I just came off of the Sea Princess 10 Night Alaska Inside Passage cruise from San Francisco – 7/19 sailing. Here is a review/overview of the cruise.This was my 30th cruise and I have sailed on all the major mass market cruise lines except Princess so this was my 1st Princess Cruise. My last few cruises were on RCI’s Legend and Explorer of the Seas, Carnival’s Dream, NCL’s Pride of America and Norwegian Spirit and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. For this trip I sailed with my partner.
PRE-CRUISE
I live in the NYC area so I flew into San Francisco on United/Continental and stayed 4 nights in San Francisco. As many have told me over the years, San Francisco is really a lovely city. I love New York but San Francisco is my 2nd favorite city. To me it was a mixture of NYC/Newport, R.I. and Vancouver all mixed into one. I did hop on and off tours, strolled around (up those STEEP hills) and then visited Yosemite in a day (it was one long drive but worth it). I also visited Muir Woods and the Sonoma Wine area. Four days went way too fast. I must return!
Just a side not – this was my 1st time flying with United/Continental since the merger. I had flown Continental for the last 5 years many times and you can definitely see that what was once a decent airline (Continental) has gone downhill with this merger. Prior to the flight the “new” United lost my return reservation; by chance I found that it was cancelled checking on my seat assignments. Luckily they reinstated it. Both of their computer systems have not been merged therefore, I overheard a man who arrived at the airport with a lost reservation. Then at the airport the signage is all confusing the CO desk has CO signs and UA signs. The UA desk has one sign up since they are changing the logo and type face. Tickets are booked under UA and the flight is operated by CO so people are checking in at the CO desk because it has UA logos on it. Flight operated by CO yet the aircraft has the new UA livery! It was just very confusing and I have flown for many years, naturally the agents at the airport are so fed up the lady checking me in said to me they should have merged the computer systems 1st then worry about the signs later. She was right. It was just messy!
EMBARKATION
Boarding in San Francisco, on this particular sailing, was a breeze! I got to the ship around 11:30 and was on a little after 11:45am in my room! I loved the way Princess had embarkation organized. When we boarded the ship, they had elevators waiting for passengers with a crew member in the elevator operating them. There was no chaos because of this and in no time we were in our cabin.
CABIN
I booked a guarantee category HH obstructed view room. I was assigned cabin D339 on the Dolphin Deck with an obstructed view. I find it interesting that Princess labels their cabins the “old fashion” way with the letter of the deck preceding the cabin number. Usually ships today have the deck number preceding the cabin number. I remember having rooms numbered like this on the old Chandris vessels and on Premier’s Oceanic. I remember when I sailed on Celebrity’s Horizon in 1990 they utilized all the deck numbers before the cabin number and thought that was strange now its common place. Not sure why this fascinates me but I realized this once onboard! Anyhow, I believe the stateroom I was in was a category GG. The room was positioned in such a way that I had a fairly nice view despite it being obstructed! The cabin was on the small side but what cruise cabin isn’t except for suites, of course. The only negative feature about this cabin was that it was across from a crew access area and we heard doors opening and closing almost all the time. Luckily it didn’t keep us up and it really didn’t bother me but for some it may be an issue. The cabin had a minibar, one outlet, hairdryer and a flat screen TV. Overall, it was a clean and comfortable cabin – what else can you ask for?
DINING
The food on board was mediocre at best, once in a while I had something that was good.
The ship had many dining venues - The Horizon Court buffet, Riviera Grill, Cafe Corniche (no charge pizza place), Sterling Steak house - $25pp fee (was a section of the Horizon Court), 2 main dining rooms.
There are two main dining rooms: The Triviata (traditional 2 seatings) and the Rigoletto (anytime) I ate in the MDR a few nights. I had anytime dining and unfortunately on my sailing, or possibly this ship, anytime dining was really difficult. The 1st night I could not get in at all and the other nights were hard as well. Turns out you can’t reserve a table for 2 only larger tables (4 and up). On other lines, like Royal Caribbean, you can pre-reserve your table for 2. Little bit of a let-down but what can you do. The hostess at the Rigoletto Dining Room was a nice as could be and tried accommodating us some nights. Other nights were just too busy. I had 5 dinners in the MDR. Later in the cruise I found if we showed up after 8pm there was a little wait (like 5 -10 minutes) or we got right in. Otherwise one night we went to the dining room at 10 to seven waited 1 and ½ hours to eat. Since Princess states in their promotional material that anytime dining affords you the ability to eat when and with whomever you feel, I believe Princess should deliver on this statement. Maybe they should be more diligent on the number of people they assign anytime dining to or maybe they need to reconfigure the dining room. NCL and RCI, I notice, has many tables for 2 that the dining staff push together to make tables for 4. This gives them greater flexibility. Maybe Princess could consider this.
