Another comparison thread - A DCL Cruiser Sails Princess

[MomOTwins]

Well, punchline, it wasn't for us. Posting because after much deliberation I booked a cruise on Princess's newest ship, Discovery Princess, to Alaska and as much as I carefully researched and thought I had found something that would work for our family, it just didn't, and I'm thinking it might be useful to others making similar decisions of whether to venture out of the Disney bubble.

We're gold Disney cruisers, with three kids age 6, 10 and 10. At the time we were looking to book an Alaska cruise this summer, travel to Canada was looking complicated, and we were getting sticker shock from Disney Alaska prices. We were also traveling with an extended family group that were not keen on Disney and wanted a Casino, more live music/dancing etc. We also figured Alaska is about the destination, not the ship, so it wouldn't matter as much that we didn't have the Disney experience. This is why we discovered the hard way it just didn't work for us and we won't be sailing on a cruise line other than DCL again.

Staterooms
We booked two connecting mini-suites with balconies. On the plus side, the rooms were very nice. We had roughly same amount of space as two Disney verandah rooms, for the price of inside rooms on Disney. It was a new ship so furnishings were brand new and very pretty/modern, though the bed is not nearly as comfy as Disney, and we really missed having the split bathroom. Storage was also one thing we missed--suitcases do not fit under the bed so they filled up our closet, and there are no chests of drawers, just a closet with hangers and a few narrow shelves (width of the in-room safe).

Another key difference is that there is no lock on the verandah door like there is for DCL. The handle simply rotates and then the door opens, without any upper lock outside of the reach of kids to make it secure. Which became even a bigger safety issue because....

We had a massive shock when we arrived in our confirmed "connecting" rooms and hey were (you guessed it) not connecting. After being given the runaround by various staff we found a manager who confirmed this is a known problem and that some rooms were mislabeled on the Princess deck plans as having connecting doors between them but actually did not. Because there are so few connecting rooms on the ship, and it was a very full sailing, there were none we could be moved to, even if we were were willing to accept a downgrade. This also happened to others in our party who also had small kids, so it was not just a single room that was the problem, and not my mistaken reading of the deck plan or the written confirmation I got when I booked saying my rooms had an interior connecting door. Both we and the other family were given a small amount of compensation from the cruise line after complaining (or at least we were told we would be mailed a check--I don't have it yet so we will see), but that didn't do anything to fix what was a terrible situation--we had to split up so that our kids (one of whom is special needs) could have a parent. I kept thinking, if this happened on Disney and they realized they made such a big a mistake with their deck plans, they would have called us BEFORE the cruise and given us an option to cancel or move to a different sailing since we had booked directly through the cruise line. But I still resolved to make the best of it and enjoy the trip... until other things started going south.

Cleanliness
When we entered our room, we found toenails in the sheets and a woman's underwear in the nightstand. I will stop there before I gross you out further.

Food
One of the things we were most looking forward to was the greater flexibility of food options on the ship for dinner. In addition to the MDRs and pool deck quick service, there is an all-day buffet, included pizza/pasta restaurant, and four extra charge specialty restaurants, all of which we tried. The pool quick service and pizza place were both tasty--although the pizza place did not take reservations and regularly had waits of 1 hour plus (and you had to wait outside the restaurant with hour whole party including kids, no splitting up to do other things while you wait). But the buffet was terrible--no smoked salmon and eggs benedict like DCL has for breakfast, just very basic, and at lunch and dinner the food was just plain bad, and we saw some scary food safety issues (e.g., sharp pieces of plastic in food; raw-inside pork meatballs). The MDRs were just okay, not as good as DCL, and the real shocker was we ate at all four specialty upcharge restaurants and they were all no better or worse than the MDR. Again lots of obvious errors--broken shell in crab cakes, overcooked steak, drink orders forgotten. Perhaps most egregiously, we explained a serious food allergy up front at the start of each meal, and it was regularly ignored leaving the person unable to eat the dishes set in front of him. Oh, and also every dinner took 3 hours. With kids they were going out of their mind, especially because kids club was not an option because...

