Island Princess Review
Rating by category
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My wife retired earlier this year, and she wanted either to go to Alaska or to go on a cruise...so we did both. We opted to leave from Vancouver so we'd have less time on the open ocean than if we'd sailed from San Francisco.
The ship itself was fine, and we had no real complaints about our cabin, the food, service, or the ports and excursions. And we did truly enjoy the naturalists that were onboard, both of whom were very informative and friendly.
It's hard to put my finger on specific problem areas, but we were really turned off by the incessant pushing of merchandise (especially jewelry). It's apparent that Princess is heavily invested into the various jewelry stores (e.g., Diamonds International), but the blatant attempts to convince cruisers that they'll be getting great deals is annoying. The markups on this stuff is obscene. Shame on Princess, although I'm sure the other cruise lines are all doing the same thing.
Cabin Review
Mini-Suite with Balcony
Cabin was fine. It had plenty of room, and the balcony was more than adequate for our needs.
Port Reviews
Vancouver
Vancouver seems like a great city. We only had one night there, just before our cruise, so didn't have the opportunity to do much sightseeing. We'll definitely go back.
Ketchikan
Ketchikan was an interesting place, but we didn't schedule an excursion there. We walked through the downtown area, including Creek Street, and also spent an hour or so at the museum near Creek Street.