Golden Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Older ship but convenient for Alaska cruising

Review for Alaska Cruise on Golden Princess
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terran_explr
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jul 2019
Cabin: Mini-Suite with Balcony

This is a review of the cruise portion of my Tauck Grand Alaska Journey. The tour was 7 days on land, and 7-days on sea aboard the Golden Princess. This is different than my typical cruise review, because my experience was unique to being on a Tauck tour, even on the ship. We had pre-reserved cabins. We did our own shore excursions as a group. We had private receptions on the ship. We had 2 pre-arranged dinners as a group at the Specialty Restaurants (Crown Grill, Sabatini’s Trattoria). We sat as a group at 2 of the Anytime Dining restaurants. We were free to eat where we wanted at any time. We got the beverage package.

Because of illness I caught on the bus portion of my tour, I did not spend as much time enjoying all the shipboard amenities as I usually do. I did attend 2 of the Production Shows in the Princess Theatre. The singing and dancing were very good. I enjoyed the comedian Ken Boyd in the Vista Lounge. I liked the Bohemia Duo, especially when they played classical and contemporary melodies in the Piazza. I thought the selection of Movies Under the Stars on the big screen on the Lido deck was too limited. On a previous Princess cruise (on a larger ship), there was a dedicated movie channel on the TV in the cabin, and you could select the movie to watch. On this ship, pre-selected movies were shown. It was not possible to get a schedule of movies throughout the day. This is likely just another example of old technology on this older Princess ship.

On my previous cruise, I learned about the Princess@Sea communications on the ship, which I came to appreciate. You turned on Wi-Fi on your phone or other device (and turned it to airplane mode, so there would be no cellular roaming charges), connected to the Golden Princess network, entered the web address “golden.princess.com”, created an account, and you were in. You can view the daily itinerary (instead of carrying the Princess Patter around with you) and locate where on the ship each activity is taking place at. You can get information on shore excursions. You can send a text message to another passenger who has set up an account. The service is free, because you only need to use free, local Wi-Fi on the ship. There are no cellular charges. You can also use the app to view Onboard Deals, Future Cruise Deposits, General Information, and Locations, Hours & More (for lounges, restaurants, etc.)

Cabin Review

Mini-Suite with Balcony

Cabin MB

My wife and I had a mini-suite on Dolphin deck (Deck 9, Cabin D608). There was storage space scattered throughout the cabin, including 2 drawers in the nightstand on each side of the bed. The room had a spacious sitting area with a sofa and second TV. There was an in-room refrigerator and safe. However, the layout of the rest of the room was cramped. One person could easily slide a suitcase under the bed. The other person had to repeatedly maneuver the suitcase in a 2-foot area between the bed and the cabin wall to get the suitcase out. The spacious closet was by a large set of storage shelves and the bathroom. It was a cramped space. You could not access the shelves (and safe) or the closet, while someone was trying to get in and out of the bathroom. This is just poor design, and may have been considered acceptable when the Golden Princess was first cruising. Other more modern ships do not have this configuration issue.

The queen bed was comfortable, but had a very thick comforter. If you didn’t turn down the temperature in the room at night to at least “cold”—both thermostats—then you would get too hot under the comforter.

The bathroom was spacious. There were pump bottles in the combination shower/tub—one for shower gel, and one for combined shampoo/conditioner. You might want to consider bringing your own conditioner. A bar of soap was provided in the bathroom. There were storage shelves above and below the long vanity.

There was an outdoor balcony, but it was not covered. I had not thought to check that when I selected the room. I just assumed that all balconies had a ceiling so you could sit outside if it was raining, and you would have some protection from the sun. But, no. You could see cabins several decks above you, and been seen on your balcony from those cabins.

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