Cruise Summary

It's exactly one week after the post below, and the cruise is over!  I decided not to publish daily updates, but instead I recorded notes and am consolidating them into one post, below.

Check-in:
The check-in area felt like a warehouse.  I realize this is the same for all cruise lines as they share port facilities, but it was a bit surprising to see how industrial a setting it was for something which is generally viewed as a “luxury” vacation.  Not a big deal, but just realize that the check-in process is lengthy and in a very industrial setting, with a true cattle call feeling.


After the initial boarding, there definitely was a contagious air of excitement all throughout the ship, and I definitely felt it as well.  The buffet was open so I took my first meal in there, and we went through the mandatory muster drill.  At 4:00 PM we shoved off, though without the stereotypical "bon voyage" streamers and the like that usually come to mind.


We were off to Alaska.


General Notes about the ship:
The ship had multiple levels (decks 4-14 accessible to the public), and I was on Dolphin (9).  The elevators, though plentiful, were always jammed with people so they were perpetually slow, and it was virtually always faster to take the stairs

You can feel the boat rock slightly now and then even though the surface is fairly calm.  This was a little surprising for a 109K ton vessel.

The Casino had the ubiquitous games, as well as the smell of cigarette smoke.  I didn't spend much time in there, though it was a nice diversion on the two formal nights when I again played out the Bond role.

The production shows in the theater were for the most part well done, with a variety of programs:  

• The first night in theater was awesome, with a non-themed welcome aboard that interspersed tour and ship information along with a handful of singers and dancers.  
• The second show (“British Invasion”) was not quite so enjoyable for me personally as that style is quite dated in my book, a bit before the time and not my preference (I'm more of a rock or Motown type).  
• The third show (Swing type music) was even less enjoyable, again that the style and era really don't work for me.
• The fourth show was cancelled due to the illness of many of the dancers.

There were tons of attendants on board.  You didn't have to leave your seat if you wanted a drink or coffee, and for the most part the ship employees were vey people-oriented and friendly.  

Internet access was actually pretty fast on my laptop and iPad, though very slow using the wired machines in the Internet Café.

TV programs were limited:  Live reception was only news (MSNBC, Fox, BBC type stations), and it often failed, especially in the interior passage in Alaska where the tall mountains cut out the line-of-sight transmissions.  There were a couple of different movies each day, and they were decent (“Just Go With It,” "Entrapment," and “In Time”).  The movies did change daily, though they really needed a greater variety given how often the TV signals faded.

The Food:

Let's face it, one of the most famous (infamous?) things about a cruise ship is the food.  Sit-down restaurants, a buffet, a cafe, as well as hot-dog/hamburger and pizza stands are all included in the base price, and you may eat as much as you like.  (I've not weighed myself yet, but I am sure I put on a few pounds).  For the most part, the food is good…not awesome, but considering that virtually of it is included in the base price, it is a great bargain, with each one broken down as below: 

• Buffet:  The buffet was marginal, a far cry below what you would consider a buffet in Las Vegas.  Still, the food was adequate and plentiful, and it was virtually always open so you could find something any time of day.
• Room Service:  Also free, and offering simple food such as cheeseburgers, salads or sandwiches.
• Standard restaurants:  In the standard restaurant, the prime rib was not as good as what I do at home, and the choices were somewhat limited in that many of the things they offered, such as lamb and veal, are things I don't personally eat.  In any case, it was good quality considering that it too was offered at no additional cost.
• Fast Food:  If you just want a quick snack, the ability to walk up to a grill and point to pizza, or a cheeseburger, or a hot dog, and not have to pay for it is an option.
• Cafe/Bistro:  Offering light sandwiches, salads and pastries, this was another place to go for a quick bite when you didn't want to take the time to sit down in a restaurant or go through the buffet line.
• Specialty Restaurant: There were two specialty restaurants on board where you did need to pay a small additional fee:  Sabatianis, Italian theme at $20 per person, and the Crown Grill, a steak and seafood house at $25/person.  On the two formal nights I ate in the Crown Grill, and it was well worth the extra money:  The appetizer, unfortunately, was rather bad (bacon, scallops, potato and mushroom), but the rest of the meal was incredible:  the French Onion soup great, and the steaks and lobster off the chart.

