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An Alaska Cruise and Land tour review Following is a review of my experiences planning, booking and experiencing an Alaska “Cruisetour” on the Princess Discovery in August 2026 with my family: my wife, two adult children, their wives, and two school aged grandsons. Overall, most of the experience itself was wonderful, despite some negative opinions. Planning: I began planning in July 2025 but did not manage to book passage until Thanksgiving 2025. That was too close to June 2026 to get accommodations in June on Princess, so I had to settle for August. Since the weather was the most negative aspect of our trip I would advise others to start planning very early. For our whole 14 day trip from Vancouver and ending in Anchorage, we had 2 sunny days, 2 rainy days, and the rest cloudy and foggy at sea. The glaciers in Glacier Bay National Park, a trip highlight, available only to Princess and Holland America, were considerably obscured. Fortunately, the following day in College Fjord was sunny. My advice is to try for June whose average climate is better. However, do plan on some cloudy, rainy and chilly weather. The amount of rain jackets and warm outer ware, both in the stores and on the other tourists attests to that. The best aspect of our trip was family. We got the opportunity to spend lots of time together and see our children really enjoying new experiences. We booked the trip and excursions directly with Princess, and paid for most of it so the others were free of that concern. This trip to Alaska is very popular with families and there were many along with us. I reserved a table for eight in the main dining room for all nights onboard; so we all got to spend some time together then. I also involved everyone in selecting excursions so we did most of those together as well. My wife and I had cruised with Celebrity in the Caribbean twice and Holland America in Norway once, so we had some experience, but not since 2020. We chose Princess because the route included Glacier Bay National Park, we could book a young ship, and the age range was very broad, including lots of children, and Princess offered the greatest variety of excursions. I did look at reports from other cruise lines on Cruise Critic, and concluded there was no clear standout in the middle price range. Then there is the matter of choosing staterooms. Suites might be a high priority for some, but was not for us. More important to me were rooms somewhat close together; that requirement did make it harder to book with only a 9 month advance. My older son’s family with the two grandsons were accustomed to travel and to cramped rooms, so a standard balcony room with two sets of bunk beds worked for them. My wife and I took a standard balcony room, and our younger son’s lady partner, concerned about sea sickness, wanted an inside room. On advice from more experienced cruisers we chose to book directly with Princess. As you will see below, the lack of a very conscientious travel agent caused some uncertainties. Experience on route: Overall we had wonderful times on board and on land. Our rooms were very well designed and quite comfortable; no complaints from the room with four. Aside from a couple of cold infections, little time was spent in the rooms, there was too much other stuff to enjoy. The trip involves the ship, excursions, one tender, a train ride to Denali, and a return to Anchorage by bus. Princess handles all those logistics well. We might have save a little money by not booking the excursions with Princess, but then had yet one more planning chore. My older son’s family extended their trip with a few days visit to the Kenai peninsula they arranged themselves. Most breakfast and lunches on the Discovery were in the buffet and main dinning room. The food ranged from average to pretty good, like an excellent diner in the Northeast or better national chain; lots of variety in the buffet and enough options in the main dining room. Service in the main dining room is exceptional, but watch out for substantial delays caused by the kitchen’s attempt to accommodate allergy or digestive issues. I finally had to tell the staff to ignore my difficulty with garlic and manage it myself. We did not use any of the drink packages, specialty restaurants or meal upgrades, but made occasional use of pay as you go drinks. You have to learn what’s free and what isn’t. Soft ice cream and pop corn are free by the pool, as are hot dogs. A slice of pizza is free at “slice”, but a custom made pizza in the pizzeria isn’t. Many food options are covered by the “packages”. You will learn to navigate the Discovery in a day or so, but eventually give up on long waits for an elevator, often 5 min or more, and use the stairs. The elevators are often crowded and unhealthy; two of us contracted COVID and three common colds. The ship has 3500 passengers and about 1000 staff, and seems overcrowded most of the time. One cannot find a window table at breakfast in the buffet, nor find a quiet place to just relax with a book inside, anywhere, anytime, since most lounge areas are attached to a bar or presentation venue. That was not our experience on earlier cruises on smaller ships. Entertainment was in several varieties. Two different musical reviews in the packed auditorium, ongoing music in the central “piazza” and the bars in the evening, various game show like contests, and two different entertaining comedians. Most of the music was loud and contemporized (ie rock) versions of whatever it was. Though even for someone with different tastes in entertainment, it was enjoyable. Little or no dancing, at least before 10 PM. There were also lectures in the auditorium. The two I attended were entirely about shopping on shore – a waste of time; my kids said the naturalist was better. Contrary to our expectations, our grandsons participated in and enjoyed the younger persons’ clubs; even made friends. The Alaskan scenery is the star of the show, and wildlife sightings add to the fun. As I mentioned, the weather often detracted from the experience. Vancouver to Whittier: Ours was not, strictly speaking, an “inside passage”, since the Discovery is too large to go between Victoria island and the mainland. So, we had one very foggy day at sea, and first port in Ketchikan, where it rained most of the day. We went for an excursion to the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary with an excellent guide who provided detailed information about the forest and wildlife. This rainforest is beautiful and unique. .Returning to town, one can walk the board walk called creek street and follow it up to a salmon ladder to watch the fish trying to get upstream. Ketchikan, like the other two coastal towns dates from 1900 or so, picturesque, and converted entirely to tourist shops and restaurants. The next day in Juneau, we took the Princess bus out to the Mendenhall glacier. Weather cloudy, but no rain. At the visitors center, there is a 1 mi trail out to a spot at the base of a striking waterfall and where the foot of the glacier ends in a lake that frequently floods. Our kids took a whale watching excursion with the good luck to see an entire pod of whales, including babies. Returning to town, we spent about 2 hours in an excellent, new Alaska State museum. Here are extensive, well curated exhibits of indigenous cultures as well as some historical material about the purchase and settling of the state. We found this museum to be better than the one in Anchorage, which we also visited. The Anchorage museum is a confusing conglomeration of exhibits, and those dealing with the indigenous are too poorly lit. At the third port, Skagway, there is a glass top train ride along a cliff hanging route that follows the trail of the gold prospectors up into the mountains. Not to be missed. Very Alaska and crowded with tourists. Finally, there are two days on the water visiting Glacier Bay National park and then College Fjord. Both are inlets from the ocean and bordered by many glaciers, high hills, and mountains in the background. As I mentioned earlier, our day at Glacier Bay was cloudy, and the upper parts of the glaciers obscured by fog. College Fjord was spectacular in the sunlight. The ship sails straight into the inlets to the glaciers at the end, then turns 180 very slowly and sails out. For the best views one should try to get a spot on the railing forward on decks 16-18 on the way in and deck 16, aft, on the way out. Plan on a chilly wind, and bring binoculars. Denali: At Whittier, there are some luggage logistics that are explained in the Princess “Cruisetour Answerbook”, and again with material distributed on board. Note that some passengers are going back on board, returning to Vancouver, some to Fairbanks, some to the Princess Denali Wilderness Lodge (where we went), some to the McKinley Lodge, some to the Anchorage airport, and some to combinations. A large suitcase stays in Anchorage, a carry on size suitcase goes by bus north, and a backpack goes on the train. There is a glass topped train ride north to the Denali Wilderness Lodge, where we stayed 3 nights. The train ride is long and very scenic, with occasional wildlife, but in our case cloudy. The train trip provides a preview of just how extensive the Alaska wilderness is, complete with burnout from wildfires. The Wilderness Lodge is a small village with a main lodge without rooms, about 7 two story log cabin style structures with rooms where we stayed, and two 4 story hotel like structures. There are also 4 shops, 3 restaurants, and 2 cafes. Across the road is a ramshackle assembly of small shops and cafes. Our room was adequate, basic, clean motel room; really, just the essentials. As for food, one is trapped with few decent options. The café in the main lodge will do for breakfast so long as you like yogurt and poor pastries. A place called the Black Bear across the street is better, but very crowded. We did not eat dinner in the King Salmon restaurant because it was quite expensive and poorly reviewed. We ate twice in the Grizzly and once in the Saloon. Princess should be embarrassed with how low the quality, variety, and loud the noise. Of course, we did not come for the lodge. We came for Denali National Park. On our first afternoon we went out on the Tundra Wilderness tour – that is the longer of the two offered – it goes all the way out as far on the park road as possible climbing several thousand feet up into the mountains. The scenery is indeed spectacular mountain scenery, with some snow at the highest points. Much of the route is above the tree line. The bus makes every effort to stop for wildlife, so you will surely see