First time Alaska cruisers need help.

Our family of 4 have decided to do a round trip Alaska cruise from Seatle from June 15-22, 2014. However, there are 3 options available for us. Please help us decide. We are 47, 40, 13 (boy) and 10 (girl). We have never done Alaska before. We have done Norwegian Epic (Western Med), Norwegian Star (Baltic cruise) and Royal Caribbean (Mexico). We are pretty easy going. We have not had a bad vacation. We are pretty active and fit. We love to do things on the ship. My kids also would love to see magic shows and spend time in the kids club. Which cruise will be a better fit for us?

1. Holland America- Amsterdam

1 Seattle -- 04:00 PM

1 Puget Sound -- --

2 At Sea -- --

3 Tracy Arm 03:00 PM 08:00 PM

4 Juneau 07:00 AM 06:00 PM

5 Sitka 08:00 AM 04:00 PM

6 Ketchikan 07:00 AM 01:00 PM

7 Victoria 06:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle 07:00 AM --

Itinerary Map

2. Norwegian Pearl

1 Seattle -- 04:00 PM

2 At Sea -- --

3 Juneau 02:00 PM 10:00 PM

4 Skagway 07:00 AM 08:15 PM

5 Glacier Bay -- --

6 Ketchikan 06:00 AM 01:30 PM

7 Victoria 06:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle 08:00 AM --

3. Grand Princess 1 Seattle -- 04:00 PM

2 At Sea -- --

3 Ketchikan 06:30 AM 04:00 PM

4 Tracy Arm 06:00 AM 10:00 AM

4 Juneau 02:00 PM 10:00 PM

5 Skagway 06:00 AM 05:00 PM

6 At Sea -- --

7 Victoria 07:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle 07:00 AM --

Thanks.

I think I would take the Grand Princess...just my opinion.

In Alaska the ship is less important than on other cruises. We spent most of our time ashore on excursions, walking and shopping. The most important thing is the itinerary.

Since you have tweens and say you are fit--that makes me think you like active things to do. i.e. hiking, kayaking, etc I think you need to decide what you want to see and do in AK and find the itinerary that will let you do those things. Once you decide what you want to do other CC members can tell you the best places to do those things and what some of the best companies are to do them.

PS--

Glacier Bay is usually listed as a must see in Alaska. [we saw Hubbard Glacier--so I can not give you first hand information on that]

Have fun doing your research for your cruise--it is half of the fun. :)

Several things to consider:

1) Glacier Bay vs Tracy Arm. I prefer Glacier Bay, but Tracy Arm in nice too. If you do choose Tracy Arm, consider whether you prefer the Grand's early morning sailing or the Amsterdam's late afternoon sailing.

2) Skagway vs Sitka. Check excursions in both ports and see which you prefer. I love Skagway, but one of these years I'm going to take a HAL cruise just so I can get to Sitka.

3) Port times for Juneau. HAL has 11 hours there, whereas the others only have 8 hours. Do you want to do multiple things here where a longer port time would be better?

4) Port times for Ketchikan. Here Grand is the winner, with 9.5 hours. The others only have 6-7 hours. Personally, I'm considering the Grand this year for the longer Ketchikan port time.

Do some research on these things and see if they make a difference to you, and that should help with your decision.

You are familiar with Norwegian and if the kids like that cruise line it would be a good choice. It goes to Glacier Bay and Skagway. Tracy Arm may not be accessible in June. Glacier Bay will be and is an all day viewing adventure and will be an educational experience.

Skagway would be fun for the children if you want to hike or take an excursion. Do not take the train both ways if you decide to do the White Pass and Yukon railroad. You could take the bus up and train down or just rent a car and drive up into the Yukon. Get Murray's Guide (Google it) if you decide to drive. It costs $5.00 and is worth every penny. You can download it.

Sitka is small and very nice but probably more interesting for adults. They do have good excursions for whale and otter watching out of Sitka. It's one of the most beautiful places in Alaska to sail into.

Both Glacier Bay and Skagway are national parks so you have the advantage of park rangers and educational materials put out by the park service.

I suggest you ALL, sit down and determine, what your port times are going to be occupied with? This is what cruising Alaska is all about- for many people. I am always one to promote taking advantage of being there. :)

All the cruise ships, have kids activities/clubs. Should also be one magic show, maybe.

I suggest you figure out, what ports and glacier may be your preference? With Tracy Arm, it is far superior to take the add on ship excursion.

You may want to consider heading to your library and taking out Alaska Ports of Call books, and Alaska By Cruiseship.

Thank you so much for your inputs. I am heading to my public library for more reading :)

I would vote for the trip that includes Glacier Bay. It is a National Park for a reason.

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff386/mmkbx75/IMG_7006.jpg

Unless you have strong opinions on the line, no brainer take the the one with Glacer Bay! There is a reason one is the National Park and priced higher than the other scenic sailings. The port times are usually slightly staggered for the different cruises, but in my planning never found that that precluded doing what I wanted to do. But do Tracy Arm you don't get Glacer Bay, and sorry Tracy Arm ain't no National Park, still nice but no comparsion.

With any Alaskan cruise, the major things you need to consider are not the ship but -

1) the itinerary

2)the times in port

3) when you get into port and when you leave.

DON

While the library books are fine - here is a website that takes a deeper look at the ports in AK (and others) http://www.cruiseportinsider.com

We were on the Pearl in 2012 on our third trip to AK (first time to Glacier Bay) and had a wonderful trip. I agree that GB is something to be seen - But then so is Tracy Arm.

Really only you can make a decision that your family can live with.

One thing I observed on the Pearl was that we were always on time or early into every port - we also left as soon as everybody was back on board after the posted time. We also caught and passed a HAL ship that left Ketchikan earlier than we did and then we passed a Princess ship just prior to Victoria

We were the first ship in - followed by the Princess and then a HAL ship that was over 1hr late. We also heard HAL people complaining about being late into ports all week (this was in Ketchikan). I am not saying this is an every trip occurrence - but I did notice that HAL has some of the slowest ships - and the run from Ketchikan to Victoria and maintain time required us to run at near top speed the majority of the time.

On the way up we averaged around 15kns.