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Alaska cruise

critcatny

By critcatny,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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critcatny

critcatny

Posted
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OK, I've started doing research for our Alaska cruise next year. Still not sure which line we will go with but Carnival is definitely a possibility.

 

Does anyone know if Carnival has a naturalist on board the whole cruise describing what you're seeing? It sounds like that would be a nice plus to have and I know some of the lines do this.

Thanks.

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SadieN

SadieN

Posted
Posted (edited)
Thank you for your advice. I've heard people say that Princess and HAL are best for Alaska but I have no idea why. What do they have that Carnival doesn't. We've always loved Carnival for our Caribbean cruises.

 

 

I'm sure Carnival does Alaska well. Carnival even has itins next year going to Glacier Bay.

 

But---

Both of those other lines have been doing Alaska for years and have their own infrastructure. HAL I know has there own busses and tours (West tours) and Princess their own series of lodges.

Also, both lines have several ships in Alaska doing many different itins, including land tours before or after the cruise.

Check cruises-apples to apples. Many times HAL and Princess are less for the 7 days RT out of Seattle.

Edited by SadieN
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andy.capitan

andy.capitan

Posted
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Yes, there is a naturalist. We just returned a week or so ago from a Carnival Miracle Alaska cruise.

 

Cruise lines bid on Alaska routes and the number allowed in Glacier Bay is very restricted. As Carnival Corp owns Holland America, Princess, and Carnival it makes no sense for them all compete against each other. Holland and Princess both have history in Alaska even before Carnival bought them (especially Princess).

 

Princess and Holland do have the best reputation but really, to me the itinerary is more important and I've been to Alaska on Holland and Carnival (now twice).

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sailingwithfriends

sailingwithfriends

Posted
Posted (edited)

I did a lot of research before I booked our Alaska cruise for next year. We finally decided to book RCCL, Radiance of the Seas sailing from Vancouver. I decided on that cruiseline/ship for the following reasons:

1. I wanted to sail from Vancouver.

2. The ship has good ratings and it said to have so many windows that you can see outside from almost everywhere. People have called it the glass ship.

3. RCCL was having a really good sale. Second guest was 1/2 price.

4. We wanted to have the option of a Denali Land Tour afterwards. (We actually booked a private tour company to take part of the people in our group that have the time to stay an extra 4 days.).

5. For those that can't stay the extra days, we liked the cruise ending in Seward. There are great whale watching and marine life excursions in Seward.

6. You can take the glass domed train from Seward to Anchorage to fly home.

7. At the time, Carnival only had closed loop cruises. We would not be able to see as much of Alaska as we would if we did a one way. We liked the ports visited by Radiance of the Seas.

8. My travel agent said Princess and Holland America were good cruise ships, but generally were booked by an older crowd. Since we are active and like to participate in ship board activities at night, we decided on RCCL.

I hope you will have a great cruise, regardless of which ship you decide upon.

Edited by sailingwithfriends
typo, grammar error
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kamac56

kamac56

Posted
Posted (edited)

We always do Carnival for the Caribbean cruises and have done Princess cruise tour and Holland 7 day for Alaska. To me and only my honest opinion... I chose the cruise line on the departure port and Glacier Bay. Your pretty busy with scenery on this cruise and ports that I hardly notice the ship LOL. I have done both Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm and love love love Glacier, but Glacier you will find to be higher in price as well. So it all comes down to, where you go out of, which Glacier you want to see, and what activities you are going to do and if there is enough time in port to do the activities you want to do, than the ship will fall into your lap. No offense to the rest of my age group but Holland is what I called the Ben Gay Ship, very quiet and relaxed and had to kind of laugh when I would go for my 11 pm stroll the ship was empty, but in all fairness you want to be up early most mornings, that's when we spotted humpback and amazing sunrises and scenery so staying up late doesn't always work ;)

Edited by kamac56
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lilmsmuffet

lilmsmuffet

Posted
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Yes, at times there will be naturalist, park rangers, etc on the ship. But I would still consider Holland America or Princess for an Alaskan cruise.

