Voyage of the Glaciers

Hi all, we are during first time Alaska on Voyage of the Glaciers need info whether we should take Southbound or Northbound. Thanks to all Alaskan veterans for all info.

Personally we chose northbound so that we could spend a few days interior at the end of our trip. I don’t know that there’s a “right or wrong.”

You will get a lot of responses saying they prefer southbound. I am one of them. :D

If you are also doing a land portion (highly recommended), many argue it's nice to do that first and have the more relaxing cruise second.

Also, you get the longer flight over with first.

Whatever you decide, you will love Alaska!!

Thanks for the quickie response. We are taking Alaska because we love the Royal 2019 but date options are limited. We signed for Northbound bur now looking at b2b South, per your recommends,unfortunately Sip and Sail not drinkers and Landmark has ended..

Thanks for the quickie response. We are taking Alaska because we love the Royal 2019 but date options are limited. We signed for Northbound bur now looking at b2b South, per your recommends,unfortunately Sip and Sail not drinkers and Landmark has ended..

Book it now and keep watching for a promotion that you like better. You can usually convert your beverage package to some amount of OBC, but it isn't near the cost of the PBP.

I chose northbound because I haven't been to Icy Point, Skagway, or College Fjord, and because I live a bus ride away from Vancouver so there's less stress and risk of missing the ship with embarkation that way. Having never sailed the Inside Passage, it seems I'd see more of it starting out in Vancouver, whereas on the return trip it seems I'd be passing most of it at night (although I could be mistaken). Finally, I like sailing out of Vancouver and going under the bridge with people stopping to wave--I'm not sure how interesting the sailing out of Whittier at 8:30 at night would be.

Negatives of northbound would be lack of daytime flights going back to Seattle--most tend to leave after midnight (although I found a $100 flight to Seattle on Jetblue that will make that more tolerable), and the Vancouver cruise terminal can be a zoo if there are multiple ships leaving the same day, whereas Whittier serves just one Princess ship a day, from what I understand. Then the Northbound arrives at midnight and doesn't disembark until the next morning, which would feel a little weird.

You will get a lot of responses saying they prefer southbound. I am one of them. :D

 

If you are also doing a land portion (highly recommended), many argue it's nice to do that first and have the more relaxing cruise second.

 

Also, you get the longer flight over with first.

 

Whatever you decide, you will love Alaska!!

We chose southbound for the same reasons and were very happy to have done so.

We did the southbound and had a great time. It worked with DH's school schedule was the primary reason we booked that particular cruise tour. We had five nights in Alaska before the cruise--two in Fairbanks, one at Denali, one at the Mount McKinley Lodge, and one in Anchorage. If I had to do it over, I'd look for a cruise tour that had two days at Denali.

I honestly don't know that you can make a mistake. Southbound fit into our schedule and we did not do the land portion. We did fly all the way to Anchorage on Friday evening before a Saturday departure. The cruise is an incredible experience, even if you only have a week.

Next time, probably in retirement, we will reverse the trip and then tour inland Alaska on our own for a week or two.

I just came off a northbound/southbound "doubleheader" (two different ships with 3 days on my own in Anchorage in between).

My observation was that the northbound had better port times, and College Fjord was a lot more interesting than Hubbard Glacier.

Certainly your plans before and after will influence which port you start at, and at which you end. While most others will say the opposite I would try cruising first than time on land before the flight home, rather than the reverse which results in heading straight from ship to plane at the end. Should I ever return to Alaska a few days at leisure in Anchorage will be essential, and if not doing a double-cruise would rather do so at the end. Just my preference based on previous experience.

We did northbound and we're glad we did so. The reason is that the scenery gets better and better as you go. We look back at the photos we took from our balcony early in the trip, and we thought it was great scenery then. But then compare that to what we saw on the Glacier Bay and College Fjord days, and well, there's no comparison really. I guess what I'm saying is that we would have found it somewhat of a letdown to start off with a bang and then get less interesting from there on out.

You really can't go wrong either way.

Southbound: You can tour inland first and relax on the ship. The port stop in Ketchikan is longer with later hours. The last day on the inside passage is one of my favorite. Going NB, it's mostly overnight. The LONG flight is out of the way when it doesn't bother you as much. Much easier to board in Whittier and more options for transportation to the port than disembarking there.

Northbound: Scenery is better as you go along. I much prefer College Fjord over Hubbard Glacier (but I'm trying Hubbard again, maybe 3X a charm for that route?). Sailaway is preferred from Vancouver. Pre-cruise time in Vancouver is pretty cool too. When I go SB, we end up going straight to the airport which always makes me sad.

Pros and Cons, but none that would sway me 100% to one route or the other. I like them both equally. To me, it does depend if we're going inland or not. And then next is pricing, ship, dates and airfare.