Star Princess Alaska Review: We Hosted a Group Cruise — Here’s the Honest Truth
Most cruise reviews are written by someone who sailed once, ate at the buffet twice, and filed a thousand words before the ship reached its first port. This isn’t that.
We sailed Star Princess in Alaska as the hosts of Gaylaska 2026 — a group of over 20 LGBTQ+ travelers we brought aboard for a week through the Inside Passage. That gave us two vantage points at once. We were guests like everyone else, sleeping in the cabins, eating in the dining room, riding the elevators. But we were also running a group: coordinating dinners for a big table, herding people onto excursions, working with the ship’s staff to pull off onboard meetups. You learn a lot about a cruise line when you have to actually manage logistics on their ship.
So this Star Princess Alaska review isn’t a highlight reel. It’s the buying guide we wish we’d had before we booked. We’ll tell you what Star Princess does better than almost anyone, where it genuinely let us down, and whether it’s worth your money for an Alaska cruise.
Short version: for Alaska, yes. We’d sail it again tomorrow. But there are real caveats, and the biggest one might surprise you.
Quick Ratings
Here’s where we landed after seven days aboard. Details on every category follow below.
| Category | Rating | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Ship | 9/10 | Beautiful, modern, well-designed |
| Cabin | 10/10 | One of the best cabins we’ve sailed |
| Food | 5/10 | The biggest disappointment |
| Service | 8/10 | Great crew, inconsistent dining management |
| Entertainment | 6/10 | Excellent musicians, weak production shows |
| Alaska Itinerary | 10/10 | Outstanding |
| Value | 8.5/10 | Excellent for Alaska specifically |
| Overall | 8/10 | We’d sail again — for Alaska |
Who Should Book Star Princess
Star Princess is the right ship for you if:
- Alaska is the whole point. You want glaciers, whales, and long days in port more than you want a party ship. This is where Princess is untouchable.
- You value a great cabin. If where you sleep and unwind matters to you, the staterooms here are a genuine strength.
- You like technology that gets out of your way. The Princess Medallion is the best implementation of “keyless, cashless, effortless” we’ve used at sea.
- You’re traveling as a couple, a family, or a multi-generational group that wants scenery, comfort, and a relaxed pace over late-night energy.
- You’re an LGBTQ+ traveler wondering whether you’ll be comfortable. We were (more on that below).
Who Should Skip Star Princess
Look elsewhere if:
- Food is central to your vacation. The main dining room and buffet underwhelmed us, and no amount of scenery fixes a bland plate.
- You want nightlife and a social scene. If you cruise to dance until 1 a.m. and bar-hop with a crowd, Star Princess will feel quiet.
- You want Broadway-level production shows. The musicians are terrific; the big theatrical productions are not the reason to book.
- You’re chasing a Caribbean party week. For that, this isn’t the ship — and we’ll explain what we’d choose instead.
Why We Chose Princess for Alaska
We book cruises for a living, and we’re picky about which line goes with which destination. For a social Caribbean week, we lean one direction. For Alaska, Princess kept rising to the top, and it wasn’t a close call.
A few reasons. Princess has been sailing Alaska longer than almost anyone, and it shows in the itineraries. They hold coveted permits for glacier viewing, they’ve built an entire onboard program around the destination, and their ships are positioned to spend real time where you actually want to be. When you’re comparing a Princess Cruises Alaska review against the competition, the itinerary quality is where Princess pulls ahead every time.
Star Princess is also brand new. She’s the second ship in Princess’s Sphere Class, delivered in 2025, and 2026 is her first Alaska season out of Seattle. We wanted our group on a modern ship with the newest cabins and the latest technology, and Star Princess checked that box. A 177,800-ton ship carrying around 4,300 guests, she’s big — but she’s laid out so that she rarely feels it.
Put simply: we chose Princess because Princess wins Alaska. After sailing it, we stand by that.
Planning your own trip? Our team lives and breathes LGBTQ+ cruise travel, and we’re happy to match you to the right ship and sailing.
