This is a mom's perspective of the July 7, 2012 Alaskan cruise. I have three kids ages 14, 12, and 8. This was their first cruise and my husband's as well. I chose Princess because I went on cruises with my family as a kid and I still to this day remember the traditional dining and afternoon tea and baked Alaska parade. It was a great choice for us.

We flew to Seattle a day early. Originally I was going to fly in the day of the cruise, but after reading these boards and talking to friends I decided to spare any possible stress and changed our flight to the day before. So we arrived Friday afternoon and stayed at the Doubletree Hotel right by the airport, all booked by Princess. This is their hotel transfer option and it was well worth it. A nice gentleman met us at the airport in the baggage claim area and loaded our luggage onto a cart and took us to the Doubletree shuttle. It was a five minute ride to the hotel. The hotel was very nice, and my kids loved the chocolate chip cookies at checkin (although they only have ones with nuts, which my youngest wouldn't eat). Since we are a family of five and the limit is four to a room we had two rooms and they were right next to each other and even had balconies. It was fun to watch the airplanes and you could barely hear them (so no trouble sleeping). We had the concierge get us a car service to take us to the Space Needle, which was a fun way to spend the afternoon. Then we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (good) and got a good night's sleep before the cruise.

SATURDAY - We ate breakfast at the hotel coffee shop (they had good pancakes, which is all my kids care about) and the Princess bus picked us up at the back of the hotel at 11am. Now here is where the Princess hotel package is really great - you can check in for the cruise with the Princess rep in the hotel lobby and skip doing it at the pier. This saved a lot of time. You do have to fill out a health questionnaire, which was new to me. It asks if anyone in your family has a cough or fever or stomach trouble. I was actually glad to see that they were making an effort to keep passengers from picking up germs. There were a lot of other passengers with us, at least two bus loads. We arrived at the pier at 11:30 and joined a huge line of people waiting the board the ship. But because we had already done cruise check-in at the hotel we got to go in a much shorter line. They gave us our cruise cards (they are like credit cards and are your cabin key and ID card and charge card all in one). The ship didn't open until noon but by the time we got through the line it was open. All of the cabins were ready and waiting. They said that if you had checked your luggage to allow until at least 6pm to get it delivered to your cabin. This is why my family brought only carryon luggage, one carryon suitcase (22 inch) with wheels and one carryon bag (duffle bag) apiece. We didn't check them at the airport or at the ship. We like to keep our stuff with us and they are easy to handle. I realize older people would have a harder time handling their luggage and would check them but we are young and it was good exercise. Plus as soon as we got to our cabin we unpacked and were all set up before lunch. Read more