The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess

Have you booked a sailing on Star Princess and want to feel like you already know the ship before you step aboard? That is exactly what The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess by Leo Sotropa is built to do. It is an independent, ship-specific handbook to Princess Cruises’ newest ship, written to answer the questions real passengers ask — which cabin to book, where to eat, how to work the Ocean Medallion, and what to actually do in Juneau, Skagway, and the other Alaska ports. If you want one honest, practical reference instead of a hundred scattered forum threads, this is the Star Princess book that gathers it all in one place.

This page describes what the book covers, who it helps, and why a guide written for a single ship is worth more than a general cruise primer. If you would rather read a little first, this site also hosts free companion articles about Star Princess, linked throughout below.

What The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess actually is

This is an independent, unofficial handbook — part of Leo Sotropa’s Ultimate Ship Guides series — devoted entirely to one ship: Star Princess. It is not published by the cruise line and it is not a broad “how to cruise” book that mentions dozens of vessels in passing. Every chapter is about this particular ship: her layout, her staterooms, her restaurants, her venues, and the Alaska itinerary she sails. Because it is unofficial, it can be candid in ways a brochure never will be. It tells you which cabins to avoid, when a specialty restaurant is worth the extra cost and when the included dining already has you covered, and where the crowds gather so you can be somewhere else.

Star Princess is Princess Cruises’ newest ship and the second vessel of the Sphere Class, sister to Sun Princess. She is among the largest ships Princess has ever built and one of the line’s first dual-fuel LNG vessels — and the first Sphere-class ship to sail Alaska. She measures around 177,000 gross tons across 21 decks, carries roughly 4,300 guests at lower-berth capacity, and offers about 2,157 staterooms. Numbers like these are exciting on paper and slightly overwhelming in person, which is the whole reason a ship-specific guide earns its place in your bag.

The paperback is a 6×9 format, illustrated with graphite chapter illustrations, and also available on Kindle. The detail that makes it genuinely useful, though, is structural: every chapter ends with clear, practical Action Steps. Instead of closing with a vague summary, the book tells you what to do next — download the Princess app, reserve a dining time, add a payment method, book an excursion before it sells out. You can read it cover to cover, or work through the Action Steps as a pre-cruise checklist. For a fuller walk-through of the ship, the free Star Princess cruise guide on this site pairs naturally with the book.

What’s inside the book

The book follows the structure of the Ultimate Ship Guides series, so each major part of your cruise gets its own dedicated chapter. Here is what that covers, grounded in the specifics of Star Princess.

The ship’s layout and how to find your way

A ship of 21 decks can eat a surprising amount of vacation time if you spend the first two days lost. The book opens with a tour of the layout — the decks, the public spaces, and how they connect — so you learn the shortcuts early. You get oriented around the signature spaces: The Dome, a geodesic glass-enclosed structure at the top of the ship that works as an indoor-outdoor pool retreat by day and a theater staging Cirque Éloize acrobatic shows by night. In Alaska that glass roof is worth more than it sounds — a warm vantage over the pools and the scenery whatever the weather does. The guide also maps the reimagined three-deck Piazza atrium and its outward, glass-walled suspended Sphere, along with the movable LED screen for live entertainment. If the design interests you, the free Sphere Class ship guide goes deeper on how this class of ship is built.

The complete cabin guide — which to book, which to avoid

Choosing a stateroom is the decision most people get wrong and most regret, and the cabin chapter is where the book pays for itself. It walks through every category — Interior, Oceanview, Balcony, Mini-Suites, and the Sanctuary Collection suites with retreat access — and explains the trade-offs honestly for an Alaska sailing specifically. A balcony earns its keep more than usual here, because glaciers and wildlife are best watched from your own room. But the book is equally clear about when an Interior is the smart-value choice, since on this itinerary you will spend your days out on deck and in The Dome rather than in the cabin.

Just as important is the list of cabins to avoid. The guide flags rooms directly under the pool deck, the buffet, or The Dome, where noise carries; rooms near nightlife venues; forward high-deck rooms for anyone prone to motion; and lower-deck balconies with obstructed or lifeboat-blocked views. It points you toward the reliably comfortable choice — a midship balcony on the mid-decks, which gives you the scenery and the steadiest ride — and, at the top of the range, the Sanctuary Collection suites. You are always told to confirm your exact room against the current deck plan, because layouts get tweaked.

The dining guide

Star Princess offers a large range of places to eat, and knowing which are included and which cost extra saves both money and the frustration of a missed reservation. The book covers the three main dining rooms — where you can keep a traditional set seating or use flexible Dine My Way through the Medallion — and the Horizons buffet. Then it sorts through the specialty and casual spots: Love by Britto, an artistic prix-fixe with wake views; The Butcher’s Block by Dario, a Tuscan butcher-style steakhouse; Makoto Ocean for Edomae sushi; Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria; the Crown Grill steakhouse; The Catch by Rudi, a seafood venue that shines with Alaskan catches in season; Alfredo’s and Gigi’s pizzerias; O’Malley’s Irish pub; and the 24-hour International Café.

