Help please! Alaska with 6 & 2 year-old boys... Glacier bay?!

Hello! In 2019, my husband will celebrate his 40th birthday and we would like to go on an Alaska cruise for that special occasion. We want to go as a family with our two sons (2 and 6 at the time of travel). I'm a teacher, so I can only travel during the summer holiday.

We plan to do a round-trip cruise (flights to Anchorage from Montréal seem too complicated with young kids .... and expensive) from Vancouver (maybe Seattle).

We will book a balcony (for the naps, earlier bedtime for the boys and sights).

We first planned to go with Disney, but their prices are so high and we want to do some excursions.

The inside passage seem very interesting and I keep reading that Glacier Bay National Park is a must.

My sons's first language is French. My oldest understands English, but he is not bilingual, so I'm not sure he would like to be dropped-off at a kids club if I can't stay with him or at least stay nearby. Therefore, the kids club is not a top priority, but it would be nice to be able to enjoy the installations with them.

For now, it seems that only HAL have that combination: Vancouver - inside passage - Glacier bay during the summer months. Am I mistaken? Should I consider an other option in your opinion? Hubbard Glacier?

We are avid travellers (my youngest had a plane ticket with his name on it before he was born), but it will only be our second cruise, the first one was with Royal Caribbean.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and choose Glacier Bay from the ports of call list. It will tell you who is calling there and their itineraries. It looks like Ruby Princess and NCL Pearl (as well as HAL from Vancouver) are doing round trip from Seattle with Glacier Bay included. EM

The counselors in the kids clubs are well versed in other languages...and young kids seem to get along well without language getting in the way...it's pretty amazing. You will not be allowed to stay with your child, for the protection of the other kids. Give it a try...you might be surprised!

For a two year old, you would need a RCI ship with Nursery. I would check out Ovation - she will be doing round trips out of Seattle. Much more for kids to do than HAL - but, pretty sure that RCI does not do Glacier Bay.

I would check with the other cruise lines to see which ones accommodate younger children in the kids club too.

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Cunard and carnival allow 2 year olds in their kids club. Urseries for under 3 are available on Disney, some rc ships and the Norwegian escape.

Your older son will probably be fine - there were lots of kids whose first language wasn’t English in the kids club on our Baltic cruise, and they all had a blast.

Alaska is great and your kids will have a wonderful time.

Go to www.cruisetimetables.com and choose Glacier Bay from the ports of call list. It will tell you who is calling there and their itineraries. It looks like Ruby Princess and NCL Pearl (as well as HAL from Vancouver) are doing round trip from Seattle with Glacier Bay included. EM

Thank you for the site!

For what it is worth, we passed on Glacier Bay and went with Tracy Arm. My philosophy is, as an avid traveler, I can always go back to Alaska and it was more important to get there and do things than tailor around a specific must see. After all, we were traveling Memorial Day week and there is no guarantee that Glacier Bay would be fully accessible then. And it turned out we could only go so far in Tracy Arm, so likely a good call.

We were on Princess and very pleased with the kids clubs. I wouldn't worry about any language barrier - much of the staff is bilingual and play is play whether you speak French, English or Swahili.

By going with Princess on this route we had plenty of funds to book a private whale watch with Harv and Marv which was a highlight. For Ketchican we rode the bus to Totem Bight and Potlatch and then walked the town. Kids really enjoyed it. And we also had a great time in Skagway renting a car and going to Carcross Desert an on to Emerald Lake, stopping for lunch and to pan for gold and play with sled puppies.

We went on an Alaska Cruise on NCL when my kids were 2 and 5.5, 7 years ago. One thing that was good for them was the Skagway train trip. We also looked around Juneau and went to a salmon fishery that they really liked.

The NCL ship (star) wasn’t great for kids and they wouldn’t stay at the kids area....so it was a bit hard to keep them busy on the ship. But I think other ships would be better for that age.