Alaskan cruises anyone?

[Dodie]

Which line/ship? Why?
When?
Positives/negatives?
Anyone add on one of the train excursions before or after?

 

[polly p]

I too would like to know this. We had patients in our office that flew to alaska then rented an RV and did alaka that way. They traveled for 2 weeks. I think I would like a cruise better.

 

[Dodie]

I can't believe that we got no answers to this today. The search feature isn't working. I'm sure this has been asked before...

Anyone?

 

[Beth76]

Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas or Serenade of the Seas (same ship class)

Anytime would be good. Perhaps July or August to get away from local heat, if applicable.

No negatives, all positives. Great ship, great staff, great food, great scenery!

If you can afford it I would recommend doing the week-long cruise tour after the cruise. I didn't do this, but hear it's excellent. I would also recommend a balcony stateroom.

 

[DawnCt1]

I would love to take an Alaskan Cruise. Someday we plan to and will chose Princess Cruise Lines. My second choice for Alaska would be Celebrity.

 

[Skylarr29]

We will be on the Sun Princess in July. Alaska is breath taking. If you are going to do a land portion I recomend doing your homework and booking it yourself as opposed to booking with a comapny or cruise ship. You will be able to see and do more and it will cost less. The cruise season is Mid May- mid Sept. We choose July because the weather would be slightly warmer and we would be able to do all of the activities we wanted...... Bear watching, Misty Fjords, Glacier trekking, dog sledding, horseback riding, whale watching, and a canopy and zipline tour. Also what ship/line you choose also depends on what ports you want to visit etc. If you want more detailed info feel free to send me a pm and I will help as best as I can !!

 

[PrincessCLM]

Done Royal Caribbean to Alaska up the Inside Passage twice. Still believe they were the best vacations I've been on (other than Disney of course ) The sceney there is breathtakingly beautiful.
We went over the summer both times, but I don't remember which months. Can't think of any negatives.
My parents did a Land and Sea tour with Princess, but didn't enjoy it as much as Royal Caribbean.

 

[DawnCt1]

My parents did a Land and Sea tour with Princess, but didn't enjoy it as much as Royal Caribbean.

Interesting. What did your parents prefer about Royal Caribbean??

 

[Pugdog007]

We did RCCL's Serenade of the Seas last June out of Vancouver and had a wonderful time! Highly recommend!

 

[PrincessCLM]

I think they said they liked the food, service, and programs on Royal Caribbean better. We're a RCCL family and have preferred them for years.

 

[binny]

HAL, (would prefer Oosterdam, but its only doing a rt Seattle right now) so I will choose the Statendam, fly to Alaska, do a cruisetour BEFORE ( trust me you want to relax on the way down) do a Southbound tour.

Alternately, Celebrity or Princess they also do Alaska well. The food on Celebrity is hard to beat.


I worked for HAL up there as a tour guide on the Skagway to Dawson City Motor Coach tours if you have any questions let me know!

 

[Snow Brite]

I would avoid Holland America if you can afford it as I did not think they trained their staff well or for that matter gave a rip. Royal Carribean is still kinda new to Alaska, but they have worked out most of the kinks.

I would NOT pay the money for the guided tour. People are so afraid of getting around in Alaska, but seriously folks, there is just 3 real highways. You can't GET lost even if you wanted to!

The cruise is a good chance to see a little bit of a lot, but you cannot appreciate the magnitude and purity of Alaska without going inland and getting in an airplane. It is breathtaking to travel miles and miles with no roads, no towns, no railroad tracks, no farm fields, just land untouched by man.

If it was me....

Fly into Anchorage. Spend 2-3 days here and see the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, The Native Alaska Cultural Center, the Alaska Railroad Station and Ship Creek (to go fishing in downtown Anchorage), the beginning of the Iditarod, the Alaska Zoo, and Chugach National Forest. Eat at Orso, Moose's Tooth, Simon and Seaforts and the Crows Nest atop the Captain Cook. Stay at The Captain Cook (nicer hotel) or any of the bed and breakfasts (less expensive).

Drive north on the Parks Highway towards Mt. McKinley (but do not call it that while you are there, call it Denali). Stay in Talkeetna the first night at the Talkeetna Lodge. Explore the funky town and watch the climbers prepare to go tackle the mountain or recover from their attempts. Take a flight tour of the mountain.

Continue on to the Denali National Park. Remember that the park is the size of the state of Massachusetts, so you want to research what you want to see carefully. Stay at the Denali Princess Lodge and the next day do the bus tour (you cannot drive into the park in your own car, they limit the traffic and make it safer for you and less invasive for the animals by doing the tour on a bus. Its a day long trip.). Stay another night at the Denali Princess Lodge.

