Cruising Alaska, not with Disney?

[MalvernPa]

We’re considering HAL for Alaska, but my kids are 13 and 18 so I’m hesitant because they may be bored. Any thoughts on the experience for kids that age? They are not super active kids and prefer to spend time as a family but I’d like to have enough things for us to do as a family.

Alaska is port intensive and scenic cruising, we did not pay attention to much to the ship board activities during the day.

We took our son, who just turned 21. In the the evening, we spent a lot of time the BB King Blues Club, which had a phenomenal band.

We are from the east coast, some evenings we turn in early and enjoyed the quiet time in the morning.

If your kids enjoy family time, I would recommend HAL. We also enjoyed our suite and the amenities. Just remember to pack some orange cloths (Netherlands' color) for the Orange Party on board.

We would not hesitate booking HAL again.

Goede Reis.

 

[Kwami]

Alaska is port intensive and scenic cruising, we did not pay attention to much to the ship board activities during the day.

It's not that port intensive, though. I don't know about HAL's itineraries, but Disney cruises only have three port stops on a seven-night cruise. Even if we pretend that glacier viewing is a "port", that still leaves a few days at sea.

 

[tidefan]

Alaska is port intensive and scenic cruising, we did not pay attention to much to the ship board activities during the day.

We took our son, who just turned 21. In the the evening, we spent a lot of time the BB King Blues Club, which had a phenomenal band.

We are from the east coast, some evenings we turn in early and enjoyed the quiet time in the morning.

If your kids enjoy family time, I would recommend HAL. We also enjoyed our suite and the amenities. Just remember to pack some orange cloths (Netherlands' color) for the Orange Party on board.

We would not hesitate booking HAL again.

Goede Reis.

My DW enjoyed her HAL cruise, though I have not been on one. I have been on a lot of Princess cruises, and HAL and Princess operate essentially together under the Carnival Corp. umbrella (they are their own division), so I think that you would find experiences on them to be similar.

HAL will tend to have smaller ships whereas Princess will tend to have larger ships, but either have been in Alaska for a long time and as such they get not only access to Glacier Bay, but also preferred docking in Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, etc.

 

[Mirador]

It's not that port intensive, though. I don't know about HAL's itineraries, but Disney cruises only have three port stops on a seven-night cruise. Even if we pretend that glacier viewing is a "port", that still leaves a few days at sea.

The HAL cruise we are looking into is very similar itinerary with only 3 ports and Galcier Bay.

 

[MalvernPa]

It's not that port intensive, though. I don't know about HAL's itineraries, but Disney cruises only have three port stops on a seven-night cruise. Even if we pretend that glacier viewing is a "port", that still leaves a few days at sea.

We only had one sea day on the Eurodam in 2023, excluding Glacier Bay scenic cruising.

For the price of Disney regular veranda cabin, we got one bedroom suite on HAL including drink package, dinner in a specialty restaurant and free laundry service and other Club Orange amenities. We had excellent service from the HAL staff and food was a little better too, especially in the buffet.

We love DCL, but we couldn't justify the price in Alaska for the Disney experience. We pick DCL cruises based on the home port, the ship and then the itinerary. For Alaska, the itinerary was first.

We just did DCL 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise in April on the Wonder and our 9th DLC cruise scheduled for October 2024 on the Magic.

 

[Kwami]

We only had one sea day on the Eurodam in 2023, excluding Glacier Bay scenic cruising.

For the price of Disney regular veranda cabin, we got one bedroom suite on HAL including drink package, dinner in a specialty restaurant and free laundry service and other Club Orange amenities. We had excellent service from the HAL staff and food was a little better too, especially in the buffet.

I looked up HAL's Eurodam 7-night Alaska cruises for this summer. Here: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/a4e07a/d455

As far as I can tell:

Day 1: At Sea
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: Juneau
Day 4: Glacier Bay / Icy Straight Point
Day 5: Sitka
Day 6: Ketchikan until 1pm, then At Sea
Day 7: At Sea until 8pm, then Victoria

So... Departure day, day 2, most of day 4 (glaciers), most of day 6, and almost all of day 7 are at sea.

Also, this ship doesn't seem to have 1-bedroom suites except for the pinnacle suite. Unfortunately, the Signature "Suite" and Neptune "Suite" aren't available for any cruises to Alaska this summer, according to HAL's website, so I can't compare prices.

