Discovery Princess Review: Northbound Alaska (Vancouver to Whittier)

From Down Under to the Great Land

There is something uniquely exciting about catching a ship right as it changes hemispheres. Fresh off a massive transpacific repositioning crossing from its season in Australia, the Discovery Princess—the sparkling crown jewel and final vessel of Princess’s highly successful Royal-class—docked in Vancouver to kick off its Alaskan season.

We hopped aboard this 143,000-ton beauty on Saturday, May 9th, for a classic northbound “Voyage of the Glaciers” itinerary. Sailing in early May meant catching the very crisp beginning of the Alaska season. Our route took us from Vancouver up through Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, followed by an unforgettable day in Glacier Bay National Park and a scenic run through College Fjord, before final disembarkation in Whittier, Alaska.

The Quick Scorecard

Category	Rating	Insider Take
The Ship	⭐⭐⭐⭐☆	Modern, elegant, and classy. Peak maturation of the Royal-class design.
The Food	⭐⭐⭐☆☆	Decent, but didn’t quite blow us away. Veteran cruisers will notice downgrades.
The Itinerary	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Absolute perfection. Glacier Bay and College Fjord is an unbeatable combo.
Overall	⭐⭐⭐⭐☆	A smooth, highly memorable vacation that delivers exactly what it promises.

Ship Flow & The Balcony Savior (Cruising with a 9-Month-Old)

A common critique of mega-ships in Alaska is that everyone gets “trapped indoors” when the weather turns, leading to claustrophobic public spaces. On our sailing, the Discovery Princess proved that good architecture handles a full complement of passengers with ease—though we also lucked out with beautiful, uncharacteristically sunny and dry Alaskan days the entire trip.

Aside from the first sea day—where crowds predictably peaked in the World Fresh Marketplace (buffet) at lunchtime and packed the lounges after dark—the ship never felt overwhelmingly busy. The massive vessel allowed passengers to spread out naturally. There are plenty of lounges, bars, and common areas that we never had issues finding seat somewhere or grabbing a quick drink before an event.

Princess’s Royal class is a perfect entry level cruise with the layout focused heavily in two areas. Half of deck 5 and 6, and all of 7 are the main indoor public spaces filled with restaurants, shops, a casino, the spa, theater, and plenty of bars and lounges. They all radiate from the central lobby Princess refers to as “The Piazza”, or the heart of the ship. Then up on the Lido deck 16 through 18 are the outdoor public spaces – providing plenty of loungers, pools, hot tubs, and more. These areas were best enjoyed bundled up with a blanket that Princess loans out at no charge. The layout is quick and easy to understand, and navigating this vessel becomes second nature rather quickly.

🍼 The 9-Month-Old Factor: Traveling with an infant completely alters how you utilize a cruise ship. Instead of fighting for lounge chairs on deck, our stateroom balcony became our private scenic-cruising sanctuary. Because a northbound Alaskan route offers near-constant views of snow-capped peaks and coastal wilderness, we could watch the stunning landscape glide past right from our room during nap times without missing a single beat. If you are cruising Alaska with a baby, spring for the balcony and mini-suite. It is the ultimate logistical game-changer.

The Dining Dilemma: 400 Nights of Perspective vs. A First-Timer’s Eyes

Evaluating the food on Discovery Princess forces an honest, internal conflict. On this sailing, we traveled with family members who were taking their very first cruise. To them, the food was a home run. They were thoroughly impressed by the sheer volume, the specialty venues, and how seamlessly the galley staff managed accommodations for a strict dairy allergy.

But when you have over 400 nights at sea with Princess, your eyes are tuned to a different frequency. You stop looking at the grand spectacle and start noticing the corporate optimization—the small, overlooked details where corners have been quietly cut over the years. While the baseline quality remains “decently good,” the overall culinary ambition has noticeably shifted.