Hosting Gaylaska 2026
Bringing a group of over 20 people onto a cruise ship is its own small logistics operation. You’re coordinating cabins, group dinners, shared excursions, onboard meetups, and the inevitable “where is everyone?” moments. Doing it well requires a ship — and a crew — that can flex with you.
This is the part of our Star Princess review that a solo reviewer simply can’t give you, because we saw the ship from behind the scenes. We worked with onboard staff to organize private group moments, we tested how easy it was to find our people across a huge ship, and we watched how the dining team handled a table that grew and shrank night to night.
Some of that went beautifully. Some of it didn’t. We’ll be specific about both, because if you’re considering Star Princess for your own group cruise, the details matter more than the brochure.
The standout was Melissa, our onboard events coordinator. She was, without exaggeration, one of the best cruise staff members we’ve worked with — organized, warm, and genuinely invested in making our group’s week special. A single great point of contact can make or break a group sailing, and she made ours.
Embarkation Experience
Embarkation in Seattle was smooth, and a lot of that comes down to the Medallion. Because you set up your profile and payment in the app before you ever reach the pier, the check-in line moves. You tap through, your Medallion is ready, and you’re aboard.
For a group our size, that mattered. Nothing kills the start of a trip like watching over 20 people get stuck in a two-hour queue. We didn’t. Within a reasonable window of arriving, most of our travelers were on the ship, drink in hand, exploring.
If you’ve cruised older ships where boarding feels like the DMV, this is a noticeable upgrade. It’s a small thing that sets a good tone.
First Impressions
Walking aboard Star Princess, the first thing you notice is the Piazza — the ship’s three-story atrium and social heart. It’s bright, open, and dramatic, with a suspended glass sphere and sightlines that pull you in. This is where the ship gathers: coffee in the morning, music in the evening, people-watching all day.
Our first reaction was that this is a genuinely handsome ship. Modern without being cold. The finishes feel current, the spaces feel considered, and it reads as new because it is.
First impressions can flatter a ship, so we held our judgment. But a week later, the ship still looked good to us. That’s not always the case.
Ship Design
Star Princess earns her 9/10 on design. Sphere Class is Princess’s newest platform, and the thinking behind it is easy to appreciate once you’re living in it.
The signature feature is The Dome — a glass-enclosed venue at the top of the ship that works as a lounge and pool area by day and an entertainment space by night. It’s a beautiful room, and on an Alaska sailing, a glass ceiling over your head while you watch the coastline slide by is close to perfect.
Layout-wise, the ship flows well. Public spaces are stacked logically, the walk from your cabin to where you’re going rarely feels like a hike, and for a ship carrying 4,300 people, the crowding is better managed than you’d expect. Except for one glaring exception, which we’ll get to in the buffet section.
Our only real design gripe involves that buffet. Otherwise, Princess did their homework here.
Public Spaces
Beyond the Piazza and The Dome, the public areas hold up. There’s a good spread of bars and lounges, comfortable spots to just sit and read, and plenty of glass to take in the scenery — which, on an Alaska cruise, is the entire assignment.
The Princess Arena, the main theater, seats close to 1,000 and is a genuinely impressive room. Princess Live! is a smaller, more intimate venue that we found ourselves drawn to more than once. The casino is there for those who want it, with an expanded non-smoking section that we appreciated.
For a group, the abundance of gathering spaces was a real asset. There was always somewhere to meet up, whether we wanted a quiet corner or a lively bar. That flexibility is underrated until you’re trying to wrangle over 20 people who all want something slightly different.
Cabin Review
This is where Star Princess earned its only perfect score from us, and we don’t hand those out lightly.
Our cabin was one of the best we’ve had at sea. The layout is smart, the bed was excellent, storage was generous, and the whole space felt modern and calm rather than cramped. Sphere Class cabins were clearly redesigned with real attention, and you feel it every time you walk in.
The bathroom was better than the cruise-industry norm. There was enough room to actually move, the shower was good, and the finishes felt like a hotel rather than an afterthought.
