We sailed from Seattle on Tuesday June 14 for 7 days roundtrip to Alaska. We are a married couple, mid-50's. It was our first "cool-weather" cruise - past cruises have been Caribbean/Mexico/Hawaii. We drove from Vancouver to Seattle on Monday, staying overnight at the Quality Inn downtown Seattle. They had a Stay & Cruise package which included an overnight stay, parking for up to 14 days, transfers to & from the port and full breakfast. Our room was clean and bug-free (very important!), and amazingly quiet considering its proximity to the traffic. We could even see the top of the Space Needle from our room. The hotel also had a shuttle to take us to/from Safeco Field for the Mariners game (they lost, sigh). We signed up for the 10 a.m. shuttle to the port, and were checked in and in the holding pen by 10:30. We waited about an hour, then boarded the Spirit, and headed for lunch at the Lido Buffet. We spent the afternoon wandering about, unpacking our suitcases, attending the muster drill, enjoying the first of the DOD's and watching sailaway. We had early dining, which was moved up from 6 pm to 5:30 - a bit too early imho. We were seated at a table for 4 and enjoyed getting to know our tablemates. This was our 3rd time on the Spirit, so we were already familiar with the layout, which is one of the easiest layouts we've ever experienced on a ship. We had Deck 7 extended balcony cabins on previous trips (Hawaii and Mexico), but this time we were in cabin 4177 - a mid-ship starboard regular balcony on Deck 4. We had won this cruise in the cruise raffle on our Feb 2011 Mexican cruise, and upgraded to a balcony cabin. We weren't sure how much we would use the balcony on an Alaska cruise, but we found that we used it quite a bit. The regular balcony was just fine for the 2 of us. Fortunately, none of our balcony neighbours were smokers, so we were able to enjoy the balcony and the fresh air. The Spirit had the retractable roof closed over the middle pool, so it was cozy and warm enough in there to swim, but we never felt the urge - not warm enough weather to entice us to swim. Most days, we went up to deck 10 and did 6-10 laps of walking (2-3 miles). Since we always eat too well on the ships, we also make a point of taking the stairs and working out in the gym a couple times per week. I also took advantage of a port day special in the spa to have a nice massage and facial. Day 2 was a sea day. We met our CC roll call mates at a Meet & Greet at the Fantail Bar area at 10:30 a.m., following by a Slot Pull. We had never done a slot pull competition before, but we had a lot of fun. As a group, we didn't make any money, but almost broke even. Some of the others continued on to a cabin crawl afterwards, but we opted out and went for lunch. Formal nights were Day 2 (Wednesday) and Day 6 (Ketchikan day). We missed the first Formal night, since that was also the NHL Game 7 Stanley Cup game. We had the choice of watching the game in the Champions Sports Bar (too smoky), the Fantail Bar (outdoor, too cold/windy) or on the TV in our stateroom. We chose the stateroom option, running up to the Lido Buffet to grab trays for dinner between periods. We ate dinner all other nights in the MDR. For breakfasts and lunches, we usually ate it in the Buffet. Favourite buffet foods included the Deli toasted pastrami on rye sandwiches, salads, goat cheese pizza, garlic bread at the pizzeria, and of course, the custom omelets for breakfast. All of the dinners in the MDR were good, but seemed to get slower each night. I'm not sure why, but by the end of the cruise, it seemed that we were waiting a long time to get dessert (after the waitstaff entertainment), and then felt rushed to eat it while the waiters were clearing tables and setting up for the next seating. The day cruising Tracy Arm Fjord was probably our favourite day. We spent most of the day on our balcony, watching the scenery and wildlife. It was warm, sheltered and sunny most of the day, so we were able to sit out in shorts and tshirts, clicking our cameras and using the binoculars. Living in a Vancouver suburb, we're used to mountains, snow, whales and bears, but we were still impressed with the beautiful scenery. The naturalist on board, Michelle, was excellent at pointing out wildlife and educating us on Alaska. In most ports, we just did walking tours and some shopping. Saw some beautiful sculptures and Alaskan artwork. We had researched each town ahead of time, so we knew where we wanted to head and had mapped out our own tours. In Ketchikan, there were 4 ships in port the same day, so the poor town was overrun with us tourists. While I'm sure that they are grateful for the tourist trade, they must also heave a huge sigh of relief in September when the ships leave and they have the town to themselves again.Debarkation was very smooth, and we were out of the terminal by 8:40 a.m. The concierge phoned Quality Inn on our behalf for the shuttle pick up, gave our name and was told "we'll be there soon", but they didn't show up until 10:15 a.m.—after our 3rd call. The hotel clearly has communication problems between the Customer Service phone reps and the shuttle department and they need to improve this area. The CS manager blamed us for not leaving a cel phone number, and could not understand that not all tourists have a cel phone usable in the States. Having our name, reservation and pre-arranged meeting spot should have been sufficient, but she just "didn't get it". She did insist on giving us a refund of the shuttle fare, but I would have rather had an acknowledgment of responsibility for the problem and an assurance that it would be addressed to help future travelers. It certainly ended our experience with QI on a bad note. If I ever use them again, I'll make sure to get the shuttle manager's phone number rather than the CS dept. After that, we took off in our car and headed north to home. The border crossing was light, so we were home by mid-afternoon. All in all, a very enjoyable cruise, lots of beautiful scenery, lots of nice people. Next time, though, we'll go back to warm weather cruises. I miss the palm trees, beaches and sunshine!