Star Princes 6/13-6/25 12 day Alaska/Denali northbound review- TONS of pics...

Now that I've kind of recovered from my post cruise blues, and all of the "real world" stuff I had to take care of is complete, I can finally get my review of this amazing 12 day (well I guess technically 13 days total...) adventure through the beautiful state of Alaska. I have over 500 pictures to add to this review (and that was after editing out my over 5,000 pictures!), so it may take a while to finish it, so please be patient and hopefully it won't take me too long!

A bit of background before the actual review begins...

I'm a 37 yr old single female. This was my 5th cruise, 1st on Princess. My cabin mate was my 2nd cousin, who is in her 50's and also single. We brought along 2 of her friends, all 3 of them were "cruise virgins". We were also a part of a group of 35 from my church's travel group. I believe ages ranged from mid 20's to mid 80's... 32 of the 35 continued on to the 5 day land portion of our trip, and the remaining 3 returned home at the end of our cruise.

We were in a balcony cabin - port side- B518. the cabin was very spacious, and I really liked the layout. having the closet area kind of separated from the room was very convenient, and made getting ready super early in the morning and not wake my cabin mate (for some reason, I'm an early riser when on vacation... at home I can sleep until noon if I'm allowed!).

When we first booked, we were assigned a cabin directly next to our travel companions, however our TA changed our reservations when a price drop happened, and we ended up in a guarantee balcony, and had to wait until a couple weeks out before getting our room assignment. it worked out well though, as we had a great room in what I thought was a prime area on the ship!

Our adventures began Friday night when I picked up my 3 travel companions and headed to my condo which is about 15 minutes from Detroit Metro airport... We had the option of meeting everyone in Toledo the next morning at 5am to make it to the airport, but I enjoy sleep, and live so close to the airport, it made no sense to take the bus...

Day 1- Sat June 13- flight from DTW - Vancouver- no major issues with the flight, very long line for security at DTW, but that just meant that we didn't have to sit around in the gate area forever before our flight... We're on our way!!!

gave us the customs forms to fill out on the plane, however they didn't have any pens... they also only had "enough for each person to have one... don't mess it up.." not a huge deal, as there were plenty available in the airport when we landed.

It didn't take us too long to get through customs, and get our luggage. we then headed around to the staging area for the Princess transfer to the port. there were a few large groups, and one in particular woman seemed to be worried that our group may cause her group to not all make it on one bus, so she kept "pushing and pulling" people from her group to try and get ahead of us... it was pretty comical, as we were all going to the same place, and the buses ended up arriving at the same time... it kept us entertained while waiting! :)

once we got to the port, there were a TON of people there! there were 2 ships embarking, (I guess it's a good thing there were only 2 of us, I can't imagine how much of a mad house it would have been with more!) It took us close to 2 hours to make it through customs, and get our ship cards and FINALLY board the Star Princess!

It was great to be able to board and go directly to your room to drop off carry ons and change clothes if needed, so we headed to Deck 11- Baja and scoped our out our room:

my roomie's first time on a cruise ship! she (well we both really...) enjoyed the balcony!

More to come.....

So we checked out our rooms, and decided to grab some lunch at the buffet since it had been close to 12 hours since our "meal" at the airport...

of course, had to snap a pic to make everyone back home jealous...forgetting that I was in Canada, and couldn't access the internet until we hit port in Ketchikan in 2 days... oh well

after lunch, we started to explore the ship, as we still had an hour or so until Muster Drill... checked out the pools

and hung out with the lumberjack that was catching a ride back to Ketchikan...

we never did make it to his show, or to the lumberjack show in town either... I guess there's another reason for me to head back to beautiful Alaska!

Went to the muster drill and learned how to put on our life jackets, and where to go, should an emergency occur. Thankfully this muster drill was much easier/more organized than the one on our Carnival cruise last year! no standing on deck 12 people deep, unable to see the person doing the demonstration. One more thing to push Princess up a notch higher than Carnival (honestly, they were above them from the time we boarded... but for many various reasons!)

