jgs2003

Thanks, all. I spent a lot of time perusing the deck plans and the boards last night, and came to the conclusion that the Coral Princess just won't work for us. I did find those adjoining cabins, but sadly they only sleep two. Perfect for a family of four, but not five. We're all tall in my family (including the kids), and the thought of squeezing five into a room meant for three isn't appealing to me, especially when this is supposed to be a special (not to mention expensive) trip.

Pacific Princess doesn't look like a good fit for us, either...we're hoping to convince at least one other family to travel with us, so I'm really looking for a ship that will be good for kids, and Pacific looks like its small size really caters to those traveling without kids. (I also ruled out HAL because it caters more to an older crowd,)

RCCL and Celebrity both have lots of adjoining cabin options, so it looks like we'll go with one of those. Radiance of the Seas does a one-way Vancouver-Alaska that might be a good option for us.

It's too bad, really, since I've heard how terrific Glacier Bay is, and I have preferred Princess over Carnival and NCL (my past cruise experiences) but at the end of the day we need to be comfortable and have rooms that meet our needs.

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Hi again,

I had forgotten that there was another Princess itinerary on my list: Crown Princess r/t Seattle with Glacier Bay. They offer a family suite that could fit all of us. Has anyone been on the Crown? I sailed its sister ship, the Ruby, in 2011 in the Caribbean and liked it fine.

Thanks!

Thanks all! As karatemom said. I have to wear my mom hat with planning this trip, so even though I would prefer to be on Princess for the itinerary, it may make more sense in the end logistics-wise to go with anther line that has more room options for families. I'll keep looking at the deck plans for the Coral Princess...heck, it might make sense in the end to just splurge for a suite, assuming they can accommodate five. Thanks again!

Thanks, everyone!! I was thinking we could do two balcony rooms and connect via the balconies (I wouldn't feel comfortable having the kids across the hall from us---too young) but it looks like we'd have to do two minisuites for that to work.

Tiffany's mom, thanks for the tip about the Celebrity. I saw the FV suites on the deckplans but they weren't available, so I assumed that they were already sold. I guess that could still be true, but it's great to hear that it might just be a case of them being held for calls. I'll definitely look into it. I've really enjoyed Princess, but I'm up for trying another line (I've also cruised on on Carnival and NCL).

Hi,

I'm looking to take an Alaskan cruise with my husband and three children in August of 2015. The kids will be 8, 4 and 4 (yes, twins). The two options that look to be the best fit for us in terms of itinerary and price are the Coral Princess and the Celebrity Solstice. I've cruised Princess 2x before but have never sailed on Celebrity.

My question is: is there a reasonable way for us to accommodate our family without booking an expensive suite? I see that there are minisuites that accommodate four---I'm wondering if the sofa bed would be big enough for both of my 4 y.o.s to fit on it (and if Princess would even let us book 5 people in a room). The other option would be to have to rooms that connect via the balcony, but that doesn't seem like a good option with such young kids (especially since this will be for our anniversary, and I don't want to spend the week not in the same room as my husband!).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jody