First Alaska Cruise

[Chesie]

Hi everyone,

 

While we have cruised before, never to Alaska and would appreciate any comments on:

 

Best month to cruise, which cruise line, large vs smaller ship, optional tours and anything else that would be helpful.

 

We are adventureous so we are open to anything.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Chesie:)

[Terpnut]

Hi everyone,

 

While we have cruised before, never to Alaska and would appreciate any comments on:

 

Best month to cruise, which cruise line, large vs smaller ship, optional tours and anything else that would be helpful.

 

We are adventureous so we are open to anything.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Chesie:)

As this question has been asked many times before, I suggest you first search or just browse and read through the thousands of existing threads for your answers.

[Toyz711]

1st...figure your budget and time. are you interested in a 1-way? or round trip?

round trips leave and come back to the same port..either seattle or vancouver. they do a inside passage cruise, ports can be juneau, skagway, ketchikan, sikta or others. can be done in 1 week, usually less air fare costs.

1-way go between the same main ports (seattle or vancouver) and either whittier or seward. great if you have time for land travels to the denali area or time around seward. airfare COULD be more, flying into one city and out of another?

smaller ships...cruise west and smaller..are very costly, thought about them myself. didn't have the budget last year..did a big ship. maybe in the future.

to figure out excursions look at the ports. for example:

http://www.traveljuneau.com/

http://www.skagway.com/

http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/

as stated, just read a few pages on this board, you could find some of your answers.

[Sunshine Gal]

Hi everyone,

 

While we have cruised before, never to Alaska and would appreciate any comments on:

 

Best month to cruise, which cruise line, large vs smaller ship, optional tours and anything else that would be helpful.

 

We are adventureous so we are open to anything.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Chesie:)

 

Hi Chesie,

 

We have cruised to Alaska on Hal, Princess and Celebrity. I would recommend Princess or Hal, since they have the most experience and seem to be really interested in showing off as much of Alaska as possible. Princess, IMHO, is my favorite with Hal a close second. Celebrity has had a lot of recurring problems with its propulsion system and has a history of missed ports and cancelled cruise because of these problems that have not been solved.

 

My favorite size ship is about 1,900 passengers. Our favorite month to cruise Alaska is in May. There is still usually plenty of snow on the mountains, which I think add to the beauty of Alaska. We usually book our tours on shore and decide what to do based on what the weather is like for that particular day. The one thing you will have to decide is whether you want to do a round trip or a one way cruise to Alaska. If time permits I would suggest taking some time on land before or after your cruise if you decide to do a one way cruise.

Hope this helps.

[Chesie]

Thank you Toyz711 and Sunshine Gal for you taking the time to reply. I just needed a "start" before I looked through the thousands of messages during the search. Your replies have cut the search time substantially.Truly appreciate your help!

 

Chesie

[qiangf2]

oops.. best month is May.. it is too late.. :) But seriously though, just pick a month that fits in your schedule and go. Alaska presents itself in different way in different month.