I chose this cruise because of the chance to see the Inner Passageway up close, and because it sailed round-trip from Seattle. Visits (and excursions) in both Juneau and Sitka were beautiful and worthwhile; Ketchikan is just one big souvenir shop and hardly worth the stop. This was only my 2nd ocean cruise (the first was on Viking; all others were various river cruises) and I admit to having been spoiled by smaller ship size and ambience. In my opinion, this ship does not deserve a 4.5/5 rating.
We ate at the Lido, in the Dining Room and in Pinnacle Grille and, at best, the food deserves a 4 (in the Lido, a 3 would be all I would give it). Service in the Dining Room and Pinnacle was good and efficient. Lido was hit or miss service (usually ended up filling and refilling all drinks ourselves), and food was cafeteria quality (except for omelet station, which was good tho' lines were usually quite long). Food stations were not organized well for crowd flow and table bussing was often slow.
Onboard entertainment was not very exciting: America's Test Kitchen was just watching from a distance as someone else prepared a meal, and the Billboard OnLine performers were just OK. Best entertainment was the movie "Alaska in Concert," which was excellent (shown two times on one night of the cruise). I had paid for a spa pass and was sorry I had. The 6 lounge chairs in the spa were usually full and there was a separate aqua pool but no hot tub. Sauna's were nice but how long can you stay in one of those?
Cabin size and storage adequate for 1 traveler. Bed comfortable. Furnishings dated and some "dinged up." Bathroom (especially tile and tub surround) really in need of refurbishing (caulking loose and missing). Lots of cabin movement while sailing (took seasick medicines 3 days).
Took cruise ship transfer bus between airport and ship. Not very scenic but got me where I needed to be. Would have been nice to have been able to wait for bus at airport in an inside room as it was cool and windy that day and we had to wait about 45 minutes for next bus.
Mostly 3 streets of souvenir shops and 1 short alley of old buildings. Went into Dolly's House (former brothel) and that was interesting.
Cruise should skip Ketchikan and spend more time in Victoria