What is the Star Princess cruise guide short answer? Star Princess is Princess Cruises’ newest ship and the first of the line’s giant Sphere-class vessels to sail Alaska, running roughly twenty seven-night Inside Passage voyages round-trip from Seattle across the short northern summer. She pairs the most modern ship in the fleet — a glass-domed pool retreat, a reimagined atrium with a suspended viewing Sphere, and the hands-free Ocean Medallion — with Princess’s deep Alaska experience, including cruisetours by rail and lodge toward Denali. This guide walks through what makes the ship distinctive, how she sails, who she suits, and how to plan.
Everything in this article and far more, deck by deck, in The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess.
Get the book →Star Princess at a glance
Star Princess is the second ship of Princess’s Sphere Class, sister to Sun Princess, and she is the largest class Princess has ever built as well as the line’s first dual-fuel (LNG) vessels. She measures around 177,000 gross tons across 21 decks, carries roughly 4,300 guests at lower berths, and offers about 2,157 staterooms. Those numbers put her among the biggest ships to work the Inside Passage, but the design leans into glass and light rather than sheer bulk, which matters more than usual in Alaska, where the scenery is the whole point and the weather refuses to cooperate.
The headline for Alaska travelers is simple: this is the first time a Sphere-class ship has sailed north. Star Princess brings the very newest Princess design and the effortless Medallion system to the Inside Passage, so you get timeless wilderness paired with the most current ship in the fleet. If you want the full breakdown of the class itself, the Star Princess Sphere-class ship guide goes deeper into the architecture.
| Detail | Star Princess |
|---|---|
| Class | Sphere Class (sister to Sun Princess) |
| Gross tonnage | About 177,000 tons |
| Decks | 21 |
| Guests (lower berths) | Roughly 4,300 |
| Staterooms | About 2,157 |
| Signature season | Alaska Inside Passage, round-trip Seattle |
The signature spaces
A few venues define the ship, and most of them earn their keep especially well in a cool, changeable climate.
The Dome
The Dome is a geodesic glass-enclosed structure perched atop the ship. By day it is an indoor-outdoor pool retreat; by night it transforms into a theater staging Cirque Éloize acrobatic shows. In Alaska this space is close to a killer feature. When the rain sweeps across the Inside Passage or the air turns genuinely cold near a tidewater glacier, The Dome gives you a warm, glass-roofed vantage to sit in or beside the pool and still watch the mountains slide past. On a ship built for warm-weather sailing, a covered pool would be an afterthought; here it becomes one of the rooms you plan your day around.
The Piazza and the Sphere
Princess reimagined its traditional atrium into a three-deck Piazza hub, and the standout is the Sphere — an outward, glass-walled suspended structure that gives expansive views out over the water. A movable LED screen brings live entertainment into the space. Where older Princess ships wrapped the Piazza inward around shops and cafes, the Sphere turns the room to face the scenery, which again suits Alaska: you can sit with a coffee from the International Café and watch the coastline rather than a shopping concourse.
The Sanctuary Collection
The Sanctuary Collection is an adults-only retreat and a premium suite-and-retreat concept, bundling a private sun deck, a lounge, and exclusive dining. It is the quiet, grown-up corner of the ship for travelers who want a calmer base and are willing to pay up for it. On a big ship carrying families and multi-generational Alaska groups, having a reservable adult haven is a genuine differentiator.
Movies Under the Stars and the rest
Movies Under the Stars runs on the giant poolside LED screen — a Princess staple that still draws a crowd on milder evenings. Round out the ship with the Lotus Spa, the pools (including that warm glass-covered Dome pool), and two show venues in the Princess Theater and the more intimate Princess Live. For a room-by-room tour of daily life aboard, see what to expect on Star Princess.
MedallionClass: the core Princess difference
If you have never sailed Princess, MedallionClass is the thing that feels different from the first hour. Every guest wears an Ocean Medallion, a quarter-sized wearable that does a surprising amount of work. It unlocks your stateroom hands-free as you approach, speeds up boarding, helps you locate your travel companions around the ship, and handles touchless payments so you are not carrying a card around the decks.
