Bem123

Thank you BQ and cruisin2018! My vacation will be 10 days from from Saturday to Tuesday. I think I will do a Northbound cruise with NCL from Monday to Monday (hope I made the right choice). That will leave me with only 1 day in mainland Alaska (cruise docks at 7 AM Monday, my flight leaves from Anchorage 5.40 AM Tuesday).

I'll definitely do Kenai Fjord tour and will take the train to Anchorage afterward on Monday evening. Thanks for the suggestion! I wish the cruise leaves sooner so that I have more time in mainland Alaska rather than in Vancouver (I think 3 days in Vancouver is a bit much). Really want to explore Denali National Park too but like BQ said, I have to compromise on something.

Feeling pumped about this cruise already! Thank you guys :)

Thank you BQ. I appreciate your advice. I will start looking into the shore excursions on each port then.

Unfortunately, I won't have time for the mainland touring. I will have only 1 day before and after the cruise. I figure I can do something in Vancouver during that one day but it will probably be tough at Seward since I have to spare some time to travel to Anchorage for my return flight.

Any comments on the ship herself? I was leaning toward Norwegian Sun regarding the ship and cabin but Princess' Alaska program is a bit more interesting so, I'm having that second thought again. Like you said, I'll have to compromise on something.

Hi fellow cruisers,

Please help me with your expert opinion here. I'm having a really hard time deciding between which cruise line to choose for my 1st time Alaska cruise with my wife. We are in our early 30s with no kids. We plan to go in June 2016.

We have cruised with RCCL on Liberty of the Sea and Allure of the Sea to the western caribbean and Bahamas before and we loved it. We particularly enjoyed their diverse on board activities. However, we don't really like their itinerary on Alaska route and we would like to explore other cruise line as well.

I wanted to see both Glacier bay and hubbard glacier and it seems that there are only 2 cruises that offer that specific itinerary - Norwegian and Princess.

I have narrowed it down to either Star Princess/Coral Princess (Whittier, Yakutat Bay, Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, Vancouver) or Norwegian Sun (Vancouver, Cruise Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier, Seward)

Has anyone ever been to both ship or on these routes? Any recommendation would be highly appreciated.

My mom cruised with HAL 2 years ago on Ms Nieuw Amsterdam and she really loved it but it skips Hubbard glacier (Vancouver, Cruise Inside Passage, Tracy Arm, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Cruise Inside Passage, Vancouver). Plus to my understanding, it is more for an older crowd? However, It seems like a very nice ship with the largest suite among the 3 (which is a big plus for my wife), so I don't want to exclude it just yet. What do you guys think?

Thank you very much:)