After years of talking about visiting Alaska, we finally found the opportunity to make this trip happen thanks to a cruise offer from Princess. We are grateful to check off this bucket list trip with an 11-day Alaskan cruise with mom. We intentionally chose to begin our Alaskan cruise in San Francisco (instead of Seattle or Vancouver) as this was a good opportunity for hubby to spend time with his buddy before embarking on the cruise.
11-Day Alaska Cruise (Inside Passage with Glacier Bay National Park)
13 Sep 2025: San Francisco
14-15 Sep 2025: Sea Days
16 Sep 2025: Ketchikan, Alaska
17 Sep 2025: Sea Day
18 Sep 2025: Skagway, Alaska
19 Sep 2025: Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
20 Sep 2025: Sea Day
21 Sep 2025: Victoria, Canada
22-23 Sep 2025: Sea Days
24 Sep 2025: San Francisco
Embarkation Day
After spending 3 nights in Santa Clara, it was time to embark on our 11-day Alaska cruise. We departed from Kedar's place at 9am and it took 1.5 hours to get to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Thanks Kedar for giving us a ride! Spotted Waymo (self-driving car) for the first time. There was a bit of traffic going into Pier 27 when we arrived at 10.30am, but good thing there was only one cruise departing from San Francisco on that day.
Spotted our ship - Ruby Princess as we got close to the pier. There was a designated drop-off area right at the terminal's entrance on The Embarcadero, where taxis and cars can drop off passengers. This cruise terminal is pretty big and nice. Traffic was busy because there were people disembarking and embarking on the same day, but the drop off was pretty easy.
We had already printed and attached our Princess luggage tags on our luggages so it was super easy to drop off our 3 luggages with the porters. There were quite a few porters going around collecting luggages outside the terminal with their carts.
After dropping off our 3 big luggages (which would be delivered to our room later), we made our way into the terminal with no wait at all. Had to go through security scanning but this was much easier than the security at the airports. We had to scan our bags but didn't have to take anything out from our bags. We were also able to bring liquids.
At the time of our sailing, Princess allowed each adult guest to bring one 750ml bottle of wine/champagne onboard (must be packed in carry-on luggage), so we each carried a bottle in our backpacks.
Got through security in less than 5 minutes and made it to the check in area at 10.55am. The official check in time was supposed to start at 11am but they were already checking people in when we got there.
We didn't have our Medallion delivered to us in advance (coz it costs $10/pax) and opted to pick them up at check in so we were assigned the Blue Lane. We expected the Blue Lane to be slow but the line moved surprisingly fast as there were many staff/counters and we were at the check-in counter within 5 minutes.
I had filled out all our information on the Princess app but it still took about 10 miutes to complete our check in and receive our Medallion. Ours took longer because we had 3 types of documents:
Hubby: US Passport; Me: Malaysian Passport + Green Card; Mom: Malaysian Passport + Canada Visa
I didn't know this before, but we were informed that they had to keep all non-US passports until we got to Victoria, Canada (last port) because the cruise will help us clear Canadian immigration. I did get my passport back earlier (since I had a green card) but mom had to wait till after we arrive Canada to retrieve her passport, which was annoying because she wasn't able to take an excursion in Skagway that needed a passport. We could have asked to retrieve her passport for the excursion but decided not to as it was too much hassle.
It was cool that the Medallion had our names and dates of sailing printed on them. The Medallion was basically our identification card, room card, location tracker, and it works very well with the Princess app for all things on the ship.
Once onboard, we were able to use the Princess app by connecting to the ship's MedallionNet Wifi without paying for internet package. The app was useful to navigate around the ship, communicate with and locate shipmates, track spending and manage our daily itinerary. As you can see on the screenshots above, we were able to use the app to chat and also to locate our shipmates.
All checked-in and ready to board the ship at 11.15am! We only had to scan our Medallions to board the ship. Very impressed with how easy and fast the embarkation process was. Literally no lines at all and this was a full ship!
Our room wasn't ready yet and we wanted to wait for the main dining room to open for lunch at 12pm (instead of going to the buffet) so we went to the top deck to check out the views.
It was windy, gloomy, and foggy in San Francisco but we are glad to depart from this port because we got a good view of the city, Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.
Welcome to room D234 on deck 9, our 'home' for the next 11 nights. Our room was ready at 1pm. We liked that the door unlocks automatically when we were close by (without having to scan our medallions).
