Best ship for Alaska

[Steelers36]

25 minutes ago, dizgal64 said:

Wait. Since when does the Royal Princess not do the inside passage? I definitely want to do IP! And I thought I wanted to do Royal but now you guys are making me think again. 
I was just reading a website about their trip on Royal Princess Alaska and they did the inside passage. 🤔 

also, are expanded promenades as important when booking May and probably will have cooler weather? Man, I thought I had this down. Lol

The itinerary is Vancouver,  Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier bay, College Fjord, Whittier, then 4 nights land ending in Fairbanks. 

[snoozecrooze]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

My money would go on not seeing both Coral and Island doing Alaska at the same time.  Island also has the buffet section forward with lots of windows and access to exterior.

Yep, I just checked and I think I got a little overzealous there because I forgot Island was heading to New York in May.

 

As an aside, I made a map for myself to draw out the deployments for 2025 summer and I think it's pretty interesting there will be a strong net decrease in capacity for Alaska that season (and CB is also currently appearing in some Caribbean port schedules that season as of now). One less ship overall, and it's one less Royal-class ship at that.

[dizgal64]

On 7/5/2023 at 6:11 PM, Coral said:

Coral and Sapphire would be my 2 choices and I have done both ships in Alaska and the Sapphire multiple times. I would even put the Grand above some of the other newer ships.

So if you had a choice between grand and sapphire, which would you pick? Doesn’t matter? And when I go in to book, it’s giving me deck 11 or 12 on sapphire. Either one ok? It would be mid ship or mid aft, starboard. 

[Paula_MacFan]

1 hour ago, dizgal64 said:

So if you had a choice between grand and sapphire, which would you pick? Doesn’t matter? And when I go in to book, it’s giving me deck 11 or 12 on sapphire. Either one ok? It would be mid ship or mid aft, starboard. 

You didn't say if you're looking at 2023 or 2024, but they each have different embarkation days.  In 2023 the Grand sails on Saturdays and the Sapphire on Wednesdays.  In 2024 the Grand sails on Wednesdays and the Sapphire on Saturdays.  I'd pick whichever one works best with your schedule; many people prefer the Saturday due to work schedules.  If schedules aren't a concern then I'd pick Sapphire for all the reasons others have stated already.  We're booked on Sapphire for 2024.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Paula_MacFan

[dizgal64]

1 hour ago, Paula_MacFan said:

You didn't say if you're looking at 2023 or 2024, but they each have different embarkation days.  In 2023 the Grand sails on Saturdays and the Sapphire on Wednesdays.  In 2024 the Grand sails on Wednesdays and the Sapphire on Saturdays.  I'd pick whichever one works best with your schedule; many people prefer the Saturday due to work schedules.  If schedules aren't a concern then I'd pick Sapphire for all the reasons others have stated already.  We're booked on Sapphire for 2024.

Yeah, I mentioned may in my post #25. But the time/calendar doesn’t matter to us. It’s going to be like a 12 day trip so we are either going out on an odd day or coming back. 🤓

 

[Coral]

17 hours ago, dizgal64 said:

So if you had a choice between grand and sapphire, which would you pick? Doesn’t matter? And when I go in to book, it’s giving me deck 11 or 12 on sapphire. Either one ok? It would be mid ship or mid aft, starboard. 

Sapphire.