 

[MalvernPa]

I looked up HAL's Eurodam 7-night Alaska cruises for this summer. Here: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/a4e07a/d455

As far as I can tell:

Day 1: At Sea
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: Juneau
Day 4: Glacier Bay / Icy Straight Point
Day 5: Sitka
Day 6: Ketchikan until 1pm, then At Sea
Day 7: At Sea until 8pm, then Victoria

So... Departure day, day 2, most of day 4 (glaciers), most of day 6, and almost all of day 7 are at sea.

Also, this ship doesn't seem to have 1-bedroom suites except for the pinnacle suite. Unfortunately, the Signature "Suite" and Neptune "Suite" aren't available for any cruises to Alaska this summer, according to HAL's website, so I can't compare prices.

We had a Neptune Suite.

 

[MagicDVC]

Booked on Princess for next year. Our second time with Princess for Glacier Bay and Hubbard.

 

[Kwami]

We had a Neptune Suite.

Those rooms definitely look big and quite nice! And they're the only ones that get access to the special lounge and stuff, too. Well, and the two Pinnacle Suites, which HAL doesn't even bother to list on the website for some reason.

Anyway, the point is that there are still a bunch of sea days. That's true for HAL, too. I'd rather spend my sea days with Disney than with HAL.

 

[auntlynne]

We’re considering HAL for Alaska, but my kids are 13 and 18 so I’m hesitant because they may be bored. Any thoughts on the experience for kids that age? They are not super active kids and prefer to spend time as a family but I’d like to have enough things for us to do as a family.

I grew up with family vacations. In a car. The beauty of a cruise is your kids may have the opportunity to practice some independence. But it also allows the family to play board or card games together, since parents are free from driving, cooking and cleaning.

Or they may end up meeting other kids their ages, just like at camp.

Summer AK demographics on HAL are not just adults.

Reading, photography? Interest anyone in your family?

 

[jimmymc]

We’re considering HAL for Alaska, but my kids are 13 and 18 so I’m hesitant because they may be bored. Any thoughts on the experience for kids that age? They are not super active kids and prefer to spend time as a family but I’d like to have enough things for us to do as a family.

HAL has a lot to do, but they tend to be quieter things. Port talks, nature talks, ballroom dancing, and classes tend to be the biggest activities. The stage shows are usually covering 60s and 70s music, and I don't think they do Broadway-style shows, at least in Alaska. They have libraries on board and plenty of places for playing games and cards. The pools and hot tubs are basic. The good news is that they tend to have long port stops, so on those days I don't think you need to worry about kids being bored. For the sea days, I would bring some games and things to entertain them, whether that's cards, tablets, or something else they enjoy. I don't have experience with the kid/teen clubs.

 

[MonaMN]

Those rooms definitely look big and quite nice! And they're the only ones that get access to the special lounge and stuff, too. Well, and the two Pinnacle Suites, which HAL doesn't even bother to list on the website for some reason.

Anyway, the point is that there are still a bunch of sea days. That's true for HAL, too. I'd rather spend my sea days with Disney than with HAL.

It's the sea days that trip me up every time too. We were originally planning a cruise next summer for Alaska and I was waffling between DCL, Princess and Celebrity. But we are travelers that like to have a lot going on... I don't like to do stuff I can do at home. So playing board games and reading on a sea day feel like of like a wasted opportunity. And when I've looked at the schedules for the other cruise lines, I just don't see a lot that appeals to our family.

In the end, we grabbed a special offer for a DCL cruise to Alaska later this summer (looks like it's gone now) that actually cost less than the Caribbean cruise on the Magic that we were planning for a few weeks later (airfare was a bit more but we had credits from a previously cancelled trip so it was a wash)... so we jumped on it and we're excited to have moved up our timeline.

 

[auntlynne]

@Mirador Here’s a link to Cruise Critic and the daily activity schedule from an AK cruise on Princess this time last year:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2940960-discovery-patters-and-menus-for-rt-seattle-to-alaska/

I have done 3 Princess cruises to AK. I looked at a schedule for HAL and was not impressed for kids or adults who want to be entertained.

Whichever you chose, make sure your port times are good - arrive in the morning and stay until at least dinner.

 

[DisneyConvert]

I enjoyed our 7-day Vcvr rtrip to/from "Alaska" in 2017 on DCL just fine, BUT to be fair,we only saw the SE panhandle and, of course, Diamonds International!

