Alaska - May 2022
Hello Cruisers!
Thanks for joining our new community, I am so glad to have you here, and I appreciate you following along!
We recently returned from an Alaska Cruise with Princess Cruises and let me tell you Alaska is beautiful. Since this is the first review we’ve done I'm sure we will continue to improve our flow for these types of posts, so please leave your comments, and feedback! You can leave comments here on the blog post, or via our Social Media sites at: www.facebook.com/cruisenavigator & www.instagram.com/thecruisenavigator
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Cruise Name: 12 Day Inside Passage & Cruise Tour – Connoisseur Escorted |
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises |
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Embarkation Port: Vancouver |
Ship Name: Royal Princess |
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End of Cruise Tour: Anchorage |
Date: May 2022 |
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Cruise Navigator Cruise Rating: B – Cruise Rating: B+ Land Tour Rating: C- |
Itinerary: Vancouver, At Sea, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising, College Fjord Scenic Cruising, Whittier, (Land Portion Starts) Denali Lodge, McKinley Lodge, Anchorage |
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Pros: |
Cons: |
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White Pass VIP Rail Car Excursion |
Land Tour Accommodations |
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Crow’s Nest Meal – Anchorage |
Land Tour Food Quality |
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Corner Suite Location – Starboard Aft |
Embarkation Vancouver |
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Covid Protocol Rating: A |
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We plan to break down these ratings by port and/or service in future blog posts, so I won’t go into too many details right now.
Overall, we were disappointed with the land portion of this cruise tour. We’ve done cruise tours with Princess before, so we know what to expect, however I think the Princess Alaska accommodations, food service, and staff just weren’t really ready for guests yet. Our tour guide was amazing, and I can’t say that enough, she did everything she possibly could to make things great. I’ll share more in detail about this in future posts but didn’t want to leave you hanging on why we gave the overall rating of B-.
I will touch on Covid protocols in this post, because there is a LOT of noise on FB groups and cruise critic groups about recent Covid changes, and impacts to current & future cruises. From a Covid standpoint I think everything went beautifully. Masks were not required at any time (except in the Vancouver cruise port), hand sanitizer and health reminders were EVERYWHERE, and in general the staff were doing all they could to accommodate for the shortage in staff, and other challenges that they are still facing every day with Covid.
We did have one instance on the land portion of our trip with a Covid scare for a member of our cruisetour group (not us). The cruisers contacted Princess, they immediately came out to their room and gave them a Covid test at no charge, and thankfully they were both negative.
The Princess staff on the cruise portion were FANTASTIC as always! I personally think the best part of cruising is getting to know the staff. Their job is tough, and they are away from their families for a LONG time. They work a TON of hours each day with no days off, I guarantee that if I was in their shoes, I would be a crabby Mrs. Cruise Navigator. Instead, they are happy, willing to go above & beyond and always doing everything they can to ensure we have the most amazing cruise. In my opinion, the staff are the real All Stars of a cruise experience.
Tomorrow we will jump into our day in Ketchikan!
Stay Tuned!
Mrs. Cruise Navigator