athena86

The Patter should tell you which dining room is open when you embark. For our cruise, I think it was the Da Vinci.

Hello,

 

As you can see from my cruising history below, i've cruised mostly on Carnival, tried Royal and Disney once + a Nile River cruise in Egypt. We are a couple in their mid-thirties with a 8 year old daughter. I'm looking for an Alaskan cruise for next summer, and Carnival is not on my list (for 2 reasons, 1) i've read at several places and my TA also told me that Carnival isn't the best when it comes to Alaska, and 2) i want to leave or disembark in Vancouver (which Carnival doesn't offer).

 

So i've looked around, the NCL Sun looked interesting, but they only do 1 way and it's Vancouver to Seward (or vice-versa), and Seward is a 3 hours bus ride to the airport, which i'm not interested in, but then i saw the Grand Princess which looks really interesting (and it goes to Anchorage- the actual city where the airport is). Now, i'm looking for actual opinions of people who have cruised Carnival and could give me a good comparison Carnival/Princess. I don't really care about review of cabins, but mostly food and entertainment, overall overview?

 

Furthermore, for those who have done an Alaskan cruise (on whichever line), what is the best time to go?

 

Thanks a lot

We did the Grand Princess round trip out of Seattle in late Aug/early Sep. we took a Carnival cruise 2 yrs ago and it will likely be the only Carnival cruise we do. The cabin on Carnival was very nice, but the food was awful. Perhaps it was what I ordered (fish and lighter fare) but it was all over cooked. The Chef's Table was nice though.

Princess has provided a stellar experience over the past several years. Entertainment has been great with a wide range of choices. I will say though, that Norwegian entertainment is the best I've experienced at sea (but food was just so-so).

Service on Princess has been exceptional compared to Carnival as well.

We have done Alaska in May, July and late Aug/early Sep. all have been great weather wise. July temps were upper 60's to upper 70's Fahrenheit. Both early and late season are a bit cooler, but certainly not uncomfortable. We didn't need more than a light jacket and/or sweater. It's really dependent on the activities you choose to do. We canoed to a glacier and required full winter gear for that.

If I were recommending, I would say Princess for Food/Service, Norwegian for Entertainment and Carnival for cabin size.

I will be on the Grand in 16 days, my first time on her and only my second cruise with princess. One thing I really enjoyed on my last princess (Sapphire) was the afternoon tea, is that offered on all princess ships.

Yes, tea is served on all of the Princess ships. Went for the first time on the Grand last month (our 7th Princess cruise) and now plan to make it a regular event on sea days.

We were on the Grand at the beginning of the month. I agree with everyone else that it's a great ship and We would definitely book again. The finishing in our cabin (aft balcony) were showing a bit of wear, but nothing severe. Service, food, entertainment were all great!

For us, we generally see what's available when we want to travel. We rarely book cruises more than a month in advance. While this limits our options, it reduces the time we have to wait until we can get the heck outta dodge and on that ship [emoji3]

We are not completely against repeating an itinerary. But we have several places we want to go including Hawaii, Australia, British Isles and the Baltic including St Petersburg.

So many places to go.......[emoji568]

Thanks for the info. After much consideration, we've booked the repositioning cruise on the Royal starting in NY on October.

Now to get through the 300+ pages of the roll call before we sail! 😳

Thanks!

Hi all. We're considering a Panama Canal cruise on either the Coral or Island Princess and prefer upper level aft balcony cabins.

On the Coral/Island the youth area is aft on the Aloha deck. It looks like the entrance to these areas are not on the same hallway as the cabins but I was wondering if anyone can speak from experience.

Have you had children running up and down the hallway near the cabins?

Is this an area we should stay away from?

Thanks!

Cheryl