General Notes about the trip:

The weather, unfortunately, was cold, wet and rainy the whole time, whether at sea or in port. Lots of wind baffling on the decks did help reduce the effect a little bit, but nonetheless it was not really much fun to spend time around the pools, hot tubs, or on the lounge chairs.  Generally speaking, Alaska cruises this time of year (July) see better temperatures (averaging in the mid-60's under normal conditions versus the mid-50's we were seeing).

  

Lots of kids were on this trip, to the point that even the Cruise Director mentioned it.  I was a bit surprised by that, as I would have expected it from something such as the Disney line, but not on Princess.

Wine tasting was offered on a couple of fixed occasions, but was not offered 

Monday and Friday (the two sea days) were formal nights, and I met the captain on the first night during his welcome party.  I wore a tux both nights, once more trendy (all black, including the shirt and black necktie), and the second more traditional with a white shirt and bow tie.

There were art lectures and auctions on board, and I sat through a bit of them just to get a feel for what it was like...not really my type of thing, but a nice change from the ordinary.

As for excursions, as I mentioned in a previous post I used to live in Alaska so the destination per se didn't mean much to me.  I disembarked the boat in Skagway and Victoria, B.C.

• Skagway was a simple walk around the business district
• In Victoria I went downtown, had an awesome fish and chips dinner at the Irish Times Pub, then went on a tour to Butchart Gardens.  Normally I'm not much of a "garden" type, but this actually did have some variety and the fireworks show was incredible.  I really enjoyed Victoria (to my surprise!) and may well head back there for a couple of days sometime.

Truth be told and initial excitement notwithstanding, I found myself getting bored after about three days.  I’m glad I took the trip as I have wanted to go on a real cruise all my life, and this satisfied that need, but after the midway point the novelty of everything started to wear off, and even though the ship is large (about three football fields long), it became very confining. 

There are some things you can do as a single traveler and enjoy, but cruising really doesn’t seem to be one.  Unlike the escorted tours I have gone on, my fellow passengers on this boat were none too embracing of somebody traveling solo.  It's funny, I can walk into a pub in London or a bistro in Rome and virtually always befriend somebody to the point of being able to have a chat, but that rarely happened on the cruise; people were with family and tended to stick in those groups.

Summary:

In general Princess as a cruise line did well, and I cannot really find much significant fault with them.  On a personal basis though, if I were ever to do this again, a few things would be need to be different:

• I would either need to travel with a companion, or at a minimum find an organized tour along the line of what I did in Egypt.  Cruises are definitely not intended for single or solo travelers, and unlike the other group tours I have discussed before (Italy and Egypt), these passengers are not accommodating or willing to befriend a single/solo passenger.
• I would have to travel someplace that is interesting to me.  I knew Alaska was not for me, and I thought that would be OK for a short time, but it really wasn’t.  The ports are really an important part of the trip, and if you stay on board while the bulk of the passengers are on-shore it is very empty and boring.  
• Pick a warm location.  Even if you are just walking on deck, a cruise ship is a wet environment, so just walking about outside is going to be nasty if it is cold.
• I think I might fare better on a different line such as Celebraty.  It’s a bit more money, but I think the experience would be better and the crowd more my type.

Cruise Time!

In an hour, Shuttle Express comes by to pick me up and take me to the ship!  A few updates since my last entry:

• I actually did get an upgrade to a better class of cabin.  The odd part, though, is that I received a call on Friday telling me that the ship was slightly overbooked, and if I wanted to delay for two weeks they would offer me another upgrade and half my fare back as credit.  I, of course, declined and stuck with my original date, and I am confused on how I was upgraded on a full ship.  (This  is my first time with this line, so it's not as if it was a loyalty reward.)  In any case, I'll be on the Dolphin level, a couple of decks higher than I thought I would be.
• A number of people evidently had the same bizarre thought that I did and decided to take off the entire 4th of July week.  Many of my coworkers are doing the same thing, so hopefully work will be a bit slow and I will not get too far behind being out for the next few days.  In any case, I will deal with that later.
• Unfortunately, a number of fires were flaring at work on Friday, so I was not able to meet with Nancy and Bryan for lunch. That's too bad as I really enjoyed them, but I am nonetheless pleased they looked me up when they were in Seattle.

So in any case, I am packed and ready to go.  I have to admit it's a little odd to be taking a tux and a couple of suits on a vacation.  How strange it is to think that I dress up for vacation and down for work!