We had cruised Alaska previously from Seattle, sailing only the inside passage, and we were looking forward to seeing more of Alaska, particularly Denali, so in addition to the cruise we booked the 5 night land tour to follow the cruise. Overall this was not the experience we had expected for a number of reasons. First we had travelled to Vancouver from the East coast, where thunderstorms had delayed one leg of our trip, causing us to run for the second plane and our luggage did not make the second leg. Going a day ahead of the cruise was not enough, we would have had to go two days at least to have gotten on the ship with our bags. Our luggage caught up with us in Ketchikan just before we sailed for our next stop. As diamond members embarkation has always been a pleasure, but in Vancouver there was a very long wait for U.S. customs.

We had no disappointments with the ship in general, and were grateful to be able to slip away to the Diamond lounge when we needed a break from the business of a cruise with hundreds of other passengers. We found that overall the ship was very noisey, they could turn down or turn off the piped in music in every venue so that a person could just enjoy the solitude or a quiet conversation with other cruisers. An Alaskan voyage is not the place to sit outside on a secluded deck chair for any length of time considering the outdoor temperatures and on and off misty rain we encountered.

The food was just average in the regular venues, and we did not eat in any of the specialized restaurants. Our biggest disappointments were with the land tour that followed the cruise. We felt that we should have had a great deal more information about what to expect and what additional costs would be incurred so that we could have planned accordingly. Accommodations on the land tour were very nice, and our tour director and driver were outstanding. There were some hidden costs like additional excursions, and all meals were on your own. Gratutities had not been included and we were expected to come up with that at the end. We will look into different arrangements regarding land tours on our next trip.