Alaska: HA 7 day or 5 day DCL?

[ldo]

debating Holland America 7 day or 5 day DCL both RT Vancouver with 3 teens who love DCL? We will probably get back to Alaska in the future. If we do DCL 5 day, we will add an extra week @ Olympic peninsula to hike, explore. Cost is $1K higher for DCL. 7 day DCL are $5K more and more than we want to spend on a vacation, plus we could only do the cruise that goes to Icy instead of Tracy. WWYD and why?

 

[cruisehopeful]

Holland usually has better itineraries, but the crowd is generally older. I believe they may have a dress code after 6:00pm for the entire ship. I've read many reports about Holland allowing smokers in many places. If you don't like old people and/or cigarette smoke, you'll probably want to go with something else.

Do you want to hike around Olympic for a week? If you do, then the 5 day cruise would be fine. That may make for a nice mix up of land/sea activities.

Have you looked into other lines such as NCL and Carnival? Both of those may appeal to teens and may save you money over the cost of Disney.

 

[ldo]

HA has the best pricing b/c of lower teens rate. The others for 7 days is = to 5 day DCL. I thought we would be priced out of DCL for Alaska, but the 5 day is OK. We would add 3 days in Vancouver onto any cruise. Since we are coming from East Coast, we would not just do a 5 day cruise. we usually make it a 10 day trip. We really liked hiking in Banff last year, so thinking Olympic would be cool, plus hot springs, ferry ride over, etc. We could also add Victoria, I guess. At some of the Alaska stops we would be missing, we would hike, such as in Juneau. So, the only real difference is then not doing the Skagway train. The smoking is a big deal to us, so thanks for alerting us. Dressing for dinner is OK. Older people, hmmmm. Still leaning towards 5 days of DCL bliss....and if everyone wants more, we could plan a bigger trip including Alaska land when teens are in college. So many great places in the USA and Canada to see....

 

[cruisehopeful]

It looks like the 5 night only has one stop in Ketchikan. If you enjoy cruising for the sake of cruising, I think you'll have a great time. If you are trying to see Alaska, I think it could be a let down, unless you are sure that you can go again for longer later on.

Check out the Holland board on Cruise Critic. You can get any specific questions about that line over there. I also think PrincessShmoo from here has done Alaska on Holland. Hopefully, she will see this thread and be able to give you more information.

 

[bcwife76]

We booked the 5 day Alaskan over a 7 day (with Carnival) because I really, really wanted to do Alaska on Disney (our kids will be 8 and 6 at the time of cruising). My mom has down two Alaskan cruises, both with HAL. Her second cruise was a big disappointment, the service wasn't the same as she came to expect, the crowd was just grumpier, etc. Weird, I know!

We live on the West Coast so I know we'll do future Alaskan cruises, they just won't be on Disney. So I'm happy to do the 5 day this time

We've hiked and camped in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and it is BEAUTIFUL!! There are some gorgeous spots along the water to camp, the hiking trails are fantastic...honestly I don't think you can go wrong with this combo of 5 day cruise and then doing that!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'd do HAL, but that's me. HAL typically, has a more Alaska oriented itinerary. We've done Alaska twice on HAL. I don't recall that the dress code requires dressing up everywhere after 6 pm. I know that "formal" night is now "gala" night. And, apparently that's a little less dressy. Even on formal nights, you'd see some less than actual formal attire around the ship, although in the dining room, they try to keep everyone looking nicer. Don't recall tee shirts or jeans for dinner.

Yes, HAL allows smoking in more places onboard, notably on verandahs, so keep that in mind if it's important to you to have a smoke-free verandah.

But, DCL does have better shows in the Walt Disney Theater than HAL has in their showrooms. Having said that the best show I've seen on any cruise was a HAL production, but it's no longer on their ships. The HAL shows are more Vegas-styled musical review shows, where there's not much storyline, but the songs have some common theme linking them all together.

I found overall, the food on HAL was a little better than DCL, but, of course, that's really subjective, and can vary depending on the executive chef on each particular ship.

Personally, I was extremely happy when we booked our first Alaska cruise that we found one that included both Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm, as I was convinced going to Alaska was a once and done event. Well, I was wrong about never going back, but I'm glad we saw Glacier Bay.

