What to Expect on Star Princess

What should you expect on Star Princess for an Alaska sailing? Expect the newest ship in the Princess fleet built around warm, glass-roofed spaces that suit cool northern weather — a geodesic Dome you can watch a glacier from in comfort, a three-deck Piazza with a glass Sphere hung out over the water, and the Ocean Medallion doing quiet work in the background so the days flow. Star Princess is the second Sphere-class ship and the first of that class to sail Alaska, so she pairs the most modern design in the fleet with the Inside Passage. Here is how she actually feels day to day, where to go when the rain rolls in, and how to spend your first hours aboard.

How Star Princess feels on an Alaska sailing

Star Princess is a big ship — around 177,000 gross tons, 21 decks, roughly 4,300 guests across about 2,157 staterooms — but she rarely feels like a crowd because the design pulls people toward the light. She is one of Princess’s largest ships and among its first dual-fuel LNG vessels, and everything about the interior layout seems tuned for a destination where you spend a lot of time looking out rather than lying by a pool in the sun. On a warm-weather cruise, guests scatter across open sun decks. In Alaska, cool and changeable weather concentrates everyone into the ship’s warm indoor vantage points, and Star Princess has more of those, and better ones, than most ships her size.

The rhythm of an Inside Passage sailing shapes how you use the ship. This seven-night round-trip from Seattle alternates port days with scenic-cruising days, and on the scenic days much of the wonder unfolds from the ship herself — a tidewater glacier at the head of a fjord, whales working a bait ball, eagles on the shoreline. That means the indoor and forward spaces are not filler; they are where you will spend the best hours of the trip.

The Dome: the space that makes this ship right for Alaska

If you take one thing away, make it this: The Dome is the reason Star Princess works so well in Alaska. It is a geodesic glass-enclosed structure at the top of the ship, an indoor-outdoor pool retreat by day and a theater by night. By day, you sit under a glass roof with a pool and loungers around you, warm and dry, while the coastline slides past outside. When the rain comes down in a rainforest port or the cold bites near the glaciers, The Dome is where you go — you get the pool, the daylight, and the scenery without the weather.

By night the space transforms. The Dome stages Cirque Éloize acrobatic shows, so the same glass room that held the afternoon pool crowd becomes an intimate theater for aerial and acrobatic performance. It is a memorable use of a single space, and one of the ship’s best rooms earns its keep from morning to late evening. On a warm-weather ship, a glass-domed pool would be a nice-to-have. On an Alaska ship, it is close to essential — the clearest sign that this design understands where she sails.

The practical tip: on a scenic-cruising day, get to The Dome early and claim a spot. When the ship reaches a tidewater glacier — Dawes Glacier in Endicott Arm, or the glacier your particular sailing features in Tracy Arm or Glacier Bay — you want to be watching from a warm seat under glass rather than shivering on an open rail. You can always step outside for a few minutes of raw air and photographs, then come back to warmth. Confirm which glacier your voyage visits in the Princess app, since the featured glacier and exact ports vary by sailing.

The Piazza and the Sphere: the ship’s beating heart

The other space that defines Star Princess is the Piazza. Princess has long built its ships around a central atrium, and here it is reimagined as a three-deck hub — the social crossroads where you pass through, pause for a coffee, catch live music, and people-watch. The signature feature is the Sphere: an outward, glass-walled suspended structure that hangs off the side of the atrium and gives expansive views out over the water. It is a genuinely new idea, a place to sit inside the ship and yet feel projected out over the sea, and it is at its best on the Inside Passage where the view is forest, mountain, and water rather than open ocean.

The Piazza also carries a movable LED screen for live entertainment, so the space works for a quiet morning espresso and a lively evening set alike. Around it sits the 24-hour International Café for coffee and light bites at any hour, which becomes a natural meeting point. If your group keeps different rhythms — one up early, another in late — the Piazza is the easy place to reconnect, and the Medallion will tell you where everyone is anyway.

