First time cruisers.....so lost!

Hi All!

DH and I are considering an Alaskan Cruise as our first cruise....and holy crap it seems like I'm on information overload!!! No matter how much I read it all seems like I can't keep track of the options!

Best cruise option?

Best cruise line?

I know preference is subjective to what you like... We're pretty young (30 & 33) but not party people, and my DH is likely in bed by 10pm on most nights...haha! Neither of us drink, and I could never get him out dancing - but we do like great food and an upscale atmosphere. Not too concerned with budget, and he's expressed possibly a smaller ship. I'm happy to lay around and lounge, with some excursions, but my DH is a go-go-go kind of guy.

We aren't new to boating in general, DH is a private yacht captain by profession, so while I've wanted to take a cruise for a while he spends almost all of his time on the water and has always said an Alaskan is the only one that interests him.

Do most people book on their own, or is a travel agent recommended? I'm assuming it's best to fly into your departure port a day early?

I'd love some suggestions, hints, etc!

Congrats....you posted your query in the best forum for answers to Alaskan questions!

I'll start by telling you that Alaska cruises come in just a few configurations.

Round trip from Seattle - 7 days

Round trip from Vancouver - 7 days

Round trip from San Francisco - 10 days

One way northbound from Vancouver to Anchorage (Whittier Seward) 7 days

One way southbound from Anchorage (Whittier,Seward) to Vancouver 7 days

14 day roundtrips from Seattle or Vancouver

Everyone has to decide which type of trip fits their circumstances.

There is lots more, but someone else can continue...:D

FIRST- how much time do you have? Are you interested in mainland touring? Read a travel book- Fodor's Alaska and Frommer's Alaska, are especially concise. And will give you information that is already sorted out by area.

Once you determine- your time, and interests- then look for the activities you wish to include- this could determine your week to travel, as some activities are pretty narrow with peak availability.

Read through some trip reports of ships that sailed Alaska this year. Will give you an idea of life on board.

IF you have the opportunity to go with a non "regular" cruise- then that type of Alaska cruise would definitely be considered better with the Alaska experience. I have a friend who works for Lindblad, for around 100 passengers- they have 6 naturalists- wow- that would be superb for anyone with an intense Alaska interest. :)

As for the regular lines- which are significantly lower costs- they are far more similar than different. All have cut down on their food, with the trend toward surcharges for higher caliber meals.

Also consider which month....

• May to July for statistically dryer days in Alaska... August is wetter with September for storm chasers
  
• July to mid-August is dryer for Vancouver/Seattle
  
• May and September offers the best value.... July offers the dryest weather for the season for Alaska and Cascadia
  
• Those going to Tracy arm may choose to avoid May for ice congestion, preventing a meet with Sawyer
  

Also think about what you will be doing in the ports (excursions?) to best use your time.

I like to start a graph chart. Put the ships/cruiselines across the top. Then list the things of importance to you down the side (size of ship, ports, time in ports, cabin type, length of cruise, excursions, cost, etc. down the side). As you research and like something, put an "X" in the conjoining box. As you near the end of your research, one should have more x's than the others.

It isn't really difficult, you just have to organize and decide what you want. All of our advice worked for us, but it may not for you. Only you know what you want from your trip.

Have fun planning, then taking your cruise to Alaska! It is an awesome destination!

My husband and I recently did our very first cruise, and it was a round trip from Seattle to Alaska. We enjoyed it, but looking back I would have changed a few things.

1) Depart from Vancouver instead of Seattle. Why? Less time on open seas. I get seasick easily, and I felt every bit of even the small rocking motion. The seas were relatively calm, but it was still open waters. I took bonine which worked great, but it dried my sinuses up to the point it was a bit uncomfortable.

