Thoughts on the Legend and best time for Alaska?

What's the best side of the ship to see the scenery? Is it better to go out of Vancouver or Seattle? Tracy Arm Ford or Glacier Bay. We're not outdoors people, don't like seafood will we still like Alaska but more going for the sure beauty. When's the best time to go for wildlife, weather and prices. Other than that what is your opinion on the Legend.

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What's the best side of the ship to see the scenery? Is it better to go out of Vancouver or Seattle? Tracy Arm Ford or Glacier Bay. We're not outdoors people, don't like seafood will we still like Alaska but more going for the sure beauty. When's the best time to go for wildlife, weather and prices. Other than that what is your opinion on the Legend.

 

 

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Glacier Bay is best. Tracy Arm's glacier is melting so fast you're more likely to not be able to call there. That glacier is melting really fast and causing ice jams that prevent the ship from being able to enter Tracy Arm. If you go early in the Alaska cruise season--May or early June--you'll see waterfalls due to the snowmelt. If you go later in the season, you won't get to experience that. The snow will be gone.

Vancouver is definitely better.

I've done Alaska on Norwegian, Princess, and Carnival (3 different 7 day cruise itineraries).

I'd choose Prince William Sound or Glacier Bay over Tracy Arm Fjord. Just don't go to any of them until you can afford the best excursions. Like the Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour or the Misty Fjord float plane excursions. I did the Tracy Arm Explorer catamaran tour (Carnival) tour too, and while it was good, it was no match for Glacier Bay or Prince William Sound.

Would you still go even if you can't afford the best excursions?

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I would recommend reading people's trip reports. You can see what others have to say about the different itineraries as well as time of the year. We went last month. I'm also not much of an outdoors person, I don't mind a nice walk or hike, but nothing extreme. And I don't eat any seafood either! LOL! You can see what we did on our trip last month...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2382500

Would you still go even if you can't afford the best excursions?

 

 

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No trip to Alaska is bad (especially if the weather cooperates), but if you think you'll only get to go once, I'd wait until you can afford to spend around $750 in excursions. Alaska is all about the scenery and wildlife.

My favorites were the Misty Fjord float plane (which I did twice--so good), Mendenhall Glacier helicopter, and the Skagway White Pass train ride (which I've also done twice).

But if you have a great opportunity, I'm sure you'll find something extraordinary.

But if it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, definitely wait until you can afford to experience the best Alaska has to offer because it is amazing!

Can I ask how much did each of your excursions were? Was the dress code in the MDR is it the same as the other cruises?

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So when you first went to Alaska what mistakes did you make? And how did you learn for the next time?

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So when you first went to Alaska what mistakes did you make? And how did you learn for the next time?

 

 

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I posted some of our boo-boos from last month here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2386176

When Tracy is Closed, ships substitute Endicot. For us Ice was Ice, and take issue with those who post it's not worth going if you're not prepared to drop $750 on excursions. That may be true for some, but if you're not super-hyped up on the cold nature concept in the first place and just want to see what all the hulla-balloo is all about you can go and have a great time on the Legend and spend about a third of that on shore excursions.

Our only complaint with Legend, was that she's in serious need of dry dock. Very rusty, could here rust crackling under the paint from the balcony above and it's all over her port quarter.

Like many we love the spirit class layout even though we are "big ship" people at heart.

Great CD, decent entertainment, wonderful service.

Victoria and Seattle both seem like great cities to cruise from, but a big advantage of Victoria is you don't have to waste a day that could be spent in AK on what is little more than a Jones act technical stop in Victoria that is required of all Seattle round trips.

For this year, pricing now seems to be much better on HAL and the itinerary is definitely better, so if you don't have little ones in tow, I'd jump on that.

Can I ask how much did each of your excursions were? Was the dress code in the MDR is it the same as the other cruises?

I agree about being sure you can afford to do the things you really want to do. For us, we have no intention of doing another Alaska cruise, there's too many other things we want to do (Galapagos!), so we did what we really wanted to do.

For the 3 of us, we spent about $2,500 on our 3 excursions. The helicopter ride was the most expensive, but totally worth it.

As far as the dress code, it was much less formal in all ways. On regular nights, a lot of people in hats, shorts, t-shirts, etc... And on formal night, maybe 30% of the people were what I would call "dressed up." I know some people will argue one way or the other. While I don't care how dressed up you get, it would be nice if they would actually enforce the no hats rule! And yes, it's nice if people would be dressed up a bit more, but it seems other lines are easing up in this as well.

We've sailed on the Legend & to Alaska on a different ship.

Legend was a few years back & she needed an update then, so I can imagine she's even worse now. Personally, I did not care for the décor- urns everywhere & the color scheme. But the layout of the ship is great.

Alaska- it was our 1st cruise, we were on a budget, so didn't do many excursions. Like others have said, excursions are important in Alaska because that is where you will see the most wildlife & scenery- the beauty of Alaska. The port areas are full of high priced jewelry stores & not much to see in town.

Even with the negatives, we still loved our 1st cruise. I would check out Holland America which has some good itineraries, so you might look into that as someone else said. Even if you don't want to break the bank on excursions, you will enjoy Alaska. We went in July, which was good for us. The temperatures were good at that time of year. Hope you have a great time.

