I was happily surprised that Embarkation/Disembarkation was NOT the nightmare I kept reading about prior to our cruise. Not sure if people were just picky or Princess got better by the end of the Alaska cruise season.
The food was NOT bland, tasteless, or horrible. In fact the Buffet had a great breakfast with blueberry French toast, Belgian waffles, and great link sausages! The dining room food was great for the most part, there were some misses, which were mostly the appetizers. Loved the international café, great pastries.
One of the best parts of our cruise was the naturalist and his lectures. After his lectures he would mention good times/spots for whale watching. The first morning in the Inside Passage we were very lucky and come upon a huge pod of Humpbacks. The naturalist was on the ship wide speaker pointing out the sightings specifying which side of the ship they were on and which O'clock there were at. My sister and I ate our breakfast out on our balcony and watched whale spouts everywhere! Very, very awesome!
Small but clean and comfortable. Loved the big balcony!