Which cruise line for Alaksa did YOU choose and WHY?

[Budget Queen]

After looking over many itineraries we have about chosen Volendam, mid May, Juneau (2:30 - 11) Skagway (7 - 9) & Ketchikan 10 - 6) including Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. Trip is for a couple who have been to Alaska before and a few people who have never been to Alaska or on a cruise. Your opinion please. Have very much appreciated some of the information I have read on your posts. Thank you so much!

 

 

An excellent choice, I am looking at this ship myself next year. :) Many many pluses with the route, and 2 glaciers. decent port times- actually I like a later arrival into Juneau, If so inclined, be up early for some good humpback opportunities.

[Bucky3]

Glad to hear you are considering this cruise - ours will be May 17 on Volendam - and I feel relieved that you have given your vote for this trip! We just hope it won't be too early to get into Misty Fjords? It's always makes me nervous when other people depend on us to steer them in the right direction! We had a time frame to adhear to and I'm not sure how everyone will take to the sea or how adventursome they might be, so this seemed like a good choice. Hope we see you onboard!?? If so, I'll happily join you upfront at what was it - 4:30AM you say!! Problem is I can't recall just where in this cruise route you said the whales might be? Hope you continue to keep us all up on Alaska - we're working on what shore excursions now. DH and I have been to Alaska before so for us I think we'd like to do things we've never done before - a salmon bake - but which one? Misty Fjord boat trip - we don't want to fly - and not sure about Skagway but maybe the Glacier Point excursion - but it might be too strenuous. We did the drive ourselves to Emerald Lake two years ago and loved it - so maybe the train one way, bus the other? All the choices involved in an Alaska cruise - ship, itinerary, shore excursions, etc. can be quite overwhelming so an obviously seasoned Alaska cruiser such as yourself is just a wonderful help. Thank you so very much.

[Budget Queen]

Tracy Arm is iffy but no guarantees anywhere in Alaska. :) But even just the sailing in is extremely scenic without getting to the glaciers. As for whale opportunities, try your Juneau day- at dawn and day of Glacier Bay- again early. :) A good pair of wide angle binoculars are a must. :)

[Bucky3]

Thanks BQ! I'm starting my detailed itinerary and will add your advice on whales where appropriate - and hope we come home sporting all those smiley faces!! DH JUST bought second pair of binoculars. I'll ask TACTFULLY! if they are wide angle! So, are you coming with us?

[wickedawesomemom]

I chose RCI (Northbound Vancouver to Seward) because of the itinerary, ports, price, teen program and ship, and the dates worked out perfectly. I was really interested in Icy Strait Point as I really wanted a port that wasn't so "touristy". LOVED this port. Wanted to spend some time post-cruise in the interior and Seward was my preference to dock.

 

A friend highly recommended RCI after I had booked. I loved everything about this cruise.....except that it was way too short. It was my first cruise so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it far exceeded my expectiations and I can't imagine it getting much better. I hope all my future cruises are this good.

[Coral]

I have sailed 6 times to Alaska - once on the Radiance of the Seas, 2x on Sun Princess, 2x on Dawn Princess and once on the Coral Princess.

 

For me, I was extremely disappointed in Royal Caribbean in Alaska - they may do well in the Caribbean but was not impressed at all with them in Alaska. I felt like they were just going through the motions and stopping at the ports but didn't do anything on the ship to enhance the Alaskan experience. They did not have a naturalist and once I had a naturalist on the ship, I didn't realize how much I missed it on the first cruise. They greatly enhance the cruise experience. They did not bring any lecturers onboard the ship for presentations on our cruise. I don't like assigned dining times in Alaska because we were often in port late. We were in Juneau from 1-10 and when we returned, we missed our 6:00 pm dining time and since I am not a fan of buffets - we ate in the $20/night Chops dinner. I usually don't participate in pay restaurants on the ship but we missed our dining time. The space ratio is better on Princess - the Radiance seemed very crowded to me compared to Princess ships (remember there are not thousands of people on lawn chairs outside so more people are often inside). If going on a cruise, you might as well enjoy the food - IMO, I prefer Princess' food to RCCL's. Our times in port were not as desirable as some of the other choices (Juneau 1-10) and they only go to Hubbard Glacier (wish on my ship there was another glacier day because we missed Hubbard glacier).

 

After being disappointed with RCCL on my first Alaskan cruise, I decided to do research and realized that the one ways Princess had met would meet my expectations. There are 2 glacier days - if you haven't been to Glacier Bay and College Fiords - I strongly recommend it. If for some reason, you miss one day- there is always another day of glaciers (verses my first cruise where we didn't see any on the ship). There are naturalists on every Alaska cruise, there are onboard speakers such as Libby Riddles who does presentations (first female to win Iditarod - she is an excellent speaker), there is flexibile dining times (so I can stay out on deck or in port as late as I want and go to dinner when I want), the times on the NB cruise are excellent (full days in Juneau 7 am - 8 pm or something close to that), the ships don't seem as crowded and the food is much better.

