Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Cruising from Seattle to Alaska – On Board the Discovery Princess
I’m back for another installment from our cruise to Alaska – was it just last month? – this time focusing on our experience at sea on the Discovery Princess. Launched in the spring of 2022, the Discovery is much larger than either of the two ships we’d sailed previously and was our home for seven nights.
We boarded the Princess at Pier 91 in Seattle and went up top for photos – this one taken by travelers from Baltimore who asked us to take their picture. We did and they reciprocated. This was welcome as we have never taken a successful selfie.
You can see the Space Needle in the background, the mid-century icon that makes our city recognizable around the world (at least I think it does,)
along with a ghostly apparition of Mt. Rainier hidden by cloud cover.
Later that night we enjoyed dramatic skies at sunset with the clouds foretelling what was ahead the next couple of days.
Soon we were exploring the ship inside and out, getting acquainted with18 decks, restaurants and entertainment venues, a quest we continued all week.
The Princess Theatre is the largest venue and many shows and presentations occurred here throughout the cruise. We attended a few of them.
My favorite was the naturalist, Michael Modzelewski, who shared his extensive knowledge of the Inside Passage, covering wildlife, native culture, glaciers and more.
In addition to the times in the theatre he also kept us apprised of the nature around us throughout the cruise, pointing out a whale here and seals there, especially in Endicott Arm, a highlight of our trip.
Food is a big part of any cruise and we enjoyed all the offerings. Half the time we opted for the buffet, the World Fresh Marketplace, which had every kind of food imaginable. We ate in the dining rooms a few times (not on formal dress-up nights) and on our final night at sea, paid the upcharge and dined at Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria, with too many courses, all very good.
Suffice it to say, the entire cruise was fun and relaxing. Yes, there were occasional high waves and rough seas, but our giant ship and competent captain managed them well.
My only disappointment was the missing Promenade Deck. Well, not exactly missing, Deck 7 Promenade existed, but was not completely walkable around the entire ship, which was one of my favorite things to do on previous cruises. Instead, there was a ‘jogging track’ on an upper deck, shorter and not under cover so not great for rainy days. (I may opt for an older, smaller ship on our next cruise with the traditional promenade deck.)
That’s enough for now.
Here’s Ketchikan and Endicott Arm from previous posts if you missed them.
I’ll save Juneau and Skagway for another time.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Love the cute photo of you guys! 🥰 Looks like you had lots of fun!
Thank you so much! We had a great time, and I was happy to get a photo of us together as we have so few of them.
I can sympathize about the promenade deck. On our last cruise the ship was huge and instead of a promenade deck that went all the way around they had a running/jogging track that was partially outside and partly wound around under the co-kart track – noisy and smelly. I think I preferred the Holland line over NCL…
Yes, I was so surprised when I went down to deck 7 and it didn’t go all the way around the ship. We sailed on smaller ships (both Princess and Holland) and they both had the promenade deck. The jogging track was nice and clean on the Discovery, with hardly anyone up there, but not great in bad weather.
Terrific photos and a great inside look at what it’s like to be on a large cruise ship…the shot of the various floors laid out is interesting..we have avoided doing a cruise like this due to the crowds we expect on such a large ship but you dont show many people – is it a case of finding the quiet spots?
Thanks, John. The ship is so big with so many places to go, both inside and out, it never felt that crowded. And you can also sit and gaze at the ocean scenery from your own balcony. My favorite place used to be the promenade deck as you were almost always alone. The jogging deck on Discovery was usually deserted but the weather wasn’t always agreeable to walking, which is why I think I’ll take a smaller ship next time.
We dont like the idea of thousands not he ship, but as you say, there are places to get away…and I LOVE the idea of letting the ship take me to a location and I don’t have to get on or off, go through security, fly a plan and get a cab…once on you don’t have to leave except to explore the places they take you!
Yes, that’s the best part! You get dropped off at the pier, and the rest is up to them! You have everything you need till you return so it’s very relaxing. Out of 7 days, we were at sea half the time, and other half, exploring the ports, either on our own, or on an excursion we signed up for.
I do hope you had decent weather. SE Alaska can be really wet. I know, I used to live up there!
Some days were better than others, but we still had a great time!!
Looks like a great trip. We haven’t been on a cruise since our honeymoon 31 years ago. 🙂
We took our first cruise 6 years ago and fell in love with cruising!
That ship is enormous, like a floating town. It wouldn’t be great for me, as I am not a good sailor anyway, and the number of other passengers would put me off. But the destination is what it’s all about, and you saw some amazing sights.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks, Pete. The best part was definitely the scenery. We enjoyed our time on the ship too, but I think I prefer the smaller ones with the promenade decks, we sailed on before..
Thanks for sharing such a delightful cruise, Susanne.
Thank you, Don. 😊 Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, that IS a giant ship! I’ve seen these huge cruise ships occasionally but never (yet) been on one. I’d assumed you were on an expedition ship for a trip like this or a smaller cruise ship – I didn’t realise such big ones could navigate those passages!
Yes, it’s the largest class of Princess ships and took us a while to find our way around. It handled the inside passage easily as well as the narrow Endicott Arm, and probably more smoothly than smaller ships. We chose it for the itinerary, not necessarily the size. Our first cruise to Alaska was on the older and smaller Holland America Eurodam. Both were fun trips.