We arrived in Seattle the night before our cruise, staying at the Maxwell Hotel on Roy Street in the Queen Ann neighborhood. Cost was around $2oo.oo per night. They provided a car service, are a new hotel (and served cupcakes & coffee in the afternoon)so it was worth it to us. Dined at nearby Toulose Petite (great Cajun food) and then stopped at Metropolitan Market and a liquor store for cocktail & breakfast supplies. Our driver took us to Pier 91 at noon the next day.Embarking took 20 minutes from the time we got out of the car to being in our oceanview covered balcony cabin on Aloha deck 12. AWESOME!! Comfortable bed and nice linens with everything arranged in a compact amd efficient space. We always slept great, never bothered by any noise from other guests above or beside us. Our steward, Noel, took care of our every need. Since we arranged this trip online two weeks before departure late reserved dining or anytime dining were our only options. We chose anytime dining and it worked out fine for us. We went to the Santa Fe dining room most evenings. The food was excellent.(The same food is available in all four of the dining rooms with some specialty items to follow the theme of that dining room.) If you have food allergies or restrictions the staff is happy to help you by making adjustments to your dinner choices. The servers were ALWAYS happy, eager to serve and did their duties quickly with such panache you marveled at it. I never saw them brush against or bump into any guests and they never dropped a spoon or dish! The first few nights they were "pushing" for the purchase of sparkling or bottled water, but by the third night they knew we preferred tap water. We frequently purchased a bottle of wine that they stored for us until our next dinner where we would polish it off. We got to know the wait staff there.. Elvis, Jordan & Michael were the most notable. A lot of the same people came at the same time each night so we got acquainted with a number of them. We were always able to get in immediately. The breakfast and lunch buffets on deck 14 were great. Lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and "healthy" stuff if you wanted to be "good". And lots of other stuff if you didn't! On one day the lines seemed long so we went to the burger station. There are also ice cream and pizza stations and a saimen noodle station. One day they had an Alska theme lunch station. Lots of fish and even reindeer chili. During the two days we had at sea, they had formal nights. It was fun for us to dress up but it did not seem to be mandatory throughout the dining rooms .We chose to have professional photos taken on one of these nights that we purchased later. Photos were frequently taken around the ship but we didn't feel pestered by them and a lot of people seemed to enjoy the prospect of it. We often asked others to take our picture and did the same for them. They were some of our best!We enjoyed comedy musician Steve Moris on one night and comedy magician Lorenzo Clark on another. ( You should arrive 30 minutes early if you want a seat to their shows.) We enjoyed cocktails while we waited for the performance. The club was always packed by the time they performed.We also participated in the trivia contests, signed up for the wine tastings, attended Zumba and line dancing classses, worked out in the gym and took fitness classes there, attended lectures by Iditorod winner, Libby Riddles and Naturalist Dr. Thomas Ryan (you could even order cocktails during their lectures...I mean how fun would school be if you could do that!!). There were live bands or DJs in the multiple clubs so you could dance or just enjoy listening or people watching. If you found yourself bored it was your own fault. We found that most of the kids stayed in the pool areas or in the teen club. On one day we had swells where the pools had to be closed and only then were children noticeable onboard.We booked online a 5 hr. salmon fishing excursion in Ketchikan with Capt Terry of AAA Sportfishing Co. at $150.00 a piece. My husband caught a 10# King Salmon and so did the husband of the other couple on the covered 26 foot boat. I had a big one but it got away :) I am glad we booked this one independently of the cruise ship because we saw their charter boats were just small unprotected 18 foot Lund boats overfilled with clients. It was an 80 degree sunny day so it was very pleasant & we were glad shade was available. We had the option of keeping the fish and shipping it home, but it would have been at least $80.00 just to ship it. The captain donated our fish to a local nursing home. Afterwards we walked to Creek St. and had salmon fish and chips at the "Halibuthole". Lots of quirky little shops, totem poles and friendly shopkeepers. The next morning we were up early to see the blue glaciers in Tracy Arm fjord. It was sunny but chilly on deck. It helps to wear layers. Beautiful! Later that day we reached Juneau.In Juneau we booked thru the cruise ship the Rainforest Garden Adventure @ $39.00 each. 2.5 hours long and very nice scenery. Their bus picked us up at the boat & later dropped us off downtown. We walked right to the Mount Roberts Tramway & took a ride to the top for $29.00 each. We enjoyed this but it only left us a short time to explore the town so in hindsight I would only chose one excursion so we wouldn't feel rushed. Our last port was Skagway and we booked the White Pass Scenic Railway thru the ship @ $129.00 each. This was 3.5 hours and we loved it. You could take some nice photos by going out the back door of each car. Very relaxing. Afterwards we went downtown which has older wooden buildings that look just like they did during the gold rush 100 years ago or so. Lots of souvenirs and then a visit to the Red Onion bar and bordello. We had hoped to take a tour of the upstairs but they were booked up and cruisers were cranky in line so we just waited til their 15 minute hourly tour was done. We then went in, had a beer and I got a couple of the gals to pose for photos with my husband. Fun!Our last port was Victoria, British Columbia. We took a double decker bus tour booked thru the ship at $39.00 each. This was a waste of time and money. Very poor narration, filthy bus, dirty windows inside and out and trees kept brushing against the windows. I wish we had taken the Buchard garden tour instead. Disembarking on our last day took 20 minutes. It saved a LOT of time by carrying our own bags out. I would highly recommend it. We called our driver from the Maxwell hotel to pick us up and spent two more days exploring Seattle (A wine/chocolate tour and visit to Pike Place Market and brunch at the top of the rotating Space Needle.) After talking to others who have taken this same cruise at other times, we realized we were exceptionally lucky to have had such nice clear weather for the entire week. Were we glad we did it? Oh yeah! Because now WE ARE CRUISE PEOPLE!!