newbie: information on Princess Alaska cruise

[bmcc]

Where do I find more information on the cruise offered by Princess for their Alaska route? I see they have RT out of Seattle and also one way trip. Which one will be better?

[chrysalis]

Where do I find more information on the cruise offered by Princess for their Alaska route? I see they have RT out of Seattle and also one way trip. Which one will be better?

 

the Princess website is a good start...and you can request brochures from the site.

 

As far as I am concerned...the longer the cruise, the better. We did the 14 day one this summer on a small Princess ship, and it visits places that no one else goes to. That is a big plus.

[paul929207]

Where do I find more information on the cruise offered by Princess for their Alaska route? I see they have RT out of Seattle and also one way trip. Which one will be better?

The one way trips are between Vancouver and Anchorage. There are r/t's from Seattle (7 days), Vancouver (14) and San Francisco (about 12).

[welshdragon]

Can recommend the one way trip from Vancouver to Whittier did it a couple of years ago. Which you choose depends on what you are looking for - are you going to see as much of the country/state as possible in which case take the trip that offers the most stops or do you need to start and finish in the same place.

[jenphan]

it really depends .. if your flying RT is much better and cheaper. the cruise port in seattle is very nice ... unlike the busy one in san francisco. if your staying at a hotel in Seattle, I recommend the Edgewater .. its next to the port, about a 4 minute walk.

[CaptainKlutz]

Airfare is definitely cheaper for a round trip...But I also agree the more days the better.

 

We've done the 10-day (not 12) from SF and that was wonderful. The water along California and Oregon can be interesting so take seasick stuff with you.

 

We've also taken the 14-day R/T from Vancouver which hits 4 more ports that aren't visited often. Valdez was our favorite. Next year they put Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) on in place of Sitka (this is without looking so it could be Seward that's gone...Seward would be the better one to miss...we had our worst shore excursion EVER there :eek: ...but that's another story). Icy Strait was our favorite stop a couple of years ago...the onboard naturalist was from Hoonah and a real hoot...Hi Howard (Koo Hook), if you're reading!

 

We've also taken the 7 day from Anchorage to Seattle. I'd definitely do that the other way; it's like a 3 hour bus ride from Whittier to Anchorage. We let Princess do our air that trip and it was brutal. I think it was a 5:30am flight from SFO and then a layover in Seattle and then the bus ride. We slept thru dinner the first night.

 

I don't think you can go wrong on any of them...we just do our best to arrive the day before the ship leaves so we're not wiped when we get there (except for SFO since it's only 40 miles from home).