On Sept 1st we sailed to Alaska with the Coral Princess, leaving from Vancouver. Embarkation was smooth and done fairly quickly 20 minutes. I was surprised to find that our cabin was ready on boarding. (Previously sailed with holland america and had to wait for cabin to be ready) Though i realize now that the reason the cabin is ready so early is that at the other end of the trip they kick you off the ship at the crack of dawn, no matter what time your flight. We had a disembarkation time of 6:50 AM for a 330 pm flight! in Anchorage- and no room service on the day of disembarkation- go the to horizon court at 5 am! - Ok the Coral is a beautiful ship, we never felt crowded. we found there was always plenty to do. Our room steward was wonderful and generally the staff are friendly and seem to be interested in providing good customer service. - the Production shows we thought were fantastic and all the other entertainers were pretty good. We particularly enjoyed Larry Dunsmore, singer and pianist who played in Crooners Bar and headlined one night with a "tribute to Sinatra" we are not big sinatra fans, but he was wonderful. he had a faithful following in the bar for most of the trip, and we could see why. Highly recommend listening to him sing and play. - the ports Ketchikan Juneau and Skagway were not that exciting. -and filled with lots of cruise ship jewelry stores and other junk stores. we did the mendenhall glacier tour in Juneau which was good. But the best thing we did there was the Alaska State Museum which was $5 each and really wonderful. We spent several hours there after reading about it on cruise critic. Highly recommend it. IN skagway we did the train to white pass and back ( the 3 hour train, you don't get off) It was fine, but I thought over priced- and we were expecting a bit more spectacular scenery. Though we are used to the rockies so perhaps someone from the midwest would have found it more exciting. Glacier National Park was the highlight for us, just a beautiful place, pristine and unspoiled. we had great weather and thoroughly enjoyed our day there. Now the food on the Princess, this was their one downfall. We really felt the cruise food quality was pretty mediocre- tired lettuce, too many pre fab frozen desserts, fancy names for food that did not match the description. Particularly disappointing was the exciting description for fresh tom turkey with dressing and gravy - this turned out to be processed turkey roll with an odd colored gravy and stuffing that was soggy and tasted like jam. The diver seared scallops. Were seared but not cooked. - and the list went on. This was in the main dining room. the buffet was even worse, and depending when you went you might not find a place to sit , or utensils or cups. they don't have trays in the dining room, but a big plastic platter plate, that can be a tray or a plate, depending i guess on how much you plan to eat. we did not like the food or the setup in horizon court and mostly ate in the dining room. Overall the food on our previous cruise 2 years ago on the Holland America oosterdam was significantly better. The one positive food comment i can make on the princess was that after the first day they left a card in your room to fill out for fresh fruit and it was replenished every day at your request, by filling in another card, this was a really nice touch. The princess also did have better entertainment and a larger ship, so it depends what you are looking for. we docked in whittier and were disembarked within 30 minutes of our time. though we had to wait on the bus for over half an hour to get the green light to go through the one way tunnel. Fortunately for us we had a great driver Karen, who has been driving for many years and really went over and above the call of duty making it an informative +++ transfer to anchorage. She was absolutely terrific! Overall a great cruise,Princes generally has a smooth and well put together product. Would I go with Princess again? Probably , though I might try Royal Caribbean next time. the food quality on the princess really needs some work The other issue is I discovered when I got home is that princess had converted our onboard charges ( US) to canadian funds ( before charging to our credit card, adding a nasty exchange rate and 3 % conversion fee- m/c only charges 2.5 % plus a better rate. and on the final folio it is officially typed in that we were offered a choice of currencies for payment and that our choice of currency is final. THIS WAS NEWS TO US! and completely untrue! We only got the folio on our way out the door and at no time on this cruise on embarkation or before disembarkation were we ever given that choice.or told about this. i am in the process of taking this up with princess. So be aware of this, if you are not from the US. find out if they are charging your credit card in US funds or if they opted without your consent to change it to your home currency, so they include a nasty exchange rate and conversion fee. I am still miffed about this, not a great end to an otherwise fine cruise.