2) Travel in July or August (maybe). We went in early September and saw very little wild life from the boat. In contrast, many reviewers who took the same cruise weeks early saw a bunch. Maybe we just hit bad luck, who knows. However, we did get some pretty good weather considering. Also, the boat had very few kids since school has started most places. (And since you are 30's I should note that very few people under 40's too! Most games and entertainment was geared for the retired age crowd, IMO. And the lounges and dance floors were dead every night.)

3) Visit Ketchikan/get more stops in Alaska. The cruise we went on only went to Juneau and Skagway in Alaska, that's it. Juneau was great and has a lot of excursion to chose from, but Skagway really wasn't as interesting. We enjoyed our drive from Skagway to the Yukon, but the town itself was primarily one street with gift shops and restaurants. Ketchikan (from what I have read) looks more interesting, and it has an excursion to watch bears catch salmon at a river. If we had known we would have made sure our cruise went there. As is, we don't feel as if we really saw much of Alaska, just a lot of time on the boat.

In the end, I don't think cruising is going to be high on our plans for future vacationing. We are in our early 50's and typically travel by air/land, which allows us to see much of the areas we visit and gives us much more flexibility on what to see/do. The cruise was nice, but for the money I didn't think the food or entertainment was worth it. And I didn't like the process of being 'herded' on and off the boat, especially when we arrived in Juneau where we had to stand in a line for 45 minutes only to have a bunch of people cut in front on you. We may consider a Caribean cruise one day as it does seem like the best way to see that region, and the boats are geared for a younger crowd who stay up past 10pm.

My husband and I recently did our very first cruise, and it was a round trip from Seattle to Alaska. We enjoyed it, but looking back I would have changed a few things.

 

1) Depart from Vancouver instead of Seattle. Why? Less time on open seas. I get seasick easily, and I felt every bit of even the small rocking motion. The seas were relatively calm, but it was still open waters. I took bonine which worked great, but it dried my sinuses up to the point it was a bit uncomfortable.

 

2) Travel in July or August (maybe). We went in early September and saw very little wild life from the boat. In contrast, many reviewers who took the same cruise weeks early saw a bunch. Maybe we just hit bad luck, who knows. However, we did get some pretty good weather considering. Also, the boat had very few kids since school has started most places. (And since you are 30's I should note that very few people under 40's too! Most games and entertainment was geared for the retired age crowd, IMO. And the lounges and dance floors were dead every night.)

 

3) Visit Ketchikan/get more stops in Alaska. The cruise we went on only went to Juneau and Skagway in Alaska, that's it. Juneau was great and has a lot of excursion to chose from, but Skagway really wasn't as interesting. We enjoyed our drive from Skagway to the Yukon, but the town itself was primarily one street with gift shops and restaurants. Ketchikan (from what I have read) looks more interesting, and it has an excursion to watch bears catch salmon at a river. If we had known we would have made sure our cruise went there. As is, we don't feel as if we really saw much of Alaska, just a lot of time on the boat.

 

In the end, I don't think cruising is going to be high on our plans for future vacationing. We are in our early 50's and typically travel by air/land, which allows us to see much of the areas we visit and gives us much more flexibility on what to see/do. The cruise was nice, but for the money I didn't think the food or entertainment was worth it. And I didn't like the process of being 'herded' on and off the boat, especially when we arrived in Juneau where we had to stand in a line for 45 minutes only to have a bunch of people cut in front on you. We may consider a Caribean cruise one day as it does seem like the best way to see that region, and the boats are geared for a younger crowd who stay up past 10pm.

Was this a reposition cruise, unusual to only have 2 Alaska ports otherwise.

You absolutely can see wildlife on Sept sailings, from cruise ships. It does require a LARGE investment of time, and knowing the areas. I always see plenty of wildlife.

You have found some valuable information about yourself. :) Cruises aren't for everyone.

Was this a reposition cruise, unusual to only have 2 Alaska ports otherwise.

Not sure what a 'reposition' cruise is, but this particular 7-day Jewel of the Sea on Royal Caribbean ran all summer long with only 2 stops in Alaska, and 1 in Victoria. We didn't chose the cruise, it was picked out by one of the couples we traveled. I do wish we would have looked deeper into Alaska cruises before plunking down many thousands of dollars, but that is in the past now.

