We just disembarked on Sunday 9/23 from our 10-day Alaskan cruise out of SF. Alaska exceeded our expectations in so many ways. We had perfect weather too. This was our second full suite experience with Princess. The first time I was probably more wowed since it was the first time and I wasn't fully informed of all of the amenities included.

Something we had not experienced previously was that we barely stopped walking when arriving at the SF cruise terminal. We arrived at the check-in counter for priority boarding and were briskly walked over to a personal escort who escorted us from the terminal all the way to our table in club class dining. I was pretty wowed at that. I don't know if it is unique to the Grand, the SF terminal embarkation experience, or the way that Princess has improved upon their service from our last. Our escort was much younger and in better shape than us so we were a little winded when we sat down at our table. LOL! We enjoyed our first of many meals on board. The announcement was made a couple of times that staterooms would be available at 1:00, which was perfect since it was around that time when we finished our lunch. Things would go a little downhill from there.

We got to our suite and our luggage was already waiting for us so we unpacked so we could get on with our vacation. It was obvious right away that our air conditioning was not working in our room. We called guest services and they sent someone out pretty quickly and got it working. Thank goodness! Meanwhile, our welcome champagne arrived. Our room steward informed us that it was not cold so he put it in our refrigerator, which was not working. It had to be replaced after someone came to fix it and deemed it not working. We never did drink our little bottles of champagne. A little disappointment that would later add up to kind of a let down of the suite life. Princess appears to over promise and under deliver when it comes to what they are brave enough to put in writing as what we are to consider our baseline service in a suite. Read more