Discovery Princess Alaska Inside Passage 8/7-8/14/22 review (long)

[nattie]

There has been a lot of negativity lately from seasoned Princess cruisers on these boards. I dont want to minimize their valid complaints, but would like to report that this cruise (second for us this year on Princess) was great. The weather might have helped, we have not seen a drop of rain the entire 10 days we were in WA and AK. We were using the pools and sunbathing the entire cruise too.

We are seasoned cruisers, both DH and I are Elite on Princess and have sailed a number of other lines (most recently Haven on NCL) and DS just turned Elite after this Alaska Cruise. On to the review:

Seattle: We flew in 2 days ahead of time (never know with airlines these days) and enjoyed amazing weather in Seattle as well as "Air and Boat" show weekend. The Mountain was out the entire time, weather was better than what we left on East Coast. We lucked out! On advice from our friends that moved to Seattle are 2 years ago, we stayed in Bellevue instead of downtown Seattle. Very safe and nice area, about 20-30 min ride to downtown.

Embarkation: Somewhat more chaotic than what we are used to in FLL where if you fill everything online and get your medallions ahead of time, you just walk onto the ship pretty much. However, absolutely not as bad as NCL's disaster in New Orleans. Worst part was huge queue for medallions that no one tells you can bypass if you already have them. Also, had to show all the docs (passports, covid vaccinations and tests) even though everything was uploaded to Medallion app ahead of time, in FLL you just tap your medallion and if everything is there, they will let you through. Another minus point for Seattle embarkation is that the ride share lot is at least 5 full minutes walk from the ship (10 with luggage). Port authorities are pretty much forcing you to take overpriced cabs. But that's not Princess's fault.

Sidenote Medallion App: The app worked just fine for me, from dining reservations to ordering drinks, I could not report any issues. I personally quite like the app experience, all of us wear it on the wrist and it makes life so much easier vs constantly misplaced and demagnetized cruise cards. Now Princess is rolling out a program where you can pay with Medallion off the ship at select merchants. Personally I have not tried this, but I am not opposed to it.

Sidenote Internet: BAD, especially comparing to Caribbean. On par with what we had in 2019 in Baltic. I was able to check emails daily (after letting them load forever), but no streaming or actually logging into work stuff.

Ship: Just gorgeous, it still kind of "smells new" :). We liked certain improvements made comparing to Regal (same class, our favorite ship on Princess) : sports court positioning and additional space around it, removal of fountains in between 2 main pools and addition of seating area and hot tub there, overall more spaciousness of interior on decks 7, 6 and 5. Not sure what was removed, but extra space was nice. We did not like the reversal of Princess Live to more of a lounge seating, but I think everyone else liked that. Also, the free pizzeria on 6 is called Gigis and while menu is the same, the vibe and decor are distinctly not. Now it looks more like a diner vs Italian bistro. Again, personal opinion.

This sailing had a full ship, which we have not experienced this year yet. We did not feel crowded at any time on Discovery even with the ship being full.

Room: We had a quad mini suite on Riviera. I am glad I have insisted on quad, so DS (13) could have a bunk bed and a place to lounge around during the day, vs only the couch. My only issue with the room was balcony size, but that's the same on all ships of this class. We normally book a mini, so no surprises there.

Dining: Most of the evening meals we ate in the dining room. I dont know why but consistently the 6th floor aft dining room (Ketchikan on this ship) that used to be reserved for traditional dining has absolutely the WORST service. It was like that on Regal in Jan and same here. I have prebooked most of our times before we sailed in that dining room and cancelled all of the reservations after first night.

We did not have to wait more than 10 min or so when we came to any other dining room with or without reservation (we made some friends and sometimes wanted to dine together). It did help that our preferred dining time is around 8 pm.

One thing we absolutely hated this cruise was the Bistro Sur La Mer. Never again. But this is purely personal choices because of the food served. Quality of the food was fine and ambience was nice, we simply did not like the food presented. I LOVE escargoes and what is done to them in that restaurant is a travesty.

We did like Alaskan twist on the regular dining room menues, my DS especially loved the Alaskan Berry Soup. 

Breakfasts and lunches we normally had in the buffet or Gigis or from Salty Dog on the pool deck. No surprises at any of these places, we liked the food and the variety offered.

Drinks: I was fretting a bit about not getting Premier package, but it turned out to be not necessary for us at least. Variety of wines on board was quite limited anyways, but the Pinot Noir they carried as "house" variety was quite good and included in the package. Somehow the Strawberry Daiquiri was way better in Alaska than in Caribbean :). Also, bartender at Take 5 turned my son onto mojito zeroes (mojito sans booze), I believe DS was solely responsible for the lack of mint on the ship by the end of this sailing (kidding!)

