This is a great cruise that I will definitely do again in the future.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
We paid for hotel to ship transfers. It was pretty easy. On embarkation day, they asked us to have our luggage ready to go in our room, it was then picked up and loaded onto the buses. After check in we had time to get breakfast and relax a little. We boarded the buses, our friendly driver provided some interesting facts about Seattle and pointed out some things of interest. Once arriving at the port, where we again showed our documentation, it was about 30 minutes until we were on board. As we boarded we were met with cheers from enthusiastic crew members.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The main dining rooms were superb (as to be expected). The wait staff was friendly, attentive and perfect, especially Daniel and Maya! Crown Grill - the food was perfect and our waitress Anna was delightful. The buffets are scaled down quite a bit from pre-covid times. Not as many selections as was expected, but it was enough to have a variety. Breakfast and lunch, in our opinion, was better then the dinner selections. Staff friendly and attentive.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
There were activities but compared to other cruise lines it is just okay. I think there is room for improvement in this area.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The waterfall/music show was great, the culinary and ice carving demonstrations were good. The trivia and other game shows were good. The sail away party was weak, I was expecting a live band. The Park Rangers that board the ship in Glacier Bay are awesome!
I gave it 4 stars instead of 3 because what they did do was pretty good
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Every crew member we had contact with was fantastic. Shout out to Daniel and Maya in the Symphony Dining Room and Rainier in the Sea View Bar.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship is beautiful and spotless! They are cleaning and sanitizing every second of the day.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had a Club Class Mini Suite and it is a great size for a cruise ship. Bathroom is good size, with a decent size shower/tub. Closet and other storage areas have plenty of room to store everything.
Ship tip
Enjoy the International Cafe. I think it's a little underrated.
We enjoyed the train ride and we enjoyed walking around town. However, I must say, this is the one port that it didn't seem like the locals were happy to see tourists. It was a little confusing as there were many businesses closed down or not re-opening until 2022.
It was cold and rainy (normal) but very windy (not so normal according to the locals). The most friendliest of the 3 ports. I will book another Alaskan cruise someday, just to go back to Ketchikan.
Could have been better. In our meeting area, there were no speakers (I'm guessing) and our tag color/# was never announced. So we, about 25 people sat there until they told us that all tags have been called and we should exit the ship. That wasn't too bad, the worst is once we retrieved our luggage and asked what bus line for the hotel do we get in. We were told by three, not one, not two, but three different people that there was only one line for the buses and that the same buses go to both the hotel and airport. After we waited for 45 minutes in the rain. we asked again (for a couple of reasons) the same lady that told both me and my brother what line to get in now tells us we are in the wrong line and should have been in another line. We could have been on a bus and out of the rain a lot earlier.
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