Golden Princess Review

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B2B Alaska on The Golden

Review for Alaska Cruise on Golden Princess
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10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Additional details

Sail Date: May 2015
Cabin: Mini-Suite with Balcony
Traveled with children

Introduction

This was our 5th and 6th time in Alaska (2001, 2006 and 2012), as we are also doing the 6/1/15 as a B2B. The main difference is that the 5/22/2015 cruise goes to Haines and Tracy Fjord, while the 6/1/2015 cruise goes to Skagway and Glacier Bay.

This was also quite a different cruise for us. We had Ally (Allyson) our granddaughter with us whom had just graduated from high school before we left Colorado and intends on embarking on a Tourism Management career this fall in college – she wants to be a Cruise Director – after hearing so much about our cruises and the cruise staff that we meet. So we thought we’d give her a taste of all the different roles and job opportunities there are out there. Alaska was convenient for this time of year and there is a variety of things she could see that are related to her chosen field – from Billy London, the CD on this cruise, to the cruise staff, to the shore excursion people, to the guides on the various excursions, to the MC at the Lumberjack show in Ketchikan – and all the variety of positions in between.

Cabin Review

Mini-Suite with Balcony

Cabin ME

The covered aft Emerald deck mini’s are just a perfect choice for us in location and comfort for three people. Ally slept on the sleeper sofa, not the fold down bunk. There is plenty of “stuff” room and the ease in getting to deck 7 and back is very convenient. Even the infamously friendly shower curtain behaved on this cruise. We normally book a normal balcony for just the two of us, but there was plenty of room for the three of us.

Port Reviews

Skagway

Skagway has the best options for seeing a lot of stuff from a bus or train. I overheard several comments that the train ride was not as scenic as the bus rides. Nor could the train stop as often for pictures as the bus. You can also rent a car, or just book a taxi/van for the day and run all over the place. You can even get on the ferry and go to Haines. Skagway has a lot of helicopter adventures as well, and there are a lot of DIY hikes around town. Even a walk around town, photographing the various buildings and people watching, coupled with the show, is not a bad thing to do either.

But for us the wind howled all day long – definitely living up to Skagway’s Tlingit nome de plume –‘ rough seas in the Taiya Inlet, that are caused by strong north winds’. Probably a good day for a train ride, but for hiking it was miserable. We ended up taking in the Days of 98 show, shopping for some South African ‘jerky’, wandering around town and having lunch. There were 3 other ships in port, the Pacific Princess, us, NCL’s Sun and Carnival’s Legend. Lots of people in port, lots of crowds.

We searched for, and found, the ports of call shop with racks of specialty items for crew members around the world. South African, British, Indian, Philippines, Chinese, Eastern Europe – a really neat store, but way, way expensive as all of this stuff is imported to Skagway via air freight. But a nice touch of home, I’m sure for a lot of people. Based on Melissa, Megan and Siobhan’s recommendation we bought some Biltong and Wors – South African equivalent of jerky and Slim Jims. I was going to get some crème soda (a hangover cure I’m told), but at $2.50 a can, it was a bit steep.

The Wors, a dried sausage, was fantastic. The Biltong, a spicy salty version of jerky. We bought enough to get a package of each for Melissa and Megan – just a little something from home.

The Days of 98 show was actually quite quaint and fun – and out of the howling wind. Interesting presentation of a con man, re 1890’s version of a consummate ‘politician’, in both a damning yet sympathetic point of view. Very cheesy, over the top, irreverent, yet, thoroughly enjoyable. We all enjoyed it – especially Ally. She’s been in theater in High School and is going to double degree in acting and Tourism Management. She was actually very interested in the actors whom had apparently just graduated from college and this was their first gig.

Lunch was completely forgettable at Northern Lights Pizza. Its north of the main drag and it has a Mexican/Italian/American menu – so if you see a large menu, run. (All of the well known shops on main street were SRO, so we opted for something less crowded.) Should have went to the Thai place on 5th street as recommended, or the Indian curry place on 4th. The only good thing was the halibut fish and chips – which I surrendered to Judy as her taco platter was not even Taco Bell quality. Ally’s fettucine was pretty tasteless as well, but the garlic toast was pretty good. Oh well, you live and learn.

