We left June 30, 2012. It was a calm flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor to Seattle's Seatac airport. We flew over the Grand, Zion and Bryce Canyons. They are always beautiful from the ground, and do not disappoint when viewed from the air. The weather conspired against us (but Seattle though getting fewer inches of rain than New York City, it rains more often), so our original plan of taking in the Woodland Park Zoo was changed to walking around Union Lake, and enjoying the wooden ship festival. We had a great pork sausage sandwich that tasted like a cross between Polish Kielbasa and Bratwurst. Later in the day we met some friends and walked around the Pike Street Market area. We finished up the day with a trolley ride back to the hotel. It had been a day filled with lots of walking on the hills of Seattle.

A good breakfast in the hotel restaurant started our day. We repacked our bags for the cruise. The major difference between flying and cruising is the desire to have our good cameras readily available instead of a quick change of clothing. We decided to take in a few more sights so we took the trolley downtown and walked to the Space Needle. We shot some photos of the flowers and other sights until it got late enough to head out to the cruise ship. We took a taxi back to the hotel and had the driver wait for us to check out. We got to the dock just ahead of the heaviest crowd and boarded the Star Princess about an hour later. Our room was easy to find, as were the buffet, lounges and theater. We ran into some more friends in the Horizon Court Buffet. I started my shipboard dining experience with iced tea, 2 chocolate cookies and 2 small brownies. They were good, but not good enough to make me eat more than that. We ate supper about 7 PM. The choice of soups and appetizers was a bit disappointing, in that they were not varied enough. The Prime rib was nicely done, and the string beans and the baked potato were a nice complement to it. The opening night's show was entertaining and introduced the ship's entertainment crew to us. It was followed by the ship's naturalist. He was very informative and made trip to Alaska sound like the best travel investment one could make.

July 2, was a sea day. We spent the morning familiarizing ourselves with the ship. Although Princess uses the same names for their dining rooms from ship to ship, their location varies with the class of ship. The decor changes very little between the ships. We met some very nice Cruise Critic members at the meet and mingle meeting. Though we were left to wonder why Princess did not have any staff members attend. The afternoon trivia game was fun. The first formal night as usual was an extravagant excuse to persuade people to pose for pictures. We did not fail to participate. Read more