We arrived in Seattle 2 days prior to embarkation. Seattle is wonderful. We had great weather and walked everywhere. Pike's Place Market is great. Beautiful (and cheap) flowers, delicious fruits and veggies and we even got to see them throw a fish. (I was under the impression this event happened almost non-stop, but when we were there it was a rare occurrence.) The people of Seattle are very diverse and polite. Pioneer Square is lovely. Beware of hills in this fabulous city. We stayed at the Mayflower Park Hotel and it was o.k. The hotel is older so the bathrooms are small. The beds are o.k., not great. The staff at the hotel are willing to help but usually give the wrong information. The hotel is attached to a mall and the monorail. The monorail only goes from the mall to the space needle but it was great to have it so near to the hotel.

Embarkation was swift and easy. We were shown to our rooms immediately. We had a mini-suite on the Dolphin Deck. The room was larger than I imagined and the bathroom was actually larger than I imagined too (about the same size as the one at the hotel we stayed in in Seattle). Our room steward, Edgar, was great. Please take note: This was my FIRST cruise. Read the rest of the review with that in mind and maybe you won't disagree too much. I have to say I would go back to Alaska in a heartbeat, but I'll probably never go on a cruise again. Everything I read on Princess' website and in their book was wrong. We were only supposed to have one formal night, we had two. We were supposed to take a tender at one port, we didn't (most people would have found that great but I was actually looking forward to the tender). There are just too many people around at all times. I didn't like waiting in line to eat every single meal be it at the buffet or in the dining room. The food wasn't as great as I expected. Many, many, many people were rude and inconsiderate to others (fellow travelers, not crew). The crew in general were very nice and accommodating but I found some of the wait staff to be inattentive and unhappy. The shows are six-flags (the theme park) quality. I did enjoy the daily or nightly entertainment in the atrium. They had very talented musicians playing violin, piano, guitar, etc. But although there were many people sitting around in conversation or enjoying the music very few ever applauded. My favorite part about the cruise was the daily afternoon tea. I highly recommend going at least once even if you are not a tea drinker. They serve scones, finger sandwiches, cookies...it's like a meal all in itself. Alaska was spectacular. It is everything you want it to be and more. We only cruised the inside passage so I'm aware we only saw the "tip of the iceberg". The scenery is surreal. When I look at the pictures of the glaciers and icebergs floating around it looks like I've photo-shopped the color. That blue is an amazing color you wouldn't think occurs naturally in nature. We stopped in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria, BC. With the exception of Victoria, the ports are VERY much tourist towns. It didn't make Alaska any less beautiful but it made me wonder why people take cruises to such magnificent places if they're only interested in buying jewelry. I can't tell you how many jewelry stores there were at each port and how many cruise travelers were in them. Excursions: We went whale watching with Harv & Marv in Juneau. This experience was unbelievable. The scenery alone was a marvel but then add whales, eagles, porpoises and sea lions and you are in a little wonderland. Our boat was new and clean and our captain was an Alaskan native and knowledgeable. At first, we were only slightly disappointed that our tour had to end a half hour early due to one of the other people on our boat was a dancer on a cruise ship and had to be back to his cruise ship for practice. We weren't notified of this until we were out on the water. We were compensated with a free hat or t-shirt. But later we were severely disappointed when we found out that the other boat with Harv & Marv saw a pod of Orca's in their last half hour and we would have seen them too had we not had to come in early. The driver of our shuttle took us to the Mendenhall glacier on the way back to town and that was nice. We also took the tram up Mt. Roberts. Worth the money for the great views.

We didn't have any planned excursions in Skagway so we got a hiking map in town and set off for a hike. We did the lower Dewy Lake loop and it was a little tough for non-experienced hikers but well worth the effort. Read more