Grand Princess Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I wanted to take 4 grandchildren and their parents on a family trip to Alaska. In the past I have waited until my grandchildren were at least 10 years old. This time I made an exception and took two 8 year-olds because the older siblings were approaching 12 years-old. 8 is too young for a cruise for my two grandchildren. They do have very inattentive parents and that made it worse. So huge praise for my waitress and room steward who were so patient with them.
However, that aside, when on a Carnival cruise, the room steward told me they had increased the number of rooms the steward has to do by about 25-50%, and based on this cruise, I bet Princess has done the same. The room was clean enough, but there was no real cruise feeling, more like hotel room service, even with our mini-suites. The photographers were on super shill mode and you couldn't walk through the photo display area without one of them pulling you aside to put on a thinly veiled heavy pressure sales pitch. Disgusting.
More and more of the ship is taken by fee added restaurants and areas. Drink prices are higher. The non-alcolhlic drink package doesn't include bottled water, sparkling water, or specialty coffee. It is hard to justify $8.50/day charge for soda pop.
Cabin Review
Mini-Suite with Balcony
A nice cabin. Mini-suite has not an inch more storage space than the cabin with a window. The new carpets make me seasick and don't have the port-side identifier stripe. Hate that. It has a bathtub, a waste for me, but the bathroom is bigger than a regular room. We got no extra service, no butler kind of service in the mini-suite. They should just call this a larger room. Princess: PLEASE look at the year, the generation. Give us outlets by the bed! More than 2 outlets for the entire room!!! And side-by-side and close so it is unlikely you can use more than one of them.
Port Reviews
Juneau
Shopping, coffee shop with wifi
Victoria
On our own. Lovely
Skagway
Rented a car and drove up to the Yukon. Awesome. If you do this be sure to bring your passport or lots of identification for the border crossing. If you have a single parent with a child, or grandparent with child and no parent along, you need notarized permission from the parentS.