Alaska: Royal Caribbean vs. Princess vs. Norwegian

[Budget Queen]

This is the itinerary for the proposed cruise with princess:

1 Seattle, Washington 4:00 PM

2 At Sea

3 Juneau, Alaska 12:00 PM 10:00 PM

4 Skagway, Alaska 6:00 AM 8:15 PM

5 Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) 6:00 AM 3:00 PM

6 Ketchikan, Alaska 7:00 AM 12:30 PM

7 Victoria, British Columbia 7:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle, Washington 7:00 AM

 

Someone mentioned this isn't good for a first time cruise?

 

I don't agree with your comment. Any Alaska cruise is good. :)

 

Round trip Seattle, offer many positives. Consider YOUR priorities, with looking at ports, time in ports, activities of interest- be sure they fit, route, glacier, cost.

[vmom]

This is the itinerary for the proposed cruise with princess:

1 Seattle, Washington 4:00 PM

2 At Sea

3 Juneau, Alaska 12:00 PM 10:00 PM

4 Skagway, Alaska 6:00 AM 8:15 PM

5 Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) 6:00 AM 3:00 PM

6 Ketchikan, Alaska 7:00 AM 12:30 PM

7 Victoria, British Columbia 7:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle, Washington 7:00 AM

 

Someone mentioned this isn't good for a first time cruise?

 

Our first Alaskan cruise was this schedule except we were scheduled to go to Tracy Arm rather than Glacier National Park. We ended up going to Endicot Arm instead.

 

We had a great time. I think its a good schedule and I like that it is going to Glacier Bay. Alot of round trip Seattle cruises do not go to Glacier Bay.

 

Going in and out of Seattle is a easier, cheaper, and less hassle. On our second cruise we did a southbound flying into Anchorage and then getting off the ship in Vancouver and flying out of Seattle.

[rdnpdx1]

This cruise is very similar to the cruise the NCL Pearl does. Like this one, it also goes to Glacier Bay. Here is the schedule:

 

Sun: Depart Seattle 4:00 PM

Mon: Cruise Alaska's Inside Passage

Tue: Juneau 2-10: PM

Wed: Skagway 7 AM - 8:15 PM

Thur: Cruise Glacier Bay

Fri: Ketchikan 6 AM - 1:30 PM

Sat: Victoria 6 PM - 11:59 PM

Sun: Seattle 8 AM

 

If you want a R/T out of Seattle, these are two of the best, given the Glacier Bay cruising.

[Budget Queen]

This cruise is very similar to the cruise the NCL Pearl does. Like this one, it also goes to Glacier Bay. Here is the schedule:

 

Sun: Depart Seattle 4:00 PM

Mon: Cruise Alaska's Inside Passage

Tue: Juneau 2-10: PM

Wed: Skagway 7 AM - 8:15 PM

Thur: Cruise Glacier Bay

Fri: Ketchikan 6 AM - 1:30 PM

Sat: Victoria 6 PM - 11:59 PM

Sun: Seattle 8 AM

 

If you want a R/T out of Seattle, these are two of the best, given the Glacier Bay cruising.

 

I give an edge to HAL for the "best" mention.

[kerryw29]

I don't think it is helpful to ask someone trying to book an alaskan cruise if Alaska is important to them - because obviously it is - if someone just wanted to go on a cruise - depending on their location - you could do the carribean or a cruise to no where for a LOT cheaper.

 

I only have experience with RCI and Princess. I have been on RCI 1 time and Princess 4 (Just back from teh Diamond Princess this past Saturday for my Alaska trip).

 

If I had it to do again - I wouldn't book PRincess. Or I know I wouldn't book Diamond again for sure! The customer service on the ship - was AWFUL. They are becoming more and more like Carnival.

 

Alaska was very important - but you do have to consider the cruise line and the itinerary.

 

We picked the itinerary we picked - because of the 2 days of scenic glacier cruising. WHICH WAS AMAZING!

 

Good luck and have fun!

[rdnpdx1]

I give an edge to HAL for the "best" mention.