Kids Club
It drove me absolutely nuts that the kids club closed during lunch and dinner. WHY? That is the perfect time for parents to have some time alone to eat dinner after feeding the kids and taking them to the club, which is what we often do on DCL. As for the actual kids club programming, it was very focused on arts and crafts and movies, which would be find if it was optional, but they literally would not let my kids opt out and do their own thing (e.g., read a book; play on the foosball table; play a video game) any time an activity was happening. Our 10 year olds named the kids club the "torture club" after being forced to watch the Minions movie. Another thing: we were given a pager, but like much of the technology on the ship, it didn't work 90% of the time--after several missed pages, we ended up checking on the kids every 30 minutes in person because that was the only way we could find out when they wanted to leave the club, which was super annoying.

Ship activities
The majority of the activities on board were (a) shopping events/art auctions, or (b) weird wellness treatment pitches that all seemed to involve de-aging or weight loss. There were just a handful of trivia, bingo or game show type events each day, when we are used to multiple options an hour on DCL. They also talked a lot about movies under the stars, but they often showed movies that were not kid-appropriate so we only did that once, and also they did not have blankets like they do on DCL so in Alaska it was wayyy too cold to stay out long. There were two production shows over the 7 day cruise--but after going to the first one and watching an extensive dance number in which a woman danced suggestively in a thong bikini, I was too nervous to try the other one or the variety acts. There was plenty of live music, which we enjoyed, even though we felt the DCL music acts were better quality-wise. The fact is, we were only in port 3 days out of 7, so we felt the loss of family-friendly activities at lot more than we expected would--the cruise ship really does matter, not just the destination.

Now before you say "of course Princess isn't good for kids, what are you thinking," I'll admit I probably should have taken this more seriously, but Princess is definitely marketing more to families and we had seen a lot of anecdotal good reviews of Princess with kids. Also, there were over 500 kids on our sailing, so 1 in 7 of the 3500 guests on the ship, so you'd think there would be more for them. We also considered Royal and NCL, but were wary of the "booze cruise" vibes and heard bad things about the food, service and staterooms (upgrading to Haven would have cost us over $20K, double what we paid for Princess, so that was not an option).

At the end of the day, we made a mistake. If you are like me, don't make the same one.

 

[Cheburashka]

Thanks for sharing your feedback and I'm very sorry you didn't have a better cruise.

I do think DCL is worth the premium in Alaska if you like DCL. I considered booking Holland for our 2018 Alaska cruise, but decided on DCL, and am glad I did. It was an unforgettable cruise, partly due to Alaska, and partly due to sailing the Wonder. DCL's 7-night Alaskan cruises have 3 days at sea (including the glacier viewing day), so that type of itinerary really isn't quite as port-intensive as some people claim when they talk about Alaskan cruises. Having all of the ship activities available on sea days, dining in the MDRs, and interacting with the characters in their Alaska gear, really put that cruise over the top.

We sailed in a Navigator's Verandah stateroom, btw, which was more affordable than a full verandah, but still had a fantastic view. An oceanview stateroom would have worked, as well. So there are some ways to make it a little more affordable. We also sailed the first week of June, not midsummer, which was nice in that it was less expensive than midsummer, and also there was still some ice and snow to be seen in places, which made it feel more authentically Alaskan.

 

[brentm77]

Well, punchline, it wasn't for us. Posting because after much deliberation I booked a cruise on Princess's newest ship, Discovery Princess, to Alaska and as much as I carefully researched and thought I had found something that would work for our family, it just didn't, and I'm thinking it might be useful to others making similar decisions of whether to venture out of the Disney bubble.

We're gold Disney cruisers, with three kids age 6, 10 and 10. At the time we were looking to book an Alaska cruise this summer, travel to Canada was looking complicated, and we were getting sticker shock from Disney Alaska prices. We were also traveling with an extended family group that were not keen on Disney and wanted a Casino, more live music/dancing etc. We also figured Alaska is about the destination, not the ship, so it wouldn't matter as much that we didn't have the Disney experience. This is why we discovered the hard way it just didn't work for us and we won't be sailing on a cruise line other than DCL again.

