We chose this this cruise because we believe in Regent. Any other line we sail with is compared to Regent. After knowing we would be happy on Regent we then looked carefully at the itinerary. We wanted to sail in or out of Vancouver and we wanted a stop in Victoria. We also wanted to explore as much of the Inside Passage as we could. Next we wanted to sail with Terry Breen (she was the Enrichment Lecturer on our Amazon cruise last year). She is excellent and we knew she would make our exploration of Alaska more interesting. Finally we had sailed on the Mariner to the Amazon in November/December 2017 and we were excited to see Mariner after she came out of dry dock.

We stayed one night in Anchorage before boarding a coach to Seward for embarkation. When we arrived in Anchorage it was sunny and we were able to see Denali. The locals told us that the weather was better than expected and that we were lucky to see Denali as it was quite often (at least 50% of the time) shrouded in clouds.

The coach ride to Seward was quite pleasant. We were given a snack and were given a commentary about the sights along the route. Seward terminal made me smile. I said "well this is Alaska". Friendly and competent would describe the staff. Embarkation was relaxed and stress free. Of course a champagne flute awaited us as soon as we boarded. Read more