Recent Star voyagers to Alaska

[margaretlb]

My DH and I were on the 5/17 cruise - our first! We found the food in traditional dining much, much better then we expected. We're from NYC and have the opportunity to eat at many fine restaurants and have spents several months of vacation in Paris over the past 7 years and always eat at very good restaurants while there. Neither of us found anything to complain about and, indeed, much to praise about the dinner offerings. The beef was some of the best I've had anywhere - I enjoyed prime rib on embarcation night, beef Wellington and NY strip steak. All very tender and cooked to medium rare (as requested). The king crab legs were sweet and succulent. Guess what - a real Ceasar salad with anchovies! Sauces were consistently tasty and food was served hot. I also just had to have a scoop of the nightly sorbet - tangerine, blueberry, bing cherry (I should have kept notes as I can't recall the others right now).

Ate lunch at the Portofino every day except in Ketcikan. Eating a cheeseburger was a problem - couldn't fit it in my mouth and had to eat it with a knife and fork:).

Most mornings we had room service but did go to the buffet twice and found their breakfast offerings very good. Did not visit the buffet at other times of the day so can't offer any info on lunch or dinner.

Oh, and I found the wine list had many reasonable wines and more than adequate selection.

[Bob Winters]

Hello,

Susan, (Hula Girl) recently posted a question about the parking structure for Pier 91. Is there anyone who can answer that question? We are driving up the coast from Southern California and plan to leave our car there so we are sure wondering how the experience went. This is a great thread and very timely for a lot of us.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

[Hulagirl]

Lady Jag: The prices for the shuttle seemed to vary at the ports. Last year in Juneau it was $3.00 per person and in Victoria I paid $5.00 for each of us. This is for the full day usage, but we only went in and then back to the ship once. In Skagway we just walked back from the small town area to the ship on our first cruise. Hope this helps.

 

Bob: The only thing I can tell you about the parking at Pier 91 is there isn't a parking structure there. It will be just an open lot. I keep hoping someone that has actually driven there and parked in the lot would let us know how it went. My husband will have to drop us off with the luggage and then go back and park. I'm curious how the shuttle back and forth there will work. Had read on the short cruise the line was so long that someone just ended up walking back to the terminal. We will find out this Sunday. So if nobody posts about it, I will when we get back. I did make a reservation for the lot just to make sure we have a spot. Not sure if that was necessary, but figured it was just something less I had to think about it and it is all paid for.

 

Susan

[DrivesLikeMario]

Lady Jag: The prices for the shuttle seemed to vary at the ports. Last year in Juneau it was $3.00 per person and in Victoria I paid $5.00 for each of us. This is for the full day usage, but we only went in and then back to the ship once. In Skagway we just walked back from the small town area to the ship on our first cruise. Hope this helps.

Susan

 

Thanks, Susan. Will let the elders know. :D

[Hulagirl]

LJ: You can also tell them that it looks like we are going to have excellent weather next week. I looked at weather.com last night and the 10 day forecast for all the ports is sunny and around 70 degrees. That will be wonderful. It should be a nice day to sail out of Seattle also. I'm looking forward to seeing Alaska in the sunshine!

[Kruising Katt]

We were on the May 17th sailing of the Star. Our experience at embarkation was horrible at the beginning. We arrived around 10:30 AM and traffic control would not let our Already There driver stop and

unload. They were very nasty about it and made him move twice. Then they directed him where to unload us and we found ourselves in a sea of

people going home and we were far from the entry with all our luggage. A

lady working for HAL came over and then tried to get a porter to take our

luggage back on his empty cart. When he refused she cleared us a path

all the way to the door. We didn't see a Princess rep until we were inside.

Once inside everything moved smoothly. For disembarkation I had to change our color for leaving as Princess gave us a late time to leave the ship even though I'd filled out the sheet stating our flight left before noon.

We waited well past our disembark time and, finally, someone asked about it as they had a very early flight. They were told we could just go to

the promenade deck and leave so we did. We found our luggage with little problem, customs grabbed our declaration sheet without even looking at it and we were soon out. We called our Already There driver and were

on our way within minutes. We were very glad later than we left when we

did as, although it seemed we were at the airport plenty early, by the time we checked bags and found our gate there was little waiting until boarding.

As for Pier 91, it was mass chaos both embarking and disembarking outside

the entry. With two ships using the same spot to arrive and leave there is major confusion. Hopefully they will figure out a smoother process. I

recommend getting Already There towncar service for going to the airport

as the buses and shuttles wait until they're full and the taxi's are in great

demand. The towncar only takes your party and is only $10 more than a

taxi.

