We flew from South Florida to Anchorage on American through Chicago.Arrived in Anchorage at 9:30 pm on Tuesday night. First shock - it's still broad daylight. I was aware of this but you don't appreciate how it messes up your body's perception of night.We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard, which is just off the airport. I used Marriott Points to stay there.Within a short walk on Spenard Road, I later discovered, is a coffee/bagel shop, a Subway and several fast food places. There is also a Harley-Davidson dealer, where I picked up a hat for a friend of mine.The following morning, we took a cab into town. It should have been about $10, but the cabbie took us on a circuitous route and wanted to give us a little tour. We only had a few hours in the morning before the Whittier Shuttle was going to pick us up at our hotel. We wandered Anchorage a little and decided to walk back to the hotel, which is about 4 miles. We made it as far as the Carr's Safeway supermarket, where we were going to stock up on some cabin supplies, then called a cab for the rest.Prices are high in Anchorage. I assume because of limited supply. The Safeway was very big and had a large selection. But without a Safeway membership card, our supplies would have cost about 50% more. We bought 2 liter bottles of soda, some snack foods, ate breakfast and bought prepared sandwiches for lunch. Like I said, we took a cab back to the hotel.The Whittier Shuttle instructions tell us that we should be ready 15 minutes before scheduled departure. It showed up at about 1:10, which was 10 minutes after scheduled departure. The smaller shuttle then took us to the airport where we were taken off the shuttle and sent to a different part of the airport to wait for a bus. The bus did not show up until close to 1:45. This was kind of aggravating. I felt like I was in the Caribbean, only colder.Instead of taking the direct shuttle, we took the "wildlife tour" which was only a few dollars more and included some scenic stops and a stop at the Wildlife Conservation Center. This was pretty neat. We saw some wildlife up close and personal. From there we went to another stop, not far from the Whittier tunnel. We made the Whittier tunnel in time for the 4:30 opening. It is a short drive from the tunnel to the pier.There may be some things to do in Whittier, but I didn't see them. The check-in process was painless and quick. The cruise line handed out an Alaska coupon book, which was useful later in the cruise.We checked into our cabin, the "infamous" Aloha 416 and were very pleased. Three of us were traveling, including me, my wife and daughter. There had been many questions on this board about whether or not this cabin had a covered balcony. The answer is that it is half-covered. For this trip, however, I would consider it perfect. We discovered how wonderful it was during the rest of the trip.We had read online about "Anytime" dining and preferred that over a fixed dining time. To change to anytime, we had to meet with the Maitre d', who was available in the afternoon on embarkation day. We met with him and changed our dining arrangement.Here's how anytime dining works - you can call during the day and try to make a reservation for a particular time. If it's available you can have it. I tried doing that the first day, and was told that there were only reservations for 5:15 to 5:45 available, other than that, there were very late timeslots. We decided to take our chances and showed up around 8:00. We were given our own table.The first day was Glacier Bay. It was a glorious day. Having the open-fronted balcony allowed us to see the glacier approaching without leaning over the balcony. We had a full 90 degree view from forward to the left while seated. It was wonderful. If it had been raining, of course, we would have gotten a little wet. But it wasn't and we didn't.The second day was Yakutat Bay, with the Lamplugh and Hopkins Glaciers. It was not perfectly sunny, but close to it. Another beautiful day and another day where our particular balcony was a real advantage.We did not make dinner reservations. We showed up at 7:00 and were told that only shared seating was available. That was fine and we met some nice folks from Houston.We arrived in Skagway the following day. I had made reservations online with the White Pass and Yukon Railway. Their instructions stated that we had to get to the train depot, while cruise ship passengers who made their arrangements through the ship could board at the dock. The price difference was at least $25 a person.While we walked to the train depot for the 12:45 departure, I noticed the train was loading the cruise passengers and the two lead cars were marked "reserved". We arrived at the depot and promptly were instructed to follow the group to the "junction" where we would board the train. We were being placed on the same train as the cruise passengers.Skagway has a lot of shopping. There is also a National Park Service tour, which is free. We wandered through lots of the shops. There were a bunch of coupons in the cruise booklet that we received on embarkation. They would have produced some decent deals, but not on anything we wanted. We were told Skagway was the "shopping" port but were not in acquisition mode.The train was pretty neat. They supply water and you can eat onboard. Once underway, you can go to the platforms outside the cars for better views and fresh air. Had I not felt like I was abandoning my wife inside, I would have stayed outside the entire trip. The train goes through two tunnels and over several bridges. We did see a bear and a number of eagles. This trip was pricey but we got to see things that we probably would not have seen if we didn't take the trip.Skagway has a local shuttle that is $2 for one-way or $5 for an all-day pass. The all-day pass makes sense if you're someone who likes to return to the ship for meals and dropping off stuff. It save wear and tear on the legs/knees/ankles.The next stop was Juneau. This had the earliest on-board time, 3:30 pm. We decided to go to Mendenhall Glacier. We took the Blue Bus (there is also a White Bus) and received some local information on the way there. The bus is not fancy. All the tour windows sell tickets for both buses, which are $16 round trip.When at Mendenhall, we took the trail to Nugget Falls, which is a waterfall very close to the mouth of the glacier. It was very pretty and the whole setting was awesome. We did not do the helicopter to the glacier because it seemed pretty pricey. Maybe next time. There were lots of helicopters. Almost as many choppers as there were mosquitoes.The