DAYS all began gloriously the same: Sleep as late as you want, then when remarkable scenery of the Inside Passage becomes irresistible, prop up the feather pillow for a better view out from the bedroom, across the living room, and watch snow-covered peaks glide by.Every evening we followed the same ritual. Our quietly efficient Filipino room attendant, Josephine, would close the drapes when turning down the beds.

Then we would return from dinner and immediately open them so as not to miss the view. Nearing this year’s longest day, light in the Land of the Midnight Sun was a joy, so we wanted them open.

The major decision of the morning had already been made the night before . . . what breakfast time to request on the room service order hung outside the door?

The menu offered enough splurges to carry one through the day, but we were determined to concentrate on eating heart-healthy despite temptations.

Before departure we’d attended our cousin’s funeral, the playmate of my childhood and lifelong friend. Diagnosed with the same heart history that plagues our family, she had totally refused to follow doctors’ recommended diet of healthy eating and simple exercise.

Determined not to follow in her footsteps, we read past things like breakfast steak, rich pastries, and so on, deciding to eat simple. Breakfast was served on spotless, starched white linen and more china, teapots and silverware than most crew would probably have in their own simple dwellings back home.

First, breakfast was perfect, with the steward checking off items on his list as he set the table. Second day, whole wheat toast was concrete hard, and there was no skimmed milk for tea. My very small pullet eggs were hard boiled as requested, but my brother Jim’s were soft and runny, impossible to separate and discard yolks.

Next day, all eggs were dark brown and spoiled when cracked open; fourth morning it was back to one set hard, the other uncooked. So admitting defeat, but determined to maintain room service, we switched to hard French rolls and blueberries. All berries were measured out as though an endangered species and eventually blueberries ran out.

One of the great things about revisiting an area one knows well is the lack of pressure to rush off on early-morning shore excursions. Obviously this doesn’t thrill cruise lines, which devote considerable on-board television time and brochures trying to sell them at often inflated prices.

Walking out on our veranda at 7 a.m. one morning when the ship had docked, it was depressing to see passengers already rushing down the gangway to depart on their Skagway excursions. This is a vacation?

By the time we leisurely strolled into the town we first visited in 1966, and often since, some were already returning for lunch. One soon learns few passengers are willing to do anything that causes them to miss lunch, even though there’s 24-hour room service.

Years ago on our early Caribbean cruises, we wouldn’t dream of not being up on deck to see an island port looming on the distant horizon, no matter the hour. And we eagerly set a middle-of-the-night alarm to peer out at the darkness of Turkey’s Dardanelles on a 1967 Turkish cruise.

We find that’s one reason many seasoned travellers choose repeat cruises. On Crystal Hany <$>we met a woman on her tenth Alaska cruise of the summer.

“I love the scenery and going back to places one knows and really enjoys is very relaxing,” she said.

One of the wonderful things about cruising is the opportunity to be as active or inactive as the passenger desires. The list of things to do grows even longer with each passing year.

Always thought you might like to try your hand at needlepoint embroidery? Passengers were invited to meet for classes. Anxious to learn the latest dance step? Improve your golf swing? Participate in a poker tournament, paddle tennis, fitness regimBK>Bridge anyone? It’s a question immediately answered in the positive by many and the bridge room was always fully occupied each time we passed. In fact, it’s so popular at sea, Holland America’s Zaandam is offering the first annual World Tournament Bridge Cruise. It departs from San Diego on November 5 for 15 days circling Hawaii. Tournament purse is $10,000.Growing in popularity are celebrity guest lecturers from sports greats and novelists to conservationists and television personalities. Regent is teaming up with both Public Television and Jean Michael Cousteau Ocean Futures Society to present such programmes all season.

On our cruise, members of PB8217; Washington Week In Review <$>and other PBS commentators were on board to analyse the US political scene. But since most of us had already had it up to our ear lobes hearing endlessly about an election still almost one and a third years off, we decided we’d rather be out and about the ship rather than confined to an interior auditorium. Also on board was Ric Burns, who works on documentaries, and a very interesting food expert, John Sarich, representing Washington State’s Chateau St. Michelle vineyards around the world as culinary director. He hosts a TV cooking programme and was on board to share his culinary skills.

We somehow managed to miss all his demonstrations, but got to know him quite well. Very slim and trim, he obviously practises what he preaches. First night out, he sat beside us in the Veranda dining room and that was to be repeated nightly until he left in Prince Rupert.

Like all other ships, there were a variety of dining areas . . . one Asian, larger Compass Rose (which we avoided after someone told us their dinner had taken two and a half hours) and popular French-affiliated Cordon Bleu.

Once back home, our very health-conscious doctor said: “I hope you stayed away from that!”

Mr. Sarich told us he felt Veranda was healthiest because of its Mediterranean emphasis. Appetisers were served buffet-style and they poached our fish, even lobster when on the menu.