Crucially, the guide tells you what to reserve before you board rather than after you are already competing for the same tables, and it flags where fresh Alaskan seafood is at its best in season. Prices are discussed in relative terms — which venues are worth the splurge and which are not — so the advice stays useful regardless of what the menus cost when you sail.

Entertainment, the signature spaces, and beating the lines

The entertainment chapter covers the shows and the signature attractions, with the timing tips that let you get a good seat without giving up half your day to a queue. That includes the Cirque Éloize acrobatic performances under The Dome at night, the productions in the Princess Theater and Princess Live, and Movies Under the Stars on the giant poolside LED screen. The Lotus Spa and the pools — including the warm, glass-covered Dome pool — round out the relaxation side. On an Alaska cruise, where the days alternate between port calls and scenic cruising, knowing when to be where makes a real difference.

The ports of call

This is one of the fullest chapters, and it is where a ship-specific guide really separates from a generic one. Star Princess sails roughly twenty seven-night round-trip Inside Passage voyages from Seattle across the short Alaska summer. The stops across those itineraries 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 depending on the sailing — and a final call at Victoria, British Columbia. The exact glacier and ports vary by voyage, so the book tells you to confirm your itinerary, then gives you destination guides, top excursions, and a must-do shortlist for each stop.

The port coverage is concrete: Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier, whale-watching, and the Mount Roberts Tramway; Skagway’s Klondike gold-rush streets and the White Pass and Yukon Route railway; Ketchikan as the totem-pole capital, with Creek Street and Misty Fjords; Sitka’s Russian heritage, the onion-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral, and Tlingit totems; Icy Strait Point’s whale-watching, bears, Tlingit culture, and the world’s largest ZipRider; and Victoria’s Butchart Gardens, Inner Harbour, and afternoon tea. It also covers Seattle itself — Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, the waterfront, and the view of Mount Rainier — with the sensible advice to fly in a day early. Alaska shore tours sell out early, so the book pushes you to book the ones that matter ahead of time. For more on the route, the free Alaska Inside Passage article and the dedicated Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan ports guide cover the same ground you can read before you buy.

Honest money and value advice

The money chapter is refreshingly plain. It explains what is already included in your fare, when the various packages actually pay off, and how to avoid the small upcharges that quietly add up over a week. Onboard payments run on the Ocean Medallion in US-dollar accounts; gratuities are added or prepaid; Wi-Fi is a paid plan that is often bundled. The book keeps every price relative rather than quoting figures that would go stale, which means the guidance holds no matter when you sail. The goal is simple: help you spend where it improves your trip and skip where it does not.

MedallionClass, family time, adults-only escapes, and embarkation day

Star Princess is a MedallionClass ship, and understanding the Ocean Medallion is the single biggest thing you can do to make the cruise feel effortless. The quarter-sized wearable unlocks your stateroom hands-free, speeds up boarding, helps you locate your travel companions, and handles touchless payments. Through OceanNow you can order food and drinks to wherever you happen to be on the ship; Dine My Way lets you reserve flexible dining times or keep a traditional seating; and JourneyView helps you plan your days. The book walks you through setting it all up before you sail — downloading the Princess app, completing the OceanReady check-in, adding a payment method, and ordering your Medallion — so nothing is left for a stressful morning at the pier. The free MedallionClass first-timer guide covers the same setup if you want a preview.

Beyond the Medallion, the book handles the practical rhythm of the ship: family know-how for traveling with children, adults-only escapes — including the Sanctuary Collection retreat with its private sun deck, lounge, and exclusive dining — and a full embarkation-day strategy so your first hours aboard are smooth rather than chaotic. A closing chapter of pro tips, common pitfalls, and FAQs catches the things that trip up first-time and repeat cruisers alike, and each chapter ends with Action Steps that turn the reading into a plan.

Who the book is for

The guide is written for three kinds of reader, and it works for all of them. First-timers get the most obvious benefit: the book removes the fog of not knowing how any of it works — check-in, the Medallion, dining, tipping, tenders, and the flow of a port day — so a first cruise feels familiar instead of bewildering. Families use it to plan around children’s routines, choose the right cabin, and find the spaces that keep everyone happy. Seasoned cruisers use it to get up to speed on a brand-new vessel and a new class of ship without relearning the basics.

It also makes a genuinely thoughtful gift. If someone you know has a Star Princess sailing booked — a couple celebrating an anniversary, parents taking the family to Alaska, a friend crossing a cruise off a bucket list — the book is a practical present that shows you paid attention to their trip. It is far more personal than a generic gift card, and it keeps working long after they unwrap it.

Why a ship-specific guide beats a generic cruise primer

General cruise books are written to apply to everything, which means they apply to nothing in particular. They cannot tell you which of the three main dining rooms tends to fill first, or whether a balcony is worth it on this specific route. A ship-specific guide can, because it is built around one vessel and one kind of voyage. The difference shows up as saved time and fewer mistakes: the right cabin the first time, the right dining reservations made before boarding, and the right excursions booked before they sell out.

