This was my 10Th cruise, my husband's 8Th and my boys age 13 and 15's fifth cruise. We also travelled with my parents, who are very active 69 and 71 year olds. None of us had cruised on Princess before, we primarily cruise on Royal Caribbean.
We booked Princess because it was round trip from Seattle, which was much cheaper for airfare than the trips that start and stop in different ports.
We flew to Seattle the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn on Dexter in downtown. Booked online through priceline. Room was nice, but nothing special. Walked to the Space Needle and then took the monorail downtown to eat diner, then walked back to the hotel.