Star Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
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A few bumps but another great cruise

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

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Sail Date: Jun 2012

This was a spur of the moment trip. Two weeks before sailing, I got an email offer for a fantastic price on an inside cabin and since we live in the Seattle area, we decided to jump on it. We've always had balconies but had talked about trying an inside to save money and maybe cruise more so this seemed as good a time as any. I've been to Alaska but never on a cruise. DH has never been and didn't really have a desire since he always wants sun and warm weather when vacationing but he was pretty enthusiastic when he heard the price. As a reference on our perspective, we are late 50's with grown kids that we'd taken when they were younger, this was our 11th cruise total, 5th cruise with Princess, having cruise RCCL 5 times and NCL once previously.

EMBARKATION DAY: Friends drop us off at pier 91 at the 12:30 scheduled boarding time for Baja deck (B224 was our room). We weren't overjoyed with embarkation but when we travel, we really don't let the bad stuff affect our trip too much. I don't see any advantage to the staggered boarding. We must have walked through Disneyland-like lines for close to an hour before we boarded the ship and made our way to our room. We may have hit a peak time since the line seemed to go down behind us. I'd suggest that if you want to adhere to the schedule and you're scheduled for 12:30, consider waiting until 1:00 or 1:30. We dropped our carry-ons off at the room, took a stroll around the ship and then went to the Horizon for a bite. The buffet was crazy as we expected so I opted for pizza and DH stood in the long line for the buffet. We left port on time and the weather was beautiful!

DINING -- We ate breakfast in the dining rooms twice and at the Horizon buffet the rest of the time. Lunch was always on land or at the Horizon. We had Anytime Dining and on the first night we went to dinner about 7:45 which I thought would be less busy, however, we encountered lines at both the Capri and Portofino dining rooms. We finally decided to join the line at the Capri and waited for about 10 minutes at most to get through the line and then because we requested a table for 2, we were given a pager. We sat at the bar outside the dining room for maybe 5 minutes at the most before our pager went off and we went for dinner. I know the wait bothers some folks but we didn't mind. It doesn't seem much different than going to a restaurant without a reservation and waiting for a table. The third night we ate in Portofino and really hit it off with our Waiter, Jose, and Assistant Waiter, Hilton. They were very accommodating to my DH's gluten intolerance to the point of ordering special bread and having the ma'tre d' bring the next evening's menu out and review it for gluten free options, writing the order for the next night and even ordering a couple of special desserts that weren't on the standard menu. Jose and Hilton suggested that if we were so inclined, we could ask the head waiter for reservations in their section which we did. Further, since we didn't dock in Victoria until 7:00 pm on the last night, they mentioned that a couple of the early traditional diners had tour reservations and would likely be leaving somewhat early -- would we like them to call us in our stateroom when a table became available? We said sure but weren't counting on it. Well , we got a call at 6:15 from Sebastian, the Head Waiter saying that one couple didn't show up and would we like him to hold the table for us? Heck yes!!! Needless to say, we were thrilled with the service from the dining staff. The food???? Dinners were fine throughout the cruise. Not great, but pretty good and we didn't have to cook for ourselves! The buffet didn't seem as varied as what I recall from my last RCCL cruise but it sufficed. Desserts everywhere were pretty good and they usually had a gluten free option at the buffet as well as at the International Cafe. The only decent coffee we had was in the dining room and that includes trying room service, buffet and the international cafe.

Cabin Review

Cabin JJ

Sufficient room for two. Mirror on one wall helped alleviate cramped feeling in inside cabin.

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