"North to Alaska
We're goin' north, the rush is on"…read more(Elvis Presley)
Never having gone on a vacation cruise, I really didn't know with any degree of certainty what to expect.
I expected a small cabin and a lot of food, right? That's what I've heard my whole life.
Well, I was very happy to learn my #1 expectation was very wrong, and my #2 expectation proved to be incomplete.
Our cabin wasn't that small at all. We had a King sized bed, a big flat screen on the wall, a desk, two night stands, a big closet, and lots of storage nooks and crannies everywhere. We had enough room to store what we brought in two large suitcases,
The bathroom was small,. but not the very smallest - I am 1,000% sure I've seen some smaller bathrooms in hotels.
How can I describe the ship? The Pacific Princess was massive, like a floating downtown city block that's seven stories high and can accommodate 2,600 guests.
The physical beauty on the ship is all around you. You'll see multiple swimming pools and hot tubs, concert halls and entertainment venues, and jewelry and clothing stores.
They have 5 sit down restaurants (better get reservation), a few smallish food locations (think pizza, nachos, burgers and dogs), a few scattered coffee shops, a dozen bars, and of course a humongous buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We used one of their restaurants for lunch and a few dinners, and hit the buffet for the other meals.
I didn't expect there to be so much entertainment, programs, and shows on board. You get a slick event schedule every night to let you know what's going on the next day.
As I write this I'm looking at the Event Listings for July 18 -Day 4. Here's what I see:a photography lesson, bible study, Sudoko, Bridge, Mah Jong, Pickelball and Chess, Quiz and trivia contests, Bingo, Ping Pong and 3 on 3 basketball competition, an Arts and Craft Project of the Day, outdoor movies on a swimming pool deck, line dancing classes, small concerts and big elaborate Vegas style revues, and hundreds of shore excursion options. Planning each day is a challenge to match your schedule with their options, and a time of day or night that works for you.
They even host Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
No mention of the cruise is complete without the staff on board, and there must have been 200 waiters, servers, attendants, entertainment hosts, musicians and dancers. Every single server we came we interacted with had a 500 mega watt smile.
Now everyone knows the word "medallion" right? Well on a Princess Cruise your medallion serves as your wallet. You get a small gizmo with the Princess logo and you wear it on a neck lanyard at all times. It's a way you unlock your cabin door, to get your drinks charged to your room, and its also a security measure to know how many folks leave the boat during shore excursion time.
After we left Vancouver, we stopped at Ketchikan, Juneau, Scagway, Glacier Bay National Park, and Anchorage. Most of the cruisers had shore excursions booked, and many just walked around the towns to soak in that local flavor.
To wrap this up, I have to say I really enjoyed our Cruise a lot. Princess was terrific.