I'm a first time cruiser. I had NO expectations before leaving. In fact, I decided to keep ONLY an open mind. Just got off the boat this morning in fact.

About a month after I booked the cruise and a month before leaving, I ran into this website and read the reviews. Not much I could do, as I had already dished out more than $3000 for our small family of 4 (2 kids, 1 and 3). Alaska was recommended by friends as being really beautiful. That part is true.

The positive (?): Ketchikan was so-so. Don't do the Lumberjack show. Boring! Three families, including ours, left after the first 15 minutes. It's a small town. If I could do it again, I might have done the duck tour. People are unfriendly. My son (we're talking about a 1 year old) was chasing pigeons. Some *witch-looking* woman in a toll-like booth right at the booth across from the duck tour yelled at my 1 year old. Why wasn't she doing her job instead of staring at pigeons? That was the greeting and impression we left of Ketchikan. Not a friendly town. No smiles anywhere we went. It was just a cold, cold feeling in Ketchikan. I won't return. Juneau was pretty / ok - Coming from Seattle, some of the sights were familiar, but the Mendenhall Glacier (and Garden) was nice, a little better than average. Skagway - surprisingly was my faorite. I liked the Yellow Streetcar tour. It was interesting. All in all, the sights were alright. It was one of those things that you could experience once. That's all you need. Prince Rupert was so disappointing. Looks pretty from afar. We took a tour of the city and viewed houses. I'm not kidding you! We saw new houses, old houses, stores. Not fun. Read more