Hi Ya'll...I am usually a Carnival girl and have booked our 08 Alaska Cruise on the Carnival Spirit.
A friend of mine recommended the Golden Princess for an Alaskan Cruise. The 2008 Alaskan Cruise Prices are not out yet, but I wanted some feedback in case the prices are comparable.

So...how is the Golden Princess? Would love all honest opinions as this would be our first Princess cruise.

I'll bet once you've been on Princess, you'll not want to go back to Carnival. They're my favorite line, so far. We've been on HAL, RCCL, NCL, Costa, Carnival, and Princess. To me, Princess does it best. The service is amazing, the food is awesome, the ships are beautiful. It's just a cut above the rest. Now, this is my opinion, and there are plenty that have other opinions. But, I would almost guarantee that the value of a Princess cruise is beyond compare. Best wishes!

Hello cruizinallthetime,

I have not yet cruised Carnival so I can't give you a comparison. But I have been cruising Princess since 1974 so you could say I am a "satisfied customer".

The Grand Class ships (Golden Princess is one of three sisters) are magnificent; lots or restaurants, lounges, fresh water pools; lots of deck space; lots of quiet areas inside and out.
The ships are kept in excellent repair and immaculately clean.
The staff and crew are friendly and courteous. And the food and service are excellent. The decor and ambiance is classy, even elegant--but not stuffy; lots of art and fresh flowers.

And Princess pioneered Alaska cruising almost 50 years ago and they really have it down. And I have always felt that Princess gives you good value for your cruise dollar.

I'm sure you would be very pleased with a cruise to Alaska on Golden Princess. If I can help in any other way, please ask.

Have fun deciding--enjoy the process.

Penny, you beat me to it again!

Note to cruisinallthetime: penny3333 and I are neither empolyees of nor stockholders in Princess--just really satisfied customers!

Thanks penny3333 and f-mattox. I appreciate finding out from people who have been there. Sounds to me like it is a wonderful cruise experience...which is what I would like for my first time in Alaska!
Thank you for your honest opinions.

In addtion to the Golden Princess, the following Princess Cruise ships will be sailing to Alaska in 2008:

Coral Princess
Dawn Princess
Diamond Princess
Island Princess
Sapphire Princess

Todd - THE MADNESS - THE MADNESS! AH - time to do a little more research. I will definitely have my ducks in a row about Princess before they release the 2008 Alaska Prices.
Thanks for the heads up

Chris,

Another Princess Cruiser checking in with a thumbs up to try the Golden

I have been on many cruise lines, but, exclusive with Princess since 1996.
Been on the Golden several times, in fact just back from Cape Horn cruise & going back in November on her.

If you go to my webshots link below you'll see several Golden Princess albums to look at.

Good Luck. I do not think you'll be unahppy.

Cathy

Sunprincess. I enjoyed the photos. Beautiful ship..but also, beautiful cruise.
All of this is making me so excited about trying to book on Princess. I really hope this can become a reality.

Princess also have the best rail cars and the best hotels (their own)xfor land tours.

quote:

Originally posted by cruizinallthetime:
Hi Ya'll...I am usually a Carnival girl and have booked our 08 Alaska Cruise on the Carnival Spirit.
A friend of mine recommended the Golden Princess for an Alaskan Cruise. The 2008 Alaskan Cruise Prices are not out yet, but I wanted some feedback in case the prices are comparable.

So...how is the Golden Princess? Would love all honest opinions as this would be our first Princess cruise.

Hi there! I went on my first European cruise on the Golden Princess and absolutely loved it. The service was impecable, food amazing, rooms small but decent, and I loved having a balcony. The turn down service at night in our room was awesome...we got a chocolate on the pillow! The only thing that was hectic was getting off the boat and finding our own luggage in the "pile" at Southampton. Other than that I had no complaints what-so-ever. I'm trying to decide myself between Carnival (I want to try another cruise line...maybe) or Princess as I was so happy with them in '05. Good luck with what you decide!
PS-it was really amazing coming back from our shore excursions and seeing that HUGE ship at port...gave me a thrill each time!