Muster Drill in the Wheelhouse Lounge...

Muster Drill over, the captain makes an announcement that we are going to have a "slight delay" leaving, as there is an airplane that is late landing, and we are going to wait on them... I thought I had heard something about "5:30 or 6 pm is when we should be leaving.." ok. not TOO bad... we continued to explore the ship

the atrium

...

walked around and saw as much of the ship as we could, we were trying to push dinner off until after sailaway, (which the last update we heard was going to be "6:30ish") finally decided around 8, when no one had given us any updates, and we were starving, we would just head to dinner... we had Anytime dining, so we headed to Portofino as that is one of 2 MDRs we were allowed to eat in....the line was LONG... so we changed our mind and headed back to the buffet. food was just fine, as we weren't all that hungry anyway, and there was quite a variety.

At this point, my eyelids were fighting to stay open, and I had "given up" on the sail away, since we had not been given any kind of update, so I headed back to my room to get ready for bed. As soon as I started to change, I feel the ship move!!! I grabbed my camera and got some pretty awesome shots from the balcony of our sail away!

Oh and we had brought along a couple of maps and some magnets, so we could kind of figure out where we were while sailing along, since you can see land pretty much 95% of this cruise...

the sun setting for the last time that we will "see" for the next 12 days...

I woke up the next morning around 3:30am (which would have been 7:30 am "home time")... I put my glasses on and looked out the balcony door to see that we were SUPER CLOSE to land!

decided to try and see if I could get some pictures of the sunrise, since the Patter said it should be around 4am... headed up to the top deck with my cameras, and arrived just in time...

Since it seemed like it was just me and a few crew members awake, I decided to stroll around the ship and take a few more pictures...

I found Skywalkers Lounge! we would spend quite a bit of time up here. What a fabulous view!!

View from the bow of the ship- deck 8

One of the Life boats

Local fisherman heading out for the day

Excellent!

Today we just enjoyed the calm relaxing sea day, and did a bit of trivia, went to a few shows, checked out the art gallery and just hung out. The 3 people that were in my "group" had never cruised before, however they are all sailors on much smaller boats in the great lakes, so it was fun to see them experiencing things for the first time...

We did check out happy hour- 2 for 1 drinks at the Wheelhouse Bar between 2-3pm (almost every day!)

Tonight was the first formal dinner, and also happened to be the Princess 50th anniversary menu.

We had learned from our "mistake" yesterday, and called and made a reservation for 7:45 for Portofino. we got there and we sat immediately. Our Waiter - Robert, and Asst. Waiter - Louis were at the table as we were sitting, to greet us, introduce themselves, and offer us beverages.

the 50th anniversary menu- (note - I did NOT take pictures of every menu, just this one

and the food--- was INCREDIBLE! I typically stick with "meat and potatoes" but since I'm on vacation, I decided to try those things I normally wouldn't... Amazing! Delicious! YUM!

and our FAVORITE dessert of the entire trip!

Woke up early again the next morning, and got some fabulous sunrise pictures on our way into Ketchikan

Heading into port---

one of the Norwegian ships following us into port

We were docked at the farthest berth, had quite the stroll to get into town, but it was scenic!

the Aluetian Ballad- much smaller in person that it seems on TV!

how cool would it be to live above the tunnel?!

"wildlife"

closer to the center of town

We lucked out on the weather for this trip! didn't get much "liquid sunshine" at all.

Great pictures! Takes me back. Looking at the photos of the anniversary dinner, I think I'm going to try the turbo next cruise. That's one I haven't ordered yet. I'm not a fan of that 50th menu, but there are other things to order than the "special" stuff. BTW, my grandkids love that lumberjack show. I think it's definitely worth the money.

I grabbed my camera and got some pretty awesome shots from the balcony of our sail away!

