Alaskan Family Cruise

What's the best ship/cruise line for a family cruise to Alaska for our 4 adult kids and 9 grandchildren; 2 are 7 and 9, 5 are 12-16, and 2 are 24 and 28 (no kids yet!) Any advice would be so helpful. Thanks in advance.

Any of them, Alaska is all about the ports and not the ship.

Doing a Northbound or Southbound as well as a tour will give you the biggest bang for your buck. the tour could be a bit much for kids however, but you could plan a family tour.

Princess and HAL are pretty much the leaders of the Alaska cruises. With kids, I'd go on Princess.

Check out the Alaska board for specifics. :)

We took our family of 4 adult married children & 8 grandchildren on an Alaskan Cruise (Star Princess) several years ago and are repeating it this year on the Golden Princess.

The grandchildren are 3 yrs - 15 yrs old. It was a wonderful experience before and it's all the "grands" can talk about. We are 97 days from sailing away. The "grands" love the Kids club & Teen Club. Making Memories!

Thanks for that, WishIwascruising (me, too--love the handle).

What month are going in or what is best--July or August?

Did you use a travel agent or just go thru Princess? Did you get a group rate? How many do you need for a group rate or other discounts? Sounds like a great trip. Are you doing a land tour to Denali as well?

We are cruising in July '14. We are controlled by school schedules, as we have teachers, school administrators and students in our family so late July works best for us. Certainly May or late August would be less expensive BUT we don't have the flexibility to do that. On this cruise I just booked through Princess. There were lots of incentives, I only had to make a minimal deposit for (6 cabins). I booked in November '13 for our July '14 cruise. We've had 3 price reductions and were upgraded from Plaza deck to Aloha Deck midship. I inquired about a group discount but I can't remember why I didn't go with that, seemed like there were some restrictions or something. We are doing a RT from Seattle, & chose the Golden because it goes to Glacier Bay. We have a 6:00 PM dinner reservation so that we can eat together every night. You can't go wrong with Princess.

Thanks so much again for your very helpful input. We are planning this for summer 2016 to celebrate a big birthday (mine) and our 30th wedding anniversary. Some of our kids go back to school in mid August, so July sounds good to me. So, going to Glacier Bay is where we want to go? I would like to get in the smaller areas if possible. Did Princess just upgrade you or did you have to keep checking with them? I think Princess is the way to go. How many passengers on your ship. We would also probably leave from Seattle, as 1 of the families live there, so 1 less plane ticket!

I have been to Alaska five times on different lines and you really can't go wrong. Since you have narrowed it down to Princess and Seattle, definitely pick the one that does Glacier Bay and get balcony cabins if they are in the budget.

I also was interested in the smaller ships for Alaska BUT the Princess Agents told me that for families with young children/teens, the larger ships are better because of KIDS CLUBS. Smaller ships don't have dedicated kids/teen centers unless there are 20 or more kids ages 3-17. The Golden has about 2600 passengers. I had to check continually to see if there was a a rate reduction or other incentives. I just checked with Princess every few weeks. I know your family will enjoy it and they will sing your praises FOREVER for taking them on a wonderful cruise.