🦪 360: An Extraordinary (and Expensive) Mixed Bag

We were invited to enjoy an evening at 360: An Extraordinary Experience, Princess’s highly exclusive, technologically immersive dining venue which runs $149 per person. The overall experience is very much worth it in our eyes, but its worth knowing exactly what you are signing up for:

• The Production (5/5): From an experiential standpoint, it is out of this world. You sit in an intimate circular room wrapped in a 360-degree screen that paints a stunning visual narrative of a journey through the Mediterranean. You meet the local farmers via video, interactive projections dance across your table, and thematic scents are pumped into the space. The service is flawless, and the drinks are spectacular – there is truly nothing else like it.
  
• The Food (2/5): For a premium-priced meal, the actual food was shockingly weak and left us hungry. Course one was simple pita bread, hummus, and olives. The Spanish course was literally tomato spread on toast—a classic dish, sure, but one that costs less than a dollar to produce. The “surf and turf” featured shrimp instead of lobster, and the best dish of the night was a lemon pasta that amounted to just lemon, butter, and noodles. The storytelling is Michelin-starred; the actual plate economy is budget-conscious.

🍉 The World Fresh Marketplace: Buffet Variety Without Variation

The buffet suffers from a similar corporate restraint. There are a lot of stations, but there is almost zero day-to-day variation. If you like the gyro bar, the Mexican station, or a fruit selection consisting almost entirely of melons, you’re in luck—because it will be the exact same setup every single afternoon.

The rotating daily feature simply swaps one basic concept for another: a pasta bar becomes a ramen bar, which later becomes a standard grill station (offering burgers that aren’t quite as good as the free ones right out by the pool). High-end crowd-pleasers like the shrimp cocktail bars and premium beef items have largely vanished from the rotation.

🍝 The Saving Graces: Sabatini’s & The Catch by Rudi

It isn’t all corporate cost-cutting, though. When Princess lets its culinary teams cook properly, they still deliver magic. Meals at Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria and The Catch by Rudi were standout experiences. The service was pristine, and the environment allowed us to truly enjoy the best part of sea travel: floating in the middle of the ocean completely unplugged from reality.

However, there is still a lingering struggle for past guests. If you remember the original menus of these specialty venues from years ago, the current iterations pale slightly in comparison—featuring fewer high-quality items and a less impressive presentation overall.

The Port Breakdown: Beyond the Diamonds & Tourist Traps

Because this was a true northbound itinerary, the voyage built massive momentum with every single stop. Pushing a stroller meant skipping high-adrenaline helicopter excursions, but these three ports proved to be incredibly accessible, rich in history, and packed with local flavor if you know where to look.

📍 Port 1: Ketchikan – Coffee, Canals, and Culture

Ketchikan features a compact, walkable downtown area that’s easy to navigate. While the main drag is filled with cookie-cutter jewelry stores and tourist traps you can easily overlook, the real magic lies just a few blocks away.

• The Morning Fuel: We bypassed the ship coffee and started at Alaska Coffee for some excellent local espresso.
• The Lumberjack Show: We caught the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, located right near the docks. It’s an absolute blast—fantastic atmosphere, high energy, and an impressive showcase of pure strength and logging skill.
• The Local Eats: For lunch, we hit the Alaska Fish House. The breaded and fried halibut and cod were unbelievably fresh and flaky. (Pro-tip: Salmon shouldn’t be fried in my opinion, but even their fried salmon was good!) If you want a legendary local burger instead, keep an eye out for Burger Queen.
• Creek Street & Married Man’s Trail: We walked over to Ketchikan’s famous Creek Street, a historic elevated wooden boardwalk built over the water. It famously housed the town’s red-light district during the Gold Rush, but today it features a unique blend of walk-through museums, gift shops, and an awesome local cannabis dispensary. Following the boardwalk to the end leads you to Married Man’s Trail, a peaceful wooded walking path along the hillside that brings you right to an active salmon ladder. Pushing past into the residential area, we found a native totem pole museum where we spent an hour admiring the historic craftsmanship and learning about indigenous culture.

📍 Port 2: Juneau – Sled Dogs & Puppy Cuddles

Juneau is Alaska’s landlocked capital, and for this stop, we focused on an experience that the whole family (especially a 9-month-old) could enjoy: the world of dog mushing.