 

The cruise was great and we couldn't have had better weather. It was our first time for anytime dining and every night the service was not up to

what we had in traditional. There were errors in what was brought, delays between courses, coffee refills not offered etc. Not a big problem for us but the difference was certainly noticeable. We had the Chef's Table dinner one night and it was wonderful and worth every penny. It was one of the highlights of the cruise. The Master Chef for the whole Princess fleet was on board and did the meal. It was a wonderful 3 hours.

I forget who asked but Italian night was Tuesday as we missed it for the

Chef's table.

[Bob Winters]

Bob: The only thing I can tell you about the parking at Pier 91 is there isn't a parking structure there. It will be just an open lot. I keep hoping someone that has actually driven there and parked in the lot would let us know how it went. My husband will have to drop us off with the luggage and then go back and park. I'm curious how the shuttle back and forth there will work. Had read on the short cruise the line was so long that someone just ended up walking back to the terminal. We will find out this Sunday. So if nobody posts about it, I will when we get back. I did make a reservation for the lot just to make sure we have a spot. Not sure if that was necessary, but figured it was just something less I had to think about it and it is all paid for.

 

Susan

Thanks Susan, please let me know as soon as you get back. Here is my emil address, RWinters8833@verizon.net.

Have a great trip and I will be anxious to hear all about it.

Bob

[DrivesLikeMario]

LJ: You can also tell them that it looks like we are going to have excellent weather next week. I looked at weather.com last night and the 10 day forecast for all the ports is sunny and around 70 degrees. That will be wonderful. It should be a nice day to sail out of Seattle also. I'm looking forward to seeing Alaska in the sunshine!

 

You betcha! I already told them & was going to send them an update after looking at the 10-day forecast on Friday. Bon voyage!! :)

[NH Cruisers]

Our group ate in the Crown Grill on the Skagway day, I believe that was Italian night. Overall the dinner was good but took between 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The biggest complaint we all had was that the food was not served hot enough. None of us finished the Balck and Blue Onion soup, I think we all would have preferred the tradional French Onion version.The hostess was a lot of fun but we really came for the food.

We were a table over from you at the Crown Grill. The Hostess/Manager was a lot of fun and quite the looker. I too didn't finish the Black and Blue Onion soup, it was piping hot but stupid me didn't know it was blue cheese on it that I don't like. My 22 ounce porterhose was warm not hot.

 

Jon,

[mii]

There seems to be a discussion on the price of the Crown Grill on another thread. Some say it is $25.00pp and some are saying $20. Can you verify what price it is. Thanks

 

Marilyn

[Hulagirl]

Bob:

 

Will let you know. I'm hoping it is smoother than what I keep reading. At least it is supposed to be a nice day for us, so sunshine will help rather than dealing with the parking situation in the rain. If I can write on the CC board while on the cruise I will or can try and e-mail too.

 

Susan

[Lynda90]

There seems to be a discussion on the price of the Crown Grill on another thread. Some say it is $25.00pp and some are saying $20. Can you verify what price it is. Thanks

 

Marilyn

$25 for Crown Grill, $20 for Sabatini's. :p

[mii]

$25 for Crown Grill, $20 for Sabatini's. :p

 

Thanks Lynda.

 

Marilyn

[cubfan63]

Hulagirl asked for about when the Italian night was and when the Alaska Taste table was.

 

Italian night was Tuesday night. I looked at the menu at one of the bars earlier in the day and noted that they had gnocchi (one of my favorite pastas) on the menu. .

 

I then took a late afternooon nap and decided to order from the Room Service menu that evening rather than go to one of the anytime dining rooms. As a result, I missed Italian night (Room Service did give me some complimentary chocolate covered strawberries for dessert, so it wasn't a total loss!).

 

 

The Alaska taste table by the pool was indeed on Wednesday after we went to Tracy Arm (Tracy Arm is from 6 am to 10 am). We arrived in Juneau later on Wednesday at 2 pm.

 

Janet

[Hulagirl]

Janet: Thank you so much for letting me know when the Alaska buffet was set up. Now I have all the information I need for the upcoming cruise. Friends are coming with us and I want them to have a good cruise, so knowing some of these things ahead really helps.

 

Now I know when to go to the Crown Grill, the pub lunch and the Alaska buffet. Just hoping the parking for the pier will be as good as the information I've gotten on this thread.

 

Thank you to everyone for such great information. The weather looks to be fabulous for Seattle and for the cruise so I think we picked a good time for Alaska.

 

Susan

[Mizwoodym]

We were on the May 17th cruise too. It was our first cruise and we had a great time. We loved each port and enjoyed the food. I think we ate at the crown grill the same evening. Our waitress was from Uruguay and did a great job. We signed up for the internet on the first day and got the 20 minutes extra free. We also used the2 for 1 coffee card coupon and got a really HOT latte every day along with warm cookies.. so great. jWe enjoyed the evening shows, the piazza entertainment, the MUTS(ask for blankets in the unmarked door under the screen), and on and on. We enjoyed the food and the waitstaff in the anytime dining was excellent. Extra desserts all around every night and even a song and cake for our wedding anniversary. Tracy Arm was the highlight. If you watch it from your balcony be sure to turn your tv on to the ship channel so you can hear the naturalist commentary.... someone told me that we didnt go all the way up the arm because of some seals up there. Did anyone else hear that? there was a medical evacuation for a lady that had fallen and broken her leg. I could see that happening because of how the bathroom is raised off the floor.

