Norwegian Sun to Alaska with young children

My husband and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary next May. We have three boys, who will be 7, 6 and 3 years old at that time. We just went away for four days, and that was definitely the max that we can be without our kids, so leaving them home isn't an option! We have always wanted to go to Alaska, but thought we'd wait until the kids were older... BUT I found a great deal on the Norwegian Sun for 5/30/16 with the five of us in an inside stateroom. We haven't had an inside room since our first cruise 11 years ago (which was also on the Sun!), and though I wanted a balcony in Alaska, I'm thinking we should save some money on our room since we have to pay for flights and excursions for five people. Am I going to regret not having a balcony?

I would love some family friendly excursion suggestions. Nothing too pricey, I'm hoping to spend around $350 for our whole family at each port. We don't want to miss any "must dos" either. We're leaving out of Vancouver, cruising the Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, cruise Glacier Bay, cruise Hubbard Glacier, and Seward.

My boys love trains, I was thinking about taking the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Anchorage since we will be flying home from there. Does this sound like a good idea with a 7, 6 and 3 year old?

I have read there are not usually that many kids on the ships in Alaska... Here in NJ kids get out of school in June, but I know other parts of the country they get out earlier. Maybe this means there will be more kids on the ship for a Memorial Day/ first week of June sailing?

We can fly out of a few different airports all within about an hour from where we live. Our options are Newark, Philly, LaGuardia & JFK. We're looking for the fastest and less expensive flights, any suggestions? When would be the best time for me to book our flights for that time of year?

Any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you :)

Unless you have additional time to spend in Alaska, you might want to consider a RT cruise instead ... you might not get that great deal on the cruise but you'll save on airfare.

Fly RT to Seattle which is normally cheaper than to Vancouver. The kids can get their train fix by taking the Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver. Maybe fly in one afternoon, overnight then catch the morning train to Vancouver.

If you get an Alaska Airlines credit card, you can buy a companion pass for $100; you pay regular fare for NY to Seattle and the companion pays $100 for their airfare. I thnk the annual fee or the card is $100. Maybe you could accumulate enough point between now and then to get another ticket as well. Alaska usually has a sale each year in October.

There are plenty of budget friendly ideas for your ports.

Ketchikan ... city bus out to Totem Bight. The kids will be fascinated by the colors and stories of the totems. Plus it's next to the water so you can walk the trails to the waters edge. Read thru trip reports in the STICKY above to get ideas. The 2014 list has about 60 reports and photojournals, several are family trips. When you look at the 2013 List, start with reply #45 where the reports are sorted by cruiseline/ship.

Unless you have additional time to spend in Alaska, you might want to consider a RT cruise instead ... you might not get that great deal on the cruise but you'll save on airfare.

 

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I sometimes do one way vs rt. I am flying all day regardless. The cruise is much cheaper, air a little bit more but in the end, it is cheaper to cruise one way for me with everything included. And a more beautiful cruise in my opinion.

BUT I found a great deal on the Norwegian Sun for 5/30/16 with the five of us in an inside stateroom.

Just curious, NCL has inside cabins that sleep 5?

We did the NCL northbound cruise last summer when my son had just turned 9 a few days earlier! He loved it! He recommends that you spend lots of time enjoying being out on deck enjoying the scenery with the kids in the kid's club.

We had an inside room for the 3 of us, and choose NCL because we could have a 3 person inside without a bunk. It worked well for us. The times I missed the balcony was when one of us was holed up in the inside room with a kid who needed to sleep (it is cold, but it stays light late) or early in the morning when we wanted to know if the scenery (we had a lot of rainy/foggy weather) was worth jumping out of bed for. But while there might have been a few times a balcony would have been nice, it would not have been worth the money for us. There were lots of things that we enjoyed spending our money on in Alaska (in the same way, we were not impressed with the included food, but when we looked at the cost of the speciality dining that was not how we wanted to spend our money). Tracy's crab shack in Juneau, however, was a very well enjoyed but expensive meal.

For transportation: We flew round trip to Seattle because we could get a nonstop (from BWI) for a reasonable price. If you want to do the southwest option you want to book as soon as it opens...there airfares only go up (we did not and we paid more). We rented a car for the trip to Vancouver...we spent the night with a friend in Seattle and did not think the times for the train were going to work well with our schedule. With our car we were able to go to the Brittania Mine Museum and the Sea to Sky Gondola at the end of the sea to sky highway (past Vancouver). I highly recommend the mine museum...admissions includes panning for gold so we got that activity out of the way early and a ride into the mine on the mine train. My son even got to demonstrate the use of the portable commode! It is very well done. On the way back we flew one way from Anchorage to Seattle. When we were booking Delta flights were much cheaper than Alaska. We had a clear day and therefore a beautiful ariel view of college fjord. We took a later afternoon flight and booked a hotel with an airport shuttle and flew back during the next day. We had to do it when we flew to China, but our family does best if we sleep in beds rather than fail to sleep on airplanes.

