europe vs alaska

[ruadisneyfan2]

I enjoy cruising, and I love both Alaska and Europe. I like going to cooler places in the summer, like Alaska and northern Europe, but the Med in mid-summer would not be my first choice.

As far as land trip vs. cruise - I like to do both. I have always added time on land before and/or after a cruise. We spent 3 nights in Rome and 2 in Florence before a 12-night Med cruise from Venice, and we spent another night in Venice when the cruise ended.

My first Alaska visit was a 7-night northbound cruise on the Coral Princess, followed by a 9-night land trip with a rental car. The cruise was great, but I enjoyed the land portion even more.

You're right; these are great ways to add onto a cruise. For now though due to my kids' ages we are confined to summer vacations. Due to high demand at my job, we can only get 1 week off between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It was just luck that a part-timer chose Mon-Wed the week before my vac week so I was able to snag that Thurs & Fri once everyone had a chance to choose their week. So I'll had to settle for a quickie until ds13 is old enough that we can travel in May or Sept and take off 2+ weeks.
Not that money was no object, but our biggest limitation for our Med cruise was time.
No regrets though. A quickie is better than none at all.

 

[tajz90]

After about 30 years of cruising, I've only ever met 1 person who didn't like their Alaska cruise. That said, I thoroughly sympathize with the PP who said she didn't want to miss hot weather at home to sail to Alaska. We have put off sailing to Alaska because we garden, and 7 days away would be enough to kill everything in our garden -- our neighbours are not trustworthy enough to help us out either.

Odd, but we did not like our first Alaska cruise with RCCL. Had no interest in going back until Disney decided to sail LOVED LOVED DISNEY ALASKA. Alaska and Med our are top two FAVORITE CRUISES! I'm glad I'm not having to decide between the two.

RE. doing land vs cruise in Europe. I have done both land and cruises in Europe and both are good. I will say that my tweens/teens STRONGLY prefer cruise to land-based Europe. A cruise lets them have the same lodging every night--no repacking. Plus, unlimited food, pool, fun things for downtime. I research ahead of time, give a mini history--significant places prep prior to the city/area we are going to be in and we do mostly DIY. A cruise allowed us to see Avignon, climb the leaning tower of pisa, bike in Barcelona, tour Pompeii ruins, as well as St. Peters and the Colo.
I really like a hybrid--stay a few days pre/post with a cruise. We did a W. Med. cruise this summer and then 5 days Paris--that was perfect.
Re. Europe vs. Alaska--I would advise Europe for art, history, and for active travelers. Kids voted for Alaska next summer--DH and I would do Europe every year.

We actually prefer the cruise to the land trips in Europe also. I do think the cruise gives you a nice sampling of Europe so you can decide where you'd like to visit for any length of time.

Good luck.

 

[bats]

We live in the UK so travelling to Europe is a short hop across the channel, but even we prefer to cruise. It's perfect for getting a taster of somewhere you'd like to return to for longer at a later date, or perhaps not return to!

The private tour company we have used twice now (yourtourinitaly.com) have been great at recommending shorter tours for us as we don't do well being off the ship for more than 6 or 7 hours ... It's withdrawal symptoms from the chicken tenders according to my OH. Anyway, this year, we had a short visit to both Herculaneum and then Sorrento. We now know that Herc is by far better than Pompeii in every way plus we want to spend a weekend in Sorrento. Luckily for us, Italy is just a 3 hour flight and will be less than $200 each, so a weekend is easy.

Driving is easy in most European countries, but, for us, we'd prefer to cruise and let the ship do the travelling!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

thanks for the input. this helps alot. So, if we choose Alaska, is one month better than the other?

Alaska, early August, we went then many said the best time, we had blues sky's during the dsy a little fog at night and one dsy at white pass but overall good, all helicopter flights up and the salmon running, perfect time, May June too cold and good chance of weather interrupting plans.

Look at my links below for the sunny skies we had.

 

[woody73]

. . . we have gone on 3 caribbean cruises and loved each one. Now we are thinking about something a little different

I've been on multiple Alaska and European cruises. If you're looking for "something a little different" than the caribbean, I'd select Alaska.

As a US state, Alaska offers the ease of using the same language, currency, tipping, etiquette and even the same postage stamps as at home.

Woody

 

[EeyoreIsMyName]

thanks for the input. this helps alot. So, if we choose Alaska, is one month better than the other?

That depends on what you're hoping to see. If you want bears and salmon, I would go in mid-July through early September. If you want colder weather, I would go in late May or early June.

 

[Disnut4925]

On the weather (hot!) issue for the Med if you go as late in the summer as possible (we went the last week before school started), you have a chance at pretty good weather with comfortable temperatures..possibly not as scorching as mid-July. LOVED our cruise!