• Iditarod Spring Training: We took a quick 20-minute bus ride out of the bustling downtown into a gorgeous, dense forested area. Here, we met a team of incredible Iditarod sled dogs. Because it was May, they were in the middle of spring training to keep their conditioning up for the winter.
• The Dog Cart Ride: We hopped onto a custom, motorless 6-seat wheeled cart, and the pack pulled us at thrilling speeds through the wooded trails. The power and enthusiasm of these dogs are unreal.
• The Highlight: Before heading back, they gave us 20 minutes to sit down and cuddle with a litter of 6-week-old husky puppies. They were sleepy, soft, and incredibly sweet—unquestionably one of the emotional highlights of the entire trip.

📍 Port 3: Skagway – Gold Rush Rails & A Crew Secret Restored

Skagway is a tiny town of just 350 year-round residents. It is a perfectly preserved, living time capsule themed to the late 1800s Gold Rush, complete with wooden sidewalks, old-timey storefronts, and local lore about “Soapy Smith”—the legendary scoundrel who scammed hopeful miners.

• The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad: This is the definitive Skagway experience. We boarded the historic vintage train right from the dock for a 3-hour journey up the mountains. The cars are heated and feature massive glass windows. We snaked our way up 2,800 feet, crossing terrifyingly high bridges and plunging through mountain tunnels, tracing the exact, brutal trail carved by the 1897 gold stampeders. The snow-covered mountain vistas at the summit are breathtaking.
• Local Treats: Back in town, we visited the state’s very first licensed dispensary, grabbed a latte, and treated ourselves to a classic Klondike Doughboy—a massive sheet of fried dough covered in cinnamon and sugar.
• The Ultimate Crew Insider Secret: For dinner, we hunted down Starfire. Back when I worked onboard ships years ago, this standalone restaurant was the ultimate secret spot where crew members would go to escape ship food. Sadly, COVID-19 shut it down for over five years. This season marks their grand return as a small food truck, and the ship crews have already rediscovered it. I ordered the Pad Thai, and I can confidently say it is still the absolute best Pad Thai I have ever had in my life. It tasted exactly like I remembered.

The Scenic Cruising Days: Glacier Bay & College Fjord

Following our port stops, the itinerary transitioned into back-to-back scenic cruising days. This is where the Discovery Princess truly shone as a platform for a young family.

• Glacier Bay National Park: This is the undisputed crown jewel of Alaska. National Park Rangers boarded the ship early in the morning, setting up a temporary station and providing live narration over the ship’s speakers. Servers were offering hot chocolate and coffee on the pool deck all day long, and the views were never ending. Because we had a balcony, we could sit comfortably outside with the baby, shielded from the wind, staring for hours at passing chunks of ice that had calved off local glaciers. Finally, the journey up the inlet ended with a long stay at Margerie Glacier and all the surrounding wildlife that call Glacier Bay home.
• College Fjord: The next day brought us scenic cruising north and a pass through College Fjord in the late evening, a stunning amphitheater of glaciers named after prestigious East Coast universities (like Harvard and Yale). It offered a completely different, narrower, and steeper landscape than Glacier Bay, providing a perfect cap to the scenic voyage before we made our final early-morning arrival into the quirky, tunnel-accessible port of Whittier for disembarkation. This town all lives in one hotel like building, and the only way to access the town by land is through a 7 mile tunnel under a mountain.

🏁 The Final Verdict: Is Discovery Princess Right for Alaska?

The Good: The Discovery Princess is an exceptional ship that handles the geographic layout of Alaska beautifully. If you travel with an infant or prioritize comfort, the stateroom balconies offer an unbeatable private theater to watch the Great Land glide by. The northbound itinerary via Glacier Bay and College Fjord is arguably the best route in the entire cruise industry. Service is top notch, and the sights couldn’t be beat – this cruise is for everyone.

The Bad: If you are a veteran Princess cruiser, you will notice the subtle corporate budget cuts in the buffet variety and the premium dining venues like 360. Less overall Alaskan theming in general, and a major downgrade in Medallion features onboard are also quite evident for those who’ve enjoyed them in the past.

The Bottom Line: For first-timers, families with young children, or anyone looking for a relaxing, classic, and deeply memorable introduction to the raw beauty of Alaska, this ship delivers a premium 4-star vacation that you will be talking about for years.