San Francisco, CA

It was truly a treat to embark on the ship in our home port of San Francisco. This meant no long flights, no transfers, no TSA or restrictions on liquids, weight of luggage or number of pieces. We took the Sonoma County Airport Express directly to the cruise terminal and our bags were in our room before dinnertime! We never even touched them again after leaving Sonoma County! It was absolutely beautiful and sunny as we cruised under the Golden Gate on our way north for our adventure

Juneau, Alaska

Salmon Hatchery – As suspected, this portion of the excursion was set up like a 5th grade field trip. We saw the Salmon in concrete pools, being prepped for egg removal. We saw baby salmon and a hands on exhibit where we could touch star fish. There was a cool taxidermy bear and bald eagle. The Bald Eagles greeting us at the cruise port were far more impressive.

 

 

 

Mendenhall Glacier – It’s easy to see why this is the top tourist attraction in Juneau. The lake is beautiful and reflects the glacier. This was my first experience with a glacier and it was still off in the distance, as this particular glacier is retreating – hence a lake. There are nice walking paths, a visitor center, set up like another 5th grade field trip and busloads of tourists all taking photos of the blue ice. This is a mosquito hot spot, so I was happy to have brought along some Deep woods off Towellettes

 

Salmon Bake – We were greeted with a friendly hey how ya doing – told the lay of the land. There’s a waterfall just up the path a short distance and it looks like they are accustomed to rain – it’s got a great forested feel, but all the tables were covered. The tourists line up and get the grub – the show piece being Sockeye Salmon with brown sugar molasses. Entertainment was a solo guitarist singing familiar tunes and there was a campfire with all the fixings for s’mores – even the long pointy sticks. Busloads of tourists show up and then little yellow school bus shuttles leave every 20 minutes to take tourists back to their ships.

 

 

Skagway, Alaska

White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad – This popular excursion is simply a train ride – the train picks you up directly outside the ship, climbs up to the White Pass Summit , and crosses the border to Canada and back. They cleverly have the seats flip to the other side and and ask the passengers to swap across the aisle on the way back down so that everyone gets a good view. It’s a 3 hour ride, with no stops and only water offered on board. You are able sit stand at the front or back of your train car, but not to pass between cars.

 

Glacier Bay – The entire reason to go on an Alaskan Cruise – this day was spectacular. The Park Rangers board the ship as you enter the National Park and begin providing commentary about the Glaciers that pass very close the the ship. The largest was Margarie Glacier, which the ship pulls directly up next to, and then turns around so that both sides of the ship spent a great deal of time in front of the face of the glacier. The width of this particular Glacier is about a mile and it’s 21 miles long.

 

Ketchikan, Alaska
The Plan was to do a Sea Plane tour of Misty Fjords National Monument, but our flight was cancelled at the last minute do to rain. We were relieved that we were not paying top dollar for a tour with severely limited viewing, but were disappointed we missed out on the tour.

The Great American Lumberjack Show – This is a popular show in Ketchikan, mostly because it is inexpensive and within walking distance from port. The arena has covered bleacher style seating and can accommodate several tourists, who cheer on either the Canadian or American lumberjack teams as they face off on ax throw, ax chop, climbing and log walking. This is about as corny as can be, but we were prepared and expecting nothing less. We were expecting some larger men, like the ones on the Brawny Paper Towel roll, and instead we had 4 young twenty something men with smaller statures.

Victoria, BC

Orca Expedition – We decided against Butchart Gardens because it looked like it would be overrun with tourists meandering through the gardens – I was nervous it would be crowded. We booked the whale watching tour here hoping to see Orca’s – we boarded a vessel named “Orca Expedition” and were taken to view Sea Lions through the fog – the captain received news of a humpback siting, and so we hurried to the area and floated there with 6 other boats, surrounding a young calf for a while we it came up for air every few minutes. When our excursion time was up, they returned us to the dock, proud that they had successfully seen a whale. We had seen humpbacks the day prior from our balcony window – and they were much larger and more impressive. I would advise others to go to the gardens.
We took a walk to Fisherman’s wharf for some Fish & Chips and took the water taxi down to the Empress Hotel – where we jumped on the “hop on/hop off” bus tour of Victoria – a beautiful 75-80 degree day if we stayed away from the coastline. As a part of this fabulous tour – we were provided a great viewing of our cruise ship – a point of interest for the day.