Staterooms
We booked two connecting mini-suites with balconies. On the plus side, the rooms were very nice. We had roughly same amount of space as two Disney verandah rooms, for the price of inside rooms on Disney. It was a new ship so furnishings were brand new and very pretty/modern, though the bed is not nearly as comfy as Disney, and we really missed having the split bathroom. Storage was also one thing we missed--suitcases do not fit under the bed so they filled up our closet, and there are no chests of drawers, just a closet with hangers and a few narrow shelves (width of the in-room safe).

Another key difference is that there is no lock on the verandah door like there is for DCL. The handle simply rotates and then the door opens, without any upper lock outside of the reach of kids to make it secure. Which became even a bigger safety issue because....

We had a massive shock when we arrived in our confirmed "connecting" rooms and hey were (you guessed it) not connecting. After being given the runaround by various staff we found a manager who confirmed this is a known problem and that some rooms were mislabeled on the Princess deck plans as having connecting doors between them but actually did not. Because there are so few connecting rooms on the ship, and it was a very full sailing, there were none we could be moved to, even if we were were willing to accept a downgrade. This also happened to others in our party who also had small kids, so it was not just a single room that was the problem, and not my mistaken reading of the deck plan or the written confirmation I got when I booked saying my rooms had an interior connecting door. Both we and the other family were given a small amount of compensation from the cruise line after complaining (or at least we were told we would be mailed a check--I don't have it yet so we will see), but that didn't do anything to fix what was a terrible situation--we had to split up so that our kids (one of whom is special needs) could have a parent. I kept thinking, if this happened on Disney and they realized they made such a big a mistake with their deck plans, they would have called us BEFORE the cruise and given us an option to cancel or move to a different sailing since we had booked directly through the cruise line. But I still resolved to make the best of it and enjoy the trip... until other things started going south.

Cleanliness
When we entered our room, we found toenails in the sheets and a woman's underwear in the nightstand. I will stop there before I gross you out further.

Food
One of the things we were most looking forward to was the greater flexibility of food options on the ship for dinner. In addition to the MDRs and pool deck quick service, there is an all-day buffet, included pizza/pasta restaurant, and four extra charge specialty restaurants, all of which we tried. The pool quick service and pizza place were both tasty--although the pizza place did not take reservations and regularly had waits of 1 hour plus (and you had to wait outside the restaurant with hour whole party including kids, no splitting up to do other things while you wait). But the buffet was terrible--no smoked salmon and eggs benedict like DCL has for breakfast, just very basic, and at lunch and dinner the food was just plain bad, and we saw some scary food safety issues (e.g., sharp pieces of plastic in food; raw-inside pork meatballs). The MDRs were just okay, not as good as DCL, and the real shocker was we ate at all four specialty upcharge restaurants and they were all no better or worse than the MDR. Again lots of obvious errors--broken shell in crab cakes, overcooked steak, drink orders forgotten. Perhaps most egregiously, we explained a serious food allergy up front at the start of each meal, and it was regularly ignored leaving the person unable to eat the dishes set in front of him. Oh, and also every dinner took 3 hours. With kids they were going out of their mind, especially because kids club was not an option because...

Kids Club
It drove me absolutely nuts that the kids club closed during lunch and dinner. WHY? That is the perfect time for parents to have some time alone to eat dinner after feeding the kids and taking them to the club, which is what we often do on DCL. As for the actual kids club programming, it was very focused on arts and crafts and movies, which would be find if it was optional, but they literally would not let my kids opt out and do their own thing (e.g., read a book; play on the foosball table; play a video game) any time an activity was happening. Our 10 year olds named the kids club the "torture club" after being forced to watch the Minions movie. Another thing: we were given a pager, but like much of the technology on the ship, it didn't work 90% of the time--after several missed pages, we ended up checking on the kids every 30 minutes in person because that was the only way we could find out when they wanted to leave the club, which was super annoying.

Ship activities
The majority of the activities on board were (a) shopping events/art auctions, or (b) weird wellness treatment pitches that all seemed to involve de-aging or weight loss. There were just a handful of trivia, bingo or game show type events each day, when we are used to multiple options an hour on DCL. They also talked a lot about movies under the stars, but they often showed movies that were not kid-appropriate so we only did that once, and also they did not have blankets like they do on DCL so in Alaska it was wayyy too cold to stay out long. There were two production shows over the 7 day cruise--but after going to the first one and watching an extensive dance number in which a woman danced suggestively in a thong bikini, I was too nervous to try the other one or the variety acts. There was plenty of live music, which we enjoyed, even though we felt the DCL music acts were better quality-wise. The fact is, we were only in port 3 days out of 7, so we felt the loss of family-friendly activities at lot more than we expected would--the cruise ship really does matter, not just the destination.

