Before the pandemic shutdown, I booked a North to South Alaska cruise on Princess Cruises from
Whittier, near Anchorage, to Vancouver. First because I thought the itinerary would be better
than the Inside Passage I'd done previously, and Princess claims to be an Alaska expert.
I finally did that trip this year, and neither of my assumptions turned out as expected. I knew it
was a different world to when I booked and would be a different experience. But I didn't appreciate
quite as many differences and surprises.
One of which was coming back from Alaska with
more than memories, a souvenir unique to this time: COVID.
I am Gary Bembridge and I want to talk about the good things
and bad things about cruising Alaska and on Princess these days.
The trip started with an unexpected highlight thanks to embarking the ship in Whittier.
As the trip got closer, I thought it was a bad idea choosing this itinerary
as I discovered that Whittier was not easy to get to.
My travel agent (Sarah Bolton) suggested the Glacier Discovery Train
that runs from Anchorage down to Whittier. It's about a two-and-a-half-hour train
ride through the most phenomenal scenery. It was a brilliant way
of setting the scene and seeing parts of Alaska that I would not see on the cruise.
And the train arrived right next to the ship in Whittier.
I checked my baggage in at the train station. And they told me, the next time I would see it would
be in my cabin. However, what they didn't tell me is it doesn't travel with the train. They hold all
the bags there and it comes down when other cruise line run trains run later in the day.
I was getting stressed because by 6:30pm,
despite arriving at noon, I still had no bags. I finally got them just before seven.
Checking in at Whittier though was an absolute breeze, so much better than my last
trip embarking in Vancouver. I was on the ship within a couple of minutes of leaving the train.
There were some unexpected upsides and plusses cruising Alaska right now.
First, although ports were busy, as most ships are sailing below capacity
none were as packed as on my last trip.
We had four ships in Skagway, six ships in Juneau
and 5 in Ketchikan. That should have meant up to 15,000 plus passengers on some days,
but it was not crazy busy and noticeably less busy wandering around and on excursions.
Though the even bigger plus for me was the itinerary. I
found it better than my Inside Passage one.
I got further north to see the Hubbard Glacier. It was an incredible experience.
Adding to that was I had booked a cruise line offered boat excursion of the ship.
This met us as we sailed into Yakutat Bay and took 150 of us right up close to the glacier.
We saw many incredible calving events. The people on the ship didn't get that close.
Glacier Bay was another big highlight. The Margerie Glacier itself was worth it,
but I did see several other glaciers. It's the most beautiful,
memorable experience. And with all that expertise from the rangers, it really was phenomenal.
Skagway was another massive highlight. I went again on the White Pass and Yukon train,
the historical train built for the Gold Rush. It is an incredible excursion
right up the mountains, about two and a half hours there and back.
In Juneau, I did a helicopter ride to walk on the Mendenhall Glacier.
It was worth the $360. The time before I'd done dog sledding to the Norris Glacier, which wasn't
offered this time. But doing a helicopter ride and getting above the glaciers was worth every cent.
Also in Juneau, I went up the Goldbelt Tramway up Mount Roberts. A thrilling
experience and way to get a phenomenal view of the area and all the ships in port.
In Ketchikan, I went to the Lumberjack Show, which is great fun. I went to Creek Street,
which was fantastic, although I did feel it was more tacky visiting it again. The town, of course,
is very commercial.
Throughout this trip I was reminded that Alaska
is still magnificent. The sights are just as impressive and as memorable. Although
there were many businesses closed and shuttered up that hopefully will reemerge
I need to talk about Princess and the ship as it was a mixed bag.
I chose Princess due to their reputation and experience of over 50 years in Alaska. However,
between booking the trip years ago and going, I had gone off Princess after my Regal
and Sky Princess trips last year where food and service were average.
I'd booked an itinerary on Majestic Princess not clicking that the ship had been designed
for the Asian market. And I'd had several people saying, "I'm not sure you'll like the ship."
To add to my Princess reticence,
I was not having much joy with the much-touted Princess technology and App.
I kept getting messages before the cruise
saying that I had to reserve my check-in time. But the App wouldn't let me. It
also kept changing from saying I had submitted everything required to board to saying I hadn’t.
The app never got much better. It kept telling me, for example, I hadn't paid fully for my
cruise once on the ship. So, I couldn't book dining times which we were supposed to do to.
Eventually I gave up on the app and used the big interactive screens
dotted around the ship, which worked well.
The cabin I loved and the ship itself I was fine with,
but there are a few things that did strike me as not ideal.
On boarding it did have one thing I think is a pity across the Princess fleet
and that’s the sense of sameness. Their ships basically all look the same,
the decor, the layout. They don’t each have a unique character to them.
So, while there is the huge advantage that I knew my way around and where everything was,
it lacked the excitement, for me anyway, of exploring a slightly different ship.
One thing many love is the focus of a Princess ship is that atrium across 3 decks,
so if I wanted a buzz, find the stuff going on, and access to most things it was here.