The Medallion connects to the Princess app, and that is where the convenience compounds. Through OceanNow you can order food and drinks to wherever you happen to be — a deck chair in The Dome, a spot in the Piazza, your balcony while a glacier drifts by. Dine My Way lets you reserve flexible dining times or keep a traditional set seating if you prefer the old rhythm. JourneyView helps you map out your days. None of this replaces the ship; it just removes friction, which is welcome on a vessel this size.
The one thing to do before you sail: set the Medallion up at home. Download the Princess app, complete the OceanReady check-in, add a payment method, and order your Medallion so it is waiting for you. Do this early and you walk on board and straight to your room. Leave it to the pier and you spend your first afternoon sorting logistics instead of exploring. First-timers will find a fuller walkthrough in the Star Princess MedallionClass first-timer guide.
Princess’s Alaska expertise and cruisetours
Princess has carried more travelers to Alaska than any other line, and that history shows up in infrastructure the ship alone cannot provide. The line runs its own wilderness lodges in the interior and operates glass-domed rail cars that thread up toward Denali. That means you can treat the cruise as one half of a longer trip: pair the seven nights on Star Princess with a Princess cruisetour by rail and lodge into the interior, and see the land side of Alaska that a ship-only sailing never reaches.
A cruisetour toward Denali is worth serious thought if you are traveling a long way to get to Alaska in the first place. The Inside Passage delivers coast, water, and tidewater glaciers; the interior delivers tundra, wildlife, and the mountain itself. Combining them turns a cruise into a proper expedition. The glass-domed rail cars are a highlight in their own right — they carry you through country that has no road access, with the ceiling opening the view to the ridgelines above. Confirm current cruisetour routings and lodge availability in the Princess app, since the land programs fill up and the details shift by season, and decide early whether you want the tour before or after the cruise.
The dining lineup
Star Princess carries a large and varied dining roster. At the core are three main dining rooms — take them as traditional set dining or as flexible Dine My Way seatings via the Medallion — plus the Horizons buffet for casual meals and quick turnarounds.
The specialty and casual venues are where the ship shows its range:
- Love by Britto — an artistic prix-fixe experience with wake views
- The Butcher’s Block by Dario — a Tuscan butcher-style steakhouse
- Makoto Ocean — Edomae sushi
- Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria and the Crown Grill steakhouse — two Princess classics
- The Catch by Rudi — a seafood restaurant that is superb for Alaskan catches in season
- Alfredo’s and Gigi’s pizzerias, O’Malley’s Irish pub, and the 24-hour International Café for anytime coffee and bites
The Alaska angle matters here. Fresh Alaskan seafood features in season, and The Catch by Rudi is the obvious place to lean into it — halibut, salmon, and cold-water fish taste different a few hundred miles from where they were landed. Between the main rooms, the buffet, the pizzerias, and the pub, you can eat well without paying a specialty cover every night, then book one or two standout dinners for the evenings you want an event.
A practical note on booking dining: because Dine My Way runs through the Medallion and the app, you can lock in your specialty reservations before you sail rather than scrambling once aboard. On a ship this size, the most sought-after venues and the prime evening slots go early, so it pays to plan the two or three dinners you care about most and leave the rest flexible. On glacier-cruising days in particular, timing a meal so you are not eating through the best scenery is worth a little thought — many travelers keep those days lighter with the buffet or International Café and save the long specialty dinners for port evenings.
Where Star Princess sails
Her marquee season in this guide is the Inside Passage. Star Princess runs about twenty seven-night round-trip Inside Passage voyages from Seattle (Pier 91), packed across the short Alaska summer. Sailing round-trip from Seattle is a practical advantage: it is an easy US embarkation port with good flight connections, and you fly into one city rather than juggling a one-way itinerary with separate arrival and departure airports.
