This was our 3rd cruise, 2nd w/ Princess and on the largest chip we'd traveled on yet. It was a smooth check in at Cruise Terminal 9l in Seattle. We rented a car through Avis @ the airport because we arrived the day before and drove to the Avis location on 5th St where we dropped off the car (with no surcharge). Avis dropped us off @ the Terminal in good time. We got a porter to help carry luggage. We entered building and the line was not bad (12:20 pm). Then we discovered this was just the 1st line we'd be standing in. This line got you to escalators which take you upstairs to stand in the next line. Then you get into another line which you fill out a medical questionnaire and get in another line. Since I have a cane the offered me the option to go to the chairs to wait for formal check in (after I had been in line for quite a while). I said I had been standing in line all this time, might as well stay where I was. They should offer handicapped access earlier, not later. Got check in in about 2 minutes with agent and off to stand in line to get photo taken at embarkation then finally onto the gangway and boarded the ship!!! They took us to deck 7 promenade deck, asked which cabin we were in and directed us to a location to enter ship. They had people stationed to help direct us to our room where we met Armondo, our room Stewart immediately. They had balloons on our entry for our anniversary. There were several documents and papers and pamphlets in our room for us to look over and read including our excursion tickets. Unpacked, glanced at all the reading material, and went up to Horizon for a snack. We opted for traditional seating in the International Dining room (1st seating @ 5:30 pm). After snack, went back to room to continue unpacking. Our cabin was very clean, and had a large closet and a full length mirror which was actually a door to a shelved unit which also housed the safe. Bathroom was typical, but shower seemed smaller than on our last ship (Sun Princess). We requested twin beds but our beds were arranged as a queen, which we decided to keep and it worked out well. They did not have the egg crate on bed as previously requested by fax but Armondo quickly fixed that problem. They did have extra pillows on bed as requested, good thing, they were quite flat. No top sheet just a duvet - hummmm??? It was quite warm when we arrived and the cabin was warm even though A/C was running full out. All the cruise was great, but here are the few places we had concern for. FOOD: Quality of food seems to have become a place where Princess was trying to save money. It was good, not great. PORTS OF CALL: We were always the furtherest away from town and there were NOT enough shuttles to take us into town without standing in line for over 1 hour. PRECRUISE REQUESTS: We had faxed our request for egg crate for our bed, we had to ask again after we arrive. Our bed was suppose to be 2 twins, it was set up as queen (which we did not change) We asked for a table of 6-8 for traditional dining and were seated @ a table for 4. CELL PHONE SERVICE: We have Verizon for our cell phone and was able to send and receive callls through most of the time @ sea. On Sea days, it was a premium (roaming charges) but at least we did have good reception. This was an improvement from 2 years ago when we did same cruise. VICTORIA: We arrived on time (7 pm) into Victoria, but was not cleared by Port authorities for over 1 hour then the line to board shuttles were ridiculous - would up taking a taxi even though we had bought shuttle tickets. We only had 1 hr before all the shops closed. Most were closed before we even got there (6 pm). All the excursions were wonderful and were better than expected. I highly recommend the guaranteed whale watching combined with Mendenhall glacier out of Juneau. It was THE BEST!!!. Saxman village in Ketchikan was super too. I've never enjoyed Skagway and wished we could go to another city instead. We didn't get close to Tracy Arm due to ice, but that expected, especially the larger the ship. Disembarking was delayed due to passengers having customs issues and not responding to the numerous pages after pages after pages. Once we got rolling, it was fine. After we disembarked we called the 5th st Avis location again and they had a shuttle to us in 15 minutes (thank you Jesse!) and took us to the 5th st location to pick up a car for several hours before heading to the airport. Dropped off car @ airport. This was truly the best cruise ever!!!!!!!