If you can't decide on seattle or vancouver

[caripoo]

Hopefully all will consider that this is my opinion....so here goes. This is our third trip to Alaska..First was on RC RT from Vancouver....Second was 14 day Princess which included Fairbanks, Denali, the train and Anchorage...Just last week we left on the Celebrity Infinity from Seattle..

 

For the last 9 months since we booked this trip (we had 6 others who had never cruised or been to Alaska with us) I had been reading MANY negative reviews of cruises that left out of Seattle. Mostly regarding the rough seas from Seattle, not as pretty cruising, no Hubbard glacier, no glacier bay. Various other bad reviews.

 

In our past trips we have seen and been to College Fjord, Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier,and while I admit these are areas that are MUST sees, our trip to Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glaciers were STUNNING, we went right to the glacier...The Fjords were gorgeous, we had superb weather!!!

 

Alot of comments come from people who have not done this trip which I think is interesting.

 

The couples that we brought ALL loved their first trip..Obviously I hope they will all go back and explore another area, also understand that not everyone will have an opportunity to visit Alaska again.

 

The ports are essentially the same for most of the trips, we have now been to these ports 3 times and found different things to do each time.

 

I HOPE everyone can see Alaska, but don't disregard leaving from Seattle, it is a wonderful trip, a beautiful city...we had 3 clear sunny days there.

 

If it werent for the other 3 couples preffering to leave from Seattle, I would definetly have suggested Vancouver, but the airfare was REALLY double, so if you don't want to fly to Anchorage or Vancouver, the Seattle trips are wonderful.......

 

LOVING ALASKA!!!:p:p

[Putterdude]

Thank you for your post and I think that you have been very objective in reviewing the various itineraries. I am the first to admit that coming to Vancouver is more expensive then Seattle however the trade offs are the calmer waters that persons experience sailing out of Vancouver and in the inside Passage for their whole trip. The second being on a 7 day return from Seattle a full day in either direction is spent in the open Pacific and devoid of scenery.

[Budget Queen]

I am direct with my posts and always, state, any cruise will offer you a good time. :) No bad Alaska cruises!!! The above poster's experience was exceptional, however. The "problem" with Seattle, that may be useful information is that MOST sailings do experience rougher sailing, less scenic sailing, and at best only 25% of the ships make the full Tracy Arm transit. There are some itineraries that have less than ideal port times as well.

 

The whole package needs to be looked at. When people request "general" information, I don't post the ideal, I post the "usual". I have taken several round trip Seattle cruises, all had "rough" sailing complaints, NONE of the ships made the full transit of Tracy Arm, and most had less than ideal port times.

 

The above post is very informative, but not typical, in my experience. Round trip Seattle, has many pluses. It is worthwhile to have a lot of general information, which, can allow a more informed decision.

[born2cruize]

Let me start right off and say this is my opinion only. In doing Alaska I would never do a 7-day cruise and call it an Alaska cruise. We've done 3 cruises so far with 2 more coming up next year. Our cruises have been in order, 11 day round trip from Seattle in 2005 with inside passage, 13 day SF to Vancouver in 2007 with inside passage and 14 day roundtrip from Seattle in 2009 sailing west of Vancouver Island. I must admit that I'm jaded when it comes to the inside passage, after all I'm from the Pacific Northwest. and depending on the time of year traveling outside of Vancouver Island can be interesting. But not all inside passages are the same. In 2007 our itinerary started as SF, Victoria, Nanaimo & Prince Rupert. The Captain took the ship out to sea once we pasted the northern tip of Vancouver Island for about 5 hours before bringing it back to the inside passage in the afternoon. In 2005 our entire trip was inside passage and it was wonderful (We were on the Norwegian Dream that had engine problems the whole Alaskan season and couldn't travel very fast). In 2007 when the Captain took the ship out to sea the (I should mention the weather was somewhat stormy) the seas were not bad but not smooth either (think Caribbean cruise in December between Aruba and Fort Lauderdale). In 2009 we were on a small boat (Pacific Princess) and the voyage outside of Vancouver Island was about the same as it had been in 2007 on Celebrity Infinity. I would have expected to "feel" the seas more on a smaller ship but it was about the same. The point I'm trying to make is that reading some posts about sea conditions you'd think the passengers are falling down, the furniture is tipping over and everyone is seasick. In fact in crossing the Gulf of Alaska 4 times the seas were rougher each time than the two sea crossings outside of Vancouver Island. Remember the majority of departures from Vancouver finish in either Whittier or Seward meaning you'll have to cross the Gulf of Alaska. I'm waiting to read a thread about how terrible the Gulf of Alaska crossing is. ;)

[mtebor]

while we decided that we will do a vancouver(zuiderdam) 7 day instead of seattle (amsterdam) 14 day, we will fly into seattle and spend a few days there before amtrak to vancouver. After cruise we will spend a few days in vancouver before amtrak down to seattle for a few more days.

 

Decided on the 7 as we are planning some costly excursions and we rather do that than 14 day and limited excursions