Alaska is a spectacular place. By land, sea or air, it is unbelievable. This review does not reflect Alaska whatsoever. This review is strictly about the Island Princess ship
I went to Alaska the year before on Royal Caribbean. What a drastic difference ! The I.P. was sooo boring on board. The activities that were going on were so incredibly lame. I knew going into this cruise that Princess caters to an 'older' crowd, but I had no idea just how much they shy away from exciting onboard activities. I'm 35, so it's not like I'm a fresh 21 yr old looking to party at the club all night. I get it, you don't book an Alaskan cruise for the onboard experience. Alaskan cruises are mainly about the scenery & ports. However, I feel like Princess was really lacking in their efforts. One of their main events, which they highlighted in their daily planner and was held in the Atrium on a sea day, was called the "60 second challenge" game. They brought two passengers to the middle of the Atrium and the contest was to see who could move more beans from one bowl to another using chop sticks. That was the contest. Move beans from one bowl to the other. I couldn't believe that was the fascinating "60 second challenge"
Another thing that I found really disappointing. There was not 1 television on board (other than in your room). None of the lounges or bars had a tv, nor did the casino. I understand that you aren't on a cruise to watch tv, but there were some major sporting events going on that week, and the fans couldn't watch their teams play, nor could they even see the score. ESPN was unavailable on the cabin TV's and there weren't any other sport stations. I would've been pretty upset if my team was playing in a huge game and I couldn't watch it, or even find out the score. Every cruise ship I've ever been on had TV's somewhere playing sporting events ... I just found that really odd
Beautiful views. Neither words, nor pictures, can explain it