Excursions: Be sure to check out the Junior Ranger activities in the National Parks! In Ketchikan we had a wonderful kayaking trip to Orcas cover, but your little boys are probably too young to enjoy kayaking. My son liked the Southwest Discovery Center, and we were able to pick up a junior ranger book and turn it back in at Mendenhall (also part of the Tongass National Forest). In Juneau we did bus to Mendenhall. The ship came in at the far pier, and we would have splurged on a cab but the only cab there was only doing a city tour and not a trip to Mendenhall. My son likes visitor center, and the one at Mendenhall was well done. We were in early August and thought the salmon swimming upstream were prettier at Mendenhall than at Ketchikan. The short hike to Nugget Falls is very nice. In the afternoon we went up Mount Roberts Tramway because it was clear. Dad did a longer hike which he really enjoyed but my son and I enjoyed the hike to the cross, looking at the eagles, watching a totem pole carver (he became fascinated with them after declining to go to the totem parks in Ketchikan during the planning) and a show that they had up their.

Skagway has a very nice junior range station as part of the national historical park. We did the train up bus down because dad wanted to do train up bike down. We also were able to do some hiking.

We landed in Whittier rather than Seward, but we enjoyed our later drive to Seward. The Sea Life center is very well done, and is especially good if you have a rainy day, and we liked visiting Exit Glacier as well. If you have a car the kids might like the wildlife conservation center on the way back to Anchorage. We also did a longer land tour, but these are the cruise highlights.

Writing this brings back fun memories!

Jane

Unless you have additional time to spend in Alaska, you might want to consider a RT cruise instead ... you might not get that great deal on the cruise but you'll save on airfare.

 

Fly RT to Seattle which is normally cheaper than to Vancouver. The kids can get their train fix by taking the Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver. Maybe fly in one afternoon, overnight then catch the morning train to Vancouver.

If you get an Alaska Airlines credit card, you can buy a companion pass for $100; you pay regular fare for NY to Seattle and the companion pays $100 for their airfare. I thnk the annual fee or the card is $100. Maybe you could accumulate enough point between now and then to get another ticket as well. Alaska usually has a sale each year in October.

 

There are plenty of budget friendly ideas for your ports.

Ketchikan ... city bus out to Totem Bight. The kids will be fascinated by the colors and stories of the totems. Plus it's next to the water so you can walk the trails to the waters edge. Read thru trip reports in the STICKY above to get ideas. The 2014 list has about 60 reports and photojournals, several are family trips. When you look at the 2013 List, start with reply #45 where the reports are sorted by cruiseline/ship.

Thank you for this! After estimating how much a RT would cost vs. what we had booked, it seemed we'd save about $1000 doing the RT, so we changed our dates to 5/23 and went for a balcony! I'm very happy with this decision :)

I'll be spending the upcoming months reading trip reports and excursion reviews, I'm sure I'll be very prepared for Alaska!

I sometimes do one way vs rt. I am flying all day regardless. The cruise is much cheaper, air a little bit more but in the end, it is cheaper to cruise one way for me with everything included. And a more beautiful cruise in my opinion.

This will not be our only time we go to Alaska, I'm sure we'll do a one way at some point, as it did look very appealing with the extra port and Tracy Arm. :)

Just curious, NCL has inside cabins that sleep 5?

Yes, the Sun has inside, oceanview and balcony cabins that sleep 5.

We did the NCL northbound cruise last summer when my son had just turned 9 a few days earlier! He loved it! He recommends that you spend lots of time enjoying being out on deck enjoying the scenery with the kids in the kid's club.

 

We had an inside room for the 3 of us, and choose NCL because we could have a 3 person inside without a bunk. It worked well for us. The times I missed the balcony was when one of us was holed up in the inside room with a kid who needed to sleep (it is cold, but it stays light late) or early in the morning when we wanted to know if the scenery (we had a lot of rainy/foggy weather) was worth jumping out of bed for. But while there might have been a few times a balcony would have been nice, it would not have been worth the money for us. There were lots of things that we enjoyed spending our money on in Alaska (in the same way, we were not impressed with the included food, but when we looked at the cost of the speciality dining that was not how we wanted to spend our money). Tracy's crab shack in Juneau, however, was a very well enjoyed but expensive meal.

