Star Princess Full Ship Tour · What We Loved and What We Didn’t

Alaska is a bucket list trip, and we got to do it aboard Princess’s newest ship, the Star Princess. We sailed in a Sanctuary Collection mini suite, which meant access to the exclusive Sanctuary Club outdoor space, and we absolutely took advantage of that. She is a beautiful ship. We just wish Princess had spent a little more time working on passenger flow, because there is real room for improvement there.

This is the full walkthrough, deck by deck, from the embarkation landing on Deck 4 all the way up to the sports deck and the viewing area at the very tippy top. Along the way we will tell you which venues we actually ate at, which bars are worth hunting down, and whether the Sanctuary Collection upgrade earned its money.

Starting on Deck 4: The Landing and the Spa

Let’s start on Deck 4 at the landing. This is where you embark and disembark on port days, so this is where you come when you are ready to get off the ship and when you come back on. It is a big wide space with room for photographers, and it made port mornings genuinely convenient. It is also right near the medical center, which we hope you never need, but every ship has one.

The spa is up on Deck 5 and it was a little tricky to find, though there were staff posted to point us in the right direction. We took the tour and got to sit in the heated loungers, which was lovely. It was tour day so we did not get to try any actual treatments, but it is a beautiful space with steam rooms, a salt room, an aromatherapy room, massages, facials, and acupuncture. If you want a spa day, look into a pass for the whole length of the cruise rather than paying per visit, because the multi day pass comes at a discount.

Deck 6: Kids Clubs, Laundry, and the Aurora Dining Room

Firefly Park is the kids club for ages three to seven and it is so cute in here. We loved the paintings on the wall, the colors, and the little activity areas: a giant Connect 4, tumble mats, a play structure, and carpet that looks like grass. Staff are always present. The day we walked through, the World Cup final was on the TV, which is not the usual programming.

Guest services sits in an unusual spot compared to other ships we have sailed. It is down on Deck 6, and besides Firefly Park, that is about all that is down there. There is a laundry room on each deck with washers, dryers, and an ironing board. It costs $3 per wash and $3 per dry, so $6 to do a load, and you can buy soap right there or bring your own. This is also the only place you are allowed to use an iron on board, because you are definitely not allowed to bring your own.

At the far back of Deck 6 is the Aurora Dining Room, one of several main dining rooms. They all share the same menu and the same enormous aft windows, and they run different seating styles: traditional fixed seating, walk in whenever, or join a waitlist from your phone. We did not eat in the main dining room on this trip because we had the Sanctuary restaurant, but the views back there are hard to beat.

Deck 7: Shops, the Piazza, and the Restaurants We Actually Tried

Deck 7 holds the shops, broken up into a few separate spaces. On sea days they are open with attendants who will help you find a particular bourbon or rum. One shop leaned heavily into Alaska with smoked salmon, jams, warm jackets, souvenirs, and work from authentic Alaskan artists. The Princess logo shop has everything you can imagine with a logo on it, including some very cute pink Princess bears.

A small warning about Deck 7: there are doors to the outside, but they do not really go anywhere. You get a tiny square of deck with a beautiful view, and then it is blocked off. You cannot walk the lower promenade all the way around this ship.

The Wheelhouse Bar sits just outside the Crown Grill steakhouse, and the bartenders there were great. We ate at Crown Grill one night and had no complaints at all: great table, great service, great food, and it was included in our Princess Premier package. Catch by Rudi is the seafood specialty restaurant and it is one of our favorites on Princess. The tables sit right by the windows, though the deck outside is full of equipment so the view is not as good as it could be. We met a lovely couple there who had eaten at Catch every single night because she wanted to try everything on the menu.

Sabatini’s is the Italian specialty restaurant. We ate there and it was really good, just not our favorite of the week, and the service was excellent. Makoto Ocean does fresh sushi. Butcher Block by Dario and Umi Teppanyaki round out the specialty lineup, and we did not eat at either one, so we cannot speak to them. Alfredo’s is the casual Italian spot where a full pizza counts as your entree, included under Princess Premier casual dining or about $15 a person.

One piece of advice we would give anyone: book your specialty restaurants through the app before you board, or right when you get on. They fill up quickly. You can sometimes get squeezed in, but we would not count on it.

