We are going to look into ANOTHER cruise line for Alaska

We haven't taken it yet, but we're booking an Alaskan on Princess. Our TA recommended Princess over HAL for us b/c she said that the HAL passengers tend to be older. We aren't exactly young (mid 50's, traveling w/o kids) but we like to be active. We wanted to do the land/cruise thing, hence DCL didn't make sense for us.
 
We're gold with DCL, but have cruised Alaska 5 times: 2 RCCL, 2 Princess, and 1 HAL. Would strongly recommend Princess because of Glacier Bay, the food, and the Princess lodges. We did a land tour through Denali and up to Fairbanks. Great trip. We spent three nights at the base of Mt. McKinley. The summit was shrouded in clouds for two days, but we finally saw it. Some people spend a week there without ever getting a peek at the peak.

RCCL offers a relatively new port -- Icy Strait Point where lotsa whales hang out. We combined whale watching with bear watching. A friend did NCL Alaska and really enjoyed it, tho she said the crew's accents were difficult to understand.
 
PrincessShmoo said:
The first Alaska cruise we booked, I was convinced that it was going to be my ONLY Alaska cruise, as I don't do cold. I found that most Alaska cruisers say that Glacier Bay is a must (over Tracy Arm) if you have to make a choice. That being said, I was truly glad to find that Holland America had a cruise that included both Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm. The best of both worlds. I agree, if you're only going to do one Alaska cruise, Glacier Bay is much more dramatic than Tracy Arm. But, Tracy Arm is quite spectacular, also. Both definitely worth seeing.

We had longer port times (compared to DCL) in the ports we visited, also. That gave us much more time to explore.

Of course, by the end of the cruise, I was smitten. We booked a cruise/tour for our next one. And we did the "big" one (as in 12 day land tour & 7 night Seward/Vancouver cruise), again with Holland America. It included the Yukon and many stops much further inland and north in Alaska than the cruise along the ocean can do. And, if visiting Denali, IMO, 3 nights there is important, as there's no guarantee you will actually even see Denali on any given day.

While we haven't been on Princess (yet), the Holland America ships are still in the style of "old-time" cruise ships. Although, they are a bit darker in their interior spaces compared to DCL. And there's only one MDR, although you can do assigned dining or can dine when you want. The buffet is a buffet for dinner, as well. There are 2 extra cost dining venues onboard - Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto. a couple of ships also have Tamarind restaurant.

We've found service for the most part was quite good, but can be somewhat impersonal on occasion. The "feel" of the onboard crew being "servants" more than "friends" is definitely there. But we were usually able to break through to our dining room servers on all our cruises with them and have fun.

Big plus, the pools are covered for the Alaska cruises (but covers can be opened on those days where the sun actually shines).
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PrincessShmoo said:
Biggest downside - the cheapie "buy it now" events they had poolside.
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I just want to add that the room service on HAL was very good. One night, we were tired from the port excursion and ordered our main dining room meal in the cabin. What a relaxing treat! :goodvibes We didn't go near the pool sales :rolleyes1 We didn't think that we would enjoy Caneletto, but our TA gifted us a meal for the second formal night. It was great! So glad that we went.

PrincessShmoo said:
Unfortunately, a regularly quoted mistake. We find quite a mix of ages on all our HAL cruises. Cruising in Alaska (if you're going for the "Alaska experience") should really be chosen by itinerary and prices - not passenger mix, IMO.
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 Took DH 4 days before he commented on the age of some of the passengers. I had to remind him of his age. :duck: LOL Nice to see that even as we age, hopefully with good health, this is something that we will be able to continue to do. :cloud9:
 
Debbie said:
I just want to add that the room service on HAL was very good. One night, we were tired from the port excursion and ordered our main dining room meal in the cabin. What a relaxing treat! :goodvibes We didn't go near the pool sales :rolleyes1 We didn't think that we would enjoy Caneletto, but our TA gifted us a meal for the second formal night. It was great! So glad that we went.

Took DH 4 days before he commented on the age of some of the passengers. I had to remind him of his age. :duck: LOL Nice to see that even as we age, hopefully with good health, this is something that we will be able to continue to do. :cloud9:
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Avoid the burger on the room service menu. I got that the night we were in Victoria (the only place I wanted to eat had run out of chicken strips - bummer!!) and it was barely edible. I only ordered that because I didn't like the cafeteria offerings in the Lido (they claim "buffet" but nothing is serve yourself even after the 48-hour period, so I call it a cafeteria). Other stuff might be ok, but avoid the burger like the plague.

I was with a running group, so I mainly just saw them - we were all late 20s and up - but there did seem to be more of a mix than what I'd anticipated based on the reputation and my cousin's report from all of his and his mom's cruises (they are pretty much exclusively HAL cruisers because of HAL's very liberal smoking policy). I was much more aware of the kids on the ship because the club seemed to have very limited hours (every time we'd accidentally walk by it was dark), and from what a couple of them were saying as they were jumping off the sculpture at the pool "it's boring".

