Daily activities and amenities comparison

 

Maybe we'd be better off flying to Juneau and using the Alaskan Marine Highway as our transportation. THAT sounds so cool and maybe more our speed.

You can't drive from Juneau. It's accessible only by air or sea.

You can't drive from Juneau. It's accessible only by air or sea.

Alaska Marine Highway is the ferry system. It cover's Juneau and the other areas in the Southeast that you can't get to by car.

We are in our mid-60's but have been cruising since 1984. For me there is no better vacation than a cruise (but that is just me). As to best cruise line, I think it is a very personal preference. These lines have a personality and a target group they are catering to. In Alaska, the differences aren't as distinctive because all passengers tend to be more mature than a ship going to the Bahamas. You just won't see a large number of small kids on Alaskan cruises. We have sailed all of these lines and prefer HAL and Princess. They seem to have the best service and food. For me, being pampered and truly relaxing is awesome. (It takes a few days to really relax and get into the cruise mode)

 

Carnival caters to the youngest group (more pool activities, heavier drinking, lots of late night partying). Entertainment tends to be geared to that group (games by the pool, very loud music, etc.)

 

NCL and Princess fall more in the middle age wise. NCL has no formal night requirements and that attracts a lot of people. NCL and Carnival tend to be a little less expensive.

 

HAL caters to the oldest (things are pretty quiet by midnight). Some things I really enjoy on HAL are the movie theater and the Music Walk (a deck that offers a jazz club, a Lincoln Center classical music venue, a piano bar and their main entertainment theater which presents either a musical presentation with house singers and dancers or individual entertainers ..singers, magicians, comedians, etc....that are brought on board in the various ports.) Also, there is a large common area on the front of the ship called the Crows Nest (on most HAL ships) that has panoramic views with lots of comfy furniture to enjoy the beautiful Alaskan scenery coupled with a library, board game selections and large jigsaw puzzle tables where passengers stop by, work a few pieces in and move on, a Starbucks type coffee shop, a dance floor, a bar, etc. There is something going on there all of the time. My husband knows he can find me there most of the time.

 

Princess has great floorplans for their cabins (but there is only so much you can do with that small space). They also provide self-service laundry rooms that allow you to cut down on the amount of luggage you drag around. (Great on long cruises..not so necessary on 7-day or less) Some of their newer ships are really beautiful. Food, service and entertainment (IMHO) are right up there with HAL. They have a a great pizza venue that has no upcharge. Princess has Movies Under the Stars...great in the Bahamas...a little chilly in Alaska. They also have a recording studio where they record some shows for in-cabin tv. We have attended some recordings there that we really enjoyed.

 

A little surprise: a lot of the ships in Alaska have a retractable roof over the main pool. On a sunny sea day, they will close the roof and your serious sun worshipers will show up for serious pool and hot tub time.

 

When we took our first cruise, we told the travel agents we wanted as many ports as we could get in a 7-day cruise. His response was, "That's what everyone says on their first cruise. The next year they come back requesting more days at sea." He recommended no more that 3 ports for a 7-day cruise. He was so correct. When we came off that first ship, we agreed we could that the same cruise the next year and never leave the ship. ( A little extreme maybe) We are leaving Thursday for an 11-day Panama Canal cruise. We were just there in January on a different ship and have been to every port at some point in time. I may get off the ship, I may not but I will have a wonderful, relaxing time and meet a lot of interesting people.

 

If you have time, look at a cruise tour on Princess or HAL. It will mean flying one direction. They have domed trains to travel to and/or from their lodges and you will likely enjoy the time on land. We did this on our first Alaskan cruise. It was a great mix and you see a lot more of the coastline on a one-direction cruise.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

Oh we'll have to look into a cruise tour on HAL! We are in our mid 40's and did a 7 day Central America tour with them last Christmas. They set the bar pretty high for us for all the same reasons you seemed to love it! We loved the Oosterdam and found we spent most evenings at the Casino and piano bar. DH enjoys gambling and I don't, but fell in love with the kids at the piano bar, so it was a win-win for us. The food was great, room service spectacular and just an over all wonderful experience for us! We aren't huge partiers, and liked that we didn't miss anything when we fell into our beds around 11pm. We found there was enough to do, but not overwhelming and encouraged the downtime we so desperately craved. We spent a lot of time on our balcony just soaking up the views. Alaska is high on our list, as is a trans Atlantic relocation cruise!

