A family member organized an Alaska cruise from Vancouver through the Inside Passage, August 3-12, 2018. The boarding experience was fairly smooth and we waited in the Oceanview Cafe until our rooms were ready. That's when I found out that CocaCola was $3 per can, plus tip.

The mandatory safety briefing in the theater was a multimedia presentation in multiple languages, explaining how to put on a life jacket and where to go to board a lifeboat if necessary.. The glaring omission was an explanation of what action to take, what alarm button to push, and/or who to report an emergency such as "man overboard." I constantly looked for placards or ship's crew to get some clarification about this, and was unable to find anyone except one 4-striper with a cell phone glued to his ear. So, I'm still looking for an answer to that one.

Our stateroom attendant was excellent, but a little overeager, so we quickly learned to hang the "do not disturb" sign outside the door whenever we were in the room - and sometimes when we were out of the room, too. Read more