 

For transportation: We flew round trip to Seattle because we could get a nonstop (from BWI) for a reasonable price. If you want to do the southwest option you want to book as soon as it opens...there airfares only go up (we did not and we paid more). We rented a car for the trip to Vancouver...we spent the night with a friend in Seattle and did not think the times for the train were going to work well with our schedule. With our car we were able to go to the Brittania Mine Museum and the Sea to Sky Gondola at the end of the sea to sky highway (past Vancouver). I highly recommend the mine museum...admissions includes panning for gold so we got that activity out of the way early and a ride into the mine on the mine train. My son even got to demonstrate the use of the portable commode! It is very well done. On the way back we flew one way from Anchorage to Seattle. When we were booking Delta flights were much cheaper than Alaska. We had a clear day and therefore a beautiful ariel view of college fjord. We took a later afternoon flight and booked a hotel with an airport shuttle and flew back during the next day. We had to do it when we flew to China, but our family does best if we sleep in beds rather than fail to sleep on airplanes.

 

Excursions: Be sure to check out the Junior Ranger activities in the National Parks! In Ketchikan we had a wonderful kayaking trip to Orcas cover, but your little boys are probably too young to enjoy kayaking. My son liked the Southwest Discovery Center, and we were able to pick up a junior ranger book and turn it back in at Mendenhall (also part of the Tongass National Forest). In Juneau we did bus to Mendenhall. The ship came in at the far pier, and we would have splurged on a cab but the only cab there was only doing a city tour and not a trip to Mendenhall. My son likes visitor center, and the one at Mendenhall was well done. We were in early August and thought the salmon swimming upstream were prettier at Mendenhall than at Ketchikan. The short hike to Nugget Falls is very nice. In the afternoon we went up Mount Roberts Tramway because it was clear. Dad did a longer hike which he really enjoyed but my son and I enjoyed the hike to the cross, looking at the eagles, watching a totem pole carver (he became fascinated with them after declining to go to the totem parks in Ketchikan during the planning) and a show that they had up their.

 

Skagway has a very nice junior range station as part of the national historical park. We did the train up bus down because dad wanted to do train up bike down. We also were able to do some hiking.

 

We landed in Whittier rather than Seward, but we enjoyed our later drive to Seward. The Sea Life center is very well done, and is especially good if you have a rainy day, and we liked visiting Exit Glacier as well. If you have a car the kids might like the wildlife conservation center on the way back to Anchorage. We also did a longer land tour, but these are the cruise highlights.

 

Writing this brings back fun memories!

 

Jane

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me all this awesome info! I wrote down all the things you suggested and will be doing some research this afternoon. The Junior Ranger stuff seems perfect for my boys!

I am just off the Sun on a 10-day RT from Vancouver with 3 boys, aged 6, 6 & 8. Obviously, your experience will vary depending on your kids, but mine did not enjoy Alaska, even the glaciers. They liked being on the ship, the food and the kids club (sometimes), but they only liked 2 of the 6 ports really. I suspect that janerbg's experience was different from mine because the child was older and a single child. Mine fight a lot at home and it was no different on vacation, which makes parents a little grumpy.

We had excellent weather, and May is often drier than other summer months, so that is in your favor.

We also had a balcony cabin that we enjoyed, but wouldn't pay a LOT more for it. It was cold and windy in the evenings when we could use it. We prefer to be on deck and move around to see the scenery. The room is quite small, but manageable since the kids were small. There's not really enough closet space for 5 and the bathroom is tiny! I just read someone else's suggestion that you keep your suitcases packed and stored under the bed. That may have helped with space, but it's not easy getting things out from under the bed every day.

To save money in Juneau, you can rent a car instead of taking the shuttle, BUT you have to bring your own car seats. I don't know if you can rent car seats from the rental agency. We only had to bring 2 boosters. Our rental cost $75 total, which is less than just the RT to Mendenhall for 5 and we had transportation for the rest of the day.

I heard there were 300 kids on our trip, but that may have included teens and babies. The kids club normally is separated into 3-5, 6-9, 10-12, and teens, but on our cruise the 6-12 were combined into one group. We went to the kids club circus show at the end and I would say there were about 6 kids in the 3-5 group and less than 20 in the 6-12 group.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me all this awesome info! I wrote down all the things you suggested and will be doing some research this afternoon. The Junior Ranger stuff seems perfect for my boys!

I'll let you know how mine goes in a month - I'm taking two boys, 3 and 10. My older boy is a total Junior Ranger junkie. We're going with both sets of grandparents, so we're splitting up where applicable because of the different age range. And we're going the third week of June, so just about everyone should be out of school by then.

The older one is planning on going to the lumberjack show and totem poles in Ketchikan, while I go on a rainforest hike with the little one. Skagway, everyone is going on the White Pass Railroad. Juneau, I think we're going to go whale watching. We're taking a bus from Seward to Anchorage that stops at a wildlife thing.