We cruised Alaska with a family group this past June (2013). We did a 7 night RT Seattle primarily because of a family member's medical restrictions which limited us to a US port. Because we wanted to go to Glacier Bay, we had a choice between HAL and Princess - at least with mass market ships. We went HAL. I am hearing that there is not a lot of age difference on HAL and Princess in Alaska - both have a fairly old crowd - any one cruise can be different. We usually go with Royal Caribbean but HAL was very nice - we got one of the SC Neptune Suite aft corner cabins - which was really great. You could do what I do and send an email to Bonnie Buchanan and make her work at getting you an explanation of your options. That's is what I do.