Entertainment: Did not do any of the shows in main theater. Alaska itinerary is quite brutal with early risings most of the time, so we were pretty much done after dinner. We did see some game shows in Princess Live and enjoy live music (LOVE that about Princess) in various lounges. Especially liked the band in Take 5 and guitar player in Wheelhouse. We also did a lecture on Alaska by the onboard naturalist and while we did get some useful info, the gentlemen himself was quite insufferable (non stop ponderous quotes and boasting). Again, probably a personal opinion.

There was only one production show, Rock Opera. Seen it before, so didnt go.

Ports and excursions: I normally try to see what cruise line offers and compare to what I can find independently. I was very pleasantly surprised this sailing with quality and price points of Princess excursions, we ended up with ship tours in almost all of the ports.

• - Ketchikan. Did the wilderness cruise and crab feast tour. Very nice, the only somewhat negative is that it is not "all you can eat" now (it was at the time of booking), but we were full after what was offered and blueberry cheesecake was absolutely the best! To the point that DS wanted to make cheesecake when we got home.
• - Glacier viewing tour. We were bumped off that tour originally and waitlisted. I came directly to excursion desk upon boarding and was lucky enough to get our tickets. This is absolutely a MUST if you can afford it (expensive!). There was only one boat going to glacier from the cruise ship (so 50-75 people out of 3000 pax) and glacier and wildlife put on the show just for us. Huge chunk of the glacier (300 ft tall per captain) fell off, we have seen an eagle fish for salmon, several whales and otters as well as distant bear sighting. The weather was also perfect, not a rain drop in sight and clear skies. The crew of the boat was absolutely amazing and my only regret is that I completely forgot to grab a wallet when we left the ship at 6:30 am (yes you read that correctly), so I didnt tip them. They had free coffee/hot chocolate/tea and donuts available for everyone as well as made several Alaska themed snacks (smoked salmon and kelp pickle anyone?). There were food and beverages for purchase too. Captain and his crew of naturalists narrated the whole tour, pointed out wildlife, gave TONS of interesting info. Absolutely the best tour.
• - Juneau. We did the dog summer camp tour. I still dont get the whole point of Iditarod, but I very much like the explanation give by our musher "very expensive hobby" :). This was the most disappointing tour of the cruise. Loved the ride and all the dogs, but "play with puppies" time was absolutely not as advertised, we only got one puppy to hold for like 5 minutes. More puppies, please!
• - Sitka. We were informed ahead of time about the port change, so I prebooked the excursion online before we even departed. We did the wildlife cruise, bear sanctuary and eagle sanctuary. Our driver was Sitka native and clearly loved her city. The boat ride was great and we have seen a lot of whales, momma and bay seal and relaxing sea lions. At the bear sanctuary bears put up a show too. Sitka ended up being my favorite port of the entire itinerary!
• - Victoria. Because of substituting Skagway for Sitka, we were able to dock in Victoria at 5 pm (thank you Captain Tim for negotiating an earlier port time!). We ended up taking a shuttle into the city and just walking the streets for couple of hours. 

Debarkation: Very smooth. We took fool advantage of port valet program, so easy!

 

While on board we have booked our next adventure - 2 weeks in Med on Enchanted next year. We are certainly coming back to Princess.

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Wonderful!

[CruzinNoony]

Great review.  Thank you.

[Tweedy]

Thank you for sharing your review. 🙂

[JeffT237]

1 hour ago, nattie said:

This sailing had a full ship, which we have not experienced this year yet. We did not feel crowded at any time on Discovery even with the ship being full.

How was the staff to passenger ratio, since it was a full ship did it feel under staffed or appropriate for the numbers onboard?  Also do you know if the Chef's Table was available during your sailing?  Thanks, and great review!

 

 

[nattie]

8 minutes ago, JeffT237 said:

How was the staff to passenger ratio, since it was a full ship did it feel under staffed or appropriate for the numbers onboard?  Also do you know if the Chef's Table was available during your sailing?  Thanks, and great review!

 

 

We didnt have any issues with stuff. Bartenders were busy, but wait times for drinks were normal (or at least they did not seem excessive to us). Buffet was busy at peak times, but we were always able to get seat after a bit of searching. 

Dont know about Chef's table, sorry!

[redroses]

Are the cabs much closer to the boarding area?   Thanks for the heads up, might do that instead of Uber.  Not sure what the cost if but the convenience might be worth it.

[nattie]

15 hours ago, redroses said:

Are the cabs much closer to the boarding area?   Thanks for the heads up, might do that instead of Uber.  Not sure what the cost if but the convenience might be worth it.

The cabs are right next door, literally as you walk out of the building. We took a cab on the way back from the cruise and it was $65-70 to the airport area hotel. I believe driver said it was $60 to airport. I might be wrong on $ though.

[redroses]

1 hour ago, nattie said:

The cabs are right next door, literally as you walk out of the building. We took a cab on the way back from the cruise and it was $65-70 to the airport area hotel. I believe driver said it was $60 to airport. I might be wrong on $ though.

Thanks! Great info, will do the cabs.