Friend Needs Advice: Which Line Best to Alaska

[NancyIL]

Which is best ? I can only compare Carnival and HAL, but I get the feeling that each one is comparable, especially in Alaska. If someone wishes to do Alaska, I would recommend price as #1 consideration. Alaskan cruising is more about wildlife than late night bars, more about glaciers than gourmet, more about ports than bingo. What has worked for me is get a quote from the different lines which offer acceptable itineraries to my liking, then take the best offer.

 

Good points! So which did you prefer - HAL or Carnival?

[OSUBuckly]

I would only select a cruise with an onboard naturalist. The evening narration of our naturalist onboard the Coral Princess was one of the highlights of the cruise...and afterwards she would come to the horizon court buffet (which is just above the bridge in this ship) and continue pointing out scenery and wildlife... truly wonderful!

 

I'd definitely like a naturalist on my cruise. However, how do you know if the Cruise has one? Do some cruise lines use them and others don't?

[travelcrazy006]

HELP! i am so confused. i have never cruised before and am planning a cruise july of this year. i want to go from anchorage to vancouver, one way, so i was looking at celebrity, holland, rcl and princess. but when i read some of the posts about celebrity it makes me a little nervous, all the problems they've had. but even with the others you read some real horror stories. i like HAL's itinerary but according to their website all of their balcony cabins are booked! is this possible or should i call them to be sure. it appears rcl has only one ship doing the trip that i want- the radiance of the seas, yet princess has about 5 ships. can anyone help me decipher all this so i can make a decision. thanks

[Thoth]

Good points! So which did you prefer - HAL or Carnival?

 

HAL in Alaska because they have more choices and ships, and Carnival in the Caribbean because they offer more choices and ships. I found the Vista class on HAL and the Spirit class on Carnival to be very similar, but the older ships on both are quite different. I like the 1990's HAL, those being a lot classier than Carnival's from that period.

[Lightsluvr]

Let's throw cruise tours into the mix - any comments on which line has the best combination cruise and land tour?

 

LL

[Jeepers385]

I'm sailing on Celebrity's Infinity this coming May for their repositioning cruise, 13 days from San Francisco to Vancouver and am so looking forward to it. Yes I know they've had pod problems occassionally and hoping our trip isn't affected. We've had several friends cruise on this ship and have never had problems. This is a great itinerary that's our reason for booking.

A lot of friends have sailed Celebrity ships and love them so we figured we've tried a lot of cruise lines so let's give it a whirl.

Have fun with whichever one you choose but I would definitely choose itinerary.

[Sunshine Gal]

HELP! i am so confused. i have never cruised before and am planning a cruise july of this year. i want to go from anchorage to vancouver, one way, so i was looking at celebrity, holland, rcl and princess. but when i read some of the posts about celebrity it makes me a little nervous, all the problems they've had. but even with the others you read some real horror stories. i like HAL's itinerary but according to their website all of their balcony cabins are booked! is this possible or should i call them to be sure. it appears rcl has only one ship doing the trip that i want- the radiance of the seas, yet princess has about 5 ships. can anyone help me decipher all this so i can make a decision. thanks

 

Hi travelcrazy,

 

You have good reason to be concerned about Celebrity concerning the pod problems. I was on the Summit 13 night repositioning cruise last May and wound up missing Hubbard Glacier, most of the Inside Passage, skipping the scheduled port of Seattle and skipping the scheduled port of Sitka. The Infinity and the Summit are both plagued by the same exact problems.

If you cruise a lot or just like to cruise and the itinerary is not that important then Celebrity might be a good choice. While it is true that most Celebrity cruises do not have these problems, many last year did and it affected tens of thousands passengers in one way or another.

I can't speak for all of the cruise lines but I believe the final payment date for Princess and HAL is February 28. I would think that some cabins will open up right after that date as I am sure some that are holding cabins will decide to change their plans.

Good Luck in whatever you decide to do.

[CruisingGopher]

When are you cruising, cruisewmn? I'd love to hear a report of your trip when you get back. Thankfully, I've got a bit longer to decide, since I'm looking at summer of 2008.

 

We are looking at sailing Alaska in the summer of 2008 as well, after two sailings with Disney. We called NCL last weekend and the person my wife spoke with said that the NCL Gem might head up to Alaska as well, giving yet another option. She also said the summer 2008 rates could be out as early as March.

[travelcrazy006]

Sunshinegal, Thanks For The Info, I Think I Will Try To Steer Clear Of Celebrity For This Trip

[dateacher]

Can't comment on the itineraries but can tell you the NCL Pearl is a great ship. We were on it in December in the Caribbean and loved it. Also, the freestyle was great. You ate when or where you wanted and at the most we waited for 10 minutes to get into the main dining room at 8 PM. The food was delicious.

 

One word of warning, if you want to eat in the speciality restaurants, you need to make reservations as soon as you get on the ship the first day.

 

Having said that, I would still pick the itinerary and ports of arrival and departure before the ship itself and only avoid a ship if it had terrible reviews.

[Sunshine Gal]

Sunshinegal, Thanks For The Info, I Think I Will Try To Steer Clear Of Celebrity For This Trip

 

Travelcrazy,

You are very welcome. Occasionally there are some threads on the on the Celebrity boards, about these on-going problems with the pods on Celebrity M-class ships. It is not a very popular discussion topic by most on that board and any discussion is very short lived. As I said most Celebrity cruises don't have a problem, but in IMHO, far too many Celebrity cruises have been affected. If anyone is interested in knowing what did happen on one of the many pod failures last year on the Celebrity Summit cruise in early May, please see the individual reviews of the May 6 Summit cruise to Alaska, on this website.