We sailed out of San Francisco on the Sea Princess on May 10, 2011. This was our third cruise to Alaska, our second with Princess. We were travelling with a group of 20 people from SIRS. Overall, it was a great cruise.

After a painless embarkation process, we were on board by about 12:30 pm. We sailed late, about 4:30 pm instead of 4:00. The weather was clear and cool but breezy as the fog was starting to come in. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge was a great experience. I have lived less than an hour away from the bridge for all but 3 years of my life and have never sailed under it. It was a great thrill. A man from our local SIRS group was on the bridge taking pictures of us and the ship as we went under it. One warning - with the fog starting to come in, we were sailing straight into the wind. It was so cold and windy on the bow of the ship as we went under the bridge that only about 50 brave souls stayed out there. To me, it was worth it. An amazing sight.

Cabin: We had booked a mini-suite on Baja deck - B428. It was great. The layout of this mini was much better than the one we had on the Diamond Princess 3 years ago. The room is basically a square cut in half. The first half is a sitting room with a sofa bed, chair, desk with chair, flat screen TV and a sliding door to the balcony. The second half of the square is your bedroom. Queen size bed (very comfortable with the eggcrate mattress topper on it), 2 little nightstands, small flat screen TV, vanity with large mirror and blow dryer and a sliding door to the balcony. There is a curtain between the two rooms that can be closed for privacy. My husband got a migraine one afternoon so we were thankful for the ability to close him off from light and noise. There is an enclosed closet, rather narrow but enough hanging space for everything we brought (and because we didn't have to fly to get to the ship, we brought A LOT). The bathroom can be entered from two different doors. The door in the bedroom area leads to a stall shower and separate bath tub with jets. This room has a door that leads into the toilet & sink area. You can also access the toilet & sink area thru a door near the front cabin door. Read more