Drive back down the Parks highway through Anchorage to Girdwood (day long drive). Drive down on the Seward Highway to Girdwood and spend the night at the Alyeska Prince Hotel. Dinner at the Seven Glaciers (4 star restaurant on the top of the mountain with a view of seven different glaciers). If you don't eat that the Seven Glaciers, the Chair Five for burgers and beer and chatting with the local folks. If you did not get to do the flight tour in Talkeetna then they have some nice ones here.

Drive down the Seward Highway to Seward (try to get there on a non-cruise ship day) and spend the late afternoon and evening wandering around and enjoying the town. Spend the night at the Edgewater inn and then go on one of the Alaska Heritage Tours wildlife cruises with the salmon lunch on Fox Island. Spend another nigt at the Edgewater and then be ready to board your cruise the next day (unless you go out of Whittier, then you will have to go back almost to Girdwood to get to Whittier).

Thats a 7 day trip and it is not close to everything. I think June is a beautiful time to go as the light is so amazing to people (23+ hours in Denali) or August as the fireweed is in bloom and is stunningly beautiful.

Have fun and let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

 

[ColoradoBuffaloMom]

I would love to do an Alaskan cruise. For lots of info on cruises go to www.cruisecritic.com. It is a great website about cruises.

 

[DawnCt1]

Snow Brite, Awesome itinerary.

 

[binny]

I would avoid Holland America if you can afford it as I did not think they trained their staff well or for that matter gave a rip.

Gee thanks... after I just posted that I used to work for them... I dont think thats true at all. HAL has some of the best training in Alaska we took weeks of training and history lessons and believe me, if you got a bad comment card you heard about it and were reprimanded. Im a TA now and I STILL think theyre best out there to Alaska.
They have some of the highest ratings in the industry.

At any rate, while I do a lot of Independant tours to Alaska and encourage them I was referring to the question about cruise tours I think a lot of people are intimated to drive in any area they dont know well and the thought of being that remote in many areas should something go wrong with your car or RV can be scary. Thats what Ive heard from my clients at least. besides, a lot of time people dont consider it a vacation if they have to do the driving.

 

[MickeyMickey]

Did roundtrip out of Seattle last year on Celebrity Mercury. Great trip, make sure you get a balcony it is worth the extra money!

 

[Snow Brite]

Gee thanks... after I just posted that I used to work for them... I dont think thats true at all. HAL has some of the best training in Alaska we took weeks of training and history lessons and believe me, if you got a bad comment card you heard about it and were reprimanded. Im a TA now and I STILL think theyre best out there to Alaska.
They have some of the highest ratings in the industry.

At any rate, while I do a lot of Independant tours to Alaska and encourage them I was referring to the question about cruise tours I think a lot of people are intimated to drive in any area they dont know well and the thought of being that remote in many areas should something go wrong with your car or RV can be scary. Thats what Ive heard from my clients at least. besides, a lot of time people dont consider it a vacation if they have to do the driving.

Hi binny! No offense intended to you personally at all. I am sure you were the very best at what you did. Skagway is a very fun town.

I worked at many different hotels up there and the upper management, the luggage handlers, and the level of management we dealt with on a daily basis to resolve problems in South Central were awful. I won't go into details, but after many years of dealing with them that is my opinion of their service and I would never feel comfortable recommending them.

 

[PrincessCLM]

I would avoid Holland America if you can afford it as I did not think they trained their staff well or for that matter gave a rip. Royal Carribean is still kinda new to Alaska, but they have worked out most of the kinks.

FYI Royal Caribbean isn't really that new to Alaska. The first cruise I took was to Alaska on Royal Caribbean and that was in 1991.

 

[ericamanda01]

I will be happy to let you know after June 24th. We are taking a 7 night cruise on the Princess Dawn. It's for my inlaws 40th anniversary. I have been so busy planning our Sept Disney cruise that I havn't done much research into the Alaskan cruise. But I have heard that Alaskan cruises are wonderful cruises overall.

 

[escape]

DH and I did the Alaska cruise Southbound a few years ago. We were on the Star Princess. It was fantastic!!!! I had heard that Princess and Holland America were the lines to choose for Alaska cruises. I don't know if it's still true but I had heard at one time that only select ships get to sail into Glacier Bay and Princess and Holland America both offered this itinerary although it may not be for every ship. It may be different now but this is one spot that is not to be missed!

One reason I liked sailing on Princess is the flexibility you have when eating dinner. You can choose a fixed time every night or you can decide when and where you want to eat . Our cruise itinerary was port intensive and I liked the idea of being able to relax in my cabin before going to dinner after a long day on land. And, I thought the food was very good. I never went hungry, that's for sure!

For those of you wanting to combine a pre or post land tour with your cruise, I've often heard that it's best to take the land portion first, then the cruise. Some of my friends who have done it both ways said they prefer doing the land first and then relaxing some on the cruise.

Just my 2 cents.