And then there was our room steward, who deserves a paragraph of his own. Attentive without hovering, quick with anything we asked, and consistently excellent all week. A great steward turns a nice cabin into a sanctuary, and ours did exactly that.
If you’re weighing whether to splurge on a balcony for Alaska, do it. Sipping coffee on your own balcony while the Inside Passage rolls past is one of the best parts of the whole trip, and the cabins here make it even better.
Princess Medallion Review
If you’ve read anything skeptical about wearable cruise tech, set it aside. Our Princess Medallion review is straightforward: this is the best onboard technology we’ve used, full stop.
The Medallion is a small wearable disc that acts as your key, your wallet, and your locator all at once. Here’s what that meant in practice.
Your door unlocks itself. Walk up to your cabin with the Medallion on you, and the door recognizes you and unlocks. No fumbling for a card. The first time it happens you think it’s a gimmick. By day three it feels like the future and you resent every hotel that still hands you a keycard.
OceanNow delivery is a genuine luxury. With the Premier package, we could order food and drinks from the app and have them brought to us — on the pool deck, in a lounge, wherever we were. For a group, that’s huge. Nobody had to leave the conversation to go find a bar.
You can find your people. The Medallion locates fellow travelers who’ve opted in, both in the app and on screens around the ship. More than once we spotted a member of our group by name on an elevator screen and knew exactly where to meet them. On a 4,300-guest ship, that turned “I’ve lost half my group” into a non-issue.
Is it flawless? No technology is. But the Medallion did what it promised, quietly and reliably, and it made a big ship feel smaller and a group trip feel manageable. It’s a real reason to consider Princess over lines still running older systems.
Food Review
Here’s the hard part of this Star Princess review, and we’re not going to soften it: the food was the biggest disappointment of the trip.
Princess markets Sun Class and Sphere Class ships as foodie destinations at sea. That framing raised our expectations, and the main dining room didn’t meet them. Dishes too often arrived bland — under-seasoned, safe, and forgettable. Not inedible, not offensive, just flat. When you’ve sailed lines where the included dining genuinely impresses, the gap is obvious.
We gave food a 5/10, and that number is doing a specific job. It reflects the everyday, included dining — the main dining room and the buffet — because that’s what most guests eat most of the time. The specialty restaurants (more below) were a step up. But you shouldn’t have to pay extra every night to eat well, and on Star Princess, that’s closer to the reality than we’d like.
One low point deserves a mention, because it speaks to consistency: a member of our group found a broken piece of a plate in their food. Things happen in any kitchen feeding thousands, and the crew addressed it. But it’s the kind of thing that sticks with you, and it fit a broader pattern of the dining operation not being as tight as the rest of the ship.
If you’re booking Star Princess, go in with clear eyes. The scenery is a 10. The included food is not. Plan accordingly — we’ll tell you how.
Buffet Review
The buffet — called The Eatery — was the weakest dining venue on the ship, and part of the problem is the design.
Instead of breaking the space into stations that let people flow in different directions, the layout funnels everyone into essentially one big circular loop. At peak times, that turns into a single crowded ring of guests shuffling shoulder to shoulder. It’s the one place on this otherwise well-designed ship where the crowd management falls apart.
The food itself didn’t rescue it. Buffet quality was below what we’ve come to expect, and combined with the layout, we found ourselves avoiding it when we could. For a ship this new, the buffet felt like a missed opportunity — a space that should be a strength and instead became a place to get in and out of quickly.
Our advice: use the buffet for a fast breakfast or a grab-and-go bite, and do your real eating elsewhere.
Specialty Dining
If the included food disappoints and you want to eat well on Star Princess, specialty dining is your answer. The ship has an impressive roster of paid restaurants, and this is where the “foodie ship” pitch actually holds up.
The lineup includes Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria, the Crown Grill steakhouse, The Catch by Rudi for seafood, The Butcher’s Block by Dario for serious cuts of beef, Makoto Ocean for sushi, Love by Britto, and Umai Teppanyaki. The Catch by Rudi in particular is one of the most striking rooms on the ship, with a glass centerpiece that’s worth seeing even if you don’t dine there.