Would like to check out other lines but we've got a credit with Carnival.

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I think will just put Alaska on hold for now, till a later time when we can at least sail HAL. Thanks for the input.

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I want to add my opinion because it is very different than the ones above!

I have friends who just took their first cruise ever and it was to Alaska. They went as an adult family group and didn't have a lot of money to spend on excursions. In fact they didn't buy ANY excursions at all and the LOVED their cruise!! If the ship goes to Skagway like theirs did the park ranger gives a great free tour of the town .

They walked around and found fun places to hang out and just loved everything.

When we went we did 1 ship's excursion and in the rest of the ports we also walked around and had a wonderful time. We did not just stay at the port.

You can wait or you can go now-- Don't let everyone scare you from trying it.

i just got off the Legend and i didn't care what the ship looked like we were in the beauty of Alaska. We did take some pricier shore excursions and then took some that weren't as pricey. We did do the exploration ship to get up closer to the glacier. It was beautiful and we got to see some really big calving. No it wasn't Tracy Fjord but the beauty of it was wonderful. The ship was able to get closer than then everyone thought it would and they also got some great shows if you were on the outside deck with binoculars. In Juneau we did Mendelhall Glacier and gardens. Oh my gosh was the gardens beautiful. This was not an expensive tour. In Skagway we did the jeep tour and it was a little pricey but not anymore than a jeep tour in the Caribbean. We drove over 200 miles round trip from Skagway to Carcross and once again i didn't think the scenery could get anymore beautiful but was surprised again. In Ketchikan we did do one of the more expensive tours with taking the bush plane over to watch bears during the salmon run. In Victoria we just walked around town and took in the awe of the town. Would i do Alaska again - maybe years from now but put it on your bucket list and if you don't do it now do it later. Did i have any problems with the Legend - no the staff were great and friendly. Do get a balcony cabin so that you can sit outside watching for blow spray from the whales that you will see. We went the last week of July and was very lucky to have no rain and really nice weather. Would i hesitate to go on the Legend - NO!

What about stateroom everyone says you Must Must book a balcony

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What's the temperature like in the summer months? Like right now it's +30 degrees Celsius all week

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What about stateroom everyone says you Must Must book a balcony

 

 

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Yes.... do book a balcony. From Day 2-Day 6 you will have spectacular views of mountains and snow and sealife 24/7. No way I would do Alaska and miss that.

The Legend is not my favorite ship, but that is just personal preference. It was funny to watch the staff on the Lido deck run to the rails to see the whales just like everyone else. Hey, they are people too!

Do NOT cheap out of excursions. The more expensive excursions are for the most part, worth every penny. Its silly to go on a cruise, then do nothing but walk around in port. When i was planning our trip, I planned to spend whatever it cost to do whatever we wanted.... hey, how many times are we going to be able to do this trip??? You spend all that money to get there.

As the quote goes "Its like buying tickets to the circus, and sitting outside the tent".

Do the excursions!!!

Like right now we've got a cruise booked on Magic in April 2017 in a spa balcony and the year after on Vista

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What's the temperature like in the summer months? Like right now it's +30 degrees Celsius all week

The temps can be so varied, so I wouldn't take what people say with total faith. I mean, my parents went a few years ago, around Mother's Day and it was in the 70's! My mom was on the top deck in her bathing suit eating lunch. We went last month and in Skagway, it got warm in the afternoon, but most other days were like 60, cooler, needed more layers, etc... It is just a roll of the dice, you never know what you'll really get.

What about stateroom everyone says you Must Must book a balcony

We always book a balcony on our cruises, I like to sit out on the balcony and relax and unwind, usually before dinner. A lot of times I take my shower for dinner and sit on the balcony for a bit. But I agree that if you can do it, get the balcony for Alaska too. There is so much to see!

I think will just put Alaska on hold for now, till a later time when we can at least sail HAL. Thanks for the input.

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We always book a balcony on our cruises, I like to sit out on the balcony and relax and unwind, usually before dinner. A lot of times I take my shower for dinner and sit on the balcony for a bit. But I agree that if you can do it, get the balcony for Alaska too. There is so much to see!

Plus, the good thing about Alaska is that usually there is time even after dinner since it is usually light until 11:00 or so.

You might look at Princess for an Alaska cruise too

I heard there good too

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Been to Alaska twice, once on Royal round trip out of Alaska in June 2012. Tracy Arm was iced in so we went up Endicott, very nice. Did the train in Skagway and enjoyed that very much.

Went back in 2015 on Carnival, Vancouver to Seattle first cruise of the season so it included Tracy Arm (which we did get to go up this time) and Glacier Bay. We booked the excursion through Carnival that lets you off a the mouth of Tracy Arm and they take you right up to the face of two of the Glaciers. So worth the extra money for that since the ship cant get that close. Went and walked around Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau and went and did a dry run with Sled Dogs in Skagway and later drove over into the Yukon since we did the train on the last trip.

Will likely go back in 2018, but disappointed they did not offer the 8 night out of Vancouver again that had Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay.