Star Princess observations - Whittier to Vancouver 6/16/2018

Keep in mind that this is only our 2nd cruise and our first with Princess so we don't have much to compare to. Overall we were thrilled with the entire experience. Some observations that might help others. I also have all of the Princess Patters if anyone is interested I can post them (if I can figure out how).

1. Captain Tuvo - I would sail with him again and again. He was VERY visible throughout the week and it is obvious the crew loves being on board with him. He was very fun and you never knew what he was going to come up with. At one point in Glacier Bay he came on and made an announcement to the crew that there was a grizzly bear on shore if they had a few minutes to take a break to check it out. I thought that was very considerate.

2. We bought 4 bottles of wine in Anchorage and brought it with us. During check-in we asked when we pay the corkage fee for the extra bottles and we were told that we pay it on board. We went through security with it and when we went to board we were hustled through the photo-taking and card-issuing and put on an elevator to our deck and there was no where to pay the corkage fee. I'm not sure if I feel lucky or guilty. I still don't know where we missed that step. We enjoyed it all in our stateroom until the last bottle on the last night for dinner. We did purchase liquor for our room and also when we were in lounges so I guess that makes us a little even.

3. Our steward-ess was not great. For example, we looked over the balcony and watched other stewards cleaning the glass and washing down walls of the balconies. Ours was never cleaned once. Also on day 3 my husband asked how her day was and she said that she'd been able to disembark that day and send money to her family so they could buy her baby diapers. Seemed like a pitiful way to ask for extra gratuity and just struck us wrong. I didn't leave any extra when normally I'm pretty generous.

4. Our frig had a hard time getting cold at first (see wine above). We opened the cabinet door so it could vent and it got very cold after that.

5. No matter how good it sounds, skip the lobster dinner in the MDR. More like overcooked langostinos. The only bad meal we had. Good news though, you can just order another main course! And two desserts if you are feeling sorry for yourself for ordering the lobster when you were forewarned.

6. When you are heading into Hubbard Glacier and start to see icebergs floating in the water, save your film/memory. You are about to see a WHOLE lot more. I went back and deleted about 30 pictures of single chunks of ice that seemed so cool originally. I had no idea what was coming! I think this was my favorite day and I honestly wasn't expecting much. Glacier Bay NP was a little bit of a disappointment after this. Interesting, but nothing like Hubbard Glacier.

7. The naturalist presentations all week were terrific. And join him/her on deck when possible. Ours was great at pointing out wildlife. I really wish I had bought the cruise guide book they offer. It was a great map of the cruise route with guide points along the way. I didn't see it until we were 4 days in and it seemed like it was too late to be worth it.

8. We met quite a few people who did the Princess cruisetour option. We arrived 3 days early and did Denali on our own, but I'm not honestly sure we saved a lot doing it that way. Almost everyone said the land portion was great, only one person complained about the "bus time".

9. We chose the Dine Anytime option and always agreed to share a table if needed. Met some really interesting people and a lot of very experienced cruisers. Learned a lot about how to cruise frequently and cheaply.

10. Rented a car in Skagway and drove all the way to Whitehorse. When returning, the US Border agent said "you could have stopped at Emerald Lake and called it good" and he was 100% right. Not too much great scenery after Emerald Lake. The cemetery was interesting, but the rest of the town was just "meh" for me.

11. Juneau was a pretty quick stop - went on a whale watching tour and had to be back on board by about 3:30. Whale watching was a bucket list item for me but there were about 20 boats chasing the same 5 whales. We did see one whale and then moved to another location and saw two more from quite a ways away. It was really terrific and I wasn't disappointed, but don't go expecting National Geographic photos. After about 10 minutes I just put the camera away and enjoyed watching.

12. Enjoyed Ketchikan much more than expected. Free bus to just circle around town when your legs get tired of the walking tour. We did not do an excursion here. Did our souvenir shopping here.

13. Onboard entertainment was OK, not stellar, but OK. Liam Steward in the piano bar Crooners is terrific, go early to get a seat. So terrific that they gave him his own show in the Vista Lounge, a sort of Michael Buble experience, inaugural show on this cruise. Very good. The singing/dancing shows in the theater were not high quality but they were OK. Some of the other live entertainment seemed geared for an older crowd. We are youngish 50s and couldn't really get into it. But based on the demographics of this cruise, probably appropriate.

14. Managed to avoid having our photo taken by the onboard photographers except for once at dinner. Who enjoys this? Who buys these photos of themselves with the dancing moose, goofy lumberjack and bear? This isn't a Disney cruise, after all.

15. One day there were people they were trying to locate even after we had left dock. To this day I'm wondering what happened to the Lee's from Emerald deck.

16. We had some folks come down with some gastrointestinal distress that was consistant with Norovirus. Started with 2 in quarantine, then 6, then 16, then back to 2. Felt bad for the crew as it seemed to make a lot of extra work for them. You could not serve yourself anything in the buffet, they stood by and served you. Not s/p shakers anywhere, can't pour your own coffee. The first day of this had everyone in a tizzy, but everyone seemed to chill out and get into the new routine pretty quickly.

All-in-all a great cruise. Would definitely do this trip again, and I don't say that too often.

Nice review--thanks!

Thanks for your review.

terrific review, i'm glad you enjoyed your cruise!

i agree with you about hubbard glacier. i saw it for the first time this year and i also thought it is even better than the margerie glacier in glacier bay.

