we went to alaska with our 2 grandchildren ages 13 & 14, Neither of them had cruised before so it was a new experience for them. WE flew into Vancouver and stayed at the Hampton Inn. The hotel had a good breakfast and they shuttled us to the pier at no cost. We are not really cruisers but I found the ship to be very nice, clean, the service and food were very good. Our grandchildren did not like the teen lounge, they said it was very small and when they went there the first day there was no place to sit and everyone seemed to be in cliques, but fortunately, they had a lot of fun anyway. They participated in the trivias every day along with us and then in the evening they had fun with the adults at the games they played and also went to the shows. The illusionist and ventriloquiest were very good, very talented people. They flew in a singer who had placed second on American Idol and he was terrific.

We booked excursions privately as well as with Royal Carribean. I would recommend the lumberjack show for younger kids. The rainforest sanctuary and raptor center was very interesting., both of these we booked independently. We went whale watching out of Icy Strait, again independently and I would highly recommend that. When you book through the ship you will be on a large boat with a lot of people. Everyone I spoke to who had booked independently as we did, were on a small boat with just 6 people! We disembarked in Seward and had the entire day there so we booked again independently Seavey's Ididaride Tour and I can;t rave enough about it. We were shuttled to the train station at no cost from the ship where we stowed our bags. The tour bus picked us up and off we went to the camp that trained the ididarod huskies. We were given a tour and told about the dogs and the race, We all handled the puppies and then we went out on a run being pulled by the dogs. It was a great experience. We were then taken to lunch. After lunch we were driven to Exit Glacier where we hiked for a up to the glacier and then a drive through Seward. The tour is from 11-6P. WE then boarded the Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic Train for Anchorage. It was a great ending to the trip.

The only negatives I found that they day we were at Hubbard Glacier hot chocolate was being served on deck but you had to pay for it and I thought that was really cheap. Also, the shops carried very expensive items. The sales were for the real "junk". The merchandise looked like it had been bought especially for the $10 specials that didn't cost them more than $1.00 if that. I did not buy anything. The disembarkation went smoothly.