7 night versus 12

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

Mrs Gut was ready (not longing) for home after 34 days, I wasn't.

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

I'm firmly in the "longer is better" camp. A 7 night cruise is about the shortest I want to do. Typically we cruise 10-14 night cruises, but have done 21-30 nights.

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

We prefer longer cruises. Often, we do back-to-backs with a 7 day cruise. Our longest cruise was 42 days (4 back to backs) from Seward, Alaska to Sydney, Australia via Vancouver and Hawaii.

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

Our first couple of cruises were 6 or 7 nights; but after a dozen cruises we now find 7 nights way too short.

While we would certainly recommend a 12N over a 7N, you also need to ask yourselves if the itinerary of the Pacific Coast addition to the Alaskan cruise is one that interests you. If so, then go for it; if not, then perhaps a 12N to 14N cruise in a different region of the world might be a better choice.

And while I understand your desire to repeat a wonderful experience, you might find the diversity and surprises of a completely different itinerary adding to your enjoyment.

I love cruising and I have particularly enjoyed cruises of 12 days. Longer cruises do tend to attract a slightly older passenger base.

If you've already done one Alaskan seven-day cruise that you enjoyed why not do another Alaskan cruise with a slightly different itinerary. If your last one was round trip from Seattle then do one from either Vancouver to the Anchorage area or vice versa northbound or southbound. Or better yet if you like the idea of a longer cruise why not do back-to-back Vancouver northbound and then stay on the ship with the seven-day southbound. That would be 14 days and would be terrific.

10 to 21 days seems the best - I did one 4 day, and it was barely enough to get the feel of the ship. 7 day itineraries seem pretty limited , while more than three weeks starts to get stale - while making covering things at home more of a hassle.

We did a 14 day Alaska cruise on Holland America in August. Looking at the seven day itineraries it seems like they're over as soon as they begin.

Wow, thank you so much for replying to my post. You have all given us things to think about and some ideas we had not considered. When the last cruise ended we felt like we had a super time, and while we knew we had to go home, we also,felt sadness at the end of a fantastic week. I tend to think the extra days would be wonderful and will be doing some research on itineraries this week. Thank you again.

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

The problem w the 12 day cruise is that is does not give you any more time in AK. You just waste time cruising up and then down the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. The whole point of an AK cruise is to get to AK as quickly as possible and not waste time with sea days getting there.

DON

The 14-day HAL itinerary we booked was the "Great Alaskan Explorer," a round-trip out of Seattle. In 2018 it will run on ms Zaandam.

14-DAY GREAT ALASKAN EXPLORER

Haha, Underwatr typed faster than me!

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HAL's Great Alaskan Explorer is 14 days and goes all the way to Anchorage (round trip out of Seattle). The ports are Ketchikan, [Tracy Arm cruising,] Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak, [Hubbard Glacier cruising,] Sitka, and Victoria. In addition to the glacier cruising days, there are 3 sea days spread out through the itinerary. There is so much to see and do that the sea days are a relief!

So five new-to-you ports and two new glacier areas (unless you took excursion to Tracy Arm or the Ruby Princess got closer to it than either of our two previous AK cruises did), and only two repeats other than Seattle itself.

We took six members of my family on HAL's 7-day Inside Passage to Glacier Bay (same ports as you except no Victoria because it left from Vancouver RT). They loved every bit of it including the ship! So we're taking them plus two more on the Explorer departing 13 August 2018. Not a one of them hesitated at the fourteen days.

If you book now (through October and I think half of November), HAL has the Explore4 promotional on, where you get the Signature Beverage Package (alcoholic AND non), free dinner in the upcharge steak-and-seafood restaurant, reduced deposits (usually HALF), and reduced 3rd/4th passenger in same cabin. #5 is onboard credit if you book a suite. The cost for our Oceanview cabins only went up $100pp, but you can request pricing with and without the promotional to compare. Pop over to the HAL board with any questions!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

When we first started to cruise we did 7 day cruises. We enjoyed them but then one time we made the leap to a 12 day. It was magical.

We found that on a seven day cruise by the time we were fully relaxed it was time to start to think about packing. On a 12 day cruise by the time we were relaxed we had many days to go.

Many 12 days cruises will have several port stops but likely include some days at sea.

I highly recommend it.

We have done several Alaska sailings and the first two were seven day so we hit the typical ports but on the 12 day cruise the list was expanded to additional ports and ones that are less visited compared to the 7 day cruise.

Keith

For us -- the longer the cruise -- the better.

One time we did a 7 day cruise -- never again. All the hassle of getting there and back home was not worth it.

There are lots of different Alaskan cruises.

One we like -- HAL's 14 day cruise which is mentioned above.

When we did Alaska it was on a 10-night roundtrip from San Francisco. Perfect. But we love sea days; they were a good start and end to the trip.

I find that anything over 8 days is too much...I get so tired of the food...and the same thing day after day.....of course, if you're in ports where there is a lot to interest you, then you might enjoy it. After all, Alaska is HUGE with lots to see!

