This was our first cruise with Princess, and our first to Alaska. We did a four day land tour before the cruise, all with Princess. We were a group of 12, some family, some friends. We were not very impressed with the land portion. There were times when it was very disorganized, other times not much to do. There wasn't a lot of restaurants to choose from at the Princess lodges, and if you didn't have an excursion planned, a lot of down time. This may be ok for some, just not for everyone.

Embarkation was ok, but the muster drill was very confusing. We were on deck seven, and had to go across the ship and down to deck six. We were directed wrong by crew twice trying to get there.

The Island Princess was nice, except that they took away some of the front for cabins, so it made it inconvenient to go around in some areas. They have an area at the back of the ship that you have to pay to use, but it was very expensive. Would have liked to use that area since the front is blocked. We didn't use the pools much, as they start at 5'3' and go to 7'2'. At 5'2' myself, it made it hard to just go in and relax a little. They were also very warm, even the outdoor pool, and since we had exceptionally warm weather, it wasn't very refreshing. But that was just our experience. We like the cooler water, not the hot tubs. The ship looked very clean everywhere, and had nice areas to sit and relax, but mostly in the middle of the ship. We didn't use the exercise room, it doesn't have any windows. Read more