Now before you say "of course Princess isn't good for kids, what are you thinking," I'll admit I probably should have taken this more seriously, but Princess is definitely marketing more to families and we had seen a lot of anecdotal good reviews of Princess with kids. Also, there were over 500 kids on our sailing, so 1 in 7 of the 3500 guests on the ship, so you'd think there would be more for them. We also considered Royal and NCL, but were wary of the "booze cruise" vibes and heard bad things about the food, service and staterooms (upgrading to Haven would have cost us over $20K, double what we paid for Princess, so that was not an option).

At the end of the day, we made a mistake. If you are like me, don't make the same one.

Thank you so much for posting your review. We are booked next September on DCL for Alaska, We actually had Princess booked first and moved to DCL instead, because it's hard for us to move away from DCL when we know it is a perfect fit for us. But we still had nagging doubts about whether we should be trying another line. DCL, with navigator veranda, after school was back in session turned out to be very comparable to the Princess price for the mini-suite (which, as you stated is the equivalent of DCL's verandah room). Your review makes me feel a lot better about the choice, as several things you mentioned would be real bummers for us.

How was the Alaska experience outside of the downsides of Princess?

 

[brentm77]

Thanks for sharing your feedback and sorry you didn't have a better cruise. I share your perspective on this. I considered booking Holland for our 2018 Alaska cruise, but decided on DCL, and am glad I did. It was an unforgettable cruise, partly due to Alaska, and partly due to sailing the Wonder. DCL's 7-night Alaskan cruises have 3 days at sea (including the glacier viewing day), so that type of itinerary really isn't quite as port-intensive as some people claim when they talk about Alaskan cruises. Having all of the ship activities available on sea days, dining in the MDRs, and interacting with the characters in their Alaska gear, really put that cruise over the top.

We sailed in a Navigator's Verandah stateroom, btw, which was more affordable than a full verandah, but still had a fantastic view. An oceanview stateroom would have worked, as well. So there are some ways to make it a little more affordable. We also sailed the first week of June, not midsummer, which was nice in that it was less expensive than midsummer, and also there was still some ice and snow to be seen in places, which made it feel more authentically Alaskan.

What did you think of the navigator verandah? That's what we have booked for next September.

 

[Cheburashka]

What did you think of the navigator verandah? That's what we have booked for next September.

Loved it. It provided a wind break, which was nice because it was cold outside. The verandah itself is attractively themed with a decorative map and a compass, and it has a nice bench, The opening was big and the view was great.

 

[pangyal]

OP, I’m really sorry that you had this experience. We, too, sailed Princess to Alaska three years ago and agree 100% with everything you wrote.

 

[starry_solo]

Wow, my friend is on an Alaskan cruise with Princess this week for her birthday. We were thinking about trying Princess next year, but will save up for DCL instead.

 

[Kwami]

Loved it. It provided a wind break, which was nice because it was cold outside. The verandah itself is attractively themed with a decorative map and a compass, and it has a nice bench, The opening was big and the view was great.

Is it large enough for two people to sit comfortably and look out the opening?

 

[dcassetta]

Is it large enough for two people to sit comfortably and look out the opening?

The opening is large enough for two, but also relatively high up from the deck. This image shows the height of the deck chair and the opening. The bench is about the same height as the chair. Seated, I can see the sky, but would not say I could see out.

 

[magsnwonderland]

This makes me feel even better about our upcoming DCL cruise. We've only cruised once before (our honeymoon on Princess) and really didn't like it for a lot of the same reasons you listed. We missed a port due to weather, so we ended up with 3 sea days in a row and we were so bored, it felt like all there was to do was drink and/or gamble. We'd written off cruising, but the idea of taking the kids on DCL brought us back to it.

 

[Cheburashka]

Is it large enough for two people to sit comfortably and look out the opening?