Looking out to see through a wall of glass was also a part of its appeal, along with personable staff, especially a young Croatian who immediately discovered his village was close by Mr. Sarich’s ancestral Croatian home and there was immediate bong.One<$> expects space on a ship carrying only 700 passengers, but as much as we liked Veranda, those small tables for two were jammed so close, only a very slim person could pass between them. So you soon got to know those around you as though seat partners.Mr. Sarich was always there, but those on the other side varied from a husband and wife who were Houston-based NASA scientists to a southern couple from Nashville with an interesting heritage. Turns out she was a direct descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

That fact emerged as a result of an unusual conversation. Mr. Burns, who worked on PBS’ Civil War series with his brother, was sitting near us and we got to talking about Andrew Jackson’s Nashville Hermitage Estate, Ulysses Grant and Philip Sheridan, among others. And that’s how it evolved.

Because we enjoyed the waiter’s personality, we stayed in that same area, but total open seating meant people often moved around a lot.

Why was I sitting in this dining room thinking of Tom Moore’s Tavern in Bermuda? Because Tom Moore’s has some of the best sorbet this writer has ever tasted anywhere in the world. It’s made fresh to order from marvellous, carefully chosen fruit, and your taste buds never forget its flavour.

Someone from Regent needs to visit Tom Moore’s to see what it’s supposed to taste like. Five years ago on its Seven SeNavigator<$>, and again here, one practically had to plead to receive any, much less sherbet. One would think you were asking for the impossible.

“It’s served in Compass Rose. We have a hard time ordering it here,” confided the waiter. Only one flavour was ever available, usually something too overly imaginative. And certainly never sherbet at lunch.For those who find ratings important, there was much here very short of the six stars it likes to perpetually proclaim. All ships offer a high level of luxury (one of this decade’s most overused words), but comparing our last Alaska cruise via Cryl Harmony <$>to Regent’s Seveeas Mariner<Crystal <$>does things with far more class and panache at a similar fare.

Little things like binoculars in your suite, a good scale in the bathroom. Here when we asked the desk for a scale, one arrived on which we were both shown to weigh 25 pounds more than we actually do.

We told room attendant Josephine to return it and she asked if we wanted another. Our response was yes, but it never came.

stal’s <$>themed deck lunch buffets were impressive, so was an elegant Mozart tea served in its spacious Palm Court by white-wigged waiters dressed as though in a vintage Salzburg palace. The Bistro for afternoon coffee and ever-changing taste treats was wonderfully gourmet.

That ship has been transferred to the Japanese division, but one expects high standards remain.

By way of contrast, Mariner’s daily schedule announced “our famous Market lunch” would be set up on deck weather permitting. When we arrived, it consisted of a boat piled full of second-grade, almost crab-less crab legs bought who knows where . . . a grill with assorted steaks and sausages, some salads, but no special decor or themes to set it apart except for ice sculptures hauled out of the freezer.

It took four days to get an answer to our question: Was the salmon wild or farm raised? Turns out it was farm raised, except for a Sitka meal.

Jim’s one splurge was a hamburger ordered at the poolside grill. All the menus had a statement at the bottom suggesting meat be ordered well-cooked to avoid health problems, which is exactly what Jim did. It came with the centre raw and bloody.

When Jim showed it to the man in charge, he apologised and said a new man was being trained. Perhaps expected at a local drive-in, but a ship that keeps telling you to “bask in the perfection of six star ss”?Several<$> repeat passengers lamented the loss of the former library, now unmanned and apparently a fraction of its former size. “They decided a coffee bar was necessary,” we were told. And yes, it’s a nice addition, but it certainly wasn’t in Crystal’s league.Surprising was a total open-bar policRegent’s Navigator had served wine with dinner, poured slowly. The agency which handled our tickets is a division of Carlsons, the ship’s owner, and apparently thought we were psychic and never told us our fare included almost anything we chose to drink at any of the ship’s bars.

None of our ship’s literature explained that and we were never told . . . very curious. We enjoyed the dinner choice of Pinot Grigio, had some champagne or a Mimosa, Kir Royale or Bellini with lunch, but that was about it. Not that we would have consumed any more.

When our favourite coffee with Bailey’s Irish cream arrived badly curdled in the Observation Lounge, and the bartender insisted it was fine, we gave up on that.

Interestingly, one wasn’t conscious of excess consumption except for one unhappy man who created a few scenes. In the time it took me to sip one half glass of champagne, I observed him down three large cocktails.

It’s not this writer’s intent to criticise, but to evaluate. Certainly, you’re in a situation far above mass-marketed ships, but so is the price. In some things they excelled; departure from Pier 39 was handled 100 per cent more efficiently than Crystal had from the same location.

They had an exceptionally attractive cigar room with plush, overstuffed chairs, fireplace and an exotic selection of imported cigars and brandy for purchase. Caviar was also offered for purchase at $15 a tablespoon.

Our stateroom was wonderfully spacious, and that’s what counted for most of us. But it’s only fair reporting to give a full picture of what you can expect. We found them consistently inconsistent.

It was the perpetual self-praise, as though suffering from some inferiority complex, that became annoying. Focus was so obviously on the bottom line that a very affluent octogenarian couple, in one of the most expensive suites pondered: “I wonder if they’re watching their bottom line because they’re overextended somewhere else?”

dings-Regular">q<$> Next week:<$> First cruise stop is Astoria, Oregon of Lewis and Clark fame. Big surprise is a fantastic maritime museum

Cruising up the Inside Passage