This was our second cruise.  Our first had been a longer cruise, in South America, on the Star Princess.  The Star was a larger, and in our opinion more luxurious ship than the Coral, but the latter was fine.  We had booked an oceanview cabin and were upgraded to a oceanview balcony cabin, apparently due to the ship being far from full (the rates went down as time went on and we got an excellent deal).  It seemed that sometimes two restaurants were used for anytime dining, and sometimes just one.  Food was not great, but it was fine.  Worst part was that on two occasions we ended up sitting with people who seemed to want to impress others with their knowledge of food, and talked rather condescendingly to the staff about ingredients supposedly missing from the dish   The only dish which received generally bad reviews was the lobster, which we fortunately avoided.  It looked pretty gross.

There were a number of bands playing in lounges; most seemed very uncrowded.  I generally avoided the variety shows. We enjoyed the naturalist lectures, though one by a visiting park ranger from Glacier Bay seemed a bit perfunctory.  Since we had been on a previous Princess Cruise we were invited to the captain's party, which ended up being rather boring.  We did walk by a receiving line that included the captain, who, it was announced as we entered, would not be shaking hands (we had heard separately it was due to swine flu concerns, but it came across as rather arrogant.  The "party" itself merely consisted of sitting at tables, being served one or two very weak drinks, and hearing some short talks by staff (and a drawing). 

Embarkation in Vancouver was quick and efficient.  Much better than our previous cruise's embarkation (in Buenos Aires).  Disembarkation in Whittier more compressed in time so more chaotic, as would be expected.  For us the highlight of the trip was College Fjord, even more beautiful than Glacier Bay, where the ship spent considerably more time.  Glad we had great weather at both stops.  It was difficult to hear the rangers who spoke over a P.A. system on the deck, but we heard enough to learn a few things.  The only rough seas of the entire trip came between College Fjord and Whittier, and that lasted for only a few hours.  The rest of the cruise was calm (definitely calmer than our Star Princess trip from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso the year before). Read more