caribou, ground squirrels, likely a moose, and horned dall sheep at a distance. We did not see bear. Passengers are requested to yell out when they see something, and the bus driver activates a camera with a long distance lens connected to TVs inside the bus. The road is gravel and hugs sides of high hills; there are a couple of rest stops. Our younger son had been sick with a cold the day of the Tundra tour, so the second day he and my wife and I went back to the park with him. The hotel operates free shuttles every 30 min and the national park operates free shuttles from the visitors center to various places within the park. We took the bus to the Savage River loop trail and did that 2 mile loop along side the river. A wonderful, though rocky, walk. It is not crowded, but with enough other people that one feels safe from bears. My older son and his outdoors accustomed family did the much longer Savage River Alpine trail that goes up onto the ridges above the river. They were high enough that at one spot several dall sheep dashed across their path and my grandson was overjoyed to take photos. And high enough to get a glimpse of Denali. If you have read all this you no doubt know that the namesake mountain is seldom visible. They also got to the see the park’s sled dog demonstration. These experiences are the reason we came with our family. Early the 3d morning we took the bus back to Anchorage where Princess put us up in the Captain Cook Hotel, an excellent hotel in the center of downtown. One arrives around lunch time, and our plane did not leave until 8pm the following day. We spent 2 hr at the Anchorage Museum, that is large and new, but not our favorite, as described above. We had an excellent final family dinner at a fish place called Orso. Our last day we spent walking around downtown and visiting the many galleries – more actual art than we had seen elsewhere, but still lots of tourist shops. The Princess of nickels and dimes and confusing communications: Following are some remarks about the Princess operation. As you begin using the Princess web site, you will find it looks like lots of advertisements and difficult to locate the detailed information you want. Where are the different itineraries identified so you can evaluate them ? Where to find all the excursions for your chosen itinerary ? Eventually you will locate that information. Then you might want to know about how to communicate with fellow travelers while on board if you did not purchase a WiFi package, or how much various drinks actually cost if you did not purchase a drink package, or how much soda or wine can you bring on board with you ? Can I get a complete itinerary list showing all the stops, excursions and times ? (No) I found the Princess web site contains lots of information, but it is fragmented and not clear where to find things. Some things, like the actual cost of drinks or specialty restaurants is not available at all, and you will need to rely on the good graces of “Cruise Critics” who posted photos. And do be sure to check your on board expenses before leaving at the end. The amount on my Princess app was only the total, not itemized, but correct. Over the course of my planning work, I had to call the Princess “Vacation Planners” 50 -60 times, after I had booked the cruise for all 8 of us. The central Princess number is 800-774-6237, the vacation planners are at 800-901-1172, though they may not talk to you until booked, and dining services at 833-895-3463. The vacation planners can answer or find an answer to most questions, but it pays to check. I did not bother to play phone tag with one planner, but used them as a pool of experts. A good example is communication with others in your party. The Princess cell phone app, a necessary item, has a chat interface with them that uses WiFi even if you did not purchase a WiFi package. One of three planners denied that, but two confirmed it. What none of them told me is that there is a feature in the app that will show the actual location of a “shipmate” on the ship, but that feature is located in a different spot in the app from the chat ! A different good example was my request to switch our Denali park tour from Natural History (default) to Tundra. Got different opinions about the cost of doing so (modest), and to make sure it was recorded properly for all 8 of us. Finally about nickels and dimes. Princess makes every effort to sell you something. We chose to not take either the Princess Plus ($65/person/day) or Princess Premier($100/person/day) that cover some number of drinks, uses of specialty restaurants, the final crew gratuity, WiFi, etc. Since we are only limited drinkers, did not plan to use the specialty restaurants, and did not need WiFi, I chose to save the money. Of course, you probably know that mobile data is available in port and other places where there is cell phone service at all. Princess sends repeated messages suggesting you place a bid to upgrade your room for some better unknown room. There are a bunch of shops on two decks, and the amount of sale items on tables in the corridor increase as you get closer to the end of the trip. The number of watches for sale is really amazing. And, as I mentioned, several of the lectures cover places to shop in port. That’s it. Still recovering from the cold I got onboard. Glad to answer questions.

