Princess Cruises - Sun Princess Review

My second Cruise to Alaska! July 2006

I'm not much of a review writer. I like to tell more stories of what happened, but will give a few details. Of course some of this is not in any order. Like I listed Juneau before Tracy Arm but hey at least I mentioned it.

The ship - Sun Princess - in great shape (duh just got out of drydock a little over a month ago LOL)
The staff - CD, dining room waiters, spa staff, and cabin steward - all were not up to the Princess standards I'm use to. That's kinda disappointing. Even the CD and his staff were lame.
The staff - Captain Ian McNaught and Luigi Pascale the Maitre'D - GREAT! want stories then that's a diffenent post for each. LOL
The Ship's Spa - Ok at best. I've gotten better facials and pedicures on other cruises.
The food - Great as always! Gotta love the Love Boat Dream!
The weather - Perfect but not in Juneau and Skagway that was rainy/cloudy what I would call Eeyore Days. The rest was blue skies and perfect temps. Perfect temps is anything cooler than what TX is in the summer by at least 25 degrees. LOL
Ketchikan - I just walked around here. Been here before on the first cruise and none of the excursions sounded amuzing to me this time around.
Juneau - Interesting Security situation happened here. That alone would be another post if ya are interested. BUT my excursion was a Helicopter ride up to Mendenhall Glacier and walked around. Only one word can sum that up - AMAZING! Wow I'll do this excursion again! Maybe see if I can get a longer one next time tho.
Skagway - Well I did an jet boat river excursion over in Haines. Mainly I wanted to see wildlife and I got to here. Saw a MOOSE and 4 Eagles. Once back in Skagway just walked around the back to the ship.
The "At Sea" Days - Wonderfull and relaxing! We did get some little rough water on our way to Victoria from Skagway. Some people did get sick but it didn't bother me at all. I've seen and been in a lot worse water.
Tracy Arm Fjord - We got only about 75% in. Didn't get in all the way to see the twin glaciers. Oh well. It's ok by me. But one cool thing was we passed the Sun's sister ship Dawn Princess on our way out. She was on her way in. That was fun to see and hear! Both ships blew their horns back and forth at one another.
Victoria - WOW! I wanna go back someday but make it long weekend trip. Just from the little time I was there I have made up my mind that if I were to ever have enough moola to buy a second home somewhere. It's gonna be in Victoria. All I did was walk around the waterfront to downtown along (a street named from where I'm from LOL) Dallas Rd. Took pics along the way and fell in love with the sights. Only walked around the Captial building and The Empress Hotel area. Then headed back to the ship via the map the ship gave me and once there walked along the seawall/brakewater wall right next to the ship's parking lot. I had a long day the next day so I thought it was best to relax the rest of the evening onboard the Sun.
My Group I travled with I was with the TX School of Professional Photography. It's their annual cruise. Normally it's a school held once a year (on land) for a week. It's the Largest school of it's kind in the world and for the past 10 years they have expanded to a cruise also. we had the largest group to date on this cruise - 118 people. My very first cruise was with this group back in 2002. We did a Southern Caribbean route on the Dawn Princess with only 32 people.That cruise is what got me hooked on cruising. The other cruise with them was 64 people out of Galveston on the Rhapsody OTS. Well this was susposed to be a "learning" expirence. HA! I was just in it for the cruise, food, scenery, wildlife, and the service meriti I get for being in the group (that's a pro photo thing). I did attend the one "meeting" I should have to get my meritis but skiped out on the other 2 we had onboard plus the 2 excursions that were planned (one was included and the other wasn't). I did attend the cocktail parties we had (great story on the last one we had (anther post and involves the Captain) LOL) and we had dinner every night together. well it wasn't every night. The day we were in Ketchikan a few friends and I did the steakhouse that night instead of the dining room and the Juneau night ad Victoria nights I was one of only a few that ate in the dining room (good story on the Victoria night tho. involves Luigi the Maitre' D).

Well all I did in Seattle after the cruise was I got picked up at the airport, after checking my bags and getting my boarding pass, by my Dad's Cousin Dee Dee. She lives up there and since I had tons of time before my 5:45pm flight home I spent the day with her. It was a good day spent with family rather than in the airport. We ran some errands and then went to pick up her 2nd car over at a friends house. I got to drive that! She picked me up in her Denali and I got to drive her Acura sportscar. We went to lunch and then out to her property. After looking through pics of where I had just been that week and a family wedding she didn't get to go to back in TX she wisked me back to the airport. By the time we got there I had only 20 minutes to get through security and get to the gate before boarding was to start.

I was one of the first 200 people onboard the Sun and one of the last 200 off. Couldn't have planned that any better! Overall this wasn't the best cruise I have taken (that was my first Alaska cruise back in 2003) and it was the worst Princess (I hate to say) cruise I have taken. BUT this cruise was better than my one RCI cruise. The reason for the worst Princess cruise was because of the Dining staff, spa staff, CD and staff, and cabin steward. That was it. I did have a good time thanks to my old friends that were onboard and the new friends I made plus can't forget the Captain and Maitre'D . Oh and can't forget I am now a Platinum Member of the Princess Captain's Circle. Woo Hoo Free Internet from now on on all my future Princess cruises!