Have fun!

 

 

We have been on both Holland America and Princess..Holland America is for sure a more relaxing ship while on the Golden Princess we had a mini suite w/a balcony..loved this..up near the Twin Sawyer glaceries we could go and come from our room to warm up..it was nice..

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Cruise life

Cruise life

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Posted

I hope Michelle is back...her hour long presentations are amazing, with more information sometimes than one might think you could fit into 60 minutes. She is smart and funny and has some great photos to go with her "lectures". They are not geared for young children though, as the detail and length may be too much for under ten. My boys did go to the whale talk while on the Hawaii cruise and managed to sit through the drier parts. They are only offered once per day and don't repeat so, unless you get there early, you may be sitting way in the back. I do believe they showed the programs later on the tv if you missed in. On our Alaskan cruise years ago they had a naturalist and announcements were definitely made when sightings occurred.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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ABQrobin

ABQrobin

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We did extensive research on this subject this summer as it is my husband's dream trip! We ended up not booking this summer but plan on next June for the trip. The BIG thing we found is that Carnival only does 2 port stops, while Princess and NCL each do 3 port stops. That may be the deciding point for us.

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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

Posted
Posted (edited)
I hope Michelle is back...her hour long presentations are amazing, with more information sometimes than one might think you could fit into 60 minutes. She is smart and funny and has some great photos to go with her "lectures". They are not geared for young children though, as the detail and length may be too much for under ten. My boys did go to the whale talk while on the Hawaii cruise and managed to sit through the drier parts. They are only offered once per day and don't repeat so, unless you get there early, you may be sitting way in the back. I do believe they showed the programs later on the tv if you missed in. On our Alaskan cruise years ago they had a naturalist and announcements were definitely made when sightings occurred.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

We sailed on the Carnival Miracle on the last sailing of the season a 3-weeks ago (9/10/14) and YES Michelle (the naturalist) was aboard for the entire cruise as were USNPS Rangers while in Glacier Bay!

Edited by Captain Carnival
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navybaby1113

navybaby1113

Posted
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We did a lot of research on Alaskan cruises. It seems like Princess and HAL are the top two lines. I would have loved to sail with Princess, but it was drastically more expensive than a Carnival cruise. We decided to go with Carnival because of this. I figured that it doesn't really matter which ship you're on, we'll be able to see the same sights. The one downside to Carnival is they don't really have the varied itineraries, so if you want something different, you'll have to look at another cruise line.

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navybaby1113

navybaby1113

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We sailed on the Carnival Miracle on the last sailing of the season a 3-weeks ago (9/10/14) and YES Michelle (the naturalist) was aboard for the entire cruise as were USNPS Rangers while in Glacier Bay!

 

Are you planning on doing a review of your cruise? Would love to read it!

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purplemusik

purplemusik

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I was booked on NCL for Alaska next year and just canceled and saved a little over $2000 just on the cruise alone ( same exact ports inlcuding glacier bay - balcony stateroom) and we'll save approx $1500 on airfare by not going into Vancouver. We read up on every Carnival review with Alaska and decided they've never done us wrong and we've always had a great time. I'd rather spend that money experiencing Alaska!

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BenjiRodney

BenjiRodney

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This 8 night cruise out of Vancouver ending in Seattle next May we got a Balcony on Carnival for way less than we paid for an Oceanview on Royal in 2012 round trip 7 nights out of Seattle. So there is money to be saved out there you just have to look.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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critcatny

critcatny

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Thanks for all the input. Now another question please.

I'm leaning toward Carnival for this trip but I don't see a map of the trip on Carnival's website. I'm looking at Vancouver to Seattle with Glacier Bay on 5/18/15. It has all the stops I want but would really like to go through the inside passage and cannot tell if they do that without a map. Thanks.

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