Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Princess Cruise Line

MS Star Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Dan Cencak
Date of Trip: May 12, 2003
# previous cruises: 4
Itinerary: Nowhere

First off, this was an overnight repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Seattle to welcome Princess Cruise Line in its inaugural visit to the Emerald City. Only one word need to describe Star Princess: BIG! If you want it all, on the west coast, then there is no bigger. Princess has had a name in the cruise industry for 3 decades and was responsible for building the cruise industry into the mega-million dollar industry that we experience today.

The Star had a great layout. One would assume due to the sure 109,000 tons in size that you would easily get lost and never see the same part of the ship two days in a row, however this ship is passenger friendly and pretty easy to navigate your way through the 14 decks of accommodations (though the highest deck is listed as deck 18). Public spaces were of course plentiful and gratuitous in size, without feeling like a mouse in an open air stadium. The promenade deck is a wonder. Princess introduced this circumnavigatable deck where you can literally walk all 951 feet in length from stem to stern and from port to starboard. The trick to this was to extend an open air covered deck one deck below the forecastle (the bow deck) that allows the promenader to continue his stroll completely around the ship. For this ship enthusiast, this just did not seem right, but it was fun and one great space that was hardly occupied. I just wonder what it would be like during a bit of a choppy sea? To make this space even more appealing the forward 1/5th or so of this deck is one deck higher than the main promenade. In this somewhat secluded part of the deck there are 4 cabins on either side that have private balconies.

The food and service were below standard, but for understandable reasons. As this was a one night repositioning cruise, I'd expect that the crew's heart was not in it for pampering a ship that was likely 2/3 empty. I'd like to say that Princess has better service than what we experienced.

I occupied that one ocean view cabin in the very bottom of the ship, all the way forward on the Starboard side # P202. The cabin had a generous size window (I could not call this a porthole as it was much larger and of different configuration) It had 2 twin beds, a refrigerator and a fair sized open closet area next to the head (bathroom). The beds even seemed comfortable, even for motel standards. (to those non-cruisers, beds on ships typically are below motel standards. Note I am not referring to Hotel standards.) The room was clean, spacious for its size and had nice detail work for added visual appeal.

Our one night of entertainment was great. The performers were of a caliber you'd expect from a desert casino city.

This really is not applicable for an overnight cruise. However, Seattle's reputation for a cruise port has been growing exponentially since its cruising debut earlier this decade.

This was a very mixed crowd. Average age was likely 35. I think that the repositioning cruise attracted a lot of first time cruisers due to its duration and its low cost. I paid $148 inclusive for his one night venture.