Across the itineraries the ports and scenic-cruising days include Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, and Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), plus a day of scenic glacier cruising in Endicott Arm (to Dawes Glacier), Tracy Arm, or Glacier Bay, and a final call at Victoria, British Columbia on the way home. The featured glacier and the exact port lineup vary by sailing, so always confirm your specific itinerary in the app before you book excursions.
| Port / stop | Known for |
|---|---|
| Juneau | Mendenhall Glacier, whale-watching, Mount Roberts Tramway, the icefield |
| Skagway | Klondike gold-rush town, White Pass & Yukon Route railway, frontier streets |
| Ketchikan | Totem-pole capital, Creek Street, Misty Fjords |
| Sitka | Russian Alaska, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Tlingit totems, outer-coast wildlife |
| Icy Strait Point | Whale-watching, bears, Tlingit culture, the world’s largest ZipRider |
| Endicott Arm / Dawes Glacier | Scenic cruising to a great tidewater glacier |
| Victoria, BC | Butchart Gardens, the Inner Harbour, afternoon tea |
The rhythm alternates port days with scenic-cruising days, and that shapes how you use the ship. On glacier-cruising days much of the wonder unfolds from the ship herself, so the warm spaces — The Dome, the forward decks — and the onboard enrichment come into their own. For a closer look at the routing, see the Star Princess Alaska Inside Passage overview and the Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan ports guide.
Who the ship suits
Star Princess is a strong fit for first-time Alaska cruisers who want a modern, feature-rich ship rather than a small expedition vessel. Families and multi-generational groups do well here — there is enough variety in dining, entertainment, and deck space to keep different ages happy, and the round-trip Seattle format simplifies the travel logistics that trip up bigger family bookings.
Couples wanting a quieter, more polished experience should look hard at the Sanctuary Collection, which carves out an adults-only base with its own dining and sun deck. Cruise veterans who value technology will appreciate how the Medallion streamlines the day. The travelers least served are those chasing a tiny-ship, get-close-to-the-shoreline expedition — that is a different kind of Alaska trip. What Star Princess offers instead is comfort, breadth, and glass-walled views, with the option to add real wilderness through a cruisetour.
It is also a sensible pick for anyone nervous about weather ruining an outdoor-heavy vacation. Because so much of the ship faces the scenery through glass — The Dome, the Sphere, the forward lounges — a rainy or bitterly cold day on the water does not mean a wasted day. You trade a sun-drenched Caribbean rhythm for a slower, more contemplative one built around watching a coastline that most people only see once. Travelers who understand that trade-off going in tend to come off Star Princess happiest.
Cabins: what to book
Star Princess offers Interior, Oceanview, Balcony, and Mini-Suite staterooms, plus Sanctuary Collection suites with retreat access. The right choice depends on how you plan to spend your days.
- Best value: an Interior. In Alaska you will spend the daylight hours out on deck and in The Dome, so a room you mostly sleep in stretches your budget toward excursions.
- Best all-round for Alaska: a midship Balcony on the mid-decks. A private balcony earns its keep more than usual here for glacier and wildlife viewing from your own room, and midship gives you the steadiest ride.
- Top of the range: a Sanctuary Collection suite, for the private retreat, lounge, and exclusive dining.
A caveat on balconies: Alaska weather is cold and wet, so a covered or aft balcony, or a warm public vantage like The Dome, helps on the raw days when an open balcony sits unused. When you pick a specific room, check the deck plan and avoid a few traps — cabins directly under the pool deck, the buffet, or the Dome can be noisy; rooms near nightlife venues carry late sound; forward high-deck rooms move most in a swell, which matters for anyone prone to motion; and some lower-deck balconies have obstructed or lifeboat-blocked views. Confirm the exact layout before you commit.
How to plan and pack
A few practical points make an Alaska sailing on Star Princess go smoothly.
Documents and money. This cruise sails from a US port and calls in Canada at Victoria, so a passport is required — follow the ship’s immigration guidance. You will use US dollars in Seattle and the Alaskan ports and Canadian dollars in Victoria, though cards are widely accepted; onboard, everything runs on the Medallion in US-dollar accounts.