 

I agree that the Zuiderdam or Volendam cruise which includes Tracy Arm and Gllacier Bay R/T out of Vancouver is hard to beat. Doesn't cruise outside Vancouver Island either.

[rdnpdx1]

I don't think it is helpful to ask someone trying to book an alaskan cruise if Alaska is important to them - because obviously it is - if someone just wanted to go on a cruise - depending on their location - you could do the carribean or a cruise to no where for a LOT cheaper.

 

I only have experience with RCI and Princess. I have been on RCI 1 time and Princess 4 (Just back from teh Diamond Princess this past Saturday for my Alaska trip).

 

If I had it to do again - I wouldn't book PRincess. Or I know I wouldn't book Diamond again for sure! The customer service on the ship - was AWFUL. They are becoming more and more like Carnival.

 

Alaska was very important - but you do have to consider the cruise line and the itinerary.

 

We picked the itinerary we picked - because of the 2 days of scenic glacier cruising. WHICH WAS AMAZING!

 

Good luck and have fun!

 

Could you elaborate. We are booked on the Diamond next season and have never cruised with Princess. We considered Celebrity or RCI but chose Princess b/c of the Hubbard and Glacier Bay cruising S/B.

[Budget Queen]

I don't think it is helpful to ask someone trying to book an alaskan cruise if Alaska is important to them - because obviously it is - if someone just wanted to go on a cruise - depending on their location - you could do the carribean or a cruise to no where for a LOT cheaper.

 

I only have experience with RCI and Princess. I have been on RCI 1 time and Princess 4 (Just back from teh Diamond Princess this past Saturday for my Alaska trip).

 

If I had it to do again - I wouldn't book PRincess. Or I know I wouldn't book Diamond again for sure! The customer service on the ship - was AWFUL. They are becoming more and more like Carnival.

 

Alaska was very important - but you do have to consider the cruise line and the itinerary.

 

We picked the itinerary we picked - because of the 2 days of scenic glacier cruising. WHICH WAS AMAZING!

 

Good luck and have fun!

 

And on the other hand, it may be helpful to some. For me, the cruise is meals, lodging and transportation. I don't care about anything else, including "customer service". I have never had my minimal issues resolved. So, the itinerary is what is important to me. If the ship is, then it's best to know that- of yourself- when you are narrowing down your selections.

[sherryf]

This is the itinerary for the proposed cruise with princess:

1 Seattle, Washington 4:00 PM

2 At Sea

3 Juneau, Alaska 12:00 PM 10:00 PM

4 Skagway, Alaska 6:00 AM 8:15 PM

5 Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) 6:00 AM 3:00 PM

6 Ketchikan, Alaska 7:00 AM 12:30 PM

7 Victoria, British Columbia 7:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle, Washington 7:00 AM

 

Someone mentioned this isn't good for a first time cruise?

 

We have done a similar itinerary to this for the past 2 years on Princess, except that we went to Tracy Arm rather than Glacier Bay. This year we will do this itinerary, with Glacier Bay. We have really enjoyed Princess and the itinerary has been fine for us, but since we live in the Seattle area, it is easy for us to do RT cruises from here without the expense of airfare. We know we will do it again and have the option of doing different cruise lines and itineraries, so this is not a "trip of a lifetime" where we have to do everything perfectly. I think you need to plan differently if this is a "first" trip but you plan to go again vs. "once in a lifetime".

 

I don't think it is helpful to ask someone trying to book an alaskan cruise if Alaska is important to them - because obviously it is - if someone just wanted to go on a cruise - depending on their location - you could do the carribean or a cruise to no where for a LOT cheaper.