Here’s the honest framing. On Star Princess, specialty dining isn’t just a treat — it’s closer to the way to guarantee a good meal. If you value food, we’d strongly suggest budgeting for it, or comparing the Princess Plus and Premier packages — Premier includes unlimited specialty visits and makes the math work in your favor. Standalone, specialty dinners run around $60 per adult, so a package pays for itself fast if you plan to eat out often.
It’s a slightly frustrating conclusion — you’re essentially paying to solve a problem the included dining creates — but it’s the practical reality, and knowing it in advance lets you plan a week where you eat well every night.
Entertainment Review
Entertainment on Star Princess was a mixed bag, and our 6/10 reflects a real split.
The musicians were excellent. Across the Piazza, the lounges, and The Dome, the live music was consistently strong — talented performers, good energy, genuinely enjoyable evenings. If your idea of a great cruise night is a good band and a good drink, Star Princess delivers.
The big production shows were the weak spot. Star Princess launched with new theatrical productions, and while they’re competently staged, they didn’t wow us. Compared to what we’ve seen on ships built around entertainment, the productions here felt like the B-side rather than the headline.
There’s also the matter of nightlife, which ties in. Star Princess is not a late-night ship. The energy winds down earlier than some travelers want, and there simply aren’t enough parties or dedicated nightlife moments to keep a social crowd going. For our group, this was the single biggest thing we’d change, and it’s worth being honest about if a lively scene is important to you.
For Alaska, where you’re up early for glaciers and excursions anyway, the quieter evenings bothered us less than they would on a Caribbean sailing. But it’s a real characteristic of the ship, not a fluke of our week.
Service Review
Service earned an 8/10, and that number hides an interesting story: the crew was wonderful, but the dining management was inconsistent — and with a group, that inconsistency showed.
Start with the good, because there’s a lot of it. The staff across the ship were friendly, warm, and helpful. Our room steward was outstanding. Melissa, our events coordinator, was a standout who made our group’s week. Bar staff, front-desk crew, the people who make a ship run — overwhelmingly excellent.
Where it wobbled was in the main dining room, specifically around our group. A couple of moments stuck with us.
When we wanted to sit together, staff kindly helped us move tables together to seat our group. Later, a manager came back and scolded us for having moved them — a frustrating whiplash, since the crew had helped us do it in the first place. That’s not a staff problem; it’s a management-consistency problem.
The dining team also got noticeably anxious when every member of our group wasn’t present the moment dinner started. We explained, more than once, that with a group of over 20 people on an Alaska cruise, attendance would naturally vary night to night — people are off on excursions, eating elsewhere, or resting. That’s normal for group travel. The dining management struggled to roll with it in a way that a line more practiced with groups would have handled smoothly.
None of this made us feel unwelcome, and none of it involved the frontline crew, who were great. But if you’re bringing a group, know that Star Princess’s dining operation can be rigid, and it helps to set expectations with the maître d’ early.
LGBTQ Experience
One of the most common questions we get is simple: is Princess Cruises LGBTQ friendly? Based on our week hosting Gaylaska 2026, the answer is yes.
Let’s be specific, because “friendly” can be vague. The crew was welcoming to our group throughout — no awkwardness, no coldness, just good service extended to everyone the same way. Princess hosts nightly LGBTQ+ meetups (often listed in the daily program as “Friends of Dorothy” or a similarly named gathering), which gave our travelers and other queer guests aboard a built-in place to connect. That’s a meaningful signal that a line has thought about its LGBTQ+ guests rather than just tolerating them.
Our group wore Gaylaska shirts around the ship all week, and the reaction was overwhelmingly warm. We lost count of how many fellow passengers complimented them or struck up friendly conversations. There was one moment — a passenger asking why there were “so many of us” — that was more clumsy than hostile, the kind of question that says more about someone’s small world than any real animosity. It didn’t sour anything.
