Our first cruise, to see the wild life in Alaska was on our bucket list. We were not so sure about cruising being in close confines with lots of people for a week. However, we needn't have worried! We met many lovely people and enjoyed conversing but there was also plenty of space and varieties of venues to share together. One favourite was the Constellation Lounge, great for wildlife spotting - saw turtle, porpoise, dolphins and humpback whales. Another relaxing area was the Cafe Al Bacchio. Delicious coffees etc with delightful waiters and waitresses. The same can be said for the Trellis restaurant. Excellent food and choice, the ultimate for us one night was scallops, followed by lobster tail and Baked Alaska for dessert! Victoria was a delightful sommelier too, and greeted us each evening like long lost friends. The standard of the shows in the theatre were amazing, west end quality - congratulations to the 5 singers, the dancers, acrobats and all the supporting team. There was plenty of opportunity to join in activities but we enjoyed relaxing in areas such as the Rendezvous lounge, again great music by Mr H and Take 5. Lovely venue for a pre-dinner cocktail! We had pre-booked excursions in Icy Straight Point, Juneau and Ketchikan and they all worked like clockwork - saw a brown coastal bear on our walk in the Spasski River valley, enjoyed the Alaska String Band up the Mount Robert's Tramway in Juneau. Went to Mendenhall Glacier, a good visitor centre there. Excellent walk through reserve at Herring Cove, saw black bear fishing for salmon, a river otter etc and Red was a brilliant guide. Dr Ann Burgess's talks were excellent and informative too, especially when we viewed Hubbard Glacier.
Thrilled with choice of cabin - helped by our travel agent, this being our first cruise. More spacious than we envisaged. Plenty of storage. Chairs & table and view forward looking over the helipad. Extremely well looked after by Delon our stateroom steward.