 

Not necessarily true. We live in the Seattle area, so doing RT to Alaska from here is relatively inexpensive for us, especially if we are willing to settle for cheap, inside cabins. Any other cruise we might choose to take, once you add in airfare, would be much more expensive for us. That's why all my cruises have been to Alaska! We do like Alaska, the scenery, wildlife, etc. This year, we are taking the kids, and for them it is all about the cruise itself. Yes, they will enjoy the Alaska aspect of it too, but honestly, they would have been happy with a cruise anywhere. It's just that a cruise to Alaska is cheaper for us than flying everyone to the Caribbean or Europe! We stuck with Princess because we've enjoyed them in the past, chose the Glacier Bay itinerary since we haven't been there yet, and of course, chose RT from Seattle to avoid the added expense of airfare or transfers to/from Vancouver. I know that most people put a lot more planning into a trip to Alaska, but not everybody does.

[kerryw29]

Could you elaborate. We are booked on the Diamond next season and have never cruised with Princess. We considered Celebrity or RCI but chose Princess b/c of the Hubbard and Glacier Bay cruising S/B.

 

1. While doing laundry on the first day of the cruise it took me 3 different laundry rooms to find machines that were available (not a customer service issue) but annoying. When we finally found available machines...the coin machines were empty. so I went back to all the other machines - all empty too. ONe of those rooms an employee had just been in and emptied the machine of the dollar bills and filled the machine with laundry detergent. we called passenger services and said - they would not fill the machine and if we wanted chnage we would have to go to the casino or to the passenger services desk to get the change. if you aren't going to fill the chnage machines - DON"T PROVIDE THE MACHINE. MINOR problem but annoying and a sign of lack of customer service.

 

2. Food service was very slow. I would like to chalk that up to the fact that I had to eat gluten free (first trip since discovering my illness). but even things like our water glasses would be empty for a while until we asked. I will say - the Dining room did really really well with my food allergy. I had to let teh ship know ahead of time - and got confirmation that they were planning fo rme to be gluten free....but i was very impressed with how they took care of me.

 

3. This is probably our biggest issue. We booked one excursion through the cruiseline...the others we booked on our own. The one we booked: White Pass Rail/Liarsville/Salmon Bake combo through them was $200/person. I had pre-registered for 2 tickets - one for me and one for my husband. The tickets were in an evenlope when we checked in. I put them in the safe - didn't look at them. The night before we were going to Skagway - I opened up the tickets and was going to put them in my wallet. When I looked - there were 4 tickets - 2 for me (with my name on them), and 2 for my husband (with his name on them). They were for the right tour - but all the same tour. Even if I had wanted 4 tickets for the tour - we had 2 for each of us with our names - which woudlnt' have been usable by anyone else. So that evening (again the night before the tour) - I went to the tour desk. It wasn't open. So I went to passenger services. They were not helpful at all. They said they couldn't do anything. that i had to wait for the tour services desk to open. which was in a couple of hours. they did print out our bill to date. It showed that I had logged in and purchased two tickets and lets' say 8;35 pm. then that at 8:40 pm my husband had logged in and purchased 2 tickets in his name....My husband has never logged into the online cruise personalizer. Plus - we didnt' need two tickets - so why would either of us purchase 2 tickets with out names. Devils advocate: If we were buying 4 tickets- 2 would be for us - and 2 would be for someone else - and we would have used 4 different names!

anyway - i finally got to meet with a tour desk person - and she said there was nothing that they could do. they said that she would try to speak to her manager who was in a meeting and get back to me. I asked her when was that going to be. she said her boss was in a meeting until 8:00 pm - so i said - I shoudl hear from you after 8 then? she said - no she didn't know when. I said well obviously i don't need 4 tickets- certainly you all will just not charge us for the 4 tickets.

She said - they will say - why didn't we check the tickets when we checked in. I said - so in the future I need to assume you all made a mistake so that I give you 48 hours to fix it? She didn't care for that.

She also commented that I hadn't purchased any other excursions. I said thank goodness - since they double charge me for all of them.

She didn't appreciate that either.

I will skip ahead: we dealt with 5 different crew members over 3 days before a resolution was reached. They ultimately didn't charge us. IT was a good end result - but it was stressful for the 3 days. so almost half of the trip.

The other thing was on the tour - our tour guy kept being 2 passengers short - we told him - it was probably us - because we were included in the account 2x. sure enough - the mystery 2 passengers never showed up.