 

 

Star Princess

Dining: The dining rooms on this ship are not all combined as they are in Royal Caribbean’s ships – our formal dining room assignment was at the back of the ship, the Amalfi. We had the late sitting, wanting to meet people and have the same serves each evening. They also offer anytime dining and the option to switch at any time. The dining room food was ok, but nothing special. The buffet at the Horizons – Deck 14 was to be avoided. The International Café in the Piazza (mid ship) offered breakfast sandwiches and pannin’s with a press. The Wine bar had complementary sushi and tapas. The formal dining room for breakfast was far superior to the Horizons’ Buffet – at least the food was served hot. We also learned that even if Eggs Benedict is not on the menu in the dining room, you can order it anyway. On Sea Day’s they had an afternoon tea with sandwiches, mini deserts and scones with cream & jam. The specialty restaurants we tried were Crown Grill and the Crab Shack. Both were very good. There is also an Italian restaurant but the menu didn’t look special enough to splurge. Of course up near the pool they serve Pizza, burgers and hot dogs – and they have a Boullion station for about an hour each day. Another highlite was the cookies and milk that was passed out in the Piazza each sea day between 3:30-4:30. There were 2 formal nights and it seemed that most passengers played along, but the more experienced cruisers were not wearing evening gowns but more like a nicer outfit that you would wear to a wedding.

Bars/Lounges: The Vines Bar was our favorite, with an extensive list of wines to sample and a very helpful bar steward who remembers your name and makes recommendations. We also enjoyed Crooners’ bar for all sorts of liquors , scotch and martinis. We tried many different types of martinis and were entertained by Sid’s dancing, shaking moves.
Suites: The Mini Suite was just a little larger than the balcony stateroom on Royal Caribbean. We enjoyed that there were 2 television screens, one that pointed toward the sitting area and another to the bed area. The Mini Suites are on the Dolphin deck . (Deck 9). The Balconies were viewable from the decks up above. We were on the port side aft – which was a very long walk from the elevators/stairs. We had 2 connecting suites, but the only connection was a door between the balconies which tended to swing close in the wind. It worked well for us, but wasn’t as connected as our staterooms on Royal Caribbean.

Activities: Being a smaller ship there were limited activities. Bingo, shuffleboard, trivia. There were aerobics, ballroom dance classes as well as line dancing. There was a flash mob and a choir of passengers who performed on the last night. There was a putting competition and a fun horse race with wooden ponies – the names of the ponies were quite entertaining.
Entertainment: The shows were pretty good for a smaller boat. The Princess dancers and singers were entertaining – They comedian and juggler, acrobats and a string quartet. Overall, I felt like I was in a floating retirement home.

Swimming Pools: The ship has a larger inside and another outside pool mid ship – both with 2 hot tubs – which we did not find all that hot. At the back of the ship there is another small pool and in the front near the spa was the best pool of all with 2 hotter hot tubs – and no people looking at you.. and no wind.

Spa: Day 2 was unwind day – complete with a deep tissue massage. I received a lesson about toxins in my body from the very young massage therapist – and she told me that in order to really relieve my muscles, she would need additional time – no… I told her to stick to the pre-arranged appointment. A few minutes later I was told I needed hot stones – I wondered how I was to relax if I was consistently upsold but I was proud of myself for declining these “add on’s”. When she finished the massage, she attempted to sell me some products and I was able to get out of there with no add ons – I was, however eligible for a “free” service of my choice – one of which was a free foot analysis. I declined to schedule this and was pestered with 2 phone calls to my stateroom to be sure I didn’t miss out. We did learn that if you fall for the sales pitch and buy the products – you are able to return them and get your money back once you come out of the hard sell.