My wife and I just finished a great 15 day cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii and back. Since we live in the Bay Area, we drove to the pier and dropped off our bags - total of 8. Then we simply went around the corner from the pier and a down two blocks to park our car. It was so easy and convenient. Within 15 minutes we were checked in, checked out our cabin and eating pizza on deck the ship. I must say that we are platinum members and didn't have to wait to check in as the line for the other passengers was rather long. The food was good, but not great, however I must have eaten too much since I gained four extra pounds. We did enjoy the pizza and the quick lunch and snack items in the piazza on the fifth deck. I found the prices for wine, beer and drinks to be very reasonably priced. We pay at least 30-50% more for drinks in our area when dining out. Also, on many days they had a four piece string quartet playing in the piazza and that made for a very pleasant lunch time treat. Service was very good and we experienced no real problems with the service staff. Our stateroom was cleaned every day and evening. Towels replaced, chocolate on the bed in the evening and plenty of soap in the bathroom.

The best part of the trip for us was how smooth the water was both going to Hawaii and on the return voyage. The only rough waters were on the return sailing from Ensenada back to San Francisco, otherwise it was smooth sailing for the entire trip!

That was the good part. Now for the bad parts of the trip. Way too many dogs! And way, way too many scooters! I'm not insensitive to people with special needs and do respect their disabilities. However, I really do take exception with people who are grossly overweight and are perfectly able to get around on their own two feet but choose the ride around the ship in scooters because they're lazy! I saw a woman who did nothing but zip around in a scooter on board the ship, but get off her scooter to board a tender to go ashore! Next was the so called "service dogs" Again, I really respect people that need true service dogs to enable them to get around and I'm referring to dogs that aid the blind and not some little stupid white fluffy dog with a little jacket that says "service dog" on it! little fluffy is not a service dog and I don't want to share a confined space of a cruise ship with dogs. If the trend of overweight people running around the ship on scooters and so called service dogs taking over the ship this can very well be my last cruise. I hope the cruise ship lines wake up and start to ban these types people from the ship.