Alaskan Cruise HAL or Princess

[Heidi13]

12 hours ago, Coral said:

I have to say I have felt the Crown (Crown, Ruby, Emerald) on Princess - does feel crowded. I hated my experience on her. It was a cooler environment cruise and the atrium was so packed - it was difficult to walk around. The wait for elevators seemed to take forever (I was traveling with a disabled parent so we had to use elevators). When we did get in one - it was so packed.

 

Princess and HAL are managed by the same group. There is a lot of overlap - especially when it comes to Alaska.

 

I actually fell in love with cruising on the Sea Princess and loved the Sun Class ships but admit that it has been a long time since I have been on these ships and can't comment on fairly recent cruises. They are all gone from Princess now.

 

The food on my last Princess cruise was not that great. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't great. I didn't starve. When I cruise on mass lines - I know this going in.

 

Our favourite ships were the original Grands, especially Sapphire/Diamond, which were built in Japan and are vastly superior finishing quality to the Italian built ships. Next favourite were Island/Coral.

 

Starting with Caribbean, Princess added another deck of cabins to all the Grand Class. That means an additional 500 pax in the same public spaces, hence much more crowding.

 

Although most from my day have retired, I still know a few of the shore management and yes, they definitely overlap across the brands.

 

Our first experience on the "Sun" Class, was an Alaska cruise on Sun Princess, then we did a Mexico cruise on Dawn. At that time they were still fairly new and nice ships. In 2015, after the WC, they sent the ship to drydock for a special survey.

[Heidi13]

20 hours ago, nini said:

I believe the Sea Princess is ancient history. We love the Grand and other ships in its class. We never feel crowded on any Princess ships. We have been on the Crown and Golden Princess (sisters of the Grand) in Alaska and it was fantastic! The Captain does a 360 in Glacier Bay and the onboard commentators are wonderful.

Perspective is personal. I really do not think we would have enjoyed the Sea Princess either.

 

Sea Princess was sold to Chinese interests late last year and is now managed by V-Ships, one of the world's largest ship managers.

 

Doing a 360 at Glaciers is not a Princess exclusive, as all Masters should be doing this. Even when I worked Alaska cruises in the 70's/80's we did a 360 at each glacier.

 

Having both worked for and sailed with Princess for about 40 yrs, I have sailed on most of their ships, not just Sea Princess. BTW - the "Sun" Class was a brilliant class of ship.

[Coral]

On 7/11/2021 at 9:07 PM, Heidi13 said:

 

Our favourite ships were the original Grands, especially Sapphire/Diamond, which were built in Japan and are vastly superior finishing quality to the Italian built ships. Next favourite were Island/Coral.

 

Starting with Caribbean, Princess added another deck of cabins to all the Grand Class. That means an additional 500 pax in the same public spaces, hence much more crowding.

 

Although most from my day have retired, I still know a few of the shore management and yes, they definitely overlap across the brands.

 

Our first experience on the "Sun" Class, was an Alaska cruise on Sun Princess, then we did a Mexico cruise on Dawn. At that time they were still fairly new and nice ships. In 2015, after the WC, they sent the ship to drydock for a special survey.

I think very similar to you. I have been on the Sapphire a ton - I definitely think she was better built than her sisters. I also liked the Coral Princess.

 

I spent quite a bit of time on the Sun Class in Mexico and Alaska. 

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

I think very similar to you. I have been on the Sapphire a ton - I definitely think she was better built than her sisters. I also liked the Coral Princess.

 

I spent quite a bit of time on the Sun Class in Mexico and Alaska. 

 

We spent more time on Diamond, in both Alaska and SE Asia. Our son did a few contracts on Diamond as 2/O and S/2/O and I also knew some of the British Captains, as we were all Cadets many years ago. Only did one cruise on Sapphire.

 

On Coral we did some Alaska & Trans-Canal.

[rkacruiser]

19 hours ago, Coral said:

I have been on the Sapphire a ton - I definitely think she was better built than her sisters.

 

If you are familiar with Sapphire Princess' building history, there is probably a very good reason for your opinion.  

[Coral]

12 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

If you are familiar with Sapphire Princess' building history, there is probably a very good reason for your opinion.  

Except for the fire....

[rkacruiser]

On 7/15/2021 at 4:11 PM, Coral said:

Except for the fire....

 

That was what I was referencing.