After one week on land in rental car, embarked from Whittier, using Princess bus transfer service from Anchorage. Transfer was smooth and pleasant, although it was inconvenient that we had to check-in that AM at Anchorage Convention Center to get time of transfer. Bus ride to Whittier was made more pleasant by scenery and driver who gave narrative of area. Embarkation lines were longer than on other cruises, mostly because 3 bus loads of people arrived at same time, due partly to scheduled tunnel opening to get to Whittier. Still, it was all organized and pleasant.

Found our 2 mini-suites, one for husband and me and one for our 2 near-adult children, ages 17 and 22. Large, beautiful, clean - adequate storage. Bedding was not arranged properly in kids cabin (should have been 2 twins, was not) but quickly fixed by cabin attendant. Upon arrival on ship guests are given assignment for dinner seating for that night only - ours was at 5:30, which was fine with us since we never really stopped for lunch. Unpacked, checked out some of the ship.

We immediately noticed that most passengers were in the 55-75 age group. There were a few children but, as we expected, saw no one in age group of our kids. Usual lifeboat drill was held completely within one of the theatres, unlike other cruises where we had to actually go stand on a deck. Our cabin had only one life vest in it - I informed my husband that he would have to swim if we sank, and our kids told us life expectancy in Alaska waters was so short it would not matter. Despite several requests, never got another life vest. Read more