Golden Princess 5/12 Alaska Review

[8mpg]

Well, I promised some people I would do a review when we got back...

 

This was my first cruise ever and we were on the Golden Princess round trip from Seattle...

 

When I first saw the boat, it was HUGE... I tried taking a picture and couldnt stand far enough back to get the whole boat in 1 picture...

 

Embarkation: We arrived on the first bus out of SeaTac airport and got in line at 10:30am or so. We were lucky and got checked in and in a big cattle pen right around 11am. We were close to the front of the line, probably only 40-50 people in front of us. We started boarding earlier than planned so it was nice to finally sit down when we got on board. We did leave late though because people were still boarding. I think the final passangers got on around 4:30 and we were scheduled to leave at 4...no biggie.

 

The boat: Well you could sense the boat has been traveled on a time or two but was still nice. I think the upkeep was great and there were crews constantly working on the aesthetics of the boat the entire time. Our stateroom was an inside (Caribe 528) and I thought the location was great...3 floors up is the food and 3 floors down was most of the lounges. Room was small but liveable for a week. I would have been happy to stay longer. The only thing I didnt care for was the size of the shower. I would compare it to the size of our house refrigerator. Luckily Im skinny, Im not to sure how some of the larger people fit. I took some nice HOT showers and never ran out of hot water. Our cabin stewardess, Tai, was great. We talked to her each day and while we didnt really get to know her, it was great to have someone to talk to. Our room was always tidy and clean, she did an amazing job. I didnt realize you were supposed to put out the service tag when you left the room so they knew to clean it...it was a guessing game for her.

 

Shows and Entertainment: We didnt go to any real shows...we stopped by a comedy act and it was funny but we were tired. We did enjoy Ray Coussins, the piano player. We stopped in about each night for a 1/2 hour to listen to his music...AMAZING piano player. Other than that....we didnt do really anything but catch up on sleep and food...which brings me to the next point...

 

FOOD... I was in love. The dining rooms for lunch and dinner were great. More food then you could ask for and it was quite delicious. We had breakfast each morning at the buffet. It was good but hard to find a table. On a couple of occasions, there were some nice couples that said we could join them at their table. Very nice of them to offer. I dont think the buffet food is nearly as good as the dining room...but was still good. We tried the hamburgers/hotdogs/pizza as well and all were great. I did enjoy a coke card and probably drank enough to last me a year. King crab night, I enjoyed 3 full plates...and lobster night, 7 tails. I was in heaven.

 

Juneau: We rode the tram to the top of Mt Roberts. Being from TX, we dont see much snow, so seeing 6+ feet of it still was awesome. We tried walking the trails that were all snowed over and it was a great time. We slid down hills and our tennis shoes turned into skis. We did some shopping around the town and then headed out to Mendenhall Glacier. We did the $6 bus trip and we were on a mid 80's school bus while most of the buses were the nice Greyhound style ones...but what the bus lacked was made up by two GREAT drivers. We got a great tour of the city on the way and both drivers were hilarious. One of them is 65 with 12 kids, 25 grand kids and 5 great grand kids :eek: That about wraps it up...we did spend $7 on a 12 pack of Diet DrPepper though from the gift shop right outside docks... We did eat at Hangar by the Warf and I highly recommend the restaurant.

 

Skagway: Very small town with a population of 714 people...the town swells up to 10,000 during tourist season. We rented a car from Avis (glad we reserved it early) but had a heck of a time finding it. Their office is part of a motel. Anyways, I was surprised to see that no one in the town supports the company. We probably asked 4-5 different shops looking for them and no one had a clue....they all referred us to Sourdough rentals. Finally someone pointed us in the right direction. Adding up, that Avis office has been there for some 25 years. I guess the locals just dont support large corporations. We drove out through Yukon Canada out to Emerald Lake. We got out there to find out it was still frozen. A bit of a let down but we saw some nice sights which made up for it. A quick meal when we got back at Skagway Fish Company and we were off shopping. Skagway Fish wasnt as good as I thought it would be. I heard a lot of people praise it but I think Hangar in Juneau was better. Thats basically all we did there.

 

Tracy Arm Fjord: Very pretty but it was still a bit to froze to see the glacier at the end. I did get a couple good pictures of the Sun Princess in the fjords though

 

Ketchikan: We did some walking and thought the tourist area was sorta small. We thought we walked it all, but apparently we missed out on a lot. Next time we go we will do a tour to see more of the sights.

 

Victoria: Well, its a long walk to find really anything but houses. We walked to the harbor and visited the area. Didnt find much to do other than walk around. The exercise was great and we did see some pretty buildings. Again, we will setup a tour next time to really see the town. I think its about a mile walk to the harbor area.

 

Disembarkation: Now I know why everyone puts ribbons and tape and anything to make your bag stick out. I think this was the only bad thing of the trip. We were brown 2 for disembarkation and it was a mess. 100+ people in and their bags in an area thats probably 1000sq ft. Everyone was pushing and knocking over bags...just not great. I told my girlfriend to stand to the side and I fought my way though and found our bags. I always thought our red suit cases stuck out but boy was I wrong. There was a sea of them :p I think next time we will try the express setup where you carry your own bags. We only had 3 and 2 of them were sorta small.

 

Overall, we had an amazing trip. I now know why people are addicted to cruising. We are going to try and plan one out of Galveston for my girlfriends brothers and sisters to come with us. We will probably said Carnival since its cheaper (we are paying for everyone) and going out of Galveston is a must since we cannot afford airfare for everyone as well. I wish Princess would keep cruising out of Galveston but Princess and Royal Caribbean are pulling out and going out of Miami and other east coast places. Couple people I talked to said the food is better...thats enough for me to switch :D. Anyways, its was an amazing trip and I would love to go back to Alaska and do it again... If you guys want, I can put up some pictures.

 

 

Oh and just to say it... people wore jeans in the dining room all the time. I saw people wearing flip flops in the dining room on non-formal nights. On formal nights, I saw a couple guys dressed in khakis and a polo shirt. They were not turned away and no bad looks that I saw. I did end up wearing jeans 2 of the nights because I just didnt have time or want to change into slacks. I wore jeans...thats right... I did it :D (for all the jeans haters out there)

[jms]

Hi

Our family of 8 wants to do this itinerary June '08 and am wondering how smooth or rough your first and other sea days were? Thanks!

[woodmill100]

Great report. Thanks for sharing!

[TJR3646]

Thanks for the great report, we are on the Golden 6/9 and it is our first cruise also.

[8mpg]

Hi

Our family of 8 wants to do this itinerary June '08 and am wondering how smooth or rough your first and other sea days were? Thanks!

Seas are very smooth when you are in the inside passage. The first day out of Seattle isnt bad...I think we had 7ft seas max. There was only one night that anyone really said anything about sick and it only lasted for a few hours.