There were six of us in our party. My husband and I (mid 40s) our two sons 15 and 16, my mother-in-law 75, and my sister-in-law. We arrived in Seattle the day before embarkation, and stayed at the Inn at the Market. As expected this was a lovely hotel, with a spectacular rooftop view of Pike Place Market. The location was fantastic and the service couldn't have been better. We went to dinner at Elliot's Oyster Bar (pricey and service was not the best). The next morning I woke up very early and walked over to two world class bakeries, Piroshky Piroshky and Le Panier on Pike Place. They are right next to each other and wonderful. I bought a bunch of pastries from each and we had a delicious breakfast in the room. Then we walked down to Pike Place Market and I bought a beautiful bouquet for the cabin, which lasted the entire cruise. The Market is not to be missed if you have the time and haven't been. Don't miss the gum wall!

Embarkation was kind of a mess. We dragged our bags through the maze and it seemed to take forever to get to the point where they took our pictures and credit card info. I bet it was at least an hour for this process. Our cabins were ready when we got on board so we checked them out (we had three consecutive balcony cabins) my husband and I had connecting cabins with our two sons, and my sister-in-law and mother-in-law were next to the boys. I found the cabins to be very nice. We all enjoyed our balconies. Our room steward Alfredo was fantastic. Always friendly and calling us by name. In fact I was very impressed with the staff. Everyone seemed to be happy and friendly, saying hello, no matter what their position was.

We ate mostly at the buffet for breakfast and lunch. I thought the food quality was very good. They had interesting side dishes, sometimes Indian or Asian, one day there was a German buffet for the Beerfest. There were always eggs Benedict at breakfast, sausage gravy and biscuits, made to order omelets (if you wanted to wait), bacon, sausage, fruit, cereal, pastries. At lunch they always had hamburgers, hot dogs, roasted chicken, panini sandwiches, salad, fruit, etc. My biggest complaint of the entire cruise is that the buffet was almost always a madhouse. Unless it was 6am, it was simply crazy. It wasn't unusual to be unable to find ANYWHERE to sit. You just had to wander around all the tables aimlessly until you found something. The staff did an excellent job cleaning up immediately after someone left. In fact if you were dining alone it would have been very difficult to keep your table, and there's NO WAY everyone could get up from your group at the same time or your table would be gone when you got back. Of course, the main dining rooms were available, but we wanted a larger choice and to eat NOW! I think perhaps they need to consider converting one of the dining rooms into an additional buffet. Read more