For a fuller picture of how the Sphere-class layout comes together across the whole ship, the Star Princess Sphere-class ship guide walks through the deck-by-deck design in more detail than there is room for here.

MedallionClass: the Ocean Medallion, day to day

The core Princess difference is MedallionClass, and it is the thing first-timers ask about most. Every guest wears an Ocean Medallion — a quarter-sized wearable — and it quietly runs the practical side of the cruise. It unlocks your stateroom hands-free as you walk up to the door, speeds up boarding, locates your travel companions on a map of the ship, and handles touchless payments so you are not carrying a card or key around.

The features you will use daily are OceanNow, Dine My Way, and JourneyView. Through OceanNow you order food and drinks to wherever you happen to be — a lounger in The Dome, a seat in the Piazza, your balcony while a glacier drifts by — and the crew brings it to you. Dine My Way lets you reserve flexible dining times or keep a traditional set seating, whichever suits your group. JourneyView helps you plan the days and see what is on. None of it demands attention; it just removes friction, which matters more than it sounds when you would rather be watching for whales than queuing for a drink.

Set it up before you sail. Download the Princess app, complete the OceanReady check-in, add a payment method, and order your Medallion so it arrives before your trip or is ready at the terminal. Do this at home and your embarkation day in Seattle goes from a line to a walk-on. If you want a deeper walkthrough of the whole system, the MedallionClass first-timer guide covers the setup and the small tricks that make it sing.

Your first day aboard: what to do in what order

Star Princess sails round-trip from Seattle’s Pier 91, and the smartest move happens before you ever reach the ship: fly in a day early. Seattle rewards a spare day — Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, the waterfront, and Mount Rainier on a clear day — and it protects you against flight delays that could otherwise cost you the cruise. Arrive rested and your embarkation is calm.

Once aboard, resist the urge to sit down. Here is a first-day order that works:

• Find The Dome first. Learn where it is, how the pool and seating are arranged, and picture yourself there on a glacier morning. This is your default room for the week.
• Walk the Piazza across its three decks and note where the International Café, the Sphere seating, and your nearest bar sit. This is your orientation point for the rest of the trip.
• Open the Princess app and set your Dine My Way plan — lock in the specialty restaurants you care about, because the best tables fill early on a full ship.
• Scout the forward-facing spaces and open decks for scenery, and note which are sheltered from wind for cold days.
• Locate your muster station, then confirm your passport is handy — this cruise sails from a US port and calls in Victoria, British Columbia, so you need it and should follow the ship’s immigration guidance.

Do that loop and by dinner you will feel like you know the ship. The layout is intuitive once you have the Piazza fixed as the center and The Dome as the top.

Dining on Star Princess: Dine My Way and the specialty restaurants

Star Princess carries a large range of dining, and Alaska gives one category a special edge: seafood. Fresh Alaskan catches feature in season, and the ship is set up to make the most of them. The everyday backbone is three main dining rooms — traditional set dining or flexible Dine My Way through the Medallion — plus the Horizons buffet for casual, come-as-you-are meals.

The specialty and casual venues are where you plan ahead. A quick map:

Venue	What it is	Good for
The Catch by Rudi	Seafood restaurant	Alaskan catches — the obvious Alaska choice
Love by Britto	Artistic prix-fixe with wake views	A special-occasion evening
The Butcher’s Block by Dario	Tuscan butcher-style steakhouse	Serious steak, Italian style
Makoto Ocean	Edomae sushi	Sushi lovers
Sabatini’s	Italian trattoria	A relaxed Italian dinner
Crown Grill	Classic steakhouse	Steak and chops standards

For Alaska specifically, The Catch by Rudi deserves a booking. It is the seafood specialty restaurant, and with fresh Alaskan catches in season it is the place to eat what the destination is famous for. Love by Britto is the one to reserve for a milestone — it is an artistic prix-fixe experience with wake views, which suits the long northern evenings when the light lingers. Between them, The Butcher’s Block by Dario brings a Tuscan butcher-style steakhouse, Makoto Ocean does Edomae sushi, Sabatini’s is the Italian trattoria, and the Crown Grill covers classic steakhouse territory.