We did a Princess Cruise Tour which started with a 1 night in Fairbanks, 2 nights at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and 2-nights at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. Upon arrival in Fairbanks a Princess Representative was waiting for us with our Welcome Packets and luggage instructions. It was very easy and we were off to our first hotel in minutes. Princess handled luggage extremely efficiently and without any issues. The lodges were excellent and the restaurants were outstanding! We did take the meal plan at the lodges which is the way to go. The Denali and Mt McKinley Princess Lodges were very nice with excellent restaurants, and the employees were friendly and helpful! The included tours included the riverboat which was very nice! Mt. McKinley, which is only visible about 1/3 of the time was visible almost constantly during out stay. She is magnificent! We then were transferred to the train depot at Talkeetna to wait for the Princess train. Due to some earlier technical issues, the train was about 45 minutes late arriving which put us behind schedule. The scenery during the train ride was superb. Princess actually had check-in personal on the train who checked us in for the cruise while on the train. Because the train was late, we missed our dinner reservation and would up eating in the buffet which was fine. The Discovery Princess is a newer ship and in excellent condition. Our Mini suite was very nice and our cabin steward very accommodating. We ate in the Ketchikan Main Dining Room and were very pleased with the food quality. The shows were good and the ship itself was very well maintained. Captain Tony Roggero and Hotel General Manager Dirk Brand were very nice! We ate at the 360 one evening and it is well worth the charge! It was sensational! The shore excursions were excellent including Glacier Bay, Icy Straight Point, Mendenhall & Hubbard Glaciers. The Salmon were running so Eagles were eating well! The Crab Feast at Geirge Inlet Lodge in Ketchikan was worth every dollar! All you can eat crabs!! The disembarkation process in Vancouver was quick and efficient and the transfer to the airport was simple. All in all and excellent trip and highly recommended!

Discovery Princess – Alaska Cruise Review Overall, we had a wonderful Alaska cruise. The destinations were spectacular, the crew was friendly and attentive, and the ship was kept exceptionally clean throughout the voyage. However, there were several areas where Princess could improve the overall guest experience. Ship Design & Cleanliness The Discovery Princess is a beautiful, modern ship that is exceptionally well maintained. Public areas, cabins, and decks were always clean, and the crew did an outstanding job keeping everything looking great. Mini Suite Our Mini Suite was comfortable, well laid out, and offered plenty of storage. The bed was very comfortable, making it easy to get a great night's sleep after long days exploring Alaska. Buffet The buffet offered a good variety of food, but the biggest disappointment was the temperature. Many hot items were only lukewarm or completely cold, especially at breakfast. The eggs, breakfast meats, and other hot selections rarely seemed fresh from the kitchen. The omelet station was especially disappointing, with consistently long lines that could have been managed much better. Main Dining Room The service in the Main Dining Room was excellent. Our waitstaff was attentive, friendly, and provided outstanding service throughout the cruise. The menu, however, lacked variety and wasn't as exciting as we expected. While the meals were generally good, we found ourselves wishing there were more choices from evening to evening. Sabatini's Italian Trattoria The food at Sabatini's was absolutely outstanding—some of the best we had during the cruise. Unfortunately, the atmosphere took away from what should have been a premium dining experience. The restaurant is located in the Level 7 atrium, where live bands, games, and other activities create a tremendous amount of noise. It was so loud that it was difficult to have a conversation across the table. A restaurant serving food of this quality deserves a quieter setting. Embarkation Embarkation in Vancouver was organized and efficient, and getting on the ship was relatively smooth. Disembarkation – Whittier, Alaska Disembarkation was one of the weakest parts of the cruise. Princess should seriously consider offering a true self-assist "walk-off" option for guests who can handle their own luggage. Instead, luggage was transported to the Anchorage airport and placed in one very large room, where hundreds of passengers had to search through piles of bags to locate their own luggage. This created unnecessary confusion and delays after an otherwise enjoyable cruise. Final Thoughts Despite a few disappointments with the buffet, limited dinner menu, noisy specialty restaurant location, and the disembarkation process, we truly enjoyed our Alaska cruise. The hardworking crew, beautiful ship, comfortable accommodations, and unforgettable scenery made for a memorable vacation. With a few improvements in food service and guest logistics, Discovery Princess could provide an even better cruise experience. Would I cruise Princess again, it would depend on itinerary and price

The service was amazing, the ship is very clean and the main dinning room the service was very good and also the food. The second formal night, we had steak and lobster. The specialty coffee, desert and sandwiches loved them. The music and entertainment in the main deck by the guest service and specialty coffee was very good until midnight. Loved the cruise director. The Disembarkation was very good, better than other ships. When we were outside the deck by the pool they gave us hot chocolate and blankets. Our personal experience was amazing, happy and the first time in Princess Cruise Line. The only think I notice that is lacking is Hollywood shows, entertainment. The tours were very good, I purchased two tours to see the whales, loved both of them. The last day tours in Vancouver need more activities and longer. The cabins were amazing and very clean. Loved the ship, the crew very nice, professional. The stores, I love the ship stores, I found them very expensive more expensive than Royal or NCL. Did not purchase anything in the ship.