The weather was just fantastic for our early July cruise. Fortunately for us this was following three weeks of rain for all the prior cruises. Weather can cancel your excursions which is unfortunate, but you would rather that than waste your money not seeing anything or worse put yourself in danger. It's expensive to go to Alaska, but well worth it if your looking for tall mountains, wildlife, and great seafood. Also consider the land portion for those that really want to get closer to the animals and see more of them.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Organized and efficient. It didn't take more than an hour.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The main dining room features great northwest seafood dishes and a variety of other items that are quite delicious. The specialty restaurant Pinnacle is worth a try and has it's own separate kitchen. Don't miss out on the main dining surf and turf night. The lido buffet is ok. It can be quite busy and the food preparation isn't as good as you might expect of a buffet.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The fitness center has a great view overlooking the entire front of the ship. It's great to use some of the equipment and view the beautiful surroundings. Don't expect much from the onboard activities, they have the typical indoor pool, outdoor pool, casino, art gallery, fitness classes, movies, cooking demonstrations, and naturalist talks, but you'll likely be out enjoying the ports of call or the amazing landscape.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Lots of evening entertainment but designed for an older skew. They did have a comedian, magician, and singers/dancers for the main performers. The clubs feature your assortment of jazz, classical, and pop culture music.
Children's Programs
I don't have kids and no children's programs that I saw.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Extremely friendly and pleasant staff.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship is very clean and the layout makes it easy to navigate. The style is an older elegance.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Tight quarters for three people, but you can make it work. The balcony is large and gives a nice vantage point to view the scenery. The beds are ok. The bathroom was also larger than my expectations. Very clean. Personally I didn't spend much time in the cabin and when I did I was either on the balcony or sleeping.
Ship tip
Bring a good pair of binoculars because if there are wildlife sightings they will often be very far away and you will need decent magnification if you want to see clearly.
If you're doing the land journey, the hand off coordination isn't that great, but you'll get to where you need to go if you ask enough people and read your mail.
Thank you for your more detailed review.
Sailing May 20,2010 and doing land cruise ending in Fairbanks this time and hope for as little rain as possible as like you on our first cruise in September lucked out.
When we enjoyed Alaska in September/ August of 2016-everywhere we went people told us we had brought great weather-because it had rained for 39 days before we arrived. Only rained once while we were there. ð¤
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