For casual and in-between, Alfredo’s and Gigi’s handle pizza, O’Malley’s is the Irish pub, and the International Café is your coffee-and-a-bite anchor in the Piazza. With OceanNow you can also order to your seat rather than getting up, which is genuinely useful on a scenic day when you do not want to leave your window. Book your must-do specialty dinners early through Dine My Way; on a full sailing the prime slots go quickly.

Movies Under the Stars, the Sanctuary Collection, and the spa

Entertainment on Star Princess runs from the poolside spectacle to adults-only calm. Movies Under the Stars is the giant poolside LED screen — a Princess signature — showing films and events out on deck. In Alaska you will want a blanket and a warm drink for it, but there is something worth doing about watching a movie under the long northern dusk. Beyond the pool deck, the Princess Theater and Princess Live host the ship’s stage entertainment, and The Dome’s Cirque Éloize shows round out the evenings.

For a quieter cruise, the Sanctuary Collection is Star Princess’s adults-only retreat and premium suite-and-retreat concept. It brings a private sun deck, a lounge, and exclusive dining — a calmer, more secluded layer of the ship for guests who book into it. It pairs well with Alaska’s contemplative pace, giving you a serene base between ports. The Lotus Spa handles the wellness side, and after a cold day ashore a warm treatment or the thermal spaces feel especially good.

The pools deserve a mention here too, because in Alaska the warm glass-covered Dome pool is the one you will actually use. Open pools exist, but the weather rarely cooperates for long. The Dome pool lets you swim and lounge regardless of what the sky is doing — exactly the point of putting it under glass.

Watching the scenery: forward decks and warm vantage points

Because so much of an Inside Passage cruise is scenic cruising, knowing where to watch from is a real skill. You have three tiers of vantage point, and the best days use all three. The warmest and most comfortable is The Dome — glass roof, pool, seating, scenery. The most immediate is the open forward decks and rails, where you get the raw air, the sound, and the unobstructed view, best in short bursts when the cold is sharp. And the most personal is your own balcony, if you have one.

In Alaska a balcony earns its keep more than usual, letting you watch glaciers and wildlife in your robe with a coffee. But a covered or aft balcony helps on cold, wet days, and a warm public vantage like The Dome covers you when your own balcony is too exposed. If you are weighing cabin categories, an interior is genuine best value here — you will spend the days out on deck and in The Dome regardless — while a midship balcony on the mid-decks gives the best all-round Alaska experience for scenery and the steadiest ride. The Star Princess Alaska Inside Passage guide goes deeper on planning the scenic days.

One packing note that changes your whole experience of the scenery: bring binoculars and a camera. The wildlife — whales, bears, sea otters, eagles, salmon — is often at a distance, and glaciers reward a closer look at their blue ice and calving faces. And dress in warm layers with a waterproof, windproof shell and comfortable waterproof shoes. This is not a warm-weather packing list, and the difference between enjoying a rail at a glacier and retreating from it is often just the right jacket.

The ports, briefly, and how the ship fits them

Star Princess sails about twenty seven-night round-trip Inside Passage voyages from Seattle across the short Alaska summer, and the ports across those itineraries include Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, and Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), plus a day of scenic glacier cruising and a final call at Victoria, British Columbia. Which ports and which glacier your sailing features vary, so confirm your itinerary in the app. In broad strokes: Juneau brings the Mendenhall Glacier and the Mount Roberts Tramway; Skagway is the Klondike gold-rush town and the White Pass & Yukon Route railway; Ketchikan is the totem-pole capital with Creek Street and Misty Fjords; Sitka is Russian Alaska with St. Michael’s Cathedral; and Icy Strait Point offers whale-watching and the world’s largest ZipRider. Victoria closes the loop with the Butchart Gardens and the Inner Harbour.