 

 

 

Great picture. You may want to enter it in the Captain's Circle photo contest.

 

 

 

after lunch, we started to explore the ship, as we still had an hour or so until Muster Drill... checked out the pools

 

 

Your photo answers the question many people have asked, "Is the Calypso pool roof ever open?"

The answer is "yes."

Do you know how many days it stayed open?

one of the first shops we went into, had this wholly mammoth tusk that was hand carved by artist Eddie Lee! it was around 7' tall and just beautiful!

some of the detail

I believe the sign that was posted nearby said it took him 4 years to complete.

Great pictures! Takes me back. Looking at the photos of the anniversary dinner, I think I'm going to try the turbo next cruise. That's one I haven't ordered yet. I'm not a fan of that 50th menu, but there are other things to order than the "special" stuff. BTW, my grandkids love that lumberjack show. I think it's definitely worth the money.

Thanks! I have finally gotten a chance to edit down my nearly 6,000 pics from the trip! I'm hoping to get the review done in the next few days, but we'll see... I'm having fun "reliving" the trip, even though it was just a few weeks ago.

As for the menu, I wasn't sure how I'd like it, but I actually enjoyed it. the Turbot was very mild, but the sauce was fantastic. and the dessert was phenomenal.. we did "skip" the blueberry sorbet course, I'm thinking our waiter forgot about it, but it worked out for us, b/c I'm allergic to blueberries anyway, so I just didn't order it, but he didn't bring it to the entire table... he did bring us some "extra" canapes with our dessert, which were devine!

and we capped it off with their "shot of the day" in a souvenir shot glass

We didn't make it to the lumberjack show, so I guess I know the first thing I'll be doing on my next visit to Ketchikan!

Your photo answers the question many people have asked, "Is the Calypso pool roof ever open?"

 

The answer is "yes."

 

Do you know how many days it stayed open?

Well we really lucked out on the weather for Alaska, and had very little rain, and very warm temps. I'm not 100% sure how often it was open, because honestly the only times I was up there was in the very early morning, and it was typically closed... I'm guessing they did open it more than just embarkation day, but I can't be certain...

it was a beautiful, WARM, sunny day in Vancouver while we were waiting for the "late comers" so there were quite a few people enjoying the pool!

Great picture. You may want to enter it in the Captain's Circle photo contest.

Thanks! If I knew WHAT that was, I would enter it! :) do you have any links on how to enter it?

Well that is where I am going to stop for now... I'll be back later to post more pictures of our day in Ketchikan and the remaining 9 days of our amazing trip!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away! If I don't know, I'm sure someone else may chime in!

I hope you're enjoying the review so far!

Thanks! If I knew WHAT that was, I would enter it! :) do you have any links on how to enter it?

Princess Free Cruise Photo Competition

Share your favorite photo from your recent Princess cruise or cruisetour, accompanied by a story of between 20 and 50 words describing your Princess experience and you could win a free Princess cruise! Click here to review the official contest rules.

How to enter is at http://www.princess.com/newsletter/html/ccm/

Princess Free Cruise Photo Competition

Share your favorite photo from your recent Princess cruise or cruisetour, accompanied by a story of between 20 and 50 words describing your Princess experience and you could win a free Princess cruise! Click here to review the official contest rules.

 

How to enter is at http://www.princess.com/newsletter/html/ccm/

Thank You!!! I had no idea about that, but will surely be picking out my favorite picture and entering! This was my first time on Princess, but I don't think it will be my last! The entire experience far exceeded my expectations! The crew was amazing and truly seemed to enjoy their jobs.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree, your pictures are great. Thanks for posting them.

Two questions: 1. What are the two tall drinks in the happy hour photo? 2. Where did you get your maps?

Looking forward to the rest of the review. :cool:

Excellent review. Outstanding photos. Can't wait for more.

Thank you for posting your review. If you have the patters from the trip, please also post them. Appreciate the efforts to share your experience.