advice- DCL to alaska or other cruise line

[Oursweetworld]

I need seasoned cruisers advice PLEASE! We cruised for the first and only time with DCL 2 weeks ago on the Fantasy to western caribbean. WE LOVED IT! I placed a holder for another cruise with the possibility of booking an Alaskan cruise summer of 2017. The more I read, the more it seems people are going to other cruise lines for trips to Alaska. If price is not a factor (not saying money doesn't matter, but I will always be happy to pay more for a better product), is DCL the cruise line to choose or should we consider another line? My children will be 8, 11, & 15. We loved our time on the Fantasy especially the incredible service and friendly cast members and cruisers. Also loved all was included (except spa services and alcohol of course) and we weren't nicked and dimed throughout the cruise. I have no experience with other lines so your opinion really matters. Alaska will be a one-time trip so I want to go with the best.
Thanks in advance!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I need seasoned cruisers advice PLEASE! We cruised for the first and only time with DCL 2 weeks ago on the Fantasy to western caribbean. WE LOVED IT! I placed a holder for another cruise with the possibility of booking an Alaskan cruise summer of 2017. The more I read, the more it seems people are going to other cruise lines for trips to Alaska. If price is not a factor (not saying money doesn't matter, but I will always be happy to pay more for a better product), is DCL the cruise line to choose or should we consider another line? My children will be 8, 11, & 15. We loved our time on the Fantasy especially the incredible service and friendly cast members and cruisers. Also loved all was included (except spa services and alcohol of course) and we weren't nicked and dimed throughout the cruise. I have no experience with other lines so your opinion really matters. Alaska will be a one-time trip so I want to go with the best.
Thanks in advance!

The question is - do you want to experience Alaska. Or do you want a Disney experience with Alaska on the side?

Only you can answer that. For the most part, kids may be more entertained on a Disney cruise than the other major cruise lines that do Alaska. Although I've read that Princess kid's clubs are pretty good.

Generally, other cruiselines have "better" itineraries (ports/port times) than DCL does. But DCL does a good enough job for a taste of Alaska. Not all cruise lines go to Glacier Bay, which, in many people's opinions is a "must do". Especially if you're only going to Alaska once.

I'd suggest you figure out what you want out of visiting Alaska, look at the itineraries, and go from there. Princess and Holland America have done Alaska the longest. We've done Alaska twice on HAL. When we booked the first cruise (7 night round trip out of Vancouver) I was firmly of the opinion that it was a "once and done" cruise (I don't do cold well). We were very happy that we had found a cruise that went to both Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. By day 3 of the cruise, we knew we were coming back. Second trip was a 19 day land/sea tour (cruise 7 days Seward to Vancouver) starting in the Yukon. And, yes, we're going back again another time.

 

[Oursweetworld]

The question is - do you want to experience Alaska. Or do you want a Disney experience with Alaska on the side?

Only you can answer that. For the most part, kids may be more entertained on a Disney cruise than the other major cruise lines that do Alaska. Although I've read that Princess kid's clubs are pretty good.

Generally, other cruiselines have "better" itineraries (ports/port times) than DCL does. But DCL does a good enough job for a taste of Alaska. Not all cruise lines go to Glacier Bay, which, in many people's opinions is a "must do". Especially if you're only going to Alaska once.

I'd suggest you figure out what you want out of visiting Alaska, look at the itineraries, and go from there. Princess and Holland America have done Alaska the longest. We've done Alaska twice on HAL.

Good question! I'd like to experience Alaska but have no "must do" list of sights and places. The pictures I've seen are amazing and I think it is something myself and my children should experience instead of going to beaches all the time. My children will not have the same interest (sad to say) and will probably have more fun exploring ship and making friends so the ship is an important part of this trip too. My husband said no more than 7 days! SO that is a make or break when planning this trip. Thanks for your quick reply Princess Shmoo.

 

[turtle27]

It depends on how important seeing Glacier Bay is to you. At the moment, and unless things have changed, for the near future, DCL does not have permission to sail Glacier Bay. Then, there is also the question of whether you want to do a land tour of Alaska with your cruise. If my memory serves, Holland America and Princess have the most ownership of the land tours. We did Alaska on Princess, and while I was underwhelmed with Princess, Alaska is just amazing, so the itinerary more than makes up for the shortfalls of Princess. When I went, we did a Fairbanks to Anchorage/Whittier land portion and then Whittier to Vancouver cruise. It was all just amazing. As in, if I could bear the cold, I would move to Alaska. Glacier Bay was truly a highlight, although I am sure any cruise to Alaska is wonderful, with or without Glacier Bay. What I generally recommend, if this is your one and only time to get to Alaska (flights from Texas were pretty pricey up to Fairbanks, not quite Europe air fares, but not pretty) due to cost/time/wanting to go elsewhere, then go on a line where you get to see Glacier Bay, it was that spectacular, imho. During the land portion, there was quite a bit for kids to do even on Princess. Alaska is a very much for those who love the outdoors and there is no end to the activities you can do. 4 wheeling, Hummer tours in Fairbanks (way fun), gold panning, whale watching, hikes, etc.