Alaska shore tours sell out early, so book the ones you care about well ahead rather than at the pier. Princess has carried more travelers to Alaska than any other line and runs its own wilderness lodges and glass-domed rail cars, so if you want to go deeper than the coast you can pair the cruise with a Princess cruisetour by rail and lodge toward Denali and the interior. For the port-by-port detail on the big three, see the Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan ports guide, and for the logistics of sailing out of Washington, the Alaska from Seattle guide covers embarkation.

Practical notes for the sailing

A few practicalities smooth the trip. Payments run on the Medallion in US dollar accounts; you will use US dollars in Seattle and the Alaskan ports and Canadian dollars in Victoria, though cards are widely accepted. A passport is required because the cruise sails from a US port and calls in Canada. Gratuities are added or prepaid, and Wi-Fi is a paid plan, often bundled; confirm the current details in the app. The season itself is the short, intense Alaska summer: mild days, cooler mornings and evenings, frequent rain in the rainforest ports, real cold near the glaciers, and long northern daylight.

The big-picture point about Star Princess is that she brings the newest ship design and the effortless Medallion to Alaska for the first time as a Sphere-class ship, pairing timeless wilderness with the most modern vessel in the fleet — a ship built to make the wilderness comfortable to enjoy.

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Get the complete Star Princess playbook

Want every venue, cabin, port and MedallionClass trick in one place? “The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess” is part of the Ultimate Ship Guides series by Leo Sotropa, with clear action steps in every chapter so you board knowing exactly how to spend each day.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Dome on Star Princess?

The Dome is a geodesic glass-enclosed structure at the top of the ship. By day it is an indoor-outdoor pool retreat where you can enjoy the pool and the scenery under a glass roof whatever the weather, and by night it becomes a theater staging Cirque Éloize acrobatic shows. In Alaska it is the standout space, giving you a warm, dry vantage point for glacier and coastline watching.

What is the Ocean Medallion and do I need to set it up?

The Ocean Medallion is a quarter-sized wearable every guest wears. It unlocks your stateroom hands-free, speeds boarding, locates your travel companions, and handles touchless payments, and through OceanNow it lets you order food and drinks to wherever you are. Set it up before you sail: download the Princess app, complete the OceanReady check-in, add a payment method, and order your Medallion.

Where does Star Princess sail in Alaska?

She sails about twenty seven-night round-trip Inside Passage voyages from Seattle’s Pier 91 across the short Alaska summer. Ports across the itineraries include Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka and Icy Strait Point, plus a day of scenic glacier cruising and a final call at Victoria, British Columbia. The featured glacier and exact ports vary by sailing, so confirm your itinerary in the Princess app.

Which restaurant is best for Alaskan seafood?

The Catch by Rudi is the seafood specialty restaurant, and with fresh Alaskan catches featured in season it is the natural choice for eating what the destination is famous for. Book it early through Dine My Way, since the best times fill quickly on a full sailing.

Do I need a passport for this cruise?

Yes. The cruise sails from a US port, Seattle, and calls in Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada, so a passport is required. Follow the ship’s immigration guidance, and remember you will use US dollars in Seattle and the Alaskan ports and Canadian dollars in Victoria, though cards are widely accepted.

What should I pack for an Alaska sailing on Star Princess?

Dress in warm layers with a waterproof, windproof shell and comfortable waterproof shoes — this is not a warm-weather packing list. Bring binoculars and a camera for glaciers and wildlife such as whales, bears, sea otters, eagles and salmon. Expect mild days, cooler mornings and evenings, frequent rain in the rainforest ports, and real cold near the glaciers.

Is a balcony worth it, or is an interior cabin fine?

Both work. In Alaska a balcony earns its keep more than usual for glacier and wildlife viewing from your own room, and a midship balcony on the mid-decks gives the best all-round experience and the steadiest ride. But an interior is genuine best value, because you will spend so much time out on deck and in The Dome — a warm public vantage covers you either way. For more on categories, see the Star Princess cruise guide.