 

Having sailed both RCCL and Princess to Alaska -- I will not go back to RCCL, Princess was just so much better in Alaska. For me, it was obvious that they have more experience in Alaska and it shows.

 

I hear Holland is also great in Alaska - I wouldn't hesitate to sail on Holland to Alaska.

[tomcarson]

I have also sailed Royal Caribbean and Princess. We rank our Royal Caribbean as below average as far as the cruise was concerned and have tons of praises for Princess. Like the previous poster, Royal Caribbean just can't compare to how Princess cruises Alaska. I like Royal Caribbean in the Caribbean but would steer clear of them in Alaska.

[cruise12004]

I agree with you about the land tour. It gives you the best of both worlds

[cruzy-sue]

We also sailed Carnival with sons and nieces and nephew and had a fabulous time. We aren't taking kids on our Alaskan cruise next June and I spent lots of time researching ports of call as BQ suggests to do. I had my heart set on seeing Glacier Bay which eliminated Carnival. I wanted to do a north/south itinerary and ended up choosing Princess for many different reasons. Do your research and decide what works for you. You'll find loyal and disgruntled fans for each cruise line. Good luck.

 

We chose the Carnival Spirit for a multitude of reasosn - It DOES do Glacier Bay. But mostly because we got a great aft suite with wrap-around balcony for a prettyy good price. We had been on her sister ship, the Legend, and (contrary to some opinions) found Carnival to be an upscale cruise experience. So there you go. ENJOY!!!

[zachnlucy]

I agree with you about the land tour. It gives you the best of both worlds

Yes, that's true if you want to pay double or even triple than what you can do on your own, and of course, not having about 100 or so other people every step of the way.

 

We took a one-way from Vancouver to Whittier, rented a car in Anchorage for 5 days and had a magnificent time. Spent a day in Denali on the regular bus tour, omigosh so awesome. I've got pics of sooooooo many animals once you get past the first 20 miles or so. Had a grizzly scratching his back on the gravel right IN FRONT of our bus.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1453349692012849331IQEoSf

[lambs2]

We chose HAL because their itinerary included some places we really wanted to see that are not visited by every cruise line: Glacier Bay, College Fjord and Sitka. Plus the cabin was good sized and they had just replaced all the bedding. I don't think we ever slept so well as we did that week on the Veendam. The bed was HEAVENLY.....as was the scenery!!!

 

Getting to see and hear a glacier calf in Glacier Bay is an experience I will NEVER forget!!!!!!

[stired]

We narrowed it down to HAL and Princess because they do both College Fjord and Glacier Bay on their 1-way cruises, they have onboard naturalists, and they have been in Alaska a long time. We ended up choosing the Coral Princess for three main reasons:

 

(1) the Coral leaves on a Monday instead of a weekend like most of the other lines. So why is this important? Because this schedule means the Coral has few other cruise ships in port with her. I don't think many people on these boards talk about that, but it was important to us. If you figure there can be 5-7 ships in a port per day, that is 1000's of people at one time inundating places like Ketchikan, Juneau, etc. If you look at the docking schedule http://www.claalaska.com/schedules.html, you see that in Juneau, the Coral is the only ship in town until late afternoon, when 1 other ship comes in. In Ketchikan, she is the only ship in town all day. In Skagway, she is 1 of 4 in town, but some other days there are as many as 6 ships at once.

 

(2) port schedules - the Coral has long port times.

(3) anytime dining - we like assigned seating times on other cruises, but for Alaska, where we will sometimes be on late excursions, this seems the way to go.

 

I have enjoyed the planning process a great deal, even though at times it seemed overwhelming. Have fun deciding. It's great to have so many choices.:D

[Coral]

duplicate..

[Coral]

We narrowed it down to HAL and Princess because they do both College Fjord and Glacier Bay on their 1-way cruises, they have onboard naturalists, and they have been in Alaska a long time. We ended up choosing the Coral Princess for three main reasons

 

The Coral is an awesome ship for Alaska and the Naturalist who has been on that ship the past 4 years or so has been Barbara and she is top notch. You will enjoy her lectures (if she is on the Coral again this year).

[kingsgirl]

Um, this thread started in 2005 ........what the heck:confused: :eek: :confused:

[digitalgirl]

When I was planning our cruise to Alaska I actually compared the medical facilities and liked the medical team on Princess rather than a Medical Officer.

You just have to know what is important to you. My husband is disabled and although we had no problem, I like to be prepared.

Caly

[Italy52]

We chose HAL because their itinerary included some places we really wanted to see that are not visited by every cruise line: Glacier Bay, College Fjord and Sitka. Plus the cabin was good sized and they had just replaced all the bedding. I don't think we ever slept so well as we did that week on the Veendam. The bed was HEAVENLY.....as was the scenery!!!