It's large enough for two people to sit in comfortably, because the bench and chair are separate. Two people can also sit together on the bench but that would be cozy. Your view wouldn't be the best while seated, though. The opening is large enough for two people to comfortably stand and look out at the same time. The view is nice from inside the stateroom, too. I was able to easily see the glacier from the bed on glacier day.

 

[Kwami]

The opening is large enough for two, but also relatively high up from the deck. This image shows the height of the deck chair and the opening. The bench is about the same height as the chair. Seated, I can see the sky, but would not say I could see out.

It's large enough for two people to sit in comfortably, because the bench and chair are separate. Two people can also sit together on the bench but that would be cozy. Your view wouldn't be the best while seated, though. The opening is large enough for two people to comfortably stand and look out at the same time. The view is nice from inside the stateroom, too. I was able to easily see the glacier from the bed on glacier day.

Thanks! That's all very helpful!

 

[holula]

I’ve sailed on Princess once. I though the food was great outside of their upcharge steakhouse (which really was not good at all) so I’m sorry that you didn’t enjoy it. However this was several years ago so many they have just downgraded their food options.

I would only sail Princess again IF it was a really port heavy itinerary (think, the Med) because I agree that there just wasn’t tons to do on the ship. I didn’t love the entertainment either.

I do really enjoy NCL and I think Royal is a good experience too especially with older kids, so I wouldn’t discount either line, FWIW I don’t find that the long cruises on those ships are booze cruises - that tends to be the weekend F-M getaways from Florida.

 

[MrsScooby]

I’ve sailed on Princess once. I though the food was great outside of their upcharge steakhouse (which really was not good at all) so I’m sorry that you didn’t enjoy it. However this was several years ago so many they have just downgraded their food options.

I would only sail Princess again IF it was a really port heavy itinerary (think, the Med) because I agree that there just wasn’t tons to do on the ship. I didn’t love the entertainment either.

I do really enjoy NCL and I think Royal is a good experience too especially with older kids, so I wouldn’t discount either line, FWIW I don’t find that the long cruises on those ships are booze cruises - that tends to be the weekend F-M getaways from Florida.

We sailed on Princess for their British Isles itinerary in 2016. Very port intensive, I think it was 9 ports in 12 days. But for our experience, we found the cabins and food comparable to DCL. Since it was half the price of DCL's British Isles cruise we were able to bring our college age children with us in an inside cabin while we were across the hall in a verandah cabin for the same price as 2 of us on DCL in a verandah cabin. We had such a great time I don't see myself booking any more long, port heavy cruises with DCL. But for shorter cruises where it is more about the ship I'm sailing with DCL...at least for now.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I've been waiting for your review! We are also giving Princess a try for Alaska this summer. My parents are cruising with us, and a one-way itinerary was important for them to spend time in Denali National Park before the cruise. (That is a bucket list thing for my mom, and this trip is for her.) My husband, daughter, and I are also taking advantage of that to spend several days in the Anchorage area and visiting Kenai Fjords National Park before our cruise. Cruising in Glacier Bay is also important to us as it helps my husband check off more national parks. All this to say, Disney didn't meet those needs (even though we LOVE the product and could live with the price) so we have ended up with Princess!

We only have one kiddo in our party (my daughter, who turns 10 on the cruise) and are spending a lot of time being active in the ports, so I think we will ultimately be okay. We've tried to manage my daughter's expectations, telling her that the kids clubs are limited, the movies are not for kids, and that we won't be going to any shows in the theater. Maybe she will like the clubs or make a friend to hang out with, but otherwise we're planning on a lot of family togetherness time enjoying the scenery. Maybe I will bring some card games to entertain us! It definitely seems like Princess is marketing to families but not adjusting anything about their traditional cruise experience that would mean that families enjoy the cruise and want to book another one.

