Alaskan Cruises

[amamax2]

and talking about these great prices - (like kids free) - is that sharing your room?

My mom has been talking about myself, Dh, two DSs and her going on an Alaskan cruise - but she is talking about my sons sharing a room with her so my DH and I can have a room to ourselves. Nice though, but I do not think my teenage/tweener boys want to share a room with grandma - I know they'll want a a wee bit more privacy with their changing bodies, lol!

So trying to figure out what all the configurations might be and what that would add on to cost - I had assumed rooms only fit two, but sounds like more than that.

Thanks!

 

[Forevryoung]

A year and a half ago 11 of us ranging in age from 4-78 did a Princess Land/Sea package for 14 days. We started in Fairbanks and ended in Vancouver.

It was a consensus that we should have done a shorter land package but still it was a "must do"

We booked everything from the ship for convenience- the excursions were very expensive but definitely "days of a lifetime." We helicoptered and hiked the Mendenhal Glacier. We took a seaplane, hiked a gold mining trail, rafted, dog sledding, whale watching (we separated during the day based on abilities and interests and had dinner together at night). We had half balconies and half inside cabins. Glacier Bay is a sight not to be missed.

I'm in my 20's and there were very few people on the trip (land and sea) that were my age. There were many kids and teens on the cruise portion (July 2008).

The whole trip was absolutely breathtaking.

 

[crjack]

We just went on our first Alaskan cruise this past August and loved it. We are a family of four (DS15,DD13) and we went on the Norwegian Pearl. We knew we wanted to go to Glacier Bay and the Pearl is new with lots of choices for activities and entertainment.

Most cruise lines follow the same pricing for cabins...the first 2 people pay the full fair and then the 3rd and 4th passengers in the cabin pay a greatly reduced rate. Our children were only $199 pp and DH and I got a good rate but it was tight with 4 of us in our mini-suite. The next jump up to the large suites was almost double the price.

The cruise is wonderful but as previously mentioned the excursions can be expensive. There are lots of options but be prepared they can add up. Also, from reading cruise critic, it seems like all of the cruise lines have started charging for things like soda, specialty restaurants, etc. so combined with your daily service charge for tips you will have a bill at the end of your trip even if you don't go to the spa, drink alcohol, etc.

 

[~Kathie]

We were planning on crusing Alaska on DCL in May 2011, but after doing a bunch of research (especially here on Dis) we're going to cruise Princess in May 2011 instead and are now just waiting for the dates to be released. We plan to do a 7 day cruise and a 4-5 day land package. Princess seems to have awesome prices. Good luck planning!

We cruised to Alaska on Princess this past August. We also did a 6 day land tour to Copper River/Denali/Anchorage. It took me 3 years to convince DH that we needed to go to Alaska so I did my research. Princess had the best itinerary (that worked for us regarding what we wanted to see) for the land tours so that was why we chose them. There were more elderly (70-80) than I thought there would be and the average age of the other cruisers was mid 60's about 10 years older than DH and I.

If you are doing the cruise or the land tour it is a good idea to research the different itineraries as to the ports of call, and the places on the land tour. Every land tour goes to Denali. You can take a 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 day so where you go and what you see is up to you.

Not to be flippant, but once you see one glacier.......they are all pretty much the same. We went to Glacier Bay and College Fjord. But we talked to people on our ship and they had been to the Hubbard glacier and said it was beautiful. It's all beautiful.

This was a trip of a lifetime that I had been saving for. We got a balcony which was worth it's cost, plus stayed 3 extra days in Vancouver and 2 extra days is Seattle. I used frequent flyer miles for all the flights (4), and Hilton miles for our hotel in Seattle. I bought the Entertainment book for Vancouver and used meal discounts.

I also bought an Alaskan tour saver book that saved me 50% on a few of the excursions we booked our selves. We did flight seeing over the summit of Mt McKinley and I had a coupon for buy one get one free (from the Tour Book). Saved us $325. The book cost $99. So I made my money back and then some.

For the OP, the May and September cruises are much less expensive, but you run the risk of very cold weather.

I'm another fan of Cruise Critic. It was invaluable as far as information about the ship, the cruise line and the ports of call.

On the cruise we did one paid excursion per port and at all 3 ports had time to do sightseeing on our own. On the land tour we stayed at 4 different hotels over 6 days and did 2 excursions that we paid for. We had the Tundra Wilderness Tour that was included in our tour package. If you take a land tour.....make sure you do this at Denali. HAL often includes the Natural History tour. We didn't take that tour but people on CC stated that the Tundra Tour was much better. The days we didn't have planned excursions we explored on our own. There was always a LOT to do.