 

Getting to see and hear a glacier calf in Glacier Bay is an experience I will NEVER forget!!!!!!

 

 

If you don't mind me asking, what date in May did you cruise to Alaska.

 

Many thanks for your response.

[lambs2]

If you don't mind me asking, what date in May did you cruise to Alaska.

 

Many thanks for your response.

 

 

We cruised Alaska the second week of May 2005.

[Italy52]

We cruised Alaska the second week of May 2005.

 

Thanks much, I appreciate the response.

[Cachecara]

We narrowed it down to HAL and Princess because they do both College Fjord and Glacier Bay on their 1-way cruises, they have onboard naturalists, and they have been in Alaska a long time. We ended up choosing the Coral Princess for three main reasons:

 

(1) the Coral leaves on a Monday instead of a weekend like most of the other lines. So why is this important? Because this schedule means the Coral has few other cruise ships in port with her. I don't think many people on these boards talk about that, but it was important to us. If you figure there can be 5-7 ships in a port per day, that is 1000's of people at one time inundating places like Ketchikan, Juneau, etc. If you look at the docking schedule http://www.claalaska.com/schedules.html, you see that in Juneau, the Coral is the only ship in town until late afternoon, when 1 other ship comes in. In Ketchikan, she is the only ship in town all day. In Skagway, she is 1 of 4 in town, but some other days there are as many as 6 ships at once.

 

(2) port schedules - the Coral has long port times.

(3) anytime dining - we like assigned seating times on other cruises, but for Alaska, where we will sometimes be on late excursions, this seems the way to go.

 

I have enjoyed the planning process a great deal, even though at times it seemed overwhelming. Have fun deciding. It's great to have so many choices.:D

 

After doing a lot of research on Alaska Cruises, we chose Coral for this summer, also, for basically the same reasons above.

Friends of our took Coral to Alaska last summer and had a wonderful time. Could not stop talking about it!

:) We have never cruised Princess before and were leaning toward Celebrity. I had heard that Princess and HAL were the forerunners for Alaska and read so many great Alaskan reviews on them. Then with all the M class pod problems, I decided that I would not take a risk with X and chose Coral. :)

[kruisecat]

We chose Celebrity's Mercury for a couple of reasons.

 

1) we liked the itin - I really wanted to go to Hubbard Galcier

2) price - when we booked in April Mercury had the best prices for a balcony which is what my BIL and family wanted as a cabin.

3) we really like the treatment we have recieved in the past on our Celebrity cruises. This was the least important reason and we would have gone with another line if it had made sense to do so.

 

No matter which line you choose I'm confident you will have a great time!

[kingsgirl]

I chose RCI b/c I've only sailed with them so far (newbie cruiser here!) and since it was a gift, I wanted to be comfortable with the cruise I purchased so I could find things out more easily.

 

Decided on Serenade b/c she was the only round trip out of Vancouver!

 

We're cruising in May b/c I've heard that there is great weather during this time quite often, and the prices couldn't be beat. Plus it's the easiest time of the year for my mom and I to take off since it's the not "prime" vacation time of the year.

[Sunshine Gal]

My first choice would be Princess but I have also sailed on Hal and enjoyed that cruise also. The reason that I like Princess is that they have the most experience cruising Alaska and they, along with Hal are allowed to go into Glacier Bay. The Princess ships are also very well maintained. The over all cruising expereince is also better IMHO. As BQ said "it is what is outside that is important on an Alaskan cruise". That said, getting to all the ports is even more important, IMHO. This year the two cruise ships that I would avoid for an Alaskan cruise would be the Celebrity Infinity and Celebrity Summit. Both suffered from recurring propulsion (pod) problems last year in Alaska and the problem has not been solved. For both ships this resulted in missed ports and one cancelled cruise for each ship. IMHO, when cruising Alaska taking a chance on missing a lot of ports is not a chance that I think anyone should take. Last year the Infinity had problems through most of the Alaskan cruising season. As I write this the Infinity is again experiencing pod problems that have been going on for several months and she is not scheduled for drydock until May 20. I post this only as a caution from one who got burned big time last year in Alaska on the Summit.

Hope this helps.

[gambit57]

Booked Princess. Went on Princess before and felt it was my favorite cruise ever.

 

This time, it was due to the schedule. I could only leave on one particular day. I also wanted a one-way trip. Only Princess offered a one way trip on the particular day I needed. I actually wanted to try a different line, but couldn't due to the schedule. I'm not disappointed tho cuz my first time around was so awesome.

[cruise12004]

I totally agree with independent touring. We have traveled to many countries and this will be our first organized land tour.

To clarify. I was agreeing that the combination of land (independent or not) and sea gave the best of both worlds