Set sail on the STAR on May 12, 2007 out of Seattle. This is my 9th cruise and I've never had an easier time getting on the boat. Dropped bags off walked upstairs, checked in, and got on the boat. Not many people knew the Versailles dining room was open so it was a nice quiet place for lunch. Buffet at Market Cafe was packed!
We had a balcony room on 10th floor right in the middle of the ship and it was perfect. Short walk to everything. Room was plenty big with plenty of storage. The bathroom was good and the shower was great. After cruise with tiny showers, it was nice being able to turn around and spread out in one. One tip though, the bathroom had a bad odor so you may want to take one of the cheap car air fresheners with you to hang up in there. Cabin steward was adequate but I just don't think you get the level of service that we got when we determined how much we were going to tip. Adequate but not attentive. I highly recommend getting a balcony for the Alaska cruises. It's great being able to sit in your room and have a whole wall of great scenery passing by.
We ate most meals in the Versailles because it was just so much more beautiful than the Aqua. The food ranged from okay to great. Good portions but nothing special. It seems like they saved the great food for the places where you pay. We tried La Trattoria one night and the food was excellent and we did Cagneys one night and it was excellent as well. No complaints about the food overall. Oh yeah, Blue Lagoon was really good but it was usually really crowded. I gambled every night and really enjoyed the casino. Most of the dealers and pit bosses were very nice. Cristina went out of her way to make sure everybody was having a good time. I lost a little but it was fun. We went to all of the shows and enjoyed them. We really liked the Andrew Lloyd Webber show and the 70s show. Cirque Pacific was more dancing than I like and I thought that the Blackstreet Boyz was kind of funny but kind of racist too. The auditorium is beautiful and doesn't have a bad seat. Oh yeah, we enjoyed the magician and we enjoyed the lecture he did on Soapy Smith. Karaoke wasn't very well attended, guess it's because most people on the boat were older. I didn't think there were very many activities on the at sea days but we were there mostly to relax so that was fine with us.