Princess Cruises

We booked a 1 week cruise to Alaska on the Coral Princess. We took the inside passage, and it was one of the best trips of our lives. Because we were on our honeymoon, they gave us a free upgrade to a room with a balcony--this absolutely made the trip because we viewed the mountains and glaciers during scenic cruise days from the balcony. So stunning.

Obviously, the backdrop of Alaska plays a big role in how much we loved our vacation. We wanted something unique, and I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this cruise line and route. The dinners on board were excellent and the staff on Princess is very friendly and helpful. Below are my tips and advice for maximizing your trip.

*****DO NOT book your excursions through Princess. They charge you a service fee and you will be stuck on a bus with 30-60 other people taking the same tour. We booked everything through companies highly rated on www.cruisecritic.com and we traveled with 3-6 other people on each excursion. It was an intimate group...it totally changed whale watching and our mountain bus tour, for example.

*****Invest in a nice jacket with layers. I bought a jacket from Land's End (it was a $200 coat I got for $70 during a sale during the summer months). It had an outer and an inner shell that could be removed as the weather changes. If you travel during the summer months the temperature can swing from 40 deg. to 70 deg. in one day.

*****Get a room with a COVERED balcony. This changed our cruise. They upgraded us at the last minute--- we were on our balcony every day. Especially when it rained, we could still be outside enjoying the beauty and 19 hours of sunlight!

*****You don't NEED medication. Please talk to you doctor first, but don't freak out about getting seasick. The inside passage is very calm, and you don't enter the rocky, open waters of the Pacific. Bring some Ginger tablets and you should be fine.

*****Bring on your own booze. I wish we did this...we spent a lot of money on drinks over the weeks. They have a special where you can buy unlimited soda for $25 when you get on the ship, and you can mix it with alcohol. I wish we thought of this. They do have good Alaskan beer on board, though.

*****YOU ARE ALREADY PAYING GRATUITY ON EVERYTHING- If you are a first time cruiser you will feel obligated to tip everyone who helps you. Don't. You pay your room steward $10 in tips per person, per day just to clean your room and 15% to everyone else who helps you. All drink tips are calculated into your tab. If someone gives you exceptional service, by all means make an exception, but constant tipping does add up.

*****Pack a "cruise lunch." I know this sounds silly, but since the cruise ship gives you so much food including sandwiches during breakfast-time, take some with you on the excursions! You can easily spend $50 a day in the ports on food and snacks alone, so unless you have something specific you want to try, save money and eat cruise food on the go. We did this every day. We saved $200 which paid for our massage in the spa. So worth it :)

*****Don't buy the $25 Coupon book (UNLESS you are wanting to spend $500 or more on diamonds). They tell you that you can get a bunch of stuff "free" from the stores, but it is allll junk. Trust me on this. Save your money and buy a sweatshirt.

DO NOT MISS EXCURSIONS:

Ketchican- Float Plane Tour to the Fjord. This is breathtaking. Bring your camera. There is a lumberjack show in town that is also a riot!

Juneau- WHALE WATCHING. You MUST do this... in July we saw a group of 16 humpback whales gathering food. It's an amazing sight. The Mendenhal Glacier is also here and well worth seeing. Make sure you walk the trails to the waterfall to the right of the glacier. It's very romantic. There ARE bears in this area. Do not carry food with you.

Skagway- Take the train tour to the top of the mountain and then take the van ride back. You will get a personalized tour of Skagway and really get to learn about the Gold Rush days. It's very interesting. There is a pretty informative museum downtown about the Gold Rush that I would reccomend seeing first so you have some background knowledge.

Glacier Bay- (This is viewed on the ship). Make sure you spend time on the top deck to watch the glaciers "calve" or break on the surface. It is an amazing sight. If you have a balcony you can also view from there, but the ship constantly rotates around the bay so you might lose view of the glacier at times.


Everything we did was worth every penny. On board the Coral Princess I highly recommend the formal dinners, getting a room with a balcony, taking advantage of shows and games, and the Lotus Spa. Book your excursions elsewhere and don't be sucked in to buying "Tanzanite" or diamonds in the ports. The ships owns all of the stores.

Overall I HIGHLY recommend Alaska on the Coral Princess. It's a great ship, a fun time, and they spoil you like crazy...everything a honeymooner deserves.

While the average age onboard was older then us they still provided many fun filled days and were more then happy to do spoiling of the honeymooners

We went on a 10-day cruise to Jamaica, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel for our honeymoon. The trip left from Fort Lauderdale on a Monday. Boarding the ship was very easy and smooth. Our luggage arrived within a reasonable time. The honeymoon amenities were nice (champagne and chocolate covered strawberries). Princess Cruises is known as attracting an older, more laid back crowd. We stood out as one of the very few young couples on this ship, but that didn’t bug us. We aren’t attracted to the “party atmosphere”. It was nice not to have drunks running around the ship making noise at all hours of the night. The ship was quiet and there was plenty to do. We also loved all the ports of call. Due to some choppy waters in Grand Cayman we couldn’t do the shore excursions we would have liked, but Princess immediately refunded us our money. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and both of us can’t wait to go on another Princess cruise again.