There is also the matter of pre-cruise stress. A lot of the anxiety before a big trip comes from not knowing what you do not know, and reading a focused guide replaces that uncertainty with a clear picture and a short list of things to do. By the time you reach Pier 91 in Seattle, you already know how boarding works, what your Medallion does, where you are eating the first night, and roughly how each port day will unfold. That is the practical value of the book: it does not just describe the ship, it prepares you to use it well.

It matters here more than usual because Star Princess is new. She brings the newest ship design and the effortless Medallion to Alaska for the first time, pairing the timeless wilderness with the most modern ship in the fleet. When a vessel is this fresh, the usual well of accumulated passenger knowledge is thin, and a dedicated guide fills that gap.

Packing and preparation the book helps with

Alaska is not a warm-weather cruise, and the book is honest about that. The season is short and intense — mild days, cooler mornings and evenings, frequent rain in the rainforest ports, genuine cold near the glaciers, and long northern daylight. The guide steers you toward warm layers, a waterproof and windproof shell, and comfortable waterproof shoes, and it reminds you to bring binoculars and a camera for the glaciers, whales, bears, sea otters, eagles, and salmon. Because the ship calls at Victoria in Canada while sailing from a US port, a passport is required, and the book flags that along with the ship’s immigration guidance.

The guide also frames the character of an Inside Passage voyage accurately: the itinerary alternates port days with scenic-cruising days, so the ship’s warm interior spaces come into their own and much of the wonder unfolds from the ship herself. For travelers who want more, it notes the option of a Princess cruisetour by rail and lodge into the interior toward Denali.

About the author and the series

The book is written by Leo Sotropa as part of the Ultimate Ship Guides series — a growing collection of independent, ship-specific handbooks, each devoted to a single vessel and written in the same practical, honest style. The series is built on a simple idea: that the best time to learn a ship is before you sail. The companion website, acountryamonth.com, hosts free articles for the ships in the series, including the Star Princess guides linked throughout this page, so you can read a good amount before deciding whether the full book is for you.

Because the series is independent and unofficial, it can give the candid advice a cruise line’s own materials never will — which cabins disappoint, which upcharges to skip, and which reservations are worth chasing. And because the details of any ship change over time, the book tells you to confirm current venues, itineraries, and prices in the Princess app before you sail. The latest edition keeps the guidance current while pointing you to the app as the source of truth for anything that moves.

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Get The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess

The Ultimate Guide to Sailing on Star Princess by Leo Sotropa, part of the Ultimate Ship Guides series, is an independent, ship-specific handbook available on Kindle and paperback, with clear Action Steps in every chapter to turn your reading into a ready-to-sail plan. If you have an Alaska voyage booked, it is the fastest way to board knowing the ship, the Medallion, and the ports.

Frequently asked questions

Is this book official or independent?

It is independent and unofficial. It is not published by or affiliated with Princess Cruises, which is exactly why it can be candid about which cabins to avoid, which specialty restaurants are worth the extra cost, and where to skip the upcharges. It is written to serve the reader planning a cruise, not to sell the cruise.

Should I get the Kindle version or the paperback?

Both contain the same guidance, so it comes down to how you like to read. The Kindle ebook is convenient to search and carry on your phone while you are aboard, which pairs well with using the Princess app. The 6×9 paperback, illustrated with graphite chapter illustrations, is easy to flag and hand around while planning, and it makes a nicer gift. Many readers use the ebook on the ship and the paperback while preparing.

Is the book up to date?

The latest edition reflects Star Princess as she sails now. Because venues, itineraries, and prices can change, the book deliberately keeps prices relative rather than quoting figures, and it tells you to confirm the current details — dining venues, your exact itinerary, and pricing — in the Princess app before you sail. That approach keeps the advice reliable over time.

Does it cover this ship’s specific Alaska ports?

Yes. The ports chapter is built around the round-trip Inside Passage itinerary from Seattle, with destination guides and excursion shortlists for Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, Icy Strait Point, and Victoria, plus the day of scenic glacier cruising. Because the exact glacier and ports vary by sailing, the book tells you to confirm your itinerary and book the popular tours early, since they sell out.

Is it good for first-timers?

It is written with first-timers firmly in mind. It explains how boarding works, what the Ocean Medallion does, how dining and tipping work, and how a port day flows, so a first cruise feels familiar rather than confusing. At the same time, seasoned cruisers use it to learn a brand-new ship quickly, so it is not only a beginner’s book.

Would it make a good gift?

Yes, it is a thoughtful gift for anyone with a Star Princess sailing booked. It is more personal than a gift card, shows you care about their trip, and keeps being useful from the day they receive it through the cruise itself. The illustrated paperback in particular is a nice thing to give.

Does the book replace the Princess app?

No, and it does not try to. The book and the app do different jobs. The app is where you complete check-in, order your Medallion, make dining reservations, and confirm live details like venues and schedules. The book is the strategy behind those choices — which cabin, which restaurants, which excursions, and how to prepare — so you use the app well. They work best together.