At no point did we feel unsafe. For an LGBTQ+ traveler weighing an Alaska cruise, that’s the headline: Princess was a comfortable, welcoming environment, and we’d host a group with them again without hesitation.
If you want a sailing designed from the ground up for queer travelers, that’s exactly what we build. Take a look at the LGBTQ+ cruises we host, or reach out to us and we’ll help you find your people at sea.
Our Glacier Day: Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier
This is why you sail Alaska, and it’s why Star Princess gets a 10/10 for itinerary.
Our glacier day took us deep into Endicott Arm, a narrow fjord that ends at Dawes Glacier — and it lived up to every bit of the hype. The ship threads slowly between steep rock walls streaked with waterfalls, past chunks of bright blue ice drifting in the water, until Dawes Glacier fills the view at the head of the fjord. Walls of ice, mountains, silence broken by the crack of a calving glacier — it’s the kind of thing that reorders your sense of scale. Rangers and naturalists came aboard to narrate, which added real depth to what we were seeing.
A quick, honest note that most reviews skip: not every Star Princess sailing goes to the same glacier. Ours featured Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier. Depending on the specific week, other itineraries sail into Glacier Bay National Park — which Princess holds coveted permits for — or visit a different glacier destination. All of them are spectacular, but they aren’t interchangeable, so if one in particular is on your bucket list (a lot of travelers specifically want Glacier Bay), check your exact sailing before you book — or ask us and we’ll confirm what your week includes.
However you get your glacier day, this is the heart of any Alaska cruise, and Star Princess delivers it beautifully. Standing on your balcony with a hot drink while a glacier fills your view is a memory that outlasts every meal, good or bad.
Excursion Highlights
The ports were the other half of what made this Alaska cruise review land at the top of the scale. The 2026 Seattle itinerary gives you real time in Alaska’s best towns, and Princess’s longer port stays meant we weren’t rushing.
A few highlights from our group’s week:
Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau. An accessible, jaw-dropping glacier with trails, a visitor center, and Nugget Falls thundering alongside the ice. An easy favorite, and doable for a range of fitness levels.
Dog sled camp. One of the most memorable excursions of the trip. Meeting the dogs, learning about the sport, and seeing an Iditarod-caliber operation up close was a genuine thrill, and a highlight our group talked about for days.
Whale and wildlife watching. We saw whales. We saw orcas. Watching them surface against that backdrop is the kind of moment cruises exist for, and Southeast Alaska is one of the best places on Earth to see it.
Longer port stays are an underrated Princess advantage. More time ashore means less choosing between two excursions you both want, and more room to actually experience each place. For an Alaska sailing, that time is gold.
Best Alaska Moments
If we had to distill the week down to the moments that made it, they’d be these:
Sailing into the fjords in near silence, everyone on deck, no one talking. Orcas surfacing beside the ship. The dog sled camp, and the pure joy of those animals. Standing on our own balcony at Mendenhall with coffee in hand. And, honestly, our whole group together at dinner — table-moving drama and all — laughing about the day’s adventures.
That’s the thing about Alaska. The destination is so overwhelming that it papers over a ship’s flaws. Bland dining room chicken is forgotten the instant a humpback breaches. This is the core of our verdict: Star Princess in Alaska works because Alaska does so much of the heavy lifting, and Princess puts you in the front row for all of it.
What We’d Change
If we could hand Princess a short list, it would be these three, in order:
- Better food quality. Fix the main dining room. Season the food, raise the floor on the buffet, and stop making specialty dining the only reliable path to a good meal. This is the single biggest thing holding the ship back.
- Better buffet layout. Break up the single crowded loop in The Eatery. The current design fights the guest instead of serving them, and it’s the one place a well-designed ship falls down.
- More nightlife and parties. Give the social crowd a reason to stay up. Star Princess winds down early, and a few more late-night events would round out an experience that’s otherwise strong.
None of these are unfixable, and none of them are about the crew, who were great. They’re about food and programming — and if Princess addressed them, this would be a near-flawless Alaska ship.