[Theta_Potata]

Bob: The only thing I can tell you about the parking at Pier 91 is there isn't a parking structure there. It will be just an open lot. I keep hoping someone that has actually driven there and parked in the lot would let us know how it went. My husband will have to drop us off with the luggage and then go back and park. I'm curious how the shuttle back and forth there will work. Had read on the short cruise the line was so long that someone just ended up walking back to the terminal. We will find out this Sunday. So if nobody posts about it, I will when we get back. I did make a reservation for the lot just to make sure we have a spot. Not sure if that was necessary, but figured it was just something less I had to think about it and it is all paid for.

 

Susan

 

We parked in the lot and had made a reservation before hand. Upon embarkation it was a breeze! My husband dropped us off, parked the car and took a shuttle back. He had to leave the printout for the reservation and a ticket on the dash of the car. The car was in perfect shape, no problems with it when we got back. Now, getting back to the car was a wait, they only had 4 shuttles (one was broken) and they (Republic Parking) were allowing people and all their luggage on them. Less people fit because of the luggage. It took about 1.5 hours from the time we got off to the time my husband made it back to pick all of us up. The lines were easy, 200 deep!

Hope this helps.

Diane

[Theta_Potata]

Just curious if anyone had any experience with the Kids clubs yet on the Star Princess for the Alaska sailings so far this year?

 

My daughter, 13, was in the teen section called Remix. I was totally impressed with the facilities!! There were 23 teens on board. She colored on t-shirts, played cards, ping pong, board games, ice cream socials, played video games, watched movies together and chatted about everything. She made some great friends that she got addresses for so she can keep in touch.

They had a large, nice area for younger kids too but I am not sure what they did. I do know there were 28, 8-12 year olds on board. I don't think I ever saw an unhappy kid. Aside from a really tired toddler and a not so understanding mom!

 

Hope this helps out.

Diane

[Alaskabride]

We parked in the Republic Parking Lot near the pier. We prepaid and my husband dropped me & the luggage off at the pier and then parked and brought the shuttle back to the pier. Everything went very smoothly - we arrived at about 11:30 AM.

 

We carried our luggage off the ship and caught the shuttle to the parking lot. It took us less than 10 minutes to catch the shuttle and were on our way home within 30 minutes of getting off the ship. I guess its all about timing and we hit it right.

 

We ate in the Crown Grill on Tuesday evening after Ketchikan. Cost was $20 and the food was WONDERFUL!! My husband had the 22 ounce Porterhouse and I had the Ribeye - both were excellent and served hot. Our waiter Adrian from Romania was very personable and provided fast and efficient service.

 

The only downside was I was really looking forward to the lobster in the Grown Grill and it was not on the Menu on this ship :(

 

Wonderful Cruise!! Wonderful Weather!! Everything was PERFECT!!

[Hulagirl]

Diane and AlaskaBride!

 

Thank you so much for the parking information. We plan on getting down there around 10:30 or so. Sounds like we may be alright with our timing. Figured this would be after the big rush of everyone leaving, and hopefully before everyone starts arriving.

 

Glad to hear the cars were fine and the shuttles did work on getting us back and forth from the cars.

 

I have my print out, but it sounds like they must give us another ticket to put in the car once we get there.

 

Again, appreciate the information.

 

susan

[NH Cruisers]

$25 for Crown Grill, $20 for Sabatini's. :p

I only ate at the Crown Grill, we were charged $20 per/person. On the Star Princess week of 5/17/09.

[Lynda90]

I only ate at the Crown Grill, we were charged $20 per/person. On the Star Princess week of 5/17/09.

Sorry about that. I didn't realize the cost was different from other ships. It was $25 on the Ruby and other ships I've been on.

[Gator83]

CubFan,

 

Thank you for your information on which nights they had the crab and the lobster. Can you remember what the theme foods were for Sun, Mon, Wed, and Sat?

 

Thank you

[Infi]

I'm another who's interested in finding out which themes were for which nights...if anyone could provide that, I'd be so grateful.

 

Also, can anyone tell me what the cost is for Sabatini's on Star? I thought it was $20, but it seems the Crown Grill charge varies from ship to ship, so I'm curious.

[Coral]

An individual on our roll call would like to know approx what time to have a rental car agency meet them at the Seattle pier after the cruise?

 

Does anyone know a time frame on this? Thanks!