National Park Service also has a very informative display and information center. The cost is $3 but is free if you have a Park Service card. In addition to all the informative displays, they had a large piece of glacial ice you could touch. The $3 wristband also got you a $2 discount at the visitor center in Ketchikan, which was our next stop.Shopping in Juneau was the same as Skagway, basically. In retrospect, if I could have rented a car, it would have cost me a little more, but given me the freedom to see more things. Juneau seemed easy to navigate and I had a GPS that had Alaska on it. There is a Wal-Mart and Costco in Juneau. I'm thinking souvenirs would have been cheaper at Wal-Mart than right near the boat. And I could have stocked up on more onboard goodies if necessary.We did the walk-in thing at the Bordeaux dining room and were seated with three other couples. It was fine, but one of the couples was vegan, so the waiter had to answer questions about the ingredients of each dish.The next day we were in Ketchikan. It was sunny and 70 degrees when we docked. We had decided to go to Totem Bight to see the large collection of authentic totem poles there. We went to the "visitor information center" where there was one-stop tour shopping. It appears that, in the end, they all work for the same people. We signed up for the double-decker bus tour for $40 per person that the saleswoman said would take us to Totem Bight and Saxman village. The bus took us to two scenic lookouts, including one where we saw a stream full of salmon (and there was also a roadside stand selling jams and jellies) then to Saxman Village. Saxman Village struck me as a place that tried to be authentic, but really wasn't. Maybe I had misplaced expectations, but it seemed like a tourist trap. Reminded me of the "Authentic Amish Village" when I was growing up. We headed back to port and I asked about the rest of the tour. Others asked as well. The tour guide said that the tour was not supposed to go to Totem Bight. He said he would talk to the manager.When we got back to port, I ended up speaking with the manager. He offered a $30 refund. I told him that I would not have taken the tour if I had known it was just Saxman. Eventually, after telling him I would dispute the charge, he offered a $60 refund.Interestingly, one of the local employees then told me I could grab a city bus to Totem Bight for $1. It runs every hour and leaves from a nearby corner. Unfortunately I had just missed it and waiting an hour for the next bus would cut it very close in making it back to port for the 5:30 all aboard. So we saw the tourist trap but not Totem Bight. On the other hand, I would share that the $1 fare to Totem Bight looks like a genuine bargain.We shopped in Ketchikan. For anyone leaving from Vancouver to Whittier, I would suggest waiting to get to Ketchikan and buying warm weather clothing there. The coupons in the coupon book would provide great deals on warm outerwear rather than buying it and packing/schlepping it. We bought some Salmon from the Salmon Market. It's a little hole-in-the-wall shop but they were very friendly and offered samples of everything. They sold the same spreads as Tongass Trading, but were a $1 per spread higher. Oh well.As for onboard entertainment, we skipped the production shows after opening night. The dancing was low-end. The dancers did not look like they were listening to the same music. On the other hand, the comedian, Scott Wyler, ventriloquist, Dan Horn, and magician, James Michael, were all very good. On the final night, James did the infamous "banana/bandana" trick that he "downloaded from the internet" that I have seen on ships at least 3 other times that I can recall. But he had a different attitude so it was still funny.Avoid the "Liars Club" game. It was atrocious. It was done with the Cruise Director's staff and it just wasn't funny, which was a large part of the original game show. We walked out.The final day, a sea day, was a gray misty day. If I was home, it would be a "stay in bed" day. There were things to do, but nothing that really tickled our fancy. So we read, which is something we don't do much of while home.About the food - I was disappointed in breakfast. Only on Day 2 (the first full day) and Day 6 (the sea day) did the breakfast buffet have smoked salmon (lox). The other days it had other smoked fish, but not something that would go easily on a bagel. Disembarkation morning, they did not have either lox or smoked fish. And they did not have my other favorite, waffles, which they had every other night.On the night of Day 5, we decided to skip the dining room and were rewarded at the buffet. They were grilling fresh salmon or chicken fillets and making fresh Caesar salad. It was an excellent meal, particularly for a buffet. The last night, NY strip was on the menu. It wasn't that exciting, although the peppercorn sauce was good.On the last day of the cruise, they held a 3 hour sale in the Provence dining room of various clothing and souvenirs that were seriously marked down. They also had a last day Internet special of 30 minutes for $12 if you desperately needed an Internet fix.About communications - because we were in US territory, we were not roaming on our AT&T phones in the three ports. We had coverage everywhere we went in the ports, including way outside of town. In town, we had 3G service and out of town it would usually drop to 2G. But I could call from my balcony and brag to my friends and family about how cool everything was.One cool picture had to be the one of the seaplane taking off right past my balcony. In all of the ports, seaplanes are an integral part of the economy and they buzz around all day. My wife hates to fly, so I'll have to do it alone some time.Disembarkation notes - We try to always walk off the ship. On other lines, we're basically told that we can walk off whenever we want. Since we live in Florida, we're not in a great rush and this gives us time to sleep a little later. So we signed up for "self-help" disembarkation as we were going to spend the day in Vancouver and take the Amtrak Cascades train that evening. When we got the disembarkation instructions, we were told we had to be in the Explorers lounge by 7:25 a.m. So much for sleeping in. I asked about repercussions if we walked off later and the desk said that Canadian customs was fussy about walkoffs. I don't know if they could tell, but disembarkation, other than the designated time, was a breeze. I am posting this using the WiFi on the Cascades train from Vancouver to Seattle. It is a very cool trip and if you're not in a hurry, I highly recommend it.