Star Princess vs Celebrity
We get asked constantly how Princess stacks up against Celebrity, and since we host groups on both, we can give you a straight answer without spin. We’re not here to bash anyone — both are strong lines. They just win in different lanes.
Princess wins Alaska. The itineraries, the glacier access, the longer port stays, the whole North to Alaska program built around the destination — this is Princess’s home turf, and Celebrity doesn’t match it here.
Princess wins Glacier Bay. Those permits and the depth of the destination experience are a real edge.
Celebrity wins food. It isn’t close. If included dining quality is your top priority, Celebrity is the stronger choice.
Celebrity wins nightlife. More energy, more late-night life, more of a social scene.
Celebrity wins entertainment. The production shows we’ve seen on Celebrity outclass what Star Princess offers.
Here’s how much we believe this: our next hosted LGBTQ+ group cruise, Gayribbean 2027, is on Celebrity Reflection — not Princess. For a social Caribbean week where food, nightlife, and entertainment carry the trip, Celebrity is the better fit. But for Alaska, we’d happily sail Princess again, because Alaska is where Princess shines brightest.
Different ships for different trips. That’s exactly why our next hosted sailing is Gayribbean 2027 aboard Celebrity Reflection — and we’ll always tell you honestly which line fits your vacation.
Would We Sail Again?
Yes — with an asterisk, and the asterisk is the whole point of this review.
We would absolutely sail Star Princess again for Alaska. The ship is beautiful, the cabins are excellent, the Medallion is the best tech at sea, the itinerary is world-class, and the destination is so extraordinary that the food shortfall fades into the background. For an Alaska cruise, this is a ship we recommend and would book for our own group again.
Would we choose Star Princess for a Caribbean week? Probably not. Strip away the glaciers and the whales and the once-in-a-lifetime scenery, and the food and nightlife gaps move to center stage. In warm water, where the ship experience itself has to carry more of the trip, we’d point you elsewhere.
That’s not a knock. It’s a match-making principle. The best cruise is the one that fits the trip, and Star Princess fits Alaska.
Final Verdict
Star Princess earns a solid 8/10 from us, and it’s worth it — for Alaska.
Is Star Princess worth it? If you’re asking about an Alaska cruise, the answer is a confident yes. You get a gorgeous, modern ship, one of the best cabins we’ve sailed, technology that quietly makes everything easier, a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ travelers, and an itinerary that ranks among the best in cruising. The food will disappoint you and the nights are quiet, but the glaciers, whales, and scenery more than earn the fare.
If you’re asking about a party-forward Caribbean week, we’d steer you toward a different ship. Star Princess is a destination cruiser, and Alaska is its destination.
For us, the math is simple. We came home already thinking about which Alaska sailing to book next — and it’ll probably be Princess again.
Star Princess Alaska Review: FAQ
1. Is Star Princess worth it for an Alaska cruise? Yes. The ship, cabins, Medallion technology, and Alaska itinerary are excellent. The main dining room and buffet are the weak spots, but for Alaska the destination more than makes up for it.
2. Is Star Princess a new ship? Yes. She’s the second ship in Princess’s Sphere Class, delivered in 2025, and 2026 is her first Alaska season sailing round-trip from Seattle.
3. How big is Star Princess? She’s about 177,800 tons, carries roughly 4,300 guests across 21 decks, and has more than 2,000 staterooms. Despite the size, she’s laid out to rarely feel crowded — with the buffet as the main exception.
4. Where does Star Princess sail in Alaska? Round-trip from Seattle through the Inside Passage, with typical ports including Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Sitka, plus a glacier-viewing day.
5. Does Star Princess go to Glacier Bay? Some sailings do; others feature Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier or another glacier destination. Check your specific week’s itinerary before booking if Glacier Bay is a must — or ask us to confirm.
6. How is the food on Star Princess? This was our biggest disappointment. The main dining room was often bland and the buffet underwhelmed. Specialty restaurants are considerably better. Budget for specialty dining or the Premier package if food matters to you.
