We arrived a day early and stayed at the W Hotel where we were allowed an early check in which really added to our Seattle experience. Location is great and we were able to walk all around the city and hit the highlights. Since we have stayed in Seattle before made sure to go to Pike' Market for Beecher's Macaroni and Cheese at lunchtime. We enjoyed a beautiful day in Seattle.

Arrived at cruise dock at about noon on Saturday and we were checked in quite quickly, but their method of boarding the ship left something to be desired. We were given a number and told to wait til it was called before getting in line to embark ship. Well, so much for the honor system, the majority of the cruisers just got in line and boarded the ship. No one was checking numbers, it took us 45 minutes to finally have our number called and get in line. Irritating when you are following the rules. HA needs to enforce or just let it be first come first in line.

We fell in love with Alaska 5 years ago and have come back each year, trying different cruise companies and all have been great. Our voyage did have some hiccups along the way, but our captain handled each one with professionalism and had the safety of all as his top priority. We had a fire on board, norovirus, and medical emergency spread out during our 7 days. We were sad to hear that a few cruisers were upset about being awakened for the fire alarm or that excursions were cut short due to evacuation of a sick passenger. Just sorry that the captain had to deal with so many problems. We still had a wonderful time. Read more