I am extremely worried about how Princess handles food allergies, as my husband has life-threatening food allergies and we have always trusted Disney destinations, DCL, to do a great job with this. Based on your experience, it seems we will need to be extra vigilant.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this - it's really helpful as we think about managing expectations going into our Princess Alaska experience later this month. We cruise a lot and can handle one less-then-stellar experience as long as we have fun in Alaska, but I am really hoping my parents enjoy themselves.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Thank you so much for posting your review. We are booked next September on DCL for Alaska, We actually had Princess booked first and moved to DCL instead, because it's hard for us to move away from DCL when we know it is a perfect fit for us. But we still had nagging doubts about whether we should be trying another line. DCL, with navigator veranda, after school was back in session turned out to be very comparable to the Princess price for the mini-suite (which, as you stated is the equivalent of DCL's verandah room). Your review makes me feel a lot better about the choice, as several things you mentioned would be real bummers for us.

How was the Alaska experience outside of the downsides of Princess?

It really sounds like you made the perfect choice, and the Navigator Verandahs are great. You're exactly right that you'd need a mini suite on Princess to get close to the DCL stateroom experience, and as @MomOTwins pointed out, you still don't get the split bath. You'll enjoy DCL!

 

[pjacobi]

Princess does 1-way cruises to Alaska allowing travel to interior Alaska. DCL only does round trip cruises. This was the single most important thing to me, so DCL lost.


-Paul

 

[AquaDame]

I'm sorry you ran into so many issues..!

"Now before you say "of course Princess isn't good for kids, what are you thinking," I'll admit I probably should have taken this more seriously, but Princess is definitely marketing more to families and we had seen a lot of anecdotal good reviews of Princess with kids."

I know of families that have sailed and enjoyed Princess, so that definitely was not top of mind! We also did not particularly enjoy sailing with RCCL in Alaska but did it for much the same reasoning as you sailed with Princess. Our first Alaska was on DCL, but they just do largely the same round trip itinerary year in and year out. We found ourselves needing to make our own fun on RCCL (which isn't all bad, just different, and I now know I prefer to have some activities handled by the ship).

Unfortunately (?) we want to go to Glacier Bay next, so now that I have ruled out RCCL and DCL doesn't go there it will likely be Princess or maybe NCL which has been getting favorable reviews lately.

 

[starvenger]

Now before you say "of course Princess isn't good for kids, what are you thinking," I'll admit I probably should have taken this more seriously, but Princess is definitely marketing more to families and we had seen a lot of anecdotal good reviews of Princess with kids. Also, there were over 500 kids on our sailing, so 1 in 7 of the 3500 guests on the ship, so you'd think there would be more for them. We also considered Royal and NCL, but were wary of the "booze cruise" vibes and heard bad things about the food, service and staterooms (upgrading to Haven would have cost us over $20K, double what we paid for Princess, so that was not an option).

I think that with entertainment on most cruise lines it's best to think of them as somewhere between PG-13 and R. DCL is probably more between G and PG, and if you're accustomed to that, then the difference in shows and such is going to be jarring, and I can see how it will take time to adjust to, if you're able to at all. Not much of a stretch to say that DCL thinks different here.

As far as "booze cruise" vibes, remember that those "vibes" are more likely to happen on 3-4 night cruises, on older ships, in warmer waters. On a longer Alaskan cruise, it just feels like there's a low probability of ending up on a "booze cruise". I would say that this is also true of just about any 6+ night cruise, as the drinking becomes less of a sprint and more of a marathon.

I enjoyed the review. The connecting room snafu would probably put me in a bad mood for most of the cruise. The food issues you outlined are pretty bad. No excuses for constantly ignoring an explained food allergies.

 

[MomOTwins]

Thank you so much for posting your review. We are booked next September on DCL for Alaska, We actually had Princess booked first and moved to DCL instead, because it's hard for us to move away from DCL when we know it is a perfect fit for us. But we still had nagging doubts about whether we should be trying another line. DCL, with navigator veranda, after school was back in session turned out to be very comparable to the Princess price for the mini-suite (which, as you stated is the equivalent of DCL's verandah room). Your review makes me feel a lot better about the choice, as several things you mentioned would be real bummers for us.

How was the Alaska experience outside of the downsides of Princess?