Bars Worth Finding

Good Spirits is one of Christina’s favorite places on the ship. It is tricky to find and we encourage you to seek it out anyway. The bartender, Anna, was amazing, and they had special lodge style ski drinks that were delicious. The tables change color, sometimes looking like glacier ice and sometimes like lava, and in the evenings they do drink demonstrations with the whole backstory behind each cocktail.

Crooners is a piano bar and this is where we discovered the moose fart, a layered shot that is now Christina’s favorite drink at sea. There is also a duck fart and a bear fart. Christina did not care for the bear fart. If you try it, tell us in the comments what you think, because opinions are clearly needed here.

The Bellini cocktail bar was always packed, and the views from it never got old. O’Malley’s Irish Pub has been moved on this ship so that it is a fully enclosed space, which means the live band inside and the live band out in the Piazza no longer step on each other. That is a real improvement over the Discovery and the Majestic. O’Malley’s also serves casual dining fare like burgers and fish and chips, included with Princess Premier.

There is also a bar just outside the Dome where the sound of the water makes it a genuinely pleasant place to sit with a cocktail. And if you ask nicely, some of the bars will make you a spiked hot cocoa. Thank you, Arnold.

The Piazza and Entertainment

The Piazza is the center of the ship and the center of the activity. In Alaska they brought sled dog puppies into the Piazza, the cutest, fluffiest little mushers in training, and that was easily the highlight of Christina’s day. They also run contests, dances, and all sorts of events down there.

Princess Arena is the main show lounge, designed in the round so the stage pushes out into the room. There are genuinely no bad seats, and Princess Premier gets you reserved seating. Princess Live is a smaller venue with its own bar where they run talks, games, and music trivia, and it is a good place to wander into on a port day or a sea day because something is always happening.

Spellbound by Magic Castle was the standout of our week. It is a speakeasy, not as exclusive as some of the ones we have seen elsewhere, and we made our reservation before we even boarded. It costs $45 per person and that includes two drinks, the pre show, and the main magic show. You order from beautiful menus at your table, and Tony got a fancy one that came with a hat and a special coin for the Zoltar machine. Then you move into a small show lounge for a magician who was, genuinely, unforgettable. We still do not know how he did that.

There are two casinos, one smoking and one not. The main casino allows smoking and we honestly did not notice an overpowering smell. You gamble using your medallion and charge to your room, and if you earn enough points there are free cruises and other offers on the table. The non smoking casino is smaller but perfectly spacious.

The Sanctuary Collection: Our Honest Take

The Sanctuary restaurant is reserved exclusively for guests in Sanctuary Collection cabins, which is what we booked. It was open for breakfast and dinner, we never waited for a table, and by our second visit the staff knew who we were and walked us straight over. The menu differs slightly from the main dining room, and there is a small side buffet: extra pastries, fruit cups, and granola at breakfast, then appetizers, cheese, and charcuterie at dinner.

Walk all the way through the Sanctuary restaurant and you reach the Wake View Terrace, with an infinity pool, a lot of seating, and a gorgeous view straight back over the wake. You can also reach it from Deck 9 by the buffets, going outside and down the stairs.

Up above, the Sanctuary Club outdoor space is what we would call the great outdoors. The furniture is straight out of a log cabin and it is the only place on the ship with anything like it. There are rocking chairs that are extremely comfortable, day beds, a pool that was actually warm, faux fur blankets if you are lucky enough to grab one, and cabanas you can rent for an extra fee. The cabanas have cozy chairs, a table, a cooler, and we believe power outlets, plus a curtain for privacy. We found the complimentary seating more than sufficient. Our host Dylan was always nice and helpful, there is a champagne wall, and they set out breakfast snacks that change over to lunch snacks later. There is also a self serve coffee maker back there, which mattered to Tony because the mini suite had no coffee maker in the room.

Here is the one real gap. The Signature Suite Lounge is exclusively for suite guests and we did not have access. In Alaska, an indoor exclusive space would have been genuinely valuable, because the Sanctuary is entirely outdoors and on a chilly day it was simply too cold to sit out there. That two story lounge overlooks the wake and has plenty of room. If Princess is reading: the Sanctuary Collection needs an indoor equivalent on cold weather itineraries.

What did make the upgrade pay off: the private restaurant, the outdoor space, a separate and much shorter embarkation line, and the fact that a Sanctuary Collection room automatically includes Princess Premier, which covers drinks, internet, gratuities, and specialty dining. In our opinion that is a great value, and if you were going to buy Premier anyway, do the math before you dismiss the upgrade.

