Dawn Princess 6/13 review Part III

[tee_wrecks]

Glacier Bay-As miserable as our experience in Skagway was, Glacier Bay was equally spectacular. Up early for another glorious sunrise, saw more humpbacks but none close enough to photograph. Spoke with a couple of fellow photographers both of whom are having a much worse cruise than us. Tom's digital SLR has taken a complete dump and he's trying to decide if he should order another one online and have it shipped to his hotel in Anchorage or try to get a camera tech to look at his and see if it can be repaired quick and cheap. He finally decided to have a new body shipped and went off in search of an internet connection. Barb was issuing the first complaints I'd been exposed to. She said "I'll never cruise Princess again. The food sucks, the service is sup-par.." I've not heard anyone complaining about the food before and actually have been enjoying it. I guess my standards must be somewhat lower than some other folks. As for the service, more on that later in this post.

 

The National Park Rangers embarked at 6am upon our entrance to the bay and we proceeded slowly towards Margerie Glacier. Got some nice photos of Stellar Sea Lions and some of the scenery. Once again we've been graced with a beautiful day. After moving around the ship trying to find a good vantage point I finally settled on the fantail of the Aloha deck, secure in the knowledge that the ship would be pivoted 360 degrees in front of the glacier to give everyone a view. This turned out to be a great decision on my part. Once reaching the glacier I tried to ponder the immensity of it. Nearly a mile wide and over 250 feet tall, it's difficult to appreciate the sheer size of the thing until you realize the ship is mandated to stay at least a mile offshore. I've been photograhing Nature for 30 years and twice I've seen sights that make me lower the camera and say "WOW!" One was my first view of the Grand Canyon. Glacier Bay was the second. We were fortunate to see several calvings and the noise and splash they make is enormous. The biggest calve we saw happened as we were sailing away, and those of us on the fantail had a perfect view of it. I got some teriffic stills and DW was able to get it on video though from a slightly different vantage point. It was nothing short of amazing. Spent the rest of the time sailing up to Johns Hopkins inlet before disembarking the rangers and setting sail for College Fjiord. Once again we elected to skip formal night though we did have a nice meal in the Horizon Court. The ship headed out across the Gulf of Alaska for College Fjiord and we were exposed to our first really rough seas of the trip. DW wasn't really seasick but didn't feel quite up to par so we headed for bed fairly early.

 

College Fjiord-Rough seas continued through the night and morning right up to the point where we entered Prince William Sound. Lots of folks at breakfast complaining of being sick the previous night. We're also treated to our first really nasty weather of the trip with rain and temps in the low 50's. The knit hat and gloves I picked up in Ketchikan proved to be worth their weight in gold. And with the overcast skies came our first real issue with Princess. A couple of weeks before the cruise I'd pre-ordered a bottle of wine to celebrate our 30th anniversary and on this, the last night of the cruise, I asked our steward to have it delivered to our room and waiting when we returned from supper. Later in the day while relaxing in the cabin DW got a call from room service saying they didn't have the wine we'd ordered but would be happy to supply an alternate choice for an extra $4. She told them to hold off. I called room service and got the same story. I insisted that I'd paid for a bottle of wine and exoected it or a suitable substitute to be delivered. Room service was equally insistent that they would be delighted to supply me with a substitute wine for $4. Neither of us was going to back down so I told them to sit tight while I made a trip to the Purser's Desk for assistance. Once there I laid out the scenario and was told it would be taken care of. 2 phone calls later I was assured that all I had to do was call room service and they would deliver me the substitute bottle at no additional charge. I had Purser call room service for me and the deal was done. I don't really believe that this was a shameless attempt to upsell me. I have no idea if they really didn't have the wine I'd ordered or not. And to be sure, $4 seems like a minor amount but I'd made arrangements for our favorite wine to be available and it wasn't. That is simply unacceptable, and the unwillingness to service me in an efficient manner to avoid esalating the problem is really a deterrant for me. The letter and e-mail are both on their way to Princess.

 

College Fjiord in and of itself was pretty cool. It was raining and windy but the sights were extremely spectacular. The photos were very moody and exciteable. We sailed through the night and arrived in Whittier on schedule. Cruise over. A great experience but not without it's downside.

 

Conclusions: As I said before this was our first cruise and my first time in Alaska and for the most part it was terrific. Probably 8 on a scale of 10. On the upside, I saw some things I can't se anywhere else and I got some tremendous photos for the website. The short time we spent in Ketchikan was fun, Juneau was inspirational. Glacier Bay was magnificent and College Fjiord was merely spectacular. The food was great at best, adequate at worst. I'm not sure what people are expecting when they come away saying the food sucked.

 

On the downside, a lot of the areas I wanted badly to photograph were transitted during the hours of darkness. I'd love to have seen Seymour Narrows, Johnstone Strait, Robson Bight, and the BC lighthouses in daylight. Some of the narrows leading to Ketchikan and Juneau we passed in the night. I'd have planned to swith the time frames and spend the half day in Skagway and full day in Ketchikan.

 

If we cruise Alaska again we'll definitely book shore excursions and fly home the day after the cruise ends. If we decide to visit Alaska we'll fly there and forego the cruise. I think the two concepts are so special that they need to be savored individually, not as a package.

 

Good luck, good sailing and e-mail me if you have questions.

[Hate 2 W8t]

Hey Tee-

 

Thanks for the 3-parter. I really enjoyed the reading. Sounds like you will be needing another trip to Alaska! I booked my cruise (first too) before I found this website. I don't know that I would have selected a different intinerary, but what I have discovered is that there is too much to see in one trip! I know there are things I will miss and there are things I can check off of my proverbial list. All this just means that I will have to go back again someday, and select an itinerary that meets a different set of wishes.

 

I was also glad to see you gave it a 8 out of 10. I think too many people let one or two things ruin their whole cruise. (Like the lady who said the food sucks. I bet she let that cloud her enjoyment of the entire cruise...very sad.) Yeah, 10 out of 10 would be awesome, but gee, this is reality, right?

 

Best wishes for future cruises and vacations!

[tee_wrecks]

I hope nobody misunderstands me, this was one terrific vacation. Both parts, the cruise and the post cruise had their peaks and valleys. I learned a long time ago to take other people's reviews and opinions for what they are. I take them under advisement and then form my own opinions. For the woman that said the food sucks, well, we must have entirely different standards.

 

Bottom line, we WILL return to Alaska. It was that remarkable. In the future, though, we'll either take a cruise with shore excursions and fly home the day after the cruise is over or we'll fly to Alaska and eliminate the cruise. As I said, both are spectacular and need to be experienced on their own. Anyway, check back later for reviews on the post cruise stuff.