I totally think you will have a great time on Disney! Alaska was incredible. We did the lumberjack show in Ketchikan plus explored creek street and the Married Man's trail/salmon ladder. I was expecting that to be a kind of underwhelming day compared to the next two ports, but it turned out the lumberjack show is a hoot and the town of Ketchikan is BEAUTIFUL. In Juneau, we went to Mendenhall and hiked the trail to nugget falls. It was a "I will never forget this day" experience--just stunning (see photos below--I have a bad phone camera so trust me, the pictures do NOT do this justice). My husband did a glacier helicopter ride in Juneau which he said was incredible but it was not in our budget for the whole family and I'm scared of heights, so I took the kids on my own to Mendenhall and it was very easy and safe (we brought bear bells, but were not needed--it is a very easy path and you are never alone for long).





And in Skagway we did the White Pass train, which was every bit as gorgeous as I'd hoped it would be.



So we all agree we had great time for the days we were actually in Alaska, but we didn't fully appreciate going into it how much the cruise food/entertainment/service could detract from the overall experience of the vacation. It's definitely bittersweet--I had planned for this to be only Alaska trip we take as a family just given the large cost, but I already find myself daydreaming about booking another one in a few years' time so we can go back and experience Alaska on DCL.

OP, I’m really sorry that you had this experience. We, too, sailed Princess to Alaska three years ago and agree 100% with everything you wrote.

Ugh, sorry to hear it, but that does help me feel a little better oddly--I know I am such a Disney fanatic, and I was a bit soured from day one from the connecting room incident, I was starting to wonder if I was exaggerating small problems. But I do think it is fair to say it was just not a good cruise experience for families.

The opening is large enough for two, but also relatively high up from the deck. This image shows the height of the deck chair and the opening. The bench is about the same height as the chair. Seated, I can see the sky, but would not say I could see out.
View attachment 692339

That really does look so perfect for Alaska--good to have a little more shelter from the wind. Maybe when our older kids are teens and can be on their own we will split up and do a navigator's balcony and inside room across the way.

I've been waiting for your review! We are also giving Princess a try for Alaska this summer. My parents are cruising with us, and a one-way itinerary was important for them to spend time in Denali National Park before the cruise. (That is a bucket list thing for my mom, and this trip is for her.) My husband, daughter, and I are also taking advantage of that to spend several days in the Anchorage area and visiting Kenai Fjords National Park before our cruise. Cruising in Glacier Bay is also important to us as it helps my husband check off more national parks. All this to say, Disney didn't meet those needs (even though we LOVE the product and could live with the price) so we have ended up with Princess!

We only have one kiddo in our party (my daughter, who turns 10 on the cruise) and are spending a lot of time being active in the ports, so I think we will ultimately be okay. We've tried to manage my daughter's expectations, telling her that the kids clubs are limited, the movies are not for kids, and that we won't be going to any shows in the theater. Maybe she will like the clubs or make a friend to hang out with, but otherwise we're planning on a lot of family togetherness time enjoying the scenery. Maybe I will bring some card games to entertain us! It definitely seems like Princess is marketing to families but not adjusting anything about their traditional cruise experience that would mean that families enjoy the cruise and want to book another one.

I am extremely worried about how Princess handles food allergies, as my husband has life-threatening food allergies and we have always trusted Disney destinations, DCL, to do a great job with this. Based on your experience, it seems we will need to be extra vigilant.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this - it's really helpful as we think about managing expectations going into our Princess Alaska experience later this month. We cruise a lot and can handle one less-then-stellar experience as long as we have fun in Alaska, but I am really hoping my parents enjoy themselves.

I really hope you have a better cruise than us. I will say our Glacier viewing day on Princess was magical, truly special. You could tell the ship captain was a pro at getting us as close to the glaciers as possible including some tricky navigation around large ice blocks, and there was very interesting narration from a park ranger you could listen to on the top decks or on the stateroom TV while you sit on the balcony. So they did hold up their bargain on the glacier viewing experience, which I know is why a lot of people choose princess and was definitely a factor for us that they are such an experienced Alaska cruise line. Wishing you good weather for your glacier day!

The allergy thing was a bit of a shocker to us too. Fortunately the allergy in our case (black pepper) was one that is quite easy to see when it is present in a dish, so we were able to snatch away the offending dishes and didn't have any medical emergencies as a result. But it was definitely not a great experience and I really saw the value in Disney's system of having the same serving team each night and allergy meals ordered a day ahead.