We got an interior room (with bunk bed) for this trip. Nothing fancy but it had all we needed for a comfortable stay. The bathroom was small but the shower curtain was able to contain all the water in the shower. We quickly unpacked our bags and utilized the closet with plenty of hangers provided.
Our cabin steward serviced the room twice a day and would help to put up and set up the bunk bed daily.
Shampoo, body wash, lotion, handwash, and hair dryer were provided. We were also able to use the fridge to keep the drinks we brought.
We were also able to request for additional complimentary items via the app if needed.
After watching the safety video on the TV and scanned in at our muster station, we headed up to the deck again and was surprised the sun is out.
Much nicer views of San Francisco with the blue skies. It was still pretty windy and chilly though.
Sailaway party at 4.15pm. Beautiful view sailing out of San Francisco passing by Alcatraz Island. I was hoping to see more people dancing along with the music but this ship had an older crowd and I think a lot of the passengers on this cruise were seasoned cruisers. With this cruise departing from San Francisco, there were quite a lot of Asians, probably more than 50%, many of them spoke Cantonese. We like the demographic on this cruise. :)
Another plus for sailing out of San Francisco...we got to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge! Everyone was excited as we sailed under the bridge at 4.40pm. P.S. This was our first time on a big cruise like this so I was excited about everything...lol!
Activities/Facilities
We had a total of 6 sea days on this 11-day cruise (one more than original due to Juneau port being cancelled), which gave us plenty of time to explore and enjoy the ship. Even though this ship is older and is not as fancy as other newer ships, there were enough going on in the ship to keep us busy.
There are a total of 4 pools on Ruby Princess with two main ones on deck 15. The pools were not heated but there were 7 hot tubs on the ship. Mom was the only one who used the pool and hot tubs as hubby and I were too lazy.
Played cornhole, minigolf, basketball, and pickleball on deck 19.
The fitness center on the ship was located on the front section of deck 16 with good view of the seas. It was very convenient for us as it was just a quick elevator ride up from our room on deck 9. The gym was well-equipped and there was also a walking track outside of the fitness center. There was also a water cooler in the gym to easily refill our bottles.
We went to the gym almost every day during this cruise...had to work off all those calories from all the good food...lol!
Mom joined the fitness dance and line dance classes at Club Fusion on deck 7. The instructor was funny and energetic. These classes had pretty good turnout. I had too much fun people watching. Loved seeing everyone joining in and having fun.
We were surprised to find out that mahjong sets were provided on the ship at Michelangelo Dining Room on sea days from 9am - 3pm. There were 3 sets available and we were glad not many people knew about this coz we wouldn't have been able to get a set to play (for 4 days), especially with so many Asians/Cantonese on the ship. We didn't have chips so had to use paper and pencil to keep track of the wins & losses.
Captain's champagne waterfall at the Piazza on day 2 to kick off our voyage. It was formal night so we dressed up a lil' better for dinner.
There was always live music at the Piazza and we enjoyed watching people dancing along. There was also an 80s party on one of the evenings and the piazza dance floor was packed. It was fun to see the old peple enjoying themselves. They definitely know how to party and have a good time.
Of the many activities throughout the cruise, we went for a comedy show, a magic show, and a trivia. There were plenty of ways to spend money on the ship...including shopping.
Mom went for the galley kitchen tour and took photos with the chefs who were responsible for adding a few pounds to our waists...lol!
There were performances and talks in the Princess Theatre every day but we only went for 2 shows in the evening and Meet the Captain session.
The ship had live TV and plenty of movies so hubby enjoyed watching football in the room.
Explored the ship...guest services, art gallery, explorer lounge, Salty Dog pub, library, future cruise desk, Skywalker lounge.
I was interested to learn how people get to cruise for 'free' with casino offers, and quickly realized it wasn't for me. It was interesting to see how much people 'donates' to the casino...lol!
Plenty of places around the ship where we could sit outside for views or fresh air. There were only 2 days where the sea was a lil' rougher but the weather was nice most of the time.
We packed quite a lot of warm clothes but it wasn't as cold as we expected.
Food
There were quite a lot of food and dining places on the ship, but we only ate at the free ones - Horizon Court (buffet), Botticelli/Michelangelo/Da Vinci Dining Room, Coffee & Cones (ice cream), International Cafe (pastries/sandwiches), Slice (pizza), Salty Dog Grill (burger and hot dog).
Almost everyone who goes on a cruise is guaranteed to gain weight coz there is so much food...all inclusive! This Alaskan cruise was basically a feasting cruise coz that's pretty much all we did!