Be aware that if you do any kind of land tour, few meals are included in your package. You must pay for them yourself. Copper River was in the middle of nowhere so our only choice was to eat at the hotel. Thanks goodness the food was decent.

HAL and RCL use Princess Hotels in Denali. They do have their own bus/rail system but Princess owns the hotels.

Send for brochures from the towns in Alaska you may be visiting. Plus Alaska dept of tourism. They have great info and it's free.

If I think of anything else.....I will post.

 

[dreamin_disney]

We just went on our 1st cruise to Baja on carnival. We loved it. We now are looking into an alaska trip but are finding it very expensive. We in in so. calif between san diego and long beach but we would need to fly into Seattle. Wish we could leave out of long beach or san pedro. Anyways we did a M-F on carnival and loved it . We didnt think it was a party crowd. Dh and I are 37 and our dd is now 11.

Holland cruise is mentioned a few times so i'm curious what type of crowd is on that line. We are quiet , laid back people who dont like dressing up fancy. We want a comfortable casual crowd. I know we wont fit into princess.

I think cruising is out new way to travel

I was thinking of traveling in July but we can do
June 19- July 30

 

[~Kathie]

We just went on our 1st cruise to Baja on carnival. We loved it. We now are looking into an alaska trip but are finding it very expensive. We in in so. calif between san diego and long beach but we would need to fly into Seattle. Wish we could leave out of long beach or san pedro. Anyways we did a M-F on carnival and loved it . We didnt think it was a party crowd. Dh and I are 37 and our dd is now 11.

Holland cruise is mentioned a few times so i'm curious what type of crowd is on that line. We are quiet , laid back people who dont like dressing up fancy. We want a comfortable casual crowd. I know we wont fit into princess.

I think cruising is out new way to travel

I was thinking of traveling in July but we can do
June 19- July 30

The entire state of Alaska IS very expensive. Everything is imported.

Have you ever been on Princess? Why you would say that you wouldn't fit in?? There are people that dress fancy on every cruise lines. Just like there are people who don't.

You have to cruise with what you are comfortable with. You have an 11 year old, you might want to check out kids program to see which one will work for you. There were very few kids on our cruise in the middle of August. Kids who go to school year round were already off summer break by the time our cruise started.

My in-laws swear by HAL. When they cruise another line they have tons of complaints and compare everything to HAL. We finally convinced them to ONLY cruise on HAL. They are in their 80's. They like HAL because most of the passengers are their age. HAL def has an older crowd. Someone mentioned that a few posts back.

Princess (as do most lines now) has dining where you choose your seating (early or late with the same table every night) or "anytime dining" where you just go to the dining room when you feel like it and they seat you. It was just DH and I traveling together and we chose the "anytime dining" and what was nice is that we got to sit with different people every night. All ages of people.

You don't have to go to the dining room on any ship/cruise lines for any meals so no need to dress fancy if you don't want to. They all have a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner or you can order room service.

HAL tends to be a bit more upscale than most other cruise lines. Did you know Carnival owns Princess and HAL?? Interesting as all lines are quite different.

Anyone who is interested in going to Alaska on a cruise should go look at CC.
There are posts where the ships are described as well as the excursions and what to do at the ports.

Good luck in your planning.

 

[LoraJ]

I'm also curious as to why the poster above feels Princess wouldn't be for them?

We had a wonderful time sailing with them. DH hates dressing up and we found other options on formal nights. I also felt like they had a better variety of entertainment at night compared to Carnival.

I think my mom is definitely set on HAL since they are the only cruiseline that stops at this one port she wants to go to. I just hope she picks a larger ship.

We'll figure it all out whenever the 2011 itineraries come out.

 

[dreamin_disney]

I'm also curious as to why the poster above feels Princess wouldn't be for them?

We had a wonderful time sailing with them. DH hates dressing up and we found other options on formal nights. I also felt like they had a better variety of entertainment at night compared to Carnival.

I think my mom is definitely set on HAL since they are the only cruiseline that stops at this one port she wants to go to. I just hope she picks a larger ship.

We'll figure it all out whenever the 2011 itineraries come out.

I've heard it has a more upscale feel, upper class people and it's more $$$. We are very casual people and i just dont think we would fit in. We are middle class and are jean wearing family. We dont like dressing up and i think I'd be very uncomfortable at dining.
I talked to a travel agent and let her know what we like and our dilikes and she said Princess would not be for us , which i had the feeling already

 

[LoraJ]

I've heard it has a more upscale feel, upper class people and it's more $$$. We are very casual people and i just dont think we would fit in. We are middle class and are jean wearing family. We dont like dressing up and i think I'd be very uncomfortable at dining.
I talked to a travel agent and let her know what we like and our dilikes and she said Princess would not be for us , which i had the feeling already

We are middle class jean wearers as well and never felt out of place. I think HAL would be more upscale than Princess.

