Alaska has always been in the back of our minds. This cruise had all the must see ports for us and a great price. We lotteried for an upgrade and got it - Rm 8018. The veranda provided such a fantastic view of Hubbard Glacier and our Captain Theo got us close to it, just .6 miles from the calving ice! He happened to walk by our room just after his 360 degree maneuver as I was chatting with a most outstanding steward from GOA, Jose Fernandez who BTW is impeccable at his job and so very personable. I thanked Cptn Theo for this excellent show. He was so pleased that it worked out so well and that the sun came out allowing for crisp photos without zooming. A very nice man and not full of himself happy and grinning ear to ear. Who doesn't love a Captain with an even keel? The activities were also fun and at time were setup for challenging the crew to various games. My wife Laura was ping-pong tourney champ and received the gold (colored) X medal. She beat me and I got Silver. Oh, I must add she bagged 5 of 6 shots in the (cornhole) bean bag toss. One last game mention Giant Scrabble Game played on the floor of the Rendezvous Lounge. Our team of three beat the standing high score by 30%. Good food all around and if you are willing to experiment with some new tastes then you are in for a treat, plus all the standard fare of American comfort food. "I never found any corn tortillas though" said one gentleman at the taco bar.

One last find and it was huge!! Bryan James may look like an average kid (30+ yo) but what an amazing talent and stage presence. He took so many requests and knew not just the words to sing but had amazing skill at guitar work that would usually take a band to make enjoyable. You name it and 95% of the songs he did with little effort. He was coaxed to sing a few of his own songs and as a songwriter he touched some hearts and there were some large flows of tears. Man, what talent. Personable and gifted; Bryan really allowed us feel his feelings as he wrote those heartfelt tunes. One more thing, he was always in key and no pitch issues. Kind of ironic as he gained a following that would show up at every set - sometimes 5 a day. We had quite a bonding through this music with the other "groupies". "Our next cruise MUST include Bryan James" was echoed from at least a dozen folk at his last day's performance. 6 STARS entertainment right there on a 5 star ship!!