With an unusually cold winter in Alaska, we decided to do our first cruise. I wasn't sure how the bidding wars went on websites, so I did the safe thing and booked directly with Princess. They were great to work with and answered any questions I had along the way. We booked the shuttle pickup at Miami (that's where Alaska Airlines lands) with Princess & were picked up right away and taken to the Sheraton Ft. Lauderdale Beach Hotel (associated with Princess). We had a wonderful beach view and nice infinity pool to swim in and beach walks along the sand--to get us unwound from the -60 temps we came from.

We were loaded on a bus and embarkation went very quickly, hardly a line. Then we were on our first cruise ship! Our Mini-suite was a good space. My 6'1" husband could stretch out on the couch, had a coffee table and a chair. The balcony had very nice reclining chairs with stools that we used quite a bit. For this trip, our Dolphin Port side cabin was great to watch the ports of call come by us. Beautiful views off our balcony. The bathroom had plenty of space to store the necessities on shelves and under the sink. The closet and shelves for clothes, again, plenty of space and I had 2 huge suitcases of clothes (and one for shoes :) George, our room steward, came and went cleaning up and adding towels and ice. He served us a glass of champagne when we arrived and quietly did a great job all week. All staffing we saw and talked to said a friendly hello and some stopped to chat a little.

Went to a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. It was so nice seeing the folks who had been on the chat board. Nice folks and some of the crew was in attendance. Thanks Barb for setting this up! Read more