Packing. This is not a warm-weather packing list. The Alaska summer is cool and changeable — mild days, cooler mornings and evenings, frequent rain in the rainforest ports, and genuine cold near the glaciers, all under long northern daylight. Dress in warm layers with a waterproof, windproof shell and comfortable waterproof shoes. Bring binoculars and a camera; you will want them for glaciers, whales, bears, sea otters, eagles, and salmon.
Booking and timing. Fly into Seattle a day early so a delayed flight never costs you the ship, and use the buffer to see Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, the waterfront, or Mount Rainier. Book shore excursions early — Alaska tours sell out well ahead, especially whale-watching, the White Pass railway, and glacier trips. Gratuities are added or prepaid, and Wi-Fi is a paid plan that is often bundled; confirm the current details in the app. For the embarkation logistics specifically, the Star Princess Alaska from Seattle guide covers the pre-cruise day in more depth.
Plan your ports of call
Make the most of every day ashore with our in-depth port guides for the stops on this ship’s itineraries:
- Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier
- Glacier Bay
- Icy Strait Point
- Juneau
- Ketchikan
- Norwegian Fjords
- Sitka
- Skagway
- Victoria BC
Get the complete Star Princess playbook
Ready to turn this overview into a day-by-day plan? “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 know exactly what to book, pack, and do before you sail.
Frequently asked questions
Is Star Princess a new ship?
Yes. Star Princess is Princess Cruises’ newest ship and the second of the Sphere Class, sister to Sun Princess. She is among Princess’s largest ships and the line’s first dual-fuel (LNG) vessels, and she is the first Sphere-class ship to sail Alaska.
Where does Star Princess sail in Alaska?
Her signature season is the Inside Passage, with about twenty seven-night round-trip voyages from Seattle (Pier 91). Ports and scenic cruising across the itineraries include Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, and Icy Strait Point, a day of glacier cruising in Endicott Arm, Tracy Arm, or Glacier Bay, and a final call at Victoria, British Columbia. Confirm your exact itinerary in the Princess app.
What is MedallionClass and the Ocean Medallion?
MedallionClass is Princess’s connected-cruise system. Every guest wears an Ocean Medallion, a quarter-sized wearable that unlocks your stateroom hands-free, speeds boarding, locates your companions, and handles touchless payments. Paired with the Princess app, it powers OceanNow ordering, Dine My Way dining, and JourneyView planning. Set it up before you sail through the app’s OceanReady check-in.
Do I need a passport for this cruise?
Yes. The cruise sails from Seattle, a US port, and calls in Canada at Victoria, so a passport is required. Follow the ship’s immigration guidance, and expect to use US dollars in the Alaskan ports and Canadian dollars in Victoria, with cards widely accepted.
What should I pack for an Alaska cruise on Star Princess?
Pack for cool, changeable weather, not warmth. Bring warm layers, a waterproof and windproof shell, and comfortable waterproof shoes for frequent rain and real cold near the glaciers. Add binoculars and a camera for wildlife and scenery. The Dome’s warm, glass-roofed pool retreat is a good backup on the raw days.
Which cabin should I book?
For value, an Interior works well since you spend days on deck and in The Dome. For the best all-round Alaska experience, a midship Balcony on the mid-decks gives private glacier and wildlife views with a steady ride. For the top of the range, choose a Sanctuary Collection suite. Check the deck plan to avoid noisy rooms under the pool deck, buffet, or Dome and balconies with obstructed views.
Can I add a land tour to Denali?
Yes. Princess has carried more travelers to Alaska than any other line and runs its own wilderness lodges and glass-domed rail cars. You can pair your Inside Passage cruise with a Princess cruisetour by rail and lodge into the interior toward Denali. Confirm current routings and availability in the Princess app, as land programs fill early.
Ready for the whole ship in one place? It is all in The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess.
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