There was the International Café, restaurants, bars, shops, photo centre and so on.
As great the Atrium is, I find it very inward looking. There are no big views out to the sea
and the landscapes. This was a pity for Alaska which is all about the outdoors and scenery.
Another other thing, which was even mentioned by one of the Alaska enrichment lecturers,
is Majestic Princess is possibly not the very best ship for scenic sailing and sightseeing in Alaska.
Unlike the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam on my last trip,
the ship layout means they can’t open the bow when scenic cruising in places
like Glacier Bay, nor does it have a wrap-around and covered promenade deck.
So, if the weather's not great, which it often isn't in Alaska,
there were few covered spaces to do viewing. This did not affect my trip as we had no rain
and not too much wind on our scenic cruising days.
I was able to have great viewing on the open promenade spaces on deck 7 and high up on deck 17
above the pool deck as we had fine weather. But if it had been raining it would have been less ideal
So, in Glacier Bay when the weather turned later in the day, many headed up to the
Hollywood Conservatory, an indoor space with large glass windows as the best alternative.
I had booked a mini-suite balcony cabin, which I found very comfy,
and ended up being a great place to do sightseeing too as the Captain
alternated which side of the ship faced glaciers when we stopped for viewing.
I didn’t think any of the differences
in Majestic Princess being designed for the Asian market were an issue.
All the signs had both English and Chinese. There was the Harmony Restaurant instead of Sabatini's,
the Italian, which I was excited about because I love Asian food.
The food I felt was average though. I'd booked to go more than once but cancelled my repeat trip.
They had a noodle bar, the casino was huge, and they had a VIP casino area,
which for us was operating as a lounge.
The Hollywood Conservatory I mentioned earlier on other Princess ships is the Sanctuary,
was more seating and designed for games than lying about on loungers.
And it was free unlike the Sanctuary which has a fee to use.
I found the food and the service fine across the trip, neither exceptional nor bad for the premium
category they operate in. It is probably a tad less than recent trips on Celebrity,
Holland America and even Virgin Voyages which are the other key players in the category.
One thing I felt is the menu choices felt smaller than on the other lines, and this was something
other passengers I spoke to commented on. There is though a range of choice still.
There were some little touches that are important to me missing versus the other premium lines.
They didn't have any diet and caffeine free drinks on the ship. I don't drink alcohol,
caffeine, and sugary drinks, but I like sodas.
Unlike other premium lines, including Holland America
and Celebrity, they didn't have Diet 7 Up or Sprite or Caffeine-Free Diet Coke,
so my options were just water and juices. It’s a smallish point but as a premium
line having such a reduced and small choice and smaller menu choices stood out to me.
One thing that really stood out too is the passenger mix.
People go to Alaska because they want to go to there
and seem less focused on what any line offers.
On Majestic Princess there were 2,260 passengers on the ship,
which was around 60% capacity. It was a very different passenger mix to I normally find
on a Princess cruise. There were many multi-generational families travelling together
and lots of families. On both sides of my cabin were families of four.
This mix difference showed up in things like the fitness centre busier than usual
and boisterous kids taking over the indoor Hollywood pool.
The usual dress code was also thrown out the window.
It was almost impossible to tell it when it was formal night versus usual smart casual nights. I
would estimate probably less than a quarter of people dressed differently on formal night. I
literally saw one person in a Tux, and they looked uncomfortable because they were so dressed up.
One big plus I would say about Princess is they did
try to immerse me into Alaska. There were many touches on board, which I thought were good.
They had two naturalists and region experts, Mark Harris and Rachel Moreno, who spend five months
of the season on board and gave excellent and entertaining talks throughout the trip.
The Entertainment team wore lumberjack-style shirts. There was a lot of high-quality
Alaskan merchandise in the shops and on the deck, several books on the region and specific a book
about the cruise that the Captain would refer to each day.
We went into Glacier Bay, which is a big plus as only 2 large ships are allowed in each day
and only them, Holland America and some Norwegian ships usually have access.
On that day they brought three Glacier Bay National Park Rangers on board.
One called Ethan, gave a moving talking about the indigenous community,
they then ran commentary all day and ran an information and merchandise counter all day too
I was warned by the cruise line that Covid was an issue in the region, and we should take care.
Although we did have masks onboard, some distancing and none of the big
group events were held, once out and about on land this was not the case of course.
When I got back home, I did a test as several people I'd spoken to coming back
from my cruise and Alaska had tested positive. I tested positive too. I assume I picked it
up and had it on the trip because it took about three or four days before I started
testing negative. I felt fine all through this.
The memories and experience made this trip
one of my most memorable. I am not sure I would go back to Alaska on Princess, but they did get
me to the places, sights and offered the excursions I needed. So, time will tell!
If you want detailed tips on visiting Alaska, watch this video with my tips on how to plan
and make the most of Alaska starting with the single most important thing
that determines whether you'll have a great time in Alaska. See you over there.