 

[MamaBear58]

I am in the exact boat (no pun intended). We got off the Fantasy on 3/26 and also booked a placeholder. The only difference is this was my 12th cruise, so I know that I can have a great experience on another line--the question is "Will my kids?". The answer, after minimal research--check out Cruise Critic--is yes. I have ordered brochures from HAL, Celebrity and Princess and will be comparing with Disney and going with the itinerary/cost that best works for us. If you want to touch base to share research, I'm happy to do that.

 

[The Grays]

We are booked on the May 30 Alaska cruise. It would have been nice to have done another cruise line to save money. But our DD is 16 and we heard how many of the other cruise lines had very little kids on them. With no other siblings it may be hard for her to enjoy herself at sea. So we decided to do our first trip to Alaska with Disney so we can all be happy on the trip. This gives us the chance to see if we want to return and for how long.

 

[RedSox68]

We chose HAL because (1) much cheaper and (2) they cruise Glacier Bay where DCL doesn't. But as previously posted, it depends on the experience you want to have

 

[Pens Fan]

We did Disney to Alaska with our 14 year old. At the time, it was the best family vacation we had ever taken. Yes, I would have preferred Glacier Bay to Tracy Arm (DH and I had done a small boat tour of Tracy Arm a long time ago, but never Glacier Bay). But we still loved every minute of that cruise, and we never even considered another cruise line. Our son was still very much into the "Disney" aspects of the cruise. I think Schmoo nails it with her question of whether or not you're looking for a Disney cruise that happens to go to Alaska, or if Alaska is the main focus. For us, at that time, it was definitely the former, and sticking with Disney was absolutely the right choice. Now, flash forward 4 years and we have another Alaska cruise booked on NCL for 2017. We never even considered Disney, because this time it's all about going to Alaska. Our son will be 19 and will have aged out of the youth programs. The Mickey aspect is not nearly as important to us this time around. On our last Disney cruise (11 night Norway/Iceland) we really didn't take advantage of the things on the ship - just a few shows here and there. The rest just didn't interest us that much or we were too tired from very long days in port. While the trip was amazing in every way it was because of the destination, not because we were on a Disney ship. The Disney service (and seeing Viking Goofy all over the ship) was a nice plus, but it didn't make that trip for us. We are really excited to try NCL for Alaska. We chose them because they:

1. Went to Glacier Bay (as does Princess, HAL and I believe Carnival (could be wrong about Carnival)
2. Offer one way itineraries from Vancouver (we've been to Seattle several times and wanted to explore Vancouver this time) to Seward to open up an additional week of land based adventure. We aren't packaged tour kind of people so we are renting a car and going our own way. Had we wanted a packaged tour, as others have said Princess and HAL have the most experience at that, though NCL does offer them.
3. We love, love, love the idea of Freestyle cruising. We are pretty much over the whole eat when and where we are told concept. I know a few other lines have started "anytime" dining, but NCL really pioneered that concept and their ships are specifically made for it. We are excited to try it.
4. We are hoping for a younger demographic on NCL vs Princess and HAL. I don't know how that will play out, but from what I've read HAL definitely wasn't for us (my son pretty much nixed that from day one) and for whatever reason Princess just didn't feel right to us, either. We are looking forward to leaving the dressier clothes at home and living in jeans and shorts for two weeks. Dressing up for me will mean ditching the hiking boots for a pair of clogs or ballet flats.
5. We have booked an aft suite that includes the unlimited beverage plan, 4 nights of specialty dining, 250 minutes of wifi and $150 in shore excursion credits (doubt we use the last one, though) plus all of the cool suite perks. When you factor in the extras, we will probably end up paying less than we would for a standard balcony on Disney and paying for those other things separately.

We weren't necessarily looking to take a less expensive cruise, just one that seems a better fit for us at this time.