7. What is the buffet like on Star Princess? It’s called The Eatery. The food was below average and the layout funnels everyone into one crowded loop at peak times. Fine for a quick bite; not where we did our real eating.
8. Are the specialty restaurants worth it? Yes, especially given the included dining. Standouts include The Catch by Rudi, The Butcher’s Block by Dario, Sabatini’s, and Crown Grill. Standalone dinners run around $60 per adult; the Premier package includes unlimited visits.
9. What is the Princess Medallion? A small wearable that acts as your room key, wallet, and locator. It unlocks your cabin hands-free, powers OceanNow food and drink delivery, and lets you find fellow travelers on the app and on screens around the ship. It’s the best onboard tech we’ve used.
10. Is the Princess Medallion worth it? The Medallion itself comes with your cruise. The value question is really about the difference between Princess Plus and Premier, the packages that unlock features like OceanNow delivery. For us, Premier was worth it — especially with a group.
11. How are the cabins on Star Princess? Excellent. Sphere Class staterooms are modern, well laid out, and comfortable, with better-than-average bathrooms. We rated our cabin a perfect 10.
12. Should I book a balcony for an Alaska cruise? Yes. Watching the Inside Passage and glaciers from your own balcony is one of the best parts of the trip. On an Alaska sailing, a balcony is worth the upgrade.
13. Is Princess Cruises LGBTQ friendly? In our experience hosting an LGBTQ+ group, yes. The crew was welcoming, Princess hosts nightly LGBTQ+ meetups, and we never felt unsafe. We’d host a group with them again.
14. Does Princess have LGBTQ+ events onboard? Yes. There are nightly LGBTQ+ meetups (often listed in the daily program under a name like “Friends of Dorothy”), which give queer travelers a built-in place to connect.
15. How is the entertainment on Star Princess? Mixed. The live musicians are excellent; the big production shows are weaker. Nightlife is quiet, so it’s not the ship for a late-night crowd.
16. Is Star Princess good for nightlife? Not especially. The energy winds down earlier than on party-focused ships, and there aren’t many dedicated late-night events. On an early-rising Alaska cruise this bothered us less, but it’s a real characteristic.
17. How is the service on Star Princess? The crew is warm and excellent, and our room steward was outstanding. Dining-room management was less consistent, particularly with our group. Overall very good, with room to improve on the management side.
18. Is Star Princess good for group cruises? It can be, with planning. The ship has great spaces to gather and the Medallion makes finding people easy. But the dining operation was rigid with our group, so set expectations with the maître d’ early. A good host and a good events coordinator make a big difference.
19. How does Star Princess compare to Celebrity? Princess wins Alaska, Glacier Bay, and itineraries. Celebrity wins food, nightlife, and entertainment. We host groups on both and pick the line to fit the trip.
20. What Alaska excursions do you recommend from Star Princess? Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, a dog sled camp, and whale and wildlife watching were our group’s favorites. Princess’s longer port stays give you more time to enjoy them.
21. What should I pack for a Star Princess Alaska cruise? Layers, a waterproof jacket, and comfortable walking shoes. Weather shifts fast, and you’ll want to be ready for cool, damp days on deck and warmer moments in port.
22. Would you sail Star Princess again? For Alaska, absolutely. For a Caribbean party week, we’d choose a different ship. Star Princess is a destination cruiser, and Alaska is where it shines.
Ready to Plan Your Alaska Cruise?
We didn’t just review Star Princess — we hosted an entire group aboard her, and we came home confident about who this ship is right for. If you’re an LGBTQ+ traveler (or traveling with people who love you) and Alaska is calling, we’d love to help you get there.
At Pride Travelers, we build cruises around real travelers, not brochures. We’ll match you to the right ship and sailing, handle the details, and make sure you’re surrounded by good people at sea.
Browse the LGBTQ+ cruises we host, or visit Pride Travelers and let’s start planning. If a social Caribbean week is more your speed, our next hosted sailing is Gayribbean 2027 aboard Celebrity Reflection. And for more honest cruise reviews like this one, head to our travel blog.
Fair winds — see you on deck.