claricanary

Making your decision on what city you want to depart from. Seattle goes out into the Pacific for a period of time before entering the Inside Passage. From Vancouver you enter the passage right away. The Pacific could be a little choppy, while Inside Passage is calm. Also the scenery is on both sides of the ship. HAL does a pretty good job with all you are looking for.

Great tip. Thank you. I wasn't looking at Vancouver. We definitely will now.

Welcome to CC!

 

The Alaska boards will have lots of information. You may also want to consider finding a TA who specializes in Alaska cruises. We can't recommend anyone, but you could do your research. Ask friends you know who might have cruised and go from there.

 

We went on HAL to Alaska in 2011 round trip out of Seattle. Our ship had both an indoor pool- actually a retractable roof- and an outdoor pool. My kids used both :) of course being from Wisconsin June in Alaska wasn't all that different than June in Wisconsin. Most of the lines do not move ships designed for warm weather only up to Alaska and so most should have some type of covered pool area.

 

Alaska is fabulous and I would do it again.

Thanks! What ship did you take?

I also want to welcome you to Cruise Critic.

 

These links will take you to the Cruise Line Boards.

 

Celebrity at: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=28

 

Holland America at: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=171

 

Princess at: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=197

 

Keith

Thank you! These were helpful and interesting!

Don't miss the Alaska port of call forum, it offer a wealth of information: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Thank you!

hi everyone,

My husband and I are thinking about trying an Alaska cruise for our anniversary this August. We are trying you decide between Princess, Holland, or Celebrity. We want to do an 7 day inside passage. Does anyone know which ships have indoor swimming pools? Free saunas? Best at handling food allergies? Thanks!