This was the first of our bucket list trips and found Alaska to be wonderful and exciting. We had done the northbound 7 day cruise from Vancouver to Whittier on the Crown and then a 4 day cruise tour to Fairbanks. The ship was OK and the food typical, but nothing to write home about. The dining rooms were very oddly placed and we found ourselves getting turned around a lot during the week. We did have a specialty dinner in the Crown Grill that was very good and had excellent service. We were very lucky as not having to experience too much rain and spent a lot of time outdoors even in the coolest of temperatures where we enjoyed the burger center and the pizza counter on the outer deck for lunch.

Although I am not one for ship entertainment, my wife felt the entertainment less than good, but we totally enjoyed the comedian (Katz). The event schedule during the days were sparse and on the last day, evening events on the schedule crammed together. We also found the ships officers/upper staff to be non-existent. We have sailed on other cruise lines that the officers were always apparent and always quick to introduce themselves and chat with passengers, but not so on this ship.

Our cruise tour was awesome starting in Whittier and making our way north staying at different Princess lodges with McKinley and Denali being our favorites. The train ride was informative, but we had quite a few non-English speaking people in our car who were very loud and made it difficult to hear the narration of our surroundings. Be prepared to spend a small fortune for food as you are kind of locked in to all of the lodges for eatery choices. The one thing about these lodges are that they all lack are safes, so carry your passport and most valuables with you. Read more