Advice Planning an Alaska Cruise with Three Middle School Boys

Looking for advice for an Alaska trip with my three boys who are all around middle school age (11-13). DH and I have cruised royal and we all love disney cruises. This would be my first trip without DH, he doesn't get as much vacation time as I do and doesn't have much interest in Alaska so we thought this would be fun for me and the boys.

First, I'm narrowing in on Princess, sounds like they have great kids programs. I'd probably prefer to do a round trip, is there a reason to choose either Seattle or Vancouver?

Also advice on excursions they may enjoy would be great. Other general advice for planning the overall trip would be great--flight recommendations, hotels by the port or other advice. I've never done Alaska, only the Bahamas and Caribbean.

I would not choose an Alaska cruise based on a "kids program". All the major lines have them. A lot of the trip is outside the ship, so you may want to focus on that?

You need to determine YOUR situation with choice of Seattle / Vancouver, each could be the choice to make. Yes you will hear there is more scenery out of Vancouver- BUT, I rarely see people take much advantage of it, a good portion of the scenery is at night on the north, and many people are tied up with there dinner on the south. Very FEW people, I ever note, who really invest significant time. Out of Seattle also does have a nice scenic sailing.

YOU need to determine what activities you are all interested in, there are hundreds of choices. Take a look at shore excursion lists, and narrow down your interests. there is no point in me "raving" about a "must do" when it isn't even an option for you.

I suggest- you first- do a through search and find out about the details on each Alaska inside port. They are each worth while, and very different from each other (unlike the Caribbean). Especially look at activities and determine what you would do in each port. Then- rank your interests - this goes a long way toward a cruise selection.

I find it pretty useless to focus on a cruise line and choose. But, everyone cruises for different reasons- figure out what you want out of your trip. :)

Look at dates, itinerary, price, scenic glacier sailing, activities. All can offer the path toward a great selection for you.

Princess is a great choice, and the best in my opinion for Alaska. We are doing the Vancouver to Anchorage 7 day next summer on the Star with three teens (older than your boys, but we did Alaska the first time when they were about that age). You will find plenty of shore excursions to choose from - some examples of what we have done in Alaska are sled dog summer camp, ziplining, and the Mt. Roberts tram. They will love the buffet for sure (we always get our money's worth when our now 17 year old son hits the buffet). If you can get a balcony cabin, it's always memorable to sit under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and watch the beauty of Alaska go by.

Princess does a great job with the children.

They also do Alaska very well.

When our children were of the ages of your children a couple of highlights for them were:

Salmon Fishing in Ketchikan.

Seeing Whale on a small vessel that would accommodate around 6 to 8 people in Juneau.

Keith

Honestly the only time either of our girls (13 k 9) went near the kids club was the youngest going during the Park Ranger presentation during Glacier Bay day. There is so much going on off the ship while in port, or just sailing by that they were always doing something. It is such a different experience than Caribbean cruises.

We did Seattle this past summer, downside is that it can be rougher seas outside Vancouver Island (so much so DW and DD9 were both seasick the first day). The upside however was that on the way back towards Victoria we had over an hour of humpback sightings from our balcony including a breach maybe 100 m off the side of the ship. That being said we are now planning on doing a North or South run which means Vancouver.

Looking for advice for an Alaska trip with my three boys who are all around middle school age (11-13). DH and I have cruised royal and we all love disney cruises. This would be my first trip without DH, he doesn't get as much vacation time as I do and doesn't have much interest in Alaska so we thought this would be fun for me and the boys.

 

First, I'm narrowing in on Princess, sounds like they have great kids programs. I'd probably prefer to do a round trip, is there a reason to choose either Seattle or Vancouver?

 

Also advice on excursions they may enjoy would be great. Other general advice for planning the overall trip would be great--flight recommendations, hotels by the port or other advice. I've never done Alaska, only the Bahamas and Caribbean.

If your kids go to AK and spend all their time inside in the kid's club, you are wasting your money taking them. One goes to AK for the glorious scenery and to spend it inside playing video games.

We took our granddaughter to AK when she was 10 and picked Princess because we felt as you have that it had a great kid's program. She took one look at the program at the kid's club and what was going on outside of the ship and she pronounced the kid's program as totally boring. She did this without any prompting from us.

She spent all of her time outside on deck. That is one smart kid in my opinion.

BTW - we did a one way southbound but we preceded the cruise with a 1 week DIY land trip. We even took her to Anan on the land trip to see the bears. That was the high point of her trip and it was a hoot when she called her Dad that evening and said "guess what Dad - I was within 1 yard of a bear". Not sure what her Dad thought. LOL!!

DON

I have cruised a lot with my kids at various ages, and I agree that with middle schoolers I would not worry much about the kids program on the ship. My kids rarely went there. Perhaps if younger and you need a babysitter, but with middle schoolers they will be engaged with Alaska off the ship.

My only bit of advice is we really enjoyed hiking at the top of the Mt. Roberts tram in Juneau. The hiking part is free, (tram very reasonably priced.) You can hike a long ways up if you want, great scenery and is an inexpensive but beautiful day for kids. They will be tired afterwards !