You have found some valuable information about yourself. :) Cruises aren't for everyone.

So very true. We met many on the boat who love cruising over and over, but I don't think we will be one of them any time soon. We did enjoy it but compared to how we normally travel the overall experience didn't win us over. We have traveled through Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Mexico with far more elaborate vacations than what we got on the boat -- and for equal or less money.

OP - just my 2 cents worth, but I would never take a cruise to Alaska as a first cruise. It's expensive and not a "typical" cruise experience. Will you be totally bummed out if it's cold and wet the entire trip? What if it's foggy and you miss seeing the scenery? That can happen any time during the cruise season.

As you have already mentioned, it can be mind boggling trying to figure everything out and unless you plan on spending a considerable amount of time there you will probably come away from the trip exhausted because you tried to squeeze too much into a short amount of time. IMO, Alaskan cruises are not relaxing.

Personally, I would recommend a closer to home cruise so you can get your feet wet and at least have an idea what cruising is all about - then tackle something like Alaska.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and if you go be sure to do lots of homework before you make any decisions.

Our Princess excursion brochure was released this week - 100 pages in all. Pretty overwhelming. It helped me to immediately delete things I wasnt interested in, for me, zip lining, general area bus trips and sled dog tours for instance.

There is nothing wrong with making AK your first cruise. Not sure where your DH sails, but it sounds like AK is uncharted waters for him.

Yes AK is one of the more expensive places to cruise - both the trip itself and the excursions cost a lot more than those in the Caribbean. But as long as you are aware of that going it - there should be no problem.

AK was our first cruise back in 02 and while we have not cruised often, we have made it back 3 times and Hawaii once - living in Portland OR we don't have all that many choices - even so we still love AK.

Cruisers (and cruises sometimes) fall into two basic categories - destination cruisers and spa cruisers. Or in other words, people who view the ship as a floating hotel that transports them from one destination to another. Spa cruisers see the ship as the destination - it is the main reason for the cruise - drinking, gambling, spa treatments, etc. AK is less for spa cruisers and more for destination cruisers. The inside passage easily allows for scenery and wildlife viewing right from the ship, with three or four ports in your 7 days coupled with a day of scenic glacier cruising and there is not much time for anything else. :D

I agree that research is necessary - and Fodor's and the other books listed by others are a good place to start - as is http://www.cruiseportinsider.com http://www.alaskatravel.com and http://www.travelalaska.com are some other resources you can use.

If you have never visited the Pacific Northwest - I suggest that you fly into your port city a few days early and see some of our natural and man made wonders. There are many things to do in either Vancouver or Seattle.

As far as choosing a cruise line - as Budget Queen said they are more alike than different - as to things that have changed over the past few years - a first time cruiser would probably not be the wiser - yes I noticed changes between my 02 and 12 AK cruises on NCL - but there was nothing wrong with the 12 cruise - all of the food was very tasty and we ate mostly in the main dining room.

As far as choosing a cruise line - the primary difference between the lines is in meal service - esp dinner - most lines still have set times at set tables with set guests - with options for less formal open seating dining. There will always be one or two dress up or formal nights on these lines - the buffet restaurant will never have a dress code. The main reason we went with NCL was to get away from the set dining times and formal nights - that was back in 02 and shortly thereafter the other lines began to copy the idea of anytime dining.

My first choice in cruising has always been NCL - I tried it and found that I like it - so I stay with it :) YMMV

I would probably choose Princess as my second choice for AK and HAL third.

I would also suggest that along with this board, you visit the cruise line boards and see what is happening there.

If you can find a TA that has cruised to AK - or at least has cruised various lines - great - the only problem is that those TAs are hard to find - but worth their weight in gold if and when you find one.

Good luck with your planning and enjoy your AK cruise.:D