Skagway is an interesting town to wander around in off main street. It’s so Alaska. No two houses look alike, all are patched, repatched and patched again. Blue tarp roofing materials. Although there are a lot of new builds across the river since we were here last. Included one on the bluff that overlooks the town and really stands out. Lots of glass – must cost a fortune to heat.

The sun did eventually come out, and it was actually quite warm, if you were standing out of the wind, so wandering around town was not wet as we were in Juneau.

San Francisco

Our second time in San Francisco was turn around day on the 1st of June, and it started out rainy, wet, cold, but turned into a sunny day after all – enough to notice I got some sun when I looked in the mirror the next morning. We were supposed to meet in Crown Grill at 1030 to do turnaround, but we left a bit earlier and went out to see the sights. Our cards didn’t change. Ally’s card did, and it was still blue. She’s not a Gold card until after her 18th birthday. Go Figure…

The new cruise terminal is a bit more of a walk to fisherman’s wharf, but not bad. We had three goals in mind for the day. Candy, water and lunch at a unique and interesting place. We found all three. There is a great candy store at the end of fisherman’s wharf with every candy known to mankind. The Candy Baron. We had bought some taffy in Ketchikan that Ally was handing out to the crew – and they love it. So we bought about 10# more of the stuff. There had to be several dozen different flavors of taffy, with barrels of different hard candies as well. We even found some scorpions and tequila worms in lollypops. Something unique and sweet always makes them smile.

For lunch we went to Mango’s Mexican restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf. There were several fish and Italian style restaurants, and they are good, but we wanted something different and Mango’s was really, really good. Fresh ingredients into elevated Mexican cuisine. We had their nachos platter and their queso. But the real highlight was their fresh and unique margaritas. I had their Cucumber and Jalapeno margarita, actually two which made it very difficult to walk back to the ship, while Judy had their watermelon and jalapeno margarita – and not with watermelon flavor, but whole chunks of fresh watermelon. The nachos were great, as was the two fresh salsas, the fresh guacamole and the finely diced steak and asiago cheese. The real highlight was the queso. Not really a dip of orange cheese sauce, which I cannot stand, but fresh cheese and peppers baked in a shallow cast iron skillet, until it crusts on the top and the bottom. You had to fork it over onto the chips, scraping it off the cast iron, but it was good soft and crunchy cheesey goodness. Wow, it was good!

After lunch we went to the local Safeway, which is about 5 blocks from the ship, stocked up on water and wandered back. We got back to the ship around 1345, but the lines were still backed up, so we sat for a while, checking email until about 1400. Then, except for security, we just breezed through. Had we waited another 30 minutes we would have had no lines whatsoever.

Victoria

Our first visit to Victoria was a beautiful blue sky day with a slight cool breeze. Perfect for a nice walk along the shoreline from the docks in Victoria. The grass was waist high, the flowers in bloom, everything all leafed out. It was a very nice and much needed walk. We walked to the south side of the peninsula (to the right) from where the ship docked.

The second time we also had a great walk in Victoria. This time we went left (north) along the harbor walkway, a really great walking path, with lots of things to see. We ended up at the Parliament building and then cut across the peninsula on Government Drive, coming back down the southern beach path back to the ship.

The most interesting part of the walk was fisherman’s wharf with the ‘houseboats’. Lots of little 400 to 600 sq feet floating houses, some tailor made as floating houses, some made out of actual boats, tied up permanently with city water, sewer and electricity. It looks like they bring in their own propane. Some look to be three levels high and some have been converted to businesses and restaurants. It’s a neat place. One 450 sq ft place was for sale for $250k.

The path follows the shoreline for the most part, and with a green belt along the shore in most places except for the hotel and marina areas. Today was a brilliant blue, warm day with no breeze. Lots of ducks, geese, sea birds and little fish in the water. The water is amazingly clear for a harbor area. The Fisherman’s wharf area has several restaurants and a couple of whale watching businesses as well. We weren’t prepared for going to sea, otherwise we might have jumped on one.

Lots of picture taking opportunities. The parliament building is pretty impressive with the copper patina roof. Lots of neat statuary on the building and on the grounds, as well as a couple of totem poles in the area. A great big cedar tree out front that is really neat as well. We cut back over the park areas to the south shore trails we took last time we were here and headed back to the ship. All of the restaurants we came across didn’t open until 1100 so we just headed back to the ship for pizza and burgers.

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