QUICK REVIEW All in all the experience was good. However, the experience was NOT typical of the Royal Caribbean cruise which we have been accustomed. The service was poor and not what I was expecting from an upper end RC cruise. The food times were also horrible. If you came onto the ship late (15 mins. or so before the final boarding), you would find yourself out by the pool eating pizza and burgers! The buffet lines were closed and this was the ONLY food available! We only did one excursions with the boat and it was good. The rest of the excursions we did outside of the boat and saved big $$$. I would recommend booking what you can on your own before you leave and then finding private excursions when you arrive at port. There are so many to choice from at prices 50% off what the boat is charging and you get back in plenty of time to get on the boat. Believe me they don't want a bad reputation either. The weather was untypical Alaskan weather from what everyone was saying 50-60 degrees, with sunny skies at every port and only a few sprinkles that you could avoid by dipping into a store for 5-10 mins. It was fantastic and I felt very luck. The main dining room food and service was for the most part good, but not the drink service. Buffet food was fair, but the lines and buffet services were horrible and the hours were unreasonable. Stateroom service was fair. Our porter kept coming into our room! This happened three times! Granted we forgot to put our do not disturb sign on the door, but he could at least knock! The bedspread was also stained and our ported was never around when we needed him (which wasn't that often). The shows were horrible as well. The dancers were mediocre, they couldn't stay in sync and a few of them didn't seem to know the dances. The singers were a tad bit better, but not up to the standard of RCCL normal shows that I'm used to watching. The magic show was horrendous. It is really bad when you can tell how he was doing the trick. At dinner the next night we all compared notes and all figured out the same thing. In fact, one of them could see the black box where the girls were coming out of! Just horrible! Activities were limited. I know that RCCL got rid of the ship shape dollar activities, but on a ship this small you need something. Most of the activities were trying to either sell you something or cost extra money. Very disappointing. The only thing that saved us was our balcony, where we ended up spending most of our time. The whole ship staff in general seemed to be overstretched and performing multiple duties. I really think this is why our stateroom attended wasn't around. The ship, again, wasn't as nice as other RCCL ships that I have cruised on and seemed to missed a lot of the detail. LONG REVIEW

Hubbard Glacier I HIGHLY recommend anyone going on an Alaskan cruise to get a balcony if you can. It really mad a good cruise, GREAT!. The cold Alaskan weather makes it hard to enjoy the upper decks for too long and experiencing Hubbard Glacier on those crowded decks was not fun. It was cold on the balcony as well, but we could pull off our comforter and stay out for hours. We did go out on the helicopter pad because they were only going to open it for this sight and I wanted to see it. It was very cold and crowded. The drink waiters pressured everyone with hot chocolate with baileys which was annoying and the videographer and photographers wouldn't leave you alone until you took a picture. We got within a few thousand feet of the glacier. We didn't see any chunk of ice fall, it might have been too early in the season. Juneau - Helicopter to the Glacier We did the Temsco helicopter tour to glacier and dog sledding. It was amazing to say the least! It was a lot of firsts for us. Our first helicopter ride, our first time walking on a glacier, our first time riding a dog sled, or first time seeing how people live on a glacier over the summer! The staff was fabulous and the ride (both of them) was a once in a life time experience. I would highly recommend this tour! Gold mining tour- We wanted something to do after the helicopter tour and decided to go into the vistor's center to see what we could book. We found a great gold mining tour. The tour was done with a real miner and we got to see a demonstration of the tools and what an average day is like. At the end we panned for gold, which took a lot more patients then I thought ti would. Juneau itself was not that great and littered with tons of jewelry stores, gimmicky shops and expensive souvenir shops. The surrounding country side on the other hand was beautiful. We shared the port with the Rhapsody of the Seas, Mercury and a HOA ship. Skagway - Snow shoe hike We did the train ride to the Yukon! It was a beautiful ride and our tour group was small (the only tour we couldn't book outside the ship). During the ride we saw very cool bridges and animals. We also were told to make a few sandwiches for our hike to add to the food supplies we were already given (chocolate and trail mix)! We then arrived at our stop, a old house that had our shoes. The hike was amazing and our guides were very nice and helpful! It was a fantastic journey and I have to say we ate all the food they gave us, which was a lot! After the hike we went to the local brewery and had a beer and then did some souvenir shopping. Again there as a lot of cheap jewelry shops, similar to the same stuff you got in Caribbean. Icy Straight Point, Hoonah - Whale watching Icy Straight Point pier was very disappointing. The place was build to mimic a actual city, which in fact it was not. It was extremely gimmicky shops and more ways for the ship to get your money. It really reminded us of Disney World. The ship actually had tours around the fabricated city, i.e. Native American shows. We decided to leave the port and walk the mile and half to the real city, Hoonah (You can also take a bus for $4 each way if you like, but on our walk we saw an eagle and the scenery were really nice. The town was very small, but the locals were so nice and eager to chat. We actually spoke to the cop for a good 20 min. who told as about the city and where to see the local seal and sea lions. We also booked a whale watching tour with Dan Anderson as the Misty Bay Lodge. It was a great time and only three of us on the ship! The cruise tour had over 100 and not everyone could see the whales because they were so packed into the boat. We know this because we were in the same spot and were just as close to the whales! I think the coolest part was when the engine was turned off and you could hear them singing to each other. It is worth the extra $6 bucks to book with a local. Ketchikan - Totem poles and Lumberjack Show We first toured the sight with the largest amount of authentic totem poles. They bused you to the location, where you first watch a movie about the history of the area. The best part however was watching the Native American show and watching a guy carve the totem poles. After a quick stop to the gift shop it was back on (a now very hot bus, the driver wouldn't turn on the AC for some reason) to the lumberjack show. The Lumberjack Show was very entertaining. It was so much fun to watch the guys compete and at the end you got to meet with them. In terms of the port itself, I would say I liked Ketchikan the most. It still has the touristy/gimmicky shops, but it is probably the easiest to explore and has some really cool areas. It was also the place I got to view sea otters up close.

Inside Passage - Not very exciting for us. The night before the captin told us that we would be there between 2-4 pm, but later changed it to 4-6. When we arrived, we didn't see one animal. Even the naturalist on board gave up looking after a couple of hours. It was a little disappointing.  Main Dining Room (Metropolitan): We had the main seating. The waiters were good. The dinner food here was good, but nothing spectacular. There seemed to be a lot of fish on the menu so it was hard to find something other than that. Buffet Area (Ocean Grille Cafe): The buffet food was alright. However, instead of serving yourself the staff had to hand you the food. Many times they wouldn't understand you and give you something you didn't want. Or they'd give you ONE and you had to keep asking for more. Furthermore, the staff here was snippy and dismissive. You would ask for something and they would just say now, without checking to see where it was located. So both the Ocean Grille Cafe and the Main Dining Room service was severely lacking, but I am in no way blaming the staff. They seemed like they were trying, but they were simply over worked and under staffed. I believe that a lot is due to financial cut backs. Having horrible meal experiences a day definitely puts a damper on things. Some other grievances: Drink Staff - Not nearly enough. We do not drink much, but when we wanted a coke at lunch, or a cocktail at dinner or up on the decks, it was hard to find a waiter. Our Main Dining Room Drink waiter was constantly busy and hard to get a hold of. Cruise Director and Shows - Those shows were not very good. The words that comes to mind are corny and tacky. The cruise director was good, and easy to meet and talk to. It was overall good, but I would have expected better from Celebrity. I guess part of my disappointment comes from me expecting better service then RCCL and it was actually below par. I will probably try and not cruise with them again. As far as cruising to Alaska: we liked the experience. I would highly suggest it.