 

I think good customer service would have been - whoever printed those tickets and put them in the envelope should have noticed - that there were 2 tickets for the same tour with the same name. Could have given us a call or a note to double check.

 

Yes I could have checked them the day i got on the ship. It never crossed my mind to. I knew what they were so i just put them in the safe.

 

4. It just felt in general the entire crew were just there. They weren't happy - they didn't make you feel special. Our cabin steward wasn't great. 3 difrerent times we came back from our FIXED dinner time - and he hadn't gotten to our room. We have been on 7 cruises - this has never happened. We had also pre-ordered an egg crate - that wasn't there - we had to ask for it again. why offer pre-ordering these types of things - if you aren't going to have them?

Also on our train ride from Talkeetna to Anchorage/Whittier to get on the ship. Princess sent someone on the train to get us checked in - scan our credit cards (which i had already pre-registered) and give us our ship cards etc. well that obviuosly didnt' work - because all of us in our party got nasty letters about not providing a credit card for our ship charges. We all had to go down and wait in line to register a credit card. (Which again I had done 2 times prior to getting on the ship). The next night - again another nasty letter. Same problem. No credit card on file.

We had also paid for a transfer from the ship - where i had spoekn to a princess staff member registered our flights - no records of the transfer or the flights - thank goodness i had printed proof of this....

 

All of the issues were resolved - it just seemed like one thing after another.

 

I have cruised with Princess 4 times, RCI 1 time (our favorite), Carnival (1 time - least favorite), and Celebrity 1 time (AWESOME).

 

We have problems on all Princess ships and we always say we won't cruise with them again - but they offer the best itineraries and that is what we shop for. We are in the process of booking Hawaii - but I don't think we are going to consider Hawaii at all.

 

IF I can be of further help - please don't hesitate.

[kerryw29]

We have done a similar itinerary to this for the past 2 years on Princess, except that we went to Tracy Arm rather than Glacier Bay. This year we will do this itinerary, with Glacier Bay. We have really enjoyed Princess and the itinerary has been fine for us, but since we live in the Seattle area, it is easy for us to do RT cruises from here without the expense of airfare. We know we will do it again and have the option of doing different cruise lines and itineraries, so this is not a "trip of a lifetime" where we have to do everything perfectly. I think you need to plan differently if this is a "first" trip but you plan to go again vs. "once in a lifetime".

 

 

 

Not necessarily true. We live in the Seattle area, so doing RT to Alaska from here is relatively inexpensive for us, especially if we are willing to settle for cheap, inside cabins. Any other cruise we might choose to take, once you add in airfare, would be much more expensive for us. That's why all my cruises have been to Alaska! We do like Alaska, the scenery, wildlife, etc. This year, we are taking the kids, and for them it is all about the cruise itself. Yes, they will enjoy the Alaska aspect of it too, but honestly, they would have been happy with a cruise anywhere. It's just that a cruise to Alaska is cheaper for us than flying everyone to the Caribbean or Europe! We stuck with Princess because we've enjoyed them in the past, chose the Glacier Bay itinerary since we haven't been there yet, and of course, chose RT from Seattle to avoid the added expense of airfare or transfers to/from Vancouver. I know that most people put a lot more planning into a trip to Alaska, but not everybody does.

 

I agree Sherry - that is why i said depending on their location. I am on the east coast - so that is why Carribean is so much cheaper for me. I just was reacting to hearing over and over - are you going for alaska or the ship. I see the point now - but again - why anyone would pay for an Alaskan cruise and not care about alaska is silly :)

[Sandi3667]

This is the itinerary for the proposed cruise with princess:

1 Seattle, Washington 4:00 PM

2 At Sea

3 Juneau, Alaska 12:00 PM 10:00 PM

4 Skagway, Alaska 6:00 AM 8:15 PM

5 Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) 6:00 AM 3:00 PM

6 Ketchikan, Alaska 7:00 AM 12:30 PM

7 Victoria, British Columbia 7:00 PM 11:59 PM

8 Seattle, Washington 7:00 AM

 

Someone mentioned this isn't good for a first time cruise?

