We booked our cruise to Alaska on RCCL after reviewing several Alaska itineraries and other cruise lines. In the end we decided on RCCL because we have cruised with them in the past and have had enjoyable trips. I will run through this start to finish to give all a good overview.

Getting to Seattle: Being from Maryland we flew out to Seattle a day early in case of weather and flight delays. We checked into the waterfront Marriott and enjoyed a day in Seattle seeing the sights. My husband had been several times and this my my first time to Seattle. I enjoyed the city. Went to a great dinner at Anthony's which was a great deal for 19.99/person. The food was excellent and the service was good. We walked through town and visited the Pike St Market which was a lot of fun. Lots of smoked salmon snacks and other sea food options. There is a market in which local vendors sell goods. Toured the shopping district and made some last minute purchases for the cruise. Also plan to stay again in Seattle the day we return just to make the most of our vacation and to prevent rushing around from port to airport. We will likely do more sight seeing, go to the space needle and a nice dinner. Wear comfortable shoes and a lightweight jacket. There is a lot of walking and hills. Good photo ops and a lot of starbucks to choose from.

Embarkation/Disembarkation: We took a cab to port which dropped off right near entrance. There is a lot of staff available to direct travelers to the right spot. We were lucky enough to have preferred check in because we were staying in a grand suite. From start to finish this process only took about 45 minutes from the time we arrived to port until we were able to get into our room. Staying in a suite expedited our check in process. For other travelers the lines were quite long but it did appear to move efficiently. Leaving the ship we did express check out so we walked off the ship with our bags in hand. We were the first group to exit and once the line started moving it went quickly about 20 minutes total to exit, go through customs and get a cab to bring us to hotel.Cabin: My husband surprised me with a grand suite which I did not expect. It was very nice cabin with a lot of storage space, a wall of closets and drawers at every corner. The bathroom had double sinks and a large enough shore/tub combo. The highlight of the cabin would be our balcony. It was very nice pulling the curtains back to see clear out to the snow capped mountains. Our stateroom attendant Oliver was very nice. He took good care of us and made our room look very nice each morning and evening while we were at dinner Read more