ENTERTAINMENT
I did not attend the shows as I don’t particularly care for that type of entertainment however I did see a quartet show and enjoyed the illusionist they had onboard. I attended some nature lectures by the naturist Alan Kortash, but personally the naturist seemed like he was talking down to people. I gave up on his lectures! Maybe it was just me. I even went to a navigational lecture given by an officer and he was a little snarky too! Maybe it was his humor? Otherwise activities seemed to pick-up as the cruise went on. I felt the first few sea days seemed to be a little more sedate but then I found some fun things to do. Activities ranged from lectures, to scrapbooking classes and movies. In fact, the Sea Princess showed many movies throughout the cruise in the Princess Theater and on MUTS in addition to the cabin television. I got to catch up on movies like the Kings Speech and the Adjustment Bureau, both by the way were good movies. Ultimately, my most favorite activity was sitting on the promenade deck listing to the sea against the ship. Thankfully, the Sea Princess has a wraparound traditional promenade deck – something that seems to be disappearing on the new builds.
PORTS
Alaska is beautiful. I cruised Alaska 10 years ago with my family so I knew what to expect but still seeing it a second time was not enough, I want to go back. The scenery is wonderful and inspiring. Our cruise called in Juneau, Sitka (a rarity these days), Skagway, Glacier Bay and Victoria. In Juneau I did Mt. Roberts Tramway and Mendenhall Glacier. Sitka I went on a Sea Otter & wildlife Boat Tour and saw a bear among many other things. Skagway I went on the White Pass Rail up to the Yukon and in Victoria I went to see Butchart Gardens. All the excursions were great. My favorite excursions were the Mendenhall Glacier and the White Pass Rail.
On my last Alaska cruise I visited Hubbard Glacier. On this sailing I got to see Glacier Bay and it was great. We got up close to the Margerie Glacier – what a site. We were very lucky in Juneau, Skagway and Victoria the weather was sunny and warm. In Sitka and Glacier Bay it was cold and cloudy with some drizzle – the usual Alaska weather. This is why they always say to dress in layers when traveling to Alaska.
On this sailing the 1st port of call was Juneau. We were set to dock at 1pm but the captain (the day before) informs us that because of strong currents we would arrive Juneau 2 hours late. I have cruised a lot and have never had that happen to me but thought that there is a first time for everything. I know you can’t really see currents in the ocean (usually) but the seas where rather calm. Then days later, the day before our call in Victoria, the captain stated that we would be 3 hours late to Victoria because one of the four engines was not working. As a result, we arrived Victoria around 11am and left an hour late at 3pm. Barely got to see Victoria however Princess/Carnival Corp flew in a tech from Miami to Victoria they fixed the engine and we were able to make it back to San Francisco relatively on-time. We arrived San Francisco a little over an hour late because we left Victoria an hour later. I guess it was the engine problem all along and it wasn’t currents that delayed us at our first port? Whatever the case maybe Princess gave us a 10% discount on our Victoria shore excursion because it was cut short and Princess also gave a $50 per person OBC. I think that was a generous act of good will on Princess’s part.
SERVICE
The service on board was mediocre to good. Some crew went out of the way while others seemed bothered by the passengers being there. One crew member giving out plates in the Horizon Court buffet kept shouting out how he hated his life while handing out the breakfast plates! On the other side of the coin I know dealing with people isn’t fun. I was a travel agent for 10 years and some clients where not easy to deal with. Imagine working on a ship – you can’t even leave the difficult people! Overall, was decent but my stateroom steward excellent.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Despite some mixed reviews I have read online in cruising forums about the Sea Princess about all the wear and tear she is showing, she seemed to be looking good to me. Is she a new ship? No. So there was some wear and tear but nothing significant in my opinion. Obviously she had some engine issues but to be fair even new ships have these. She is an attractive, nicely sized ship. Her interiors in my opinion are classy yet subdued but not to my taste. When I was a travel agent I toured two Princess ships – the Crown and the Grand and I have to say the Sea Princess looks like the other two ships! Looking at pictures of Princess ships they all seem to look alike. One can argue this can be said for most mass-market cruise lines, but maybe it’s the color palate Princess uses that makes the decor look very similar to me. I have noticed however that the revitalized Grand Princess looks a bit different now from the pictures I have seen. Overall, in terms of décor I personally did not find the Sea Princess memorable in that respect. I know I sound like a cruising snob, but nothing stood out to me in regards to food, service or ship design nevertheless I did enjoy my cruise on the Sea Princess. I would return to Princess if they had an itinerary that I enjoyed or maybe to sail a new ship (like the Royal Princess) but I guess my expectations were just a little higher for Princess and found it was a little bit of a let-down (not that it was unenjoyably by any means). I thought the service and food would be similar to other cruise lines most notably Holland America, Celebrity and even Royal Caribbean but it wasn’t. Nevertheless, I am sure I will cruise Princess again and if you want to see Alaska a leisurely way with many days at sea, on a human scaled ship then you will have a wonderful time on the Sea Princess.
If you have the time, my pictures are below. Looking forward to my next cruise which may be the Allure next July!
Webshots Gallery of Sea Princess
[ 08-03-2011: Message edited by: nycruiser ]
[ 08-03-2011: Message edited by: nycruiser ]