Alaska with Children

[kaj1436]

What is the best cruiseline and itinerary with a 6,9, and 11 year old. It's so confusing with all the options. I am also considering a cruisetour as well..which line offers the best of those?

What month has the best weather? Will it be too cold mid to late June to enjoy the outdoor areas thoroughly? Is there any swimming at all on an Alaskan cruise?

This is a once in a lifetime trip that I am taking my whole family with ages ranging from 6-76 and I want to make it the best I can make it!

I will be researching these boards for months to come.

[epixx]

You should really pose these questions on the Alaska ports of call board of this website. I'll try to answer to the best of my ability after 3 Alaskan cruises with kids, but the ports of call board has more experts.

 

1. There is no "best cruiseline" for the kids. All the lines are quite similar with respect to having kids programs available. We sailed on NCL twice and HAL once. Your best bet is to choose the cruise based on the itinerary. Although the ports tend to be similar, the glacier viewing and port times are quite different. Note that HAL often offers very reduced or free rates for the 3rd and 4th passengers in a cabin. We sailed HAL's fabulous 14 day itinerary in a quad cabin, and the kids were free for the entire 14 days. We liked it so much that we're returning this year on the same cruise.

 

2. Cruisetours are generally NOT recommended for kids. For more information on this, I refer you to the Alaska ports of call board. Briefly, you will no find many kids on these tours, and the itineraries tend to be too rigid and not that interesting for kids. You would be better off planning your own land tour if you would like to visit Alaska interior.

 

3. As long as you dress properly, weather in June should not be an impediment.

 

4. Swimming on the HAL ship was fabulous! The center area of the pool deck has a sliding glass cover. We swam in the pool every day. The water was heated nicely, and the glass cover was adjusted just perfectly according to the weather conditions. The NCL pool decks did not have a glass cover, so not many people braved the weather for the pool.

 

Have a great trip.

[cb at sea]

Sometimes, in June, it can be warmer in Alaska than in the lower 48! A couple of years ago, that was the case! Alaska has summer, too!

[chipmaster]

Alaska anytime in summer can be "warm" or "cold." One really should expect and prepare for rain every day in port. But on ship whether in pool or not kids should have fun in the summer as there will be many kids in the clubs.

 

Alaska we did three generations as well and they all had a blast. As to best options I'd pick any major line that sails Glacier Bay, the reaility is that HAL/Princess have the most sailings. Even though neither are marketed as "kid" lines we've done Princess a couple times with 3 generations and came away happy even the kids.

 

Alaksa is more scenic oriented but port activities they have for all ages from simply sight seening to wildlife and adventure stuff that will entertain the kid in anyone; fishing, dog sledding, kayaking, ATV etc. etc.

 

But you should be aware that it technically is a rainforrest so expect lots of wet stuff.

 

With gloves, layered dressing, cap you should expect to have many wonderful hours enjoying scenry too. Of course you could get luck and it be shortsleve weather all the time :D

 

As to cruise tours I agree that is much more scenic oriented and children might find that as exciting as days of looking at church's on a Med cruise.

 

If it really is once in a lifetime I'd say make sure to get GLACIER BAY above anything else and save dollars for excursions as those are worthy of the $

Good luck!

 

What is the best cruiseline and itinerary with a 6,9, and 11 year old. It's so confusing with all the options. I am also considering a cruisetour as well..which line offers the best of those?

What month has the best weather? Will it be too cold mid to late June to enjoy the outdoor areas thoroughly? Is there any swimming at all on an Alaskan cruise?

This is a once in a lifetime trip that I am taking my whole family with ages ranging from 6-76 and I want to make it the best I can make it!

I will be researching these boards for months to come.

[kaj1436]

Thank you everyone for your input. I should clarify that it will be a once in a lifetime trip for the grandparents..I hope to go again and I'm sure my children will get another chance too.

I think I will look into Princess for Glacier Bay will be top priority.

[lmg1230]

We also cruised to Alaska with our children as well as my in-laws a few years ago. It was definitely a once in a lifetime trip for Grandpa and Granny so we decided to do the things that they wanted to do knowing that our daughters (10 and almost 4 at the time) would be fine whatever we chose. As a result we chose the Diamond Princess sailing north from Vancouver to Whittier with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway followed by a 5 day cruise tour that went to Mt. McKinley, Denali and Fairbanks.

 

We all had a fabulous trip! There were very few children on the cruise tour part of our trip, however, my girls were fine. They enjoyed riding the train even though they weren't necessarily appreciating the scenery, loved Talkeetna, met sled dog puppies at Jeff King's ranch in Denali which was probably the highlight of the trip for both of them and panned for gold in Fairbanks. Cruise tours aren't the ideal way to travel inland in Alaska but they are workable. With the limitations that my in-laws have we really couldn't have managed it with them any other way and at the end of the day they were thrilled with their vacation.

 

Lisa

[TheCalicoCat]

What is the best cruiseline and itinerary with a 6,9, and 11 year old. It's so confusing with all the options. I am also considering a cruisetour as well..which line offers the best of those?

What month has the best weather? Will it be too cold mid to late June to enjoy the outdoor areas thoroughly? Is there any swimming at all on an Alaskan cruise?

This is a once in a lifetime trip that I am taking my whole family with ages ranging from 6-76 and I want to make it the best I can make it!

I will be researching these boards for months to come.

 

1. All of the lines will be fine.

2. Cruisetour may be to constricting for the younger ones in the bunch - hours on end in a bus. "Are we there yet?"

3. the weather varies too much to try to plan around it.

4. Swimming - doubt it, though the pools are open when it is safe. (Picture kids running between the hot tub & pool.)

5. Decide what you want to see/do & make you choices based on that.

For example, Glacier Bay was a must for us as was cruiseing to the east of Vancouver Island...

[Paumavista]

We chose Princess with 3 kids sailing from Whittier to Vancouver the last week in May. We flew up a few days early, rented a van, and rented a condo through VRBO in the Kenai area (we used this as a jumping off point for exploring on our own). We always do our own tours with kids so we can adjust our schedule. The weather was perfect (sunny & comfortable). We also rented cars & explored each of our cruise stops on our own....it was cost effective with a group & again, we love the flexibility - we hit the tide pools at one stop and spent 2 hours - it was a highlight of the trip (if we'd been on a tour we couldn't have done this).

 

We also panned for goal, met sled puppies, saw a number of bear and moose along the roads, saw both killer and orca whales, otters, seals, dolphins racing our boat, eagles, mountain goats, road in a sea plane, walked along glaciers, and took the train from Anchorage (where we dropped off the rental car) to Whittier to get on the cruise just to get the experience (2 of the 3 kids slept on the train....I'm glad we didn't spend more train time...I'm afraid they would have missed too much!

 

It was our trip of a life time.

Judy

 

ps - they upgraded us from inside & balcony cabins - to the "family suite":)

[kaj1436]

Are all the princess ships pretty much the same? Or is one better than the others for any reason? Covered pools? Kids areas?