We recently returned from a 7-day Alaska cruise, my third cruise and my husband's first. We both loved the trip and are ready to go back. One of the cruises we are considering is a 12-day to Alaska out of Los Angeles and the second is the same 7-day to Alaska we did this year. We are not sure about the jump from 7 to 12 days and are wondering what any of you who have done this think about the extra time. Did you love it as much as a shorter cruise, or were you longing for home on day 9? Would appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

Our AK cruise was HAL's 14 day cruise and was fantastic since more days meant we could visit more ports.

But we're also folks who after a 33 day b2b2 cruise wished we'd put the possible additional 7 days onto the itinerary.

We only did 7 day cruises at first, but now we will only do that short of a cruise for some special circumstance, like taking grandkids who can't miss much school of something.

It's just not worth it to do all that flying and other hassle for 7 nights to us any more; love the longer itineraries--17 nights is the longest we have done, but I am sure we will do longer cruises eventually.

Do remember that longer cruises have an older demographic--often really older--and usually quite a few sea days, which is a bonus to us, as we like sea days.

We are doing a 7 night Alaskan cruise from Vancouver on Sept 16th with HAL but realized it was a long way to travel to pick up the ship for just 7 nights. Our last cruise was a full transit Panama for 16 nights so we have been spoiled. We decided to supplement this trip with a back to back down to Hawaii for another 15 nights from Vancouver with Princess. The biggest problem we have is packing for both climates.

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Many people who learn that they love cruising seem to adapt their expectations. When we started cruising we knew that we liked it. On the other hand, when we reached that final day 7 we were, in fact, ready for our adventure to end. After, two 7-day Caribbean cruises, one 7-day Alaska cruise and one 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise, Mrs. XBGuy booked us on a 15-day Western South America/Trans-canal cruise.

15 DAYS!!!!!!! What am I going to do after day 7 when I'm tired of being on the ship?

No es una problema. It was awesome.

In just a few days we will be heading off on a 10-day Alaska cruise. Next April we will be on that 12-day itinerary out of Los Angeles that the OP mentioned. The 14-day HAL cruise out of Seattle sounds terrific to me.

I would like to rebut a few of the comments made by various posters, above. Cruising is a very customizable experience and no two people experience any cruise the same way. I do not disagree that their opinions are correct for them, but I don't want casual readers, especially, those new to cruising or those considering a cruise to think that "it's on the Cruise Critic internet board, so it must be true."

To the OP, yes, the 12-day itinerary will have more sea days. Sea days are not a waste. Some of us just like to be at sea and on board the ship. The only way for you to learn how you feel about it is to try it. If you find you don't enjoy sea days, then it doesn't matter what I think and you have learned something about yourself. If you find that you do enjoy sea days, then, same thing, you have learned something about yourself. After you've done it once, then you can make future cruise decision based on the opinion that is of maximum importance--yours.

I disagree that there is any one "reason" to cruise to Alaska--or, really, to cruise anywhere. Again, each cruiser gets to make his/her own judgement. To me, for example, the itinerary is really not that important. If I stop at this Alaska town instead of that Alaska town, I'm OK with that. If I visit this bay instead of that fjord, I'm OK with that. If you want to try a new itinerary to expand your experience, then go for it, but don't let anybody tell you there is a right or wrong reason for you to make any of your decisions. Above all, resist FOMO.

To a very large extent, I agree with the comment made above that you can get tired of the food on the ship. It's happened to me on 7-day cruises. If it doesn't happen to you, then that is great. My solution is to have a meal or two on on-shore. I can, pretty much, assure you that when we visit Juneau on the two cruises we have booked in the next seven months we will be having two very robust lunches at Tracy's Crab Shack.

How do you feel about sea days? If you are looking at the same Princess Cruise that I found, the extra 5 days are all sea days. The ports are all the same as one of their Seattle round trips

With limited vacation days, I haven't been interested in cruises with that many sea day.

I'll be retiring next year & plan to take a 15 day crossing cruise followed by 15 day Seward to Vancouver to celebrate and unwind. I'll see what I've been missing with a type A vacation style.

I hope I'll be happy with it as I won't have much choice once we start across the Pacific. ☺️

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For Alaska, I'd recommend spending the extra days in the state before or after a one-way cruise to or from Vancouver. We flew to Fairbanks and had five nights on a cruise tour before getting on the ship on our last trip to Alaska. It was wonderful. We were on a Princess cruise tour--mainly because I found a great last-minute price. There's lots of info on the Alaska board for those who'd rather plan the land portion on their own.

We just took our first 12-day cruise last month--around the British isles. It was a great cruise, but very port intensive. It was a great way to see a lot--and give us ideas of where we'd like to go back on our own for a land trip.

......You just waste time cruising up and then down the coast of California, Oregon and Washington......

 

DON

What?? Waste time cruising? LOL! 🤣😁

Your ship, is your destination. The rest of the trip is the distraction.

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The 14-day HAL itinerary we booked was the "Great Alaskan Explorer," a round-trip out of Seattle. In 2018 it will run on ms Zaandam.

 

14-DAY GREAT ALASKAN EXPLORER

Hey, we are booked for that itinerary - the May 21 sailing. It will be our first 'long' cruise.