DISCOVERY PRINCESS Reviews

Princess advertised this cruise as an inside passage Alaska cruise.

Both north and south the ship cruised outside (west) of Vancouver Island

This led to zero scenic cruising, we did not see any marine wildlife, none!

We had 1 day of scenic cruising at Endicott Arm which was nice.

The rest of any scenic cruising was in darkness.

Though not Princess fault there was a flu or cold going through the ship,

many people sick with coughing and sneezing.

We had problems in our suite with shower drainage and after 2 visits over 4 days it was finally resolved.

Food was mediocre at best, although service was very good.

Room steward Franco was excellent, many thanks to him.

We have cruised with Princess many times, but after this fiasco we are going to cancel an Alaska cruise booked for Aug. 31 2027 and look elsewhere for other options, to bad because we had worked our way up to Elite status.

Very disappointed in where Princess Cruises has recently gone.....loyalty means almost nothing, it seems their approach to dealing with issues is to wait and see if the issue might disappear. Accounting seems to have several problem areas as we were required to go to guest services on more than one occasion to have incorrect billing rectified. Additionally, some departments do not submit billing in a timely manner. With an OBC the last night of the cruise, a purchase was not billed for several hours during which time the account was closed, the obc credit went back to the cruise line, and the billing showed up in its entirety on our credit card. Checking with others, this seems to be a common practice, and this is the second cruise in a row that it has happened to us. It takes us hours to get it rectified. Not a pleasant experience.

The dining room staff was excellent, but unfortunately the food was not. This has to be the most substandard dining fare we have experienced on any cruise line in our 40 plus years of cruising.

The food was substandard, on two occasions, the waiter forgot to take our orders. When wanting to disembark for an excursion, crew members seated us in an area by ourselves, and said the handicap area was full, but that would come and get us. They did not come and get us, they forgot us, and we were forced to walk down several flights of stairs, even though we had canes, forced to use a steep gang plank with narrow stairs, and by the time we got to our bus, my husband was shaking so badly that he started to fall. A crewmember grabbed his arm to help and in doing so, he incurred a soft tissue injury. When we reported it to guest services, they informed us it was a problem for the excursion department. The excursion department informed us it was a problem for princess. No one took responsibility, it was two days before security, even came to talk to us, and in doing so asked my husband if he had been drinking! The medical clinic gave good medical attention, but they are the only ones. Princess completely blew us off and kept passing us back to someone else. We will not cruise with princess again. We have been on four different Cruise Lines and they are, by far, the worst.

Cruise

Pros

Onboard good wifi

Medallions and room and payment system very good

Food in Ketchikan and Rudi’s very good

Cons

Awful experience on day of boarding re water query with guest services. Lady put the phone down on me!!!

Room service regularly don’t answer phone

Room service takes up to 30-45 mins to be delivered

07/09/26 ordered 07:25am arrived 08:30am 65 minutes and then without hot water as ordered

Ship is far too busy and noisy. Not at all relaxing a bit like an older persons 18-30’s holiday. The noise in the piazza is like an assault on your eardrums. There is no-where on the ship to find peace and quiet to have a drink and read.This will prohibit us returning to Princess in the future after 7 previous cruises. Other cruise lines are better quality and experience for customers The tender at Icy Point was ridiculous for so many passengers, over 300 passengers on one tender and so few tenders after excursion at 04:30pm Restaurants are too cold for dinner in Sabbatini at 19:00pm it was blowing cold air and then the noise from the piazza was ridiculous, dreadful idea to have no separation to the restaurant To have removed drinking water from staterooms and also not provided when going ashore is a cheap retrograde step. To then find our cabin steward cannot provide it it has to be requested from room service that don’t answer or take ages is utterly absurd, again another non-customer centric Princess policy

Lodge and Rail Travel

Pros

Luggage transportation and organisation

Carriage Guide/Manager very good informative and funny

Cons

Apple Pay no remote pos ridiculous in lodge restaurants and shops ridiculous but it was on train ♂️

Poor communication re Talkeetna stop and lodge and trip and pick up. Pre tour explanation very poor and

Did not explain options to have to stay at Talkeetna for 5 hours then trip or go to lodge 1 hour there one hour back.

No signage staff present for 07:30pm return to Lodge 03/09

I was abandoned at Denali bus drop off at Lodge. I needed the toilet urgently and ran into the lodge. When I returned the coach was gone with my wife left on the coach. When questioned by my wife what the driver Ava was doing she said I would need to get the shuttle or walk. How as I had no idea where to go or how to get there?