 

We did a similar itinerary on our Oosterdam cruise in May. The downside that they refer to would be the short port times for Ketchikan & Victoria, along with sailing to the west of Vancouver Island, where the seas can be rougher.

 

The R/T Seattle cruises seem to follow similar schedules, across all lines. We had all day in Juneau, nearly a full day in Sitka, then 5-6 hours each in Victoria & Ketchikan. We still got to see the ports, but it wets your appetite to go back for another (longer) cruise. Fortunately, Seattle's a quick drive for us, so another cruise is pretty certain.

[uncleah]

We're planning our first Alaska cruise. We know two things: 1. Going on Princess 2. 7 days leaving aug 1 or aug 2.

 

We can't decide between Seattle round-trip with Tracy ARM or Vancouver to Whittier with Glacier Bay and College Fjord. Seattle round-trip is much cheaper for us airfare-wise, so that's a small consideration.

 

Can you recommend one over the other? Thanks.

 

We'd recommend Glacier Bay. We were really glad we had a balcony. It was the only time we used room service. It was like watching a postcard go by and we didn't want to leave.

[rdnpdx1]

1. While doing laundry on the first day of the cruise it took me 3 different laundry rooms to find machines that were available (not a customer service issue) but annoying. When we finally found available machines...the coin machines were empty. so I went back to all the other machines - all empty too. ONe of those rooms an employee had just been in and emptied the machine of the dollar bills and filled the machine with laundry detergent. we called passenger services and said - they would not fill the machine and if we wanted chnage we would have to go to the casino or to the passenger services desk to get the change. if you aren't going to fill the chnage machines - DON"T PROVIDE THE MACHINE. MINOR problem but annoying and a sign of lack of customer service.

 

2. Food service was very slow. I would like to chalk that up to the fact that I had to eat gluten free (first trip since discovering my illness). but even things like our water glasses would be empty for a while until we asked. I will say - the Dining room did really really well with my food allergy. I had to let teh ship know ahead of time - and got confirmation that they were planning fo rme to be gluten free....but i was very impressed with how they took care of me.

 

3. This is probably our biggest issue. We booked one excursion through the cruiseline...the others we booked on our own. The one we booked: White Pass Rail/Liarsville/Salmon Bake combo through them was $200/person. I had pre-registered for 2 tickets - one for me and one for my husband. The tickets were in an evenlope when we checked in. I put them in the safe - didn't look at them. The night before we were going to Skagway - I opened up the tickets and was going to put them in my wallet. When I looked - there were 4 tickets - 2 for me (with my name on them), and 2 for my husband (with his name on them). They were for the right tour - but all the same tour. Even if I had wanted 4 tickets for the tour - we had 2 for each of us with our names - which woudlnt' have been usable by anyone else. So that evening (again the night before the tour) - I went to the tour desk. It wasn't open. So I went to passenger services. They were not helpful at all. They said they couldn't do anything. that i had to wait for the tour services desk to open. which was in a couple of hours. they did print out our bill to date. It showed that I had logged in and purchased two tickets and lets' say 8;35 pm. then that at 8:40 pm my husband had logged in and purchased 2 tickets in his name....My husband has never logged into the online cruise personalizer. Plus - we didnt' need two tickets - so why would either of us purchase 2 tickets with out names. Devils advocate: If we were buying 4 tickets- 2 would be for us - and 2 would be for someone else - and we would have used 4 different names!

anyway - i finally got to meet with a tour desk person - and she said there was nothing that they could do. they said that she would try to speak to her manager who was in a meeting and get back to me. I asked her when was that going to be. she said her boss was in a meeting until 8:00 pm - so i said - I shoudl hear from you after 8 then? she said - no she didn't know when. I said well obviously i don't need 4 tickets- certainly you all will just not charge us for the 4 tickets.

She said - they will say - why didn't we check the tickets when we checked in. I said - so in the future I need to assume you all made a mistake so that I give you 48 hours to fix it? She didn't care for that.