Thanks for the post, most of which jibes with my southbound sailing on Golden last month (and a bit of my northbound on Island as well). But I found your reaction to your steward's innocuous answer to a simple "how was your day?" ridiculously judgmental. She was simply relaying to you what for her is the most important task she can accomplish with her precious few free hours in port. Makes me sad to see that used as an excuse to not leave an extra gratuity.

Thanks for the post, most of which jibes with my southbound sailing on Golden last month (and a bit of my northbound on Island as well). But I found your reaction to your steward's innocuous answer to a simple "how was your day?" ridiculously judgmental. She was simply relaying to you what for her is the most important task she can accomplish with her precious few free hours in port. Makes me sad to see that used as an excuse to not leave an extra gratuity.

My first response to that comment was largely the same as yours. Over the years, we've had many servers, stateroom hosts (yes, on that other line where this is the title), etc. who have let us know that they were supporting family "at home," always in response to our questions. The "to buy diapers for her baby" part does seem to push it a little, but then, is that really different than the server who explained that by working on the ship, he enabled his wife to stay home with their children? Or that he was saving to buy their apartment...and ultimately the cruise where he proudly told me that he had indeed purchased the apartment and that he was "working for myself and my family now."

I know relatively little about how the system works on Princess in terms of how much of the standard tip goes to various individuals or how their "banking" system works on board. And we have not cruised the same Princess ship(s) often enough to develop the relationships with crew that we've had on other lines. It would be sad if there were not a system that allows them to deposit both their check and cash tips and to have that money sent to family or a bank at home directly thru the ship; this crew member's comment would make it seem that this is not possible. That's odd as it is easily accomplished on other lines. But again, this crew member could be voicing her biggest concern. I'm not sure how to take the comment.

I know relatively little about how the system works on Princess in terms of how much of the standard tip goes to various individuals or how their "banking" system works on board. And we have not cruised the same Princess ship(s) often enough to develop the relationships with crew that we've had on other lines. It would be sad if there were not a system that allows them to deposit both their check and cash tips and to have that money sent to family or a bank at home directly thru the ship; this crew member's comment would make it seem that this is not possible. That's odd as it is easily accomplished on other lines. But again' date=' this crew member could be voicing her biggest concern. I'm not sure how to take the comment.[/quote']

 

The cynical answer would be that she needed to send cash that she wished to be "unreported" whether extra tips or winnings from a craps game in the crew bar.

 

But more likely she gets a better exchange rate and/or lower wire transfer fees from the Seafarer's House in Juneau than what is offered to the crew by Princess.

 

(or whichever port is the one in question--I just noticed that the OP stated this conversation took place "on day 3" which would be the day in Glacier Bay; no port calls other than embarkation day in Whittier had occurred yet)

The cynical answer would be that she needed to send cash that she wished to be "unreported" whether extra tips or winnings from a craps game in the crew bar.

 

But more likely she gets a better exchange rate and/or lower wire transfer fees from the Seafarer's House in Juneau than what is offered to the crew by Princess.

 

(or whichever port is the one in question--I just noticed that the OP stated this conversation took place "on day 3" which would be the day in Glacier Bay; no port calls other than embarkation day in Whittier had occurred yet)

Sorry, Day 4. We didn't leave until 8:30 pm so I didn't count that as Day 1. It was in Skagway, our first port day.

Thanks for the post, most of which jibes with my southbound sailing on Golden last month (and a bit of my northbound on Island as well). But I found your reaction to your steward's innocuous answer to a simple "how was your day?" ridiculously judgmental. She was simply relaying to you what for her is the most important task she can accomplish with her precious few free hours in port. Makes me sad to see that used as an excuse to not leave an extra gratuity.

I'm about the least judgmental person you will ever know. I fully understand that they all are sacrificing family life to earn money for their families. If she had responded that she was happy to have time ashore and had an opportunity to send money to her family we wouldn't have felt the way that we did. It was the extra diaper money comment that left us feeling "off". And irrespective of that comment, if we felt that the service we were given was more than the minimum requirement, we would have gladly added cash gratuity. We came prepared to do so.

Great summary and you have me even more excited for our upcoming cruise on the Star (SB in late August). If you do find a way to post the patters, I'd love it! One way I've done it in the past (not as good as others, but it worked for me) was to take pictures with my phone and then just upload them using cruise critic forums app on my phone. So far, I've only seen the NB--I know the activities will be similar, but times are often a little different based on the different port times--and one for a Vancouver Round Trip, again a little different.

Interesting comment on Hubbard. We've gone SB twice prior and both times Hubbard left me underwhelmed. We've always been FAR away from the glacier though. I'm crossing my fingers to have an experience like you did this time. I've heard many people give glowing reviews and have just figured my particular sailings didn't get close enough to provide that wow factor for me. Here's hoping for my sailing this time!!

Thank you for the review. I would love to see the Patters. I will be sailing at the end of July and want to plan ahead.

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Great review, and I for one fond all your service comments completely appropriate.

Thanks for taking the time to share

Srpilo

We were on the cruise after yours and they scared the crap out of me with all of the Norovirus warning emails the night before and numerous flyers when we boarded. I'm glad to hear it was only about 16 people! It seemed like a massive outbreak or something. Not a fun way to start our cruise but thankfully nothing happened and I guess they have to be extra cautious.

Thanks for the report.