It's not a cruiseline I intend to sail again (the group has changed to Royal Caribbean this year partly because of different ports but mostly because the time in ports is so much longer than HAL - I want to say we were in Ketchikan from like 7-1 or something crazy short - which IMHO is something to consider...see how long each line is in port as part of the consideration) but that is just my take. Lots of people love them.
 
Love Alaska and you don't need Mickey to do it. Too much other excitement and beauty to enjoy! We've sailed to Alaska 3 times with Holland America and once with Princess. Each has their own railroad cars that follow the Alaska Railroad thru Denali. We would probably do Princess again the next time we go to Alaska. But, both are nice. I think HAL draws an older crowd and the ships are slightly older.
 
I've never found HAL cruisers to be older than other cruise lines, I think a lot of depends upon "when" you're cruising. I haven't cruised Princess... yet (I've been eyeing their west coast cruises), but I've heard good things about them. I don't think you can go wrong with Princess or HAL if you're looking at Alaska. Select the best itinerary that you're interested in for the best price/deal. Our first HAL cruise was with friends who suggested HAL, and we wanted to visit Sitka and Glacier Bay.
 
We sailed Alaska on Princess. We enjoyed it very much. There were plenty of things to do and the price on a balcony room was very reasonable. I found the food in the main dining room and buffet very good. It was my first cruise, but I didn't find anything lacking.

We have since sailed on the Disney Fantasy. I love all things Disney, and would love to sail the Wonder to Alaska. However with the prices as they are, we would have to get a great deal to actually book it.
 
DISNEY FANTASY said:
We went on the Wonder to Alaska, we just got a plane to fly us over Glacier bay from Skagway,and.... tracy Arm was far better.

DCL does a great and very popular cruise with a good itinerary to Alaska.
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Flying over Glacier Bay is not even close to the amazing experience of sailing into Glacier Bay NP. I've done both, Glacier Bay on Princess and Tracy Arm on NCL (just qualifying my experience LOL). Tracy Arm is nice but sailing Glacier Bay is truly spectacular, IMO!!
 
Thank you to all that have posted to this thread. It has been a lot of good info that I was looking for. We are planning on taking our Niece (who lives in Seattle) on an Alaska Cruise for her graduation present next year. When I looked at prices, and so on it would cost us an extra $200-300 to fly to Vancouver. Just did not see DCL as a good choice and we love DCL. I just wish sometimes they would switch things up a little more than they do.
 
I worry that with my eight year old won't have as much to do on another line in Alaska. Especially in sea days. A friend of mine went on NCL and said there were zero families with kids.

Throughts on cruisinf Alaska with younger kids on another line?
 
One more thing about HAL vs Princess.... the atrium areas on Princess are sooooo much better than HAL.
 
Noticing that no one appears to be sailing Celebrity to Alaska.....I picked them primarily due to the supervrestrictive smoking policy (dad had a lung transplant and is very sensitive to smoke/we're Californians,so not used to smelling smoke in public areas). Is there a reason why they are not part of the usually used lines?
 
Karlzmom said:
Noticing that no one appears to be sailing Celebrity to Alaska.....I picked them primarily due to the supervrestrictive smoking policy (dad had a lung transplant and is very sensitive to smoke/we're Californians,so not used to smelling smoke in public areas). Is there a reason why they are not part of the usually used lines?
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Probably mostly because Celebrity doesn't do Glacier Bay. And that's generally a high priority for most Alaska cruises (on other than DCL lines).
 
I've done Princess to Alaska. It was a really nice cruise---we ended in Whittier and took the train to Anchorage to go home, which was fabulous. But I think one thing about the Alaska cruises is that the ports are more important than the boat---most ships hit Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, but there is a lot more to Alaska then those three ports (especially if you don't do excursions or see more than the downtown). Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay---a cruise that does both would really be amazing. And Sitka is a great port---HAL I think is really the only large cruise ship that goes there at this point. Icy Strait (aka Hoonah) is pretty cool though you won't get both Icy Strait and Sitka in one trip I don't think. I live in Alaska, so I get to go to all the ports (lucky me) and then some---my advice is to get out and see what you won't anywhere else. I know it's good for the economy, but shopping at Diamonds International here instead of going to say, The Fortress of the Bears or the Raptor Center? I don't get it. Of course, I don't really shop anywhere I cruise, so maybe I'm just weird.
 
We enjoyed our roundtrip on Radiance of the Seas. So much so we're doing it again this year (though going forward it doesn't look like they'll have a Radiance class doing a r/t cruise, sad sad sad).

And we're intrigued by Celebrity.

PrincessShmoo said:
Unfortunately, a regularly quoted mistake. We find quite a mix of ages on all our HAL cruises. Cruising in Alaska (if you're going for the "Alaska experience") should really be chosen by itinerary and prices - not passenger mix, IMO.
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Though it was MIL's experience. She was 75 for her cruise and she said that most people were older than her and taking up too much room with their rollators. Given that SHE should have been using HER rollator, but wasn't out of vanity, I thought that was funny...

