My uncle served in WWII and I remember him telling me that one of the neatest thing he remembered when coming home was sailing into San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. Since hearing that, I've always wanted to do the same. When I learned that this cruise departed San Fran in the afternoon AND that our niece always wanted to take a cruise, the match seemed made. The fact that this would be our third trip to Alaska just put icing on the cake.

Our trip wasn't perfect but we still had a very good time. One simply cannot control the weather and weather WAS a problem on this particular trip. It rained several days, was overcast on several more and was cool to cold about eight of the ten days we were gone. The 30-35 knot headwind didn't help matters either. That combined with our speed of 20 knots made for an effective 50+ knot breeze across our deck. But that's Alaskan weather for you... after all, we did visit a rain forest so one should expect the wet stuff from time to time.

While I can't put my finger on it, something just seemed "off" with the ship, the Grand Princess. It certainly wasn't the crew as all of the people we came into contact with were top notch. The food was very good, the service was excellent, the cabin itself was equal to what we had on previous trips but "something" just didn't seem right. Read more