We are in our mid-60's but have been cruising since 1984. For me there is no better vacation than a cruise (but that is just me). As to best cruise line, I think it is a very personal preference. These lines have a personality and a target group they are catering to. In Alaska, the differences aren't as distinctive because all passengers tend to be more mature than a ship going to the Bahamas. You just won't see a large number of small kids on Alaskan cruises. We have sailed all of these lines and prefer HAL and Princess. They seem to have the best service and food. For me, being pampered and truly relaxing is awesome. (It takes a few days to really relax and get into the cruise mode)

 

Carnival caters to the youngest group (more pool activities, heavier drinking, lots of late night partying). Entertainment tends to be geared to that group (games by the pool, very loud music, etc.)

 

NCL and Princess fall more in the middle age wise. NCL has no formal night requirements and that attracts a lot of people. NCL and Carnival tend to be a little less expensive.

 

HAL caters to the oldest (things are pretty quiet by midnight). Some things I really enjoy on HAL are the movie theater and the Music Walk (a deck that offers a jazz club, a Lincoln Center classical music venue, a piano bar and their main entertainment theater which presents either a musical presentation with house singers and dancers or individual entertainers ..singers, magicians, comedians, etc....that are brought on board in the various ports.) Also, there is a large common area on the front of the ship called the Crows Nest (on most HAL ships) that has panoramic views with lots of comfy furniture to enjoy the beautiful Alaskan scenery coupled with a library, board game selections and large jigsaw puzzle tables where passengers stop by, work a few pieces in and move on, a Starbucks type coffee shop, a dance floor, a bar, etc. There is something going on there all of the time. My husband knows he can find me there most of the time.

 

Princess has great floorplans for their cabins (but there is only so much you can do with that small space). They also provide self-service laundry rooms that allow you to cut down on the amount of luggage you drag around. (Great on long cruises..not so necessary on 7-day or less) Some of their newer ships are really beautiful. Food, service and entertainment (IMHO) are right up there with HAL. They have a a great pizza venue that has no upcharge. Princess has Movies Under the Stars...great in the Bahamas...a little chilly in Alaska. They also have a recording studio where they record some shows for in-cabin tv. We have attended some recordings there that we really enjoyed.

 

A little surprise: a lot of the ships in Alaska have a retractable roof over the main pool. On a sunny sea day, they will close the roof and your serious sun worshipers will show up for serious pool and hot tub time.

 

When we took our first cruise, we told the travel agents we wanted as many ports as we could get in a 7-day cruise. His response was, "That's what everyone says on their first cruise. The next year they come back requesting more days at sea." He recommended no more that 3 ports for a 7-day cruise. He was so correct. When we came off that first ship, we agreed we could that the same cruise the next year and never leave the ship. ( A little extreme maybe) We are leaving Thursday for an 11-day Panama Canal cruise. We were just there in January on a different ship and have been to every port at some point in time. I may get off the ship, I may not but I will have a wonderful, relaxing time and meet a lot of interesting people.

 

If you have time, look at a cruise tour on Princess or HAL. It will mean flying one direction. They have domed trains to travel to and/or from their lodges and you will likely enjoy the time on land. We did this on our first Alaskan cruise. It was a great mix and you see a lot more of the coastline on a one-direction cruise.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

We LOVED the cruise to Panama Canal on Princesswe did! Really beautiful and we loved the history. I was afraid the longer cruise, 10 days, would be too much, we've only donw week long cruises until now, but it was fine.

Hope you enjoy(ed) yours!