Lodge Assistant Manager and Manager addressed re complimentary meal and sat down with us next day but that behaviour is unacceptable.

Wilderness lodge train from Denali Lodge to Vancouver really cold the whole 10 Hour journey mainly blowing out Cold Air. Pioneer carriage Rows 1-14 were very cold. Rows 15-22 fine. Asked for temperature to be increased due to wife’s medical condition of Trigeminal neuralgia caused by cold and droughts and ignored by bar steward. Carriage manager tried to resolve the issue to no avail. Other passengers wrapped in coats, Scarfes, hats, woolie hats. Absolutely ridiculous for 10 hour journey.

Train tipped cocktail over with tilt and not offered a replacement. By bar steward. Very disappointing.

Overall

So gone downhill since our last Princess cruise in 2013 also to Alaska. The experiences above will result in us not cruising with Princess again and we will advise family and friends to likewise not to travel with Princess Princess has lost its way, we used to be big advocates, not is now. Most standards have deteriorated

This was our first Princess cruise. We have cruised with Royal Caribbean but primarily cruise with Celebrity. We chose Princess for Alaska because we wanted to see Glacier Bay. The Discovery was a larger ship than we usually like but it never felt crowded. The room was very nice and the service was consistently good. The main dining room food was alright - about the same as Celebrity. We ate one evening in Catch by Rudy and it was outstanding. However, the reason to take this particular cruise is for the itinerary. It was outstanding. Glacier Bay was beautiful. The on-board naturalist, Rob, gave several entertaining and educational lectures and narrated the College Fjord tour. There were a number of great options for the stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, and for Juneau and Skagway, the port days were long enough to get done what we wanted to do. We also did a post-cruise extension to the Kenai Peninsula and then to Denali, which was fantastically beautiful and run with military precision. I wish we had done this trip with our kids when they were teenagers. I can't wait to go back. Re the ship, specifically, the fitness center was too small, but that's our only beef.

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!

The GOOD:

Ship is beautiful and spotlessly clean

Entertainment throughout ship is quite good, with a very nice variety of styles

Cabins are spacious and comfortable

Stewards are everything you would want them to be.

Embarkation in Vancouver went smoothly. It was a LOT of theme-park style, snaked lines, but we kept moving the whole time

The MEDIOCRE:

The Buffet--while the food was a tad better than "meh," it didn't change from day to day.

Food in the Main Dining Room--this was my 7th cruise, my second with Princess. I did a 21 day Transatlantic on the Island Princess 2 summers ago, so I feel like I'm no stranger to the line. The MDR fare was the least satisfactory of any cruise I've been on. Nothing was excellent and much was poor. I had thought on an Alaskan cruise that I could reasonably anticipate excellent seafood. NOPE. Every piece of fish that I ordered was overcooked and had soggy skin--YUCK. It appears that I am moving into . . .

The BAD

I've got to say that the ENTIRE Food & Beverage experience was the primary component of The Bad.

Not only was the seafood sub-par, but the beef on the ship, throughout the duration of the cruise, had an odd, chemical taste, to the point where several of us in our party of 13 quit ordering anything with beef after Day 2. This included the burgers on the buffet. Someone DID order Prime Rib on the last night of the cruise and said that it was excellent. She shared a bite with me, and FINALLY, good beef.

Not only was the food itself mediocre, but the overall food and beverage service was poor. Again, we were a party of 13. On our ENTIRE 7 days, I was approached by ONE cocktail server ONE time asking if I cared for a drink. ONCE. I ordered one, and she never brought it!

While the baristas at the International Cafe were excellent and friendly, the other baristas throughout the ship always acted like fixing a coffee was an inconvenience. This was the trend with the beverage servers at the buffet as well. It was VERY difficult to find hot water and tea bags at the buffet, and when I would ask a buffet server for hot tea, my request was invariably met with a frown.

Our MDR server as inefficient. He didn't remember the two people who had filled out food intolerance forms pre-cruise until the fourth night, and still fumbled that a couple of times.

The other problem area was the Teen's "Club." Six of our party of 13 are teenagers. Now Princess isn't known for great programming for young people, but we knew that they had SOMETHING. ALL they had was a space, no programming, no staff. Quite a disappointment.

Finally, Baggage claim at Disembarkation was an absolute nightmare. I've never gotten off a ship to claim my bags with NO signage. The bags were simply all lined up in a huge room with NO signage and NO personnel to help identify how we might begin our search. It was AWFUL.

I'm booked for a 17 day Antarctic cruise in DEC '27, and I find myself questioning the wisdom of that . . .