Carnival has one ship that goes to Alaska.

 

[dreamin_disney]

We are middle class jean wearers as well and never felt out of place. I think HAL would be more upscale than Princess.

Carnival has one ship that goes to Alaska.

Thats good to know. Well give me your opinion on formal nights on both cruises. On carnival i went to elegant night. dh and i wore nice black pants and i wore a nice blouse and dh wore a collar button shirt, dd wore a nice dressy black dress

 

[Forevryoung]

Thats good to know. Well give me your opinion on formal nights on both cruises. On carnival i went to elegant night. dh and i wore nice black pants and i wore a nice blouse and dh wore a collar button shirt, dd wore a nice dressy black dress

My cousin's (22) idea of "formal" is a polo shirt (collar turned up) and jeans pulled up over his rear (instead of their usual position below his rear ). He went to the buffet one formal night and avoided the dining room. The second night, he went in the above attire (Grandma asked him to ) and while slightly "out of place" nobody said anything or really cared. Princess was great for our jean wearing crowd!

 

[dreamin_disney]

My cousin's (22) idea of "formal" is a polo shirt (collar turned up) and jeans pulled up over his rear (instead of their usual position below his rear ). He went to the buffet one formal night and avoided the dining room. The second night, he went in the above attire (Grandma asked him to ) and while slightly "out of place" nobody said anything or really cared. Princess was great for our jean wearing crowd!

LOL! That makes me feel better. I'll do nice blouse and nice pants . I just dont do dresses and heels

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We did a 10-day cruise to Alaska in June 2008. It was round-trip from San Francisco so we saved airline costs (just paid $12 a day for parking). It was our 2nd Alaskan cruise on Princess. There were several Princess ships at each port and they're one of the lines that pretty much owns the Alaska cruise market.

Alaska cruise season starts in mid-may and that's when you'll get the lowest prices (and the coldest weather). As you get further into June, July and August, the prices will go up substantially and then start dropping again in late August-mid September.

Remember that even though cruising is an "all expense included" vacation, you still need to budget for on-board charges. Alcohol is not included and most cruise lines charge for soda. You also have to pay for any shore excursions you want to take. You could get through an entire cruise not paying an extra dime, but that doesn't work for most people. For 4 of us on a 10 day cruise, our on-board account came to around $1700.

I would also recommend cruisecritic.com, as many other posters did. I also love going through cruise websites and trying different dates to see the costs. You should try Princess, Holland America, Royal Carribean and Carnival. Those are the biggies. Happy cruising!

 

[NancyIL]

I've been on two Alaska cruises on Princess (one-way and roundtrip) and one cruise on Holland America (one-way) - and none were in balcony cabins. Since you need to save money, I wouldn't be concerned about not having a balcony, as there will be plenty of open deck space.

If you want to go in 2010, I think you'll find some bargains starting in January. Just a note that you can usually get a better price than what Princess and HAL quote by booking with an online discount travel agency. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity don't allow travel agents to discount, so there isn't as much of an incentive to book their cruises with a travel agent.

I wasn't planning to return to Alaska in 2009, but due to a GREAT sale at Princess - I booked the May 23, 2009 roundtrip cruise from Seattle on the Golden Princess for just over $500/pp. In 2010, the Golden Princess will alternate cruising to Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm Fjord. Just be aware that taxes on an Alaska cruise will run close to $100/pp or slightly more.

Holland America has 3 ships that sail roundtrip from Seattle, with two going to Glacier Bay and one going to Hubbard Glacier. They also go to Sitka rather than Skagway.

 

[LoraJ]

My mom really wants to do HAL for Sitka. And now my brother is chiming in wanting to go to Bermuda instead (my mom's original plan since that is where they honeymooned, but they are worried about hurricanes and rough seas).

This will be a fun 19 months. Too many cooks in the vacation planning kitchen.

