This was our second cruise to Alaska, we sailed on the Celebrity Mercury back in 2010 on a round trip out of Los Angeles and that trip was magical as it was in early May and everywhere we went it was great weather and lots of snow on the mountains. This trip we took our son, his wife and our grandson with rooms next to each other on Baja deck. The steward opened the partition between the balconies and it really open up the space.

We sailed on June 20th from Seattle, embarkation was the fastest and smoothest I have ever experienced, this was probably our 15th cruise and from parking the car to on the ship was literally 30 minutes. Unbelievable. Don't know if Seattle Cruise Port is always like this, but I'm sold. Stopped in the room to drop off our carry on and went upstairs to the buffet and had lunch. BTW, this was the official Seahawks 12th Man cruise and being from Phoenix and a Cardinals fan, I was not happy when we found out. But overall it wasn't bad, the fans were a little over the top sometimes, but really a couple of hundred fans among 3000 people it was tolerable. Lunch was pretty good, especially the cheeseburgers and brats from the grill.the burger actually tasted like good ground beef and not some processed patty. The lifeboat drill was typical and we were soon underway.

Sailing out of Seattle, it takes a while before you reach open ocean, lots to see going by. The first night's dinner was the only miss of the whole trip. My son and I ordered the prime rib and it was a very poor cut of beef. Tough, funny taste and funny look. Everyone else liked what they ordered though. Our waiter was Marino and his assistant was Miguel. Outstanding service and attention. One thing we discovered on our last cruise is the late seating is by far a more pleasurable experience. You are not rushed, the service is better and the dining room is not crowded. If you can get used to eating at a later time it is well worth it. Marino entertained our grandson every night, magic tricks, puzzles, he even folded a dollar bill into a ring for him to wear. Marino sang to our daughter in law on her birthday and made her a rose out of a napkin. When we signed up for late seating, it was supposed to be 8pm, but once on the ship, we were told it had been changed to 7:30, which was even better. Read more