 

[Meriweather]

I've been to Alaska on HAL, Princess and RCCL. No Disney, too expensive and no Glacier Bay (which in incredible).
I don't remember HAL having a dress code.
I would go with HAL, but I don't have teenagers.
Do to to WA......lived there for over 30 years and it is so beautiful.

 

[ldo]

we would get OV, so balconies not an issue with smoke. It's a hard decision. The 5 day is a lot of boat time, and missing Skagway, with the White train, but HA might be really boring in the evening for 7 days....we are really not into the Vegas-style cruise shows anymore, much prefer DCL shows or even the single/special acts, like comedians, magicians, jugglers, or "fake" bands like Beatles, Adele (on NCL Epic), even Bon Jovie that we just saw on RCCL.

 

[The Grays]

DW and I want to book another cruise line but DD 16 refused and want Disney. So may 30 off we go on Disney.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

we would get OV, so balconies not an issue with smoke. It's a hard decision. The 5 day is a lot of boat time, and missing Skagway, with the White train, but HA might be really boring in the evening for 7 days....we are really not into the Vegas-style cruise shows anymore, much prefer DCL shows or even the single/special acts, like comedians, magicians, jugglers, or "fake" bands like Beatles, Adele (on NCL Epic), even Bon Jovie that we just saw on RCCL.

Well, HAL also has comedians, jugglers, and such. We had an ABBA group on our last HAL cruise.

 

[MunFam]

I was actually researching 2017 cruises to Alaska for a multi-generation family reunion. I have not sailed with Princess, but I think we will go with them. Prices for all of the upcharged items seemed to be less than the other lines with comparable itineraries are fares.

We have sailed on HAL and we felt very out of place. The "classes" were things like Microsoft computer skills and digital photo storage organization. The food was good. The room was almost as nice as DCL. I like the split bathroom on DCL better.

 

[ldo]

Microsoft computer skills and digital photo storage organization--this would be good for DH, Me and my Mom, lol! glad to hear the HA has single acts for entertainment. Making it tougher....
We love Princess, would probably choose them if they had a Vancouver RT.

 

[NancyIL]

DW and I want to book another cruise line but DD 16 refused and want Disney. So may 30 off we go on Disney.

Perhaps your 16-year-old would like to pay the price difference.

 

[The Grays]

Perhaps your 16-year-old would like to pay the price difference.

Well as a cancer survivor that she is we tend to try and give her what we can. Life is short

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Microsoft computer skills and digital photo storage organization--this would be good for DH, Me and my Mom, lol! glad to hear the HA has single acts for entertainment. Making it tougher....
We love Princess, would probably choose them if they had a Vancouver RT.

We've done one Princess cruise, not Alaska, but I'd book with them also. They've been doing Alaska pretty much as long as HAL. But, I agree, cruising out of Vancouver is much nicer than cruising out of Seattle.

 

[NancyIL]

Well as a cancer survivor that she is we tend to try and give her what we can. Life is short

In your situation, I'd probably do the same.

 

[Love2Cruz]

I would probably do Princess over HA...Princess is also known for their Alaskan itineraries.

But if those two were the choices, HA or Disney, I would pick Disney if price is comparable.

 

[MousseauMob]

We've done HAL to Alaska 3 times and DCL to Alaska once. We are also doing HAL to Alaska again this year. Kids love it, even teens.

I like DCL shows better but the individual acts on HAL better. Food goes to HAL, Activities...maybe DCL, Itineraries HAL. Some people will say you can't do HAL with kid, but my kids LOVE HAL's kids club as much, if not more, than DCL because with less kids on board it makes for better bonding. I don't mind the break in hours, as it allows me to have lunch and dinner with the kids, with no grumblings because that's the hours.

 

[ldo]

thanks, MousseMob. Now I'm back to debating HA.... how was the smoking on HA? What types of evening shows did they have on HA Alaska?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

thanks, MousseMob. Now I'm back to debating HA.... how was the smoking on HA? What types of evening shows did they have on HA Alaska?

We had a verandah on our first HAL cruise. We often couldn't be out there, due to the smokers on either side of us. But, as noted, it's better to out on the upper decks when doing the scenic cruising, so that you can get the whole 360 view.