We boarded the Star Princess on the Sunday around midday and embarkation went smoothly, however we were upgraded to a room with a window which was great but they 'lost 'our luggage so if you would like to get into something comfy when you get on board I suggest you take it in your hand luggage. By 6.30 after checking a few times at the Pursers desk and them phoning around and putting a report in we decided to go ourselves to our originally allocated cabin and the housekeeper kindly checked the room for us and found our luggage.
The ship is amazing, it is massive - so much so that even on the final day we were sill finding places we hadn't seen before. However we do feel that we will take our next cruise a smaller ship.
We took all our evening meals on the late sitting in the Amalfi and our waiters were fantastic, as was the food. We had quite a few very tender steaks which were cooked just how we like them. We weren't too keen on the 24hr Buffet as it was so busy so after a couple of days we used the Portofino for our breakfast and lunch. We never felt the need to use the restaurants where an extra charge is made as there was enough choice provided every single day.
We always organise ourselves when we are on holiday so booked our trips independently once we were ashore - it is very easy to do. For instance in Juneau we went up the cable car -$24.95 each. We got a local bus to Mendenhall Glacier for $7 each way and the driver we had was a natural comic. The bus runs every 30 mins so you stay as little or as long as you like. We were there when it was quiet and saw two young bears at very close range.
In Skagway we took the white pass railway up and got a coach down so you see different areas. $109.20 each.
We took the Express disembarkation option and were off the ship and at the airport via taxi (which is cheaper than the shuttle buses - they are $18 per person and the taxi was $27.60) by 9.00am. We checked our luggage onto our Heathrow flight which wasn't til 10.15pm then got the bus Back into Seattle - No194 (No174 goes too but takes much longer )
If you have time in Seattle Pike Street market is a must and we enjoyed our trip up Smith Tower in preference to the needle as being built opened in 1914 it has much more history.
If you are booking of a trip to Alaska I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.