 

[KKB]

I've heard it has a more upscale feel, upper class people and it's more $$$. We are very casual people and i just dont think we would fit in. We are middle class and are jean wearing family. We dont like dressing up and i think I'd be very uncomfortable at dining.
I talked to a travel agent and let her know what we like and our dilikes and she said Princess would not be for us , which i had the feeling already

Princess is more "upscale" than Carnival or NCL--THAT BEING SAID, you will be perfectly comfortable.
On our first cruise one of our tablemate wore a polo the second formal night cuz his jacket was too small; his wife was furious. We all just laughed & had a wonderful dinner. DH no longer brings a jacket. He does like a shirt & tie for formal night cuz he doesn't wear those to work. I love to get dressed up every night. But capris & a blouse are perfectly fine every night. The last night on that first cruise one of our tablemates showed up in a cotton cami (the ones my daughter wears UNDER tops) and holey jeans. I think that is pushing things a bit...but we still had a good time w/ her!
I have had this discussion many times on cruise critic. If I show up in a satin cami, dress jeans & heels I look fashionable but don't officially meet dress code...yet the guy in the blue tux w/ ruffles meets dress code...ICK!
I hope cruise lines are flexible enough for both...those who want to be more casual, and those who want to dress up. Really, who cares?
Have a great time!

 

[dreamin_disney]

Princess is more "upscale" than Carnival or NCL--THAT BEING SAID, you will be perfectly comfortable.
On our first cruise one of our tablemate wore a polo the second formal night cuz his jacket was too small; his wife was furious. We all just laughed & had a wonderful dinner. DH no longer brings a jacket. He does like a shirt & tie for formal night cuz he doesn't wear those to work. I love to get dressed up every night. But capris & a blouse are perfectly fine every night. The last night on that first cruise one of our tablemates showed up in a cotton cami (the ones my daughter wears UNDER tops) and holey jeans. I think that is pushing things a bit...but we still had a good time w/ her!
I have had this discussion many times on cruise critic. If I show up in a satin cami, dress jeans & heels I look fashionable but don't officially meet dress code...yet the guy in the blue tux w/ ruffles meets dress code...ICK!
I hope cruise lines are flexible enough for both...those who want to be more casual, and those who want to dress up. Really, who cares?
Have a great time!

lol! Well I checked out the Princess line. What i like about it so far is that it would be cheaper to fly into SF than Seattle. If pricess go down do they do price adjustment like they do on carnival or give OBC? I'll have to read up on Princess and see what they have. I hope the food is good. We were very happy with the food on Carnival. Anyone know if soda is free?

? I put in my info but it didnt seem like dd11 being the 3rd person got a discount. It didnt break down the cost but for July 11(i think out of sf it was about $1,100pp

 

[Luv Bunnies]

lol! Well I checked out the Princess line. What i like about it so far is that it would be cheaper to fly into SF than Seattle. If pricess go down do they do price adjustment like they do on carnival or give OBC? I'll have to read up on Princess and see what they have. I hope the food is good. We were very happy with the food on Carnival. Anyone know if soda is free?

? I put in my info but it didnt seem like dd11 being the 3rd person got a discount. It didnt break down the cost but for July 11(i think out of sf it was about $1,100pp

I can answer the question about soda on Princess. It is not free. But you can buy a soda card that gives you unlimited soda. When we cruised, the soda card was $4 per person per day. With 4 of us on a 10 day cruise, it came to $120 total. But we all ordered soda several times a day so it was much cheaper than paying $2 a glass. They were fairly strict about checking the cards everytime we ordered sodas. If we ordered 4 sodas, they would ask to see 4 soda cards. Whoever was going to the bar would take all the cards with them. After a few days, some servers knew we had cards and stopped asking to see them.

 

[holz99]

Thanks for all the info!!! I can see I have so much to wade through! It looks as if it will be pushed back to 2011 because we have family in Louisiana that wants the whole family to come down for a week in the summer. This is actually good because it gives me much more time to plan and plus more time to save up for it. I'm in my mid 20's and I'm thinking Holland may be a good way to go but I'm afraid it will be boring to me. I guess I will get started by checking into cruise critic and go from there. I do appreciate all the wonderful advice I have gotten on here! Thanks!!!

 

[Forevryoung]

Thanks for all the info!!! I can see I have so much to wade through! It looks as if it will be pushed back to 2011 because we have family in Louisiana that wants the whole family to come down for a week in the summer. This is actually good because it gives me much more time to plan and plus more time to save up for it. I'm in my mid 20's and I'm thinking Holland may be a good way to go but I'm afraid it will be boring to me. I guess I will get started by checking into cruise critic and go from there. I do appreciate all the wonderful advice I have gotten on here! Thanks!!!

From someone of a similar age (I was 24 time of trip) I enjoyed Princess very much- food was good and staff was generally helpful. There weren't many people my/our age but I was surrounded by family so I didn't look too hard I can't compare it to Holland but I would go on another Princess cruise in a heartbeat.