All that being said, if you choose Disney I have no doubt you will have an amazing vacation as did we four years ago. With the age of your children and just having come off of the Fantasy, they will love it. Whatever you decide, I have no doubt you will find Alaska as incredible as we did . This will be our third trip there and I'm sure it won't be the last! You can always do what we did. Give your kids a taste of Alaska on Disney and then go back later for a more immersive experience on another line or even a totally land based trip.

 

[IncredibleboysMom]

We are platinum Disney cruisers; our 15th was in March. Our kids are 10, 12 and 16 and we are booked on Carnival in May to Alaska. Factoring in our decision were a few things. One, our kids LOVE the clubs, and would happily stay there all day. We wanted them to see and enjoy the beauty of Alaska. Carnival does have kids clubs as well for when they absolutely MUST get away from us.
Two, this is likely a once in a lifetime (or at least a long time) trip and we did not want to miss Glacier Bay. Carnival only has a couple Glacier Bay itineraries per season and one happened to line up with when we wanted to go.
Three, one balcony and one inside (across the hall) was 40% less on Carnival than two inside rooms on Disney. Alaskan excursions are quite expensive and we wanted to leave some money in the budget for those.
I fully expect there to be some negative comparisons made, but we did decide that the goal of this trip was to see Alaska, not to spend time on a superior ship.

 

[krisinparis]

PPs bring up lots of good points! We used Princess for Alaska as we wanted to go all the way up to Anchorage. As another poster mentioned, excursions are quite pricey in Alaska as many of them involve boats, planes and helicopters, so saving a few thousand on the cruise could go a long way towards the shore excursions. My kids liked the kid's clubs on Princess (they were 4 and 8 at the time). There were not as many kids on board, but they got a lot of attention from the Youth Counselors and liked the scheduled activities. We also planned to just go to Alaska once, but a week was not enough and we are planning a return trip in a few years.

 

[over50visits]

The absolute key to Alaska is Glacier bay. A deal breaker for us as adults when we chose not to use DCL for Alaska.

But for you, your kids are young enough that one day in Glacier Bay might not be enough to sway them. I'd say consider your real goal for the cruise, what experience you want for the kids, and choose the one your inner voice tells you is right. As great as DCL is, there are other good lines out there (gasp) that have great family cruises.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

We are platinum with DCL and we are extremely happy that we chose HAL for Alaska. We felt that we were going for Alaska itself and not Disney. We flew into Fairbanks and ended up in Vancouver. We did the land/sea tour with them and it was amazing, train, cruise and glaciers! Over night in Denali (Mt McKinley) was a huge plus as we did a tour as far into the area as they allow. The ship was much better for viewing the Glaciers than the Wonder.

 

[Hundredacre]

We were scheduled to do alaska this summer with dcl but canceled before paid in full because we realized we just were not super excited about going on the wonder again and also not excited about the price/value. We ending up making other non dcl plans this summer and have started looking at alaska for next summer but with another line.

 

[TeaBee]

I need seasoned cruisers advice PLEASE! We cruised for the first and only time with DCL 2 weeks ago on the Fantasy to western caribbean. WE LOVED IT! I placed a holder for another cruise with the possibility of booking an Alaskan cruise summer of 2017. The more I read, the more it seems people are going to other cruise lines for trips to Alaska. If price is not a factor (not saying money doesn't matter, but I will always be happy to pay more for a better product), is DCL the cruise line to choose or should we consider another line? My children will be 8, 11, & 15. We loved our time on the Fantasy especially the incredible service and friendly cast members and cruisers. Also loved all was included (except spa services and alcohol of course) and we weren't nicked and dimed throughout the cruise. I have no experience with other lines so your opinion really matters. Alaska will be a one-time trip so I want to go with the best.
Thanks in advance!

We traveled on NCL to Alaska and had a good experience. My one regret is that we were in an inside cabin and the Alaska trip really, really is better with at least an oceanview if not a balcony. The scenery is continually gorgeous and we saw a ton of sea life - dolphins, orcas, sea lions, etc. I'm sure we probably missed out on more, plus the Glacier Bay day would have been awesome from our own verandah. Oh well - next time! Negatives for me when compared with Disney were the Kids Clubs (my kids weren't huge fans at 7 and 4) and the My Time Dining or whatever it's called. We were travelling with 10 people and never managed to eat in the dining room with our entire party together because the waiting time for that large a table to open up was significant.

