My girlfriend is celebrating her 30th birthday, so we decided for this cruise due to the beautiful sights, as well as being from Miami where all we get is beaches, she wanted to see real mountains and glaciers, and whales. Check in was smooth in my opinion. Our bags took a while to get to our stateroom, and it was actually down the hall around a corner but nothing too complicated. We went to the Windjammer for dinner every night except for the Formal nights which we dressed up nicely and went to the dining room. The food was good, but you do get tired of it after 7 days, and the best food was honestly on the last night of sailing. Regarding the staff, everyone was so nice. From the ones who greet you to go into the Windjammer, to the ones hosting all the entertainment events. Mateo, Matty, Maria, and Bruno all made our week stay amazing. Those are some individuals i will surely never forget. As for the ports, we did the whale watching (which was fantastic and our tour guide, which sadly i cant remember his name, was super informative and fun.), and it Sitka we did the eagles, bears excursion and that was beautiful. Haines was skippable in my opinion, but nice to see. Skagway was very pretty and touristy, but what we did is we took the trolley to the end point, and did about a 2 mile walk to the cemetery on the mountain instead of purchasing that excursion. Really long walk, so if the trike back and forth is a lot, definitely do the excursion. All in all, i enjoyed my stay and the staff. Would not do it again personally due to the 3 total days of sailing, but definitely a once in a lifetime trip.