Hello again, cruizinallthetime;

well, as if your decision wasn't tough enough, let me throw this at ya': I just spent 15 beautiful days on Island Princess and if I was going to book an Alaskan cruise tomorrow I would book either Island Princess or Coral Princess; not that there is anything in the world wrong with Golden Princess, but Island (and twin sister Coral) have just about everything Golden does and a lot less passengers. And while I didn't take measurements to verify it, I feel there is more open deck space for outside viewing--very important on Alaska cruises.
And the Horizon Court buffet is up high and all the way forward and makes a great observation lounge if the weather is being inhospitable.

Any Princess ship will give you a great cruise experience; but from what I've seen, I'd go with Island Princess or Coral Princess.

Rick

fmattox - thanks for that glowing review. I wish I could say that is was Princess. Our group opted out for Celebrity Infinity. I am trying to be "very happy" about it. (See my Celebrity Infinity thread under Celebrity).
We did receive excellent rooms 272 sq feet with 41 sq ft balcony for $10.00 over the regular balcony rate. Everyone is booked on it, so it looks like it's a GO!
Thanks for all the help - I am definitely going to try Princess...just not for Alaska

Nothing but positive for me with Princess. I have been on the Golden and loved the ship. I did Sun Princess a few years back to Alaska and had a wonderful time. Plan on the cruisetour if you can.

I've cruised 4 times, all of which are on Princess (Coral, Diamond, Sapphire, Golden) so I'm not sure how it compares to the others. I was just on the Golden Princess this month (10d Mexican Riviera) and have yet to do an Alaskan itinerary.

After all that, my overall impressions of the Golden is 8 out of 10. I remember being WOWd on my first cruise on the Sapphire in 2004. Didn't feel that on the Golden.

Comparing the Golden with the Diamond, Sapphire and Coral, the dinner menus to me were ok, entertainent was ok and a bit dated, my bed was ok. Gosh, the internet service was just horrible. 75 cents a minute and it takes 4 minutes to load gmail! This was a lot better in the other 3 ships. Wonder what is up with the Golden on this one.

However, the service is always great at Princess which I thought was most consistent. I would cruise with Princess again. Have fun in your Alaska cruise, can't go wrong with them overall!

Just got off the Golden to Alaska. Great cruise with good service.

Menus were the same "Princess" menus that you find on all of the ships. We will be glad when the new menus hit the entire fleet. Food was generally good but, except for the Desert Rose, the beef was poor quality.

Production shows were great with some wonderfully talented dancers.

Beds were the worst ever. The ship is beginning to look dated and could use a stay in dry dock to freshen it up a bit.

Agree that the internet service was poor and felt it was more than the location of the ship. Interesting that so few people were in the Internet Cafe but then again there were only 500 repeat cruisers on this cruise and only 19 Elite so very few had any "free" internet.

We felt Princess does Alaska much better than HAL did.

Chris, I may not be too popular in this forum with the post I'm making but you'll also enjoy the Infinity. Princess does a great job, as you can see they have a very loyal following. Celebrity is considered one of the premium lines among mainstream cruiselines. Infinity is a smaller ship by todays standards at under 2000 pax (so some of the benefits of f-mattox recommendation are there). I get very good reports from her, as I do from the Princess ships listed above on this thread.

Please don't go into planning for your next cruise feeling down because your group chose Celebrity. Enjoy every minute of it and when you get back, plan your next cruise on Princess if you'd like.

Haooy sailing, Neil

Haooy sailing?

Just to add to what you said, Neil;
We spoke to many people on our Hawaii cruise who have sailed with Celebrity (and on Infinity) and they all raved about it--not one negative comment--and this from some very experienced Princess veterans. So much so that I've got Celebrity on my radar now.

Rick

f-mattox, the p's are vey near the o's on this here keyboard. That wasn't Hawaiian, just a typo. They say in Hawaii you pronounce all the vouls in those words that look like they can't be pronounced.

I'm amazed you would admit to considering Celebrity in this forum, isn't that considered blasfamy (spelling?)? Better hope Penny doesn't pop back in here.

Happy sailing, Neil (got the p's this time)

No Neil, it's not blasphemy; it's honesty. With all the experience represented in these threads, honesty is the best policy (I just made that up). I've tried to fudge a couple of times and was quickly called to task.

And Penny understands; she's been on lots of cruise lines and I know she wouldn't begrudge me the chance to do the same.
Don't forget, I'm meeting her on Carnival!

Rick