Family Group--Alaska

[lovetotraveltx]

Asking for a friend: She has a large family group wanting to book Serenade of the Seas next June 7 nights round trip Vancouver to Alaska. How was the ship itself. How was Royal Caribbean and this itinerary for Alaska. There are several young people, but older, thinking 13 through 24. Also, 3 seniors. Any pros, cons, pointers, would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Clarea]

I don't believe Serenade has ever done the itinerary in question.

[lovetotraveltx]

8 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

I don't believe Serenade has ever done the itinerary in question.

So it will be new to Alaska next year? Have you ever done RCCL to Alaska? Thank you!

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, lovetotraveltx said:

So it will be new to Alaska next year? Have you ever done RCCL to Alaska? Thank you!

 

Yes, we did Rhapsody to Alaska a few years back.

 

As far as itineraries, most on this website will say that Holland and Princess have the best Alaska itineraries,  as they have been doing Alaska the longest.

[frank808]

2 hours ago, lovetotraveltx said:

Asking for a friend: She has a large family group wanting to book Serenade of the Seas next June 7 nights round trip Vancouver to Alaska. How was the ship itself. How was Royal Caribbean and this itinerary for Alaska. There are several young people, but older, thinking 13 through 24. Also, 3 seniors. Any pros, cons, pointers, would be appreciated. Thank you!

We were on for serenade for 3 weeks this past Feb and am on ovation in skagway as I write this.

 

We love the serenade as crew are great.  The ship is older but is very elegant and is not a shopping mall on a a ship.  We will sail serenade again this coming Jan for 3 weeks if that is an indication that we love the ship.

 

There are things to do like the climbing wall, self leveling pool tables, movies etc for the juniors.  If serenade is port intensive like the radiance cruise, you will be so busy with the ports of call you will want to relax on the down days. 

[Mary loves to travel]

8 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

I don't believe Serenade has ever done the itinerary in question.

We did Serenade to Alaska round trip Vancouver in 2007.   So it’s been a few years but Serenade did do that itinerary once upon a time 😊

[Kellie in Texas]

We're booked on Serenade for June 14, 2020, Vancouver round-trip, so tell your friends to leave the ship tidy. 😉  We sailed to Alaska on Princess in 2011 for oldest son's high school graduation and have always wanted to return.  We sailed on Serenade to the Baltics in 2016 for oldest son's college graduation and loved Serenade.  Youngest son graduates from high school in June 2020, so this will be his graduation trip.  This time, we've got an aft balcony!

[emory2001]

Serenade is in the Radiance class, and we did Alaska on Radiance last summer. I've traveled on 3 ships in this class and love them. The Windjammer has (should have) an outdoor seating section at the back of the ship, which is so nice and only in Radiance class. We had extended family with us, including kids and my grandmother, and it was fantastic. Nothing of particular concern, except requesting a handicap accessible room if your elderly companions need one.

[emory2001]

Also recommend to your friend that from their departure port (I'm guessing it's Seward) to Anchorage, take the Alaska Railroad instead of the bus, and get the Gold Star seats with the glass dome top. The views are amazing, and it includes a meal and 2 free drinks.

[LPTCruiser]

We just did the Northbound itinerary on Radiance with 2 teens. They were sufficiently entertained with rock-climbing, mini-golf, ping-pong, and the arcade. There is a teen center with the usual video game platforms, though ours did not make use of them or the sports court that was popular with others.

 

Plenty of seniors on the ship as well.

 

Our Northbound itinerary was a little different than the roundtrip itinerary from Vancouver you mentioned, in that we had an additional stop at Icy Strait Point, where we all loved the ZipRider and the port area. With 1 of our Sea Days including glacier-viewing (Hubbard Glacier), there was only 1 complete Sea Day (aka "Cruising"), and I'm not sure that another Sea Day, as is on the roundtrip Vancouver itinerary, would have been as good for the teens.

 

Our cruise ended in Seward, from which we took Alaska Railroad to Anchorage, as mentioned in the previous post. Highly worth it, even if just Adventure Class fare on the Railroad.

[RSLeesburg]

We sailed on Radiance on the Southbound trip with three day land tour beforehand.  Here is link to my review with lots of pics...

 

 

[Merion_Mom]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 11:04 AM, lovetotraveltx said:

Asking for a friend: She has a large family group wanting to book Serenade of the Seas next June 7 nights round trip Vancouver to Alaska. How was the ship itself. How was Royal Caribbean and this itinerary for Alaska. There are several young people, but older, thinking 13 through 24. Also, 3 seniors. Any pros, cons, pointers, would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

I would gently suggest to you - and anyone else in the same situation - that when you have a "friend" with "questions about cruising", that you give them the link to this website and tell them to join and ask for themselves.

 

Saves a lot of wear and tear on everyone.

[frank808]

On 7/9/2019 at 11:41 PM, emory2001 said:

Serenade is in the Radiance class, and we did Alaska on Radiance last summer. I've traveled on 3 ships in this class and love them. The Windjammer has (should have) an outdoor seating section at the back of the ship, which is so nice and only in Radiance class. We had extended family with us, including kids and my grandmother, and it was fantastic. Nothing of particular concern, except requesting a handicap accessible room if your elderly companions need one.

On ovation and they have an outdoor seating area in windjammer.