One of my bridesmaids and best friends from high school works for the Princess Cruises and has traveled all over the world with them! She suggested the Alaskan Cruise, saying that it was always her favorite! Most people would want to travel somewhere warm and hot and sunny for their honeymoon, but I think Alaska had this rugged beauty. The landscape had this romantic bareness, and the water was so black, it looked like oil. The ship is so big that you don't even know you're on a boat, there's a 24 hour cookie table (!), and pools and nice restaurants. We were able to stop off and visit each town, and it was great to visit Jueanu. I feel so blessed that we got to visit that part of the USA.

Wow! The ship looks and sounds amazing. From everything we've heard we're going to have a fabulous time.

For my honeymoon I wanted to go somewhere hot and different! We always talked about going on a cruise, and so for our wedding we let guests know that our wish for the wedding wishing well box we got was for a cruise honeymoon. Our friends and family were really happy to chip in and get us something fun! The cruise was perfect! The ship was amazing, it was my first time on such a big boat! I was impressed by the pool, and how fancy all the restaurants were. It’s like a big traveling hotel, with all the great services! The Caribbean cruises were by far the most affordable of all the Cruises offered, and I can’t wait to go back and see another part of the area.

I have been on a few Princess Cruises, so I’m on their mailing list and I get pamphlets in the mail on a regular basis. When it came time to choose a cruise, we requested extra information on the destinations we were interested in. We then spoke with an agent over the phone to confirm arrangements, dates, and amenities. I want to make sure that when I’m on vacation, I’m really on vacation and don’t need to worry about cooking or cleaning. Though I was hoping to go on the Scandinavian cruise, we did the Mediterranean cruise through the Greek Islands, which was just beautiful. That was a pure vacation, and the time of year was perfect too. I think it would be too hot to go in the middle of summer.

The name of our ship was the Diamond Princess, and it was really, really fancy! My friend who works on cruise ships has told me that Princess and the Regent were the best cruises, because they are the most fancy and have the best amenities for the guests. Regent, even at 40% off, was still out of our budget! I didn't know if I would like it, but I really enjoyed spending seven days on a cruise. It stops and docks a few times, and it was great seeing what Alaska looks like. All the other guests were really great, and the staff was extremly nice and professional. The food was also delicious! Another fun part was that we ate dinner with the captain everynight! People are more dressed up in the dinning room, so bring fancy clothes, and bring your bathing suit, because there is a great pool.

We took a cruise to the Western Caribbean for our honeymoon. We were going to go through a travel agent, but I had called Princess directly for a couple questions and found out we could get a better room for a better deal directly through them (I had previously gone on 1 cruise with them). The service on the cruise was great, food fantastic, clean room, pool etc...Had the option of dining whenever we wanted to instead of assigned feeding times lol. It was a fabulous cruise and I definitely plan on taking future cruises with Princess.

We will never take another cruise. Decided to go on the Star Princess to Alaska and splurge for the minisuite. Ship and ports were overcrowded. Excursions were so overpriced - $300-500 for the ones you REALLY wanted to do, $100 for ones that everyone on the ship goes on. We wanted a cruise for the all-inclusiveness, but it seemed like there were so many "extras" they tack on. We expected to pay for alcohol, but we did not appreciate how they add on the tips for you. What's the point of a tip? Alaska was beautiful but the cruise line is so commercialized that you don't see "rugged" Alaska, you see a million jewelry stores run by foreigners that give the cruise line "cutbacks" for advertising and sending in passengers. And what's worse, these stores are only open when the cruise ships come, the day after they pack up and ship out to the Caribbean for their season! Very disappointed.

AMAZING!!!!!! I will never cruise with another cruise line again! I had the time of my life and was treated like royalty. You have sold me for life Princess!

Two days after our wedding, we went on a cruise with Princess on their Emerald Princess. It was our first time going on a Princess cruise, but we'd been on Royal Caribbean before. For our honeymoon, we were hoping for a decent room and a romantic dinner for two each night in the dining room. Unfortunately, the room seemed very cramped, and our table at dinner was less than 3 inches from the table next to us. They had many rooms decorated for events, and even though we had made sure to let them know it was our honeymoon (and they assured us our room would be decorated) we got to the ship to find no notice of anything special. All in all, the ship felt very cramped, and they really did not make us feel special in any way. We'll be cruising again… Just not with them! We'll stick to RC.