We opted to have breakfast at the Horizon Court buffet. Botticelli dining room also serves breakfast from 7-9am but we never went there throughout our trip. We were also able to get coffee, tea, hot water, and lemonade all day at the Horizon Court.
The breakfast options at the buffet are pretty similar everyday but they were good enough for us.
We also opted to have most of our lunches at the Horizon Court buffet (11.30am - 3.30pm) and only went to the dining room twice for lunch throughout our trip coz the buffet was much faster and there were so many options to choose from.
We had almost all our dinners at the Botticelli dining room. We booked the 7pm slot each day for a private table, and were usually seated within 5 minutes. All the waiters were great. Our meals included Starters, Mains, and Dessert. We don't usually eat out at home so this was the perfect time and place to enjoy the fancy fine dining experience.
Example of menu for the dining room. There are 3 main dining rooms on the ship but the menu in all 3 dining rooms are the same. Meals in the dining room are included in the cruise fare so we didn't have to pay anything extra. We certainly feasted on this cruise...lol!
Had ice cream multiple times on the cruise. We had a choice of chocolate/vanilla/combination. Best part, it was unlimited (included in the cruise fare). The soft serve choc+vanilla machine wasn't always working so the staff had to make the combo manually.
Hubby enjoyed the pizza from Slice.
We had burgers, hot dogs and fries from the Salty Dog Grill on the first day.
Here are all the food we enjoyed each day during this cruise...
Sep 13 (Embarkation day): Lunch at Botticelli dining room.
Sep 13 (Embarkation day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room.
Sep 14 (Sea day): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sep 14 (Sea day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sep 15 (Sea day): Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 16 (Ketchikan): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 16 (Ketchikan): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 17 (Sea day): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 17 (Sea day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 18 (Skagway): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 18 (Skagway): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 19 (Glacier Bay): Lunch at Slice and Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 19 (Glacier Bay): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 20 (Sea day): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet. Afternoon tea at Botticelli Dining Room.
Sept 20 (Sea day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 21 (Victoria): Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 22 (Sea day): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 22 (Sea day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Sept 23 (Sea day): Breakfast and lunch at Horizon Court Buffet
Sept 23 (Sea day): Dinner at Botticelli Dining Room
Disembarkation Day
After 12 days of cruising (and feasting), our cruise was finally ending. The disembarkation instructions provided by Princess was very clear and organized. We were provided with luggage tags few days before and were assigned the 9.35am disembarkation time. We had all our luggages packed the night before and left them outside of the room. We were glad we got assigned the later disembarkation time as we had plenty of time to wait before catching our flight later in the evening.
Bid goodbye to our very nice and friendly cabin steward, David, and went to the Horizon Court buffet to have our breakfast.
The disembarkation process in San Francisco was very fast, smooth and easy.
We didn't even need to use our passports at all. Just scanned our face and picked up our luggages.
We were out of the terminal and was waiting for our Lyft driver by 10am.
The ride from pier 27 to SFO airport took about 30 minutes and we arrived at the airport at 10.50am.
As soon as we got online at the port in the morning, I saw an email from Cathay Pacific notifying us that mom's flight to Hong Kong had been cancelled due to the typhoon. Fortunately, they rebooked her on United that departs around the same time, and I was able to confirm her new flight easily on Cathay's website. Good thing we had plenty of time to spare at SFO airport to make sure that mom's new flight was all good. I was hoping to get mom on the Cathay flight that leaves about an hour later but the Cathay staff said that the flight is gonna be full as well due to all the cancellations the last 2 days and advised us to keep the United flight.
We thought we may have to wait landside for most of the day as we usually can't check our bags until 3-4 hours before the flight, but I was surprised United allowed us to check in mom's bag 12 hours before and we were also able to drop our bags with AA anytime on the same day.
We had about 12.5 hours to wait in SFO airport so it was nice to be able to check our bags earlier as it allowed us to get into the airside lounges. Went to the China Airlines lounge but the lounge was very small and crowded so we didn't stay long. It was much nicer to hangout at the public areas in terminal A.
We then went to The Club lounge which was much nicer to grab dinner.
I intentionally booked our flights to leave around the same time so that we could send mom off before we left SFO. Her flight to HK departed at 11.30pm while our flight to Chicago departed at 11.25pm. I also learnt that we could walk airside between Terminal 1 and Terminal G, but it's a 1.3 mile walk.
Booked our flights from SFO-ORD-HSV for 8,500 AA miles + $5.60 per person. Mom's return flight from SFO-HKG-PEN was booked with 42,500 Alaska miles + $35.50.
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