She also commented that I hadn't purchased any other excursions. I said thank goodness - since they double charge me for all of them.

She didn't appreciate that either.

I will skip ahead: we dealt with 5 different crew members over 3 days before a resolution was reached. They ultimately didn't charge us. IT was a good end result - but it was stressful for the 3 days. so almost half of the trip.

The other thing was on the tour - our tour guy kept being 2 passengers short - we told him - it was probably us - because we were included in the account 2x. sure enough - the mystery 2 passengers never showed up.

 

I think good customer service would have been - whoever printed those tickets and put them in the envelope should have noticed - that there were 2 tickets for the same tour with the same name. Could have given us a call or a note to double check.

 

Yes I could have checked them the day i got on the ship. It never crossed my mind to. I knew what they were so i just put them in the safe.

 

4. It just felt in general the entire crew were just there. They weren't happy - they didn't make you feel special. Our cabin steward wasn't great. 3 difrerent times we came back from our FIXED dinner time - and he hadn't gotten to our room. We have been on 7 cruises - this has never happened. We had also pre-ordered an egg crate - that wasn't there - we had to ask for it again. why offer pre-ordering these types of things - if you aren't going to have them?

Also on our train ride from Talkeetna to Anchorage/Whittier to get on the ship. Princess sent someone on the train to get us checked in - scan our credit cards (which i had already pre-registered) and give us our ship cards etc. well that obviuosly didnt' work - because all of us in our party got nasty letters about not providing a credit card for our ship charges. We all had to go down and wait in line to register a credit card. (Which again I had done 2 times prior to getting on the ship). The next night - again another nasty letter. Same problem. No credit card on file.

We had also paid for a transfer from the ship - where i had spoekn to a princess staff member registered our flights - no records of the transfer or the flights - thank goodness i had printed proof of this....

 

All of the issues were resolved - it just seemed like one thing after another.

 

I have cruised with Princess 4 times, RCI 1 time (our favorite), Carnival (1 time - least favorite), and Celebrity 1 time (AWESOME).

 

We have problems on all Princess ships and we always say we won't cruise with them again - but they offer the best itineraries and that is what we shop for. We are in the process of booking Hawaii - but I don't think we are going to consider Hawaii at all.

 

IF I can be of further help - please don't hesitate.

 

Thanks for the response. Our original preference was Celebrity, but they do not go into Glacier Bay, so we opted for Princess. Glad to hear the nature of the problems.

[tiggerman101]

I may as well ask advice on this thread. We did Alaska last year on Carnival and really enjoyed it. We want to try another Alaska cruise next summer, but take a different route. We want to see Glacier Bay as we did Tracy Arm last time. The catch is that it needs to be R/T out of Seattle. I am debating between Golden Princess and HAL Westerdam. The advantage of HAL is that it also goes to Sitka which is another port we haven't been to. However, I am a bit concerned that it might be a little "stuffy" for us. Either way, we don't party or stay out late and are basically in our 40's (38 and 49). Any thoughts?

[rdnpdx1]

I may as well ask advice on this thread. We did Alaska last year on Carnival and really enjoyed it. We want to try another Alaska cruise next summer, but take a different route. We want to see Glacier Bay as we did Tracy Arm last time. The catch is that it needs to be R/T out of Seattle. I am debating between Golden Princess and HAL Westerdam. The advantage of HAL is that it also goes to Sitka which is another port we haven't been to. However, I am a bit concerned that it might be a little "stuffy" for us. Either way, we don't party or stay out late and are basically in our 40's (38 and 49). Any thoughts?

 

I have read here in comments by several who know much better than I, including Budget Queen, that the demographics on all the main lines in Alaska are similar, so I would not worry about that. Personally, I think Sitka is a great stop and one I really would like to have on my Alaska cruise, especially if the other stops are similar. Sitka is less touristy and has a well-preserved Russian heritage from its time as capital of Russian Alaska 150 years ago. For a history buff like me that is a major attraction.

