Princess Ships
I’m thinking about going on the Grand Alaska tour but question how good the ships are. In June the following ships can be booked: Grand , Pacific, Royal or Coral. Any recommendations or thoughts about the trip in general would be appreciated.
Thank you.
0
Comments
Please read my trip review (if you haven't already). It's in the Grand Alaska forum (posted last year). It will give you a lot of details.
You should take this tour, but not because of the ships, but because of the land tour portion. While we enjoyed the cruise portion, the land portion was really the highlight. Princess operates most of the hotels you stay and they really have a lock on the best combination of lodges near the parks and cruises. You'd be hard pressed to find a land and sea combination tour of this quality without booking with Tauck or Princess.
That being said, the ship was fine. We were on the Golden Princess (so that's not on your list). We prefer small ships, but for a medium to large ship it was good. The only knock I have on the ship was the one time we tried the buffet for dinner, it was really bad. The food in the main dining room and the specialty restaurants (which Tauck books ahead) was excellent. So stick with those for dinner.
If you need help picking between ships, try the cruise critic website:
cruisecritic.com/cruise-ships/
Here is the link to Ken's review:
https://forums.tauck.com/discussion/12850/grand-alaska-review-and-tips#latest
We just got back from ten days on the Grand Princess to Alaska out of San Francisco. We booked that one primarily due to convenience and we wanted to take the ‘kids’ and ‘grandkids’ on a cruise, but did not want to have to deal with flights for six people. Highlight of the trip was an animal refuge in Haines, AK accessed via boat and bus from Skagway. The kids loved it. We ate in the Michaelangelo Restaurant anytime dining, and we thought it was better than their specialty restaurant the Crown Grill. We did not do the Italian specialty. We had two mini-suites which were quite nice. This is not a ‘new’ boat, but it is in pretty good shape. It carries around 2,600 guests. Most of our trips are on boats that carry only a few hundred, but we needed a big boat for the kids facilities ... we thought. The kids wanted to be with us not in a ‘kids’ facility.
I agree 100% with Ken - Alaska is fantastic. We have been twice - and did the combination cruise/land tour both times. We were on the Coral Princess which was fine - but the ship is secondary to the itinerary. We have been to many of the places Tauck includes on their itinerary (our trip was through Princess - it was before we discovered Tauck). We especially enjoyed Glacier Bay and Prince William Sound - the wildlife was abundant. I have attached a few of my pictures from Prince William Sound. We have also used the cruise critic website for information about ships.
.
Better picture. She was petting a porcupine.
This is worth doing when you go to Skagway. This was our fourth Alaska trip, and this was our best Skagway excursion. It does not leave a lot of time for Skagway unless you get up early.
We have done a land/ cruise tour to Alaska twice, both times with Princess. The first trip was for just my hubby and me, with Tauck- absolutely fabulous!! Last summer, 2018, we took our daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren, ages 17, 15, and 12. Because the Tauck tours are so expensive, we chose to do the virtually identical land cruise by booking it with Princess. Really and truly, this trip is all about the land activities. You can do an Alaska cruise with any cruise line, and it can range from acceptable to over the moon based on your level of expectation and luxury quotient. But no cruise line does land land Alaska like Princess, mainly because they were the first to do it. And they built their own very nice hotels. Not to mention Glacier Bay National Park which is very restricted to Princess and only a couple other cruise lines. The Princess ships are not luxury vessels, but they are just fine for this Alaska cruise tour.
Bottom lime, go with Tauck if it fits your budget, otherwise book through Princess.
Nancy
Concerning which Princess ship, I don’t think it makes much difference. Whichever one is the smallest of the ones that are available or the one that has the best cabin arrangement for you. If motion sickness is a potential problem, book a cabin on a lower deck in the middle of the ship. If possible, get a mini suite, a really nice cabin. Then go on whichever tour is mid to late July, early August. Early summer is too cold. Late August is too late. No matter what book a trip that begins in Anchorage with the land tour first, cruise second. You will be really busy on land and can relax while at sea.
Enjoy!!
Nancy
Thank you so much for your recommendations. We are excitted to book a trip soon.
My wife and I just completed the Grand Alaska Tauck tour. We departed from Anchorage for the land portion August 17th and arrived in Vancouver August 31st. Tauck tours are always first class. We had absolutely terrific weather throughout our trip. Weather can make or break this trip. Most certainly you should secure a balcony aboard the ship. We did not spend much time in our room, so didn't need the extra space offered in a mini-suite. We were on the Royal Princess which is one of the larger ships. Our advice would be book a smaller Princess ship as tides forced us to depart Ketchikan early in order to get into Vancouver before high tide. Very disappointing when you must leave a port several hours earlier than expected. One last tidbit of advice relates to Denali. We chose to book a Denali tour that took us to the end of the road as Tauck's tour only takes you part way into the park. We saw so much more of Denali and many more animals by traveling to the 92 mile marker.