubby was offered a "friends and family" discount on a Princess cruise. Not only was it a great deal, but we were interested in trying out another cruiseline. We actually found Princess to be a major step up from Carnival. No "stuff the bikini" or "lip sync" games. A lot less PA announcements (of course, depending on the cruise director) warning us not to miss the umpteenth last chance bingo game. No eye-fatiguing Vegasy light displays.

 

 

Any tips on an Alaskan cruise? I've been told to splurge on a balcony since it is a sight seeing trip more than anything. We have also been told this is usually a trip for the older crowd so there isn't as much partying, which is right up my wife and I's ally. I don't live anywhere near Alaska/Seattle so this is going to probably be my one and only opportunity to do this. Any excursions (I saw something about snorkeling, which is something we are very interested in) or port of calls I should look for in particular? I notice a lot of cruises are either one way (which makes it a headache and much more costly for airfare) or start in Seattle and end in Vancouver (or vice versa). Anyone know why this is? Any tips on how to avoid the extra airfare costs? Anyone ever use the third party websites to book their trip? Princess is offering $50 per person on board spending but I know some third party sites offer more.

 

Thanks for all the help and opinions!

We have never booked a balcony so can't speak about how important or unnecessary one is.

Our Alaskan cruise was a RT out of Seattle and just a little correction: on this itinerary, it's always Seattle-Ketchikan-Juneau-Skagway-Victoria-Seattle (with of course time doing a glacier cruising for some hours). Princess may occasionally have a Vancouver RT (can't remember if I've seen this), but when we were looking at Alaskan cruises, we did consider a HAL Vancouver RT. We took the train up the west coast to get to Seattle, instead of flying. And it may sense for us as we weren't going to do a cruisetour.

With the one ways, you would have to fly in or out of Anchorage. The west coast of much of Alaska is only accessible by plane or boat (or ship).

Princess and HAL are considered the leaders in Alaskan cruises. And they do give passengers the choice of booking a RT or one-way -- and not every cruise line does this. Plus you can sail out of San Francisco RT (a 10-day cruise) on Princess. I know in the past Princess has done longer cruises on one of the older ships.

The disadvantage of going on the Ruby to Alaska was noted above: no pool under a retractable roof. On some of the ships, you can go swimming even on iffy days. I think it would have been great if the Crown and Ruby were retrofitted with the retractable roofs for this reason.

And unless the deck plans have changed in the last couple of years, the Princess ones do have symbols indicating third and fourth passenger occupancy. If you get a brochure from a TA, you might need a magnifying glass to see what symbols are indicated, though.

OP,

I wish I knew where to start....

As others have welcomed you to Cruise Critic and the Princess boards and Ports of Call venue for Alaska, I'd like to point out some issues you might not be aware of.

Early May is the beginning of the Alaska season. Temperatures will be on the chilly side making events like whale watching, fishing, canoeing etc. a bit uncomfortable.

There are other cruise lines beside Carnival and Princess who sail to Alaska. Holland America was mentioned but NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity also do a wonderful Alaska cruise.

Sailing out of Seattle takes you into the Pacific and not specifically the Inland Passage. It is further south and thus itineraries into or out of Canada or Anchorage (Seward and Whittier) take in an additional port and/or glacial bay.

Anchorage is 1,300 miles from Vancouver. That is why I recommend you start this type of itinerary from the North sailing South. That makes it much closer to home after a wonderfully jam packed cruise. If flights are high to or from Vancouver fly into Seattle and take the train or bus or shuttle to or from Vancouver.

Have you considered the price of Alaskan excursions. They can be quite high. Cruise Critic features Roll Calls for most sailings. You can find your Roll Call when you book your cruise. The posters, your fellow passengers, will be wonderful companions as you plan your cruise.

It is not too early to book, it may be getting late to select your favorite cabin.

Just a few things to chew over.......

IMO, a balcony is a must. I brought along a small heating pad and an extension cord for my wife to sit on.

If you can afford it, take a cruise tour that goes up to Denali. It is fantastic!

Below are the links to our cruise and a land tour to Denali.

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/northtoalaskajune2007.pdf

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/alaskaexplorer2011.pdf

We are happy to answer any questions

Our Alaska cruise was on Princess, and we loved it.

We had a balcony, but only used it a total of two hours the entire 10 days. We spent all day, every day, on the open decks. We'd go for an inside next time, for sure.

Our cruise was round-trip from San Francisco. I believe Princess will offer that option in future seasons, as will a couple of other lines. It made the flying, and the cost, much easier.