This is my first review but I know when I was shopping for a cruise I wanted more information than was available at the time. So I'm making an attempt to add my views for what they're worth.

My husband and I are both in our 50s and took our first cruise of Alaska on 5/15/04 on the Coral Princess. Prior to this we had cruised in the Caribbean and the west coast of Mexico. We chose the southbound cruise out of Whittier. Because of time constraints we were not able to take a land tour prior to the cruise. Most of the other passengers were our age with a good representation of younger and older people. Our trip was very last minute. We didn't make our reservations until March when we found a very good price for a balcony on the Baja deck. About 2 weeks before we left we received notification from our Travel Agent that we had been upgraded to a mini-suite (C211) on Caribe. I was a little concerned about this because it is very far forward but the location of our cabin turned out to be fine. It was under the Horizon Court and the pool and above the Princess Lounge. The seas were so smooth that there was no concern about seasickness and my Dramamine was not needed.

We took Northwest from Newark to Anchorage via Minneapolis and returned to Newark from Vancouver via Chicago on United. Princess arranged our flights and we used their transfer service between airports and docks. The motor coach from Anchorage to Whittier took approximately 3 hours. The trip itself is not 3 hours long but there is a one-way tunnel just outside of Whittier and traffic alternates between vehicles going to and from Whittier so this required a 40-minute wait. Embarkation was very smooth and we were on the ship approximately 15 minutes after we arrived at the dock. Read more