Deck 9: The Buffets and the Promenade

Up on Deck 9 you first come to the outdoor promenade, a big open seating area with a bar along the outside that opens depending on weather. It sits right outside both buffets, the Eatery and the Americana Diner, and you can eat inside or out.

The Americana Diner seemed to serve breakfast later than the Eatery and was often much less crowded, so if you want a seat, head back there. The Eatery is the main buffet, sectioned into desserts, fruits, a ramen station, and a bread station, with fresh made omelets and pasta. Every table has a pitcher of water and the silverware already set, which we thought was a nice touch.

Honestly, we did not care for this buffet layout as much as the Discovery Princess. It bottlenecks. That is the clearest example of the flow problem we mentioned at the top.

Deck 9 also has the photo desk, where Princess Premier includes downloads of all your digital photos plus three prints. From here you can walk almost all the way around the ship on the outdoor promenade, and there is a bar and a small grill out there if you want a burger and a beer in the fresh air.

Deck 17: Love by Britto, the Pool Deck, and the Dome

Love by Britto on Deck 17 is a specialty restaurant, and we did eat here. The food is unique and it was not our favorite dinner, but we loved the experience: heart shaped silverware, everything cut into hearts, pink and purple everywhere, and heart shaped glasses. We had an amazing table by the aft window, and in Alaska the sun stays up seemingly forever, so you can actually see the view at dinner.

The Mix out on Deck 17 is the pool deck cocktail bar, with hot tubs, the big screen, and the ice cream and coffee station. There are two pools up here with a walkway between them, loungers facing out toward the windows and loungers facing in toward the pool, and food kiosks doing tacos, pizza, and burgers so you do not have to go inside. One of those bars had seriously long lines at times.

The Sea View Terrace up in the Dome is the outdoor portion, with hot tubs, a bar, and tiered seating looking straight out over the bow. The glass keeps the wind down, though it is Alaska so it still got chilly. There is also something we have not seen on another ship: a pool that is half outside and half inside, with a little door between the two halves so you can swim from the open air into the Dome.

Inside, the Dome is a gorgeous space. At night they run candlelight concerts with hundreds of little battery candles, and they can cover part of the pool to build a stage. It was warmer than outside and packed with comfortable chairs under that giant glass dome. It is a genuinely unique venue.

Sports Deck and the Very Top

Part of the fitness center runs classes, and there is a full range of equipment: treadmills, free weights, ellipticals, and water stations to stay hydrated. Check the schedule for specialty classes.

Up on the sports deck there is cornhole, basketball, pickleball, a jogging track where seven laps equals a mile, another giant Connect 4, and ping pong, all inside a netted area so you do not lose balls overboard. There is a bench if you need to break from your run. Deck 19 does not run the full length of the ship, only the back portion, so you have to go down to get forward. One deck above the sports deck is another viewing area with very comfortable chairs at the tippy top of the ship, and in Alaska, anywhere you can see a view is a good place to be.

And yes, there is a shuffleboard court. Is it even a ship without one?

Alaska Specifics Worth Knowing

Bring layers. Please. Our first two days were really hot and then it turned downright chilly, and everywhere outside is crowded because everyone wants to see the scenery. We sailed into Endicott Arm to see the glacier, and that is about as close as the big ship gets. You can book a separate small boat tour that takes you nearer.

We did not see many whales on this trip, which honestly surprised us, though we did catch a couple. We passed Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas going the other way, which was the only time we saw her all week. The big ships seem to take turns going down to the glacier, and watching that schedule play out is its own quiet entertainment.

Also worth noting for the art lovers: the art gallery had pieces geared toward Alaska, with moose and eagles, and there is a wall of first call plaques where every port presents the ship with a commemorative plaque on its first visit. The Star Princess is brand new and has already collected quite a few.

So, Would We Sail Star Princess Again?

Overall we had an amazing time. She is an absolutely beautiful ship, and in Alaska you really cannot go wrong. The flow issues and the buffet layout are real and we would not pretend otherwise, and the lack of an indoor Sanctuary space on a cold weather itinerary is a genuine miss. But the Wake View Terrace, the Sanctuary Club, the Dome, and one unforgettable night at Spellbound put this squarely in the column of ships we would happily sail again.