About us: DH and I are a married couple, early 40's, no kids. We had never been to Alaska before and wanted to experience this part of our country. We joined the CC roll call for our cruise, and this was one of the smartest things we did! My DH said it best when he described traveling with our new friends. "Our penthouse suite would have just been square footage if not for these lovely people that became our friends. This special group gave our large space 'life' and laughter and brought the cabin, and our vacation, to life".
Embarkation: Fortunately, we were informed by a member of our new Cruise Critic friend group about a GREAT Expedia.com deal at the PanPacific Hotel in Vancouver, BC. For about $200, we had a lovely room that included breakfast for two and in the morning, all we had to do was take the elevator straight down to the cruise terminal. We had time in the morning to do some shopping in Vancouver (Tim Horton's for donuts and coffee!!) and were on board around 1:00 PM. Embarkation was fine... Yes, it's a bit of a cattle call, but I just don't know what X could do to make it better. Our surge protector made it on board, BUT all of our CC friend's irons were confiscated. Beware... do NOT even think about bringing an iron. Not one person in our group of 12+ was able to 'sneak' them on in checked luggage.
We were offered dinner at the Olympic for $5 on our first night, but since we were traveling with our new friends and sitting with them, we declined. We already had reservations at the Olympic for night #2, so we just decided to stay put with that.
6147 Penthouse: Tons of closet space. Two bathrooms. Love the location and the huge balcony. HUGE kitchen.