The destination (Alaska) was fantastic. The stunning scenery was enhanced by near perfect weather for the entire cruise. The ship (Crown Princess), was clean and we saw no evidence of it being in anything other than good order throughout the ship. In general, the dining room staff were efficient and welcoming and the food was very good. The only exceptions to the dining/ eating arrangements were the Horizon buffet, were we had to eat on a couple of occasions as there was no alternative available (embarkation and port timings) and the Crown Grill.

The Horizon buffet was ridiculously busy and staff seemed unable to cope with demand (it was the only dining available at the time) and at the Crown Grill we found the service to be poor and food mediocre in comparison to the main restaurants on board, despite there being a $29 supplement per person.

The major negative factor about this cruise however was the embarkation process. Our ship (as well as two others in port that day) all left our moorings late due to the inability of the Port to cope with the sheer volume of passengers (a significant majority of whom did not speak English). For a significant number of passengers the embarkation process took five hours. Due to our late departure the tidal opportunity was missed and the whole itinerary had to be re-arranged, which impacted on everyone. Read more