My husband and I have cruised 8 times now, (only 2 not on Princess) and truly love, love, love Alaska so we decided we'd go this year and leave out of San Francisco a port we had not been to. We went a day early and stayed at the stately Mark Hopkins International. The hotel is old but elegant in the European Old World style. We were met at the airport by a lovely Princess Rep and also greeted at the hotel by another rep, equally as lovely. We have always given kudos to Princess for the way they handle logistics so we were a bit surprised the next day when we found out that the street by our hotel was to be closed down for a tribute to Tony Bennett. Princess didn't seem to know about this and consequently we were about 90 minutes late leaving the hotel for embarkation. It really was no big deal except that we were surprised that Princess hadn't thought of an alternative plan as it obviously was a big deal for the city of San Fran. Bridget and Erica the Princess reps at the hotel we wonderful though and did their best to keep everyone informed and upbeat but you are so excited to start your voyage that this delay was a bit of a bummer.

Once on the bus though, from the time we entered the port bldg. to the time we were in our room could not have been more than 20 minutes. Easy Peasy

The cabin was on Caribe deck and it was a balcony. Room 333. It was lovely. We have sailed enough now to know how small things really are so no surprise there, but this room was very adequate since we are rarely in our room. The only criticism we have on the room would be that the chair badly needed to be reupholstered. Everything was clean and fresh but things like frayed and dirty upholstery really show the ships age more than anything else so I would suggest Princess invest a few dollars and freshen these things up. Read more