We had a great time on the Alaska cruise. In addition to ourselves, we traveled with good friends of ours and their teenage sons. This was my fourth cruise, all others had been on Disney. This was my wife's 10th cruise, and she has been on Disney, Princess and NCL. It was the first time for both of us on Royal Caribbean. Our friends had been on the Rhapsody two years ago on a Caribbean cruise. So, between us, we had a variety of past experiences, and a variety of new experiences during the trip.

We did not spend any time in Seattle before or after the cruise. But we did not participate in any of the airport transfers offered by the cruise line. A friend who lives in Seattle met us at the airport and took us to the port. On our return, we took a cab from the port, which was an easy process.

Check-in/Arrival: The check-in process was a breeze. The lines moved very quickly. We showed up at the port just after noon, as we thought we could not board the ship until 12pm. We were through the check-in process in less than 10 minutes. However, the boarding process was much slower. Making it to the gangway was easy; getting off the gangway and onto the ship was a different story - it took almost 45 minutes. Read more