2018 Bookings

My husband and I were in Alaska in July through Alaska Tour and Travel and Celebrity. I am looking for a 2018 trip for my husband and I plus my son and daughter, who will be 14 and 16 at the time.

I see a few options available right now, but am looking for the best deal and best line for my normally techno-nerdy kids. My daughter is high-functioning autistic, so anxiety about certain things could be a minor issue, but don't expect it to be a major problem. She loves animals.

Anyone have insight on the best time to book and when other cruise lines will release 2018 dates. I don't like Carnival's available itineraries that much... They are round trip and have short port times in Juneau and Ketchikan I think.

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Princess has released theirs as of December 1.

Was just looking at theirs. Was wondering about Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. Any idea on theirs? I notice RC site is "undergoing maintenance" right at the moment.

Was just looking at theirs. Was wondering about Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. Any idea on theirs? I notice RC site is "undergoing maintenance" right at the moment.

I don't know. Many companies (of all industries) run software updates on servers on Saturday nights and into Sunday mornings. That would be my guess.

NCL will be January

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Celebrity and Holland American have also released their fares for Alaska for 2018 this past week.

We are also looking at cruises during that timeframe :). I noticed that while Celebrity has released their cruise schedule, they have not yet released their cruisetour schedule

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I was hoping to try Norwegian or Royal Caribbean - I think. This will only be my second cruise ever. Celebrity was very elegant, but want something "younger" (and cheaper, since this time it will be 4 people instead of 2).

I was on the Princess site and going through the cruisetours (or, I think that was the site I was on yesterday - looked at a few). I notice that the site says that a lot of the cabins are not available or sold out. Is that normal? Will they release some later?

Also, because it is still early, do cruise lines ever release more dates?

Just as a side note...there was one cruise through Carnival that I liked, but it is in September and I would not be able to go due to school starting. :-(

I was hoping to try Norwegian or Royal Caribbean - I think. This will only be my second cruise ever. Celebrity was very elegant, but want something "younger" (and cheaper, since this time it will be 4 people instead of 2).

 

Just realize - all Alaskan cruises have an older demographic compared to the Caribbean. It would surprise me if there is that much difference between the lines, except with Disney which would be a younger demographic.

I would look at itinerary first.

I believe the reason many cabins show sold is that they are available for booking for the cruise only. If you clicked that you were looking for cruise tours then they are showing you what has been set aside for people doing a cruise + tour.

We came across this same thing when we booked a b2b that could also be booked as one long cruise. A lot of cabins available if we looked at either cruise but if we looked at it as one cruise there was MUCH less to choose from.

I booked on Thursday, within an hour of the cruise being made available for booking. By Saturday morning, a third of our deck was no longer available for booking.

I booked on Thursday, within an hour of the cruise being made available for booking. By Saturday morning, a third of our deck was no longer available for booking.

Which line?

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Which line?

 

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Holland America

My husband and I were in Alaska in July through Alaska Tour and Travel and Celebrity. I am looking for a 2018 trip for my husband and I plus my son and daughter, who will be 14 and 16 at the time.

 

I see a few options available right now, but am looking for the best deal and best line for my normally techno-nerdy kids. My daughter is high-functioning autistic, so anxiety about certain things could be a minor issue, but don't expect it to be a major problem. She loves animals.

 

Anyone have insight on the best time to book and when other cruise lines will release 2018 dates. I don't like Carnival's available itineraries that much... They are round trip and have short port times in Juneau and Ketchikan I think.

 

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I booked in January 2016 for 2017 - we chose HAL (more laid back & smaller ships, which may be beneficial for your daughter.) for the IMHO better itineraries. We chose 14-night cruise, so no comparison, but we've sailed on HAL to AK on a 7-night cruise in the past.

After doing some "mock" bookings, I found HAL the most affordable for what we want. Their 14 day cruise in 2018 I think is online now. The only down side is that I would have liked to get them to Denali.

I was hoping to try Norwegian or Royal Caribbean - I think. This will only be my second cruise ever. Celebrity was very elegant, but want something "younger" (and cheaper, since this time it will be 4 people instead of 2).

As far as cheaper, when I recently looked at 7-day cruises for August 2017, prices for HAL, Celebrity and Princess ocean view were very similar - within about a $100 range. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian were significantly cheaper (~$500 less). Disney was significantly more expensive (~ $1000 making them about the same as Crystal).

We were only interested in one way (Seattle or Vancouver to Anchorage or vice-versa). Carnival only had round trips in the window so I didn't look at their prices.

After doing some "mock" bookings, I found HAL the most affordable for what we want. Their 14 day cruise in 2018 I think is online now. The only down side is that I would have liked to get them to Denali.

For us - "next time" we will include Denali. (Probably a DIY land based vacation.)

After doing some "mock" bookings, I found HAL the most affordable for what we want. Their 14 day cruise in 2018 I think is online now. The only down side is that I would have liked to get them to Denali.

We LOVE Holland's 14 day Great Land Explorer to Alaska as it goes to the smaller ports verses the typical inside passage. HIGHLY recommend this one :D

Also if you are interested in Denali look up Holland's Land and Sea deals and what it entails to get to Denali, they DO go there as part of a land one week (train I think) and then cruise one week.

Happy Sailing wherever you end up!!

After doing some "mock" bookings, I found HAL the most affordable for what we want. Their 14 day cruise in 2018 I think is online now. The only down side is that I would have liked to get them to Denali.

 

We were only interested in one way (Seattle or Vancouver to Anchorage or vice-versa). Carnival only had round trips in the window so I didn't look at their prices.

There are no one-way cruises from Seattle to Anchorage. That would be a PVSA violation.

There are no one-way cruises from Seattle to Anchorage. That would be a PVSA violation.

Technically there are - they are small ships that are owned by companies in the United States. Un-Cruise would be an example.

Technically there are - they are small ships that are owned by companies in the United States. Un-Cruise would be an example.

Ok, I should have said "on any major cruise lines" but the VAST majority of people here are considering major cruise lines. The person I quoted had listed major lines, so I assumed that's what they were considering.

Ok, I should have said "on any major cruise lines" but the VAST majority of people here are considering major cruise lines. The person I quoted had listed major lines, so I assumed that's what they were considering.

Actually, I had looked at the smaller lines (including cruises that start and end in Alaska ports) as well as the majors. I just didn't mention them in this case because they are significantly more expensive and the OP was looking for lower cost. But it is a fair point that for the lines I was mentioning the cruises are all Vancouver, not Seattle.

We ended up choosing Crystal, but my first choice was an Uncruise (Sitka to Juneau) at about the same price as our Crystal balcony. My husband and the other couple preferred Crystal and I'm sure I'll be quite happy with Crystal so we went for that.

I'd still like to come back to do Uncruise, Alaska Dream or Lindblad (which costs a lot more than the other two) sometime. I ruled out American Cruise Lines due to the very poor reviews it gets.