I would go back on another Alaska cruise IF

• 7 or 9 day ONE-way between Seattle/Vancouver and either Seward or Whittier.
• Alaska Railroad to/from Denali National Park and/or Fairbanks
• Return to Anchorage and fly home from there.

Any cruise lines do one-ways to/from Seward or Whittier?

 

[MagicDVC]

Any cruise lines do one-ways to/from Seward or Whittier?

Princess and HAL does one ways out of Whittier. I believe RCCL, NCL & Celebrity does one ways to/from Seward.

Princess and Holland have their lodges in AK that you could do a land and sea cruise tour.

 

[Mirador]

@Mirador Here’s a link to Cruise Critic and the daily activity schedule from an AK cruise on Princess this time last year:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2940960-discovery-patters-and-menus-for-rt-seattle-to-alaska/

I have done 3 Princess cruises to AK. I looked at a schedule for HAL and was not impressed for kids or adults who want to be entertained.

Whichever you chose, make sure your port times are good - arrive in the morning and stay until at least dinner.

Very helpful! Thank you very much.

 

[Chemist]

We just got back from our cruise on the Sapphire Princess with our 11 year old.
7 days from Vancouver to Anchorage (Whittier). Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, plus Glacier Bay AND a trip to College Fjord for a second round of glacier viewing.

The good:
1. Price. The entire trip with airfaire, gratuities, drink packages and VERY expensive excursions was less than room alone would have been on Disney. (We stayed in a mini-suite. Would not recommend lower level as then the kid would be in a bunkbed above you!)
2. Itinerary. Glacier Bay was amazing. We also loved our second glacier day!
3. Timing/speed of dinner. Anytime dining meant we could eat when we wanted and honestly, service felt much faster than on Disney.
4. Sapphire Princess has an indoor pool and hottubs. As it turned out, the weather was glorious most of our trip, so it wasn't as big of a feature, but it could have been!
5. Lots of venues with lots of music and trivia, etc in the evening. (My kid would go off to swim or play basketball and we would enjoy adult time.)
6. We enjoyed the naturalist presentations.
7. Lots of hot tubs scattered around hte ship. And since there were no children aboard (see bad#1) they weren't full of kids!

The bad:
1. VERY few children. I'd been assured that Princess Alaska cruises have plenty of families over on cruise critic. Either we were too early in the season (my kids have been out of school for over a week), or there were different definitions of "plenty". There were only 90 kids in the 8-12 year old group, which meant sub-critical mass for finding friends. He did find a few friends, but they weren't always around.
2. Lack of family activities. There just wasn't much stuff for us to do together.
3. The kids bed in was a standard pull-out sofa with a terrible mattress and it blocked the balcony door. He was pretty unhappy about it.
4. The shows were excellent, but not really aimed at kids!
5. The ship has outdoor movies, but there were only a few and kind of adult. On Disney ships my kids would hang out in the pool and watch movies.
6. NO LIFEGUARDS AT THE POOLS. OR LIFE VESTS. Not an issue with us as our child is a strong swimmer, but it would make me nervous if I had a younger child.

 

[auntlynne]

@Chemist - so believable as a review of a Princess AK cruise.

First, I repeat myself that College Fjord is a hidden gem. So glad that has stayed in their NB itinerary. It is the Voyage of the Glaciers, after all.

And Movies Under the Stars are usually not kid-friendly (I don’t even consider Marvel kid friendly).

Did you intend to put No Lifeguards as a + ?

 

[Chemist]

@Chemist - so believable as a review of a Princess AK cruise.

First, I repeat myself that College Fjord is a hidden gem. So glad that has stayed in their NB itinerary. It is the Voyage of the Glaciers, after all.

And Movies Under the Stars are usually not kid-friendly (I don’t even consider Marvel kid friendly).

Did you intend to put No Lifeguards as a + ?

Fixing that.
No lifeguards was a definite negative!!! (Like I said, I have an 11 year old strong swimmer, so I wasn't bothered. Me three years ago would have been on edge the entire trip!)

 

[Chemist]

One other big plus... the Medallions. My kid doesn't have a phone, but I could use the Medallion to locate him, and he could locate me. (Note: doesn't work for strangers, just members of your family.). The wait staff could use it to bring you drinks that you ordered off the app while sitting in a hot tub.