Karlzmom said:
Noticing that no one appears to be sailing Celebrity to Alaska.....I picked them primarily due to the supervrestrictive smoking policy (dad had a lung transplant and is very sensitive to smoke/we're Californians,so not used to smelling smoke in public areas). Is there a reason why they are not part of the usually used lines?
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If you like their smoking policy, just do it and be happy. It's why it's now on our short list. DH likes to gamble a bit, so the casino will make him happy. I cannot deal with 2nd or 3rd hand (what gets on and emits from hair, skin, and clothing) smoke, so he cannot gamble when on a normal casino-containing ship. Celebrity will allow him to have his sort of fun while also allowing him to re-enter our cabin. :)
 
Great thread! We're trying to figure out who to sail to Alaska with, as well. I know our kids would love DCL to Alaska, but I actually would like DD to see something other than kids' club and princesses, and I'm afraid that is what she'll be focused on on another DCL cruise. (We've got a DCL cruise booked for the Christmas holidays this year; we are not depriving her of her beloved princesses entirely. I'd just rather she saw whales than Elsa in Alaska.)

We've decided that we need to do roundtrip out of Seattle, or possibly Vancouver, for our Alaska trip. Our 4 year old was horrible on her plane flights last year, and there is no way we want to fly back to Texas from Anchorage. We want something we can do an easy roundtrip from, so Seattle it is. We're not viewing this as a once in a lifetime trip. Two of our party have been to Alaska before, although it has been many years, and we cruise pretty much every year. (We have a 10 year old and a 4 year old, and I didn't really want to take an under 5 year old to Alaska. I'm iffy about going too soon with DD, because so many excursions have age limits, but since 8, 9, or 10 seem to be limits I've seen, and I don't want to wait another 4+ years, we've decided to compromise with a roundtrip somewhat kid focused trip.)

We always get suites, and we've been thinking that the Haven and the Haven perks look really good on NCL. The Norwegian Jewel currently has Nickelodeon characters and events, so we're thinking that they probably have a fair number of kids on board. I don't hear great things about the food on NCL, but we'd just plan to eat in the extra charge specialty restaurants every night, which I understand will improve the meal situation.

Honestly, we weren't even considering Holland America because it doesn't seem as kid friendly. They haven't managed to change their image from being a older focused line, even if the actuality is changing. I have looked a little at Princess, but wasn't finding cabins that met our needs quite as well. (We prefer 2 bedroom suites.) RCCL skips Ketchikan, and our son has already found a shore excursion he really really wants to do in Ketchikan, so RCCL is out.

Anyway, we're really thinking about who to cruise with, and which month would be best. I think we're leaning toward a July cruise, but I'm afraid we might be too early to see bears. (Not that DD would be allowed on any of the excursions that go to see bears anyway :P.) So many factors to consider!
 
kaseyC said:
Flying over Glacier Bay is not even close to the amazing experience of sailing into Glacier Bay NP. I've done both, Glacier Bay on Princess and Tracy Arm on NCL (just qualifying my experience LOL). Tracy Arm is nice but sailing Glacier Bay is truly spectacular, IMO!!
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Disagree, how can that be possible, we have a chartered plane just us and go lowe over it and up to it form the water, we see all angles and continue up the Glaciers where the ships cant go. Ships are limited what they can do and sail up to. I went over it, up it down it for 90 minutes.

Tracy Arm was spectacular.
 
bumbershoot said:
We enjoyed our roundtrip on Radiance of the Seas. So much so we're doing it again this year (though going forward it doesn't look like they'll have a Radiance class doing a r/t cruise, sad sad sad).

And we're intrigued by Celebrity.



Though it was MIL's experience. She was 75 for her cruise and she said that most people were older than her and taking up too much room with their rollators. Given that SHE should have been using HER rollator, but wasn't out of vanity, I thought that was funny...



If you like their smoking policy, just do it and be happy. It's why it's now on our short list. DH likes to gamble a bit, so the casino will make him happy. I cannot deal with 2nd or 3rd hand (what gets on and emits from hair, skin, and clothing) smoke, so he cannot gamble when on a normal casino-containing ship. Celebrity will allow him to have his sort of fun while also allowing him to re-enter our cabin. :)
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Yes

We have bene on Princess, and RCCL and other cruise lines, bar far DCL has the lowest average age, DCL has families, children, and a good mix.

The others have a far far older average age, I have felt the youngest there, and when we were in the MDRs we were sat with people who were 65>80.

DCL is the cruise line for families.
 
DISNEY FANTASY said:
Disagree, how can that be possible, we have a chartered plane just us and go lowe over it and up to it form the water, we see all angles and continue up the Glaciers where the ships cant go. Ships are limited what they can do and sail up to. I went over it, up it down it for 90 minutes.

Tracy Arm was spectacular.
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I was going to post the same thing as kaseyC...again! Flying over and sailing through are two different experiences. When you have flown over Tracy Arm or sailed through Glacier Bay - THEN you can tell us if you still think Tracy Arm is superior! Tracy Arm is a nice fjord with 2 so-so glaciers at the end. Glacier Bay is a national park with 11 glaciers: http://www.nps.gov/glba/faqs.htm

* Just wanted to clarify that I am not questioning your experience of preferring Tracy Arm over Glacier Bay, as you are entitled to your opinion. However, you aren't comparing apples to apples.
 
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