Rather than have a party for my 60th birthday, my husband and I decided to take an Alaskan cruise and ask my 65 year old sister to come along to celebrate. Many cruise lines cruised over my birthday, and really wanted RCI since we have cruised with them 3 times before and Celebrity once, but the route and number of stops was more on Princess so decided to give them a try.

First of all, I have never had a cruise specialist, like Holly at Princess did, ever call me about a price reduction or specials after I booked. Very impressive. THEN, since we had two window view rooms next to each other and Princess was overbooked, they called and asked if they could upgrade us to a Grand Suite with balcony since we were all family. We did and it truly was a beautiful space with an incredible balcony for viewing Alaska.

Because we were in the suite, our embarkation was a breeze, but since we were port side, we saw long lines of people waiting and many in the hot sun as Seattle was incredibly warm and sunny. Our room had fresh flowers, fresh fruit and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us, so felt so spoiled. We usually get a balcony when we travel alone, or a mini suite, but have never had anything so lavish, especially the whirlpool tub which was a plus on an Alaskan voyage. Read more