Marc's Public Blog - Trips to other locations


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This is a collection of my blog entries related to short or long trips I went on.
I have some master pages for some specific locations/trips:

paris over many years | UK over many years | Belgium over many years | Holland over many years | Vegas over many years | Australia over many years | Canada over many years | Japan over multiple trips | Italy in 2011 | France in 2013 | Indonesia in 2013 | Japan in 2013 | Japan in 2014 | Taiwan in 2014 | Indonesia in 2014 | New Zealand in 2015 | Japan in 2015 | Costa Rica in 2015 | Singapore in 2016 | South Korea in 2016 | Japan in 2016 | Germany in 2016 | Tasmania 2017 | Japan in winter 2017 | Great Britain in 2017 | Australia Flying Safari 2017 | Philippines 2018 | Spain in 2018 | Alaska in 2019 | England in 2021 | UAE in 2021 | Poland in 2023 | Portugal in 2023 | Thailand in 2023 | Japan Snow 2024 |

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2019/09/20 Golden Princess Cruise Ship from Anchorage/Whittier to Vancouver
π 2019-09-20 01:01 in Ak2019, Ntrips, Trips



This was our first time on a cruiseship. Given that we like having flexibility in our travels and exploring, cookie cutter tours are already something we avoid, although sometimes they can make sense. I was however not very hopeful about an entire week or more or a cruiseship where most people's goal is not to see as much as possible, but maybe optimize their time on a city at sea that happens to bring them to ports from time to time where they might go look at for a short while before quickly getting back to the sanctity of said ship (or am I being unfair? :) ).
Given my expectations, things were mostly in line with what I was prepared for. While the boat seemed big to us, being our first cruiseship, the boat we were on was actually not that huge by cruiseship standards, but honestly it was big enough for us and getting lost in during the week we were on it :) It had:

  • one big enough concert/showroom on 2 floors with live orchestra and performers
  • a 2nd show/movie room on the other side of the ship
  • very bright and huge outdoors screen for movies under the stars (sadly the sound was often not high enough to properly enjoy a movie there)
  • enough restaurants (although more is always possible)
  • a few hot tubs for Arturo :)
  • and more I won't list here
  • This was probably an average cruise (not cheap, not high class), and honestly, I found that we got good value for our money: room with partial view for about $600 per person. The food wasn't best ever, but it was more than decent, especially for the price. This was the obstructed view we had outside our window. Not great, but enough to see still, and enough for my GPS :)


    Thankfully it also had no waterslide and therefore hardly any kids, which was good. On the flipside it did have many older people, some had a hard time getting around and made it difficult at times for us to get around them, given that we were walking twice as fast :)

    movie under the stars, except it was pretty cold and the movie volume was a bit too low
    movie under the stars, except it was pretty cold and the movie volume was a bit too low

    one of the two performance stages
    one of the two performance stages

    it was a decent room
    it was a decent room

    Tech-wise, there was overpriced satellite internet (50c/mn or so). The room had a satellite map for those who didn't have their own GPS :)



    and low resolution picture of the front of the ship
    and low resolution picture of the front of the ship

    It felt like 2/3rd of the staff was either from Malaysia or the Philippines. A few were also from eastern Europe. All from countries were money was worth more. The chefs were good and did a pretty fair job given the food they were given for their menus. They also did carving competitions:




    high tea in our dining room (several on the ship, this was the closest one to our cabin)
    high tea in our dining room (several on the ship, this was the closest one to our cabin)

    outside of our assigned dining room with servers, there was a buffet that was just above average
    outside of our assigned dining room with servers, there was a buffet that was just above average

    but it was fun to see at times
    but it was fun to see at times

    leaning tower of pisa
    leaning tower of pisa

    they were quite good about trying not to spread germs and get everyone sick
    they were quite good about trying not to spread germs and get everyone sick

    we also got a tour of the kitchen
    we also got a tour of the kitchen


    it was big, over 2000 people to feed
    it was big, over 2000 people to feed


    not sure if we were supposed to see this
    not sure if we were supposed to see this



    The boat tried its best to sell you stuff while you were onboard, from jewelry, to art. They did an art expo for us and tried to auction off some pieces:







    A few random boat pictures:






    wine tasting, not sure how good it actually was, though
    wine tasting, not sure how good it actually was, though

    they had a good live band
    they had a good live band

    During the evening activities, some were gameshows, and Jennifer also sung karaoke:

    I played the yes/no game, went first like an idiot and got close but didn't quite make it
    I played the yes/no game, went first like an idiot and got close but didn't quite make it

    another night, some boat staff gave us true and wrong definition of words and we had to guess who was who
    another night, some boat staff gave us true and wrong definition of words and we had to guess who was who

    cooking show
    cooking show


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