 

It also sees fewer ships, and those it sees are generally smaller. For these reasons it is less overrun by cruisers.

[Budget Queen]

I may as well ask advice on this thread. We did Alaska last year on Carnival and really enjoyed it. We want to try another Alaska cruise next summer, but take a different route. We want to see Glacier Bay as we did Tracy Arm last time. The catch is that it needs to be R/T out of Seattle. I am debating between Golden Princess and HAL Westerdam. The advantage of HAL is that it also goes to Sitka which is another port we haven't been to. However, I am a bit concerned that it might be a little "stuffy" for us. Either way, we don't party or stay out late and are basically in our 40's (38 and 49). Any thoughts?

 

Your passenger demographics and "tone" of the ship will be similar. The itinerary is excellent on the HAL, and if the priority, I wouldn't consider giving any thought to any "stuffy" issue. :)

[sherryf]

I may as well ask advice on this thread. We did Alaska last year on Carnival and really enjoyed it. We want to try another Alaska cruise next summer, but take a different route. We want to see Glacier Bay as we did Tracy Arm last time. The catch is that it needs to be R/T out of Seattle. I am debating between Golden Princess and HAL Westerdam. The advantage of HAL is that it also goes to Sitka which is another port we haven't been to. However, I am a bit concerned that it might be a little "stuffy" for us. Either way, we don't party or stay out late and are basically in our 40's (38 and 49). Any thoughts?

 

We have done Princess the last two years and will again in 3 weeks, and we have enjoyed it immensely. BUT, we are considering doing HAL next year in order to see Sitka, which we haven't been to yet. I'm not really concerned about the "stuffy" issue. I think all ships are pretty similar in Alaska. My first trip was on Carnival and my other trips have been Princess, but I'd say they were pretty similar in terms of demographics. There really aren't any "party ships" in Alaska.

[tiggerman101]

Thanks for the input. I am all about trying different cruise lines out. My partner feels very comfortable on Carnival due to its laid back atmosphere. That is where the "stuffy" comment came from. We both want to go back to Alaska. I am just trying to mix it up a little.

[Sandi3667]

I may as well ask advice on this thread. We did Alaska last year on Carnival and really enjoyed it. We want to try another Alaska cruise next summer, but take a different route. We want to see Glacier Bay as we did Tracy Arm last time. The catch is that it needs to be R/T out of Seattle. I am debating between Golden Princess and HAL Westerdam. The advantage of HAL is that it also goes to Sitka which is another port we haven't been to. However, I am a bit concerned that it might be a little "stuffy" for us. Either way, we don't party or stay out late and are basically in our 40's (38 and 49). Any thoughts?

 

We were on HAL's Oosterdam in May of this year. It was our first cruise, and we were a group of 4 ranging from 41-55. We felt right at home. I'm not into partying, and the nights I was out late, I spent wandering the outside decks, enjoying the peace & views. There is action in the casino & nightclubs for those that want a more active evening.

 

I'd heartily recommend Sitka. We booked too many excursions, and wound up not having enough time to explore town, so I'm already plotting to get another trip back up there. Once our budgets all recover, I think I've got everyone convinced to return. :rolleyes:

[shepp]

All of the issues were resolved - it just seemed like one thing after another.

 

On the other hand, on my recent sailing on the Island Princess - now on the Alaska route - we had, hands down, the best crew I've experienced. So it's important not to generalize too very much about an entire line based on your experience on a single cruise. On a single Celebrity cruise, I had the worst and best waitstaff ever.

 

And - with all due respect - some of your complaints, like having to ask a second time for an eggcrate, or the change machine being out of coins - seem a bit minor. Honestly, I can't believe that the tone of a customer service letter would be outright "nasty"...what "Dear freeloading scum?"...which makes me, sorry, question some of your other details.

 

No, I'm not a Princess cheerleader. But neither am I a traveler who expects every single thing to be flawless.

[tiggerman101]

Thanks again. I booked the Westerdam for next summer. I am looking forward to going back to Alaska.