 

[quickcat]

I did not read through the other posts so I am not sure how others responded but I will tell you my own experience. We decided to not cruise with Disney to Alaska because I read so much that you just use the ship as a means to get you from one port to the next with Alaska and it's mainly about Alaska ports when you go. I have to say, I completely disagree. We went with Princess and the ship can and does make a difference. If we had a re-do, we would definitely book with Disney for Alaska. Princess was fine, we were on the Ruby this past June. However, it doesn't compare to Disney. I love the Disney music playing in the hallways. I love having a different dinning room at night (yes I know people will argue you can go to different ones on the Ruby as well but they all really do look the same if you ask me! I went to their 'main' ones and I couldn't tell you the difference) The service was fine but I really missed having the Disney experience with Alaska and if you are 'on the fence' I would go with what you want to do, I wish I wouldn't have looking into it as much as I did with reading posts, etc, I should have just went with what I first have thought which was to go with Disney.
However, many people want Glacier Bay, and Disney doesn't do that so then they'd be out for you anyway- Easier decision! We wanted to see Tracys Arm so we had many choices for cruise lines.
I am sure you'll have a great time- Alaska is a real neat place to see!

 

[MamaBear58]

If it is permitted on this board, I'd love recommendations for a travel agent from those of you who did Alaska with another line. I'm leaning towards Princess, but could also see us doing Celebrity, Royal Caribbean or Holland America. (I'm all over the place right now, and a little overwhelmed.) Thanks.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

If it is permitted on this board, I'd love recommendations for a travel agent from those of you who did Alaska with another line. I'm leaning towards Princess, but could also see us doing Celebrity, Royal Caribbean or Holland America. (I'm all over the place right now, and a little overwhelmed.) Thanks.

Some TAs can be mentioned by name. All that's required is for the person recommending to post the full URL for the TA. If a specific TA isn't allowed it will be *******'d out.

We booked our first Alaska cruise through AAA http://www.calif.aaa.com/home/travel.html. But they weren't all that helpful. I'd go to them with a question and they'd say "I don't know, let's find out" and then proceed to call Holland America to ask. Well, I can do that myself. Our second Alaska cruise, I just booked direct with HAL.

 

[Liz21]

We are trying to decide between HCL and DCL.... for Alaska. I am worried about the service, food and the entertainment on HCL. How does HCL stack up against DCL in those areas? We are a young couple with no children and I worry that HCL will not have anything for entertainment that interests us.. Any insight would be helpful.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are trying to decide between HCL and DCL.... for Alaska. I am worried about the service, food and the entertainment on HCL. How does HCL stack up against DCL in those areas? We are a young couple with no children and I worry that HCL will not have anything for entertainment that interests us.. Any insight would be helpful.

I'm figuring that HCL is Holland America?

We've done 3 HAL cruises. The service on all our cruises was great. While the servers aren't as outgoing as on DCL, they certainly can be. We try bringing out our servers on HAL, when we cruise on them, and it's always worked.

Food, as with most major market cruise lines, is somewhat comparable between the two lines. Some things were great, other not so much. While the majority was fine.

Entertainment - well, IMO, DCL probably wins this. The shows on HAL are more Vegas-styled reviews. But they're better than the ones we've seen on Carnival and Princess. And the best show I've seen onboard a cruise was actually one on HAL. Sadly, I don't think it's done anymore, but it was called Encore and was a compilation of show stopping Broadway songs. The cast we saw did a fantastic job (especially on the Phantom numbers).

 

[aprincessatlast]

If price is not a factor (not saying money doesn't matter, but I will always be happy to pay more for a better product), is DCL the cruise line to choose or should we consider another line? My children will be 8, 11, & 15. We loved our time on the Fantasy especially the incredible service and friendly cast members and cruisers. Also loved all was included (except spa services and alcohol of course) and we weren't nicked and dimed throughout the cruise. I have no experience with other lines so your opinion really matters. Alaska will be a one-time trip so I want to go with the best.
Thanks in advance!

The thing is DCL is not known as the better product when it comes to Alaska. So if that is important I would keep looking. I would not imagine that kids clubs would play a huge roll in your decision but if it does. DCL trumps all when it comes to kids club hours. Princess Cruise line was difficult when we went to Alaska due to its limited hours but overall my kids loved it.

There were many things I would say Princess did a bit better than DCL but we did not do DCL for Alaska so it would be hard to compare apples to apples so to speak. I will say I did miss the idea of getting a picture of Minnie in her Eskimo outfit but outside of that I was totally fine seeing DCL when we were docked next to her in port. I thought I would have a sad feeling but did not. Princess was amazing! If we go back and we do want to as it is surreal, I would look at a one way and some time spent in Denali! Probably will do Princess again.